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"Clean diet" is one of my least-favorite terms. It's just another version of toxic diet culture, that is messing with so many people's minds and lives.
I hear bodybuilders use the phrase, "clean diet." I never liked the phrase. I look at labels and try to eat mostly healthy, but pizza is my favorite food. I'll be 69 next month and I'm healthier than mos people my age. I don't plan on giving up pizza.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801
I started swimming last summer. A county pool about five minutes from here has adult-only lane swimming in the early morning from 7 to 9. I started going, and pathetically, I could only do three laps the first day, but I worked my way up to 5 over the next few weeks until I went away for the rest of the summer to a place that had a lake, where I could do my swimming in natural water without anyone in close proximity.
I LOVE the water, but I really hated the lap swimming while I was doing it. However, I felt so good AFTERWARD that it was worth it. Also, I had lunch with a friend who has the same birthday but is a year older, and I was telling her about it. She said she also could only do four laps when she started, but now she swims a mile a day.
There's a Y in a nearby town with an indoor pool. I am going to look into that and then go start humiliating myself in front of people again.
I've been swimming laps on an occasional basis. I used to be able to swim over a mile. I'd like to be able to copy your friend and work back up to a mile. Right now, 10-12 lengths are my limit. I need to get more regular about getting in the pool. Might do it this afternoon.
78 and widowed. Mind is clear and lucid. The old body is wearing down and eating away at me in subtle ways. So far I’m self sufficient. So many memories of times good and bad.
I am just grateful to be pain free. I think I am the only pain free 65-year old I know. Even many people in their 30s and 40s seem to have knee, hip, or back pain that I have avoided my entire life. I am really happy about that.
My baby boom generation thinks their butts are plated with gold and say stupid things like "60 is the new 40". Bulloney. 60 is old. 65 is old and feels old. You don't have one foot in the grave, but it is old.
I keep thinking of how I can spend the next 5 years because I know that 70 is really old and most of us really slow down. After 70 it will mostly be just couch potato time for me. Maybe not everybody, but for most of us, 70 is old and slow.
I can relate to your post about how normal things carry side affects and noticeable impacts that I certainly didn't have when I was a kid or a teen, or even through my 40s. How natural everything felt for what, maybe the first 40 years of my life. Even now, walking is almost a concious activity I am aware of when most of my life, it was just a natural activity in the background that I never even notice. I used to just walk. Now I kind of realize I am moving old muscle walking, don't have the same balance, notice any uphill grades. Don't even get me started on stairs.
I can't even imaging trying to run at 65. I shocked myself last year when I ran for something like 5 steps to stop a kids ball from going into the street. Some "sprint". I must have looked like a hippo shambling along. Where did that guy go who could run 3 miles in 20 minutes?
Yep, aging sucks but I am thrilled I am not invalid or in mental decline. That scares me, so I am happy to just be "aging" at this point and not "aged" and invalid.
Maybe it is because 75% of my grandparents lived until age 92 and were "okay" until about 90, but I believe the following:
60-79: Old
80-99: Very Old
100+: Ancient
(I'm 70, btw, and so far my only aging issues are slightly stiff knees for about one minute after I get out of bed and a thickened waistline. My hair is also about 10% white but the only reason that bothers me is because the white is just in front and I think it looks weird. My husband is 67, and he can still copy a quarter cord of wood in a single day. I take no meds, and my husband takes only high blood pressure and cholesterol meds -- but he has been on those since he was about 30. KNOCK WOOD!!)
When I was 67, son and I went to a funeral of a relative out of town, took another 70 y/o friend of relative. Son told me he was astonished at her behavior, appearance, physical mobility and mine. Said he couldn't believe there was only three years age difference. I'd retired a month earlier, never looked or acted anywhere near my age. She, a former RN, hadn't worked in years. She died last year at age 84, was using a walker when I last saw her in 2018 at age 79. I'm 82 and still on my own two feet. Work very hard to stay that way as I live alone.
These days, 60's is still young. At 82, I still don't consider myself 'elderly' - lol. Have an 83 y/o friend who is a whirling dervish of physical activity. Her disabled son lives with her - she does all the work at home, up and down steps bc laundry is in basement, lots of cooking from scratch, soups, etc. She's far more active than I care to be - but there is no doubt her responsibilities have kept her going.
Had dinner two months ago with a 71 y/o friend. She looks and acts like a 50 y/o - there is NO WAY anyone would believe her age. Never. In pictures of her and her daughter, you can't tell them apart. Always a high energy person, had three kids, married a man with three kids, raised that blended family, worked as a teacher, plays violin and now gives violin lessons in retirement, does ballet regularly to this day, still very thin. Father a chiropractor, he and wife sailing Lake Michigan into their late 80s', he died at 93 prostate cancer discovered shortly before his death. Mother 93, now living independently in an apartment near her. Entire family very little contact with organized medicine.
It really is relative - genes, energy levels, personality, health practices and the luck of the draw.
Last edited by Ariadne22; 03-02-2024 at 02:27 PM..
Maybe it is because 75% of my grandparents lived until age 92 and were "okay" until about 90, but I believe the following:
60-79: Old
80-99: Very Old
100+: Ancient
(I'm 70, btw, and so far my only aging issues are slightly stiff knees for about one minute after I get out of bed and a thickened waistline. My hair is also about 10% white but the only reason that bothers me is because the white is just in front and I think it looks weird. My husband is 67, and he can still copy a quarter cord of wood in a single day. I take no meds, and my husband takes only high blood pressure and cholesterol meds -- but he has been on those since he was about 30. KNOCK WOOD!!)
Well count yourself lucky, and reference my first post about good DNA by "picking" the right parents.
I know you are just sharing and not bragging but count your blessings. You won the DNA lottery. There are lots of losers. Most of us are in the middle and 70 is really old.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igor Blevin
How does one age gracefully?
Step 1: Pick the right parents and have amazing DNA.
Step 2: Take incredible care of yourself with diet and exercise.
Step 3: Make sure you have incredibly good luck all along the way.
Easy peasy. Do those three things and you will age quite gracefully. I am zealous of all 20 of those people.
We can't see, we can't hear, our arms and legs don't work well anymore. Thank goodness we can still drive!
But seriously, one benefit about becoming older is becoming forgetful. I'm hardly ever angry anymore. I'll see someone and maybe remember I'm supposed to be angry with them but I can't remember why.
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