Who actually started the first birthday celebration? Was it the Buddhist’s? Was it the Christian’s? Was it the Egyptian’s? Was it the Roman’s? Was it the American’s? In researching for this post, I found this link, this link, and this link about the origin of birthdays, but don’t really know which is right or wrong. For the most part, I really don’t care. Why? Because all that really matters is my Real Age.

Before going into my Real Age, let me discuss a few of my ideas on celebrating and acknowledging birthdays. I will be the first to tell you I do not mind the customary gifts, cash, trips, etc. that have been given to me since my 1st birthday celebration in 1984. Today, my 26th calendar year birthday, is just the same. So, if you want to get me one of the following items here, here and/or here feel free to do so.

Other than the wonderful gifts I receive from family year after year, there isn’t much to my calendar birthday. Sure, I was legally allowed to do more things at certain birth dates, but those things really don’t mean much looking back now. For the most part, my life would not have been drastically different if one was switched with the other. However, when I look at my life today, I should have celebrated my birthdays all jumbled when it comes to my health and well being. Let me explain…

21 but 30 and 25 but 20

If you took my health and well being at my 21st birthday and my 25th birthday, then you would see my 21 year old body appearing more like a 30 year old and my 25 year old body more like a 20 year old. Why is that? During my 21st birthday, I was working 35+ hours a week, had 15+ units in college, was drinking 3-4 nights a week, ate whatever I wanted, and lifted lots of weights but did little cardiovascular work. It may have appeared like my well being was in tact and I was healthy, but I really wasn’t. I was a 21 year old by calendar years and a 30 year old by Beer Pong standards. This drastically changed over the years and my 25th birthday was completely different. I was running 4:36 miles, could run a half marathon any day, ate healthy 98% of the time, was under 5% body fat, still drank a lot once or twice a week, worked a non-stressful 9-5, was financially stable, and overall was in great health and well being. In this case, my calendar year was 25, but my body was at least as young as a 20 year old. All this is why I have focused on my Real Age for the last few years.

What is my Real Age?

Sometime during college, I stumbled across this website coined RealAge. RealAge is a user friendly site that allows individuals to derive what their body’s age is. There are questions regarding fitness, health, habits, diet and relationships. There motto is great: Live Life to the Youngest. Many doctors use the same techniques and categorical information that this site uses to gauge a general idea of a person’s age. Two of RealAge’s experts are Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen who co-wrote the bestseller You: The Owner’s Manual. On the popular television program Biggest Loser, Doctor Robert Huizenga uses the RealAge to show the contestants where their health stands prior to the competition as well as following it. I have suggested RealAge many a times to friends and family and unfortunately, only a few have gone through the 15 minute process to find out what their Real Age is.

In the last couple years, I have taken the RealAge test around my calendar birthday to get an idea as to where I stand health wise as well as to further ignore the significance placed on celebrating my calendar birthday. This year was no different. I filled in the requested questions with as accurate information as I could provide. One note to everyone, do NOT lie on this questionnaire as the accuracy will be compromised and your results will not be accurate at all. Be honest with yourself and the questionnaire.  Back to my experience this year. As I was going through the questions, I realized that each year I take the test, I usually become healthier as I find a better balance. Last year was much closer to my calendar birthday as I was over-training by the RealAge standards which was probably true.

Without further adieu, here are my results this year….

Blown Away

I haven’t pushed myself very hard in the fitness realm, but have kept my body in shape as well as maintaining the other healthy aspects of my life. So to see the results say my body was that of roughly an 18 year old, I was blown away. That’s amazing. I would definitely rather consider my age (not intelligence wise) to be 18. Even if the system was off by a year or so, that would mean I have the body of an 18 or 19 year old. I am more than happy with the results.

Why so young this time around? The only major changes I made to my previous RealAge entries were that I reduced my extreme workouts. I used to workout at minimum 2.5 hours a day. In past years, RealAge said that was over doing it because it caused stress on my mind and body. Now that I am down to much less physical strain on my body, it has the ability to recover.

Obviously, you can think this is a crock of…well you know. It has been extremely accurate every other year as well as with those that I have known to take it. The test takes into consideration major factors of life expectancy and durability which lead to such results.

In the end, I was in awe of my success and hopefully, everyone will see the same type of results or start trying to attain such results.

Meaningless Birthday’s

With today being my 26th calendar birthday, I would like to declare such as irrelevant for all intensive life purposes. That number really means nothing. If you said to me yesterday was my 26th calendar birthday, then there would be no significant change in my health and well being unless something dramatic happened that day. My calendar birthday is MEANINGLESS. I hope you feel the same.

By no means am I going to stop receiving gifts like earlier stated, but I have no reason to put significance on the calendar birthday. I know my body is that of a much younger individual and I am able to do much more than many people of the comparable calendar birth year. My hopes are that more individuals my calendar age would close the gap between them and I and hopefully, I can help through this post and others at LifeExcursion.

I am young and not by calendar standards. Now that is something to celebrate.

My RealAge = AWESOME/ Your RealAge = ???

Now, what kind of inspirational post would this be if I didn’t get you to do something incredible? So, now I am asking you to go to RealAge and find out your Real Age. It will end in one of two ways…1) You will know that your Real Age is AWESOME or 2) You will know that you need to do some work to make it AWESOME. Simple as that. No blogger (ME) telling you how fat, unhealthy you are. Nope. Just straight results from your own answers. You will be able to see where you stand and where you want to be standing.

You can become the healthy and fit individual I know everyone is capable of being. It takes blood, sweat and tears, but it is all worth it when you know you will be around to “kick it” with your grandkids, travel the world when you retire, and do whatever the hell you want whenever you want as you fly by your calendar birthdays with no regards for their importance.

So, go to RealAge and check your Real Age. I promise you will be motivated to lower that score wherever it winds up.

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After you take your RealAge test, I would love to hear your results and what you are doing to change it. So, PLEASE come back and let me know how it all goes.

David Damron
LifeExcursion