Health Advice Articles

Do you think of your body the way you think of your car? When a few lucky individuals acquire a top of the range car that boasts of the best automotive engineering available today, watch them read the maintenance manuals thoroughly.

They take their car for inspection even when it purrs like a kitten and take it for checking as soon as something does not feel right. And they’re very worried.

That car is their most loved possession, a badge of all the long and hard hours they put on the job so they could finally acquire it. It cost an arm and a leg, so taking care of it is logically, their # 1 priority.

But how valued is the person that drives that car? Shouldn’t that person – shouldn’t YOU – be the #1 priority?

The average lifespan for men and women is 80 years, give or take a few years. The painful truth is, a large number of men and women look and feel 80 long before they even make it to the first half of their life! You spot the tell-tale signs from their physical appearance:

* drooping dry skin
* poor posture
* uneven and unsteady walk (they need to drag around all that excess weight)
* painful joints
* displaying the “I’m not happy because I look terrible” look

Now, if their outward appearance is this bad, just think what the internal workings are like! Most likely, it’s even worse:

* clogged vessels
* inefficient heart
* mounds of fat parked in or around vital organs
* Conditions such as diabetes, nervous tension, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease that are quietly brewing.

If fitness authorities had it their way, they’d introduce legislation to make exercise mandatory as soon as a baby leaves the cradle, not during the teenage years when obesity is likely to strike.

But fitness shouldn’t be associated with any age limit. You can start at 10 or at 30 – even at 50 and 60 – the principle being that fitness should not be seen as the cure for a condition that’s already come about. As the saying goes, don’t wait for illness to strike.

Brad King and Dr. Michael Schmidt in “Bio Age, Ten Steps to a Younger You” (Macmillan, Canada, 2001) created a questionnaire for assessing physical damage to a body as a result of lack of exercise. Some of their guidelines include:

Start with the question, “How do I look?” Do any of these apply to you?
* Am I overweight, looking like an apple or pear?
* Do I have a spare tire around my waist?
* Has my skin become very dry, almost paper-thin?

Next, ask: “How do I feel?”
Do my joints hurt before or after any physical exercise?
* Am I continually worried and anxious?
* Do I feel tired and sluggish most of the time?
* Do I suffer from mood swings?

Finally, “How am I doing?”
* Are simple walking and climbing stairs difficult?
* Do I have difficulties concentrating?
* Is running an impossibility?
* Am I unable to sit in a good posture, preferring to slouch or stoop my shoulders?1

You’ve completed your basic assessment. Note, however, that other exercise or fitness specialists will have created their own parameters or indices for assessing your body’s overall state and one isn’t better than the other.

As long as they include all dimensions of the self – physical, psychological and mental – they are as valid as the next person’s assessment charts.

Now you need to create your very own ACTION PLAN.

References: 1 Brad J. King & Dr. Michael A. Schmidt. Bio Age – Ten Steps to a Younger You. Macmillan, Canada. 2001.

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