Health

When you are young, you don’t worry about your health. It doesn’t even cross your mind. You sleep when you are tired and eat when you are hungry, and in a way that’s the way it should be. If you get sick, or as you get older the signs of your mind and body requiring care and attention become more obvious. Late and short nights become more uncomfortable, and I guess at some point almost unbearable. Having an unhealthy diet also starts showing on your body, and increasingly affects your everyday performance and the way you feel.

I have always enjoyed sports, more or less competitive. Playing soccer, basketball, football, skiing, hiking, sailing, bicycling etc. has been a very normal part of my life. I guess there has also been an inbuilt need for me to stay in shape to be able to be active and join in any sports activity. At one moment in life I made a conscious decision to quit sports for a couple of years, as I needed all the time and energy for simultaneously building our first house and for supporting my wife with our first baby. Tough times with very little sleep and lots of physical strain. The years went by and the mode stayed pretty much the same. More kids, more projects, little time to keep up with a healthy lifestyle.

Now everything seems to be getting a bit easier when it comes to family and house building and renovations. We live in a new house and the kids are big enough to at least let everybody sleep well. Recently I have had the time to look back at our lives and reflect on the way we have felt at different stages. All in all it has been a pretty rough 15 years with ups and downs. Hopefully we can now take it a bit easier and give ourselves the chance to enjoy good sleep, healthy food and lots of exercise. Those are building blocks with an increasing importance for a healthy midlife, and the years after.

The guidelines for a good health at this age are pretty simple, I think. Make healthy choices in your diet, exercise every day and ensure enough sleep. The trouble is with consistently following those goals. And the big thing to remember is that everything affects everything, mind and body are one. More about this later.