Aging Gracefully

It usually starts in the mirror either some morning or a time of day when we see ourselves in unflattering light. What happened to our hair? My clothes don’t fit. Why does my skin look like crinkled aluminum foil? What happened to the young body that looks like the way I feel?

Read a few magazines or watch TV for a while and it’s apparent that we are a society that values youth and also seeks happiness. Young is good, old is bad. Being young and having things make us happy, being old and having less makes us sad. Part of the reason that midlife can be so difficult is that it brings up our fears about aging. We fear that life is almost over and we still have not yet attained our long held goals. It would seem inevitable that as our muscles weaken, our hearing and vision fade, and as our skin gets wrinkled things would really get depressing. Bring on the anti-depressants and the meds!

Yes, it does seem dark and dismal, but a recent Gallup poll has found that by almost all measures people get happier as they get older. How can this be? And it doesn’t always look so good for those young folks. Another study found that enjoyment and happiness decrease once we pass our “invincible years” gradually until we hit 50, rise steadily for the next 25 years, and then decline very slightly at the end. The decline can usually be associated with health issues, death of loved ones, and the typical problems of being a senior citizen.

Researchers have also found that with age, many of us learn to live more comfortably with ourselves, and accept our human imperfections and frailties. We stop comparing ourselves to others, and begin to appreciate what we have.

So since we can’t avoid aging except by dying and since it appears that aging is not something to be feared, shouldn’t we be focusing on how to age “gracefully”?

What is aging gracefully? Is it being a silver haired person, impeccably dressed, and driving down the highway in their convertible? Wouldn’t it be better to be someone who feels good in their skin, is able to be active and do the activities they love without pain, and can live thinking that their body is not their enemy but rather a part of their life that they listen to and understand? As we can see from these recent studies,

As personal trainers, we work with our clients to guide them on a path to meet their goals. A client’s typical goal is to bring their physical health to a condition where their body can function at a level that can keep pace with their thinking. Sophia Loren said, "There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age."

Often times our minds go where our bodies are unable to follow. Physical conditioning and strength is not about youth and beauty, it is about having your body being the friend and vehicle it was meant to be.

A commitment to your body through exercise and diet is as essential as financial planning. While good fortune and genetics can play a big part in anyone’s physical condition, more often our health is a result of the hard work we commit to ourselves so that we may be there with those we love and do the things that we love. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art."

Get out and get moving!

LouAnn Good
Fitness Together Fort Myers

Mothers and obesity

Americans have grown fatter over the last generation, resulting in more heart disease, diabetes and premature deaths. All that extra weight has complicated what happens in the maternity ward to mothers and their new babies.
About one in five women are obese when they become pregnant, meaning they have a body mass index of at least 3o, as would a 5-foot-5 woman weighing 180 pounds, according to researchers with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Medical evidence also suggests that obesity might be contributing to record-high rates of Caesarean sections and leading to more birth defects and deaths for mothers and babies.
Hospitals, especially in poor neighborhoods, have been forced to adjust to a changing reality. They are buying longer surgical instruments, more sophisticated fetal testing machines and bigger beds. They are holding sensitivity training for staff members and counseling women about losing weight, or even having bariatric surgery, before they become pregnant.
Studies have shown that babies born to obese women are nearly three times as likely to die within the first month of birth than women of normal weight, and that obese women are almost twice as likely to have a stillbirth. About two out of three maternal deaths in New York State from 2003 to 2005 were associated with maternal obesity, according to the state-sponsored Safe Motherhood Initiative, which is analyzing more recent data. Obese women are also more likely to have high blood pressure diabetes, anesthesia complications, hemorrhage, blood clots and strokes during pregnancy and childbirth, data shows.
Our medical and healthcare systems are trying to adjust to this situation, at great expense to the providers as well as great expense to those suffering with obesity. Obviously, the short term answer is to provide the best care possible to those mothers and babies who are dealing with obesity. But wouldn’t the best health care strategy be to educate our friends and relatives about the true cost of neglecting our bodies by unhealthy eating habits as well as the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle? It’s hard to say no, but I don’t see much being done. If we are truly concerned about healthcare, we should have a “Marshall Plan” centered on our national wellness situation.

LouAnn Good
Fitness Together Fort Myers