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Do you remember it? It is also known as the “Youth Fitness Song.” In 1962 President John F. Kennedy commissioned Broadway composer Meridith Wilson to write a theme song for the Presidential Council on Physical Fitness (thanks Wikipedia). Its first two verses may inspire some spontaneous calisthenics.
“Touch down every morning-ten time!
Not just now and then
Give that chicken fat back to the chicken
And don’t be chicken again
No, don’t be chicken again
Push up every morning-ten times
Push up starting low
Once more on the rise, nuts to the flabby guys!
Go, you chicken fat, go away!
Go, you chicken fat, go!”
The song may not have inspired millions to adopt healthy living though the jogging fad began not to long afterwards. Maybe JFK and Chicken Fat deserve some credit.
Regardless, for several decades we, as a society, have been talking about living healthy lifestyles. Our TVs are full of talk show episodes, news segments and reality shows addressing weight loss, healthy living and exercise programs. You can find a dust covered ThighMaster, NordicTrack, Bowflex, treadmill or even an unfortunately purchased ShakeWeight stocking at a garage sale near you as the result of a moment of healthy inspiration.
By now you already know you’re supposed to eat healthy and exercise. We all know that. In the 21st century western world you’d be hard pressed to miss out on cues for health and wellness.
Despite all the messages there are still many of us who just don’t connect to a desire to move toward a healthy life. Losing weight may be needed, eating healthy may have its advantages, but they both require change we’re generally opposed to change.
Movement brings change.
Movement requires change.
Movement uses change and triumphs because of change.
Movement challenges and teaches.
Movement is recreational and cathartic.
Sure, get a move on to lose a few pounds, to fit back into some old familiar clothes, to be fit. But move for more.
Move for opportunity, creativity and ingenuity.
Move for adventure, experience and exposure.
All 8 dimensions of LDG’s Circle of Life are interconnected and as long as we’re on this earth those dimensions are housed within our one, powerfully unique physical self. We might as well get the most out of this flesh while we’re still in it.
For some, that may mean running 100 miles through the Rocky Mountains. For others that may mean relearning a task after loss of limb or strength. Regardless, it’s the challenge to move forward.
Often, we hit the point where we MUST get moving as prompted by a physician, spousal imperative or finding those old trusty jeans now fit like an urban 20 year-old hipster’s skinny jeans. But we often treat the requirement of movement as a grudge or a task. It’s drudgery or an obligation to return to movement. But, what if it were more?
What if that healthy state of physicality opened up doors for you to more greatly engage the other dimensions of your life?
What if your spare tire moved from your waistline to your Camelbak on a mountain biking adventure with life-giving friends?
Or into a basket on a beach cruiser pedaling down a boardwalk for an evening sunset?
What if gravity became real to you not because of its impact on aging flesh, but because you stepped off a zipline for the first time in your life laughing with grandkids all the way down?
What if you put down the phone, left the office, turned off the TV, shut the laptop and moved?
What if your mind were not burdened by the “shoulds” of getting healthy?
What if you were there already?
What more could you do?
Would your mind be freed to bring innovation to your vocation?
Would creativity wake with energy where once you’d just fall asleep?
Would you find the Triune speaking in a wind’s whisper as you walk around the block?
Would you find a quiet pride as you stand again on your own, complete a task that your body wants to make impossible?
Would you reconnect with joy as you laughed free of labored breath as you played with your children in the backyard?
What if you became a mover not to meet a doctor’s demands, a family’s plea or just to fit into old cheap cloth?
What if getting a move on wasn’t just something you did to delay death or hold off decay?
What if you did it to learn and to live?
To live in a way you’d never imagined?
Maybe you extend your years, maybe you don’t. But what might you experience new in the time you have ahead through movement that you’d miss otherwise?
What’s there to learn?
When will you begin?
What will it take for you to continue?
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