Adventures in Living a Healthy, Juicy Life
by Cheryl Ragsdale

 

A Lesson in Living a Healthy, Juicy Life

Don McGrath has an idea that might inspire you to take on five habits to keep you feeling happy, healthy and strong.  He is looking for people who want to take on a healthy lifestyle by joining him in the following challenge. 

The goal of the 50-k Challenge is to recruit 50,000 people to commit to adopting five healthy habits of athletes: 

• Find an activity you love
• Define a goal for that activity and write it down
• Create a plan for how to reach the goal and write it down
• Define a way to hold yourself accountable
• Execute the plan, be accountable, and have fun!

Don explains, “The 50-k Challenge was born from my book, Dream It, Live It, Love It, which features 50 athletes over 50. I noticed that the over-50 athletes I interviewed are living incredibly healthy lives that are full of fun and adventure, the kind of life I want to live. These folks take great care of their bodies. They do it because they have an activity that they LOVE to do. They need their bodies to be healthy and strong, so they can pursue their passion. That is the key, finding an activity that you love and gets your engine running hot. I think everything else falls into place when we do this simple thing.”

It’s never too late to start!  I discovered boxing – or rather boxing discovered me – when I walked past this guy who was looking at me funny.

“What’s up?” I asked him.

“You’ve got a really long reach,” he said.

Guys say a lot of things, but I’d never heard that line before. I was intrigued. I followed Jimmy into his boxing gym.  He made a few adjustments to my girly punches and I instantly fell in love with the sport.  That was over two years ago and I still LOVE it!  A year ago, I added Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I started Muay Thai (kick-boxing) this year. Doing martial arts never feels like “working out” to me. In fact, I always say that I’m training which never occurs as something “I have to do.”

Ah, the elusive fountain of youth.  Where is it, Vasco de Gama?  There’s more than one way to preserve youthfulness.  One habit, to start at any age, is to take great care of your body.  Eat well, sleep well, laugh often and exercise!  No surprises there. Most of us need help organizing our lives to ensure each of those important things happen.  Being grumpy from lack of sleep and too much work ages everyone. 

What do you really love to do?  What activity would you move heaven and earth for to make sure you’re able to get there on-time and energized?  Once you’ve found the right activity that juices you, you’ll find yourself naturally adjusting what you eat, how much sleep you get and how you organize your life to support your favorite activity.  I can talk for hours about martial arts! Being around people who are excited and passionate about their lives – that’s how I dip into the fountain of youth.  What do you think? Will you take the challenge?

We love your comments! Please share your thoughts.

You can find more information about Don McGrath and the 50-k Challenge here http://www.50-k.net/

email:  Cheryl@thatgirlisfunny.com

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