Hunter-Gatherer | Health and human nature from an evolutionary perspective

Workout Anywhere #24: The Hotel Rooftop

With the right mindset, you can find a good workout anywhere.

I was at a wedding in Chicago this weekend. The hotel had a nice gym (by conventional standards), but I had forgotten to bring VFFs or sneakers. And of course, they don't allow people to work out barefoot. So I did some laps in the pool, then went out on a sun balcony and improvised my own CrossFit-style workout. I used different pieces of furniture for box jumps and uneven push-ups, and then did some squats, burpees, and some ab work. A few circuits of that hit the spot. Plus, a stunning view of Chicago, fresh air, a nice breeze, and no rules on footwear.

Finished, I went back into the pool area. A hotel employee walked past me and out on the balcony, apparently looking for whomever was jumping on furniture on the roof. He went that-a-way, sir, and I got a good look at him: no beard, short hair, very clean cut, wearing shoes.

Another benefit to high intensity, short duration workouts: you're done before the authorities notice and can come tell you to stop.

Footnote:

(Photo credits: Lily Harrington)

Healthy is the new normal

I took biology during my freshman year of high school. The class came right after lunch, and I struggled to stay awake. It should have been easy. Our teacher, Mr. Otto, was a rock star. He had studied gorillas in Africa (Lesotho), rocked a pony tail (and pulled it off), and was just one of those cool teachers. But day after day, I'd nod off in class. I just accepted it as normal -- people get sleepy after lunch. No different than people getting sleepy at night.

It didn't help that I couldn't see the blackboard. It was a large, lab-style classroom and I sat near the back. As I would squint at the board trying to take notes, I thought, "Huh, it's a little odd that they would build a classroom so long that you couldn't see the blackboard from the back." As if the classroom were defective, not my eyes. (My delusions of grandeur started at a young age.) I asked the girl sitting next to me if she could see the blackboard. She said no, it's fuzzy for me too. So we both continued squinting, confirming each other's belief that we each had normal eyesight. Turns out, of course, that both of us needed glasses.

The moral is simple. Don't define "normal" by looking at the people around you. We understand this concept in the case of the girl with bad eyesight sitting next to me in class, but we forget it elsewhere. We think that if everybody in our family has bad eyesight, then it's normal to have bad eyesight. Or if everybody in the country is overweight, then it's normal to be overweight. Or if all the kids in class fall asleep after lunch, then it's normal to be tired after eating.

But when you widen your frame of reference to include other people (like other cultures) and periods of time (like our hunter-gatherer ancestors), you see normal in a whole new light. The body's natural condition is to be healthy. That is normal. And to be overweight is abnormal, to have acne is abnormal, to have flat feet is abnormal, to have allergies is abnormal, to get sick every month is abnormal, to fall asleep after every meal is abnormal, to be weak is abnormal, to be depressed is abnormal, to be unhealthy is abnormal.

Well, it's time to take back normal. Healthy is the new normal.

MRIs of fruits and vegetables

Can you tell which foods these are? Put your guesses in the comments. Then go check out other MRIs of fruits and vegetables. Life is patterned, just not in a linear way. Pretty amazing.

Hat tip to Marginal Revolution.

Cupcake Wars

Last month I wrote why gourmet cupcakes are evil. Well, here are some updates from the cupcake front.

1. My post got picked up by Gawker Media's Jezebel here, and again here. I got a little flak for being sexist (and it's true, I was) -- but hey, I didn't force these bakeries to design limited edition Sex and City cupcakes or wrap them up in little pink boxes. The businesses seem to know the sex of their core customers. (Men and beer are just as bad, as Jezebel points out.)

2. Apparently, cupcake stores have been a bright spot for the New York City economy. Why? "For three dollars people can buy something for themselves instead of spending 100 bucks on a dinner and still feel like they’re treating themselves.” And for the same price you could get a few candy bars, but that would just be so tacky.

3. Cupcakes now have multiple TV shows. Food Network's Cupcake Wars is joined by DC Cupcakes. You can imagine all the plot twists -- maybe they'll run out of a popular flavor! Oh right, on the first episode there is a RED VELVET CRISIS. OMG, we're out of red velvet cupcakes. How could we run out of red velvet cupcakes on the day that the cameras are here and only two hours after I told you on camera that we better not run out of red velvet cupcakes today. The Washington Post pans it. But I'm sure it will do great.

4. In times of war, you can always count on the Brits: Enough with the cupcakes, already. The whole article is great. Here is a particularly nice bit:

There’s also something unsettling at the heart of cupcake culture. A recent visit to one of the many cupcake bakeries in London saw it packed with women in their thirties, cooing over the cutesy, calorie-jammed treats as if they were newborn babies, which for many is part of the problem. “What frustrates me is the way cupcakes have been so completely embraced by otherwise sensible adult women,” says the food blogger Sophie Jordan. “Glitter, heart-shaped sprinkles, pink frosting: these are the most infantilised baked goods imaginable.” It seems the fact that cupcakes now represent a lifestyle choice, rather than just a nice bit of cake, is causing some serious bad feeling, with one dissenter describing those who like them as “the kind of women who speak in baby voices to their partner”.

Amen. The cupcake wars rage on.