Aging

[katluvr]

I will admit to noticing how flawless some of the high school swim team girls' bodies are...(I share a locker room with them at the pool). I catch myself bemoaning that I'll never look like that again. Then I laugh at myself and remember that I didn't look like that when I was their age, so what's the point of getting depressed about it?!

GLC, I think you hit it on the head. I still want the body I NEVER had even when I was young because of my genetics and I was not athletic. Maybe that is what I am grieving about!

(Just did a Spinnerval on my bike on the trainer...legs looked good from that angle! Off to shower!)

K

[Bike Chick]

I have to do intervals just to maintain, now; I liked it better when it was "speedwork."

I love that statement Oak and it's so true. I have noticed such a big change in my body since turning 50. It was like someone flipped a switch but I, like the rest of you, have seen the result of not exercising or eating right in our mid to late years. My brother, who was always the althletic one when we were younger, is now struggling with high blood pressure and refuses to change his diet or exercise. My mother who is 74 years young can't hardly lift her leg to climb in the car because she sits on the couch day after day. It's sad so I keep plugging along to improve my quality of life. I refuse to sit on the couch and wait to die.

My question is, "When did I become middle age?" It seems like yesterday I was 35 and suddenly the last 17 years were gone in a flash. I sport the silver hair and I am starting to resemble a rectangle as yellow stated but I don't feel any different inside. I commented about an interest rate in the paper for a 15 year cd the other day and DH remarked that we may not live long enough for it to mature. That was a startling thought! And now we are looking at retirement communities. I'm loving every minute of my life right now and grasping each opportunity and hanging on for dear life!

[Bike Chick]

GLC, I think you hit it on the head. I still want the body I NEVER had even when I was young because of my genetics and I was not athletic. Maybe that is what I am grieving about!

(Just did a Spinnerval on my bike on the trainer...legs looked good from that angle! Off to shower!)

K

So true! I wish I had biked/swam/ran when I was 30. I wasted so much of those years worrying about things that didn't really matter.

[shootingstar]

I commented about an interest rate in the paper for a 15 year cd the other day and DH remarked that we may not live long enough for it to mature. That was a startling thought!

LOL. Can relate to that when looking at financial instruments and their projected maturity date! Suddenly time into the future isn't so endless after all.

Not sure what I regret not having physically in the past and now. My physical shortcomings are only shortcomings if I use European/Western beauty standard as a benchmark. Not at all health based.

I don't regret the years of being a non-exercising, geek girl prior to cycling. My energy and free time was thrown into other non-sport/non-fitness activities that made use of my other passions/skills. But then, I didn't have health problems either.

[tulip]

I have always resembled Sponge Bob in body shape. So not having a waist when the change comes will perhaps not be such a big deal as for those who have lovely trim waists. Finally, a positive!

[Crankin]

As Biciclista noted, it is getting harder and harder to maintain friendships with those who "can't." If I share a common interest with them, anything it's easier, but I am losing tolerance for people who are my age (mid fifties) and have given up. I have the gift of genetics for longevity from both sides of my family. My dad is 85 and still works part time, but he has some "stuff" that could have been mitigated by exercising and good diet.As soon as my mom died, all he did was eat out, and bad food, too. She was the exerciser and healthy cook. A great role model. But no amount of exercising stopped her from getting a weird liver disease and having a transplant that didn't work when she was only 67.
So, onward!

[ny biker]

I have always resembled Sponge Bob in body shape. So not having a waist when the change comes will perhaps not be such a big deal as for those who have lovely trim waists. Finally, a positive!

Whooooo lives in a pineapple under the sea...

That song is now stuck in my head.

Back on topic. On the one hand, I do not want to look older. And I don't want to fall apart, health-wise.

On the other hand, my father is 74 and my mother is 72. Both are cancer survivors and they have various other health problems. But they are more active than many people I know in their 30s and 40s. They visited me a few weeks ago. The weather was great, sunny and warm. So the first day, they wanted to visit the FDR Memorial in DC. For those familiar with DC, we parked at Arlington Cemetary, walked over Memorial Bridge, stopped for sandwiches near the Lincoln Memorial, then walked all the way to the FDR, then on to the Jefferson, then walked all the way back to the car. For those not familiar with DC, all I can say is, this was a ****load of walking. Sure, we stopped from time to time and rested on various benches. But it was still more walking than many people half my parents' age would try on a good day.

The next day we drove up to Baltimore to see the historic ships at the Inner Harbor.

http://www.historicships.org/

Specifically, my mother wanted to visit the Torsk, because she'd never been on a submarine before. I have pictures of both of them stepping through the crazy-small holes that serve as doorways from one compartment to the next inside the sub. Again, I know so many people my age who wouldn't even attempt to climb down the steps into that sub, let alone work their way through it from end to end.

We also visited the Constellation and an old lighthouse that has been moved to the Harbor. Both involved walking up and down lots of steps.

So yeah, I don't want to be old, and I don't want to look old. And all the healthy living in the world can't guarantee a long, active life. But wrinkles and gray hair don't have to mean that it's all over.

[Bike Chick]

But wrinkles and gray hair don't have to mean that it's all over.

I have wrinkles and a beautiful head full of silver hair and it's just beginning!

[Trek420]

As Biciclista noted, it is getting harder and harder to maintain friendships with those who "can't." If I share a common interest with them, anything it's easier, but I am losing tolerance for people who are my age (mid fifties) and have given up.

+1. At 54 and climbing it's hard to fathom not taking care of ones health.

I had the day off today to go to the funeral of the 19 y.o. son of a friend. (one of two kids killed in a crash ). Many of my peers/coworkers were there. As we left T & E asked for a ride to BART. I'd driven, said fine.

Less than a half a block T said "I won't make it to the car". And it's a good thing she waited for me to jog to the car because I'd mistaken where I parked and had to go around 6 blocks.

It's not being carded, looking better, that's all good but I want to be able to do what I want to do for as long as I want to do it and enjoy life as long as possible. Sure if disability or injury was the case that's different but I see no reason I can't run to find my car at 54, 64 ..... etc.

Forgetting which street I parked, that's another thread

[azfiddle]

I've been overweight most of my life, even when I was active in high school and in my 20's. I started getting gray hair at 21, and started coloring it before 35... and I've never had a flat tummy. I'm 53 now, and see a lot of changes in my face when I look in the mirror... I've never really felt "my age" though- and Ive always had lots of interests outside of work and family that kept my mind growing.

But since I got started cycling last summer- I feel years younger! Not just physically thinner, stronger and healthier, (I've lost almost all my excess pounds over the last year), but also when I get on the bike I feel very free and happy. So although I'm sure I'll be slowing down and facing new challenges over the next decade or two, for the moment, I feel as though I've turned back the clock.

[michelem]

Wow! What great responses! I'm going to need some time to really read them all again and digest them thoroughly. Thanks so much for sharing. I love this community.

[lph]

Specifically, my mother wanted to visit the Torsk, because she'd never been on a submarine before.

That's funny "Torsk", pronounced Tawschk, means "cod" in Norwegian. Fitting, I guess.

[Bike Chick]

It's not being carded, looking better, that's all good but I want to be able to do what I want to do for as long as I want to do it and enjoy life as long as possible. Sure if disability or injury was the case that's different but I see no reason I can't run to find my car at 54, 64 ..... etc.

Forgetting which street I parked, that's another thread

I couldn't agree more! I may weigh more now than I did when I gave birth to both my children, have hair growing places it shouldn't, spots on my hands that weren't there before, and have 10 pair of "cheaters" to see anything up close (and still can't find where I left them) but I can ride 100 miles on a bike, have finished a triathlon, and am about to do a half-marathon. That feels wonderful and I'm not about to stop until I absolutely have to. I wear my hair in an easy style, wear comfortable shoes, don't shave my legs as often as I used to, hardly ever paint my nails anymore and have thrown my pantyhose away! Aging has been liberating for me and life is good! I love the poem "Warning: I Will Wear Purple."

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other peoples' gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickles for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

by Jenny Joseph

[shootingstar]

The health of (older) TE forum members is big contrast to other forums where people's close friends are suffering heart attacks right now.

Well, one good thing about aging for me...I haven't had to shave 'pits and legs for last 5 months. It's a genetic thing from Momma... seriously I'm getting hairless. I only need abit of graze shaving every few months. Actually it's been like this for past 3 yrs. or so. Have lost track.

[kjay]

I am curious if any of you have the same trouble I do with reconciling your aging self with your inner self-concept? Not sure that makes sense . . . what I mean is that, I still feel at least 10 years younger than my chronological age and have to remind myself that I am 40+. I look in the mirror and see these changes (wrinkles, sagging, etc. -- only the stray gray once in a while though) and the reflection I see does not jive with how I feel!

Regarding reconciling our aging outer self with our inner self reminded me of a comment made by someone at a meditation seminar I recently attended, which is that our soul never ages and therefore we're always the same inside regardless of how we look on the outside. In my mind, I feel today as I felt when I was a teenager (and sometimes act like it, too). One of my primary goals in life is to narrow that gap between the inner self and the outer self, and I choose to fight aging to the end! Be glad that you feel younger inside. It would be bad news to feel older than one's actual age.