Middle age spread, or quite simply putting on a few extra pounds once you reach your 30’s or 40’s is something that I think most of us worry about.
I know it’s something that I have worried about, having always been overweight.
Turning 30 didn’t do me any favours and to be honest turning 40 did me even less unfortunately.
There was a time when I was younger and my mother, bless her soul, kept telling me that “if you don’t lose weight, you will never do it once you get older””
Well, like most young men I never listened, or if I did I never took action on her words, and so I ended up in my middle age, rather overweight.
My only saving grace I suppose, was that while I was relatively fat when I was younger, I didn’t actually get fatter when I reached my middle age.
I didn’t get any thinner either, but with easy access to cheap fast food and other forks of junk food, many others did get fatter, leaving me “thankful” for being relatively not as fat as many others.
I did a bit of research into gaining weight as you approach middle age and it seems that it’s not a new problem.
No, actually it’s been a problem for thousands of years.
I bet you didn’t know that did you?
Seriously, middle aged spread has tormented mankind since the dawn of civilization.
The proof goes back to Roman times.
If you think about it, how did the Romans represent the number 40?
“XL” that’s how!
So “40” is “XL”. Proof indeed! I rest my case.
Image used under a Collective Commons License from https://www.flickr.com/photos/thotfulspot/6957734416/
