Fitness Makes It Easier To Grow Old Gracefully

We Americans are all about graceful aging. We know that we will eventually die and that the date for this comes closer as we pass our fiftieth birthdays. All which then happens is to be in preparation for this event.

All of us have some ideas of what those final days will look like--what we will be doing in them, who will be there, what others will experience as the result. But these were not thoughts that most of us had while in college or on our fortieth birthdays-- that is, they were not in our minds until just now. Therefore, we should ask what causes such thinking to become prevalent at this point in time

For most it is the result of an experience,of a sudden slowing down of either a mental or physical ability, or both. Possibly we find one day that we just do that have energy like we used to have. Maybe we do not care to to jog that one more lap of the track; or, that one hour bicycle ride is now just one hour of exercise too much; or the plots of the after dinner TV shows have simply too complicated. None of these everyday experiences are like they were two months before. But they are as they are now, which must mean that the end is surely coming. That is how we think. But is this how we ought to think?

Why is it that today's occurrence is so momentous? Is there anyone who can really say that the energy has just not been there today like it never has ever before? In other words, is there anything really so different about today than the time when we were just too unmotivated to put out when back in high school? Or what about when we got criticized on our first job? Or, what at the party that we called "the big four-oh?" How different really are these than the slow-downs of the fifty and sixty year olds?

When it comes to fitness, a lack of energy generally means that there have been lapses in a fitness lifestyle. These can include : 1.) forgetting to take daily supplements; 2.) overdoing the carbohydrates fat and sugar; 3.) refusing to put out at a daily exercise routine for weeks in advance. Any one if not all of these together can result in a cumulative slow-down no different than those talked about above. How many of us are guilty of these deficiencies? In other words, might not they account for today's "handwriting on the wall" (especially when they are not even being done in the first place?) If so, that would be entirely different than saying that they are just the result of getting older.

The life of Jack Lalanne has proven that all of this slowing down is unnecessary. Eighty years of fitness proved to the world that one could improve with age, just as he did. No one dedicated as much to dramatically prove that the quality of one's physical and mental life does not have to decline with years.Understandably he was the grandfather of fitness for our generation. Yet how many of us have taken him seriously?

Where is fitness in most of our lives? If we trust the info on the internet or the number of people whom we encounter on the street, it is in very few people's lives. Or, if it is there, it may only because an MD insisted upon it to ward off a dread disease. But, for most of us, it is nowhere to be found--lost perhaps since the days of high school athletics, proms and graduations. In other words, "the day", which is never to be returned to.

Is this attitude essential? Those who say that they are too old to change will say "yes." So will the professionals whom their insurance policies pay. But studies have shown reverses in the supposed inevitable trends of aging, Along with the example of Jack Lalanne, they make it questionable whether getting old is really as impossible to avert as has been thought.

As an addition to the extensive advice on growing old gracefully, why not consider the following : 1.) supplements to make daily "never-miss" workouts possible (even if only some after dinner laps around the block); 2. ) a low fat low sugar well-prepared diet; and, 3.) a daily exercise program engaged in with the same regularity as the brushing of your teeth. What could be simpler and what would have a better chance of making growing old more graceful? In other words, might that not be a good idea even if one had not experienced financial ruin as a result of a Bernie Madoff. Or, in yet another way, might not that make "fun in the sun" of Colorado or Florida even more appealing? Or, for the more spiritual, might it not not make living in deep gratitude for the gift of one's days even more holistically sincere?