Boomer Buddy,
On every other Friday I have decided to write to my Boomer Buddies and my other readers out there sharing my insights and talking about what is going on in my life so here goes my first one. My posts will be in the BOOMER CATEGORY.
I was just thinking…
62, that’s what I am. 62 years old-am I young-am I old-how do I act in this life… I am torn. In my mind I am still so young…I did not understand when I was young why older people told me they felt so young; they looked pretty old to me. Now that I am 62 I am feeling ageless too. My skin is great and many think I am much younger, but my body- my body is a wreck. If I don’t look in the mirror or move I feel like a teenager. So there it is if I don’t move I can ignore how old I am but when I do anything physical I am faced with the fact that I have let myself go so I am old. My joints pop and crackle, I’m stiff- when I get up in the morning, or if I get up from the computer after about 30 minutes…..let’s face it I’m stiff a lot. Am I buying in to these conditions because they go with age? Well to be honest, yes, I was.
I had given up and was just doing and eating what ever I wanted to. Why not? I am old . . . or am I?
I was convinced I was on the way out. I couldn’t loose weight, I was like those TV celebrities needing those incontinence products…I was legally blind from cataracts, I was falling apart!
62 and done.
I DON”T THINK SO!
I had to reassess what was going on with my body. What makes me so different from those women you see on TV many over 70 and looking great? And then it hit me and hit me hard discipline and exercise. Because they are in the public eye they must pay attention to themselves. Me, divorced, raising kids, and a grandchild, who cared how I looked. I wasn’t in the public eye, unless you consider a trip to the mailbox or the nearest Walmart in the public eye. But in thinking it through I realized it doesn’t matter who sees me what matters is how I see myself and honestly I wasn’t liking what I was seeing. Oh how I hated that it was not my age but my inactivity and bad eating habits taking away my youth and not my age. No getting around it, I was in the condition I was in because of me, no other influence, just me. Can you imagine finally accepting I did this to myself. How much easier it was to hide behind “I’m old, stressed, cut me some slack” but there is no slack.
My incontinence who knew it was just because I have lost muscle tone in my core so I was losing control. Recently I have been doing exercises you know those keigle exercises for sex, building up my muscle control down there and lo and behold incontinence greatly diminished. I didn’t need medication I needed to exercise. I can only imagine how many other women suffer especially because our muscles get stretched having children or bad posture and if we rebuilt our core we could skip the medication and get back to normal just by exercising.
So here is my declaration… I am going to set out from now on to watch what I eat and to exercise every day even if it is only to park farther from a destination and walk from the parking lot. And while I am doing this for me I will share with you my Boomer Buddy all the things I find out along the way. And most importantly I am not going to take myself to seriously. I will be having fun, lots of fun.
This Blog is special to me because it allows me to reach out to new friends to share with and enjoy. Helping my daughter with her son and taking care of the house while she is working toward her career have isolated me to where I am alone.
I would love to hear from you about your struggles and triumphs. Use the comment box and shoot me a text. lol
Take care and be safe. until later… betti : )
Cook, Party, Enjoy! 