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ghost
Joined: 30 Jan 2003
Posts: 1693
Location: Saudi Arabia
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 Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2005 11:32 pm Post subject: exercise in Turkey |
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Those of us who walk more, and many people in Turkey do tend to walk quite a bit, can eat a bit more.
If your going to talk about obesity, I think you need to mention excercise too. |
This is true. But Turkey is not a country with an "exercise culture"...and most Turks are quite lazy in that department.
When ghost used to go for his 4 mile run from the centre of Antalya to the beach area and back....he never met other joggers on the sea front....and he often had to "carve" his way through Turkish citizens oblivious to the spooky/loping jogger....many a time, ghost would simply share the road with the traffic, to avoid the silly sidewalk behaviour so prevalent in Turkey....like 6-8 blokes hogging the sidewalk....and not making any attempt to move....
Even in the Turkish Super League...it is known that many of the players are habitual smokers....a fact that is somewhat astonishing in professional sport.
When Turks go walking, it is more a question of not having money for the Dolmus....and generally Turks will consider any walk longer than about 5 minutes in duration to be long....
When ghost walked back from Tomer to his host family in Ankara, Yukar Ayranci district (a distance of about 2 miles....and 20-30 minutes walk) his host family was concerned that ghost would get too tired and be unable to study after the exertions.....ghost would then walk back down to Kizilay after supper (an extra 2 miles) to show them....it could be done... |
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Bogazicibaby
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 68
Location: Istanbul
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:36 am Post subject: |
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and generally Turks will consider any walk longer than about 5 minutes in duration to be long....
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Haydi ya!- here we go again with those generalities. I've lived here for 4 years and compared with the United States, where you don't see near as many people out walking on the sidewalks (at least where I'm from in the midwest), Turkey does have people out walking on the streets and on the sidewalks. At all hours of the day and night too.
I don't believe that it is just those who can't afford dolmus money.
I don't know the people you met in your time in Turkey, but I have many Turkish friends who walk alot. Even if you have a car in Turkey, you end up walking alot. I have a car and yet I walk alot and it isn't because of any "exercise culture" or lack of money for the dolmus. Its because its easy and close. Besides parking spaces are hard to find in Istanbul and even if you drive, you have to walk some distance to get to your destination.
When I first got here, many of my Turkish friends thought that I was crazy to not want to walk just a little bit further to get to another place. I certainly never would have walked so far in the U.S. to get to someplace. Today I think its normal and I don't even bat an eye at the thought of walking long distances such as Ghost mentioned.
I also want to mention that many Turks live in buildings that don't have elevators. This means that everything you bring into the house is hauled up and down the stairs. I've watched women carry some pretty heavy loads and not even look tired when they've reached the top. I admit that I'm lazy and I want an elevator!
I'd like to mention that I have family in Connecticut. When I last visited them, they told me that driving 15 minutes away was too far to go. As a midwesterner, I found that to be insane since many people where I'm from think nothing of an hour commute. I admit that we certainly would think twice about walking from the furthest parking space at the grocery store or wherever we go.
I really do think that the Turks I know don't think anything about a walk more than 5 minutes.
If your going to talk about obesity, you do have to include amount of exercise with food intake. All exercise doesn't have to be the kind of exercise we are used to in our own countries. Although, I agree that developing a personal "exercise culture" is good and healthy. |
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Faustino
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 601
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dmb
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 8397
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 9:01 am Post subject: |
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| i'm trying to give up smoking at the moment. Bloody difficult. I'm not having too much success. Still. I keep trying. |
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molly farquharson
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 839
Location: istanbul
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:44 am Post subject: |
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Good luck dmb! last time I tried to quit i was grading stacks of papers and they all got low grades because I was so grouchy, so I gave up giving up.
Re the lack of exercise culture in Turkey, have you checked out the cost of spor salonu here? They are spendy and the cheaper ones are kind of nasty. I think most Turks don't need to exercise, because they do indeed walk a lot and many work very hard physically-- like the example aboive of the woman hauling stuff up the stairs.
Anyway, the name of this thread is obesity among TEACHERS! Where did that come from? |
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31
Joined: 21 Jan 2005
Posts: 1797
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 2:14 pm Post subject: Spendy |
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| molly farquharson wrote: |
Re the lack of exercise culture in Turkey, have you checked out the cost of spor salonu here? They are spendy |
I am not attacking you Molly. I have noticed before that you use ''spendy'' to mean expensive. I looked the word up at dictionary.com and found no results. Is it Canadian slang?
Dictionary Thesaurus Web
No entry found for spendy.
Did you mean spend? |
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Faustino
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 601
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 2:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Which is the most expensive gym you know of? I think the one at the Marmara hotel, overlooking Taksim square, is about $2000 a year to join. You do get to look at a load of parked buses and a bloody great hole in the ground, though, so it's probably worth it. |
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31
Joined: 21 Jan 2005
Posts: 1797
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 2:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Faustino wrote: |
| Which is the most expensive gym you know of? I think the one at the Marmara hotel, overlooking Taksim square, is about $2000 a year to join. You do get to look at a load of parked buses and a bloody great hole in the ground, though, so it's probably worth it. |
No it is Sports International. There is one in Bakirkoy marina, one in Izmir, another one in Etiler or Levent and one-guess where-Bilkent. |
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travelingirl68
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Posts: 214
Location: My Own State of Mind...
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:04 pm Post subject: |
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| dmb wrote: |
| i'm trying to give up smoking at the moment. Bloody difficult. I'm not having too much success. Still. I keep trying. |
dmb, have you tried the patch? I used it 2 years ago and it got me over the rough first 10 days. The other thing that really really helped was quitting at the start of Ramadan, and deciding to fast with several of my friends. Somehow, the idea of trying not to even swallow my own spit helped tremendously... I am not religious generally, but I will say that the spiritual aspect of giving something up for God had a major impact on my success. Just a thought... |
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Faustino
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 601
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:20 pm Post subject: |
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| 31, how much is this 'sports international' of which you speak? |
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ghost
Joined: 30 Jan 2003
Posts: 1693
Location: Saudi Arabia
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:39 pm Post subject: habits die hard.. |
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Trying to give up smoking in Turkey is a very hard thing, because you are in the land of the smoke (omnipresent). Even if you give it up, you will still `smoke`....second hand smoke, whether you like it or not.
Turks have a life expectancy of around 63 years (between male and female) and the odd thing about Turkey is that males live longer, in general, than females....
In Turkey, individuals aged over 40 are considered ``old``....and most no longer engage in sports and other fitness activities.
Check this out, for life expectancies....
http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthy_life_table2.html |
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molly farquharson
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 839
Location: istanbul
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:44 pm Post subject: |
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As far as I know, "spendy" is North American, so maybe that's why it wasn't in your dictionary. It means expensive and was not a spelling error.
I am leaving shortly to check out Sports International, as I am looking for a swimming pool. I will report back to y'all. I expect my hair to be standing on end... |
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travelingirl68
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Posts: 214
Location: My Own State of Mind...
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:57 pm Post subject: |
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Like Turkey, everyone in Kazakstan smoked too - and the cigarettes were about 25 cents a pack, so it made it even easier... It is hard to quit anywhere you live, I feel I got lucky in some ways, or maybe I was just finally really ready to quit after 16 years. I have not had a serious cold or bronchial infection since - something I would get with wayyyy too much regularity before...
Molly, I am North American, and I have not heard 'spendy' - but then, I am out of touch with a lot of youthful slang lingo... |
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whynotme
Joined: 07 Nov 2004
Posts: 728
Location: istanbul
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:13 pm Post subject: |
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| dmb wrote: |
| i'm trying to give up smoking at the moment. Bloody difficult. I'm not having too much success. Still. I keep trying. |
this is my 10th mounth without cigarettes...i am feeling great and so powerful because i kicked the habit after 15 years non stop-smoking...
good luck dmb |
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31
Joined: 21 Jan 2005
Posts: 1797
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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| travelingirl68 wrote: |
Molly, I am North American, and I have not heard 'spendy' - but then, I am out of touch with a lot of youthful
Molly is getting on a bit and does not use youthful lingo.
slang lingo... |
I looked up ''spendy''' on dictionary.com which is an American site and nothing. |
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