On Aging: To eat right and exercise or not to...or...Life's better as a MILF/DILF (1 Viewer)

[Xelor]

Wealth is not about having a lot of money; it's about having a lot of options.
-- Chris Rock​

At all stages of the game of life, one thing that make living it highly enjoyable is being desired by or desirable to the objects of ones affection. That's about as easy to achieve as falling off a log when one is young (under 40), and though it's no less fulfilling when one isn't, the aging process makes it an increasingly difficult outcome to obtain. Fortunately, there're ways to do so -- eschewing drugs, consuming modest amounts of alcohol, eating right and working out (aerobics and resistance training) -- however, some folks seem to not care...And, well, that is their choice.

Be that as it may, I was astounded when, grabbing a video for another post, I stumbled across the video below. Truly I was shocked by what some of those folks look like, though in fairness, one of them doesn't look quite as bad as the images suggest (but neither are the images all that far off).

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What surprised me most about the video is that it seems to confirm something Momma told me when she got a facelift (she was 80): don't even think about getting cosmetic plastic surgery before you're 70, and if you look good for a 70-year-old, you should still wait. Looking at some of those women, it's pretty clear why she said that....Whatever "glue" surgeons use to lift stuff sooner or later gives way, and when it does, one'll look worse than one would have had one not previously gotten "whatever" lifted.

Of course one doesn't have to look like "death warmed over" as one ages so long as one is okay with simply looking good for the age one is.

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[OldFatGuy]

My maternal grandfather lived till he was 97. He drank a quart of vodka with breakfast, a quart of rye with dinner, assorted beers in the course of a day, for at least 30 years. I never saw him drunk. He ate one meal daily, continuously, from waking till sleep. Fats, sugars, whatever pleased his eyes. At 90 I took him for his first physical in ten years, with a straight face, the doctor said he was pickled. He chased women until he was 96, but he couldn't always remember what do with them after he hit 95. He died after slipping in the shower, banging his head against a wall, developed an aneurism in the brain, passed in his sleep that night, painlessly. He fought in 6 wars, fathered 14 children, married one woman, fought two duels when younger, kept mistresses, hated sexual deviancy whatever that meant, bred mastiffs as a hobby, loved horseback riding and hunting, and most of all loved his family and friends. No one can explain how or why he lived so long. I can't remember him without a cigar in his mouth, a pack of Lucky Strikes in his pocket. He smoked pot and opium since a child. He was 5'10", backed down from no man, and killed enemies who threatened his family when he could. He taught family and friends came first to his family. He never betrayed either. His marriage was arranged, lasted 51 years and he made my grandmother happy. There is no logical explanation why or how he lived so long in relative good health.

 

[Xelor]

My maternal grandfather lived till he was 97. He drank a quart of vodka with breakfast, a quart of rye with dinner, assorted beers in the course of a day, for at least 30 years....He ate one meal daily, continuously, from waking till sleep. Fats, sugars, whatever pleased his eyes. At 90 I took him for his first physical in ten years, with a straight face, the doctor said he was pickled. He chased women until he was 96, but he couldn't always remember what do with them after he hit 95. He died after slipping in the shower, banging his head against a wall, developed an aneurism in the brain, passed in his sleep that night, painlessly. He fought in 6 wars,...bred mastiffs as a hobby, loved horseback riding and hunting.... No one can explain how or why he lived so long. I can't remember him without a cigar in his mouth, a pack of Lucky Strikes in his pocket. He smoked pot and opium since a child. ...His marriage was arranged... There is no logical explanation why or how he lived so long in relative good health.

Trust me, I do understand where you're coming from, to a point...two quarts of booze daily and one meal attests to genetics, which isn't (yet) controllable. Momma, and Dad for that matter, even as he's passed on, along with my other ancestors also indulged whatever suited them and lived to ripe old ages (88+), several quite a ways into their 90s, though they didn't lead quite as profligate a lifestyle as you describe your grandpa as having lived.

Yours, others' and my ancestors notwithstanding, with my OP, I'm focused on a lifestyle/-span that isn't exceptional and on the merits of doing things in a "sensible" way so as to obtain as much "good life" as one's genetics can sustain. I'm well aware that there will be exceptions, and given the size of the population, the quantity of them will, as an abstract figure, be large-ish. That said, I think that if one's got really good genes, one will enjoy the "good life" -- "good life" meaning one isn't dependent on others to maintain oneself (cook, eat, move about, dress, bathe, think, and the like) -- longer by living fit and healthy and working with, rather than trying to fight "Mother Nature."


If I had to attribute the "old folks'" longevity to anything, I'd cite physicality and eating "real" foods rather than the processed and "enhanced" (be it with preservatives, colorings, or anything else) stuff that's almost hard to avoid these days. Genetics, of course, play a role too, but I think the role genetics plays is to "define" the upper limit of what's possible if one "lives right." Obviously if one's genetic "salad" is such that one's likely to make it past 95 with a quality lifestyle still regardless of what one does, one has more options than do folks whose upper limit might be 87.


FWIW, this thread was inspired by a woman whom I saw at the Christmas party I went to the other day. I haven't seen her in person for some 12 or so years, but I've known her since we were in high school. She's two years older than I, which puts her in her early 60s, yet she looks like she's not a day younger than 75. She's due to get her second facelift in a few weeks. Truly, I felt bad for her when I saw her.

When we saw each other, she said, "Dear, God. You look amazing," and, recalling her as a full-on "movie star" hot woman, it struck me how awful I felt not being able to say "so do you." She was a great looking girl and a gorgeous woman, even in her early 40s when she first started having "this and that" tightened up, sucked out, pushed in, etc...I remember when she got some "minor" work done and I wondered had she lost her mind, and then she had a facelift in her early 50s and I decided she indeed had lost her mind. Unfortunately, it's coming undone and she's having to have it "updated," and frankly, her no-nip-tuck sister, whom I saw a couple years back, looks great, better actually, and not just for a 60-something woman. What's the difference between them? "Suzy Surgery" lives a very indulgent lifestyle, whereas her sister lives lavishly, but healthily. (Strangely, "Suzy" didn't get breast implants, yet that's the only work her sister got.)

Of course, those two aren't the only friends/acquaintances I've encountered from my youth. Other than my closest friend (the party host) from back then, most of them look their age, but they don't look awful for their age. My running buddy and I don't look our age, but we've both been health/fitness junkies since we were kids. We molded ourselves into "jocks" at an early age and found we better liked the responses we got from others as jocks than that which we got as the gangly boys we were before discovering the gym and healthy eating. We stuck with it, and it appears to be paying off.


Red:
LOL


Blue:
When was he born? Where?

 

[Lovebug]

Yes, the age old question of old age, one no one seems to have an answer to. Your Mom must be a very smart lady, and very observant. Some of these cosmetic surgery results make me wonder if the men and women who go through it look in the mirror or have family telling them the truth. Seeing those distorted faces, lips stretched and puffed up...ouch.
Lets go searching for the fountain of youth, or may be just do what we feel we must in order to hang in there as well as we can.

 

[Xelor]

Yes, the age old question of old age, one no one seems to have an answer to. Your Mom must be a very smart lady, and very observant. Some of these cosmetic surgery results make me wonder if the men and women who go through it look in the mirror or have family telling them the truth. Seeing those distorted faces, lips stretched and puffed up...ouch.
Lets go searching for the fountain of youth, or may be just do what we feel we must in order to hang in there as well as we can.

On Momma's behalf, thank you.

She's, by her own troth, not as smart as she used to be, but her powers of observation are no less sharp than ever.

The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.
-- Robert Frost​

 

[OldFatGuy]

My grandfather was born in the mid 1880's, one of 27 children of one married couple from what is now northwestern Russia on the Finnish border in the arctic circle. Facing conscription into the Tsar's cavalry for 20 years because he could ride a horse at 12, he headed here alone because he had a sister already here, somewhere, a mail order bride 10 years before. He didn't find her until the late 1940's living in Philadelphia with a substantial family of her own. Starting at 13, he worked manual labor on the railroads, before settling in NYC, signing up to fight Pancho Villa with Pershing. Throughout his early years here he searched for and found family members who had migrated here since the mid 1700's.

There's no accounting for his life, its length, nor his health and accomplishments or failures. I certainly wouldn't recommend his lifestyle or habits. It wasn't genetics, just luck of the draw. That's my point. Everyone gives advice, but he had it right for himself. He found his comfort zone and luck. Makes no sense. Just the way it is, or was, for him.

During my younger years when my father was stationed abroad, my paternal grandfather had predeceased me, also a father of a large family, a union man and high steel worker who was murdered for organizing a union of steel workers which included workers from the Native American tribes, establishing ties that still exist for my family, it was my maternal grandfather who was the dominant male in the family. He lived to make the family, from both sides and all sides, one. I learned from him, his sons and my father's brothers to be what I am. But I could never live physically as he did, nor indulge myself as he did. All these theories for quality health and longevity seem to have nothing to do with reality. One day maybe? But not yet. There will always be the anomalies who make no sense in both directions and in between.

My mom used to say "some have the genes and others have the jeans, the lucky ones have both."