Today is my birthday…the last in my 40’s. I’m laying in bed having woken up several hours too early. I was not awakened by the childlike anticipation of celebrating today. I was not awakened from excitement about what fun activities may lie ahead. I was awakened by my bladder…for the second time! I have to go to the bathroom…again. What’s my birthday wish? I wish I could sleep through eight hours without having to go to the bathroom!
This kind of thing happens more and more often now. It’s not the yummy birthday cake or parties with friends reminding me that I’m getting older, it’s my body. Sometimes they are sweet reminders like the little wrinkles at the corners of my eyes that I assume are from the many years of smiling and laughing, especially since marrying my husband whose British sense of humor makes me laugh all the time.
Or maybe those wrinkles are from years of squinting because I never wore hats or sunglasses while lathering up with baby oil and roasting out in the blazing sun to pursue that perfect tan? Hmmm…I’m just gonna go with the smiling and laughing.
Anyways, those aging reminders pale in comparison to some of the other ones I’m now experiencing. Like when I jump in the car and take the ten minute drive to the grocery store. I pull in my parking space and as I attempt to exit my vehicle, the realization hits me that the ten minute drive obviously must have been through a time portal because why else would I be so stiff that I feel like I’ve been riding a horse at a full gallop through a snowy mountain pass for hours instead of just sitting quietly in my comfy car occasionally moving my foot to operate the brake or gas pedal?
And the walk…oh my…those first few steps while I’m trying to work out the kinks and get back to my normal gait before I enter the store. It’s like a scene from Seinfeld when Elaine starts dancing at a party and everyone just stops and stares because really she’s just kicking out wildly and jerking around like she’s in the middle of an epileptic fit. That’s what I must look like trying to work out what seems like undeserved stiffness.
But I guess I do deserve it. 49 years on this planet and I’ve done a lot with and to this body. It’s carried me through my innocent childhood escapades of non stop running, jumping, and tumbling that I was sure would never end. It’s carried me through my teens and twenties when I abused it with hardcore athletics, little sleep, lots of fast food, some cigarettes and more than enough alcohol. In my thirties, it carried me through less athletics but still little sleep and much more stress from the everyday pressures of official adulthood. And now, in the last year of my forties, I realize it’s carried me through almost a decade of comfort and contentment…happily married and enjoying our lives, lots of outdoor activity but not the mountain climbing kind…more like gardening and leisurely bike rides. It’s carried me around the world on elephant back safari in Africa and swimming with sea lions in the Galápagos Islands. Most recently it’s carried me through a month of luxury cruising through Europe complete with three multi-course meals per day and culminated in me catching a nasty cold on the plane ride home that put me in bed for more than a week. Three weeks later and the cough still lingers.
So it’s time. My body has taken care of me for almost fifty years and now it’s time that I focus more on taking care of it. So I’m devoting this last year of my forties to starting that journey, the journey to better wellness.
I have chosen to partner with the Strata International Wellness Center at the Garden of the Gods Resort and Club in Colorado Springs. Their integrated approach to health and wellness has already changed the lives of so many. I’m looking forward to their guidance and leadership in managing my health and wellness for the next 50 years.
Over the next year, follow along with me as I strive to be Fitter at Fifty. I’m not setting a weight goal or anything like that. I’m just striving to make improvements in all areas of my health and wellness from preventing sickness, better nutrition, stronger body, more flexibility, taking care of my skin, and finding fun ways to ensure that I can live another fifty years in health and wellness.
Each posting will feature new information I have learned and a treatment or activity that I have personally experienced with the leadership and guidance of Strata Integrated Wellness Spa. I will also feature inspiring stories of others whose lives have been changed through their work.
I hope you will check back next time when I feature the Myer’s Vitamin Cocktail IV Therapy…perfect to help me get over this cold and prepare my immune system for more plane travel!
Until then, I’m Poppy Potter trying to get Fitter by Fifty!
