Life starts at 30...

One of the most unique birthday cards that I had ever received was that from the gym that I first joined years ago. It was just a normal card in fact, nothing fancy. When I first received it, it read "A man's life starts at 30." I said to myself that I wasn't 30 years old, and thus didn't give it much of a thought. But when I looked further, the number "30" wasn't referred to the age but the waistline! Wow, I was impressed!

As years went by, this phrase has become my personal motto in fitness. Every time I workout, I always have it in mind. Some people drop out from exercising because they see no direction to where they are going. However, when we have a goal or direction in doing what we do, it'll keep us motivated and going, and combating, ha ha!!

Many of today's civilized diseases, or what we called "wealthy diseases" in life insurance, are caused by overweight or obesity. High blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and triclycerides, almost all of these diseases can be avoided or reduced by watching our weight. These diseases are not fatal by themselves. For example, no one dies because of diabetes itself. However, it's because of diabetes, if not treated, people become blind, suffer kidney disease, undergo lower limb amputation, have nerve damage and suffer heart diseases and stroke. Any one of these complications requires long-term financial support. To stay alive, one has to take consistent and regular medication and supervision, and this involves money. That's why we sometimes call them as "wealthy diseases," for we need to be wealthy in order to live together with them.

Many people that we know are overweight or obese. Are they lazy people? Or are they immune to all these diseases? For me, I don't think so. Look at them. They work hard everyday in the office. When we are exercising in the gym or sleeping at night, they are probably still working in the office. To them, they have different priority in their life. They want to earn money, earn more money, and earn much more money. They say we don't work hard. We say them workaholics. Who is right? Who is wrong?

This is something that I personally think we should ponder from time to time. If you can't strike a balance between health and wealth, what good if you've lost your health and can no longer work for your wealth? Which company is so kind to employ a kidney failure patient who needs to go for dialysis 3 times a week and can thus work only limited hours in a week?

I've witnessed many cases where people work hard for more money, but at the end using that hard-earned money to pay their medical bills. Is that what we want? Is that why we work, working to pay future medical bills?

We are all lucky earthlings. There is no day in our life we ever need to worry if we have food to eat for that day. Rather, we are scratching our head as to what to eat everyday. We eat good. We eat sumptuously. But have we eaten right and balanced too?

Losing some weight is no longer a cosmetic issue. It's more of a health and well-being matter. I always say I'm fat because, well, because I'm fat. Yes, I'm fat and I'm fat, and I want to stay exercising.

I suddenly feel that this post sounds very heavy. I was supposed to make it read lively! My purpose of writing this post is to remind myself that being another year older is not an excuse to work lighter. And with you reading my humble blog, I know I don't walk alone on this road.

A little congratulation to myself for having a blog posting on my birthday at 12:00 midnight sharp, ha ha!