Don’t Give Up on Yourself

Don’t give up on yourself. Easy to say, but how?

They say that mid January is the most depressing time of the year. Holiday fun was over, the bills started coming due and all the talk about looking back on life got us all a little down-hearted.

Those things are especially true for people our age, right? I mean, we really are older now — with a finite amount of shelf-life left. So, screw the past, let’s focus on how we’re going to spend our future.We have a future ahead of us and it can be what we want it to be.

To own it, one of the most important steps is to take charge of our own health. Proper diet and rest are essential. Most importantly, exercise — specifically building back the muscle that aging is robbing from us — is critically important.While our generation started off physically fit and active, we’ve slowed way down and gotten fat. In fact, we’re in much worse shape than our parents’ generation.

About 13 percent of Baby Boomers — the generation born in the two decades after World War Two — reported being in “excellent” health in middle age, compared to 32 percent of the previous generation who said the same thing at the same stage of life.

Overall, about 39 percent of Boomers were obese, compared to about 29 percent of the previous generation. Baby Boomers were also less likely to get regular exercise. – Journal of the American Medical Association – Internal Medicine.The Health Care industry is not going to ride to our rescue.

In my opinion, doctors today seem to work more like quick oil-change technicians than caring coaches. They seem to mainly prescribe drugs for just about everything. It’s not helping us. It may keep us around longer but it is not making us healthier.If you want to hear more on this subject, I wrote a rant in recent times that blows it all out. You can check it out here: They’re Keeping You Fat and Weak.

Strength training can work miracles for your health and well-being:- Regain lost muscle and bone density- Reverse Type2 Diabetes and reduce fat- Reverse aging at the genetic level. And contrary to the pain and suffering stereotype, the process of strength training actually releases dopamine and endorphins into your blood stream. These are nature’s feel-great hormones.

Also, as a result of working out, your body shape will improve. You will look and feel better. You’ll walk taller and be able to do simple tasks, like hauling groceries, with greater ease.Most importantly, you will safeguard yourself against the negative effects of aging and ensure that your remaining years are as health and happy as they can be.

If you haven’t already, please start working out. If you can’t afford a gym membership and don’t own equipment, you can do it with a simple set of inexpensive resistance bands. Check them out by reading this post.Make the comittment to a schedule and do that first rep each workout day.

The hardest part of this is just doing it.