Beware, my friends, of that which is easy to measure, for it will assume irrational importance. Weight is easy to measure, fitness is harder, so we obsess over pounds. Age is easy to measure, so we require a minimum age to drink alcohol, not a minimum level of common sense. Tests with multiple choice questions are easy to score, so they multiply. Size is easy to measure, so . . . well, just look at half the spam in your inbox. Speed is easy to measure, so the police set up speed traps, not "driving like an idiot traps."
"[. . . ]weight shouldn't be the only thing we consider as far as health. Fitness is a far more important issue, yet it is the thing that most people try to ignore.It is far easier to buy carb-smart ice cream, or lowfat cookies than to get yourself to the gym every morning, but it is the exercise that is going to improve your health, not artificial sweeteners and the artificial fats."
So beware of what is easy to measure. Of course, there is something even worse than that. Beware of that which you want to be true, because you will tend to believe it even when it is false.
1 comment:
Very good point. I posted on my blog that when I went to the doctor last week and the nurse told me that my blood pressure and resting pulse were awesome, that gave me so much more satisfaction out of the work I've been doing at the gym than the pounds I have NOT lost. (BP and heart rate are measurable, so maybe it doesn't quite jive with your theory, but those levels are more about fitness than looks.)
Post a Comment