Do you think of your body the way you think of your car? When a few lucky individuals purchase a top of the range car that has some of the best automotive engineering available today, watch them read the maintenance manuals cover to cover.

They take their car for inspection even when it purrs like a kitten and take it for checking as soon as something does not feel right. And they’re very worried.

That car is their most prized possession, a mark of all the long and hard hours they put on the job so they could finally acquire it. It cost an arm and a leg, so taking care of it is logically, their # 1 priority.

But how important is the person that drives that car? Shouldn’t that person – shouldn’t YOU – be the #1 priority?

The average lifespan of men and women is 80 years, give or take a few years. The painful truth is, a significant number of men and women look and feel 80 long before they even make it to the first half of their life! You can spot the give away signs from their physical appearance:

* sagging dry skin
* bad posture
* uneven and unsteady walk (they need to drag around those extra pounds)
* sore joints
* displaying the “I’m not happy because I look terrible” look

Now, if their outward appearance is this awful, just think what the inside is like! Most likely, it’s even worse:

* clogged vessels
* inefficient heart
* mounds of fat parked in or around vital organs
* Conditions such as diabetes, nervous tension, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease that are silently developing.

If fitness organizations had it their way, they’d introduce legislation to make exercise mandatory as soon as a baby leaves the cradle, not during the teenage years when obesity is likely to strike.

But fitness must not be associated with any age limit. You can commence at 7 or at 27 – even at 50 and 60 – the idea being that fitness should not be seen as the solution for an ailment that’s already come about. As the saying goes, don’t wait for illness to strike.

Brad King and Dr. Michael Schmidt in “Bio Age, Ten Steps to a Younger You” (Macmillan, Canada, 2001) created a questionnaire for assessing physical damage to a body as a result of no exercise. Some of their guidelines include:

Begin with the question, “How do I look?” Do any of these apply to you?
* Am I overweight, pear or apple shaped?
* Do I have a spare tire around my waist?
* Has my skin become very dry, almost paper-thin?

Next, ask: “How do I feel?”
Do my joints hurt before or after any physical exercise?
* Am I continually anxious and worried?
* Do I feel tired and sluggish most of the time?
* Do I suffer from mood swings?

Finally, “How am I doing?”
* Are simple walking and climbing stairs difficult?
* Do I have difficulties concentrating?
* Is running impossible for me now?
* Am I unable to sit in a good posture, preferring to slouch or stoop my shoulders?1

You’ve finished your basic assessment. Note, however, that other exercise or fitness gurus will have developed their own parameters or indices for assessing your body’s overall state and one isn’t better than the other.

As long as they include all dimensions of the self – physical, psychological and mental – they are as valid as the next person’s assessment charts.

Now you need to develop your very own ACTION PLAN.

References: 1 Brad J. King & Dr. Michael A. Schmidt. Bio Age – Ten Steps to a Younger You. Macmillan, Canada. 2001.

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