A Path To Fitness

A man in his 50’s starts to think differently about wellness, at least THIS man does.  Body parts tend to creak a bit, soreness lingers and it takes longer to recover when I do exert myself.  Sometimes these things happen even without the exertion.  There’s also the ever present concern about injury or sickness, amplified by the barrage of ‘News’ surrounding healthcare costs and providers.

Don’t misunderstand, I’m probably in better than average condition.  (To my friends:  I have a perfectly good fantasy going here, so don’t mess it up for me.)  Last year I spent lots of weekend time doing remodeling of a cabin at Silver Lake.  Working at above 7000 feet elevation tells a lot about your wind and endurance.  And it wasn’t all work.  Hiking  with friends and family and going fishing with my dog (miss you Darla, every day) helped bolster my self-image as being energetic and capable.  Still, I’ve had to buy pants to accommodate an expanding girth and that guy in the mirror had an increasingly pear shape in the midriff area.

Then there’s my Mom, of all people, providing leadership over the Holidays.  During her visit from Wisconsin the plan was for her to be able to walk several times a day.  After all this is California, the land of sunshine.  Of course THIS year we had non-stop rain, so Mom decided to get on our treadmill.  While at the start she could only last a minute or so, by the end of the 3 weeks she was walking over five minutes and several times a day.  (After returning home she got her own treadmill and has kept up the program. Go Granny Go!)  If Mom can do it could I possibly have anything stopping me?

Lois at home on her new treadmill.

So at the beginning of the year I started my own program, commencing with the treadmill six days a week and using a pre-programmed ‘weight loss’ routine lasting about 20 minutes.  Adding some small hand weights increased the intensity and worked the upper body too.  After a week or so I grabbed a Mens Health magazine featuring several programs for ‘fat stripping’ and some other exercises and commenced a repeating 3 day (their A and B Loops and my own ‘Swedish Ball’ workout as the third day) cycle.  Approaching the end of three month the results are a drop of over 10 pounds and having to take in a notch in my belt to keep my britches from falling down.  Yay.

One thing I do know from prior workout experience is that you have to change the routine up periodically or your body simply adjusts and you don’t get the bang for your exeercising buck.  My girlfriend enrolled in a kick-boxing program at a local self-defense club and mentioned they had Ultimate Body Challenge series starting up soon.  Leslie has had great results and heaps praise on the club and the instructors, so it seemed worth checking out…