Don't He Look Nice?

Birthdays are not what they used to be. Somewhere along the timeline of life they get less important.

I turned 52 on Wednesday.

But I am doing things I have never done in my life.

A few months ago I decided I better start doing something different. I had a physical and the doctor gave me a few suggestions.

One included exercising.

My travel schedule does not allow a lot of time for exercising. I’m usually trying to get from one place to the next and there is not a lot of leisure time during the week. My job also requires me to eat out several times a week. When you sit down in a restaurant and they hand you a menu that allows you to choose anything you want to eat, it is kinda hard for a big ole boy like me to turn it down.

So I identified those two obstacles (time and food) at the onset.

But I have been determined to change my lifestyle.

For the past eleven weeks I have been walking. I may have missed 3 or 4 days during that time. During the week I get up an hour earlier than I used to. If I’m on the road I get on the treadmill in the hotel. At home I walk for 45 minutes in our neighborhood. But I have been doing it every day.

I have conservatively walked about 180 miles in those eleven weeks. That’s about 17 miles a week. That’s the distance from Reynolds to Atlanta and back.

Good lord. I can’t believe that.

I’m still eating pretty much whatever I want but I can tell you after I spend 45 minutes of my day exercising before the sun comes up, I really pause and think before reaching for the extra piece of chicken or the piece of cake.

So I am eating less and exercising every day.

And I really do feel better than I have felt in years.

But turning 52 reminded me that things can happen to people my age. You can be busy doing all the right things and suddenly find you have some dreaded disease and have only a short time to live. Happens everyday. Or you can get run over as you are jogging down the road. Seen that too.

Or a 52 year old can drop dead of a heart attack. Those closest to you will cry a couple of days but they’ll get over it when the life insurance pays and life will go right along.

So there are a few variables in this whole exercise thing.

No matter what we do, none of us are promised tomorrow. I really do have that much figured out.

But maybe when people walk past my casket at my visitation and look at me they will comment about how natural I look.

“Don’t Bruce look nice? Death sure does become him.”

So for the sake of a healthier life or a more becoming death, I think I’ll keep on doing what I’m doing.

If I make it until the next doctor’s appointment I’ll let you know the results.