As I get older my body seems to remind me quite often that I am getting older. My mind does not. My mind keeps right on thinking I am young. Seems like just yesterday we had little boys running around the house and I could go on about four to six hours of sleep and still crank out a productive day. It seems like yesterday I could get on a health kick and trim out sugar and extra fat to drop ten or fifteen pounds and get that extra boost of energy.
Now my body freezes up after sitting on the floor about fifteen minutes, causing me to have to shift my weight to one side to rather unglamorously get back up to a standing position.
All the while my mind is saying, "What was up with that?"
I believe it is this miscommunication between my mind and body that causes me to continuously relapse into bad habits and excuses to put off the things I need to be doing until tomorrow.
I was reading an article recently about the habits of good health and they clearly matched a reel I had watched created by a heart surgeon. And the information also matched just about every article or book or video clip I have perused as I have aged. And yet where is my consistency? It seems to be hidden behind the potato chips my husband keeps slipping into the house and the bottle of red wine I am buying only for when we cook steaks.
The top three ways to keep the heart, brain, and metabolism healthy are extremely simple. The first one is to eat clean. Throw away all the processed foods we buy for convenience. Get back to the basics of eating whole foods without refined sugars or hidden fats. Eat fresh fruit and vegetables. No processed meat or junk food. This will feed the joints and the muscles. It will clear away brain fog that sugars seem to muster up. It will make for better sleep and create more energy for the waking hours. It’s so simple!
The second thing is to get at least 8 to 10 hours of sleep for recovery. Our bodies heal while we sleep. And that means a restful sleep. Not one created by exhaustion or that second glass of wine that went with the microwave lasagna because it was fast and cheap to prepare. Good sleep for 8 hours or more allows the body to slip into the necessary stages of rest and recovery. It makes the body more able to burn calories and lose weight. It helps the body build more strength and produce more energy. But what about that Murder She Wrote marathon?
And the third step is also simple. Move. Exercise consistently in a way that builds in cardio and weight resistant activity. The heart needs to be worked out just like any other muscle in the body. Cardio utilizes oxygen and helps to release those good hormones. (I am not a doctor. This is all strictly from my reading.)
Weight-bearing exercise helps to build muscle and, from my reading, bone density. And for those of us on the back side of middle age it does not have to mean fast running or lifting heavy weights. All we must do is start out slow with brisk walking and ankle weights or light weights to hold.
I am not so sure why easy is so hard. For me it is possible that the different kinds of easy took over at some point when my young body did not feel the repercussions. Now it does. May we all revamp and eat, sleep and move for preservation. Best of luck!
