Middle Age and Exercise

EXERCISE. Ugly word isn’t it?  Yuck. Who wants to exercise? I know there was a time when I didn’t, but felt I had to. In my 20s, I was too busy raising 3 children under the age of 4-1/2.  (Excuse not a reason). My 30s basically the same excuse. My 40s maybe I started thinking about exercise, still a bad word, but then something takes over you when you hit 50, I can’t explain it, maybe because you are on everyone’s mailing list for AARP and you DVR Jeopardy on a daily basis and actually look at all those ads geared to middle-aged viewers and their health. Wah!

I can’t go to an interview fat. I can’t go to an interview out of shape. I can’t drop dead of a heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol. You really start to think this way. All the stuff that you thought you never would think of hits you out of the blue. All of a sudden, you start thinking about your mortality. I’ve always struggled to lose weight ever since I was a kid. Perpetually plump. I just didn’t want to sit around the house and become that very famous joke “When my wife sits around the house, she SITS AROUND THE HOUSE”.  As I mentioned in my earlier blog, I had to set goals, realistic ones. Goals that I could meet, not the impossible like rocket scientist, lawyer, Mother Teresa, but goals I could actually meet. LOSE WEIGHT was goal number one.

Baby steps. You would think walking up a hill, no problem. That’s easy, right? Well Saturday at the Race in Monrovia, proved NOT SO EASY.  Let me tell you, exercising at 20 is a hell of a lot easier than 51. If there are any younger people reading this, do yourself a favor and start exercising now.

I have a dear friend, Kristin Warren, of Monrovia and talked me into the Fountain of the Falls Race. We decided to go into it together. We even started walking together in the evenings to get ready for this race. Thank you, Kristen.

Another good friend, Kathryn Lamb of Monrovia, mentioned on Facebook that MHS is selling passes for a fundraiser so her girls can go to Carnegie Hall.  I thought, hey $5 for a gym pass? I’ll go use it for the month and maybe it will jumpstart my number one goal. I still say Kathryn was my exercise savior. If it wasn’t for that Facebook update, I don’t think I would have joined a gym, and actually like exercising. I get it now. I get the addiction to exercise.  I never thought I would enjoy yoga, and now it’s my new addiction.  Of course I can’t get into all the same pretzel positions that the other people in my yoga class can do, but I try. And that’s it isn’t it?  TRY. 

After 3 months of hard work and now 12 lbs. lighter, Kristen and Dave and myself, along with the others in the Monrovia Fountain to the Falls Race, did it!  We did it. Exercise is no longer a bad word in my vocabulary. I urge all of us middle aged people in Monrovia to start exercising.  We have no excuses. We don’t realize how blessed we really are with the trails we have, the mountains, the beautiful streets with the old historical houses. Next time you see us walking along Foothill Boulevard honk and give us a shout!  Come exercise with us.

Cheers!

--Nic