How our grandparents lived

16-07-2012 | Adry |

For most of us (and by most of us I mean our entire generation) grabbing a bite at the nearest fast-food or checking our email on the bus are normal thigs we do everyday. “Stress” is a real disease nowadays and obese children are no longer weird. If THAT doesn’t scare us, what will?

Healthy living is something our children may never know the meaning of, but there are a few things that we can still do for ourselves and maybe teach the next generation.
We cope with a lot of work and problems every day but there is still a way we could have a healthier lifestyle.

The past generations are the best example. Our grandparents knew how to enjoy life and be healthy and happy. At least most of them 🙂
They had different eating habits , other ways to make time pass and lived a lot longer than we ever will.

First things first.
Skipping a meal was forbidden! I know for a fact my parents had never skipped breakfast, lunch or dinner unless there was a life and death emergency. I know this because my grandparents never alowed it. Eating is important and respecting a schedule for the family meals is of great importance.

Nowadays we skip breakfast because we say there’s no time, we skip lunch or eat it at dinner time because we had to work and we skip dinner altogether or order fast food because we are to tired to do anything anymore.
These are not excuses.
If you want a healthier lifestyle, get up 10 minutes earlier and have breakfast! Those few minutes of less sleep never harmed anyone and breakfast is very important because it gives us a nice boost of energy to start the day.
Lunch is also a must. If you have a lunch break, use it! Don’t waste your lunch break for something else if it’s not crucial. Skipping it can result in… hunger and you’ll be less efficient as a result.
As for dinner, try at least eating some fruit or a simple sandwich.

Our grandparents walked a lot. They had cars to go to work but used bicycles or their own feet to visit someone, to go out, to go buy bread etc. We would use our car to go to the toilet if we could. I have friends who take their car to come visit and they live 3 blocks away.
There’s a saying in my country, “walking makes your feet beautiful”. We need to use our muscles unless we want to end up unable to move at all. The sedentary life we live nowadays is responsible for back aches, muscle problems and, from what I understand, a whole bunch of diseases such as anxiety, depression, obesity etc.

Another thing the past generations had that we now find less and less: friends. I mean REAL friends, not a long list of contacts on social networks.
I remember my parents used to schedule small dinner parties from time to time for their closest friends. They visited eachother taking turns, played games, talked, made vacation plans and HAD FUN.
We, on the other hand, have virtual friends we know nothing about and chat. Not everyone is a maniac (although it’s best to be extra carefull who you befriend on the ‘net) but sitting in a chair and chatting is not enough. People need human interraction, it’s how we are “built”. I can’t wait for school to start to see my colleagues face to face, it’s much more interesting that just typing words.

So, as a comparison, I think our grandparents had a better life than us, from certain points of view. They were healthier because they ate well and had physical activity and they were happier and more optimistic because thay had real friends to turn to.

Of course, our life is much easier: cell phones, online shopping etc. For a healhier life style though, we need to learn how to take the good parts from every generation and use them in our favor.

Recent Comments

  • http://Bert%20Smith

    July 24, 2012 at 9:47 am

    I never met my gradparents as they where born in 19th Century and didn’t live that long. They had bigger families as there was high infant mortality. I had an uncle in the born in the 1920’s who died as a result of diabeties. Rickets was common. I didn’t over eat as food was expensive and there where no freezers. I remember feeling hungry a lot of the time.

    Different times different problems. Not sure one is better than the other.

  • July 24, 2012 at 9:56 am

    Hi Bert, welcome to the blog!
    You’re right, problems were different then and while we’re trying to improve what was bad then led to other problems for our generation.
    I also don’t think back then life was better. On the contrary!
    What I strongly believe is that they had a different lifestyle that was healthier than ours. We’re always on the run, eat a lot of junk, don’t exercise because we have cars and buses etc etc.
    What our generation could do is learn the good parts from back then. At least it’s what I’m trying to do 🙂

    • http://Roach

      July 24, 2012 at 9:59 am

      Half agree with you there. They were not really healthier in my opinion. Granted they had to walk a lot more but the diet was not better, nor was the lifestyle. The only difference is that we now know what is good and bad for us. Back in the day, smoking used to be good for you for example. In my opinion the life and health was not better but we just know more now that makes us seem worse in health.

  • http://Bert%20Smith

    July 25, 2012 at 3:29 pm

    Hi Both, I have just been for a walk at a beauty spot which I have done every few years. I couldn’t help noticing the majority of people where obese compare to say 40 years ago it was the other way round.

    It a card shop I notice they have card going up to 100 which as I child where not sold as there was no demand as few people lived that long.

    I feel that at least now we have a choice as I felt being hungry was not a choice. I walked though a city centre that had been bombed flat during ww2 and was overwelmed as they had no choice they where caught up in it all living memory for my father. He survived and gave me choices.

    I am glad I have more choices and hope my children have even more choices.

  • July 26, 2012 at 8:42 am

    Choices are indeed a very important part in our lives. I’m sorry people had to go though wars and suffering in order for us to live better.
    We can only be thankful for that and try to choose correctly.

    I also met people who are almost 100 years old or even older. I work with the elderly a few times a week and still I am pleasantly surprised when a 98-100 year old person starts to tell me about their past. They really managed to take care of themselves as they reached such an old age.

  • http://Bert%20Smith

    July 27, 2012 at 3:19 pm

    World peace, wars never go away their locations change and they mean something to you if they effect you. Otherwise we pretend they are somewhere else. Why to people kill each other over ideas which have no tangible proof of existence.

    There is no wi fi in churches and they do not want competition form and invisible force that works.

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