It seems that a lot of the people who come to me for help or advice are middle-aged. When I reached middle age, I began to understand why. I believe that somewhere around the age of 40, give or take a few years, each of us, consciously or unconsciously, make up our minds how we are going to live the rest of our lives. We are either going to participate or we are going to sit in the proverbial rocker and watch it pass us by.
I was always the yo-yo dieter. Never really overweight, but never really in shape. I was skinny one month and 10 pounds overweight the next. I would starve, then eat, then starve to get the eating damage off. It never ended. And women certainly didn’t life weights way back then. Anyway, that was my routine for the better part of my life. However, after each of my two children, it seemed to take the starving segments longer and longer to make those pounds go away.
We lived in the desert for 6 years and I started running. The humidity was virtually zero and I loved it because I could run and starve and stay thin. Then we moved to Texas. The first morning I went out to run, there were little wet drops falling off of my eyelashes and I had to gasp for air. The humidity almost did me in and instead of using patience to acclimate myself, I gave up running and began eating. Two years and 70 pounds later, I awoke from the bad dream I had been living in and haven’t looked back. During that 2 year time period, I was so upset about my weight, about never wanting to leave the house and always having to buy blouses that hung to my knees (by doing that, I thought I was keeping my fat a secret) that I became very depressed because I didn’t like me very much.
One day, after a snide remark was made about my weight (I won’t bother to mention who made that remark but you can probably guess), I woke up out of my bad dream and got on with middle age. I walked out of the house, joined a fitness facility and a weight loss program. Since that day, I have studied, read, experimented, built a Personal Training business and moved on with my life and my new adventure.
My philosophy is that a totally healthy lifestyle (notice that I use the word “lifestyle” because that is what you should be developing. “Diet” is a four letter word that should cause you to wash your own mouth out with soap. At least it can’t be construed as child abuse) can be accomplished by anyone who is sincerely motivated, is willing to put in the effort and gets the proper guidance.
A “lifestyle” is something that you practice all the time and is a preferred habit. If you are focusing on the smaller size, a particular individual, that promotion, etc., you are only going to “diet”. The first thing you do when you go on a diet is to plan what you are going to eat when you get off the diet. Diets cannot be a lifestyle.
If you are overweight or just out of shape you are hurting yourself, obviously. If you can’t walk up a flight of stairs without feeling shortness of breath or if you can’t play ball with your child or grandchild without having to rest up the next day, you are out of shape. But, most importantly, if your self image or physical incapabilities are keeping you from enjoying life and being the best that you can be, then you are cheating yourself and those who love you.
I have not been ill in years. I don’t remember the last cold that I had. I don’t remember when I contracted a flue bug. Now, of course, we never know if some catastrophic illness may overtake us but even that is less likely if we are living a healthy lifestyle. I am 62 years old and do not take any medications at all and have not missed a day of work in years due to illness.
I invite you into my world....The Land of the Living and Enjoying. It’s a great place to live and if you would like to find out the directions, please e-mail me and tell me your story. | 
