Editor’s Note; This is purely a personal viewpoint and lifestyle. No one should under any circumstances and under any conditions try to practice our style on their own. All medical and health matters should be thoroughly discussed with your physician and medical advisers.
My Cardiologist/Endocrinologist called me yesterday to give me the results of my Cardiac CT scan, a wonderful test that measures the level of plaque in arteries. Normal cholesterol tests measure indirect factors like HDL & LDL that are supposed to govern the buildup of plaque in arteries. As a participant in global macro markets, I prefer direct evidence rather than factor based guesses. So a CT scan that measures the level of plaque in my arteries seems direct & useful, in addition to the customary cholesterol tests. My arteries seem pretty healthy at the minute however I asked my cardiologist a few questions about artery health anyway. One of my friends is currently going through a range of Treatments of Peripheral Artery Disease so I wanted to learn what I could do to keep myself healthy. He gave me lots of tips which were super helpful!
That call reminded me of a personal article I wrote on August 9, 2009 titled Why I Chose a Non-Exercise Lifestyle? Simply put, I had discovered that exercise was not for me. How did I discover that?
- “… I was told to exercise more, because exercise supposedly helps to raise HDL. I tried, I really did. But my personality does not seem to jive with exercise. The Treadmill was boring and so I tried to listen to music while I ran on the treadmill. Like most desis, I have to sing along when I listen to my favorite music. But apparently you cannot do so in a gym, however softly you choose to sing. So I began singing silently to myself and even that got really uncomfortable stares from others.”
- “Apart from such social issues, exercise was frustrating. It meant I had to give up watching a favorite TV program or a movie. It was such a waste of time. Apart from exercising, I had to get dressed in exercise clothes and take the elevator to go down to another floor in our building to visit the gym. The whole thing was very intrusive on my time and felt highly unsatisfactory. I was getting irritable. So I gave up exercise.”
Sages have told us for ever to find out who we are. That self-realization is supposed to free you. I can confess I was freed when I achieved my own self-realization:
- “I found who I was, a guy who like to lie in bed and watch movies and TV.”
How do I implement this self-realization? It is easy during college football season. Every Saturday, from about 11:50 am to midnight, I lie in bed and watch football games. I drink my coffee, waters of different colors in bed; I eat my lunch & dinner in bed. I become impervious to everything in my apartment, the world and simply enjoy football.
Remember self-realization is not easy. And my style is not easy at all. Any one who thinks it is should try lying in bed for over 12 hours and doing nothing but watch TV. The vast majority of you would not be able to do it; you would feel guilty, be consumed with self-doubt, allow yourself to be influenced by biting comments from your family, etc.. Doing what I do makes it necessary for you to detach yourself from all worldly influences & be at peace with who you are. But if you succeed, you get inner peace.
I wrote my August 2009 article when I got the results of my first Cardiac scan. The result was a Zero-score, meaning zero level of plaque in my arteries. But that was seven years ago. Now I am older and I write a blog every Saturday morning. Yes, I do try hard to finish by 11:50 am and get to my self-realization routine of lying in bed and watching football till midnight. But I do tend to write with some intensity. That has to be detrimental to my inner peace, I thought. So it was time to repeat the Cardiac scan. My Physician agreed.
What was the score this Friday, seven years after my earlier Zero score? My Physician, a 30-year veteran Cardiologist/Endocrinologist, was exultant – “You got a Zero score again”, he told me. He added “you got something good going on in your body“.
In full disclosure, he doesn’t know that I gave up exercise 15 years ago and I haven’t shared my secret of self-realization & inner peace with him. He is happy with my results and I content with that. I am at peace about my self-realization and the lifestyle it has shown me. As long as they don’t outlaw TV, I should be fine.
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Great efforts taken, as well as explained everything in simple language. Great job