How Lazy/Active Are Your Parents?

My dad owns his own business, is an avid hunter/fisher/gatherer, so he is always on the go. We have gone for some runs together or hikes and do outdoor activities together.

My mom is also one that can never sit still, whether she is ripping out bushes in the yard, tearing something apart in the house, going to other peoples houses to fix things, she is always on the go. We also go out for run/walks together.. she gets mad at me when I make her run up hills, but they are both very active, which is nice not only for their health, but keeps them from getting into trouble!

My parents have always been the "I work hard all day and take it easy when I get home" types. Now that they are elderly and retired they do nothing at all. My Mom had both hips replaced a few years back and didn't even want to do therapy exercises---they were just "too much" for her. Dad sits and watches tv all day and has done that for the last 20 or so years since he retired. Dad has terminal lung cancer now and Mom is really having trouble with just the shopping and cooking. She hasn't done anything since she retired about 16 years ago. Its sad. Hubby and I are looking forward to all kinds of things when we retire. Travel, sightseeing, maybe a bicycle trip. I think its just the mindset of some older folks. When they retire, they don't have to do anything so they don't!

Dead.

My mum who has been overweight as long as I can remember retired last year and has since lost a lot of weight by watching what she eats, not only that, but she has started going to the gym and is taking on the 400 meter swim in our towns local triathlon relay where my brother will take the bike leg and I’ll take the run. I’m so proud of her!

My dad on the other hand, while I love him dearly, enjoys eating more than exercising and shows no interest in changing. I don’t get on his case, it’s his life. I don’t believe you should guilt trip anyone into getting healthy, you can only show the way by example.

My dad is a cattle rancher, so his job requires a good bit of physical activity, but other than that, he pretty much just sits in his easy chair, reading or watching TV.

My mom goes to the gym regularly and does her own yardwork (she's OCD about it), so she gets a lot of exercise.

They are both taking more of interest in their diet now, however, and I am glad for that. Heart disease runs in my dad's family, and he's starting to realize how much of an impact food has on your health.

My dad was VERY active. Ran 5 miles a day, played basketball, golf, and LOVED going to the batting cages. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2003 at 47 years old But, if he were still alive today, he'd still be as active as ever. He was a big-time jock in school and kept up the active lifestyle... he LIVED for sports (playing and watching).

My mom is NOT active. But, I wouldn't call her 'lazy'. She works full-time and fitness/exercise has never been her thing, partly because she was always naturally thin until recently. She never really HAD to work out to have a decent figure.

My parents are very active! My dad was a Navy SEAL and spent 26 in the Navy, so I spent a lot of time with him swimming, climbing, skiing, running, biking, hiking etc... and whenever I get to spend time with him- we still do all of these things (he's 57 now). He still kicks my *kitten* in biking and skiing (he has Olympic training to his advantage) but I have surpassed him in climbing and running and hold my own in swimming.

My mom on the other hand comes from an extremely obese family and she has worked her tail off trying to avoid that family "tradition". She spends a decent amount of time in the gym and hiking with the dogs.

I was lucky to have such a solid background in healthy living growing up and I hope I'm portraying that same image to my son... he's almost 4 and loves riding his bike while I run, playing soccer with us, and will run laps at the track while we're there. It's a lot of fun for me to teach him about different foods and making the right choices... and I hope that more parents (especially those turning their lives around) will teach their children about healthy living!

Huh... its weird to think of my parents as "seniors" but I suppose that they kind of are now.

My dad owns his own Electrical/Construction business with my brother. They work the most crazy hours. Its a very active job and despite the fact that he has bad knees, he still insists on doing things himself. He lives on a full fledged farm as well so before work each day hes out tending animals and the land. Same in the evening, theres more farm stuff to be done. Hes learning to take breaks and slow down a little bit which I think is good!

My mom works a full time job thats really physical. Shes tiny and its pretty amazing the things she can lift and carry. She cant sit still when shes at home, always puttering about. I tease her because Ill sit a half empty glass down and go back to drink it and its already washed and put in the cabinet. Shes quick! She works out in her garden quite a bit as well as plays in a local orchestra. Shes quite the busy bee.

This is SUCH a good topic to discuss! I grew up with an active dad, always playing basketball or lifting weights and then eventually coaching my brothers baseball team... he was always in pretty good shape, and definitely LOVED to chow down (i get my appetite from him.. i can eat more than him and hes got 110 pounds on me!). In the last 10 years though, he lost his job that allowed us to travel, go out to dinner all the time, and save money. Since then he put on a lot of weight and almost reached 300 pounds. My highest weight was 252 and at the time he was 270. I couldnt believe I weighed almost as much as my dad, and started right then and there to lose weight. He gained more, but once he saw me losing weight he started to too and is now around 230-240 but does mostly lifting- his knees are too shot to run so he walks/bikes occasionally. He goes to the gym almost every morning and walks every day.

My mom on the other hand... she comes from a family of women who live to be well over 85, never exercised a day in their life and eat whatever they want. My mom is always about 15-20 pounds overweight, and does nothing but complain about it but does NOTHING for it. She drinks nothing but soda and sugary tea, no water, barely eats and then when she does it's fast food or just totally poor foods that are not healthy. How she is only 15 pounds overweight and isn't a diabetic blows my mind. But these are the reasons she wont do anything about it... she feels fine being healthy "enough" but isnt happy with her body at all. She is on her feet all day running a daycare, but cant seem to grasp that your body gets used to the work you do day in day out. I hope she realizes that now that shes 50, she should really start NOW to make sure she lives for another 50 years!

Especially after seeing my transformation, it does semi-offend me that she won't make more of an effort

My dad can eat non stop and not gain anything. It still baffles me that he is not obese right now. He uses to jog back in his younger days but his knees aren't what they used to be. He goes on the occasional bike ride now. He is always busy though, always finding some task to do outside the house. Yardwork, making a fence, washing his truck... he even built his own little hidey hole where he can go escape from 'the wife'... equipt with some chairs and a cot and blankets and a fire pit. LOL.

My mom on the other hand lives at fast food places.. doesn't eat healthy and has gained a lot of weight since having us kids. He used to be no more than 115lbs before us. She eats junk food and is on all kinds of medication. I know that a lot of them she would have no need to take if she would just get moving and make better food choices.

Im also adding my brother.. who just ran the Rock in Roll Marathon in San Antonio a few weeks ago.. ran it in 4hrs 30mins and didn't even train for it.. crazy b@stard! lol

Of the two, my mom is more active. She's on here working to get slim, although I'm sure she wishes she was more active. Her arthritis holds her back a lot, but she is doing more than she used to. My dad, on the other hand, is so incredibly lazy. It drives me bananas. He has Type 2 diabetes but doesn't seem to give a flying flip about it. He either sits in front of the TV or sits in front of his computer while at home and doesn't even try to watch what he eats. It's infuriating because I seriously believe that he's not going to make it 10 more years at the rate he's going. The pot belly is so much bigger...

My mom is very lazy she has absolutely no muscle all flab and she is only 10lbs overweight but it looks like much more. She has always been lazy even when I was a kid and she was thin as a rail. She would call me or my older sister from our room into the living room to get the remote off the tv for her. It took a long time for her lazy ways to catch up to her but they did when she got into her 30's. She put on weight and can't get it off (because shes still LAZY!).

I think my parents are in between. My dad isn't too out-of-shape...he's in the military and works long days as a commander, but watches what he eats and does projects around the house on the weekend. My mom is active in the sense that she's always going-going-going, but her diet is horrible. She's overweight and definitely eats out a lot, fills up on a bunch of sweets every night, etc. She's a little more lazy than my dad in the fact that she's always constantly had us kids run and get her the remote or go look for something for her.

As they've gotten older though and all of us kids don't live there, I think they've tried to up their activity. It's cold now, but in the summer they bought bikes and went biking together, and they load up all the dogs a few times a week and take them for a long walk together.

My mom teaches 10 hours a day, she very active, not always working out but always moving.

My dad on the other hand prefers to watch TV and will do diet after diet. He, unfortunately, refuses to accept that he's gluten intolerant so he won't go on the diet that could save his life. He's not active unless I'm there to drag his *kitten* out of the house on walks with me. I hope he changes his mentality soon.