110 degrees magazine - Index

110 degrees magazine - magazine_08 - Index

The pool areas are designed
to be fun for kids, ralaxing
for members who are ready
for a pool-side break, and
provide Olympic size swim
lanes for active adults.
26 www.110mag.com January/February 2008
For the past decade or so, however, I’ve been
coming around to the thinking of someone
named Karl von Bonstetten, who said, “To
resist the frigidity of old age one must
combine the body, the mind, and the heart —
and to keep them in parallel vigor one must
exercise, study, and love.”
TOWARDS PHYSICAL FITNESS
It’s difficult and challenging for sedentary,
overweight people to actually make lifestyle
changes that will result in physical fitness.
This is a process that involves deliberately
creating habits of exercise and eating to
replace the often dysfunctional couch potato
mentality that some of us fall into.
It takes a lot of work! We kid ourselves if we
foolishly believe that we can change overnight
patterns of eating that we have developed
over a lifetime. As Joyce Meyers said, “We
didn't get into our mess by one mistake and
we won't get out by doing one thing right.”
On the other hand, exercise can be a great
experience! Getting into the rhythm of physical
training exerts a renewing, rejuvenating
influence in our lives. We gain strength, stamina,
flexibility, and endurance. We begin to
discover things that we can do that we hadn’t
been able to do before. To bend in ways that
we couldn’t imagine in the past.
We can sit on the floor with our kids or
grandkids without getting cramped. When
we’re ready to stand up, we can lift ourselves
with our arms without problems! We feel
more youthful.
Persistence is the secret to making this kind
of change. We develop habits for health. We
must find the ability to “just do it” even when
we feel like we can’t. Even when the bed feels
warm and soft, we still get up and “get it
done.” Afterwards we’re glad for what we did.
On the other hand, if we roll over and go
back to sleep we always regret afterwards
that we gave in to weakness.
OUR ALLIES FOR HEALTH AND
WELLNESS
Fortunately, the three new East County health
clubs are trying to join forces with us in
encouraging us into a healthy life-style
marked by wise dietary choices and especially
by exercise.
The new health clubs provide a real solution
for out-of-shape or even obese people
because their business ultimately goes
beyond helping people towards physical
fitness.
As an end in itself, the goal of mere fitness
is unable to sustain many people’s efforts
very long. Most of us will pursue proper exercise
and nutrition, not just so we can be
healthy, but because fitness can help us live
fuller, more productive, and more satisfying
lives.
The managers and trainers of the health
clubs know this and, therefore, the fitness
programs and the facilities themselves are
designed with the goal of making fitness
more pleasant for the members.
The programs motivate people to work out
and eat right because they want to feel strong
enough to do things like play in the backyard
with their friends, children, or grandchildren.
The health clubs seek to help members
accomplish these real-world goals by emphasizing
balance. They don’t merely place
clients in a room full of machines; they work