Youth & Vitality

[Gryffindorian]

I will be turning 40 in a few months, and although I feel young at heart, I don't look so young anymore. My hair has always been thinning, but it's become more and more lifeless. I still exercise regularly using my home elliptical machine, but I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll never look as hot as an underwear model for Calvin Klein. I felt "older" when I hit my 30s. Now I'm just starting to feel old.

What say you? Is it possible to still feel healthy and youthful as you reach your 40s, 50s and beyond?

 

[RoJoHen]

My dad is 56 and is still in better shape than me (and I'm in pretty awesome shape!). Whenever I go home to visit, he always wants to lift weights with me. I always refuse because I know he'd kick my ass!

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Definitely. I mostly felt healthy and youthful all the way through my 50's. Probably the best decades of my life have been my 30's and 50's. (Then I turned 60, and all hell broke loose.)

 

[Gryffindorian]

I guess there's still hope for me.

 

[RoJoHen]

I do have to wonder, when you say you still exercise regularly on the elliptical, what exactly does that entail? How long have you been doing it? Do you do the same thing every time?

Your body is highly adaptable, and it will get used to the same workout routine very quickly. I see many people at my gym who only come in and use the treadmill. They have been doing the same thing for years and never get in better shape. It's because their bodies adapted a long time ago to that particular stress, so their workouts really aren't benefitting them much any more.

You can still get into amazing shape in your 40s and 50s, but you have to push yourself to do it.

 

[Gryffindorian]

I've been doing cardio exercise for all of my adult life. I do it at home for 45 minutes on most days. I do push ups and also use 15-pound weights, but other than that I've had very little resistance training, even when I had a gym membership. I didn't know how to get started with weights anyway, and I didn't want to invest a lot of time lifting weights. Occasionally, I use the weight equipment at my employer's gym, but very rarely.

 

[Australis]

I have to get into shape (well, lose a significant amount of weight)and my body's lovin' it, I feel so much better and healthy. Mid 50s, btw, and I don't really look it, I've been told.

 

[RoJoHen]

I've been doing cardio exercise for all of my adult life. I do it at home for 45 minutes on most days. I do push ups and also use 15-pound weights, but other than that I've had very little resistance training, even when I had a gym membership. I didn't know how to get started with weights anyway, and I didn't want to invest a lot of time lifting weights. Occasionally, I use the weight equipment at my employer's gym, but very rarely.

I don't even necessarily mean weight training (though it is very beneficial), but if you're doing the exact same cardio exercise over and over again, you're going to reach a point of diminishing returns.

 

[Gryffindorian]

I've heard about the body's reaching a plateau phase. Would you recommend increasing the duration, intensity, or both?

 

[RoJoHen]

Speed, duration, resistance...mix it all up from time to time.

Is your 45 minutes a struggle? If not, you've reached your plateau.

 

[JoeZhang]

I'm nearly 40 and feel great - I think the big change for me was changing my diet about four or five years - I pretty much make everything I eat from scratch and in moderation.

As for the hair, as soon as that started to go (bald patch at the back), it was a grade two all over - nothing sadder than a combover or growing long strands for careful placement.


The other thing I find important (mentally) is to avoid people stuck in the past, a lot of my old school friends don't seem to do anything but talk about 'the good old days' and school like we all are near death - it's over, it's gone, forget about it, enjoy your life now*.



* admintly that is easier for me than some of them, no kids, no dependants, good income.

 

[Mary Ann]

I'm 45, and while I've been obese for over 20 years I've always done a lot of walking, so my overall physical health is still good (no blood pressure problems or anything like that). While I still felt the same as I always had at 40, I've found over the past two years that I've been slowing down, and that I now have to put more effort into maintaining my physical fitness. For example, if I spend a few days at home with little or no exercise I really notice it when I do venture out again. Of course my excess weight does me no good, and I'm working on that, but as long as you keep on doing what you're doing you won't feel yourself getting older. By the way, my hair is almost completely grey, but as I'm so pale it actually looks good on me!

 

[Sophronisba]

I'm forty-two now; when I turned forty, a couple of my friends took me out to lunch and told me not to be depressed about getting older, because your forties are the best part. And I think that's true; my kids are old enough now that they don't require constant supervision and they are becoming just great people to hang out with. I'm happy with my work and I have a nice lifestyle in that my husband and I own our own business and work from home, so our schedules are really flexible. So I may be older but I think I'm happier than I was ten years ago.

I do make a point of exercising every day and cooking from scratch; I find that makes more and more of a difference in how I feel with every passing year. My body just can't handle junk food the way it could when I was in college.

 

[Mary Ann]

I agree, Sophronisba (welcome!), that cooking from scratch helps you feel better, and that kids growing older and becoming more independent is a very good thing indeed. My youngest child is 13, but when my mother was my age I was 3. The thought of having a toddler underfoot at this point in my life makes me cringe. Small wonder I was left to my own devices a lot (in a safe manner, mind; my mother wasn't one for doing stuff with me, but I was always properly supervised).

 

[ITL]

Youth and vitality? Ah, both receding into the distance. But there you go - could be a lot worse, so I'm fine with it. Although one thing not receding into the distance is my hairline - which in my family is quite the anomaly!

 

[2takesfrakes]

The people who live to be a hundred, or more, always turn out to have been "regular" people, it's just arbitrary. It's genetic. We can only do things to prevent ourselves from dying prematurely - we can't add one day to our lives, unfortunately. Once aging starts, it's like poisoning the well, at a regular pace, until there's no more potable water and we expire. Physically Fit people die at relatively common ages, like their mid-seventies. Exercise and proper diet can only help the Vitality part, Youth is like thinning hair, when it's time for it to go, it's just time for it to go.

 

[Gryffindorian]

Thanks, everyone. I believe there's a saying, "It's not the years in your life that matter, but the life in your years." But as long as I'm healthy enough (my diabetes is under control), I know I can continue to enjoy life. This is why I make sure I get adequate exercise, but my diet could be better, I suppose.

Speed, duration, resistance...mix it all up from time to time.

Is your 45 minutes a struggle? If not, you've reached your plateau.

My energy level varies. Sometimes I feel like I can go beyond 40 minutes of workout and still don't feel tired, but at times even 20 minutes feels like an hour. What I don't like is when my blood sugar drops and I get hypoglycemic during my workout. This is usually due to not eating a substantial meal at lunch, though I make sure I snack on something later in the afternoon.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

I liked my 40s (am less than 100 days from my 50est now). Lately, I started noticing the first signs of age (less elastic and thinner skin, hair thinning, - nerves, too *sigh* - and a few minor signs of wear and tear, but on the whole being 40-ish or 50-ish is not half as bad as people tend to imagine.
Just enjoy life and make sure you have enough time for the things you love and consider important. Don't wait till someone gives you time! Nobody does that. You have to take it!

 

[SmoothieX]

I turn 34 this weekend. Any birthday I stare down at the ground is a good one.

 

[mimic]

My friend Tim will be 54 in two months and he's in fantastic shape. He's into climbing and trail running and martial arts though, and has been for most of his life.