I won't bore you with a long list of my personal health problems, suffice to say my physical condition and mental condition have not been in good shape for quite a long time. The same applies to my wife of 53 years.  I knew we had to do something, to get a handle on all of these issues.  I started at a local gym. That might sound like an odd place to start for medical and mental issues but so far it is doing what I hoped it might do.  We joined said gym in Mid December.  I knew that if it was going to do us any good we had to make it a regular part of our routines and so far we have done that.  

I have gotten to the point in my life that I don't really enjoy getting outside during cold damp weather so I had gotten into the habit of staying inside, sitting on my butt in front of the computer for most of the day.  In short, that's not a good thing and will eventually lead to bad things, and it has.  

I think everyone understands that exercise has some very important physical benefits for your overall health.  Most often, if asked,  people will identify the following benefits to staying active.  Maybe the most obvious would be an increase in muscular, heart, and breathing fitness. Others that are often mentioned  would be that it will help maintain a healthy body weight.   

Equally important benefits are that exercise will reduce the risk of hypertension, stroke, diabetes and even some types of cancer also  It will help reduce the risk of falls and improve bone strength and prevents further loss of bone density and that  reduces the risk of fractures.  

Those are all great reasons to stay active throughout life.  As a quick side note to those readers who are not seniors....it is probably a lot easier to stay active through life rather than trying to "catch up" at age 70.  Another important benefit of staying active often mentioned are the improvements in both mental and emotional health.  Physical exercise/activity has been shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression and improve sleep quality.  For myself one of the most surprising benefits of exercise is that it can preserve cognitive function and has been identified as lowering the risk of dementia and can even slow the progression of Alzheimer's .  Now I ask, who wouldn't want that sort of protection.  

When you roll all of those benefits together you have given yourself a much better chance to lengthen your ability to maintain an independent lifestyle. More good news.  

As for me during the past month I know it has improved my self-esteem and I have been able to improve my activity a little bit each visit.  It has taken me a lot of years to get into the condition I find myself in now and I know it will take a while to work myself back to better health, both physical and mental. I realize I won't feel like I'm 18 ever again, but I'd happily settle for the above mentioned benefits.  I'm not certain if this is true for everyone but the feeling you get from a workout actually make you want to go back again.