Poll:Age-related issues in retirement

[kcowan]

Inspired by another poster, here is your chance to share your health and strategies to thrive in retirement. No discussions of local health insurance issues please.

 

[rodi]

Since retiring I made some lifestyle changes. Example: I have to walk the dog anyway - why not do it on the beach... so every day that I'm in town (vs travelling) the pooch and I meet friends at the beach at before 7am and walk 2.5 miles. Rain or shine. The beach walk is a great way to start the day physically, emotionally, spiritually. That has to be good for my health.

I also started cooking more from scratch vs processed foods. Again - I think there's a health benefit there.

And I've started swimming... started with what I call "old lady water aerobics" (because I was one of the younger class members)... then I added lap swimming... and can now swim a mile. I know that has helped my cardio vascular fitness and muscle tone.

Now the bad... I pulled a calf muscle and it's taking forever to heal. Vitamin I (ibuprofen) is my friend. I had to drop down on my swimming to twice a week or it hurts too much. I just don't recover as quickly.

DH is mid 60's and is currently at the gym. He's in great shape for his age. But due to his recognition that he's getting older and less robust, health wise, he's pushed all the home improvement projects that require 2nd story ladders to sooner, vs later. This is just a realistic acknowledgement that he won't be able to /shouldn't be doing some of the projects as he gets older. He also takes longer naps than he used to. I would think that's age/health related.

 

[pacergal]

Not sure how to answer the age thing. Under 30, I made a lifetime decision to never smoke. Generally, meals have been home cooked (except for kids teen aged/sports years--we ate a lot of fast food on the run).
Since retirement last year, we definitely are exercising more, relaxing and pursuing fun things to do. Less stress so much healthier in that regard.

 

[2017ish]

Interesting Poll. For us, health/fitness was always a major factor in considering retirement; we knew that increasing age would start to rule out various activities at some point, so we wanted to retire in our early 50s to get ahead of the issues. (later turned into mid 50s, but luckily, haven't been hit by health much....)

As for health strategies, DW has added weights to her long standing 3 day a week running. Her conditioning enabled a very quick bounceback from spinal fusion--she only missed a week of work, and 8 weeks later was able to handle Mist Trail and thereafter, the fairly intense conditioning that we were doing to prepare for Peru.

In the last year of work, I focused on running "every" day; succeeded in hitting 5-7 days of streets or stairs every week. That and (lowish-carb) diet dropped 15% of my weight and put me back to rugby weight in college. I'll start lifting again this winter, in addition to the running.

Apparently like rodi, we've found that not having work commitments makes it much easier to work on this.... Plus no longer sitting at a desk or conference table 11-12 hours a day...

 

[MRG]

Thanks to this forum and life we've made major changes.

May '15 I had tachycardia and even though my PCP said it wasn't serious, it scared the stuff out of me. He suggested that I lose weight for the 27th time in 15 years and why not? I was obese.

Thanks to another poster here we started using Myfitnespal. DW was obese too, together we've dropped 110 combined pounds. I still log both our meals daily, even though we're in maintenance. I started cooking and we eat mainly at home. Using the app was a great way to learn more about proper nutrition.

BTW: Tachycardia is gone, GERD, snoring, blood chemistry all fixed and no more meds. DW had similar results, including her arthritic knees no longer need meds and she does not have pain.

We started going to the gym, at first just treadmills. Then we started lifting, how much fun is that? When DW started she was a size 8. Couple months later, she lost maybe 5 more pounds, she's a size 4.

We lift 3x weekly, walk most days. We'll be snowshoeing again soon.

My last PCP appointment was a different experience. "You're over 60, put on a couple pounds! I wish all my patients were as concerned about their health as you". I assure you that has never happened before. Thanks to posters here who helped motivate and educate me.

 

[aaronc879]

Before I was even 30 I had been doing manual labor jobs for a decade and knew that was negatively affecting my health. Now 38 with a freshly broken hip and 2 surgeries, it's even more obvious that my health is a huge factor going forward.

 

[Walt34]

I got the wake-up call three years ago at age 64 when I noticed that I had to stop and catch my breath about four times when mowing the grass on a hill. I hadn't had to do that the week before so I called my doctor and ended up with two stents in the LAD (AKA "the widowmaker") that was 90% clogged. Almost every nurse commented that I came in to the hospital before the heart attack. Evidently most guys wait until they're on the floor before admitting that maybe something isn't quite right. I'd taken good health pretty much for granted up until then since I hadn't spent the night in a hospital since 1950.

Since then I've also had atrial fibrillation and a cardiac ablation to fix that, another procedure for the pseudo aneurysm (that was a new experience in pain) that was a complication from the ablation, and two surgeries for melanoma. Those were caught very early, I'm not even doing chemo. Yup, I definitely got the wake-up call. Hopefully things will settle down now, at least for a while.

 

[Moemg]

I would have to say late 60's . I started getting out of breath easier . I have had asthma for years so I was concerned it was cardiac related . It was not it was COPD despite never having been a smoker . After a woe is me stint I started dealing with it by swimming laps three times a week . It has made a huge difference . My life is now manageable .I'll never be able to go to Machu Picchu but there is a ton I can still do .

 

[ejman]

Last year (66) started getting really dizzy and then blacking out. A cardiac monitor showed that my heart was stopping for various periods (sinus arrest), A pacemaker seems to have resolved the issue. The doc said I should be able to do anything I did before and sure enough, got to the top of Mt. Lassen, which I had last done about 30 years ago.

 

[Scuba]

Thanks to this forum and life we've made major changes.

May '15 I had tachycardia and even though my PCP said it wasn't serious, it scared the stuff out of me. He suggested that I lose weight for the 27th time in 15 years and why not? I was obese.

Thanks to another poster here we started using Myfitnespal. DW was obese too, together we've dropped 110 combined pounds. I still log both our meals daily, even though we're in maintenance. I started cooking and we eat mainly at home. Using the app was a great way to learn more about proper nutrition.

BTW: Tachycardia is gone, GERD, snoring, blood chemistry all fixed and no more meds. DW had similar results, including her arthritic knees no longer need meds and she does not have pain.

We started going to the gym, at first just treadmills. Then we started lifting, how much fun is that? When DW started she was a size 8. Couple months later, she lost maybe 5 more pounds, she's a size 4.

We lift 3x weekly, walk most days. We'll be snowshoeing again soon.

My last PCP appointment was a different experience. "You're over 60, put on a couple pounds! I wish all my patients were as concerned about their health as you". I assure you that has never happened before. Thanks to posters here who helped motivate and educate me.

Awesome & inspiring post - congratulations! [emoji322]

 

[sheldon cornped]

Regarding the manual labor comment, unless you have a condition that is negatively affected by certain activities, manual labor is a good form of exercise in and of itself. Doing it safely and knowing your limitations is important. I have always been a DIY'er on small and large home projects. I enjoy the satisfaction of completing a successful project while saving a ton of $$$ to boot.
Did I mention it lowers your WR as well? In addition, we go to the gym 3 times a week for strength training. As many have said here "if you don't have your health you don't have anything".

 

[Bir48die]

I haven't made many changes to my fitness plan over the last 30 years with the exception of no jogging, lowering of weight amounts and less impact. My pull to join some boot camp has waned and I realize that is for the younger generation.

The majority of all my issues have either come from self imposed injuries or hereditary pass ons from my family. Will always have marginally high BP and had severe gout issues until medication. Two things my mom generously passed down. Knees and torn bicep are me doing repetitive exercises.

Diet is sensible and the one thing I could cut down on is drinking. That's the one that will keep a bit of body fat on me. Otherwise it's been decades of making sure I was exercising at something at least 5 days a week even when I had a heavy travel schedule.

 

[Bklyn55]

I decided to use the time I once spent commuting (one hour in traffic every morning), on a treadmill, elliptical or bike instead. I mix in weights three times a week. So far over a 15 pound weight loss and much improved sleep. I feel great.

 

[athena53]

I've always been health-conscious, maybe more so since retirement, which gave me more time to spend in the gym. Over the last year I've gotten serious about upper body workouts in addition to cardio and I love seeing muscle definition in my shoulders! I've cut back on animal proteins and sugar as preventative measures.

I'm almost 65 and I suspect there will be a time when I have to quit the 35-mile charity bike rides or my annual sprint triathlon but I hope it's a long way from now.


Edited to add: I do get more conscious about prevention as I get older and look around at my contemporaries. The ones who have given up on losing weight and who are taking meds for conditions that might go away if they were more active and made healthier eating choices. They have to limit their activities, have more aches and pains, and generally seem to be having a much harder time with the aging process. Many of their issues make it harder to exercise so things get even worse. I'm hoping to postpone that stage indefinitely.

 

[RunningBum]

I'm not sure how to answer either. I've always known health is important in the present and future. In my 30s I got more serious and increased my running, but that was as much to achieve a lifetime goal to do a marathon. In my 40s I got more serious about maintaining fitness and keeping my weight in check and recognized most of my measurable numbers were getting better even with age due to my efforts. In my mid-50s now and some health issues this year have kept me less active and shows me how quickly my fitness can deteriorate, and how that makes me feel.


So answering literally I would say under 30, but relating more specifically for old age health I probably got a lot more focus in my 40s. Or maybe I still have a ways to go since I'm mostly focused on endurance running, and could do better for all around health, especially flexibility. I've heard that a good test is whether you can get up off the floor without using hands or arms (and possibly knees?). I have a hard enough time even using those.

 

[VanWinkle]

I started thinking about mortality about 10-12 years ago. I started going to the gym 3 days a week and watching what I was eating. I now walk 18 holes of golf 2 days a week and then gym the other 3 days of the week. I take weekends off most of the time. My wife joined me most of the time, but has taken some time off due to her chemo treatments. Once Chemo is over, she always starts the exercise program again.

VW

 

[athena53]

BTW: Tachycardia is gone, GERD, snoring, blood chemistry all fixed and no more meds. DW had similar results, including her arthritic knees no longer need meds and she does not have pain.

I LOVE stories such as this! When my friends on FB complain about the high costs of healthcare, I mention the idea of lifestyle changes to prevent what's preventable. They mostly get defensive.

 

[Walt34]

I LOVE stories such as this! When my friends on FB complain about the high costs of healthcare, I mention the idea of lifestyle changes to prevent what's preventable. They mostly get defensive.

Apparently so. When I showed my cardiologist a copy of the workout I was doing at the gym his reaction was a surprised "Nobody does this!"

But there are lots of guys my age (67) at the gym doing that and more. I guess we're a distinct minority though.

 

[Amethyst]

Mr. A. gets comments at the Dr. for the shape he's in. I mean, he has no gut, no moobs, and his legs have muscles you can see. I guess that's just plain astonishin' at his age. He can belt his pants at his (very nice) natural waistline. You'd think it was mandatory that any man over 70 have droopy boobs, a big flabby gut, toothpick legs, and belt his pants just under his arms. But no, plenty of them take good care of themselves and it shows.

Apparently so. When I showed my cardiologist a copy of the workout I was doing at the gym his reaction was a surprised "Nobody does this!"

But there are lots of guys my age (67) at the gym doing that and more. I guess we're a distinct minority though.

 

[FrugalLady]

We don't have the best genes on my mother's side of the family. Grandpa died from brain aneurism at 56, Uncle died at 68, mother died from massive heart attack at 70, and grandma died at 73 from heart failure. By my 40's, I started thinking that I should take better care of myself. Fortunately, I never took up smoking. I go to the gym 3 days per week and have lost a little weight. However, I can tell I have added muscle. Trying to eat healthier. Take supplements by the hand full. Hopefully it will all be worthwhile.....

 

[Dreamer]

The best thing that I ever did for my health, was to quit smoking at 33 years old. I try to watch what I eat some of the time, but need to do a better job. I am still in the normal BMI range though. I work out some, but have to admit that I am not consistent. I signed up to, Maintain Not Gain, at the gym last week.

 

[audreyh1]

I prefer anonymous polls.

 

[Ronstar]

I was a fat 22 year old who ate the wrong foods and drank too much beer. I started eating healthier, reduced beer intake and started exercising. Since then, I've spent the past 40 years fine tuning the diet (with occasional bad food binges) and going in and out of various exercise programs in an effort to improve/maintain health. The latest tweak was to increase hiking/biking/weights and quit running, and decrease sugar and red meat intake.

 

[Souschef]

As DW and I age we get more concerned. She has Afib plus an aortic aneurysm. She is planning to have an ablation shortly to permanently fix the Afib (fingers crossed) so she can get off some of her meds. The aneurysm is under watching with an ultrasound every 6 months.
She is 5 years younger than me.
But my dad died at 92 and my mom at 102. Taking the average, I figure I am good until 97.
Next year I will join the Flying Octogenarians. i plan to keep flying as long as I can pass my medical exam and my biannual checkride.
We just celebrated our 10th anniversary, and I want DW around to at least our 25th.

 

[razztazz]

Not really "Age related" as I was actually just fine. Hercules. Then I let my doctor treat me for diseases he swore I had but didn't. Side effects. Adverse reactions. Destroyed my health for the better part of a decade. I rebuilt myself but some of the damage is permanent and not being able to take most antibiotics considerably shortens my potential for a life as long as I would otherwise have had.