I’ve probably been FLiRTing…
FLiRT - a new nickname for the new COVID variant that appears to be sweeping around the country at the moment. Thankfully, not as dangerous as the original strains of the virus, but it was still enough to knock me on my arse for a few days!
However, one of the questions I always ask when things aren’t going my way is, “What’s good about this?”
Well, I’ve been able to spend a lot of time cuddling Eddie (Kev has only just starting letting me cuddle him again), I’ve been able to do a good chunk of hypnotherapy revision from the sofa, and I’ve seen a few interesting things on Netflix.
One documentary that really made me reflect on the meaning of life was called Eat, Fast and Live Longer presented by Michael Mosely, the doctor who died aged 67 after going missing on a walk in Greece.
The documentary discussed research about how calorie restriction can help you live longer, and it followed his experience of a three day fast, and also his interviews with experts on the effects of diet and longevity.
It was really weird watching him talk about how he wanted to live as long as possible, and was prepared to make certain changes to his diet to give himself the best chance of having a long and healthy life.
Weirdly, it made me want to say “Where’s the cake?”.
There are no guarantees that anything you do for yourself will protect you from an early demise. However, I’m well aware it’s all about stacking odds in our favour, so I’m not going to hurtle down any path of self-destruction any time soon.
Anyway, I couldn’t help feeling curious about one guy he interviewed - the oldest marathon runner in the world, Fauja Singh. He attributes his incredible fitness at such a ripe old age to eating small amounts of healthy, vegetarian food, “child’s portions” as he called them, with no processed foods. I Googled him because I wanted to know what else he had to say about his long life apart from diet, and here is one of his quotes:
“If there's something you can't change then why worry about it? Be grateful for everything you have, stay away from people who are negative, stay smiling and keep running.”
Personally, I think that’s far more valuable advice for life than anything to do with diet.
I’m not saying allow your self-care to go to ratshit, because life feels better when you’re healthy, but if you can live every day stress-free, grateful, and surrounded by happy, positive people, then that means you're winning every day, regardless of how long you’re on the planet.