Is time toxic? Must the human body inevitably decline?
I understand that God intends for all of us to one day pass over the veil and reap our Heavenly reward, however I find it hard to believe that He would create a defective product, designed to fall apart for no other reason than the passing of time. Perhaps the aging process is something we contribute to ourselves.
I’ve heard health and fitness described as a three-legged stool consisting of exercise, nutrition, and rest. If all three legs are sturdy, the stool remains strong. Remove or weaken one leg and the stool topples over. That’s a good analogy, but I would make it a four legged stool with the addition of our emotional/spiritual state.
In fact, you could make a good case that our emotional/spiritual state contributes more to health and fitness than the other three legs combined. Here are some examples I’ve observed:
I worked with a girl in her mid-20’s; very pretty with a wide-eyed curiosity about the world. She got married and I didn’t see her for two years. During that time she went through a devastating divorce. When I next saw her I was shocked at how much she’d aged. She looked 10-15 years older and all of her innocence about the world was gone.
Another girl I worked with, also in her mid-20’s, was extremely attractive, but she wore a perpetual scowl and was always angry, usually about men. She got pregnant and entered into a two-year-long custody battle with the child’s father. A year after that, she was pregnant again, by a different guy, and the same thing happened. Over a four year period, she aged a good 10-12 years. Her bitterness literally aged her.
On the male side, I had two friends, both young men in their thirties and early forties. Each went through a divorce and suddenly they both had gray hair. In two years they were both dead. Another young man I worked with was laid off after a dozen years on the job. Nobody else would hire him and he turned to drugs. He’s dead now, too.
Stress and negative emotions are crippling to the body. Jesus’s advice to forgive your neighbor is actually good for our immune system. So the first leg in our quest for health and fitness is to de-stress, avoid negative people and situations, and practice positive thinking. One of the best ways to do this is to turn to God. Prayer, reading the Bible, reading religious books and material, reading Joan’s biographies of the saints, all of these are beneficial to our health and appearance. And don’t forget humor. Laughter is one of the best stress-busters.
The second leg in the quest for health and fitness is exercise. I’ve been an avid weight-lifter since I was fourteen, but I’ve recently discovered that when the body has to balance an external weight it causes the spine to compress. I’ve found that better and safer results can be obtained through bodyweight exercises, such as push-ups, pull-ups, chin-ups, bodyweight squats, one-legged squats, isometrics, etc. Exercise is an individual thing, so find what works best for you, and adhere to the three “F’s”: Fast, Fun, and eFFective.
Our third leg, nutrition, is also an individual fit. Some people function best as vegetarians, some as carnivores, and others on a mixed diet. The one thing that almost all healthy people, whether meat eaters or vegetarians, have in common is an avoidance of junk food, processed food, and fast food. Next to extreme emotional states, I believe the one factor that causes people to age more than any other is consuming processed foods and drinks. You know what I’m talking about. Basically anything that comes in a wrapper, bag, can, or box. Cereal, soda, beer, cookies, candy, frozen food, fast food (which is all shipped frozen), potato chips, canned food, etc., etc., etc. The chemicals in these items wreak havoc on the skin and immune system.
The fourth leg, rest, seems like it should be the easiest, but in this day and age very few of us are able to get the recommended eight hours of sleep a night. Heck, most of us have trouble getting six hours. I know I do. If you’re in the same boat, do what you can to catch little naps or even just brief moments of quiet time. Listening to classical music is not a substitute for sleep, but it relaxes the body.
By adhering to the four legs of health and fitness — exercise, nutrition, rest, and a positive emotional/spiritual state — there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to maintain a strong, supple, and fully functioning body no matter what our age. Unless, of course, God sends us an illness. But that’s a subject for another time.
