Indulgence with fat and pain!

I’m seventy eight and I ache! I ache in my back, I ache in my knees and I ache in my hands. I also often finish my day with an ache in my head!

Something I would like to know, is there a direct connection between my age and my aches?

Does the fact that we unavoidably get older also mean that we have to suffer all these, (usually), minor aches and pains?

Or is our discomfort something we bring upon ourselves, due to the way we disrespect our bodies?

The great majority of us I’m sure, tend to relax into old age.

We take less exercise, we eat more indulgently and, while most of us don’t binge drink’ as the kids seem to do, we tend to imbibe a little more than might be considered good for us, but by means of a steady, continuous flow, rather than the Saturday night gulp!

We feel rightly I believe, that we have earned the privilege of enjoying these little pleasures, through a lifetime of work and effort.

But, perhaps it is that very indulgence that is causing us the aches, rather than simply blaming it all on old age.

Let’s face it, I don’t know about you, but it is nice, as far as I’m concerned anyway, to be able to sit in front of the TV on a cold winter’s evening, a glass of wine in one hand, a slice of salami pizza in the other and a bar of chocolate waiting for me on the coffee table!

I’ve usually spent the whole day busily watching the grass grow outside, washing up for the wife, she’s so lucky to have me, and taking the motor to the car wash, I feel I’ve earned one or two of life’s little luxuries!

Oh, I nearly forgot too, I actually took a bit of serious exercise this morning.

I walked up the road to the news-agents and bought a paper and a packet of ball pens, a distance of at least three hundred metres in each direction. I was pretty tired when I got back mind, that’s why I spent the next half hour watching that grass grow, but I was proud of myself!

A major reason why I have to be a bit careful is that I’ve put on some weight over the years.

When Jacqui and I got married, fifty five years ago, I weighed sixty three kilos. Then I gave up smoking in 1979 and things started to happen, until I now turn the scales over at one hundred and two kilos, most of it glued onto the front of my abdomen like an igloo.

I’ve been told that I can attribute most of my aches and pains to this weight increase, muscles and joints, already under strain because of long years of use, now having to carry and move all that fat!

I have to admit, I do have friends who seem to have managed to avoid all this discomfort, and I don’t know how they’ve managed it. Or is it because they go hiking every weekend, thrusting their way through thick native bush in the hills behind our town? Or because they don’t eat bread or potatoes, but a lot of vegetables?

Who could go through life without enjoying the pleasures of roast potatoes with Sunday lunch, or toast and marmalade for breakfast?.

I’ve noticed too, that when they come out for an evening with us, they rarely drink more than one glass of wine and their meals are usually comprised mainly of salad. And they’re slim!

I guess we all just have to choose the path we want to take, indulgence with pain and fat, or a Spartan existence of health, beauty and no pain. Well, you can guess which route I chose!

image: Eric 先魁 Hwang