Unhealthy Living: Can You Really Reverse The Effects?
About a month ago I read the ebook Fit Over 40 by Jon Benson, and Tom Venuto (of BFFM fame). I was inspired. It is the most professionally produced ebook I have seen yet.
I was so inspired I completely rewrote my workout program. One of the stand out stories in the book is the 77 year old female body builder. Indeed the overarching theme of the book is one of anti-aging.
A column in the New York Times pours cold water on this idea. Not the idea of getting fit as you get older - but of reversing years of damage done to your body:
Eating five servings of vegetables and fruit has not been shown to prevent cancer. Melanoma, the deadly skin cancer, occurs whether or not you go out in the sun. Gobbling calcium pills has not been found to prevent osteoporosis. Switching to a low-fat diet in adulthood does not prevent breast cancer.
The article describes how the US has a powerful culture of self-belief -- that no matter how badly you go off course, you can always turn around and fix it. The reality is - there are limits:
...the strongest willed person simply cannot wipe the slate of life clean and begin again. This is true even with lung cancer and smoking. Those who quit may greatly reduce their risk of lung cancer. But they cannot eliminate it.This is true, but the mind can play tricks -- the more you believe you will fail, the more chance you actually will.
At the cardiologist's office, middle-age men, learning that their arteries are starting to clog, swear they'll never eat chips and hamburgers again, and that they will take up jogging. Some do and a small percentage even stick with it. But no amount of exercise or diet change will make the plaque in their arteries disappear.
This article is sobering. What can we learn from this? Don't wait to change your life. Start now. Life should be enjoyed, and lived in abundance - but you can't do it without taking care of your body.
Written By J. Foster
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