Balanced and Believing
I'm forty-three years old and not ashamed to say it. This probably has a lot to do with feeling like I'm in the best shape of my life. In fact, I told someone last week that I truly believe that I'm the prettiest I've ever been. Sure, I've noticed a little more gray hair as my hair gets longer, but otherwise I'm good with aging because I really don't see a physical downside.
I know there are naysayers out there who are screaming, 'YET!!!!' in the loudest of their outside voices. They know my day will come, mostly because theirs already has and at a younger age. People tend to hit forty and start looking for the first signs of the Apocalypse. Old age is on the horizon and they are damn well going to see it before it sees them. Oops. What happens now? Every ache, pain, memory lapse, and moment of irregularity is a SIGN and a harbinger of all the horrible things to come. For these folks, a sore knee means the beginning of the end. Soon enough they'll be drooling on their Bingo card at the old folks home.
I have to ask, though. What if that sore knee is just a sore knee? What if it has absolutely nothing to do with getting older? 'Young' people get sore knees, too. They do. Young people (by this I mean twenty and thirty-somethings) are notoriously out of shape. Teenagers are no better. This is most often attributed to laziness, video games, and a sedentary lifestyle. So why is it that people in their forties and beyond think they can blame all their health issues on 'old age'?
It's a cop out, if you ask me. And probably has more to do with a life-long unhealthy lifestyle than it does with getting older today. These folks might want to ask themselves if they've EVER been in good shape. What habits have they been saying they need to change for decades? Then I think they need to decide what they're going to do about it. Change is possible at any age. As long as we don't assume that we are too old to change.
My theory is that we are only as old as we lead ourselves to believe we are. I am inspired by a sixty-eight year old woman named Pam who still competes in triathlons and by Joe, a seventy year old man, who by his own admission, is a 'beast in the gym'. If we look at their ages, Pam and Joe are old. They should be retired (both still work full time) and fighting the ravages of old age. Yet for some reason, both defy that logic. I think it's because they believe they can. And funny, they can. Pam and Joe aren't lifelong fitness fanatics. Both made a lifestyle change in their forties that led them to be where they are today. So, at a time when most start believing that they are old, Joe and Pam chose a different path.
I am happy to say that I have always been on that path and now, as I move through my forties and beyond, I just need to stay on it. I truly feel the best I've ever felt. I'm balanced - physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Not only have I chosen a fitness-oriented lifestyle, I've chosen to be happy, which is probably as important to my well-being as any run or workout. I believe, much like Pam and Joe, that I can. I can be fit, happy, and healthy, regardless of age.
Or maybe it's because of my age. Unlike many, I feel like I'm getting better with age, not worse. I'm not who I was in my twenties or thirties. Hell, I'm not who I was a year ago. I can't say the years have always been kind, but somehow, some way I survived. And with a good bit of perspective. At forty-three, I know who I am and I like the woman I see in the mirror. She may not run as fast as she did in her twenties (she's also not crazy with anorexic) and have a little more gray hair, but she's still pretty damn good.
One day I may feel the sting of illness or injury, but I'm dead-set against calling it 'aging'. I'm not saying that there's no such thing. People do get older and things stop working right. I'm just hoping to put that off as long as I can. No matter, though, I'll weather it and arrive on the other side balanced and believing and better than ever.
I know there are naysayers out there who are screaming, 'YET!!!!' in the loudest of their outside voices. They know my day will come, mostly because theirs already has and at a younger age. People tend to hit forty and start looking for the first signs of the Apocalypse. Old age is on the horizon and they are damn well going to see it before it sees them. Oops. What happens now? Every ache, pain, memory lapse, and moment of irregularity is a SIGN and a harbinger of all the horrible things to come. For these folks, a sore knee means the beginning of the end. Soon enough they'll be drooling on their Bingo card at the old folks home.
I have to ask, though. What if that sore knee is just a sore knee? What if it has absolutely nothing to do with getting older? 'Young' people get sore knees, too. They do. Young people (by this I mean twenty and thirty-somethings) are notoriously out of shape. Teenagers are no better. This is most often attributed to laziness, video games, and a sedentary lifestyle. So why is it that people in their forties and beyond think they can blame all their health issues on 'old age'?
It's a cop out, if you ask me. And probably has more to do with a life-long unhealthy lifestyle than it does with getting older today. These folks might want to ask themselves if they've EVER been in good shape. What habits have they been saying they need to change for decades? Then I think they need to decide what they're going to do about it. Change is possible at any age. As long as we don't assume that we are too old to change.
My theory is that we are only as old as we lead ourselves to believe we are. I am inspired by a sixty-eight year old woman named Pam who still competes in triathlons and by Joe, a seventy year old man, who by his own admission, is a 'beast in the gym'. If we look at their ages, Pam and Joe are old. They should be retired (both still work full time) and fighting the ravages of old age. Yet for some reason, both defy that logic. I think it's because they believe they can. And funny, they can. Pam and Joe aren't lifelong fitness fanatics. Both made a lifestyle change in their forties that led them to be where they are today. So, at a time when most start believing that they are old, Joe and Pam chose a different path.
I am happy to say that I have always been on that path and now, as I move through my forties and beyond, I just need to stay on it. I truly feel the best I've ever felt. I'm balanced - physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Not only have I chosen a fitness-oriented lifestyle, I've chosen to be happy, which is probably as important to my well-being as any run or workout. I believe, much like Pam and Joe, that I can. I can be fit, happy, and healthy, regardless of age.
Or maybe it's because of my age. Unlike many, I feel like I'm getting better with age, not worse. I'm not who I was in my twenties or thirties. Hell, I'm not who I was a year ago. I can't say the years have always been kind, but somehow, some way I survived. And with a good bit of perspective. At forty-three, I know who I am and I like the woman I see in the mirror. She may not run as fast as she did in her twenties (she's also not crazy with anorexic) and have a little more gray hair, but she's still pretty damn good.
One day I may feel the sting of illness or injury, but I'm dead-set against calling it 'aging'. I'm not saying that there's no such thing. People do get older and things stop working right. I'm just hoping to put that off as long as I can. No matter, though, I'll weather it and arrive on the other side balanced and believing and better than ever.
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