healthy aging 
while lowering cholesterol

Is healthy aging possible? When my cholesterol began to drop, my symptoms of old age diminished somewhat also,  I am 74 years old and feel so much better since I began my quest to lower my cholesterol.  My skin is still a bit crinkly, but it feels so much better.  Before I began to eat healthier, I was more easily tired. I  have energy again.

My kids have always told me I looked young for my age.  They might be buttering me up, but there are a few tricks I've learned through the years to make myself seem younger.  I didn't think much about it until I began to eat more carefully and to get some daily exercise.  Now, I can't deny how much better I feel.

Cholesterol tends to increase as we age, but it can be lowered through living a healthy lifestyle.

Choose healthy aging
How to seem younger than you are

healthy aging habits:

• Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Yummm, did someone say smoothie.
• Don't stay home all day every day watching tv.
• Put on a little make-up each day and a squirt of perfume for women. Men need to shave and use a nice smelling aftershave or cologne.
  
• Do go outside and get some vitamin D.  Walk the dog.  Pull some weeds. Visit your neighbors.
  
• Do floor exercises if you don't feel like walking.
• Lift some small weights
• Invite someone to come have lunch with you.
  
•  Go to the show with a friend or a grandchild or even alone (don't sit at home all the time).
• If you are a female, don't wear your hair hanging straight down. Get it styled or pull it back and up on the sides.
• Keep you mind active.  Learn something new as often as possible. the internet is full of brain teasing sites. Get a computer or an iPad. You could play "words with friends" with me (smile).
  
• When you stand, stand up straight.  Old folks tend to bend over and shuffle when they walk. You can fool people into subtracting from your age just by standing tall and walking straight.  
  
• do something for somebody else--making others happy makes you feel happier.
• For healthy aging you need to think young - When I was little I asked my grandmother how it felt to be older.  She smiled and said that she felt the same as she had always felt.  Now that I am older I agree.  Not physically maybe, but I don't feel different than I did when I was a teenager,  You will always be yourself no matter how old you get.
  
• Surround yourself with positive people. Be happy. Let things go. It is so uplifting.

I don't expect to have every symptom I hear about older folks having, but some of them I do have.  I have low back pain and a titanium joint in my left big toe.  I had a crossover toe that needed surgery.  Don't say you are too old to take care of health problems. They are not inevitable. We all age differently. Be careful not to take too many medications. You can talk to your doctor about this. Only take medicine if you truly need it.

I still remember my husband's mother-in-law's behavior when she was in her late seventies. We were at the store in the checkout line, when two little old ladies got into line ahead of us.  She looked at me and said, "Why do old people always think they can get in front of other people."  I thought,  wow, she doesn't even know she might be older than the crowding folks." I guess this shows that we are only as old as we perceive ourselves to be so. If you think of yourself as young, others will too,  I can still play horse with my grandkids, and if they are trying hard to make trick shots or long shots, I can still win occasionally. 

healthy aging  through proper diet and exercise helps improve the following problems associated with aging:

• Range of movement
• Sleeplessness
• Pain
• weight gain
• Attitude

This is my grandmother who was still driving when she celebrated her 80th and 90th birthdays. She played canasta in her 90's. She taught me to knit, to crochet, to bake bread and was the classic example of how to age gracefully.She married for the second time when she was in her 60s and that marriage lasted for twenty years-until her husband passed away. She was active her whole life. She was my example of healthy aging..

"help, I've fallen and I can't get up"

I don't know where I first heard that expression, but after a certain age we all fear getting down on the floor, because it might be hard to get up.  It is not necessarily that we have fallen, We may choose to get on the floor and then be stuck. My husband and I joke about this sometimes, but it's no joking matter if it happens.

Everyday I sit on the floor at some time or another.  Maybe to pet the dog or to sit by the bookshelf and sort books.  There are many reasons to get down, but you want to be able to get up when you are down.  This is one reason I get down-to practice getting up.  If you are close to furniture, you can use it to pull yourself up.  You can scoot to furniture if it is far away.  I always use my arms on the floor to push myself up from the floor--like weird pushups. Find a method that works for you and practice it. 

I saw a movie with a scene about an older couple who went on  picnic at a cemetery and after sitting on the blanket on the ground, neither of them could get up. It was funny in the movie, because there is some truth in it. I think there were enough stones to pull up on, but they didn't think of that.

The best thing to do is to keep your body supple is exercise regularly. Walk, hop, skip, twirl--stay active, and don't forget to sit on the floor. Keep those muscles in use. 

Antioxidants may be the key to living a  
longer healthier life

There is so much research now on the benefits of getting plenty of antioxidants.  A study was done in the seventies on some laboratory animals in which their life was extended after being put on a diet rich in antioxidants.  Healthy aging is also enhanced for people with a diet containing antioxidants. A bowl of fresh fruit instead of a heavy breakfast will be beneficial to our bodies. If we consume antioxidants daily, our lives can be extended. We will feel and probably even look younger.

wrinkles, wrinkles, wrinkles

Face lifts don't appeal to me.  The more times people get their face lifted, the stranger they look. The lift doesn't seem to be permanent. Some wrinkles are going to happen.  I have heard they give you character.  I don't know about that.

Maybe tangelos can help prevent wrinkles.  I haven't tried this yet.  In Woman's World Magazine, I read, "The tangelo is one of the best food sources of hesperidin, a bioflavonoid that strengthens capillaries and connective tissue.  It reduces bruising and varicose veins, while preventing the breakdown of collagen, staving off sagging and wrinkles.  Since studies show hesperidin needs vitamin C to work, a tasty tangelo --which contains lots of both-- is the perfect one-two punch for healthy skin!"

Use a daily moisturizer. Our skins dries out easily when we are older. You can also oil your body by eating the Budwig Protocol breakfast.

tangerines

Tangerines and maybe other citrus can help:

• with weight loss
• lower cholesterol
• block plaque buildup in arteries
• reduce stroke 
• prevent heart disease
• prevent type 2 diabetes

The following quote is by Douglas MacArthur
He said this when  
he was 75 years old.

Words to Age by

"Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals.  Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul. In the central place of every heart, there is a recording chamber; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer and courage, so long are you young.  When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and then only are you grown old."

I would love to see your comments on healthy aging. Share your story below.

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