When I saw her last week, it made me so sad.
I’ve known her for decades. She rocks! She didn’t start training until her 40s. She naturally has a very fast metabolism and never felt the need. Her nutrition isn’t the best, but she was always lean. In her 40s, she started putting on a couple unwanted Elle Bees (French. Translation: lbs./pounds) and started training and eating healthy on and off. She would get in great shape for a wedding and then fall off the deep end. Get in great shape again and then become lax for a year.
The human body is resilient. She was consistently beating her body down with subpar nutrition and lack of exercise for 40 years before it started to affect her negatively. Then, for about a decade, she was intermittent with her fitness efforts. Then she decided to stop.
I saw her last week, and it pained my heart. She is old. She’s overweight, and her energy is zapped; she looks, acts, and says she feels old. She finally gave up on life. Side note: she is ok with me sharing her story as a cautionary tale.
From the day we’re born, we start getting older, and each day is one day closer to dying. Pretty morbid, I know! But true.
What you do consistently over time will have a compound effect on your body and mind. It may not reflect itself in a tangible way immediately, but rest assured, eventually it will.
You might be like Jack LaLanne, who grew up a fat, miserable, sickly kid, covered in boils, until the age of 15, when he completely turned his life around. He broke his habit of inactivity and sugar/junk food addiction to live with amazing health, energy, and vitality until the age of 96. That’s one path.
You may be the former athlete whose glory days were in high school, on the football team, dating the cute cheerleaders. Fast forward a few decades of working, raising a family, not exercising, not taking care of yourself, and every beer and piece of junk food starts adding up. Your stomach size increases year after year, your energy lowers with each turning of a calendar page, your motivation and excitement for life drops with each waking moment. That’s another path. You could snap out of this, FYI, and feel better than you did even in high school (let’s talk at the end of the article).
Maybe you’re the cute, skinny girl who never had to work out or watch what she eats. You spent your glory days in your teens and 20s, feeling incredible in a bikini, wearing cropped shirts out to the bar, drinking, living hard, staying out until 2am night after night, having pizza for dinner, fasting in the afternoons, and having coffee and cereal for breakfast. Then your 30s hit. With each passing year, that bikini looks a little less flattering. Eventually it turns into a one piece, the crop top turns to a normal length shirt, your arms start to lose their shape, and your tummy starts protruding a bit. It depresses you deep down, but you ignore it; at least you still look better than most of your friends. By the time your 40s hit, the cute days are over. Energy, motivation, and drive are down. When you have sex, the lights go off. You attribute it to the normal process of aging and call it natural. Enjoy your next 40+ years; they’re going to suck. It didn’t have to be this way, but you gave up on life. You can also snap out of this, FYI, and recapture your youth (let’s talk at the end of the article).
Maybe you’re the person who’s been overweight his or her entire life. You got picked on as a kid, you’ve tried every fad diet or nutrition plan under the sun, and you’ve given up, just accepting that this will always be you. You don’t know what it’s like to feel incredible, have amazing energy, be confident in your clothing, and be the person that you always wished you could be. I know people like this who gave up on life in their early 20s. They eat and drink away each passing year to conceal the pain they feel inside. I feel sorry because they could change it, literally, tomorrow! Not only can you snap out of this, you can feel better than you ever have in your life (let’s talk at the end of the article).
We’re so unique that everyone has his or her own individual story. The above are but a few.
I promise you, if you do not exercise and take care of yourself, you will get old. You will get fat. You will die early. I’m not saying that to scare you. I say it with the same deadpan, apathetic voice I would state, “If you don’t practice playing the piano, you will never get better at it”. It’s a fact.
It will not happen overnight. It will slowly happen year after year, and then you’ll wake up one day, and it will hit you like a Mike Tyson punch/ear bite combo. You’ll wonder how this happened, you’ll panic, and then you’ll have two choices. You can fight to change, or you can do what most people eventually do—just accept it and let a little piece of you die. Year after year, you give in a little bit more. Eventually, you’re a shell of yourself.
Am I using a touch of dramatic flair? Yes and no. I enjoy painting a crisp picture with words, and shocking statements like “Each day is one day closer to dying” are great to grab one’s attention. However, this is all 100% true.
What can you do about it?
Take care of yourself. Exercise, eat healthy, laugh, smile, and stay young. Fight. Fight not just for your body but fight for your life. Think of all the people you know, either younger, the same age, or older than you, who have given up on life. It’s depressing. Being around them is depressing. Watching them give up their vitality is depressing. Let it motivate you—don’t give up!
Anyone can do it. No one is too far gone to make a change and earn a better quality of life, increase his or her energy, slim that tummy down a bit, firm those glutes, tone those arms, and get some more pep in his or her step.
And before the “Can’t you do everything in moderation? What about enjoying life? Not everyone wants to be Mr./Ms. America!” brigade of voices echoes in your head, we’re not talking about that right now (we will address that next week). We’re talking about you staying young, active, fit, and feeling incredible for YOU!
I believe YOU can do it, and I don’t even know who’s reading this right now. That’s because I believe ANYONE can do it if you’re MOTIVATED to DO IT. Do you want to throw in the towel and feel like shit for the remainder of your years, or do you want to fight aging, fight death, and maintain an amazing quality of life from now till kingdom come? The choice is yours, so you have no one to blame this awful life or this incredible life on but yourself.
Taking care of yourself is not a novelty. It is your God-given right to live this life with vigor, energy, and bliss.
If you read this far, I’ll leave you with these words: Do not give up on yourself. You can do this. Do not listen to any negative voices whether they’re coming from others or your own head. The hardest part is making the decision to believe in yourself and taking that first step. If you finished reading this article, and it makes you excited to train tomorrow, have a great nutrition day, and do something loving for yourself and caring for another, you get it.
Next week: moderation. I don’t even want to be Mr. America anymore, but I still have goals!
And I promise, next week will be more uplifting! From the day you’re born, each day is an opportunity to choose happiness.
PS. The picture on the left is giving up on life whilst the picture on the right is enjoying it!
PPS. I realized this past Friday that I don’t have a Jason mask to wear at Fit House on Friday the 13ths. Amazon Prime rectified the problem. Hopefully you’re more amused than Gina is. See you in December! 💪💪🔪🔪
About the author
Chris Rombola
Chris is the owner of Fit House. He's run the training departments at several commercial gyms, and after years of seeing how awful those environments were for his clients, he opened his own studio. He is devoted to getting people strong, lean, and healthy.
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