Death, aging, health and fitness......

It has been longer than usual since I last wrote a post.  I noticed that I don’t have the urge to write unless I am in the middle of some emotional experience.  Today as I read about the tornadoes in Missouri, I am reminded of how precarious our lives are.  For those who died, one minute they were alive, with no inkling they would not be alive in the next 60 seconds.  And then a force of nature we cannot comprehend, snuffs out their lives with absolutely no discrimination and for those who survived there is the unbelievable destruction to deal with.  It seems the possibility of death is ever present.  Last week a tractor trailer rig ran me off the road;  if I had lost control I might not be here writing this post.  

I see no point in trying to understand the precarious nature of living.  Walking the ever present tight rope between life and death seems to me to not be understandable.  Life does not come with the ability to look around corners and see our own death coming.  Even when we have a terminal illness and know we are going to die, we don’t see the illness coming.  So I will let the mystery of death remain a mystery.  I accept it as one of those things in life I cannot change and focus on those things I can change.

And what I do have some say about is, who I am after a near death experience, like having a stroke.   And who I am now after that experience is a person who declines to be a victim.  I choose to be responsible for my fitness and health.  I chose to use the experience of the stroke as an opportunity to educate myself about healthy eating and effective exercise to make a difference in the quality of my aging.  I do not accept that there is not much we can do about our aging and that we just have to passively accept what Doctors(the medical priesthood) and the medical industrial complex tell us is or is not possible about our health. I do not accept that drugs are the answer to every ailment.  I do not deny my aging and impending death.  Why deny it?  As far as we know, no one has escaped. 

In my previous post I mentioned losing 23 lbs. as a result of my healthy eating and some exercise.   Then I began to notice some loose skin and some people questioned that I may have lost too much.  Even though I had regained most physical functions lost from the stroke, I had not regained all my strength.  In fact I was far from my original strength and while rehab had been very helpful, it was focused on specific body parts like my left hand and leg plus balance.  After finishing with the formal physical rehab I started doing some exercising on my own but I was not disciplined or organized and I did not have the exercise education necessary to get fast results.  Also, I did not know what was possible given my age(72).  I wondered, is it too late?  Could I completely regain the lost strength at my age?  

Fortunately, I found a program that has helped me not only regain the lost strength but go way beyond what I thought or hoped would be possible.  I now realize there were some things about exercise physiology that I did not know and didn’t know that I didn’t know.  If I don’t know something and know I don’t know that, I can do something about that., For example, I know I can’t fly a plane but I know that I don’t know and could go learn what I don’t know and get trained to fly a plane if I was committed to learning.

The program I discovered is called “7 minute workout” and I have been in a beta test group for 9 weeks.  In 9 weeks, I have doubled and tripled my strength in several areas.  I have regained 6 pounds of muscle as well as gained inches in key muscle areas.  My body fat percentage is down to 12 -14% compared to 18-20% when I started the program.  At the time of the stroke I was at least 25%.  Other people are getting equal or more results.  For example, one member has lost 44 lbs. and many inches in 9 weeks.  And because the loss is happening as a result of the method of exercising we are doing and healthy eating, he is losing all fat and gaining muscle. 

I now have hope and possibilities for the quality of my aging that were not available before this program.  The program will soon be available to people outside the beta test group and I will share more information when the public launch starts.  

For any readers interested, this program runs counter to what most people think is possible in exercising or what is required to get results.  It may require you to let go of some things you think are facts about exercising and be open to what you don’t know and don’t know you don’t know.

I am committed to the possibility of having a fit, healthy and sustainable body to the end.  I invite all to join me in that possibility.  

Stay tuned.

Jimmy Wilson