I had the privilege of turning 40 this weekend.
As I thought about that it made me think of some of my family history. Which from a health standpoint hasn’t exactly been ideal, particularly on my dad’s side of the family. His parents died around 50. His sister was under 50. His brother was under 40.
And so 40 is certainly a privilege for me.
This past week I was having an email exchange with a member, someone who has continued a high level of fitness throughout the course of his life – from coming to the gym consistently three days a week to playing soccer to maintaining his health outside of the gym. In his response to a comment I made to him he said:
I am proud to be able to do things that most my age have given up on or never try. The things you said lead me to the conclusion that all of us that see one another regularly (at) CFND (and) support, motivate, and yes, inspire each other to work hard and keep at it. I personally am driven to improve by (the coaches). The competitive part of me drives me when seeing the performances of those more accomplished around me. But, another kind of drive comes from being amongst a group that is dedicated to a healthy lifestyle that just show up day in and day out.
Seeing this group, working side by side, rooting others on, and having others encouraging me to push myself is, to use that word again, inspiring. This has even more importance during these times and circumstances in which we have to live.
I’ve thought a lot about that sentence I italicized. So often life is about just showing up, day in and day out. It’s not always about PRs and leaderboards and whether you got a pull up (although, I definitely enjoy those and they do help in showing progress). But what I ultimately want is to be dedicated to a healthy lifestyle. For me that means taking care of what I eat and drink and how I exercise, day in and day out. At times that has meant hiring people to hold me accountable (like Jess our registered dietitian) or paying for programming that I know I will do if I am paying for it. Let me tell you, owning a gym doesn’t make those things come easy. Health has to be day in and day out work.
And for me, having health for as long as I am able to have it doing the things I can control is certainly worth it to be here for my wife, my kids even my dog.
May we all dedicate ourselves to a health lifestyle, day in and day out. And if you need help in figuring out the how – just ask.