Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Never too Old to Start


There are times I think "Man, I wish I had started this health thing earlier in my life!"� Mostly those thoughts come into play when I am looking at my bat wing arms which will probably never go away without a knife and I'm not going there.� So for me it is a kind of vanity I guess, that I wished parts of me had not been abused by my weight for most of my life.� No, I shouldn't be vain, but sometimes it is hard when I see what I don't think I can improve on just due to age.�



But no one should allow their age to stop them from beginning to think about getting healthy.� I am hoping to spend my "golden years" traveling and experiencing new things and in order to do that, I need to be mobile and fairly fit.� In younger years, health might be about impressing people in order to find that significant other of our dreams (and for some of us, it could still be that in part, which is fine!) but as we get older, we start to think about the second half of our lives, which is way different than thinking about the first half.� When we are in the first half, we aren't even thinking about the second half, but once we get there and realize there is no reverse on this vehicle we call our body, it is time to start thinking about major maintenance!�



Just like as your car, washing machine, or fridge get older things are more likely to go wrong with them, the same is true of our bodies.� Me, I want to ensure, as well as I possibly can, that I keep this vehicle in�prime working order for as long as I can.� I want to enjoy those golden years where I am hopefully not working and my kids are grown.� We only get to do those things twice in life really.� Once from the time we are born until we hit school age and then again at retirement.�



As children, we exercised without realizing it; we ran from place to place, biked to our friend's house, ran around the playground at school or attending a swim party.� We never gave our bodies or our activity level a second thought.� When we get older, it's all we think about, because so often, something within our bodies hurts!� A pulled muscle, still hip, aching foot or ankle; our bodies at times seem to be protesting our need or want to be active.� Yes, there are times we need to nurture an injury to avoid further injury.� But those smaller aches and pains that come with growing older should not be side-lining us from working our bodies.� They need to last us until we breathe our last on this earth and bed-ridden is not anything I want to be unless my health deteriorates so drastically one day it is physically impossible to do anything else.� But I want to do my best to make sure that never happens.� We only have so much control of our health.� Seems cancer pops up for people who have never smoked as we consume more and more processed foods and chemicals (which I believe is part of the cancer problem but that is just my opinion).� But eating well and exercising at the very least, gives us a little bit of an upper hand against life threatening disease. In all honesty, and I am not bragging, but just stating�a fact because the reality of this still floors me, I have been sick a total of two days in over two years.� When I started exercising and quit smoking, I stopped with the 2-3 times a year colds,�bronchitis, etc.� It amazes me, how something I once hated completely (exercise) and now make myself do and love not hate it as much make myself tolerate is helping me in so many other facets of my life.



So if you think you are too old and set in your ways to start, you're not.� You just need to form new habits.� Better habits.� Habits for life.� And if you still think health has an age limit, check out this amazing lady.






2 comments:

  1. Beautiful thoughts on this post, sis. "So if you think you are too old and set in your ways to start, you're not. You just need to form new habits. Better habits. Habits for life." This is inspirational and I wish that with the help of the internet it can reach the right people, those who need encouragement to start a jorney that you once started too. :D I'm very proud of ya!

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  2. That's the spirit!
    Interesting video. :)

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