Working From Home == More Isolation

[Caroline13]

I'm beginning to put this together. A buddy who helps me here at the apt brought me some hot food yesterday and we got to talking. He bought himself some of the chinese food too and we got to talking.

He mentioned that he is so hooked on sugars and beer and really likes his whiskey, and I notice he is packing on the lbs. I didn't bring that up but mentioned the sugar and diabetes fears and how diabetes is rampant in our country. He said to me "I don't need another mother".... I was told.

Well, he works primarily from home and is in a depression as I see it. He's alone most of the time except for his big dog.

I then turned to his dog and he perked up.

He talked about how he's ready to check out early, he is only in early 50's...shocking to hear this. Says he's sick of the the continuing tech push and is tired and sees no end...

I had about 10 jobs in 40 yrs and never worked at home, out and about meeting people and seeing the country.

Bottom line to all this, more and more technology, more and more isolation and depression.

[GentlemanJim]

Originally Posted by Caroline13

mentioned the sugar and diabetes fears and how diabetes is rampant in our country. He said to me "I don't need another mother".... I was told.



He talked about how he's ready to check out early, he is only in early 50's...

Perhaps you should give him a pep talk, and remind him that his self neglect is no guarantee that his day of reckoning will be a terminal event, and that there is a likelihood he might just suffer a debilitating stroke, and then endure a slow vegetative decline.

I think too many people envision death as an escape from torment,. but there are NO guarantees.

Remind him that if he just gives up all the things in life that he enjoys, he can slim down and find a mate who will be happy to tell him how to best use the extra years he will gain in the bargain.

[Caroline13]

GJ, I believe I said enough. He is not a baby and I would think the diabetes comment would be a lot, but maybe most don't know how horrid diabetes really is. I won't mention the weight,, I have a gf who is very overweight and I talk diabetes and sugar issues to her and she knows how many foods I've eliminated.....could be addictive genes controlling so much. Many can get more resentful.

[GentlemanJim]

I actually sympathize with his "don't need another "mom" sentiment.

As a man who is over weight, the diabetes "threat", usually in the form of a warning shot across the bow from a healthcare provider....is something I've so overheard....it's one of the reasons I avoid doctors.

Now the commercials try to convince me that I'm fat because I have "insulin resistance"....

SO, I guess if I just give up everything that makes life worth living, then I'll be JUST fine? lol!

[Caroline13]

Oh come on GJ, there is a lot of great good foods that make life worth living. Sugars are poison when too high intake...when I think of how much sugar stuff I consumed all my life, mom baked like a sugar woman, and they both had forms of cancers later in life.....

Yes, we gotta go from something but cancers god no. The lecture I attented inn 1995 on grape seed extract, the docs and researchers said MAY PREVENT CANDERS....I was 57 and so far so good.

Look at Grape Seed Ex or Pycnogenol or Resveratrol......you don't want cancers.

[GentlemanJim]

I suspect you are missing my intended point.

Although I eventually gave up alcohol, tobacco, and recreational drugs for personal reasons, ALL OF those were on the chronic "nag" list of things I needed to either give up "or else".

Add to that the imperatives to forsake butter in favor of margarine, shun red meats in favor soy protein, cut back on soda pops and various deserts, adopt low-fat alternatives to my preferred cheeses...(the later breaking what I considered to be the "last straw". low fat cheeses are like paraffin)...leaving we wonder "oh yeah? What exactly does that leave me worth living for?"

To be worth living there has got to be more to life than just retiring mortgages and creating taxpayers? A man is at least entitled to have a smile on his face along the way, is the way I look at it.

[Furienna]

Originally Posted by GentlemanJim

I suspect you are missing my intended point.

Although I eventually gave up alcohol, tobacco, and recreational drugs for personal reasons, ALL OF those were on the chronic "nag" list of things I needed to either give up "or else".

Add to that the imperatives to forsake butter in favor of margarine, shun red meats in favor soy protein, cut back on soda pops and various deserts, adopt low-fat alternatives to my preferred cheeses...(the later breaking what I considered to be the "last straw". low fat cheeses are like paraffin)...leaving we wonder "oh yeah? What exactly does that leave me worth living for?"

To be worth living there has got to be more to life than just retiring mortgages and creating taxpayers? A man is at least entitled to have a smile on his face along the way, is the way I look at it.

Congratulations for being able to give up alcohol, tobacco and other drugs!
That is not easy...

But as for giving up all kinds of food and feeling that it's worth it?
Yeah, it all depends on what your life is like otherwise and if you're lonely or not.
It is hard to go healthy even then, and I won't lie and claim that I'm that successful at it.
But having a partner and/or family and/or close friends might give you more motivation to do it.
And as you said yourself, nobody wants to get a stroke!
So as hard as it is, there are plenty of reasons to be more healthy if you can.

[GentlemanJim]

Originally Posted by Furienna

Congratulations for being able to give up alcohol, tobacco and other drugs!
That is not easy...
.

Thanks!! And just for the record, I have no regrets. Just because I eventually gave them up, none of that was any part of a "gee that was the worst mistake I ever made" epiphany, or anything like that.

I gave up booze back in the 1980s because it seemed like such a "dirty" high, compared to other options. I could go deep into details, but in short I started to be offended by the behavior of others while they were under the influence, and realized that I was one of them.

Gave up all the other drugs in 2004, because I was bored with them, and realized I had pushed the envelope about as far as anyone could.

And finally gave up tobacco one year ago. Just due to age I started noticing I was getting winded carrying things upstairs, and had a "doh!" Homer Simpson moment realizing that the cigars were not helping any.

The important element to quitting any of those vices is that the person themselves have GOT to want to quit. If they think they are quitting to satisfy anyone else, eventually that will come apart. They'll rationalize a way through the logic such that you'll cut out an exception,.... "tailor made" loophole.

'But, when we "choose not to"....that's a pretty iron clad argument.

Oh, I'm sure that eventually I'll give up red meat and sweets too, when I give up oxygen.

[Caroline13]

GJ: If I understand your comments you gave up foods that are the best for us. Margarine is whipped plastic....soy damges the thyroid..........

Key is eating LESS, don't load your plate ... alll the low fat non fat artificial foods are just that artificial. Eat the real stuf and LESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

More water as H20 fills us up.

But what you do is your business..... but once a weight loss is appreciated, one does not want to regain all the lbs taken off. And if the re-gain starts take Control.

The Designer Food Industry has really done a job on the population, Fake Fake Foods....

[GentlemanJim]

Yeah, I'll acknowledge that I never buy bulk ice cream to take home anymore, and with cookies I try to limit myself to 4-5 per sitting. Whereas previously I might open a pack of Oreos and eat half of them, and congratulate myself that "now I don't have to cook dinner" stuff like that.

So, my consumption is now more sensible than in years previous. But I'm a LONG LONG way from adopting a diabetic menu.

[GentlemanJim]

Part of it might be, when you are young and virile. you feel indestructable. As age starts to take it's inevitable toll, we start making compromises.