Now if you work for an employer, frequent any number of retail businesses, you will have to adjust to their hours.

To many of us who have employers, we arrive the first thing in the am, work until noon, have lunch and return to the battle when our minds are telling us to rest.  We struggle to stay awake, let alone produce.  Later in the afternoon, our brains partially return to a production state, but it is compromised, because there are still many of those little synapses left unsorted and uncategorized. 

Now this is OK for most employers, since they don’t require a great deal of brainpower to perform the job we’ve been hired for, and there are always those databases that protect any loss of information and are sorted and categorized on a regular basis. 

And we do it because we need the money.    

But what is our internal clock saying? 

I like to get up early, get a bunch of work done, have lunch, ‘veg’ out for a couple of hours watching old movies and feeling really delicious about not being a solid citizen.

In the mid-afternoon, my guilt takes over and I hurry back to the computer with my fresh cup of coffee, crank up the guilt for the two hours I stole and put in some of my best work. 

I will continue this until the guilt complex subsides or I have accomplished what I set out to do.  Then I will have dinner with the family and the evening will wind down until my body tells me to shut off and go to bed. 

During the midday meal and the following rest period , and the evening meal and the daily wind-down, I handle no intense thoughts except those that might pop up and I write down for future handling.

Now if I have a deadline of course, I will try to fit it into the hours I am actually working, but if necessary, I will annoy the family by sticking to the job until it is done. 

I survived for many years working for an employer and doing my best to align my body energy tides with the employer’s work schedule.  The major detour was with the after-lunch period.  There was time to eat but not to rest. 

As I became aware of my energy tides, I tried to arrange my day with easier jobs scheduled after the lunch break.  It also helped to have a light lunch so all my blood did not flow from my brain to focus on digesting.  

 The point here is that I learned my energy peaks in the early morning with the hopes of accomplishing my game plan during the day.  Then it starts to wind down and has to be replenished with a meal and a break in the action when my mind goes in for its daily refresher, when I can imagine all those little synapses that were fired up are being sorted and categorized. 

My energy peaks again in the afternoon, when I work feverishly to finish my goals for the day.  The motivation here is the deadline.  A wise man once said something like “there is nothing like an impending tsunami to make you work faster.”

Once I learned the rhythms, I adapted my ‘have to’ schedule as closely as possible and to economize on my energy.  I listen to and work with my body using my high-energy periods to produce the most and pull back when my energy is low. 

Command a vital life. Live free.

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.