Elder Motivations

Three sequential events happened so far in 2024 that affects my motivation to stay healthy as I approach seventy years on the planet. In January I weighed the heaviest of my life and retained that weight throughout the winter and into spring. As the year progressed I felt discomfort in my right hip that may be a touch of arthritis, aggravated by being overweight. Then less than two weeks ago the frame on the adult stroller snapped. My main form of exercise during the summer has been on hold since.

These events reveal how my motivation to stay healthy shifted as I face becoming a septuagenarian. Thriving as a caregiver in the present still motivates me, but the threat of impending arthritis concerns me about possible journeys in the future. Ten years ago I last slept out under the stars; I have not gone so long without sleeping outside since before I became a Boy Scout. Even if I never have the opportunity to go on a long distance journey again, I do not want arthritis to be the cause. That means losing weight in the present to avoid the progression of arthritis in the future.

My blood pressure monitor helped motivate me to stay fit in the past. My stressful situation combined with whitecoat syndrome sometimes caused my blood pressure to spike and get rejected as a blood donor. The daily feedback from the monitor motivated me to lower my blood pressure through lifestyle choices such as exercise, which coincidentally kept my weight down as well. Yet this past year my blood pressure stayed relative low despite the weight gain. I continue to go for 5-10 mile jogs with Cindy in the adult stroller, though I now suspect that with my extra blubber what I fancy to be a jog may look like a crawl to an observer.

Evidently, the blood pressure monitor no longer provides enough motivation to control my weight and thwart arthritis. Now I monitor myself with what most people do for losing weight, a scale. I had gone from 20% overweight down to 10% when the stroller broke. After immediately gaining a few pounds back (why is it so much quicker to gain weight than lose it?), I have found other ways to exercise until I repair the stroller, with my scale continuing to be a constant motivator.

I usually focus on the lifestyle factors of being social, positive and active for maintaining brain health. I do this because of their primary importance for living well despite media providing more information about the value of exercise, diet and rest. Yet I find my established routine for lifestyle factors such as being social easy to maintain; diet and exercise proves to be the greater challenge for me.

My next few entries will share the perspective and insights of a long term, septuagenarian caregiver who is motivated to maintain healthy diet, exercise and rest.