In my last post I spoke about health, which is incredibly important for all creatives.
We touched on health being a personal journey of taking care of oneself.
Wellness or overall health I believe is a communal act.
The reason to take care of other people I have found to be an incredibly selfish one.
If I take care of others, then they take care of me.
Practically speaking, if I surround myself with healthful options, when I look around my choices will be healthful.
So that is my thesis: we perpetuate the lifestyles we live.
Healthful persons are such because they either craft or seek out healthful communities.
The same is true for unhealthy lifestyles.
How often have I seen actors and managers who have quit smoking for years "bum" a cigarette during tech week.
Why do they do this?
Is it because tech week is so stressful? Maybe.
I think it more likely that it is convenient when cigarettes are casually available to embrace that lifestyle once more.
This is not to boil down to just smoking.
This is true of all our vices and our boons.
Fast food, home baked desserts, gallons of coffee.
I have seen stage managers drink this:
Why do they do this?
Is it because tech week is so stressful? Maybe.
I think it more likely that it is convenient when cigarettes are casually available to embrace that lifestyle once more.
This is not to boil down to just smoking.
This is true of all our vices and our boons.
Fast food, home baked desserts, gallons of coffee.
I have seen stage managers drink this:
By themselves!
So what can we do?
Seek out healthier options because health is a personal journey.
Sure.
But perhaps more importantly seek out communities that support you in making healthier options.
Now, these communities may not be readily available:
So what can we do?
Seek out healthier options because health is a personal journey.
Sure.
But perhaps more importantly seek out communities that support you in making healthier options.
Now, these communities may not be readily available:
(Bastards)
So what can we do?
Make healthier options and encourage others to do the same.
Now, this is not a license to go forth and be a nutrition guru.
We, (read I), am not qualified to make health claims.
Nevertheless, there has to be some objective criteria to determine health:
We know you say.
So make smarter choices.
Not only for yourself, although that is important, but for the ensemble.
We in the theatre create nothing by ourselves. (It's like a metaphor for life, go forth, tell everyone)
Nothing in a vacuum.
The ensemble is only as strong as each individual member.
If you have to take time out of rehearsal in order to willfully put poisonous toxins into your lungs and then, and then! stop rehearsal because you are "out of breath", something is the matter.
This is innately different than if someone were to say have asthma.
To not recognize a difference is what makes me afraid at night.
Take care of yourselves and through you the group.
This is not easy.
Believe me, I know the temptation and the frustration.
I grew up not knowing what to eat.
Only to eat.
At my house you eat your protein and your carbs. And that was the meal.
No veggies besides corn and no dessert till you finish your third slice of pork pie.
I weighed over two hundred pounds at my heaviest.
That may not sound like much for a man of my height and build, but that was because I never took accurate weighings.
I was too afraid to find out how heavy I had gotten.
My parents loved me and the way that manifested was getting me to eat something.
I was a "picky" eater growing up.
You know what I was picky about?
Pizza from Little Caesar's. Soda. Big Mac's.
To be fair also: boiled vegetables including, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, etc.
So when my parents found something I liked: chicken nuggets, milkshakes, carrots.
They fed me...all of it.
So I never learned portion control.
It wasn't until I started cooking for myself that I realized I don't dislike food, I love it.
I need it to be nutritionally dense, flavorful, satisfying, and in the right amounts for my weight.
Because ten cookies does not satisfy me as much as one protein shake.
Recognizing that truth made my life and my "diet" so much easier.
I no longer need to be the person who eats, but who eats well.
We curse and we make excuses and we barter for more time after school/work/rehearsal/tech.
It is never over.
Life carries on with or without you.
Saying you'll do it when it stops is the same as saying "I'll sleep when I am dead"
Don't do that.
Don't do it to yourself.
And certainly don't do it to the group.
You owe it to yourself.
You owe it to the group.
Take care of yourself.
And take care of others whenever you can.
I have known selfless people take care of others as if they were their own children (in some instances for their own children, Hi mum! Hi dad!)
Then, turn around and make the worst possible health choices imaginable.
They believe that since they are doing it to themselves no one else is affected.
I am not hurting anyone else with what I do with my body.
Wrong.
One gentleman friend eats cookies.
By the sleeve!
So much so that he caused those close to him to fear for his health.
What did they do? Talk him out of it? They try. But he isn't hurting anyone else.
So what do they do? They eat the cookies for him.
Now he buys twice as many cookies and they both sit there eating.
It's like a metaphor or a symbol, but I am too angry to make sense of it.
Take care of yourselves.
Every one else is trying to do just that.
We take care of each other.
Whatever that means for the group.
If the group is unhealthy, we will take care of each other in the most unhealthful way.
But, if we aim to be healthy instead....here's to hoping.
Salut.
Make healthier options and encourage others to do the same.
Now, this is not a license to go forth and be a nutrition guru.
We, (read I), am not qualified to make health claims.
Nevertheless, there has to be some objective criteria to determine health:
vs.
So make smarter choices.
Not only for yourself, although that is important, but for the ensemble.
We in the theatre create nothing by ourselves. (It's like a metaphor for life, go forth, tell everyone)
Nothing in a vacuum.
The ensemble is only as strong as each individual member.
If you have to take time out of rehearsal in order to willfully put poisonous toxins into your lungs and then, and then! stop rehearsal because you are "out of breath", something is the matter.
This is innately different than if someone were to say have asthma.
To not recognize a difference is what makes me afraid at night.
Take care of yourselves and through you the group.
This is not easy.
Believe me, I know the temptation and the frustration.
I grew up not knowing what to eat.
Only to eat.
At my house you eat your protein and your carbs. And that was the meal.
No veggies besides corn and no dessert till you finish your third slice of pork pie.
I weighed over two hundred pounds at my heaviest.
That may not sound like much for a man of my height and build, but that was because I never took accurate weighings.
I was too afraid to find out how heavy I had gotten.
My parents loved me and the way that manifested was getting me to eat something.
I was a "picky" eater growing up.
You know what I was picky about?
Pizza from Little Caesar's. Soda. Big Mac's.
To be fair also: boiled vegetables including, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, etc.
So when my parents found something I liked: chicken nuggets, milkshakes, carrots.
They fed me...all of it.
So I never learned portion control.
It wasn't until I started cooking for myself that I realized I don't dislike food, I love it.
I need it to be nutritionally dense, flavorful, satisfying, and in the right amounts for my weight.
Because ten cookies does not satisfy me as much as one protein shake.
Recognizing that truth made my life and my "diet" so much easier.
I no longer need to be the person who eats, but who eats well.
We curse and we make excuses and we barter for more time after school/work/rehearsal/tech.
It is never over.
Life carries on with or without you.
Saying you'll do it when it stops is the same as saying "I'll sleep when I am dead"
Don't do that.
Don't do it to yourself.
And certainly don't do it to the group.
You owe it to yourself.
You owe it to the group.
Take care of yourself.
And take care of others whenever you can.
I have known selfless people take care of others as if they were their own children (in some instances for their own children, Hi mum! Hi dad!)
Then, turn around and make the worst possible health choices imaginable.
They believe that since they are doing it to themselves no one else is affected.
I am not hurting anyone else with what I do with my body.
Wrong.
One gentleman friend eats cookies.
By the sleeve!
So much so that he caused those close to him to fear for his health.
What did they do? Talk him out of it? They try. But he isn't hurting anyone else.
So what do they do? They eat the cookies for him.
Now he buys twice as many cookies and they both sit there eating.
It's like a metaphor or a symbol, but I am too angry to make sense of it.
Take care of yourselves.
Every one else is trying to do just that.
We take care of each other.
Whatever that means for the group.
If the group is unhealthy, we will take care of each other in the most unhealthful way.
But, if we aim to be healthy instead....here's to hoping.
Salut.
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