Coming to Terms with the Physical Changes of Middle Age, and
Doing Something About Them
“Middle age”. That term means different things to different people, but to most folks, it is a negative one.
And, there’s good reason for that. Many of us start to gain weight, we feel less energetic and likely less strong. More importantly, however, we are likely to believe that we’re now on a path that leads to things only getting worse.
And the truth is, for most of us, if we stay on the same path, that’s what’ll happen. But it’s not an inevitable downhill slide.
When we were “younger”, whatever that means to you, we could get away with more and also less. We could eat more food (and junk food too), drink more alcohol, and break more rules. We could also exercise less, sleep less and take care of ourselves less.
Now, if you want to, you can still do that, but likely bravado and bluster will not allow you to avoid paying the price. If you keep braking all the rules, you will pay the price, and it’s generally going to be worse health and a deterioration of quality of life.
I’ve seen them, you have too. People in their 40’s, 50’s and up (usually us guys), way overweight, short of breath on exertion, but still playing the role. Inside, though, they know their days are numbered until some serious disease knocks them off of their white horse onto the ground, and they’re not getting up.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Study after study has shown that if we are sensible in what we eat, if we move (yes, that means “exercise), and take care of ourselves, we can have a pretty-good level of health into late in life, in many cases.
But…that requires effort. I can already hear the groans. “Exercise. I hate exercise! It makes me tired.” Actually, it is a known fact (but not by you) that exercising actually helps you to have more energy.
Sure, let’s be honest. If you haven’t been doing any exercise, at first it’s going to take some effort and commitment. The good news is twofold, however.
First, you can and should start off slow and build up over time. And you should do easy exercises too. Second, before you know it, you’ll be doing better and better, and feeling stronger and stronger. And then you won’t want to skip your exercises.
The other big aspect is nutrition. I know you may like your double-meat cheeseburgers and Jimmy Dean sausages, but are they worth having a heart attack and struggling to get around for the next 30 years?
Can we be real here? Most of us live in denial. We know we’re supposed to exercise and not eat lots of things we love, but we somehow feel that “we” won’t be affected by breaking all the rules, even though when we get on our talking scale, it says “One at a time, please”. LOL!
There’s good news here too, and, in a way, it’s like the news for exercise. One is that you can start slow, and just cut out a few “bad” foods and substitute good ones for them. And second is that, over time, you will come to like your “new” foods and not crave the Twinkies any more (they are coming back, BTW)
So, like the title of this article reads “Wake Up!”. Come out of your dream that you can eat everything you want to and just sit on the couch watching reruns of “Game of Thrones”, and still be an Olympic hopeful.
Instead, wake up and avoid the nightmare of having to live for 20, 30 or more years being sick and barely surviving. That’s a fate worse than death, in my opinion.
Now that you’ve (hopefully) “gotten the message”, start exploring this Website. It has an epic series of sections that will take you through the steps you need to follow in order to live a great middle age and beyond. It’s up to you. If not now, when?
