I won't be on 12 different medications. I won't be assigned to the bed in room 1204. I won't be wearing diapers. I'll be eating organic. I'll be active. I'll be living. I'll be smiling.... A lot.
Last weekend we were at Acadia National Park for 5 days. Hiking, biking, swimming, walking around, playing, eating good food. One day we were at Echo Lake, swimming. An older woman came down to the lake that had an aura about her that really left an impression on me. She was in her bathing suit ready to go for a swim. Her body was tight with lean muscle. She had a huge beaming smile on her face. Not smiling at anybody in particular since she wasn't with anybody. She just walked through the crowd, head high, really happy to be there. The wrinkles on her face gave her age away to be well into her 70's, maybe 80's, possibly older, she seemed ageless. Regardless, she moved better than most people half her age. She went over to a rock, dove into the lake and started backstroking out into the middle, away from all the people closer to shore, the smile never left her face. It was inspirational.
This woman made a commitment much earlier in her life, 30, 40, 50 years ago, to be swimming at Echo Lake on this particular day last weekend. I will guarantee you that she didn't spend the last 40 years filling her body with refined sugars, processed carbs, and saturated fats, leading a sedentary lifestyle, hopping on a treadmill for 30 minutes every couple days for "exercise". A long time ago she made an investment in herself. She decided that she was going to take care of herself, eat right and stay active so that when she was 80 she was going to be enjoying her life to the fullest with a permanent smile on her face that would require plastic surgery to remove. She would hike up mountains on the weekends, ride her bike at lunchtime, go cross country skiing in the Winter. She didn't waste her time in 1974 lifting weights and walking on treadmills because she knew then, just like she knows now, that it wasn't going to help her enjoy the things in life she enjoys and it wasn't going to help her swim across Echo Lake when she's in her 80's. I can guarantee you she wasn't 60 years old at 45% bodyfat with a counter full of medications wishing she hadn't spent the last 25 years eating at Pizza Hut and Wendy's because she just didn't have the time or money to eat right and exercise.
Her investment paid off big time. She absolutely nailed it. I could feel the confidence and happiness as she walked by me. Contrast this to most people you see nowadays who are between the ages of 35 and 60, are seriously overweight and deconditioned. If I walked up to 10,000 of these deconditioned people and asked them "When you're retired, would you rather be living on medications, fighting off chronic diseases and feeling like shit for the better part of the rest of your life, or would you like to be lean, healthy, unmedicated and fit enough to be able to do anything you want?", I'm pretty sure I would get 10,000 responses affirming the latter. Yet, they do nothing about it. Why not? Why don't people make the investment in themselves to do it? There's lots of reasons, but I'm going to focus on two of them (maybe three, not really sure where i end up going with this yet...).
Reason #1: I'm not feeling that bad yet so why do anything about it?
It can always get worse, right? There's always somebody worse off than you to make you feel better about how badly you let yourself go. You weigh 350 lbs, but at least you don't weigh 450 like the guy in front of you who just super-sized his order of fries. And here you are ordering a diet coke with your Triple Decker Bacon Burger. Good man!
You have too much to drink 3 or 4 nights a week, but hey, look at that homeless guy passed out on the sidewalk. I'm not that bad.
You smoke a pack a day, but you cut back from two packs and you're now smoking wicked-ultra lights which are so light they're almost good for you (said it on the pack so it must be true), and at least you're not hooked up to an oxygen tank like that guy you saw at the oncologist's office last week.
So let me give you some advice, instead of trying to make yourself feel better by comparing yourself to people who are obviously worse off than you, why don't you start comparing yourself to people who are better off than you and make a goal to get there. Compare yourself to the woman I was talking about before. Compare yourself to the group of people you see riding their bikes on their Saturday morning group ride. Compare yourself to the people hiking up Mt Monadnock. Compare yourself to the people shopping at the local farm stand for organic fruits or vegetables. Yes, it can always be worse, and if you don't do something about it now I will guarantee you that it will be.
Reason #2: I can't afford it.
This is the investment part. People buy processed foods and low grade meats because it costs more to buy organic, nutritious foods. If you look at the implications of filling your body with non-nutritious crap, then you will find that it will cost you a lot more money down the road in doctor's visits, medications, hospitalizations, surgeries, and nursing homes, then you could possibly spend on eating healthy. Same goes for exercise. I've put together a lot of training programs for people that get them the best results they've ever seen and put them on the path to living a long healthy life. We're more into helping everybody commit to a healthy lifestyle than just giving a workout routine. We want to get your body working properly and pain-free with full range of motion, maximum mobility and functionality, great strength and endurance. We want to help you with your nutrition. We'll give you workouts to do while you're away on business travel or vacations. We've developed an atmosphere of like-minded, supportive individuals who all want to be spending the rest of their lives in the best shape possible. And yes, it costs more than going to the traditional gym, but there is no comparison in what you're getting. It costs more, because it takes a lot more time and effort to give you the experience that we give you. We care about you. If we don't see you for a while you're getting a phone call or an email. We're never going to be the type of gym with 3000 members, 80% of which stop going after a couple months, and the other 20% doing useless bodybuilding type exercises that do more damage to their bodies than if they did nothing at all.. Ever see a 70 year old who spent too many of his younger years bodybuilding? Not pretty. We're a gym who will have about 100 members who all know each other, support each other, work towards common goals, work their asses off to get in great shape, and commit to a healthy lifestyle. These are the people who are going to be beaming with confidence at 85 years old while they're out playing in the back yard with their great-grandkids. So if I told you that to feel that way when you're 85 would cost less than the 2 bottles of wine you buy every week, or about the same as a good dinner out and a movie every month, or a couple lunches out with colleagues every week, would you still say you can't afford it? Is it that you can't afford it, or that you won't afford it? And like I said before, it will cost you a whole hell of a lot less now than it will later if you let yourself go. I've said this before and I'll say it again, I could not put a price on how I feel now. Being healthy and fit is the single most important thing in my life because without it everything else goes to shit. With health and fitness comes happiness, solid relationships, confidence, the ability to cope with difficult situations.. The list is endless. Some may be able to put a price on that, I can't. Next time you're trying to decide on whether or not you can afford something that is an investment on your own personal well-being, you might want to ask yourself how can you afford not to...
Reason #3: It's too ________ (fill in the blank with your favorite excuse)
Some popular ones that I hear are, "It's too late", or "It's too hard"... It's never too late to start taking care of yourself. And just because you may have spent a lot of time abusing yourself, it doesn't mean the right thing to do is to continue. That would be stupid and is the most illogical excuse of all. Everybody has a starting point to work from. Doesn't matter where that starting point is, the important thing is that you start. One of my favorite quotes is from Lao Tzu, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". Well, in the case of Dynamic Strength and Conditioning, it starts with the 63 steps to the 4th floor. But we will definitely take you on a journey that you will never regret :) For those who say it's too hard I will only say this, it's easy to be fat and out of shape, anybody can do that and you can see it everywhere, everyday. It's tough to stay in shape and make the right decisions about what to eat and how to take the best care of yourself. That's why it's so key to find something that you enjoy, keeps your mind from getting bored, and gets you awesome results. That's why what we're doing at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning works. The workouts are hard but fun, challenging and always different to keep the mind stimulated. They're short and intense and they get you in phenomenal shape.
We have a bunch of new exciting programs starting up in October, the Dynamic Performance program, the 90 Day Fitness Challenge, Combat Conditioning for combat athletes, and a program that Michele and I are very excited to be offering, "Boomers", that is targeted specifically at those 55 and older that are ready to commit to spending the rest of their lives in the best shape possible.
When I'm 100 I'm going to get up every morning and I'm going to be smiling. I'm going to make a decision every day about what I'm going to do with my time that day. I'm not going to have decisions made for me later in life because I made the wrong decisions earlier in my life...
All the best,
Kevin
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