Unhealthy Fun — and What You Can Do About It

by Peter Shankman
Fri, 21 Mar 2008 at 2:52 PM

Send

RSS

The man who climbed up a mountain and came down ... a sore man.

So I'm in Palm Springs for the week, where it's warm, but not overly warm. I'm probably the youngest person here by far. This is a place for older people.

Which is ironic, since they have some really awesome mountains to climb.

Was here all week at a conference, and was going insane. Not because it wasn't a good conference, but because all people do at conferences is drink, drink some more, then top it all off with a bit of drinking.

By the third day, I was retaining more water than a dam, and was tired, groggy, and generally yucky.

So I walked up a mountain.

By the time I reached the first plateau, I was sweating. By the end of the hike, I was drenched. I smelled like a barroom floor, having sweat out a TON of alcohol from my system. (I can imagine my liver, upon noticing that the alcohol is going somewhere else, rejoicing in prayer and happiness.)

Fact is, we can't be good all the time. We're never going to be. So perhaps the key is to be good a lot, then have some fun other parts of the time.

Because don't get me wrong — while the morning after the tequila was horrible, the events themselves were a lot of fun.

Knowing that you're going to do something the next morning to counter-balance the debauchery you're about to enjoy makes the enjoyment of it that much more real, since you know it won't hurt you long-term, and the results will be more muted than if you, say, didn't do anything.

So climb a mountain. Or run up some stairs. Or do some push-ups. But remind your brain (and liver) that you're more or less generally a healthy person. Every once in a while, though, we deserve to have a little bit of unhealthy fun.

NYC Outdoors Homepage