YOURNEXLIFE | NUTRITION-EXERCISE-LIFESTYLE | The “fifty-something” story

Aug 26, 2020 | Health & Wellness

YOURNEXLIFE

NUTRITION- EXERCISE-LIFESTYLE

The “fifty-something” story

You hear the school bell ring and looked around the class. Everyone around you started collecting their books about to leave for the next class. For some reason, the school bell was extremely irritating and rang nonstop.

With a startle, you wake up and realize that it was not the school bell, but your alarm clock. You were also not 17 years old anymore – but 50 something. Your newfound reality has brought about pains in your back, neck, shoulders, hips, and knees. These are only a few of the discomforts that makes getting out of bed in the morning evoke images of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

So you have now summoned the motivation to get yourself out of bed. You move closer to the edge of the bed on your elbows and legs, swinging your legs over the side and then perform the final manoeuvre of rolling out of bed onto your feet. From here, there is a systematic unwinding process resembling all stages of the evolution of man. Finally, you make it to Homo sapiens – Just to realize you have to now bend over again to put on shorts. Several obstacles present themselves, making this seemingly simple task a little more challenging. The biggest of which – and I will give you a clue – is the reason you haven’t seen your feet for a while. This discomfort extends past simply getting out of bed – sometimes revealing itself as underperformance during other bed-time activities.

If you can identify with this image, you have officially joined the ranks of the ‘50 something club’. Unfortunately for many men, from here on, it is a slippery slope of gradual – or in some cases rapid – decline in health, mobility, and an increasingly poor quality of life.

This is ironic once you consider how hard you have worked your entire life – raising and educating your children, building your empire and now entering that phase of your life where you have the desire and means to do the things that you have always wanted to do, but didn’t have the time or financial means to do so; only to now find yourself confined to an unhealthy body. You find that your primary means of transportation – your body – is no longer quite capable of getting you to your destination.

Although I chose to start my ‘fifty-something story’ with a hint of humour, the following statistics are unfortunately much more sobering.

Central obesity/abdominal fat mass

Central obesity is an excess accumulation of fat in the abdominal area, particularly due to excess visceral fat. As visceral fat is supplied by the portal blood system, excess fat in this area can lead to the release of fatty deposits into the bloodstream. The fatty build-up in the blood is responsible for the majority of negative health consequences associated with obesity, such as:

 

Waist circumference cut-off levels

As a general guide, increased obesity-related health risks are associated with a WC greater or equal to 94 cm in men and 80 cm in women. If a man has a WC greater than 102 cm, he is at a substantially increased risk, as are females with a WC greater than 88 cm. A WC greater than 120 cm for men and 110 cm for women puts these individuals at extremely high danger for obesity-related health issues.

“All in all, obesity is a killer; in fact, obesity and lack of exercise are responsible for about 1,000 American deaths each day, and if present trends continue, they will soon overtake smoking as the leading preventable causes of death in the U.S.”

So what to do? Do I accept my fate or could my “fifty-something story” have a happy ending?

I believe the way we age has a lot to do with our sedentary lifestyle, poor nutrition in the form of over-processed instant meals, and our inability to cope with high levels of stress.

But there is good news. I believe that it is possible to enjoy a wonderful quality of life going into your twilight years.

I will tell you how to achieve this. And although I may sound like a typical snake oil salesman. I am not going to sell you a diet, miracle pills that promise to rid you of fat, slimming injections, or bariatric surgeries that radically alter your anatomy. These solutions are almost always ineffective, expensive, and unsustainable – and often only help your local medical practitioner in adding extensions to his penthouse in Sandton.

But jokes aside – How do we take control of our health, so that we can grow old gracefully and enjoy the fruits of our lifelong labor in the company of our loved ones?

I know I have been setting you up and you are now waiting for the quick fix that will help you to melt away your excess fat and return you to excellent health in no time.

So in order not to disappoint you, that is exactly what I am going to do.

5 Simple Steps to YOURNEXLIFE

  • Join our 90-day weight loss challenge. Complete a full lifestyle and health assessment to determine the nature of your problem.
  • Knowledge is power. Together we can ascertain your current state of health.
  • Develop an individualized plan to improve overall health, wellness, and sustainable weight loss if applicable.
  • Together, we will help you commit to lifestyle changes (learn to stop doing the same things and expect different results).
  • A weekly Support program to measure your progress (in the form of two 60 min sessions weekly with our Biokineticist and one session with our dietitian every 30 days).

 

You hear the school bell ring and looked around the class. Everyone around you started collecting their books about to leave for the next class. For some reason, the school bell was extremely irritating and rang nonstop.

With a startle, you wake up and realize that it was not the school bell, but your alarm clock. You were also not 17 years old anymore – but 50 something.

You throw the covers back and get out of bed effortlessly. You look down to see your feet without any obstructions – and next to you, you hear your wife asking you to come back to bed.

 

Written by Dolf Du Plessis

Health and wellness coach

YOURNEXLIFE