Realizing My Body Is A Rental

As I got older in years and wiser in wisdom I made a decision regarding my physical fitness.  I was used to seeing men aged 50 and up with a rotund belly and obviously over weight.  I decided that I did not want to achieve that look.  Unfortunately the benefits of eating whatever you want as you get older means increased weight and a change in the proportions of your body.  I did not want those "benefits".  That meant that with being less active than when I was younger, I would need to exercise more and modify my diet.

I also realized that my body more or less is a rental.  Eventually I would need to give it back to something called "death".  In that journey towards death, what we put into our bodies and how we treat our body can play a large part in how long our bodies will maintain top condition. I decided to maintain my rental vehicle in the best condition I could for as long as the parts held out.  What that means is monitoring my intake of all the sweets I loved in my younger years.  Cakes, cookies, donuts, brownies would now have to be eaten in moderation and not as often as I had in the past.  That also meant exercising regularly and longer.  For someone in their late 50s this was not what I thought I would be doing as I got older.

I had been jogging 2 miles about 3-4 times a week.  I increased my mileage to at least a 5k, 3.1 miles 3-5 times a week.  I also joined a nearby gym to work on the weights in the gym.  I also decreased my meal portion size.  I wasn't too focused on portion sizes in the past.  But, I realized that piling food on my plate wasn't necessary.  I started decreasing my plate portions.  I also began to make natural fruit smoothies as my dessert and sometime as my breakfast or lunch.

I soon noticed that along with my increased running and activity I began to lose some weight.  I lost approximately 15 pounds.  I realized that the more active I am the more weight I can lose or keep off.  Health issues I had before went away.  It seems the less weight your body has to carry the better off  your body may be.

In this day and age, technology allows for body parts to be replaced.  Hip, knee, and artificial limbs have been created when those body parts are lost or wear out.  That's one way to deal with a body issue.  Me, as long as I can I want to maintain all of my original parts!  I view my body as a gift.  It's up to me to take care of the gift and to maintain it.  So, I see it as a rental. I have my rental contract which has a "to be determined" expiration date.  It's up to me to do all the maintenance and repairs.

I continue my journey knowing that my contract could be broken by accidents or other events.  But until then I'm trying to do my part to maintain my rental.