from our home about half-way between Possum Trot and Monkey’s Eyebrow, KY.
Adapting
to our new travel approach, we enjoyed endured a cold January. There
really isn’t much to catch up on as it has been pretty quiet in our neck of the
woods. Probably the most excitement for us is Jeopardy’s Tournament of
Champions, closely followed by football playoffs and basketball games.
The first of the year seemed like a good time to take an assessment of how we are doing as we navigate this stage of Living Richly. (If you are past 70 years, you will understand there are unexpected challenges. If you are under 70, you will probably have some surprises in your future.) HuffPost had a recent article about the longevity of Super Agers, “not to be confused with with good longevity, with the main difference between them being one’s brain. Studies show that SuperAgers brains resemble those of much younger people.” Hmm…, let’s see how we are doing.
1. Move your body
regularly. (Walking 2 miles 5-6 days a
week, compared to our friend who stepped off over 1000 miles last year and our 90 yr.
old friend who walks 3-4 miles every day, we could do better.)
2. Engage in social
activities. (Tipsy Tuesday, Fridays at the brewery, making friends in our
travels, yep we are doing okay here.)
3. Do what you can to
reduce controllable stress. (Avoiding political discussions and making
progress on limiting social media time. Except for intermittent health issues,
we have very little stress.)
4. Challenge your brain.
(Doing various puzzles like Wordle, Sudoku, Scrabble, etc. The ‘learning
something new’ suggestion was all the incentive ABN needed to order new craft
supplies.)
5. Make time for the
things you enjoy. (We’ve got this one! Travel, friends, good wine, reading,
gardening, sports, and the list goes on.)
We would add one more habit, embrace the humor, there is a lot of fodder in aging. Read the comic strip, Pickles.”
It
looks like we are on our way to being Super Agers, but don’t be surprised if
we have dinner with you on Sunday and don’t remember your name if we encounter
you at Walmart on
Monday.
If you are interested, this book has some good insights on aging well that covers four decades. Apparently the 50’s is not too soon to start planning.
Recently we encountered a friend we had not seen in about 30 years. This sparked an interest in taking a trip down Memory Lane.
Such fun times were these and oh the stories we could share!
The weather has warmed nicely; the snow, ice and single digit temperatures are now an unpleasant memory. Still, we are feeling the pull to our favorite Arizona state parks and our good friends. Roger has been restored and The Wanderer is being prepared. In a few weeks we will be headed west.
