Keeping Fit and Healthy

Health and keeping fit is a challenge that well all face, especially so as we age. This past winter I passed one of those mileposts in aging turning forty. In the continuum of aging this in reality is no more significant than thirty-nine or forty-one, but given our common base ten number system the passing of yet another decade is deemed significant. I'm now starting middle age. According to social norms this is when one is less physically active. Also unfortunately, this is also the age when all of us need to watch for the signs of aging and of a deteriorating body. Tests for diabetes, colon cancer, cholesterol, heart function and a whole host of other age related diseases suddenly become the norm. Perhaps one is supposed to resign to the deterioration of the body, and eventually of the mind as one ages, but life and living is too precious and too wonderful to do that without at least a minimal effort to mitigate the effects of aging. While I'm fully aware that I do not have the same physical constitution that I had in my early twenties, when according to the medical literature I was at my physical peak, it does not mean that I am necessarily now going to be unable to enjoy the physicality of life.

It doesn't come easily, I have to work at it. My line of work, developing software, precludes a lot of physical activity. Most of the day I sit at a desk working on problems, typing at a computer, or in meetings with others hashing out design and implementation strategies. This certainly isn't conducive to keeping healthy. My personal fitness strategy involves explicit strength training as well as physical activities that I enjoy.

Four or five times a week I'll go through a simple calisthenics and stretching routine prior to my morning shower. First there is the stretching. This is nothing more than the classic runner's stretches for the hamstring and the thighs, as well as stretches for the arms and back and neck. It usually takes no more than four minutes to complete. Next come the pushups, three dozen of them, in the best possible form that I can do. Form here is important not only because it exercises the muscle and it uses the full and correct range of motion, but also that it prevents injury. For the sake of variety I change the distance that my arms are apart each time I do them. For example, on some days I will have my hands directly below my chest, hands turned in slightly and fingers touching. Other days I will have my hands directly below my shoulders, while on some days I will have my hands out wide. This exercises my chest, shoulder and arm muscles slightly differently with emphasis on different muscle groups. After the pushups, come the situps. I put my feet under the bedroom dresser or some other fixed anchor and do three dozen situps. There are trainers who discourage situps as a calisthenic but I find that it works for me. I do have one significant modification though. I do my situps on a cushion, usually an oversized pillow and I keep my back straight as possible when doing the sit up. The next exercise is a simple squat, to work my legs. Again, I do my three dozen. With this exercise I again focus on form making sure that I do the full range of motion and do it smoothly and completely. The next exercise that I would like to do, but cant quite yet, is a dozen pullups. I don't have a bar to do them on. This is something that will be a minor project for me on some future weekend. All of this takes less time to do than it took me to describe and type. While these exercises will not increase my core strength in any significant way, they certainly help to maintain it. At this point in my life, maintaining health and fitness is my goal, not training for a competition of some sort and this daily calisthenic routine fulfills that goal quite well. This routine is of course in addition to being physically active by indulging in activities that require it.

Along with this focus on daily calisthenics and a generally physically active life, a varied diet plays a part. The best way to describe this diet is omnivorous. Basically I'll eat most anything that will not harm me or permanently offend my taste and olfactory senses. So along with the tried and true fresh veggies, fruits, lean meats, fish, complex carbs my diet occasionally include things such as smoked octopus, pickled herring, soft cheeses, pungent mushrooms and a whole variety of unusual foods. These foods are not only a culinary delight, or sometimes a minor misadventure, they also are a different source of nutrients and minerals. Keeping the diet varied keeps boredom at bay. This does not mean that my diet has no regularity what so ever but rather that my staples and comfort foods are inter mixed with slightly more unusual fare. Another thing I've learned to do is to eat as much as possible with the seasons. For example, I eat a lot of cherries and blueberries when they are in season here in Pennsylvania. Fortunately this is when those foods are at their best and cheapest. Eating with the seasons has heightened my sense of what foods I have an appetite or craving for. Following my father's example, I've learned to pay particular attention to my bodily cravings for different foods. Yes they do happen and they do vary and after getting into the habit of paying attention to them it is easy to distinguish them from a simple hunger for food. When those very food specific cravings do hit me, rather than struggle against them, I indulge them to the point of satiety. The theory is that the food contains some nutrient that my body needs and that my subconscious mind equates the taste of that food with that needed nutrient. At least that is the theory at a 100,000 foot level.

So what is the point of all this physical activity and a varied diet? Well other than the enjoyment of them in and of themselves, they should allow me a full and active life for as long as possible. That is to live and not just be alive.