Turning 40 - It’s All About the Journey

Healthy Living: Staying fit beyond 40

Something happens right around the time you turn 40. Your body suddenly seems to change and you don’t feel as in control with your weight, health or energy. It’s as if everything starts to catch up with you or what used to work no longer does.

When I turned 42 that is just what happened to me. My diet no longer worked to keep the weight off, my lack of fitness meant I couldn’t get my baggage into the overhead bins and I was feeling more pain when I moved. Added to that, my stress was making me too sick to function. I felt like everything was out of control.

Not everyone turning 40 has this experience, but if my clients are any indication, most notice a shift and it worries them. No one wants to feel or look old and the good news is most of us do look 10 years younger than those at our age in previous generations. Yet many don’t feel so young and struggle with weight in ways they never did in the past. Women going through menopause have an even tougher time, not only with the extra roll around the middle, but with the stress of its symptoms.

I was fortunate and discovered a way to take back control, which changed my lifestyle, body and career. I learned what I needed to do to become fit after turning 10 and stay that way, and it wasn’t quite what I expected nor what I had ever done before. The answer wasn’t to do as much cardio as I could, follow restrictive diets or focus most of my time on strength training. That didn’t work, which might seem confusing. It seems to work for those who are younger. Yet overdoing anything or doing anything to an extreme after a certain age tends to backfire and take a toll on your body.

What works is a balanced approach to fitness that you can do consistently. The two key words here are balance and consistency. Consistency is what matters if you are going to succeed at getting and then staying fit, healthy and in control of your weight. Even if you are consistently just doing a little bit, you will be more successful than if you start and stop healthier habits and exercising. The most obvious reason is it’s difficult to restart again, which puts what you’ve accomplished at risk if you wait too long to get back to it.

There is another downside to yo-yoing back and forth that affects your body. It is well understood now that when you diet you lower your metabolism, which doesn’t bounce back when you stop dieting and resume eating more food. The more often you do this, the more depressed your metabolism gets. On the exercise front, there is now evidence that people who frequently stop and start exercising are gaining more weight when they return to inactivity than if they had remained inactive. In addition they have a harder time losing that weight after returning to their exercise routine. Why is not yet understood. That would explain a lot if it is true. It also reinforces the need to look at exercising, healthy eating, stress reduction and any other fitness change as a way of living and not as a program that has a goal and end date.

Which brings me to balance. Balance means many different things, but in the context of a healthy lifestyle it means all things in moderation and avoiding extremes in any one thing. When you are young you can get away with no sleep, occasional attempts at sports, yo-yo exercise, high intensity activities or being a weekend adventurer. In most cases after 40 your body can’t take that abuse and pushing yourself too hard leads to injury, chronic pain, stress and illness.

A balanced approach to fitness feels so good you’ll want to do it regularly. The emphasis is on variety, choosing things you enjoy, doing what feels good physically, stopping when you don’t feel well and stretching yourself a bit without overdoing it. The way to start is gradually, focusing on what you know you can do and building your confidence with each success, knowing you can do a little more. What I learned is the more did, the more I could do and the more I wanted to do to improve my fitness and health. I also learned that because it was balanced, I could easily integrate the changes into my lifestyle and stay consistent. That is how I have been able to stay fit beyond 40 these past seven years and it is proving to be the answer for many others. How can you begin to introduce a balanced approach into your lifestyle?

Alice Greene is president of Feel Your Personal Best, a healthy lifestyle coaching company located in Newburyport, MA. Contact her at agreene@feelyourpersonalbest.com or 978-465-3555 ext. 5.