After a quarter-century of military service, and now somewhere in late middle-age, I am like many of my peers, working off “sudden” obesity. I want to enjoy my upcoming retirement and not help fund my health practitioner’s yacht fund. I am not the stereotypical military retiree: I want to be much more energetic in my next, hopefully several, decades of life.
The stereotypical military member in film and television for decades were depicted as hard-drinking, hard-living, and either “bullet-proof” loners or stressed-out figures off the battlefield. Many of our popular movies today feature technology or medical science improving people to “superhuman” capabilities. But reality is more sobering. In our Twenty-First Century America, the focus on exercise, outdoor activity, and a balanced diet went away in the late 1960s. Fast-food convenience like McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, microwave lunches and Starbucks hyper-sweet coffee drinks and delivery pizza are turning people obese in grade school.But you do not have to be a retiree or a military member to notice the country has a serious problem. After decades eating processed food, junk food, sugar additives, and artificial flavors, anyone can look in the mirror and to many around us and see health problems or in the making. We don’t have to live like this. We can minimize or reverse 
the effects through smarter choices and exercise.
the effects through smarter choices and exercise. One of the reasons to practice eating better and live healthier is a practical one. Health care in the United States, or for that matter, in the industrialized world is expensive, tied up in bureaucracy, or when available, can be a long series of procedures, painful, and difficult to maintain a “normal” life while being treated. Cancer, bad hips, bad knees, respiratory diseases, diabetes, and obesity may be more widespread because we hear about them now in daily conversation or may be a result of our eating habits and stressful lives.
I decided to become better informed and to change my eating and exercise habits. One of these is to drink a lot of water now – half my body weight in fluid ounces daily. And not flavored water which often have sugar or sugar-imitating chemicals. I take long walks before the day starts, during a lunch break and after work. (I commute long distances to an engineering job). With training I am receiving as a part of an online community, I am using the skills I am learning.
One of the foods I have been consuming in smoothies for a couple weeks now contains various plants that I realize I know little about. So I will share my findings in a series of posts, “Therapeutic Uses of Plants”. Much of this is corroborated by the National Institute of Health (NIH):
ROSE HIPS. Contain anti-oxidants. Used as a medicinal ingredient in many cultures. Being studied for its properties in fighting skin diseases, renal (kidney) issues, diarrhea, arthritis, diabetes, and obesity.
CHAGA MUSHROOM. Used in folk medicine for its ant-cancer properties. At the NIH, the anti-cancer properties are being studied using mice. Early research indicates the compounds in these mushrooms inhibit certain cancers.
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Results vary. But guys like me have dropped a lot of weight, and resolved a lot of obesity-related health issues. And with the weight-loss, improved energy, and better attitude, the result in the bedroom are pretty fantastic too. If you would like to know more, I invite you to visit my website:
And connect with me on Facebook or Twitter.
Truths, Half-truths, and Sea Stories 
Good luck – our bodies rebel in retirement for the early morning PT we used to make it do
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boy, do you speak truth there!! LOL
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Brother, I can tell you I gained a lot of extra weight when I took this GS desk job. No-ones fault but my own. Time to get back to my pre-retirement weight. Thanks for the post.
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Thanks for reading, Brother! I know. When we get out of good habits, get busier, seems easier to let ourselves get thrashed. But when you start looking and feeling better, we also have greater confidence and influence.
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