grow older better

Tag: healthy aging

  • Aging and Resveratrol

    When I first read this New York Times article about resveratrol I was intrigued. Seems resveratrol is in red wine but I had just read about it elsewhere so I looked thru my computer and found it is in one of the products I take – the one that reduces post exercise aches and pains! So I am getting resveratrol in my body daily – which is good as I don’t like red wine :- )

    A new insight into the reason for aging has been gained by scientists trying to understand how resveratrol, a minor ingredient of red wine, improves the health and lifespan of laboratory mice. They believe that the integrity of chromosomes is compromised as people age, and that resveratrol works by activating a protein known as sirtuin that restores the chromosomes to health.

    Full article HERE

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

  • Wow – even more energy!

    I, a sometimes cynic, am totally impressed with the energy I have of late.

    In my cycling class, for the first time since I started over 2 years ago, I kept up with most of what the instructor was doing – I usually can not. [And she was into standing runs and sprints which I do not like and they generally wear me out quickly.]

    But not now….I have been running – I am waking up very early which is an odd Fall pattern for me as I generally only wake up this early in the summer…

    Where is all this energy coming from? The only change I have made in my life was to start taking a new fat loss product. It spares lean muscle as it targets fat. I can only guess that in losing fat [another inch in the waist and hips] I am changing something in my body balance and that is producing the energy….and I am exercising more strenuously because I have that energy…so I am burning more calories and … and … and …. Some of the ability to maintain the higher level of exercise may be the few accumulated months of taking another product that helps reduce soreness and stiffness due to physical activity or overexertion. It just may be that from now on it WILL take longer for me to wear out when I bike…We’ll see – and I’ll keep you posted.

    I also tried an experiment for a few days last week. After exercising in the AM – I kept my heart rate monitor on for several hours. It’s true – exercising does keep you burning calories for hours afterwards – 200 calories an hour for me – up to 5 hours later [when I took off the monitor as the chest strap gets annoying.] I put the monitor on one day when I did not exercise in the AM.. I burned substantially fewer calories that day when all else was the same except for not exercising.

    My body is functioning much better these days and I ain’t getting younger 🙂 so it’s got to be something else. I’ll keep taking the products because I assume it is they that are doing the good things for me as they are creating my personal version of healthy aging.

    And I really have to add this – it’s making me money ! I am an associate for the company that markets the fat loss product. Neighbors are joining my business and/or just buying the product. They are impressed with my noticeable increase in energy and the lost inches! And in this economy – they love the idea that they too can make money…so it’s a win win win. Why ? This business model works well in a recession… right now who can’t use extra money every month?

    [You can learn more about the product and the potential income by clicking on the link at the top right on this page.]

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

  • Energy Anyone?

    This country is having an energy crisis but that’s not the one I am speaking of right now…I tend to do that elsewhere : -)

    Do you have as much energy as you did say 10 or 20 years ago? I have been thinking about this as a few friends [some older, some younger] have said how tired they are feeling lately. It has nothing to do with exercising as they all exercise to some extent.

    It may have to do with the declining daylight but I’m not sure of that as it was not mentioned in years past.

    I find that my energy varies widely depending on what I am doing and I’m not so sure it’s always age related…I recall when I was a New Yorker who lived a 24-hour-day most of the week. My friends and I lived on little sleep when we were in college…NY never sleeps and neither did we…at least for stretches of time…but I was in my late teens and early 20’s….I then moved to sleepier cities and my habits changed…or was it the fact that I was getting older? Hard to separate the factors.

    But back to 2008. I seem to have more energy than others younger than I…I just had a busy week [which helps account for the lack of posts here – it’s election season.] Here it’s been election season for a long time as our primary was in later May – but right now it’s getting very busy and I am politically active..So I’ve been to meetings and fund raisers – which are actually fun parties – but don’t tell anyone.. Most think of politics as dreary. It energizes me!

    So is my energy coming from the politics or did the new fat loss supplement give me an energy edge? The two happened simultaneously and when I was a researcher – I tended to look at correlations between factors – and I still do. I have also lost more waist inches and a few more pounds. Is it the body change that is energizing me? [or all of the above?]

    Not knowing the specific answer – my thinking is to not change any of what I am doing…Because? I prefer being energized to not being energized – it’s part of my healthy aging “program.”

    And – If nothing else I sure feel good – in fact I feel great and I love that feeling!

    New mantras for us? Feeling great at 68 ! [and soonish] Feeling fine at 69!

    And there is a link at the top right of the page or HERE so you can find out more about this product I am taking.

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

  • Moving – as a Liberating Experience

    I just spoke with a friend of mine who recently left a house and city she had been in for over 45 years!

    Last year when we spoke of her moving she was not sure she could leave the house where she had lived with her husband [who had since died] and her son [who left for college and moved on.] And, of course, all the “stuff” she had accumulated in that time ☺

    She had asked me how I did it – I told her I sold, tossed, shredded and burned and it was liberating to literally dump the past. For me that was 5 years ago and yes I sometimes miss some of the “stuff” I sold but those are momentary musings. But I had moved fairly frequently so I did not have decades of pack rat boxes around….she did.

    When she finally made the decision to move – she moved quickly! Sold her house, decided what to take, what to toss, etc. Now she is 1000’s of miles away from her old house – but near her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren.

    She’s been there about a month and said she knows this was the right move and that it was liberating! We laughed about her going from a life in big cities [like me she is a native Nyer] to the Midwest…..She’s excited and that’s good.

    After that call I reflected on my own move. I went to a city where I knew no one – but it is a city. Unlike my friend, I had decided I needed to live in a city….but then I had my non-city years during which I learned I am a genetic city person.

    My friend, having learned something from me, has her vacation already scheduled –[NY and Boston for a month.]

    I did not feel liberated after my other moves so it may be the aging factor. Is it the shedding of accumulated “stuff” – and the experience of starting over? Is it the distance moved? Is the actual tossing and burning of papers once considered important? Does the shredding and burning represent a real liberation? A psychological breakthrough?

    No matter – now almost 5 years after my departure from New England, I am still feeling liberated. Have I accumulated more “stuff?” Yeah – but as I have a very small house the amount is almost determined for me ☺

    So – moving can be a liberating experience. It need not be traumatic or sad or anything else. Maybe it’s when we can make the decision ourselves instead of it being made for us. If you are happy, healthy and able to look ahead and not dwell on the past – Liberation – here we come!

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,

  • Maybe It’s Time to Start Running Again

    I used to run – not far and not consistently. When I lived in Boston the Boston Marathon always was an incentive to start running but…that fizzled in the heat of a Boston summer or cold of a Boston winter…

    Then in DC I lived near a track and ran on that with some neighbors and trained a bit with a friend who was into marathons. Back in New England I ran again but since arriving in Portland – I have not run at all – oops.. but I walk a lot 🙂

    So when read this today – I thought – hmmm – maybe it is time to start running again..

    Regular running slows the effects of aging, according to a new study from Stanford University School of Medicine that has tracked 500 older runners for more than 20 years. Elderly runners have fewer disabilities, a longer span of active life and are half as likely as aging non runners to die early deaths, the research found.

    “The study has a very pro-exercise message,” said James Fries, MD, an emeritus professor of medicine at the medical school and the study’s senior author. “If you had to pick one thing to make people healthier as they age, it would be aerobic exercise.” The new findings will appear in the Aug. 11 issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

    Full article here

    Tomorrow morning – I’m going out for a run!

    glyconutrients, healthy aging, growing older, aging, nutrition, exercise, eating properly,