A recent article in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/health/12heart.html?bl&ex=1227070800&en=0fd3c2f76367617a&ei=5087%0A) got me thinking. We target the 40-60 crowd here at Body for the Ages. Are we focusing on the wrong group? Don’t children need the help more?
The thing is, we teach our children through our example. If we let it be OK for us to be dangerously overweight, we demonstrate to our children that it’s OK for them too. If we constantly reach for the cookie over the celery, we tell our children it is OK for them too. If we spend every afternoon on the couch, we tell our children that’s OK for them too.
If we die early from heart disease, is that one lesson enough to undo all the others? Maybe. But why bet a child’s life on it?
The great thing about our example is that it works in all directions. If we turn around ourselves, we show our kids that they can do. That’s one of the great things about Pax, he shows that you can come back from nearly being dead to become National Bodybuilding Champion. It’s one of the great things about the President-Elect, he shows that any child can grow up to be president.
And that’s what you got to be for your kids. You got to be the example that anybody can get fit. That anybody can achieve the body of their dreams, and reduce their heart risks in the process.
And we will help you do it. Join us here.
The example I believe is to establish a deep respect for having a body. It may sound silly; however, it seems to me the examples we too often see is simply disrespect for our most important possession, our body and its well being.
What I have learned from the example set by my role model Pax Beal really blows my mind. At the age of 70, I experience what I severely lacked at the age of 40. I have a new energy and joy for life that I had lost in my early 40’s.
The example set by the vast majority of “seniors” is pure nonsense, yet it is so much a part of what we call normal.
After instead, following the example of Pax, I realized the poor examples of “You get old, thus you must slow down and take it easy etc. to be completely ridiculous.
That is why I am most grateful to have read Pax’s book, which naturally motivated me to want to meet him. His example is awesome, for you soon realize he is more youthful and stronger than most young people.
It is his example that really changed my thinking. I saw him work out and realized he made me look older than he, when chronologically I was younger.
So I got more and more into working out with a serious, if you will, attitude. And what my body is giving me back is a joy beyond words. If I knew at 40 what I know now, how different my life would have been.
Still, it is never too late. We can wake up and realize we haven’t realized near our potential. And through the wisdom demonstrated by Pax, we all can discover something that is precious beyond description.
Fitness is the foundation for a better life and as I’m discovering an ageless endeavor. I’m still in disbelief when I think about the date on my birth certificate and see those my age and younger plagued with health issues …and compare that to the joyous time I spend in the gym etc.
It seems to be something “they” keep a secret. I still can’t understand why “they” don’t get it. And, it as the article points out …this must come from the examples we saw at an age when we were not responsible for our thoughts. And from the poor example of others we admired, we formed the wrong thinking.
May we all now be better examples for our youth. I was fortunate to have had a mentor in my early teens. He told me it was important to develop interests that can be sustained in our later life.
Fitness is certainly a key interest to help keep our youthfulness well into our future. I personally believe in what many advanced thinkers are now saying. We can live full and productive lives well beyond what we now think possible. For starters, some physicians have told me the body was meant to live 140 years.
Now, some feel actually living hundreds of years is possible. It is a matter of better dealing with what become burdens. If we learn to handle life’s events so they do not burden us, we might just live longer.
And the precursor to that is keeping fit.
Comment by Gordon Bell — December 28, 2008 @ 4:33 am