I always suggest to my retirement coaching clients and course attendees that, once their retirement begins, they don't leave it too long before implementing some form of exercise routine. And, if they already have the 'exercise habit', I suggest that they may need to consider increasing the amount of exercise they take each week.
Weight gain can be a real problem for new retirees and, speaking from experience, the extra pounds really can creep up on you until, before you know it, you have a battle on your hands.
When I took my first retirement from working as a manager in a Further Education college, I gained two dress sizes within the space of about 18 months. Now I admit that some of that was down to my need to take things easy and just have a complete break from working, but some of it was due to the natural reduction in the amount of exercise that I was taking every day.
Now that I think about it, I used to be on my feet all day. Dashing off to meetings on our other college sites, running around managing my teams, teaching classes - I even chose a house which meant that I could walk to and from work each day, which added 25 minutes walking time to my day, and I would often walk into town during my lunch hour or take a stroll around the nearby park with a colleague. When I retired from college life and started to work from my home office, much of this activity disappeared from my life and the extra weight started to pile on.
Nowadays, I work out for an hour and 15 minutes, 4 or 5 mornings a week and I know that I will always need to keep a close eye on what I eat. I also know that I could just resign myself to it and accept that, as we get older, we do get thicker around the middle (during our 40s and 50s, we start to lose 2 to 3% of our muscle mass per year), but, somehow, I just don't feel like me when I'm bigger. It feels unnatural and I could never get used to what I see when I look in the mirror, so, for as long as is humanly possible, I will continue to get up at 6 am and work out.
A really useful tool that I've recently discovered is the Personalised Calorie Counter. Just click on the link, type in your height, weight, gender, age and activity level and it will calculate how many calories you need to consume each day for your weight to remain stable. If you want to lose weight, just type in all the above information but use your desired weight and it will calculate how many calories you should be eating... Perfect!
So, what about you? Have you gained weight since you hit middle age? Are you able to accept that situation or do you need to do something about it? What will you do? When will you start? How will you make sure that the exercise you take is safe and effective? Who can help you with that? And finally, if you decide that some weight gain is acceptable and normal, how can you ensure that you remain fit and healthy and that your weight gain remains under control?
Don't let those extra pounds creep up on you!
Ann Harrison is the author of ‘The Retirement Detox Programme: 40 Days to Get Your Retirement Back on Track’. She is also a certified retirement coach, 2young2retire facilitator and pre-retirement trainer. For regular retirement detox updates, visit her blog or catch up with her via her website: www.ContemporaryRetirementCoaching.com.