The Battle Between Age and Fitness

Sorry to leave you guys hanging for a couple days! Now that we're about a week into our fitness resolutions, I figured you might need a little encouragement and a reminder to stick with your goals, no matter what. Soooooo.....


Today I have the distinct pleasure of introducing you to my good friend, Adam. I met Adam in March of 2010 while galavanting with two girlfriends around Europe. In fact, we met Adam on our very first night there- He was sharing a room with us in the hostel we'd booked. Some of my best memories of that trip include Adam showing us around La Ville-Lumiere and toasting to new friends (better yet, good friends!) in quaint little cafes. 
We would've never had the same first night experience without Adam and I'm so glad we've stayed in touch since then. Adam is now residing back in his home country of Australia, busy starting his own company and, of course, writing (he is a superb writer, as you will soon see for yourself). So without further adieu, I present to you: "The Battle Between Age and Fitness" by Lindsay (Adam) Gordon. Enjoy.


                            The Battle Between Age and Fitness 
                                                         Lindsay A. Gordon

Those of us in our advancing years are fallen, or at least falling, and age has wearied us. We, the zombifying masses, wake later, sleep less well, eat more, and exercise less. The Battle of the Bulge for us is no noble endeavour or act of bravery but a 40 year war with the scales annually weighted further against us. The fight has gone out of us and each diet and exercise challenge is reminiscent of Browning's "bridge too far".


So, how to fight this new war? Where we awoke one morn' and the battlefield has totally shifted? No longer the young fawn full of energy with a bottomless stomach, but an old slow buck who is tired and must watch every mouthful. As if the physical malaise was not enough, we are also in the peak of our stress (a'hem I mean careers) and food acts as an anti-stress drug that is just barely effective enough for us to continue to think it is a good idea. Mentally we become locked into certain (bad) habits and find our thoughts less maleable to our will - so we can't make ourselves fit for the sake of it. But we are wise enough to see through lots of 'otherwise really promising' carrot and stick schemes to get into shape.

Young Fawn

Old Buck

I think we can look to our friends, like the La Femme FIT-alle blog, to make the difference in our lives. At our age we have cultivated these wonderful human connections, and our eyes are open to the truly meaningful things in life, like friendship. How much easier is it to go to the gym or take a run with a friend? Suddenly that which was a chore becomes fun, and before you have finished chatting you've already jogged 1K! Our friends can tell us things we can't tell ourselves, and they can see things we cannot see in ourselves. This is an advantage of a cornerstone not to be missed!


The strengths of our youth were our vigour, ceding endless activities to play. And as we grow increasingly habitual, connected, appreciative, and knowledgable with each passing year perhaps we turn to these as our new strengths. Consider, have our friends taught us new habits and does it work the other way around?

So start appreciating a healthy diet and those delectable tastes of fresh fruit and veg that we know not to be purchased from the hybrid supermarket but from a market garden / our own backyard. And use your wisdom to come up with a sensible plan that will actually stick. Know that we need to start TODAY because TOMORROW never comes.

Yours in(spiration) friendship,
Lindsay A Gordon