Comment threads have been busy with a discussion over whether being strong has become the new respectable skinny, and why we don’t use all of our annual leave.
Readers have also been discussing Australia’s debate over republicanism and the presidency with warnings of the chance of electing a celebrity president.
To join in you can click on the links in the comments below to expand and add your thoughts. We’ll continue to highlight more comments worth reading as the day goes on.
The truth about why we don’t use all our annual holiday leave
‘Work is important, but your health is everything’
I pushed on through for 12 years, working long hours, nonstop, even feeling guilty whenever I had to call in sick after a car accident (with concussion/broken bones). I went on and on, only to finally collapse. I can’t work anymore, and what that does to one’s self worth is impossible to describe. So I wish I had someone tell me to take time off, use my annual leave, to not check my emails once at home, and continue to work even while trying to fall asleep. Work is important, but your health is everything.
Please everyone put your life and your health first, and take all the leave you can get.
victoriangrl
‘Presenteism in the workplace despite the fact that so much office work can be done online from anywhere’
Holidays in the UK or abroad; even daytrips, are now so expensive that even if you have leave from work all you end up doing is sitting at home. The bulk of my leave days are now used going for job interviews, waiting in for deliveries or repairs, taking relatives to medical appointments or attending parents’ consultation afternoons.
I have a sense that the government from the Cameron days onward has been content the hoi-polloi to stay at home and not clutter up places the well-off want to go. Such attitudes are reinforced by presenteism in the workplace despite the fact that so much office work can be done online from anywhere.
KThorpe
Has strong become the respectable face of skinny for young women?
‘Anything that makes people healthier’
A friend of mine has recently got into lifting weights and bodybuilding and it’s given her a new lease of life- especially since she’s watching her diet more closely. I think anything that makes people healthier, as long as it’s not taken to an extreme, should be encouraged. We’re quick to criticise those that don’t exercise and have poor diets, so let’s congratulate those that do.
jimbo246
‘There’s a happy balance’
I’m a female just gone sixty. I’ve been a runner since my late twenties but in my early fifties my running was getting slower and slower. I started doing weights, and found that not only has my miles per minute time dropped back to the times I achieved in my forties, but improved muscle strength has kept me injury free. I’d say that it may be more beneficial for women to do some form of weights training (there are classes like Body Pump at my gym where the participants are mainly women), than men. There’s a happy balance of course!
mugclass
‘What you will get by building strength is a better metabolism and less chance of injury’
The article hints that women put on muscle much slower than men, but for years whenever I’ve encouraged women to lift weights I’ve commonly been told “but I don’t want to look like a body builder!”
So allow me to repeat: you will not look like a body builder unless you are a body builder. What you will get by building strength is a better metabolism and less chance of injury to bone and muscle.
IskarJarak
Will Australians turn their back on the Queen for a celebrity president?
‘If we’re going to change anything in Australia, it should be set 4 years terms’
Australian politics is an entirely different beast to the US model. I’m not a republican, am more than happy with the current model. If we’re going to change anything in Australia, it should be set 4 years terms (like the US) and two tiers of government, not three. And if I had a wish list, I’d ban lawyers from becoming politicians.
LiveSimply
‘I am strongly in favour of constitutional monarchy’
The non compulsory voting system, the campaign for Republicans to occupy State Legislatures and allow shifting of electoral boundaries and stripping of electoral rolls are factors.
I voted for Gough Whitlam in my first election, which occurred after the dismissal but I am strongly in favour of constitutional monarchy and in keeping the system as it is now.
It is a stable system and I think, seriously, “if it ain’t broke; don’t fix it”.
Vanessa Young
Comments have been edited for length. This article will be updated throughout the day with some of the most interesting ways readers have been participating across the site.
