Don Nava - Fit After 40: 3 Keys to Looking Good and Feeling Great

FOREWORD

I have heard it said that once you pass the age of forty, you can expect things 10 start to wear out. spread out or fall out. My wife. Ann. and I are now in our mid-forties, and I'm afraid I, for one, am showing evidence of at least two of those symptoms! Yet I think Ann could still pass for twenty-something (no fair!). So for ME, it's very timely that our ministry of Crossroads/100 Huntley Street has connected with coach Don Nava.

Within the pages of this book, Coach Nava lakes us on a journey of TOTAL fitness...well beyond just the physical. Our body is just one element of who we really are. If we are to have a well-balanced life, we must also place some emphasis on other priorities like our emotional and spiritual health. That is why I so appreciate the practical teaching contained in this volume. And like all great coaches, Don Nava not only teaches, but he inspires and motivates!

In Romans chapter 12, the Apostle "Coach" Paul also inspires and motivates us to total fitness-body. mind, and spirit:

"Therefore. 1 urge you. brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but he transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will he able to test and approve what God's will is-His good, pleasing and perfect will" (Romans 12:1-2 NIV. emphasis added).

Actually, that Bible passage even touches on another fitness area Coach Nava deals with in this book...Directional Fitness. Of course, our life's direction should ultimately line up with God's "good, pleasing and perfect will."

We have been privileged to have Coach Nava share principles from this book daily for an entire month on our 100 Huntley Street television broadcast. I'm confident that as you read and apply what he teaches, you will sec positive transformation in every area of your life!

Ron Mainse
President
Crossroads Christian Communications Inc.

To Coach Ben Parks,

who mentored me for eighteen years
with values and integrity that have become the
foundation of my lifes work in the fitness industry.

Because of your influence in my life,
thousands of people also call me Coach.
To you, I am forever grateful.

2006 by Don Nava

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Thomas Nelson titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Scripture references noted NKJV are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

Scripture references noted NIV are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Nava, Don.
Fit after 40 : 3 keys to looking good and feeling great / Don Nava.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-7852-1896-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4016-0435-6 (SE)
1. Middle-aged personsHealth and hygiene. 2. Middle-aged personsPsychology. 3. Physical fitness for middle-aged persons. 4. Exercise for middle-aged persons. I. Title: Fit after forty. II. Title.
RA777.5.N38 2006
613'.0434dc22

2005035681

Printed in the United States of America
08 09 10 11 12 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

Right Eating for Repair and Refurbishment:
Nutritional Fitness After 40

An Infusion of Love, Joy, and Peace:
Emotional Fitness After 40

M idlife is real. Nobody seems to know the exact age range it should cover, but everybody I know has a sense about when they areor arentin the middle of what they perceive to be a normal life span. People seem intuitively to know when they are in their early years, when they are in their later years, and when they are someplace in between.

Midlife crises are also real. Again, nobody seems to know exactly when a midlife crisis normally hits. But theres a moment when the light comes on and you say, Yikes, Im not getting any younger!

The trigger point might be a little pain or stiffness that wasnt there before.

The trigger point might be a failure to do something that was once so easy.

The trigger point might be an Oh, Dad or Oh, Mom roll of the eyes after you say something that seems totally rational and normal from your perspective.

The trigger point might be the day a clerk asks if you qualify for a senior-citizen discount (and you thought that day was ten years away); or the time you hear yourself say, Kids these days with an exasperated sigh; or the time you begin to remember with fondness the good ol days when you were thirty-something.

The trigger point might be the wrinkles you see in the mirror, the gray hair that suddenly seems to be multiplying, or the nagging thought that you probably should go see a doctor more frequently, but have less and less desire to do so out of fear that something bad might be discovered.

The trigger point can be any one of a number of physical or emotional cues that are unique to each person.

The crisis is, in part, a facing of ones own mortality. It occurs, in part, because the person recognizes that there are still things he or she wants to do, accomplish, or experience. Stop and think about itif youve done or are in the process of doing everything you dream of doing, and are as happy as you want to be, theres no real sense of crisis! The crisis can be a slight moment of panic or a major period of paniceither of which is rooted in an unhappy, unfulfilled feeling.

The crisis often prompts a person to make an attempt to regain some sense of control over his destiny, or some sense of control over his happiness level. Not every person openly acknowledges or even recognizes that a crisis is occurringsome people just have a nagging, persistent feeling deep within that if the time is ever going to be right to make a move or make a change, that time is now.

Reactions to midlife crises vary, of course. Im in the total-fitness business, and Ive seen some people go off the deep end.

Some people go a step or two beyond crazy and immediately try to dress and act twenty years younger. I put emphasis on try because they rarely succeed. The clothes of the younger generation look a little silly on them, their hair dye is never quite color-perfect, the teen phrases coming out of their mouths sound very odd, and their behavior at the in places is usually regarded by the younger set as both obvious and bizarre.

I have nothing against motorcycles or skydiving, but if the purpose is to prove that a person is still young, the end result is more likely to be raised eyebrows than sincere applause.

At the other end of the midlife crisis spectrum are those who plop themselves down to await the arrival of the grim reaper. In doing so, they begin to act and think much older than their years. They curl up in an overstuffed recliner before inane television programs and gorge themselves on fast-food specials. They stop taking risks of any kind and cease to foster their own curiosity or sense of adventure. They conclude that theyve been there, done that about virtually everything fun or meaningful in life.