Not So Old

 I'll turn sixty in a couple of days. The motorcycle accident occured when I was fifty years old. Ten years ago I was roughly 50 lbs. heavier than I am now and I had stopped exercising with any level of consistency. To be honest, none of that mattered to me. I was happy enough with everything in my life. However, I now keep my weight at a healthy level and I eat within fairly healthy standards because of the diabetes that was brought on by damage done to my pancreas in the accident. I also exercise regularly and it involves walking, stretching, pushups and weight lifting, along with some work on a punching bag. 

I sometimes wonder what things would be like now if I hadn't been in such a horrific accident back then. I mean, would I be a heart attack waiting to happen? Would I be a plump guy who has trouble fitting into a booth at a restaurant? Would I have to resize my clothes every two years and wind up falsely claiming that jeans companies are making them smaller now? 

I'm now in better shape than I was back then, and aside from the fact that pain, stiffness, and fatigue withinin my body remind me daily that it's been tattered badly in an accident, overall I feel as though I'm in pretty good shape for an older dude. The reason that I'm in better shape is, ironically, the accident. I walk because of the damage to done to my leg and the need to burn carbs for diabetes. I do all of the stretching because of the damage to my leg and my arm. I do strength exercises because of the need to keep my body strong against all of the damaged parts. So yeah, the accident wrecked my body in a bad way, but the accident is also the reason that I'm actually healthier now. All of my blood test numbers are consistently good, my blood pressure is good, and both my endocrynologist and my cardiologist view me as one of their "good" patients. Actually, sixty isn't bad at all when I look back to fifty.