If we attended a lot of holiday parties, we feel sluggish from too much food, we have no energy, and it is a challenge to get out of that easy chair at home.  We just feel old.

We know this is a temporary condition.  It has happened before.  After the holidays we will just get out, walk it off and renew our gym membership. 

But this is the wrong time of year.  In many areas, it is cold – certainly too cold to go out and walk or go to the gym.

We’ll just stay in until spring, and then we’ll walk it off.  We’ll save our energy. 

We are as young as we feel or as old as we feel. 

When we are in our twenties, our energy seems boundless, and we can do anything.  In our thirties we start to slow down, but it is hidden by the nonstop activities of work and family.  We notice that we can’t eat endlessly any more and perhaps it shows in our growing clothing sizes.

When we pass forty and our lives aren’t really over, we are starting to get the message that maybe we should start taking care of ourselves.  We might join a gym or start running or take up a vigorous sport.  We’re going to have a body like those people on the magazine covers. 

But it hurts to exercise at first.  We used to be able to run like the wind, but now we are more like a wind gust – run, stop, and gasp. 

Now we see our lives as really over.  We see ourselves marching slowly toward the grave, practicing getting old by moving slower, taking our time, being careful about everything. 

We learn to think old thoughts and live in the past since our future is so limited.  After all, doesn’t society expect and encourage us to age gracefully and limit our activity?  Aren’t our same-age friends feeling the same way?  And if everyone thinks that way, isn’t it true? 

No. 

At any time on our life path, there are alternative ways less traveled. 

The main road we travel with others our age leads to weakening and decline in our bodies.  Hardly noticeable at first, we gradually find it harder to stand or walk for an hour, or get out of a low chair or up off the floor.    This is especially true if our work is sedentary and we are the same in the rest of our lives. 

Our far-flung ancestors developed a perfectly functioning and efficient body, which is why their descendents survived.  We only use roughly 100 calories to walk a mile, but few of us walk that far in a day. 

And so our neglected muscles fall into disuse and lose their full function.  We fulfill our own prophecy and slow down because our muscle power has deteriorated.  Ailments come and we associate it with ageing.

But new research shows exercise slows ageing by keeping the body functioning at its top level.  One of the best paths to long life is feeling good about ourselves, and looking good with lots of energy will do it. 

Olympic 14 gold-medal winner Michael Phelps consumes a staggering 12,000 calories per day and trains six hours a day six days per week, without fail.  When asked in an interview how he keeps so fit, he replied, “It’s the exercise.”

What type of exercise is best?  That’s up to the individual.  Although the majority of people don’t exercise enough or at all, it still remains a personal decision. 

If we pick activities we enjoy, we will stick with it longer. 

Make a list — anything we like that involves the components of fitness: motion, endurance, strength, balance and flexibility. 

Aerobic endurance will build heart and lungs and let us keep moving.  Muscular strength, flexibility and balance will help us get out of that chair gracefully.   

And we should keep our muscles guessing by changing activities every month or two. 

We all have a preference for sedentary activities and many of us feel out of place where everyone else seems fitter than we are. 

Aerobic exercise means getting our blood pumping and breathing hard.  It doesn’t mean killing ourselves.  It also doesn’t mean ‘doing it tomorrow.’

Warming up and cooling down are key components to avoiding aches that make us quit and postpone.  Starting at and stopping from full speed is never a good idea. 

Stretching our joints instead of our jeans keeps our muscles loose and improves our balance and flexibility. Mobility and freedom from pain gained from regular stretching is a reward that we feel every day.

What’s a good fitness level?  Forget the magazine covers. It is the level at which we feel good and can get around easily.  We don’t have to be muscle-bound as long as the core area around our trunk is strong. 

The Internet and bookstores are full of suggestions on stretching and exercises that can be performed privately. 

Set some achievable goals to keep, then keep them.

The best exercise is the activity we will enjoy regularly.

Live long and limber!

Command a vital life. Live free.

Consider that today’s life expectancy at birth (2005-present) in the USA averages 77.5 – 80 years with Western Europe in the same category.  Canada, Sweden, Iceland, along with France, Japan and Australia average over 80 years and Russia checks in with 65 – 67.5 year average (so much for the cold climate theory).

The USA position depends on who’s counting the member states.  We are at 30^th (CIA World Factbook-221 countries) or 38^th (United Nations-195 countries).  Twenty years ago, we were roughly 11^th.  Major reason:  Wealthy life style has made us obese, causing health problems and death in later life, combined with 36 million (12 percent of the population) living below the poverty line with inadequate healthcare.

We should feel grateful.  In 1940, average life expectancy was around 63.  By 1980 it had jumped to 73.7.  And here we are in 2009 at 78.  And the longer we live, the longer we can expect to live.  A 50-year old can expect to live another 30 years.  A 70-year old can expect another 14 years, and an 80-year old can have another 8 years.

Averages

All those figures are averages, plotted over this country’s entire 307 million-person population.  But people who live in rural areas with lower economic conditions have shorter life spans due to harder conditions, poor diet, less medical care.  People also have their lives ended due to war, accidents, and illnesses. 

Maybe this is a selfish position, but averages mean that every person who comes to the end of their lives at an age lower than the average, leaves a spot above the average.  On average, passing fifty, I can safely expect at least another 30 years, despite a chance accident or illness.  And, I had four grandparents who lived into their nineties.  I’ll make sure to take care of myself to get there and beyond.  I’m halfway there.

Living in the Now

Whatever time remains, I have learned to live today.  Although I make plans for the future, I have learned to live in the “now” because of those chance accidents or illnesses.  Today is the most important day in my life, because it is the only one I can control to some extent. 

Yesterday is gone and events cannot be rewritten.  Dr. Phil McGraw has an expression, “You can’t un-ring the bell.”

Reasons to enjoy

I have been right and I have been wrong.  I have been judgmental.  At this point in my life, I’ve had friends die (those accidents and illnesses), seen and lived and endured suffering in my own life, and been humbled more times than I care to remember or relate.  And through it all I have learned compassion for others discovering their own flaws and helplessness in situations thrust upon them.

I have been embarrassed so many times I’m all out of humiliation.

I have come to realize that I hardly know anything in the overall scheme of things.  When I was young, I knew it all, but as I got older, the “all” grew faster than what I knew, and I couldn’t keep up.  When I let go “the world’s steering wheel” and accepted the beliefs of others as real to them and just as valid as mine, my life got easier and less stressful. 

I associate with people of all ages.  The younger ones still have their dreams and bathe me with their excitement and enthusiasm.  They travel paths I will never see, but they carry me with them in their imaginings.  We trade advice and they keep me away from that judgment seat.  I encourage them and they divert me away from my old uncertainties.

Studies tell me that now I’m a better judge of character than when I was younger, my brain uses both sides at once, making it more efficient, and I’m less neurotic than I used to be.  I still worry about the problems the world faces, but I have enough experiences to know how quickly the course of events can take a new direction.  My hope is that it will be for the better.

I’m in better physical shape now than when I was 30.

It will be tough for young people to believe, but sex gets better with age.  It’s more about intimacy than gymnastics.  There is help at the pharmacy for any physical shortcomings, and there are no chance pregnancies.  We’ve witnessed each other at our best and our worst and have come to appreciate the beautiful interior even as our exteriors age.

Each of my grandchildren is a joy for me to see them grow in their personalities as well as their bodies.  And money can buy some happiness, whether it is a toy, an ice cream or a day at an amusement park.  This is my now as well as my future.  I learn from their live-in-the-moment, don’t-ask-where-this-came-from attitude.  I’ve been a parent.  Now, let’s have some fun.

Command a vital life. Live free.