Growing Old Gracefully

While spending quality time with my daughter, my best friend, and her daughter and nephew this weekend, I discovered that we are not, in fact, as young as we used to be.  Kristen is about 6 months older than I am, a fact which I revel in every year between her birthday and mine, and we decided to take the kiddos to Stone Mountain Saturday night to see the Laser Show.  We arrived there and home safely, and a good time was had by all.  However, though I didn't say anything then, I was aware that parts of me that never hurt before were giving me issues with having to walk from the lawn to the marina, where we had parked, carrying an armload of "Mommy stuff" for the kids, and verbally herding the kids to the car.  ("Get back here!" "Walk faster!"  "Walk slower"  "GET AWAY FROM THE ROAD!"  "Don't you dare cross that street by yourself!  I don't CARE if there are no cars, you wait for the rest of us!"  etc. etc. etc.)  Anyway, I digress.  This little jaunt made me painfully aware that I am not as young as I thought I was, and therefore, got me to thinking about getting older and how I could possibly go about doing it as gracefully and painlessly as possible.  Then as if the cosmos had aligned to my line of thinking, the following was posted on Tanner Medical Center's website:  5 Ways to Grow Old Gracefully


I am thrilled to post a clip here, but to read the whole article, click here.

In recent years, an increasing amount of scientific evidence has supported the idea that people can do quite a lot on their own to lengthen their life span and to enhance the quality of life as they age. Here are five steps to take every day that can promote healthy aging and boost longevity:

1. Eat healthy foods to help prevent diseases such as heart disease, cancer and stroke.  All of us have room for improvement in our diets.

2. Exercise regularly to achieve better physical and mental health.  It's all about ATTITUDE!  While we all need a day here and there to just veg, doing too much of that is no good for us.  Sitting on the couch for hours on end generally makes one feel like a big, fat, worthless slob.   To improve attitude and esteem, GO OUTSIDE AND DO SOMETHING!  Garden, cut the grass, go for a walk, SOMETHING!  You'll feel 100 times better about yourself and what you accomplished.

3. Perform mentally stimulating activities to help preserve memory. An ongoing study by the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago among others has provided evidence that continuing mentally stimulating activities throughout life may help maintain memory.   You know those crossword puzzles, word finds, tangrams, memory games and sudoku our teachers used to make us do as busy work?  Yeah, turns out they are really REALLY great things to do to preserve our brains and memories. 

4. Get preventive health care tests and screenings to catch disease early.  

5. Maintain a positive attitude and cultivate relationships to be happier and live longer.  This is one I struggle with on a daily basis...mainly because I over-analyze and cause myself a lot of unnecessary stress about current or past relationships and how I could have handled things differently that had gone sour.  I have some of the greatest friends a girl could as for, and I have to attest...being alone sucks.  Nothing drives us insane faster than being alone with our own thoughts for too long.  It's good to have one or two or ten people to bounce our concerns, thoughts, ideas, and problems off of just to gain a different perspective on things and keep us 3-dimensional.  Keep smiling and GO MAKE FRIENDS!  =0)

So, there you have it.  I have decided to do each of these things daily until they become second nature to me, therefore making me the hottest grandma on the block 60 years from now when that time comes ;0)  

Until then, I encourage you to do the same and let me know how it goes!