ra86

On a conscious level, how did you feel about your relationship before, or around the time of, the dream? Before the friendship 'ended', did you think things were fine? I'm also curious about why the relationship 'ended' so decidedly. As dsayers says, friends aren't mutually exclusive. Have you missed out any significant details?

I've read the whole thread; you haven't once provided any non-anecdotal evidence for this claim. You're obviously under no obligation to explain anything to me, nor anybody else who challenges anything that you say. But until you do, your claim is unsubstantiated. It's odd to me that instead of choosing to share your knowledge on this subject, you're choosing to shut down and reject the question. You're more than happy to talk at length about this topic, until you're being asked for actual evidence.

OK, if you're ignoring all of the points I made, then let's dive right back to the core point: your as-yet unsubstantiated claim. "Fitness and health are one and the same, actually." Define your terms, explain your working, and provide evidence to support your conclusion.

You're being intentionally evasive. You made a really simple statement, which I'm asking you to substantiate: Fitness and health are one and the same, actually. This is a philosophy forum, where people should be willing to show their working. If you don't want to substantiate your claims with something more valuable than anecdote, then you can't expect anybody else to believe you, and the following question should absolutely be ringing in your ears: how do I know what I know? As somebody who's very health-conscious, and has been involved in crossfit, a couple of endurance events, martial arts, olympic lifting, (very) basic acrobatics, yoga, rugby, etc. over the years, I agree that what I define as 'fitness' promotes vitality in life, and massively increased function. Does that mean that the fact that I don't have any medical complaints proves that my own training and diet means I can't get cancer? No, that would be unscientific. Further, you still haven't defined 'healthy' and 'fit', as requested (and required, if we're to evaluate your claim), so answering your final questions is pretty meaningless. But since you asked: I can't see any symptoms of ill-health from looking at your body, as somebody with zero medical training (beyond first aid). But obviously, people with a similar physique to yours have died from cancer, and any other number of serious conditions. So I don't think that's a relevant question. Do you look fit? You haven't defined fit. I have my own standards for fitness for men, which I think demonstrate a decent level of athletic ability and preparedness, such as minimum 2x bodyweight back squat and deadlift for 5, at least bodyweight power clean > front squat > OHP (separate movements for the OHP, but thruster is still a decent standard, as it shows integrated movement, which is probably more valuable than strength). While size does not equal strength, and I'm not trying to be judgemental here, but I haven't met many people with your build who can perform these. I'm guessing you're around 70-75kg? So that would be 140-150kg backsquat and deadlift for 5. I'm also a big fan of a strong core being an indication of some athletic performance, so L-hangs for 60+s, German hangs for some shoulder mobility, etc. Cardio is obviously much harder to estimate, short of measuring VO2 max. And then what good is a solid VO2 max without mobility and the requisite neurological training to perform at some level? That's why I tend to have standards based on function, as that's what fitness is for me. As a crossfitter, I presume you have quite similar standards. In terms of your own fitness, I obviously can't estimate your cardio at all from looking at you.

I appreciate that the thread has moved on a bit since this post, but you still haven't provided evidence to substantiate this initial claim. If you could show your full (syllogistic) train of thought, that'd be appreciated. The biggest step here is defining 'fitness' clearly, so that people can be easily categorised, in a non-tautological way. (ie, Jake does Crossfit 4 days a week, but can't be said to be fit, because he just found out he has leukaemia). If you could also define health, we'll be able to see if this adds up. Then substantiate it with peer-reviewed journal articles. In particular, you'd have to demonstrate that people who fall under your definition of 'fit' (which, going by your other posts, appears to be mostly reliant on exercise) can't develop ill-health, as you'll already have defined above. As for your second statement, to say that, "thin simply means not fat", is a pretty silly thing to say, considering thin <--> fat is a continuum, with varying cut-off points, depending on which particular organisation(s)/expert(s) you reference. So your statement, while no doubt fun to say, hasn't actually progressed the conversation at all.