Growing Old Can Really Suck!!!

There are a lot of good things about getting older. I love seeing my family grow and mature. I myself have grown spiritually and emotionally, and through life experience I have learned more than I can recount! I have had the opportunity to travel and see many new places and meet many new people, through work and with my family.

However, physically growing old is the worst! Right now for example, it seems I am just super prone to injury. My wrist, which I injured last December, is still sore though not as bad as at the start of the year. On top of that, when I was working out in the last week of June I started to get pain in my left shoulder like I pulled the muscle. It has been troubling me ever since. What on earth is going on? 

If that wasn't enough, I don’t have the energy that I used to. I don’t know why but once I hit 43 my energy level seemed to tank. It really does feel like physiologically something happened - except I definitely didn’t ask for it! The hilarious thing is that this is probably the busiest time of my life. Family wise and career wise as well there is so much going on. Honestly, energy and stamina are wasted in the young! They don’t have to deal with the things we need to deal with and carry the load that we need to carry in middle age and yet here we are. This is what we have to handle day in and day out. 

For example, at this age you are caring not just for your kids but your parents as well. We are now firmly in the so-called sandwich period, taking care of people on both sides of the spectrum (some days with your children rebelling and your parents at the same time!).

Career wise there are a lot of exciting opportunities, but you also come to a point where you have to keep pressing in while you are likely at your top earning potential. It takes an investment of time to capitalise on these opportunities.

And of course all this makes it difficult to work out… even to get 15 minutes in. Diet management can also be poor due to lack of time. Staying up late for work makes it far too easy to snack badly.

The key is planning and intentionality and I freely confess that I don’t have those locked down in all circumstances yet. Ideally I would run or do some sort of cardio in the mornings and workout about midday. That way after a workout I can break my fast. However, depending on the day that routine may or may not happen.

For example, the first week of the month was great but since then it has been tough. This is probably because I have been travelling a lot recently. Since getting back home I haven’t been able to fast properly because of a lot of late nights for work and I am battling with some weight I gained over my weeks away.

All in all the truth is I am pretty frustrated. Regardless, my focus is firm that I must keep pushing and I now have more than just simple aesthetics spurring me on. I recently found out I am pre-diabetic, meaning while I am not there yet, without taking precautions I will be diabetic. The biggest thing I can change is to lose weight - about 20 lbs from my current weight of 194 lbs.

My plan for this will be the following:

Workout for a minimum of 4 days a week using the Real Deal. Ideally, get all 5 days in.

Cardio exercise increase for 20 minutes a day, 4 times a week.

Yoga and stretching 3-4 times a week. I am getting old so I need it. This week while on vacation my legs were cramping up far too much after days of swimming, running and bodyweight workouts every other day. 

Diet. I need to get back to intermittent fasting. I think my main issue here was shorting myself on sleep that caused me to need to eat to keep my energy up. 

So if I'm going to hit my goals I have to stress the other two areas where I am bad: sleep schedule and water intake.

Many nights I need to stay up to get in everything I need to get done. After dinner cleanup is finished and the kids are in bed, then we have to do everything else. The end result is staying up late to finish work, chores and other miscellaneous items. I have to be more disciplined to get a minimum of 6 hours of sleep in and ideally this should be 7. I have enabled my iPhone bedtime alert as a way of tracking this.

The other item is my water intake. I just don't drink enough right now. Most days I am taking in 1 L, and then I usually have coffee, tea and Coke Zero on top. I need to double my water intake which will take intentionality more than anything else. I now have a 1 L water bottle and my goal is to finish it twice a day.

It can be difficult to fit everything in and 

As we age our circle of responsibility grows while our time seems to diminish, and our bodies seem to fail us. It can feel like both time and the ability to look after yourself are slipping from your hands. But my workouts are designed to make it easier to stay active despite busy schedules. This doesn’t mean you won’t have conflicts still between all those other responsibilities and the time you plan to be active. You will. But just get back on the plan and keep moving. As long as you keep moving, that is progress. 

I share my story with you to encourage you that despite setbacks we all need to keep grinding together and just continue to improve. Whether it be a consistent diet or consistent workouts or both, we will eventually start to see the progress we are diligently working for. So be encouraged and keep pushing!!!