Contemporary Retirement
Retirement is changing. The type of retirement that their parents enjoyed is no longer enough for the baby boomer generation. Today’s retirees are younger, richer, fitter, healthier and better educated than previous generations of retirees. They also have much higher expectations. The aim of this blog is to help you get the vital, healthy, prosperous, productive and fulfilling retirement that you really want (and deserve).Friday, May 12, 2006
Are you piling on the pounds?
I learned this week that during our 40s and 50s, we start to lose 2 to 3% of our muscle mass per year.
Weight gain can be a real problem for new retirees. When I took my first retirement from working as a manager in a Further Education college (roughly equivalent to a US Community College), I gained two dress sizes within the space of about 18 months. Now I admit that some of that was down to my need to take things easy and just have a complete break from working, but some of it was due to the natural reduction in the amount of exercise that I was taking every day.
Now I think about, I used to be on my feet all day. Dashing off to meetings, running around managing my teams, teaching classes… I even chose a house which meant that I could walk to and from work each day – which added 25 minutes walking time to my day, and I would often walk into town during my lunch hour or take a stroll around the nearby park with a colleague. When I retired from college life and started to work from my home office, much of this activity disappeared from my life and the extra weight started to pile on.
Nowadays, I work out for an hour and 15 minutes, 5 mornings a week and I know that I will always need to keep a close eye on what I eat. I also know that I could just resign myself to it and accept that, as we get older, we do get thicker around the middle, but, somehow, I just don’t feel like me when I’m bigger. It feels unnatural and I could never get used to what I see when I look in the mirror, so, for as long as is humanly possible, I will continue to get up at 6 am and work out.
What about you? Have you gained weight during your retirement? Are you able to accept that situation or do you need to do something about it? What will you do? When will you start? How will you make sure that the exercise you take is safe and effective? Who can help you with that?
And if you are not yet retired but know that you have a tendency to gain weight, may I suggest that, once your retirement begins, you don’t leave it too long before implementing some form of exercise routine? The extra pounds really do creep up on you until, before you know it, you have a battle on your hands…
Weight gain can be a real problem for new retirees. When I took my first retirement from working as a manager in a Further Education college (roughly equivalent to a US Community College), I gained two dress sizes within the space of about 18 months. Now I admit that some of that was down to my need to take things easy and just have a complete break from working, but some of it was due to the natural reduction in the amount of exercise that I was taking every day.
Now I think about, I used to be on my feet all day. Dashing off to meetings, running around managing my teams, teaching classes… I even chose a house which meant that I could walk to and from work each day – which added 25 minutes walking time to my day, and I would often walk into town during my lunch hour or take a stroll around the nearby park with a colleague. When I retired from college life and started to work from my home office, much of this activity disappeared from my life and the extra weight started to pile on.
Nowadays, I work out for an hour and 15 minutes, 5 mornings a week and I know that I will always need to keep a close eye on what I eat. I also know that I could just resign myself to it and accept that, as we get older, we do get thicker around the middle, but, somehow, I just don’t feel like me when I’m bigger. It feels unnatural and I could never get used to what I see when I look in the mirror, so, for as long as is humanly possible, I will continue to get up at 6 am and work out.
What about you? Have you gained weight during your retirement? Are you able to accept that situation or do you need to do something about it? What will you do? When will you start? How will you make sure that the exercise you take is safe and effective? Who can help you with that?
And if you are not yet retired but know that you have a tendency to gain weight, may I suggest that, once your retirement begins, you don’t leave it too long before implementing some form of exercise routine? The extra pounds really do creep up on you until, before you know it, you have a battle on your hands…
posted by Annie Harrison # 6:38 AM 
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