To Everything There is a Season!

Afterlife- a novel of fantasy

One thing we really need to recalibrate throughout our lives as we age is just what our priorities should be.  Some people, who live an ancestral type of lifestyle, come to these decisions naturally, since how we should behave- just what our goals in life should be- change dramatically as time goes by.

For instance: when we are young and in our twenties- Typically, we have nothing in the way of material goods, but tend to be vibrantly healthy and fit.  This is kind of a given, or at least has been until relatively modern times, when processed bad foods and sedentary lifestyles have filtered down to even the very young!  But traditionally, and even now, in our twenties we tend to be quite healthy, slim, and optimistic.
What we do not have at this point, unless we are trust fund kids or some such, is money and financial security.  And so, appropriately, during this period we should be actively pursuing educational qualifications, job paths, formation of family, and childbearing.  These are appropriate goals.

This continues throughout our 20’s, and into our early thirties.  Kids, making money, securing our place in the world are paramount!
However, once we reach our 30’s, a subtle shift should be taking place.  Our health has undoubtedly suffered, as it almost always does with a family, demanding job, and children!  It is vital at this season of life to start working fitness work back into our lives.
Hopefully, we always kept a minimal fitness level going all along, because even when health is basically a gift in our youth, we still need to maintain it.  But now, it is vital that it become almost equal in importance to that of supporting the family, and keeping on with our careers!
And also, at this point nutrition, meaning a paleo or ancestral type of mindset of preparing and eating real foods and getting completely rid of processed foods becomes more important.  This is when most people begin really putting on fat, and also becoming very prone to metabolic syndrome.  These things need to be addressed, if you want to continue being vital and useful to your family, community, job, and to yourself!  Start in your 30’s, if not before.

Now, through your 40’s, you are usually pretty set on your successful career, family, and social path. While most would say ‘now is the time to really save and invest’, they mean to save in your IRA, preparatory to retirement.
I say that it is time to shift your priorities more in the favor of health and fitness, and less towards financial gain!
For the truth is that the vast majority of folks pretty much give up on their physical health at this point, and concentrate even more on wealth- accumulating wealth takes the place of concentrating on health.  And so, this is when most non-paleo types of folks start taking all sorts of prescription drugs, because they, well, they don’t have time to exercise… and of course, they are also so far gone now in obesity and metabolic syndrome and all of its attendant ills that they have to use drugs to control them.
Of course, the answer is to make health your hobby- health is now your new wealth, 40 year old!

If you have not done so in your 40’s, by the 50th year of age your are definitely falling apart.  You may have loads of money and material goods, but you know what?  Ten years from now, if you have not reversed things, you would gladly give away most of your hard-won wealth if if would make you well!
Generally, people in our modern culture work physically hard playing sports, training, and just living active lives in their teens, 20’s and maybe early 30’s… Then- they stop.  This is ironic, since when young, such activity is desirable, but hardly necessary.  Metabolisms are high, sickness almost nonexistent, vitality is off-the-charts!  Then, in our 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s, as we get fatter and sicker, our diets are increasingly ignored, physical activity is increasingly not done at all- this is all backwards.

When you are in your 50’s and 60’s, Health is Priority Number 1.  Our diets should be as pristine as possible, usually revolving around 1 or 2 meals per day at most, with daily intermittent fasting- meaning to eat all of your meals within an 8 hour “window” of eating, and then fasting the rest of the 24 hours.  Work is fine, but you should be sleeping far more than working now- up to 10 hours per night, but at least 8!
If you have enough money, perhaps a pension or ample investments or a big inheritance, consider cutting back on work, and concentrate instead on exercise, diet, and other healthy pursuits like hobbies- growing your own garden, doing outdoor work of all sorts yourself, and spending time daily in nature!
Consider doing something you love, rather than just doing things that make money.  It’s fine if you make money at this phase of life, but now is also the time to add more spiritual quests to your life’s journey.  Go to church; I find small, local churches tend to be the best way on that route, rather than mega-churches.  Read books of philosophy, great literature, and walk in the woods.

By the 70’s and 80’s, it is time to make work-for-pay, if you do it at all, as a garnish on the meal of life.  Your work is to savor your final years, your children and grandchildren!  Do what you can to ease their ways, help them buy a house, and with education.  That’s what your money is for, not to be fought over when you are gone, driving your family apart!  Help them while you are still here to enjoy it, and them.
Aside from that, health and fitness is your main concern.  Eat, sleep, live, move, and exercise like a paleolithic person.  Stretch daily, as well as walk barefoot, or at least in minimal no-heel-raised footwear on a near daily basis.  Nutrition is now for you what wealth accumulation was in your 20’s!  Connect with family and friends frequently, cooking together and conversing as often as possible, given their more demanding schedules.  You should be pretty free of that by now, with the proper priorities…

Counterintuitively to modern prejudices- Strength Training is now your Main Priority, now that you are elderly!  Maintaining muscle mass is metabolic currency, which is now far more important to you than the monetary variety.  Do what I call Perfectly Paleo Exercise for the rest of your life, on pretty much a daily basis.
This means not lifting weights, but instead doing self-resisted, and virtual resistance exercises daily, along with high-rep calisthenics a couple of times per week.  Pushups, straight-legged sit ups, and bouncing on a rebounder are all key for a strong, healthy, youthful body that lasts a lifetime!

The very best part of this lifelong regimen is that if you do follow it, you will not only remain free of all of the horrendous, disfiguring, and painful diseases of modern civilization-as well as not having to take then endless parade of drugs that only mask the symptoms:

You will be a role model to all about you- a template of proper living!

This last is probably the very most important reason of all to show that To Every Time There is a Season.