Tik Greenfield over 50 and learning to fly and I know you've been asking yourself one question. Where have I been? Well actually I've been hiding out in the back of this DC3 this entire time. I have been sick and it is not been COVID which was a huge relief but it was called diverticulitis and it took me out for about a month and I was hospitalized for it. If you want to know what diverticulitis is, google it and you'll be well informed and well enlightened about all the problems that your gastrointestinal system can have, especially over 50. This brought me to the big topic of health and as I was kind of laying in bed and getting better, I was reading comments and getting emails and it just so happened that I was getting some emails from people about health issues. Some people were emailing in and talking, hey what do I do? I've got high blood pressure. Look it boils down to this, you need your health. If we aren't healthy and we are sick, we are not going flying so you have to ask yourself how bad do you want this. So as for me, I'm going to have to have major diet changes in my life from this point forward. No more crazy pizzas, no more tons of Chinese food, no more big, big steaks with bernese sauce which I'm really going to miss. Look if you can't fit into a Cessna 152 cockpit, then there's a little bit of a problem. If you've got high blood pressure and you're on the meds that are on the FAA, no way, Jose, no fly list, then you've got another problem. Look I'm not a doctor or anything like that but I know these things could be addressed with two simple life changes and it's diet and exercise. For example, I know this one guy who I used to work with and he was about 150 pounds overweight, wonderful guy but he got to the point where he knew he needed to make a life change and I know he had been to some doctors and he had tried the pills and tried crazy diets and nothing worked but two simple things worked. Number one, he changed his diet which was the hardest thing for him to do and the second thing which was so surprisingly simple is that he just walked to work every day and walked home from work every day for a little over a year. It was a five mile trip one way and so he ended up walking 10 miles to and from work and you know what, after about a year, that weight came off and it came off in a healthy way. It came off at about a pound, pound, and a half week which is what you want. Most importantly that weight stayed off and it changed his whole body and his whole kind of rhythm toward health and toward healthy eating and it's been years now and that weight has stayed off. He's a different individual and it just made a nice total positive life change and he didn't have to join a gym, he didn't have to pay crazy doctors, he didn't have to stay attention to diet, you know, he didn't have to do anything except diet and exercise and it's really simple and that can go for you too. Alcohol is the worst thing that you could put into your body at this stage and there's nothing wrong with having a couple glasses of wine here and there or my favorite used to be having a wonderful nice big rare steak with a nice cabernet but about a couple years ago, maybe about two and a half years ago now, I noticed alcohol was having a really bad effect on me and I just decided to stop drinking. I wasn't drinking that much and it wasn't really an effort, I just decided to stop and after about six, eight weeks I just lost the desire for it all together but as I lost the desire I noticed something that was changing in my body. Number one, I was sleeping a whole lot better. Number two, is that I felt a whole lot better and as I started to do some research, alcohol is just really bad to put in your body after age 50. It's really bad, it dehydrates you, it's really bad for your joints, it's really bad for your gastrointestinal system but also it just has so much fat content and it gets into this, I guess it's called the subcontaneous layer of fat and that's the fat that you can't lose. That's the fat that gives you the big gut and that's the fat that makes you not fit into a Cessna 150. So I want you guys to think about this. Quitting alcohol was the best thing I did, I just didn't need it anymore, I didn't want it but maybe that's something you should think about too because number one, it will make you feel better. Your life will improve from everything from your sex drive all the way to your blood pressure and you never ever have to worry about having a couple drinks out with friends and driving home and getting a stop for a DUI because if that happens that is a game stopper, show stopper, you won't be flying anymore and you don't need a DUI period. My main message today is stay healthy and just put a little bit of effort into that healthy. If you've got some blood pressure issues it could be contained with diet and exercise, you don't have to go crazy on the meds and if you have high blood pressure and you're drinking eliminate alcohol. So I'm not a doctor, I'm not even that much of a health nut but I want to get this message out there because it's really important and it boils down to this. How bad do you want to fly? How bad do you want aviation in your life? Is it more than a stake or is it more than a couple drinks every night or is it more than you know some bad health habits that may need to change? Look if you change your life and get a little bit of healthy everything is going to improve around you and I can guarantee that. So I hope you enjoyed this, I hope it wasn't too um you got to do this you got to do this. I just want all of you guys to be healthy to get up in the air and to improve our lives especially over 50 because as we age we got to take better care of ourselves. So I hope you like it and I hope you learned something and if you are over 50 get up and get in the air. Thanks for watching.