Health and Fitness

I'm not sure this is the right place for this, but I'll put it here and Frank can move it wherever he thinks it should go.

I would be very interested in knowing how you all take care of your health, if you exercise, how you do, how you stay fit in general.

As a 60 year old grandmother, I have become very focused on getting and staying fit, and remaining as healthy and as active as I can for as long as I can. I don't just want a quantity of life ahead of me, but I want it to be of good quality too, and the only way I know how to accomplish that is to devote a portion of my time and attention to getting and keeping fit.

I do not have a sedentary job, I don't sit in front of a computer all day or push papers which is helpful from a fitness perspective. And in general, I am not a sedentary person, not a couch potato. I don't sit down much, I'm always puttering around the house in the evenings and on weekends when I'm not working. I ballroom dance as a hobby, and that can be a very aerobic activity. During the warmer months, I'm out in the garden as we all are. So my lifestyle isn't what you would describe as un-active.

In spite of that I've managed to gain 40 pounds in the last 10 years. Slim all my life, even during my childbearing years, that weight gain has been a very unpleasant surprise. Menopause kicked my butt!! Diet alone did nothing to even halt the continuing gain, let alone reduce the weight. It was only when I began walking that I could bring the continuous gain to a halt, but even that didn't reduce my weight at all.

The weight, coupled with a diagnosis of raised cholesterol (though all my other numbers are in the normal ranges) sent me on a quest for a more heart healthy diet AND a decision to join a gym, not just for aerobic exercise but weight training too. We lose muscle mass as we age. Muscle burns more calories than fat, even at rest. Ergo, my lessened muscle mass in spite of increased exercise and a careful diet has been a large contributor to my continuing weight gain.

So now I lift weights along with the cardio I've been doing for quite some time, which alone didn't do anything for the weight, though it did keep my heart healthy. And guess what? I've lost 5 pounds! It isn't much, and that's over a 6 month period, but nonetheless I'm celebrating because it's the first time in the 10 years since my weight has started creeping up that I've EVER actually LOST weight! What did I change? I started weight training, building muscle lifting weights, to increase my muscle mass. Muscle weighs more than fat, and I can actually FEEL the muscle I've gained in different parts of my body (under the cushiony fat, of course lol!) so I have to assume I've actually lost more fat than just that 5 pounds worth. But still, the scale tells me I've LOST WEIGHT, for the first time in 10 years!! I'm pretty happy.

My focus isn't to lose weight, it's to get healthy, so the weight loss is an added bonus that I wasn't actually going for….though don't get me wrong, I'll take it and celebrate it!! It's hard sometimes forcing myself to the gym, especially because the times I can feasibly go are typically after work. I may be healthy for my age, but even so, I'm tired after my work day and just want to go home. So I sometimes have to work at working out, but once I start I feel energized and good about what I'm doing, and feeling healthier and noticing muscle (even though I have to search for it under the fat layers) where there was none before are great motivators!

So that's my story in a nutshell…I could go on for paragraphs, but I'm not trying to make this about me, I really want to hear your stories, your goals for your health and fitness, your obstacles, what you're doing to get and stay healthy!

 

I use to exercise more. But having a cleaning business. I do keep in shape that way. But getting exercise bike-that has low in pact to knees. In fact coming in AM. Dh the one who bought it. He needs to drop about #50's We walk a lot more in summer. But being on gravel road-extra slick this winter. Got weight watcher cook book out. I tend to gain weight in winter. Not in flower beds .And I like to mow with push mower.

 

It's so familiar to me. For few years I can't lose 40 extra pounds

 

My philosophy of keeping fit, is based on what I have been observing since my early childhood, till I became an adult.

People who were always nice, sweet, and very generous, (as well as playful). Often struggled with health. This even applies to pets also... No matter how much they eat healthy, as well as kept fit - Something would always pull them down.

But whoever was a real nasty piece of work, even though they neglected their health - Often moved around as if they were bulletproof. Nearly all of them lived a very long and healthy life, while everybody else (among my relatives) kept wishing them death! Yet they continued to live, and kept on making trouble.

Heck my own maternal grandmother, (&#@%ing bat out of hell), lived to be over 105 years old, (but some say that maybe she was close to being 110)! I didn't see or speak to her since the late 1980s. I am proud to say that I ostracized my mother's family out of my life when I was a child, (for the sake of my sanity). But about 8 or 9 years ago I heard from someone on Facebook that she finally died, (it too was in a message from a relative I hadn't spoken to in decades). At first I didn't believe it, as since childhood I had been hearing that she is about to die now. Only to bounce back later with even more vigor. But when it was confirmed, I too finally breathed a sigh of relief - Knowing that she isn't around anymore, gave me a sense of euphoria, (as I had been wishing her death since as far back as I can remember)...



This may sound very strange to many of you over here. That I later went to a fancy restaurant to celebrate this news - But you guys haven't known what a malignant and ultra toxic personally she had, extremely manipulative too, who thrived on being a control freak, and relished in making relatives fight against each other - Only her husband, my maternal grandfather, could handle her. But unfortunately he passed away in the early 1950s...

So all of this leads me to believe that our own mental attitude plays a huge part on how healthy or sickly we are. The more rotten a person you are, the longer and heather you'll live.

Exactly why is this so, I still do not fully understand. But this is what I have been observing since 4 decades now. From strangers, to relatives, and even pets - This holds true universally....

Perhaps this is true in my environment only? Maybe maybe not, I really can't say for sure - But just to be on the safe side, I too grew up to be a very nasty person in real life, (and I enjoy it too). I really don't allow anything or anyone to stand in my way. And I NEVER compromise over anything... So far, aside from a few kidney stones, (which is hereditary in my case) - I have not had any other health issues. I look a lot younger than all the rest who are my age. And still can easily outperform average athletes.



I have one more thing to share, so first let me find that video on YouTube. Then I will post again in this thread... It's about a mountainous place in Pakistan, where almost everybody lives to be over a hundred years.

 

This place is called Hunza valley, in the Northern areas of Pakistan. People in this area easily live to be over a 100 to 120, and believe it or not, they stay very active throughout their lives.

Area is now accessable by roads, but in the past, it was practically cut off from civilization. So the people of this area grew all their own food, 100% natural. Every house is actually a farmhouse in this valley. They have had zero crime since forever - Not even arguments between neighbors. Their lifestyle is completely void of stress. Everybody knows everyone else in the village. So they behave like one big happy family. Humor also is an essential part of their daily life, (some call Hunza valley the dwellings of clowns and practical jokers).

Their food is mostly vegetables, fruit, and dry nuts, with very little meat. Their drinking water is the purest in the world, straight from the glaciers of the Himalayan mountains. So perhaps that's the secret of their longevity, an untouched environment with a totally stress free way of life...

They don't have any cases of cancer, not even among the elderly, no child has stunted growth either. And obesity is completely unheard of in their area. All have perfect eyesight too, (hardly anyone requires spectacles). Their teeth also don't have cavities, and bone structure is always stronger in comparison to any city dweller. Because they are mountain people living at high altitude, their blood's oxygen carrying capacity too is way above normal.





These video below shows the environment of this area.





So if anyone believes that lifestyle and environment plays a huge part in longevity as well as staying fit - Then Hunza valley in the Northern areas of Pakistan is proof of exactly that!

Oh one more thing. These people only drank clean water from the glaciers, or fruit juice. They don't like tea or coffee. 100 years ago, they didn't even know that a beverage like tea even existed. Even now they don't enjoy tea themselves - But today keep it around, just to satisfy tourists. Alcohol too is something they don't have any use for... And instead of sugar, they just use honey, which also they collect themselves in summer, from within their own valley.

Absolutely nothing is synthetic in their environment or lifestyle. And their attitude also is completely free from stress...

 

Different things work for different people.

In my working life I spent a lot of time on my feet as a superstore general manager, but did l ittle physical work. I've always been interested in sport, rugby and cricket at school and cycling. As a teenager I had the classic 12 gear racing bike and I and friends, would cycle down to the coast at week-ends.
I didn't do a lot in my twenties.
In my thirties I started playing squash and carried on playing for a club team in the Northern CountiesLeagues until I was fifty. I used to swim a lot. When in my forties I was recovering from tennis elbow, I'd swim a mile three times a week, just a steady breast stroke.

I've always considered that never having smoked or drank much, or have much sugar in my diet, none in beverages, I don't even have it on cereal, has contributed to my continued fitness, you do need good lung capacity. I apparently impressed one of my kids when in my forties, I swam two lengths of the local 25 metre pool, under water. Something I did quite often, "just because I knew I could do it."
In my forties, I did all the landscaping in our garden, including digging out a five foot deep 3000 gall koi pool.

I retired shortly before my 58th birthday. The kids suggested I didn't go back to playing squash and to buy myself some golf clubs and join a club, which I did.
In the business I was in, I was aware when I was younger of a number of middle management colleagues, who'd retired at 65 and literally "sat in a chair in front of the TV for a couple of years and then died." I decided that wasn't going to happen to me.

I've always had an electric piano (I'm on my sixth) and fifteen years ago it was joined by a tenor sax. At about the same time I got into vinyl jukeboxes and have two.
I've been lucky and injury free, apart from a dislocated shoulder at 40 when I slid on a patch of sweat into the side wall during a game in a squash tournament. I did have my appendix removed at the age of eleven. At sixty-nine I had a hip replacement, but was back playing golf in eight weeks. You wouldn't know I have a "plastic hip."

I've no other way to describe it than that some people are "natural athletes," don't have to do much to stay reasonably fit. There's nothing in the garden I can't manage and I'm playing golf, weather permitting, three and sometimes four times a week. On those days, I'll still come home and do odd jobs around the garden. Though my wife doesn't like me climbing ladders, so when necessary, I wait until she's having her nap during the afternoon.

I don't get a lot of sleep. Because of my disabled wife's medicine routine, (she takes her last tablets for the day at around 1.30am), I'm never asleep much before 2.00am. But have no problems getting up at 7.30am to go to play golf. I never snooze in front of the TV in the afternoons.

During lock-down when we weren't able to play golf, I put on a stone in weight. But three weeks before we were able to resume I just started eating less and lost it all in six weeks. I like to keep under eleven and a half stone and I've still got a waist. I check my weight once a week.

Conversely, I and several of my friends a week ago went to the funeral of a friend with whom I'd regularly played golf for twenty years. He wasn't over-weight, quite thin in fact. But he was a heavy smoker. He was seventy-six.

I was 81 in April.

 

For about 40 years I've changed my diet to a high fibre low sugar and low fat diet, for me it works very well. I found that eating less potatoes and bread keeps my weight down. Also i have 2 golden retrievers that have 4 walks a day so that helps. To keep my cholesterol down eating porridge with oatbran and bran in it keeps it down. For excerise I do Zumba fitness workout, that's very good for sculpting the body or yoga.

 

Walking is a great start, but incorporating some strength training exercises into your routine can make a big difference. Building muscle not only helps with weight management but also boosts your metabolism. It's a win-win! I'm also fairly new to this forum, but I've found it to be a welcoming and helpful community.

 

I played cricket, rugby and did athletics as a kid at school. I also did a bit of fencing, and a lot of cycling on my Claude Butler.
I belonged to a club and often went with a group on runs down to Brighton from South London.
But at seventeen, I bought my first car, but still kept my bike for a few years.
Didn't do much in my twenties but started playing squash in my thirties and played for a club until I was fifty.
At one time we could access a South Manchester Council owned 400 mtr. tartan track. But later this got enclosed so we could no longer use it.
I would never run on public roads, too easy to get injured.
At sixty, I took up golf and still play three times a week weather permitting.
Except when I had a hip replacement at the age of 69, so I couldn't play for nearly eight weeks.
I always walk quickly when shopping, won't use escalators or lifts. I've a couple of weights I use now and again.

Gardening always keeps you fit.

My wife had a succession of exercise machines over the years, they helped a bit with her MS. But not for a few decades now. They were used more for her to sit on when she was on the phone and for hanging washing on. I did buy her one of those Ian Botham foot exercisers, but I can't remember when last she used it. Anyway, by the look of him on the telly, it hasn't done him much good.


Health-wise, I've been lucky. Never broken a bone, although I dislocated a shoulder in a team squash match in my forties, (slipped on a patch of sweat and slid into a side wall).

I'll be 84 in April.