Fitness for an Ageless Lifestyle

My fitness journey for an ageless lifestyle began one cold, winters morning as I was struggling to get out of bed. I thought to myself I am nearly 40, how am I going to endure another 40 years of this.! My back was stiff, my body was all puffy, I felt like someone twice my age! Ok maybe that’s an exaggeration, say just 2 decades older! However, I did not feel good! I don’t want to feel like this for the rest of my life.

I blamed the excess weight that had accumulated from having 2 kids, but truly they were 8 and 11 then. Plenty of time for me to have got my “sh*t” together and done something about it. However, I struggled from exhaustion and  afternoon slumps. Everywhere I turned, magazines, social media, etc. the message was the same, I need to move more. If anyone told me you need to exercise and that it will give you energy, it went over my head.

Why we all need to exercise?

As I read more and more, alarm bells started to ring. From the age of 30 our muscle mass and strength start to naturally decrease. I don’t want to grow weak and frail and not be able to enjoy life at a later age. In my retirement years I want to still be able to travel and explore new places.

As we age, fitness becomes more of a priority. We experience changes in our body which inhibits our movements, we notice more fat settling in parts of the body that didn’t before and we take a bit longer to recover from small injuries . However you can reverse this by strengthening your body, by building up muscle, bone and core strength so that it can support your body well. Exercise! Exercise! Exercise!

Our bodies are designed to move. Lack of physical activity is a major cause of chronic diseases and decreases the number and quality years of life. Therefore exercising have anti-aging benefits and even improve longevity.

Other Benefits of Exercise

If that isn’t enough to get you off your couch other benefits of exercise include improvement to mental health and wellbeing.

Many over 40 year olds complain of stress. Exercise is a great way to relieve stress, because a workout releases dopamine and endorphins, which elevates your mood. So not only is it a positive way to get your frustration out it releases these happy hormones making you feel better. When you feel happier your confidence improves, the more positive you feel.

Exercise is also good for brain health. It promotes growth factors in the brain and improves your memory and thinking. It also improves your focus and reaction time.

An added bonus is that exercise is known to give your sex drive a boost…….

My Why?

So it was 10 years ago that I started exercising. Initially I wanted to do it to lose some excess pounds, however the other benefits gave me more of an incentive. I don’t want to be a burden to anyone later in life, I want to be independent, be able to go out, do my own shopping, take care of myself day to day and live agelessly.

Keep it simple

Getting started is always the hardest. However, do not complicate it. Keep it simple or it will overwhelm you and have a negative effect. To start with, the best exercise for you, is the one that you will do consistently every day. I believe it doesn’t matter what type of exercise you do, as long as you do something and make it a habit.  Try and choose something you enjoy, if exercise is not your thing then start with a simple move. Here’s a few easy steps to get you started if you haven’t done any exercise for a while.

• Set your timer for 5 mins, or use a clock.
• Now put your favourite music on, something a little upbeat. Or do it while watching your favourite soap or netflix.
• Now start marching on the spot and use your arms. As this gets easier, either pick up speed or start lifting your knees higher.

The important thing is is to take action. If you do this consistently every day for 7, 14 or 21 days, you are already doing something good for your health.

Just remember that once things start feeling comfortable you need to up your game. It means you are getting stronger, you need to challenge yourself a little, not too much, just enough to keep you interested.

I will delve into the type of exercises in a later post. Meanwhile, if you need inspiration, go to YouTube. There’s lots of inspiration there whatever level you are, and it’s all free.

Eat right

I can’t stress enough the importance of nutrition. What I ate determined how I felt. Basically if I ate crap or junk food, I would feel rubbish. It didn’t matter how good my workout of the day was, I still didn’t feel 100%. So I knew I had to pair good nutrition with a consistent workout routine to reap the optimum results. Read my previous post on “What to Eat and What Not to Eat”

To summarise

In order to stay healthy and fit as we enter our later years, we must all incorporate some sort of exercise into our daily routine, whether it’s walking, jogging, swimming, yoga, a gym workout or a home workout. Exercise makes our body physically stronger and is good for brain health. It promotes longevity and anti ageing benefits.

For optimum results, pair good nutrition with fitness for an Ageless lifestyle and you will become unstoppable!

As always

Living Agelessly

Kath