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Health & Fitness

Retirement Planning of the Most Important Kind

Mention retirement planning to anyone over the age of forty and you will enter a discussion that revolves around finance and geography.  People will tell you about their 401k or the health of their pension plan.  They might also talk over plans to sell their home and move to another place that offers more comfort or more affordable living.  Rarely, if ever, will a person discuss with you the steps they are taking to ensure that they are strong, fit and vital in their golden years.  It appears that most people make the very unrealistic assumption that they don’t need to do much to take care of their health beyond getting their annual check-up and taking the medicines that the doctor prescribes.  I will state categorically that relying on your medical doctor and a sedentary lifestyle to bring you through your retirement years in a condition to fully enjoy them is a mistake.

The truth is, that the typical American diet of processed and fast foods combined with little or no exercise is a foolproof formula for obesity, metabolic syndrome , cardiovascular disease and any number of degenerative diseases that go along with those conditions.  It’s as sure a bet as any that unless you are exercising regularly and eating a diet primarily consisting of fresh whole foods cooked at home, you are already on the path to decrepitude.  Don’t believe me? Take this challenge: volunteer for one week at any nursing home and count the number of people in their sixties, early seventies and even their late fifties who are living in these facilities and will be for the rest of their lives.  They completely dependent on round the clock nursing care due to the diseases of lifestyle (obesity, smoking and alcohol). If you’re paying attention you will be scared straight, of that I am sure.

These are the years that people should be enjoying the rewards of a fruitful, industrious youth, not sitting in a wheelchair waiting to be taken to the rec room for bingo.  The shame of it is that it is easier than ever to maintain a fit healthy body with regular exercise.  The breakthroughs in exercise design and technology that have occurred over the past 20 years have allowed exercise professionals to create programs that achieve maximum results with minimum time investment. In our business, my wife and I train people with 40 minute sessions 3 days a week.  That’s it. That’s all they need.  Within 6 weeks (that’s 18 total hours of time invested – including travel) our members are seeing massive change.  As their clothing sizes drop, their energy levels, strength and endurance skyrocket.  It’s that simple and since we teach a group training format, it is extremely affordable.  These programs are popping up all over the country.  It has never been easier to stay fit.

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The most important thing to understand is: it is never too early and it is never too late to make a change to improve your health. Volumes of research show that even into the eighties and nineties, people can get stronger and build muscle with exercise. And if you start young and continue to exercise through your forties and fifties you will not suffer the slow, inexorable decline that you probably watched your parents take.  I for one do not intend to go quietly into the night.  My wife and I plan to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro when we hit age seventy.  We would love to have you join us.  So, start now.  Make the commitment.  Make the change.  Six weeks from now you’ll be happy you did.

Peter G. Roy, DC, CFT

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