The Come Alive Project

Author: Bob McMillan

  • Energy Bite 315 – How to Put a Spring in Your Step

    I got an email the other day from a friend who recently moved to Italy. He said that he was healthy and fit, but at age 78, he wanted to put the “spring back in his step”. I told him March was just around the corner and that was the beginning of Spring — that didn’t seem to work for him.

    I know that my friend is a swimmer but since he is already in shape from swimming, perhaps he should spend some time walking on land. Twenty minutes to forty minutes of good walking a day should quickly put a spring back in his step. The Italian countryside is great for walking, so go use your legs for a while.

    The other alternative is to supercharge his attitude toward life. He is a published author and writer. Of course, authors can be a glum lot, so perhaps a change in his overall attitude toward life might be the answer. A positive attitude toward the experience of living life, can truly be the major factor to putting the spring back into your step.

    Here’s another thought. Remember “skipping”? That’s where you hop on alternate feet while moving forward. That’s a great way to get a “spring in your step”. I have a friend who is a skier. He “skips” for a while every day as part of his gym routine. Skipping is also big in athletic circles today. And skipping is part of the movement routine of one of the major “Boot Camp” style fitness programs where one would think “skipping” would be totally “off limits”. Get up early to go skipping so your neighbors won’t see you.

    Here are two great examples of people who fit the solution of using their legs and who have a great attitude toward life:

    The best example that I can think of as a person who is both in shape and has a “real” spring in his step is Dick Van Dyke. Van Dyke, who turned age 94 in December 2019, did a cameo role in a sequel to “Mary Poppins” in 2018.

    Lin Manuel Miranda, one of the co-stars in the “Mary Poppins” sequel said in an interview that “You spend five minutes with Dick Van Dyke and you feel more alive than before.” Miranda added, “He has more energy at age 91 than I ever have(sic) in my life, and I’m not an unenergetic person.”

    In his autobiography, written while in his late 80s, Van Dyke wrote about how he found his 40 minutes in the gym to be one of his favorite times of day.

    My second example is the late [Dame] Gillian Lynne, dance choreographer for the musicals CATS and Phantom of the Opera. She passed away in 2018 at age 92. She was a dynamic choreographer who also extolled the benefits of her daily 40 minutes at the gym. She also produced an exercise video (DVD) at age 88.

    Gillian Lynne was actively choreographing musicals until she passed away. She was an energetic dancer, an engaged choreographer, and enthusiastic public speaker who had an enthusiastic and somewhat irreverent outlook and attitude toward life.

    So, to get that spring in your step and to build and maintain a high energy lifestyle, get to the gym, take a walk, use your legs, and look at life as a blessing, with enthusiasm and positivity. Oh, and put your phone away while you walk and keep your head up. It’s hard to have a positive outlook and attitude with your head down.

    I hope that helps both my friend in Italy, as well as you.

    Thank you for reading.

  • Energy Bite 314 – A Reason People Stop Exercising Too Soon

    I’ve already noticed a significant drop off in the number of new people at the gym who have for one reason or another already lost their motivation. Have you ever wondered why? I thought I would edit and republish a nearly two year old post on one of the reasons people give up too soon.

    Some highly motivated people will stop an exercise program just as the benefits start occurring. Mostly it is because they have reached a plateau and they stop seeing an increase in those benefits. But there’s another reason why some people quit. It’s because of the phenomenon of Homeostasis.

    Homeostasis is the tendency of the body to find equilibrium. When you think of Homeostasis, you normally think of things like body temperature, water balance and the other things that keep the human body functioning normally. Homeostasis allows the body to reach and maintain a state of equilibrium. The body regulates itself in much the same way as a thermostat regulates the temperature in a room. When the temperature starts to rise or fall, the thermostat activates to bring the temperature to a predetermined norm.

    But here’s another way of looking at it which may help explain why people stop exercising at the very time their bodies are beginning to adapt to the many benefits of a regular exercise routine or “practice”, just as they are starting to show the physical and mental improvement they are looking to exercise to provide.

    Homeostasis doesn’t like change. When change occurs, the body tries to revert back to where it was before the change, much like a thermostat I mentioned above. The body resists change. It doesn’t recognize whether the change is for the better or for worse. It just recognizes the change itself.

    When you start an exercise program and your body starts to realize the positive changes being made, homeostasis causes it to resist those changes and sends up a series of alarm bells. You start to feel uncomfortable in ways that may discourage you, even though you know you are getting the benefits of those changes. In their book, The LIfe We are Given, the authors say, “After years without exercise, your body regards a sedentary style of life as ‘normal’, while the beginning of a change for the better is interpreted as a threat.” Resistance to the beneficial changes often results in a reluctance to continue, so you stop just as the benefits are kicking in. They add that, “if you persist, you will soon find that it is easier to actually do the exercise program, than not to do it.”

    Interesting. I had never thought of it that way, even though I had read those passages several times before and had even underlined them and commented in the margin. It just hadn’t sunk in until I started thinking more about the psychology of intrinsic motivation just recently.

    So, to summarize, just as the body has a built in regulator to keep body functions at a specific level (such as body temperature), when your body begins to improve with exercise, it physically tries to revert to its previous level of fitness and doesn’t like change. It sends out signals that something “isn’t right” and sometimes the signals are unpleasant, causing you to rethink the beneficial changes that are happening to your body. You simply stop the new program and revert back to what seems “normal”. Keep that in mind if you are new to exercise. Understand it, and keep on moving your body.

    Thank you for reading.

  • Energy Bite 313 – “OK, Boomer”

    Seems the new expression around the Social Media crowd to deride those born between 1946 and 1964 is “OK, Boomer”. Apparently it is mostly used as a form of derision by Millennials to refer to us old folks.

    Certain younger generations don’t like us old folks preaching values to those who say they are subjected to, and are whining concerned about, heavy student debt and poor pay. Poor things. Of course, they didn’t have the opportunity to go through WW2, Korea, Viet Nam and for those in their late 80s and 90s, the Great Depression (a short rant).

    But that’s not the point. While you may be getting older, you don’t have to look and act like you are helpless old fogies who aren’t able to get along with your younger brothers and sisters in life. And for those of you non-boomers, harken up, your turn is coming.

    Those of us born between 1925 and 1946 are part of the “Silent Generation” (sometimes known as “the Greatest Generation”), and those after the “Boomers” are called “Generation Jones” (never heard of it) and then comes Generation X and subsequent generations.

    You can quit acting old and get rid of your old person’s attitude, self-image and identity. You can do things that will make you look and feel younger, and in some cases, even delay some of the biological (not chronological) aging processes. Need I really say that exercise and real food are two of those things. I hope they have become a part of your 2020 habit pattern.

    You can live your life and forget about your age. You are as alive and as filled with energy as you want to be. Don’t let your age define you. Don’t be a “default” Senior who retires and “rots” on the couch watching TV, and who becomes bored with life, gets fatigued easily, and deteriorates mentally and physically. While most readers of this blog don’t fit that description, too many other seniors do. Most don’t even recognize the signs of mental and physical deterioration because it come on so slowly. “All of a sudden” you become non-functional.

    Remember that you are designed to be healthy, even as you get older. You already know what to do to delay the aging process. Do it.

    Next time someone of “that” generation say “OK, boomer” to you, say “Thank You” and move along at a brisk pace, with with high energy and enthusiasm, knowing you are probably more “Young at Heart” than they are.

    Thank you for reading.