Weigh yourself often, learn to cook and cut back on sugar. These are some of the activities a twenty-something should undertake in order to live a healthy life, according to a slightly dated New York Times article I read recently.
Your late twenties, I assume, are reserved for undoing the damage of your early twenties. I’ve done plenty of Damage. Very fun, very worthwhile Damage but now it’s time to reign it in and pay my dues.
Damage Limitation, it turns out, is a huge pain. Staying in on week nights – a pain! Not having pudding every day – the worst pain! Working out regularly – a surprisingly worthy pain! Avoiding nicotine – a necessary pain. Staying hydrated – pain.
Money matters
Financially, the Damage has been the biggest, and the hardest to resolve. The car on finance was a stinger, so was the overdraft, and the loan, and er, the credit card. Stingers all round. Practising the art of being fiscally responsible is a muscle that must be worked every day – like a six pack if you’ve got one, which I don’t. Debt is awful and stressful, and my life has improved tenfold for eliminating most of it. Unlearning those habits is hard work though. Apparently buying new knickers instead of washing them is gross, wasteful and a fast track to an overdraft. I know this now, and I’m over it.
Health and healing
Having a complete utter disinterest in calories and what happens when you eat too many of them, is a recipe that only The Damage Limitation years can tackle.
I don’t want to talk about weight too much. I think we’re going in a positive direction by not zoning in on it all the time. But health-wise, like the physical amount of fat I have on my body, is not a healthy amount. Late nights and too much drinking on the weekends aren’t healthy either. I’m trying to undo said weekends, one week at a time. It goes like this: Saturday, lots of beer and then a takeaway. Sunday, relax and try not to think about the Damage too much. Monday, eat a salad, go to the gym and drink two litres of water. Balance! I’ve achieved balance. I might write a book: Exactly What You Need To Do Today, To Undo Yesterday. Someone slap a trademark on that #bestseller.
Getting serious
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not rushing to throw away my youth and dive head first into a world of consequence and responsibility. I’m just saying that when you take stuff seriously, you’re never stunned by the consequences after. If I know something might upset my mum, like say, setting off the fire alarm with my electronic cigarette at 12am, I would probably make a conscious effort to keep my window open in future. Hindsight is 20/20. I’ve stopped making promises I cannot keep, and I’m starting to deal with the fact that not every decision I make is going to be a good one – but as long as I’m ready to face the music, it will all be fine.
Closing the circle
I also went around amassing ‘friends’ through my late teens and early twenties. When it came to friends, my mum always stressed that I had ‘far too many’ and it genuinely seemed to bother her. I didn’t get it. I went around trying to keep in touch with as many people as was physically possible. Shock horror, it was exhausting and not-at-all-fulfilling and as usual mum was right. You cannot have that many friends and give them the attention they deserve, or get the attention you need. It just doesn’t work. No one can be a good friend to 30 people.
The beauty of the Damage Limitation years is that although nobody can say they are fun, nobody can say that they aren’t worthy. And while I stumble through, trying to be the best repentant version of myself that I can be, I hope I get the chance to do a little bit more Damage along the way, too.
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