What does it mean to retire healthy?
I’m learning that it means a whole lot more than I expected. When you are young, exercise is optional. Health doesn’t depend on exercise. The human body is amazing and manages to function effectively even when poorly treated. People exercise to look buff or brag about their efforts but health really doesn’t drive the decision. This leads us to form poor health habits than can hurt us later on.
Getting old changes the equation.
The aging body isn’t so resilient or efficient and the impact is obvious. For me the big blow was discovering that I struggled to get up from a chair. It was disturbing because I wasn’t doing anything different and yet my body was getting weaker. At first I tried to deny the reality. Then I rationalized that I should just accept the aging process. Finally I got mad. I wasn’t going to accept my growing weakness as inevitable or acceptable. I fumed and fussed but I didn’t have the information to know what to do about it.
And there was more bad news
It turns out that there was more going on that I couldn’t see. My wife kept telling me that I was stooped over and walked like an old man. I didn’t believe it and could not see myself to know the truth so I just pushed the idea out of my mind. Finally, I remembered how tired I was after a sightseeing trip to San Francisco. I was getting old. But I didn’t know what I could do about it.
It was just luck that I met a trainer with whom I shared my concerns. He confirmed that I walked like an old man and suggested a training program to rebuild core strength. After some thought, I decided to do it. It has been a remarkable experience, working out under supervision twice a week for over six months. I’m feeling better, walking straighter and getting out of chairs with less effort. But there is still a problem. I haven’t taken ownership of my health.
I’ve been faithfully training twice a week under supervision. I’ve been exercising in between sessions But I’m not taking it seriously. I’m not giving it the respect is deserves as the foundation for the active lifestyle I say I want. I still plan to travel and be active. If I expect to live active and stay healthy, I need an aggressive training program of health maintenance and I have to be in charge,
Now what!
So far what I’ve done is good. I’ve stopped the deterioration but I’m still passively following my trainer. If I want to hold off the natural decline in my physical abilities, I need to step up my program and take control. This is just one more dimension of Lifestyle Design but it’s more than an option. When you get old, if you don’t get aggressive about your health, you don’t control your lifestyle. I haven’t taken control of my health yet. I haven’t treated it seriously- as a marathon runner might prepare for a race. I am wanting a plan A retirement lifestyle but if I don’t make health a priority I may have to settle for plan B. Health will determine which life I live. Is it worth the effort and commitment? What priority to you give health in your lifestyle design plan?
Ralph, good for you, you’ve spotted a problem and done something about it. Most retirees would just accept that there’s nothing they could do and it was only the ageing process taking it’s toll.
As for me health is the number one priority in my lifestyle plan, without it all the rest is irrelevant.
Bill
A-U-L, UK
http://billmurney.com/blog/where-will-it-all-end/
Bill,
How aggressive are you making the campaign? I think on my part that I’ve only begun to fight. Time will tell.
I hate exercise. Always have, always will. Even when I played footall for a living I hated it.
Then, I couldn’t refuse to do it or I’d be on the bench and soon out of work, but now it’s optional, and I refuse…period.
That doesn’t mean I do nothing physical though. I get plenty of exercise without exercise. I just make sure I keep doing things that I like doing that happen to be physically demanding and voila! Exercise without having to exercise.
Bob@JuicyMaters’s last Blog Post ..On the hunt for clean underwear…
Bob,
I can relate. That blogging really takes it out of you.
Your statement: “When you get old, if you don’t get aggressive about your health, you don’t control your lifestyle,” I feel, is so true. Though I would substitute “older” rather than “old”.
To me, getting older is a constant – from birth onward. Getting old is, to my mind, an attitude of passivity and resignation to the whims of Fate. I’ve seen people (often on the golf course) in their 90’s (age, not necessarily golf score) who obviously have not gotten old – and may never – because they continue to fight the “good fight” to control their lifestyle as long as nature and mortality allow.
For some it’s only semantics, but for me it’s important. I am thoroughly open to getting older, but I am working, physically, social, mentally, and spiritually, to avoid accepting the label (condition) of being old.
Banjo Steve,
You know I thought for a while about ‘old’ and ‘older’ when I was putting this post together. I understand your point but I fhinally decided that by any standard, I am old. I don’t like it and I hope to get older (way older) but I can’t afford any excuses. If I don’t face the reality and fight it hard, I’ll lose my plan A. So I’m jut putting it out there. I’m old. So what?
Exercise and eating healthy is a lifestyle unto itself. Good for you in taking control over your life situations and not letting them control you.
Hansi’s last Blog Post ..Just A Fantasy
Hansi,
It’s a work in progress.
I am making more of the old man noises..grunts and groans when I bend down to tie a shoe, get off the sofa, or get into a car. I’m not sure why I do that. I’m not really hurting and the task isn’t that difficult. It has become a habit that I really should get rid of since all it does is reinforce an image that is incorrect.
Satisfyingretirement’s last Blog Post ..A Bloggers Code of Conduct
Bob,
I’m surprised that you noticed this. I tend to completely ignore what I do- until somebody else points it our. Maybe you are just living in the future.
Ralph@Retirement Lifestyle’s last Blog Post ..You see doctors I see drug pushers
Ralph, I am about the same age, old never enters my mind. The only time it happens is when someone gets up to give me a seat. Then I can’t understand why and I usually let them know in a nice way that they need it more than me, unless I had a real long day of walking.
Yes, I am doing less than when I was younger. I don’t pay attention to the negatives. I keep busy and do things I enjoy. The one area where there is a difference is in nutrition. I am more aware of what I eat, it seems to make a big difference in how I feel.
Blanche,
I think it is interesting how we choose a different focus for a similar philosophy. I don’t know if it is just our bodies telling us, an arbitrary decision or something else. For my part, I have to admit that getting old does cross my mind daily and it is usually when something hurts or doesn’t work right. This just makes my resolve stronger.
Ralph@Retirement Lifestyle’s last Blog Post ..If you don’t have a plan- you don’t control your life