Caught in a Fitness-crazed
Generation
"Eat Like a Pig. Look Like a Fox."
—Recent ad for Low-Cal Yogurt
In 1962, Life magazine reported that astronaut John Glenn ran two miles a day to keep in shape. People were amazed! It seemed incredible that someone who wasn't a professional athlete would run that far and do it every day. Now, over 25 years later, more than 20 million runners, mostly baby boomers in their thirties and early forties, run four or five miles several times a week. It used to be that if you saw a man running down the street in his shorts at 6:30 A.M., you wondered if he was either insane or running from his wife! But no more. Now, early morning commuters have to be careful not to run down the jogging masses on the roadsides.
In high school, sports were the very last of my interests. I was in the long-haired crowd, a member of a rock group, and one of the many of my generation who played around with drugs during those turbulent years of the '60s. The sports "jocks" were seen as our arch rivals. In all my years of schooling, I was never on any athletic team. When I went
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off to college at the University of Alabama, I spent my time at sit-ins and campus demonstrations, not at football games and fraternity houses. That was the 1960s, but my how things have changed in the 1980s.
In 1986, I ran my first marathon — me, ex-doper and long-haired radical. I ran 26 miles without stopping! Who would ever have imagined? I have a good friend in Dallas who was a star football player in high school and college. When we have a chance to jog together, I take great delight in the fact that I can beat him: ex-quarterback defeated by ex-hippie! I am in much better shape today in my late thirties than I was in my twenties; in fact, I'm in better shape than I've ever been.
So what happened? Why am I running and eating granola instead of bacon and eggs for breakfast? Why such a change not only in my life but also in millions of my generation?
Reasons behind the Fitness Rage
In a current TV commercial, aimed squarely at baby boomers, a young woman talks about turning 40. "Do you think I'm going to take turning 40 gracefully?" she asks the viewer. "Not on your life. I'm going to fight it all the way!"
How? With Oil of Olay, of course!
Many baby boomers seem to have decided that fitness is even more effective than Oil of Olay in staying young. Why this obsession with fitness? Why has this generation become obsessed with staying young?
Some good answers come from trend analyst John Naisbitt, author of the bestseller Megatrends. As we entered the 1970s, Naisbitt explains, Americans lost faith in the ability of medical science to cure all our physical ailments. The long promised cure for cancer didn't arrive. People began to shift their faith to the areas of fitness, diet and nutrition, believing that a stronger body could resist disease better (1984:146).
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Another major force behind the fitness rage is the change in the way so many of us now work. America used to be an industrial and agricultural society without any joggers. After working all day at a physical job, who wanted more exercise off the job? Most jobs today do not require strenuous, physical activity. In fact, more and more of us are working at sedentary information jobs. We are pushing paper instead of a plow. So to stay healthy, we must exercise.
It is clear that as society has changed, we have changed our habits about our own physical well-being. According to Naisbitt, at least 100 million Americans, almost half the population, are exercising in some way, up from a quarter of the population in 1960. One in seven Americans now jogs on a regular basis (1984:147).
Even corporate America supports the fitness craze. Many companies, small businesses, and factories have constructed gyms, fitness parks, and recreation areas for their employees. They are realizing that this fitness and health rage, largely fueled by baby boomers, is more than a passing fad. It is here to stay.
A Changing Outlook on Health
In many ways the baby boomers are leading the trends in fitness and health. Since 1965, for example, we have reduced our fat intake mightily: we consume 28 percent less butter and 21 percent less milk and cream (Naisbitt 1984:147). Today, Americans consume 15 pounds more chicken, a pound more fish, and 22 gallons more low fat milk per capita than they did in 1976. Beef consumption has fallen off sharply. Dr. Robert Haas, author of the well known books Eat to Win and Eat to Succeed, says this lean cuisine trend will continue. He predicts that in 20 years we will still be eating all the same foods, but they will contain substitutes for most of the fats (Rosellini 1986:60). Just recently we have received reports that the NutraSweet Corporation, maker of the popular sugar substitute Equal, has
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come out with a revolutionary new fat substitute product. We will soon be able to eat fat without getting fat!
Americans are even smoking less. The American Cancer Society concluded that the number of smokers in the United States has dropped by 50 percent in the last 25 years. Today, just 25 percent of men and women over 40 are smokers.
Part of the change in our outlook on health and fitness is increased medical knowledge. Even though Naisbitt might be right when he claims that we have lost faith in the ability of the medical establishment to cure all our problems, we do benefit daily from the dramatic progress in medicine. We are the first generation not to die of such childhood diseases as polio and the measles. We are the first generation for whom childbirth poses little risk. We have grown up hearing almost daily about radical medical advances, such as artificial hearts and liver transplants. The result of all this knowledge has been an increased lifespan. The average life expectancy of male baby boomers born in the 1950s is about 66 years, compared with 53 years for our fathers born in the 1920s. That is a gain of 12 years in one generation! Males born today have a life expectancy of over 72 years. For women, the change is even greater. Women born in the 1920s had a life expectancy of 60 years, but boomers born in the 1950s can expect to live 73 years. Little girls born today, like my Cambria Michelle born in 1987, can expect to live to over 80 years (Johnson 1988:796).
Beyond life expectancy, we boomers have also changed what I call ''prime expectancy." Because we are staying in better physical condition than previous generations, we will push back the years of retirement and sedentary living, greatly increasing our years of vigor and productivity, known as the prime of life. We are staying younger longer.
In Search of the Fountain of Youth
Our attention to fitness and health so clearly reveals our obsessive search for the fountain of youth. We are determined
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to be forever young. The media fuels our quest by creating advertisements which are hourly compelling us to buy the clothes, cars, medicines, foods, and fitness programs that will keep us looking and feeling like a 20-year-old.
"If you don't like your body, change it!" is the latest craze. Plastic surgeons are making a dramatic comeback as we enter the decade of the '90s. Baby boomers now willingly submit themselves to a surgeon's table in the hope of looking younger.
I recently came across an advertisement from a plastic surgeons' medical group. The doctors offered to perform the following types of reconstructive surgery:
Breast Enlargement Fat Suctioning
Nasal Surgery
Eyelid Surgery Facelift
Tummy Tuck Cheek/Chin Implants Breast Lift
Breast Reduction
Ear Surgery
Hair Transplants
Dermabrasion
Reconstructive Surgery
This is not just the stuff of Hollywood and movie stars; this is a rapidly growing industry across our land, being indulged in by an increasing number of people! Why, those sags, wrinkles, and bulges can be removed in moments by a quick visit to your local body-fixer. Major unflattering folds and flab can now be restructured or even removed with the controversial method of liposuction — a fancy name for fat suction. Take a little out there and squirt it back in over here where I need more form.
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Putting Fitness in Perspective
The other day my son Mark came home from kindergarten with a funny story to report to me. That morning I had made him his standard peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Apparently, when he ate the sandwich at lunch in front of his best friend Chad, he ran into some major opposition. As we walked home from school together, he explained the conflict: "Daddy," Mark began with a sigh, "Chad's daddy says that peanut butter and jelly is bad for you because it's full of sugar and salt. Is that true?"
Oh, brother, I thought to myself, this is getting ridiculous. I calmed Mark's fears. "Don't you worry about it, Mark!" Some things are sacred in my book, and no one is going to take away my Jif and Welch's.
There is no doubt in my mind that for many baby boomers this health fitness fad has gotten out of hand. Millions of boomers are flooding fitness centers, worshiping their bodies by trying to obtain and maintain a 20-year-old physique. Fitness is fine. Eating healthy foods is good. But what about the inside of a person? The bottom line is that we are giving less and less attention to quality on the inside — character, ethics, inner beauty, and spirituality — and placing more and more emphasis on externals. We are healthier than any previous generation, but there is a shallowness that has come over our generation, perhaps because we have had it too easy and been handed too much.
The greatest danger in all of this fitness focus is to judge people by external appearances. That is the way the world judges but should not be the practice in our value system. In the kingdom of Christ, it is the inside that counts:
But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7).
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As Christians inside America's largest generation, we must develop a biblical response to this fitness craze.
1. We must examine our motivation for being fit. We serve God through our bodies, and we are admonished to glorify Him in our bodies. If we are in poor condition and take lousy care of our bodies, we are often severely restricted in how much we can do for the cause of Christ.
I believe that God is pleased when he sees Christians taking better care of their bodies. But when we begin to worship our bodies by putting them above more important priorities, then we have fallen into the trap of the Greeks, who idolized the human physique.
Body worship is a source of major pride among baby boomers today — another extreme in our culture to guard against. I must ask myself what my underlying motives are. Why am I working on my body's condition and appearance? To impress others? To look more attractive to someone? To look younger? Am I motivated by externals or internals: am I trying to impress others with how I look, or am I maintaining a healthy stewardship of the only body God will give me this side of eternity?
I find that a certain degree of physical conditioning is great for my personal discipline in all other areas of my life. A balanced emphasis on keeping in shape and eating food that will enhance our health is certainly God-honoring.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
2. We must maintain a balanced perspective. Consider the following statements:
God made us physically the way we are. We need to thank Him for our bodies. If we are overweight couch potatoes
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because of our own laziness and gluttony, then He is pleased if we do something about it. But if we try to make our body more or less than He made it, then we are unbalanced:
You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well (Psalm 139:13-14).
The inside — under the skin in our hearts, souls, and personalties — is more important than what we see on the outside. Isn't it funny how much time we insist on spending in front of the mirror each morning, getting ready for the day. Appearance is the golden coin of self-worth in our society, reinforced through hundreds of messages we receive each day. But in God's way of looking at things, it's the inside that counts.
Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come (1 Tim. 4:7-8).
Physical fitness does not equal spiritual fitness; spiritual conditioning should come first. Being a jogger, I love getting the "runner's high," that euphoria which elevates my senses to a higher plane as I run long distances. I also enjoy watching performances of great athletes, like the star of the 1988 Olympics, Florence Griffith Joyner, better known as Flo-Jo. To watch her run was almost a spiritual experience, seeing the ultimate in performance of a body God designed in His creative genius. But physical conditioning really does not connect me to God or improve my relationship with God unless I let the discipline spill over into spiritual exercise. Men and women
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through the ages have tried to gain spirituality by physical discipline and denial, but to no avail:
Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom with their. . . harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence (Col. 2:23).
Face it, our bodies are going to get old. One of my favorite professors in seminary was Dr. Howard Hendricks, who often stressed, "Men, if it is the physical that holds your marriage together, then every year your relationship is going to get worse!" It is ultimately futile to try to look and stay young as we age, for God has programmed our biological clocks to run down:
You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning — though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered (Psalm 90:5-6).
Impress people with your inner beauty. One of the main reasons I was attracted to my lovely wife was that she had a beautiful interior to match her attractive exterior. We boomers are the most designer-conscious of any generation, but these outward labels mean nothing in the character arena:
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment. . . . Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight (1 Peter 3:3-4).
3. We must learn to respect the golden years. We are probably the first generation that has tried to take the age out of eldership. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, however, much is said about the wisdom that can come only
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from advancing years. The leaders of both the Jewish community and the early church were known as elders for a good reason — it was assumed that age brought wisdom. There are many things in life that simply can't be mastered at a young age or seen through the eyes of youth.
In the eyes of eternity, old age is nothing but a step closer to our perfect fellowship with Jesus Christ and the acquisition of our new bodies. I'm looking forward to hanging up my jogging shoes! But in the meantime, I'm asking God to help me grow old gracefully and accept the physical aging process as part of His plan and pattern for my life.
As the old man Moses prayed in his advanced years, "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Ps. 90:12). As I read that, I conclude that the more days I live, the more wisdom I acquire, so growing old is nothing to fear and nothing to hide. Turning 40 won't really be terrible. In fact, deep down, I'm looking forward to getting older because I need more of the wisdom that aging brings.
Thinking It Through
1. What has happened during the boomer generation which has nurtured the growing emphasis on personal physical fitness?
2. Describe the contrast between the biblical values presented, related to fitness and our bodies, and what you face as presented by peers and media.
3. What do you do to maintain a healthy balance between honoring God with your body, wanting to change your body, and growing older?
