Healthy Bodies

Lately I have been thinking about the value of a healthy body. Our bodies clearly do not last forever. In the end, we will shuffle off this mortal coil - and when we do, does it matter how fit our bodies were? Whether we could benchpress 60 lbs or 160 lbs? How fast we could run 3 miles?

I view the human body as a tool. Athletes need to keep their tools in good working condition to make money off of professional sports. For others, like computer programmers, having a muscular physique probably isn't as important - they need to keep their brains sharp. And no matter what a person does to keep his/her body healthy, the body will naturally start to break down in old age. Bones will become less dense and muscles will atrophy. Metabolism will slow down and people will gain weight. However proud a person is of his/her body in his/her early to middle ages, most people will look completely different -nothing like their youth - in their latter years of life.

Exercise is an important part of my life. I try to exercise at least 5 days per week to stay healthy and fit. I know that being healthy and fit will aid my mental fitness and give me an upbeat personality, which will then impact my happiness in my job, relationships, education, etc. But I have also come to realize that the body I have today will not be the body I have when I'm 80, if I live that long. But I guess that when I'm 80 (if I do get there), I want to look back on my younger years and say that while I had a healthy body, I used it to the best of my ability and good things came out of my actions.

Therefore I think it is important for people to use their healthy bodies in their youth to accomplish something of value to themselves but more importantly to society. Then, they can say that they used their tool wisely and achieved results while their tool was in good working condition.