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One of my favorite quotes comes from the series Dune by Frank Herbert.  It says: “There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man—with human flesh.”   This is totally true and not just about fathers.  I’m totally beginning to think that I’m not really immortal any more.  I’m pretty out of shape right now and I definitely don’t have great eating habits.  Not to mention, I’m getting old!  It scares me to think that this could be the best shape I’ll be in in my entire life.  Its all down hill from here.

I started thinking about this more after reading an article in Time.  Yes I sometimes read and yes I have a subscription to Time.  For those of you that know me, Time magazine has strong differing views on politics but I think its good to get information from both sides.  It was basically about things you should be doing to stay healthy and keep medical costs down.  The article in the print edition was a nice read but the article on their site is broken up into like 37 pages!  I really hate when sites do this.  There is no length constraint inside the browser so stop breaking things into pages!  The story of A User’s Guide To Good Health At Every Age starts here. but the relevant portion for my age group is here.

The section on diet could not be more opposite than what I really eat half the time.  I stick to a lot of processed food and my buddy Jorin has once commented that I won’t eat it unless it comes in a wrapper.  Definitely not good.  I think I’ve come a long way since that comment was first made and the fact that I am not over 300lbs anymore is testament to that fact.  I’m trying to broaden my tastes to include things I normally never eat such as asparagus, spinach, and other single ingredient foods as it mentions in the article.  Most of them are not half as bad as I remember.  But its hard to limit portions and snack on healthy food when everything on the market has been scientifically designed and marketed to taste better than what i should be eating.  If a big stack of celery tasted as good as chips and could be found in a vending machine, maybe we wouldn’t have this obesity problem in our country.

Exercise is another story.  I’m trying to actually exercise a little now.  I did a 5k on Saturday in St. Louis at the race for the cure.  It was definitely fun and I’d love to do another some time.  Doing just a 5k isn’t really enough though.  HHS, recommends getting 2 1⁄2 to five hours of moderate cardio, or 75 minutes to 2 1⁄2 hours of intense cardio, each week, plus weight training twice a week.  How many of us even get 30 minutes of moderate cardio a week?  I know for a long time I wasn’t.  Everyone says they don’t have time in their busy schedules but you can ask that same person what happened on their favorite TV show every week.  Its all about just making the decision to do it.  If you can find time for TV, you can find time for this.

I began thinking about all of this because I actually scheduled a checkup with my doctor today.  I haven’t been to the doctor in quite some time and I normally only go after I’ve done something stupid like give myself 3rd degree burns or impale my hand with a screwdriver.  When I called to setup the appointment the lady asked me how old I was and then immediately asked me if I’ve ever gotten my cholesterol checked.  This is it man.  I am getting old.  I guess part of me wants to do all that I can to stay ahead on this stuff and actually get myself into the best shape I’ve ever been.  I just hope its enough to overpower my general laziness about life.

I guess all I’m saying is that we are getting old.  If you have health insurance its time to start using it.  I guarantee your co-pay will be way less than the bill when something goes terribly wrong.  Besides, its not like medical professionals just come to you about this stuff.

If only things worked like this...