Healthy Body: Fundamentals
Dancing with the Devil
A quick scan of the internet, and EVERYONE’S back on a diet.
Busily scribbling in new bullet journals, and pounding the streets with morning 5k runs.
They’re all going to be size 12 by March and fit into their good jeans.
I qualified as a fitness instructor in 1991.
It’s never NOT been this way.
The details come and go, but the ‘New Year, New Me’ business – doesn’t ever change.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, right?
And the same people are back heartily eating all the puddings by March.
I’m not being mean, it just is.
On a diet, off.
4 runs a week then none at all.
Most people who use the gym year-round, tend to avoid it and do other things in January.
Just to let the ‘January People’ burn themselves out.
In over 30 years that I’ve seen it – it’s been:
- Empty Before Christmas – Rammed (full of cheese and booze) in January.
- Quiet Pre-Easter – Rammed (full of Chocolate) After Easter.
- Ghost Town in August – Rammed (the minute freedom prevails and the children go back) in September.
Don’t get me wrong – we LOVE to see new people there, and want to encourage them, help them and show them where the treadmills are.
I try to poach them all to come to my classes.
There will be waiting lists and people huffily doing headcounts, to check that no one has sneaked in without booking.
Especially in aqua.
Average age in aqua. I would say, is 65.
They give me a run for my money, fitness-wise.
Aqua ladies take no prisoners, they are deliciously brutal.
I respect it.
This week I am going to invite you not to do that at all.
There’s enough to be getting sorted for the new year.
Let’s Zoom out and get the fundamentals in place.
If you’re already nailing your health and fitness, this can be a consolidation.
If you want to improve it, think of this as laying strong foundations.
Today I want to encourage you to do this for the RIGHT reasons.
FUN FACTS:
In the UK (as with most of the planet) we are getting older.
Did you know there are currently over 15,000 UK people over 100 years old?
in 1981 there were just 4000.
As a nation, we are celebrating more birthdays than ever.
This is thanks to improved healthcare, medical advances and scientific breakthroughs.
We are better off financially – and have more accurate information about what is and isn’t good for us.
(Cigarettes are bad for us? Who knew? Well… in the 1950s – hardly anyone)
But we are actually getting LESS healthy and that’s on us.
We live longer, unhealthier lives.
Mental.
Non-Communicable diseases (NCDs) are those that we didn’t ‘catch’, but are caused by our lifestyles.
So by default, that they can be prevented by our lifestyles too.
And I know you knew this.
But I really encourage you to hear me out, this month, over all the others.
Sometimes we just need to hear the right thing for motivation to ‘click’ into place.
We’ve tried to fill this month with as many of those things ‘you can’t unhear’, as we can.
Reaching 80, 90 years old and beyond is now commonplace.
This is the time you can make sure those are healthy years, with all your marbles intact and not needing a walking aid.
Having adventures, feeling well, living life to the full and not rattling with medication.
(Someone told me that The Golden Girls were supposed to be my age.
I did well not to punch her in the face. If you don’t know who the Golden Girls are, you have a few more years than me to get things rocking.)
I want to be Crazy Grandma Tanya that climbs trees and goes to inappropriate gigs with the grandchildren – not the one they visit the nursing home, out of duty.
If you want to dance with the Devil:
avoiding exercise and vegetables, enjoying a cheeky nightly ciggie and prosecco, staying up too late and working too hard.
You can totally do that.
But Satan will demand payment.
If you’re in the 40s-60s bracket, payday won’t be fair away.
This month is about making sure you are set to be the most vibrant, embarrassing Great-Grandma/pa/person that ever existed!
If that’s what you want…
Action:
- Take a moment to contemplate what kind of older person you want to be (70s, 80s, 90s and up)
- How you would like to spend your older life?
- What kinds of things do you want to be doing?
There’s time to change things, if you need to.
Not that much – but there enough to change the story, if we crack on.