Whether in public service or private service, most people would agree that being healthy is important. Yet few people realize how unhealthy they are. Perhaps, put differently, most are not as fit nor as healthy as they think they are.
I won't attempt to go deep down a rabbit hole on this. And, I will use myself as an example.
Good, bad, or otherwise, when I stopped working overseas in the first quarter of 2015 I began a slow but relatively steady decline, unnoticed by me, in my exercise regimen, my eating and my sleep habits. I also began drinking more.
There were times when I thought I noticed the decline but told myself things like, "Bah, that's not so bad". Or, "Hem, still pretty good considering…"
Fortunately, a guy I've come to know, a veteran himself, noticed the decline the first time we met. He was "gentle" about the first time we met. Not so gentle the second time. "Scott," he said, "you got to get back into fighting fit. Not fit, fighting for." Yeah, yeah, I said to myself.
One day (or evening), I took a good, hard look at myself, my shape, in the mirror. Over the course of the next few weeks, that view in the mirror was confirmed by reflections in Windows and "unauthorized" photographs. Holy s--t! WTF?! What happened to me?! No wonder my knees and lower back were consistently experiencing pain. Well...that spurred me into action.
For me, it went something like this. I increased the frequency of my workouts. I increased the intensity of my workouts. I varied my workout routines. I ate more "pure" protein foods. I reduced, even more so now, the consumption of solids and liquids which contain high amounts of anything not healthy, increasing the consumption of items that are healthy -- and not just because the pretty packaging says so.
Meats -- beef, fish, Chicken, Turkey, at cetera. Vegetables and fruits -- preferably "fresh". Milk. Occasionally, peanut butter, more occasionally synthesized protein. Pasta. Mmm, love that pasta (my favorite, spaghetti with ground beef). Very little soda pop. Reduced My consumption of alcohol (for me, by a lot).
I still consume prepared and pre-packaged foods, but at substantially reduced levels.
I drink more water. And I rarely eat a sweet. When I am not actively working or engaged in physical activities I make it a point to get outside and busy myself with something, anything. Usually it's some form of exercise. But physical activity of some sort.
I reckoned, if there are 24-hours in a day, and I only need between four and six hours of restful sleep per day then I have a lot of time to fill every day with physical activity.
I have have periods on my life when I was at peak physical fitness. Perhaps my most accomplished level of peak fitness was when I was in the State Department's WPS training program. After I returned, having not seen myself more than the neck up, I quite literally did not recognize myself the first time I saw myself back at home when I glanced in a bathroom mirror. The only reason I thought I knew who I was is because I stared at the face in the mirror for at least one minute convincing me that that was me. That is the level I am currently striving to achieve amd retain. I know how. Now, I just need to do it.
As I am not one given to excuses, I rarely, if ever (I like to say if ever but I am human), allow external sources to dissuade me from accomplishing whatever it is I have set out to do or to do what I said I will do. To be sure, I am far from perfect. I am human. I "stumble".
As of this writing, I am well on my way towards accomplishing this goal -- and retaining it. At the end of this year, I will be age sixty (60). I may not look it. I certainly do no not feel it.
I jokingly tell people, when it comes up in conversation, that I plan on living for ever. I won't. But, as the saying goes, as advertised by Nissan in the 1990's, "Life's a journey. Enjoy the ride."