It’s Not the Best Look at 50

It’s all paid for

I’ll be honest with you that’s not me in the picture but as I approached my 49th birthday I wasn’t far off it. I think this picture clearly illustrates what was becoming a common vision of what most men in their 50’s represented to me at the time. I remember attending a reunion with many of my former forces colleagues and friends, looking around the room it was at that moment I thought is that what I look like. As we downed pint after pint, some holding their bloated stomachs, boasting “never mind it’s all paid for“, in some sort of badge of honour, bragging rights contest. When I told them I was training for the London Marathon many suggested that I was just crazy, quoting we don’t have to do that fitness shit any more you must be mad.

Why is that so many of us who have had an active lifestyle, were fitness and general well being was part of the daily routine, in affect, part of the day job. Who when it all ends and that career is over, seem to rebel against it. I’m not just referring to ex military here, but just take a look at former top flight sportsmen who have quite literally piled on the pounds. It’s as if we accept it as part of getting older. Well this was not for me, it was at that time I decided that I wasn’t just training for the London Marathon, I was going to continue training, “Fit and still training” FAST at 50. More to the point fit and still training after 50 was my immediate goal.

How do you measure up?

Before I started on my personal journey I was indeed overweight, just before my 50th I was called to the doctors for a routine check up. Although at the time I was a few months into my training for the London Marathon I was still deemed as overweight for my size. Not only that I was on the danger line of very high cholesterol. Although I thought my 35″ waistline was quite good and the fact that my 13.1/2 stone that’s 189 lbs in old money or 85.7 kg, I didn’t really consider myself as being overweight. I could still manage an average of 11 min miles on the treadmill, so I thought I was doing OK. Until the doc told me that I was over 3.1/2 stone overweight for someone my size and build but that my high cholesterol was the main concern. Despite changing my exercise routine what I failed to do was focus more on my food intake, basically I was still eating crap… all the wrong stuff… and at the wrong time. It’s was time to juice things up a bit.

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