Last Wednesday we had the pleasure of taking our grandson to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. The energy and excitement of taking him to the various rides and different “countries” was lots of fun. We spent hours at the park and the amount of walking added up to lots of exercise in the hot sun.
As we were going around the park, at times, I found it sort of challenging to “keep up” with the 5 year old. He wanted to go from ride to ride to ride without much rest in between. Of course, he wanted his grandfather to go on a number of rides with him so there was no “down time” in between the amusements. I was thinking back to 30 years ago when we would take our children to the same park, but I do remember my ability to “keep up” at a much higher level.
“Keeping up” has applications to other arenas of life other than accompanying children to amusement parks. On vacations/trips that involve lots of walking or hiking, if other people are involved, “keeping up” with the others becomes crucial to being able to participate in the activities. If the workplace hours/activities are grueling/stressful, “keeping up” is important to preserve your place in the organization and not being looked at critically by supervisors. Personally, I used to have the practice open to 7PM four nights a week and fast forward 32 years later, I cannot “keep up” with those hours, hence the “Elvis has left the building” concept occurs most days no later than 4 PM.
There is no doubt that successful weight control markedly enhances the “keeping up” potential in all of us. Simply carrying around a bunch of extra pounds makes physical activities much more difficult. Our joints, muscles, breathing and other contributing factors to “keeping up” are negatively impacted by poor weight control. Additionally, negative impacts on sleep will produce a daytime fatigue that will hinder “keeping up” with mental and physical activities.
We all strive to do participate with activities involving our family and friends. If you want to be able to “keep up” with everyone else, remain steadfast and focused on your weight control mission.
