Taking care of yourself

[Grandma Helen]

Do you think you take better care of yourself now that you've gotten older?  If you do, why do you think you do it?  I think I take better care of myself, because it finally hit me that if I do I'll give the chronic diseases I have might not win the battle so soon. 

[Woody Woods]

I played sports most of my life and have tried to take good care of myself. I try to eat healthy and have always taken some extra vitamins and minerals. Hopefully this has helped me to be reasonably healthy today at the age of 66......Now if I can only give up the cigs........lol.

[Eaglewoman]

As a younger person I was healthy and didn't think about it much. Worked 33 years on my job with 32 years perfect attendance.After I retired the health took a down turn so have to  work at it to maintain myself.

[dwalt]

I have always been active.  Always ridden horses, hunted, just very outdoorsy.  Was very healthy until 2007 when I developed graves disease. Was sick (still worked) for about a year but it took it's toll. Not being very big (105lbs) it took longer to recover but I'm about back to my old self. Oh, I broke my back in two places, that was not fun.

[Karin M Fichtner]

I think about my health and try to take better care of myself more than when I was young. In those days, I was caring for and feeding four children and a husband. We ate as healthy as our budget would allow. My family's concerns always came before mine. I rarely saw doctors, and seldom took medicines. I didn't get much free time to exercise and couldn't afford to join a gym. When my ex deserted us, I worked two jobs to keep the food on the table, so was always low on sleep and poorly fed. Now, I have no one to care for but me and my dog. I get better sleep, see dr's more often, watch my diet, and take my meds religiously. I quit smoking in '95. So I think I'm taking much better care nowadays.

[Karin M Fichtner]

That's what my boy tells me.  When he was in the Corps, halfway around the world, he'd have a few drinks, and call me and blubber to me how grateful he is to me and how he'd never be where he is without me.  That's how I know he's plastered. ;-)

[Kim]

• According to a million tests results and things that have stated that I have NO risk factors whatsoever (I dont even drink carbonated drinks  because I HATE them), i have supposedly always been healthier than pretty much ANYONE except I had all kinds of pain and problems in my 20's, 30's and 40's and was FINALLY diagnosed with Lyme Disease about 10 years ago. It took 3 years to treat about 12 years of the missed diagnosis. Aside from having  ONE constant headache that only varies in intensity but never goes away, I feel 20 times better NOW than I did THEN and I am so thankful for THAT!! (BELIEVE me, when you have had "worse than a migraine" headaches for 24/7 for 6 months straight and they "decrease" eventually to "I need to take Excedrin 3-5 days a week"....it is a VERY GOOD THING!!)
• However, I've realized that my adoration for fast food bacon cheeseburgers and breakfast sandwhichs and other restaurant NO-NO's are gonna kick me in the butt one day....I'm TRYING to get some excercise in but it is challenging because I'm never sure when I will need to tend to the old lady I live with and care for.

[carol machulski]

Some days I`m more  concious than others of what I put into my body and its possible unhealthy aspects. Right now I`m in Japan enjoying a variety of dishes most of which I`ve never eaten before. When I return I`ll probably return to eating more normally and paying attnetion more carefully to what I eat. I do maintenance of my health and try to address possible problems as I find them.

[mercerquietman]

My entire life I have been conscious of my health. While my habits were not perfect and I admit to being inconsistent at times, I generally avoided eating lots of crap and exercised to at least some extent my whole life. I'm certainly overweight now (about twenty pounds or so), but I'm not near as big as the men in my family who have a tendency to turn obese in their forties. I do gain weight easily, too easily. But I find being conscious of it and watching my diet to some extent and walking lots puts me in far better shape than if I did none of those things. Even when I have been heavy, I find when I jog my "wind" is surprisingly good. A couple years ago I joined Bally's and they had me spend an hour with a trainer to do an assessment. Here an overweight 57 year old was keeping up quite well with this trainer. He complimented me that despite the extra weight I was carrying my cardio performance was surprisingly good. I attributed that to years of walking and jogging. As I'm nearing 60, I've found I do have to watch it a bit and tone down my workouts a tad to prevent injury. I always found the key is never to get discouraged when you find yourself slipping and do SOMEthing. Moderate walking beats the hell out of sitting in front of the TV downing cheetos.

[Grandma Helen]

Phil, that drawing is cute.  I'm walking almost daily, but not far enough to do much good.  I have to start pushing myself more.  Walking to church this morning will push the distance just a little further than I've been going.  Hopefully, the weather this week will be more conducive to walking.  I'm just not comfortable taking the baby too far, if it's threatening to rain.  I love walking in it by myself.  It's kind fun in a strange sort of way.