The importance of being fit and healthy during your timeline.

Which one is you, having good genes or working your butt off to stay healthy? Maybe you're the lucky one that have both, good genes and healthy without doing anything. Some of us may not have good genes and fighting everyday to stay healthy during our timeline. I'm all about fitness and health as I get older and preparing for my golden years. Some may say that I have good genes and or because I'm Asian and we don't look our age. The latter is a bunch of BS, I've seen plenty of my fellow Cambodians my age looking way older than me, and some have all grey hairs and are bald.

My father at 90 yrs. old, I am blessed to have his genes.

It's important for you to think about your fitness and health throughout your timeline and not when it's too late or because your doctor told you to start doing something about it. You need to stop doing what the world wants you to do and start doing things for yourself. When you reach a certain age in life, there should be less people you want in your life, and you don't want to have any of their dramas. Once you turn fifty years old, time is getting limited and starting a fitness and health journey may help increase your longevity. People don't realize how important it is to be fit and healthy especially at an older, and also being able to handle whatever life throws at you.

Think about what's important in your life it may include; being around to see your grandkids' grow up, enjoying life's milestone events, future traveling and vacation plans, and maybe you want to spend some of the money that you worked so hard to save. Remember, we leave nothing behind and your family and friends will not be thinking about you forever. These are just some examples and there are numerous other life events that will make you think about your fitness and health. And what about all the family reasons to get fit and healthy, we don't live in a vacuum, your love ones, and those who are close to you will always need you for something at one point or another. Yes the truth is not being fit and healthy is a selfish individual act, if you can't take care of yourself, how are you going take care of your loved ones and those closest to you.

For some of us like myself still working and not retired, I'm needed at my school doing building maintenance and driving the school bus on after school field trips, servicing my rental property, and on call for people who may need my handyman services. To me being fit and healthy is a total body, mind, and soul approach. For the past two years, I have been more aggressive about getting fit and healthy and after turning fifty-seven-years old back in October of 2024 and started to blog and writing books about my life. I feel great at fifty-seven-years old and want to share my fitness and health journey, especially to those fifty and older. At my age, I feel that we all should maximize our fitness and health by doing as many exercise programs as possible to live a vibrant remaining years of our life, and to handle whatever life throws at you. A second book series on surviving your timeline will be coming out soon, highlighting my journey to get fit and healthy.

Here's and example of how I handle my daily schedule and physical routine. Having multiple jobs and being available for those who needs me on a regular basis requires a fit and healthy body. Achieving this was pretty simple, recognizing that I had a health issue after turning fifty forced me to get into shape by starting an exercise routine and eating the proper diet to maintain my fitness and health journey. I started walking for thirty days straight rain or shine and then transitioned into a slow jogging routine. Eventually, I got myself up to a three to five miles slow jogging at least five days a week. As the weight was coming off, I started to feel great, more confident, and eventually got into learning how to box to push my body into better shape.

Losing over forty pounds in a two-year span was a great motivator, made my daily routine working at school as a building maintenance easier, not only physically but mentally. Walking up and down the stairs now feels effortless and I have great energy throughout the day. We just got done with February vacation and on the last Monday of February, it was back to work as usual. I have to open up the school every morning at six am and then go through my usual routine to cleanup, sanitize contact surfaces, clean two school entrances, and then tackle any building maintenance issues. Whatever I can't handle or if it's too big of a project, it will be sub out to local contractors.

I was hoping that the first day back from February vacation was going to be smooth sailing but my day didn't turnout to be easy. While trying to put back one of the walk-in freezer's bad motor, I got a text from one of the tenants at my rental property, the heat apparently went off some time during the night. Stopping what I was doing, I had to leave school early and tend to a more pressing situation. Having no heat at my student rental property needed prompt attention. My rental property has one of those combination boilers that does both the heating and hot water and hangs on an exterior wall in the basement and vents outside through PVC piping without needing a chimney. Once there I was able trouble shoot the unit which had an error message for blocked exhaust. Being a handyman, I have the luxury of calling multiple people for advice, and this turned out to be a simple fix for me. Due the multiple cold days we had, ice must have built up in the exhaust pipe and forced the heating unit to stop working. Drilling a couple of holes to let out built up water from the exhaust fixed the problem.

After leaving my rental property, I had to go and checkout a friend's house because he's in Florida for the winter and asked me if I can check on his house periodically. I had to stop by Home Depot first and get four bags of water softener for his well water system. The house is in great shape and really doesn't require me to do any maintenance other than making sure everything is working properly. Once I'm done it was off to the bike path for me and get my five miles run in before eating my one meal a day routine and later in the evening I'll get in some boxing exercises before my day is done. This is pretty much what a typical day for me is and some days are not as stressful or physically demanding. At fifty-seven-years old, handling my daily demands would be difficult if I wasn't fit and healthy.