Fitness done wrong

"Most of us eat the wrong things, and way too much of it. Period. Not all of us, but a great many of us."

I have been both itching to, and dreading penning this one for quite a while. But it does have some thoughts which I have become more and more convinced are right. This is about fitness. And how our country is doing it, for the most part, wrong. How do I know? Full disclosure - I let myself go. Not only am I not fit anymore, I am way overweight for what I want to be. There. I said it. Now, lets go.

When I was at the doctor to get my annual physical last week, I looked around a very crowded waiting room. Besides myself, about 1/3 to 1/2 of the adults waiting were overweight. Some by a little, some by a whole lot. How did we get to this place? Where so many of us are no longer fit? I dare say it is only a small minority of us who this would not bother giving it a thought. The rest of use would love to get back into some kind of shape. But - we as a society, are doing fitness all wrong.

First off, diet. Most of us eat the wrong things, and way too much of it. Period. Not all of us, but a great many of us. When I got my blood tests back from my annual physical, things looked good except for my triglycerides. My doc told me I should get those down. It was my body telling me I was taking in more calories than I was burning off. Reversing that, will also back down those triglycerides. Ignoring them when they go higher, could be fatal. 

Pre-diabetes. I can't tell you how many people I know who are getting up in years, and have let themselves become unfit, have developed this issue. What is the best way to reverse it? Walking between 5,000 and 10,000 steps a day and watching your diet. To ignore it, could take the "pre" out of the disease, and then you will be on more meds - maybe for the rest of your life.

Many of the seniors I know are involved in a program called Silver Sneakers through their insurance. If they go to an authorized fitness center and use it a designated times per month - their membership in that club is paid for by the insurance company (our insurance does not cover that). My feeling is if we made this benefit available to EVERYONE, regardless of age, there might be enough of an incentive for the general population to improve their fitness.

Enough for now. I have more thoughts, but that is for another day. Is good fitness possible at our age? I have a very good friend (Steve) who is just about at fit as he was in high school. He never let his fitness go. Is he a spring chicken? Not quite - he is almost my age. But Steve is an inspiration to me. Why? It is possible to get some of my fitness back.

Weight watchers has a motto which says, "You don't have to say no to anything, but you can't say yes to everything." My thought in going to the fitness center is simply this - I may not be doing the optimal exercise - but doing something is better than doing nothing (like I have in the past). That is it for now. Back to my glass of carrot juice - JK!