I’m a sponsored blog partner of Ensure but all opinions contained in this post are my own
During the 14 years David and I lived together, he’d get up at 5 a.m. every single weekday and head for the Olympic-size indoor pool in the neighborhood to vigorously swim laps for about 80 minutes.
After swimming, he’d put in a rigorous 12-hour day as a criminal attorney. When the pool closed for cleaning at the end of each summer, David found another pool, even if he had to travel clear across town to use it. Swimming was David’s lifeblood! Nothing stopped him from taking those laps.
When he could no longer stall surgery to halt the progression of painful, and potentially crippling, spinal stenosis, David faced the grim reality that he wouldn’t be able to swim for at least three weeks. An eternity! Besides giving him impressive-looking leg, arm and stomach muscles, swimming also gave him loads of energy. We normally start losing up to 8 percent of our muscle mass each decade starting when we’re 40 years old. If we fail to keep our muscles in check, we’re going to feel tired and weak!
“I will fall apart if I can’t swim,” David told me numerous times in the weeks leading up to the surgery. “You will fall apart if you don’t take care of your serious back problem,” I cautioned. He canceled an operation years earlier, and his stenosis worsened.
The surgery went well, but obviously sapped David’s strength and energy. He surely needed to establish a way to help replenish them, since he’d be homebound for a while and couldn’t swim. Besides, his diet had always been pretty much limited to nothing but a muffin and iced tea at midday. By the time dinner rolled around, he usually had expended more calories than he consumed. This horrendous diet wasn’t going to work now that he’d experienced a health setback! But, it was unlikely he’d start eating fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods packed with vitamins and minerals at lunchtime. David is stubborn.
I’ve long known about Ensure nutritional shakes, since my aunt started drinking them when she was in her 80s and in chemotherapy. She didn’t feel like eating after her treatments, so they helped improve her strength. As a matter of fact, Ensure is the #1 doctor-recommended brand among health professionals who recommend liquid nutritional products to their patients. The drinks are scientifically formulated with nutrients, essential vitamins and minerals, so they filled my aunt’s nutritional gaps, giving her the stamina and energy she needed.
But Ensure shakes have come a long way in terms of their taste and the health benefits they provide to younger, active people who have experienced a setback from an accident or surgery like David’s.
Even if David couldn’t swim just yet, Ensure would help supply his body with the protein, vitamins and minerals it requires to regain strength and energy. After all, he wouldn’t even be up to walking Rigby, our Norfolk Terrier, or doing errands in the neighborhood, without them.
When I went to check out the selection at CVS, I chose the Ensure Original Nutrition Shake because I thought David would enjoy the Coffee Latte flavor. It also comes in milk and dark chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and butter pecan, and supplies 9 grams of protein, 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including antioxidants, and 25 percent of the daily value of B vitamins to support brain health.
“This tastes like a coffee milkshake,” David said, after I served him a chilled Ensure Coffee Latte. So he started drinking a shake a day, and, sure enough, his strength and energy started to return, so he could take long walks with Rigby while he recuperated.
Like millions of other baby boomers, David is a Can Do person who grew up energetically exercising his body, and mind. And, once you’re a Can Do person, you remain a Can Do person. Happily, Ensure is smartly tapping into our vibrant generation with generous Can Do Giveaways of $1,000 a month for a whole year to three lucky people.
Just think: $12,000 to help you do anything your little heart desires, from starting pilates lessons to teaching tennis to your grandkids, from taking pottery classes to going on that Grand Canyon hiking trip trip you’ve been thinking about for years. Five weekly prizes will be awarded, too.
Simply enter your email for a chance to win, and you can increase your chances by watching short and snappy videos about some of the Can Do people of our generation.
Start with this one, about Helen and Byron, who wouldn’t let a serious accident involving two deer stop them from going back to the thing they’ve loved doing for decades. Find out what it is they do that people half their age would never even try. And how good nutrition helps them do it, and continue to lead “long, happy and healthy lives.”
Like David after surgery, and Byron after his accident, we aren’t about to let a health setback define us.
If you ever thought Ensure was just for older, ill people, think again. Ensure is surely for any of us who refuses to let the normal obstacles life throws at us keep us down and out of the game.
And don’t forget to enter the Can Do Giveaway for a chance to win $1,000 a month.
Ensure partnered with influencers such as me for its Can Do program. As part of this Program, I received compensation for my time. Ensure believes that consumers and influencers are free to form their own opinions and share them in their own words. Ensure policies align with WOMMA Ethics Code, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines and social media engagement recommendations.
0 Responses to “Win $12,000 and Ensure Nothing Stops You”
Mrs. Dianna says:
I began a fitness routine around 5 months ago it has made such a difference- I do see the difference in what I used to do & what I CAN do now.
linda meyer says:
This made me think I should actually try it, and I’d been definitely opposed to anything other than my own home cooked meals.!
Kim says:
I have many friends who use Ensure and only hear good things from taking it.
Carol Lawman says:
What an amazing story. I admire people who go all out for fitness.