"You Looked So Young," she says…

Last night my wife and I were looking through some pictures for one of the kids school projects, when she turned to look at me shockingly with a picture in her hand, and exclaimed, “You looked so young there!”

What do you say to that?  She turned the picture toward me, and it was a picture of me with my oldest’s soccer team.  She was looking at a picture from 3 years ago!!  I stared at her for a moment, and asked, “So I guess now I look like an old guy?”  That’s when the stumbling began, but by then, it was too late.

Now, to be fair, in the last few months, I’ve grown a goatee, which by all accounts, makes men look older.  But, you know, that’s the second or third time in a few weeks that someone has commented on my age.   My wife and I talk about aging in our house, and the subject isn’t something that generally bothers me at all, but I’m beginning to understand why people get so worked up over the subject.  We have developed a society that is obsessed with youth, and the perceived advantages that youth confers.  All you need to do is search Amazon for anti-aging products and you’ll see a plethora of products intended to keep us looking young.

Fighting the good fight

I was talking with a good friend of mine the other day about running.  Through his early 30′s, he could run a sub-19 minute 3-mile without having to worry about conditioning.  Now, he’s in his mid-30′s and has discovered (much to his shock) that in order to maintain that race speed, he’s having to work at it very hard.  I think that’s something we’re all going to have to get used to as we age.  There are some undeniable changes that occur in body composition and musculature.  Among those are higher levels of body fat, muscle loss, and reduced bone density.  That’s why its important to establish both a higher baseline before we reach that point, and get the habits in place to mitigate their effects.  Those choices today will improve our quality of life as we approach middle-age, and beyond.

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