I've always worked out and been active in my adult life. However, I've recently shifted my perspective on the "why".
In my forties, I now think of exercise and eating better as primarily preserving my future independence. Maintaining muscle mass, bone density, cardiovascular endurance, and balance makes it a lot more likely I can do things I want like live on my own, hike, hunt, etc. longer. I recently read a book on aging and the things we are most likely to die from that couched it in those terms and provided supporting statistics.
I don't want to sound like a motivational speaker or life coach, because believe me that isn't my personality at all. However, I do agree with the general perspective that you can't rely on motivation or excitement. Exercise and eating clean aren't fun and you are very rarely going to actually want to do it. It's not easy, but it is simple. You either do it or you don't. If we are honest with ourselves, most of us do have the ability to do better, we just choose not to.
Please don't take that the wrong way, I'm not trying to shame or insult anyone and that's just my personal experience. I've also found it gets easier over time. It's almost like you can train your will like a muscle. You don't have to forgo everything (it's almost beer 30 here).
The one thing I still am trying to figure out is how to balance all the things I want to include. It's hard to jog the day after a heavy leg day. Too much cardio makes it hard to hold or add muscle. I also do BJJ which is just rough on everything. I'm also old and stay sore for a long time. Some old injuries also bother me if I overdo it. For example I haven't been able to really do anything the past 3 days because some tendon in my leg is unhappy with me.
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