Three Principles for Healthy Retirement Living

Three principles for living a healthy, long and motivated life in retirement. Keep focused on what's important and don't overdo or obsess about stuff. Do what you love, but don't do too much of it!

Healthy Retirement Living

Well, you've made it! You survived your working years and have actually got to your retirement years! Well done! You thought at times that you'd never make it. You've been through enormous stresses at various times - work crises, family crises, crises of your own making or crises made by others. Yet here you are. You're on the brink of a vast expanse of unknown and uncharted territory. How far does the horizon stretch? It seems to stretch away for ever, but how far does it really go? In a way you're afraid to find out, because of course what lies over that distant horizon is not pleasant to think about. For over that far horizon is the shore to an even greater horizon, one that is limitless and infinite, and quite unknown.

However, in the meantime, what about this unexplored territory right in front of you? This retirement land. What to do with it?

You may not have realized it, but what you do when you retire can have a direct impact upon how long you get to do it! Your activities affect your health and even your life expectancy. You may have made wise investments (if there is such a thing any more!) and retired with a sizable nest egg to let you live in luxury until the end of your days. But if you plant yourself in front of your TV set, with a glass of wine and live the life of a spectator, chances are your spectator days will be short!

So, how do you achieve healthy retirement living?

The thing about the human body is that it needs to be used in order to survive well. Same goes for your brain! So, it's what we do when we retire that determines the quality of our life and the degree of good health that we can enjoy. What will you DO with yourself to ensure long, fulfilling and healthy retirement living? Here are some of the things that I'm doing: my Three Principles of Healthy Retirement Living.

1. Stay physically active.

For sixty-six years I got up every day and went out somewhere. That business of "going out" took various degrees of effort, depending on my stage of life. It often involved walking a mile or two to get where I was going. It often involved hard physical labour to climb a Welsh mountain, but one way or another, it required physical exertion.

I happen to be married to a nurse who works in administration at a local hospital. So we walk together to his hospital every morning. It takes about twenty minutes. We say goodbye, and I walk back. A forty minute walk every weekday in rain, shine or snow, in heat or cold, at seven in the morning. I go shopping every day to top up the fridge of the bed and breakfast apartment that I run. A few times a week I have to make the beds, clean the B and B apartment, sweep the leaves in autumn, shovel the snow in winter.

Physical activity will do wonders for your health. At this age I just have to work it into the daily routine naturally. Other more formal exercise, if you can manage it is good too - but be careful. I used to run about three or four miles a day. I got out of the habit for various reasons, and when I retired I tried to get back into it, but the effort was enormous and I was unable to do it any more. I tried a Boot Camp once a week where they took people with heart issues (so I'd be near the Emergency department just in case!) - but it was soooo much effort and stress, I decided it wasn't for me. I saw it through to the end, and then thought, "why am I doing this?" It's not as if I'll ever become a Calvin Klein underwear model again! Not that I ever was.

So my advice is, stay active, but don't overdo it. Incorporate physical activity into your everyday routines. Walk to the shops, don't drive or take the bus. Go for a pleasant stroll on a nice day. Ride a bike in the park. Go up and down the stairs several times a day. Just. Keep. Physically. Active.

2. Stay mentally alert.

I can't think of anything I dread more that losing my marbles! Actually my family and friends have been convinced for years that I already have! However, since my worst mental issue is memory, and since even when I was a teen, my own mother accused me of deliberately forgetting stuff... well, I'm not worried that I'm actually losing my memory, I just never had it to begin with! However, the threat of Alzheimer's is one of my biggest fears. A close colleague died a few years ago at the age of 69 (my age now), from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. I saw her a few months before her death, and although she knew who I was, she was in a home and it did not look to be fun. Her vacant hollow face haunts me still, superimposed upon the dynamic and strong-willed person she once was.

So when I first retired, I took to completing crossword puzzles every day, feeling that maybe I needed some mental stimulation now that I didn't have the mental challenges of my previous occupation. However, crosswords are essentially boring and not my thing at all. Or maybe I'm just no good at them. Then in an email I was alerted to a website that provides mentally stimulating puzzles and logic tests. I did a free trial of some of the services. However, I found it a bit stressful, and didn't think I really wanted to join up and pay the monthly fee, so I didn't pursue it.

So, you may be asking, how do I maintain some level of mental stimulus? As you may have concluded by now, this blog and its' associated activities, is the answer. I have been through quite a learning process to be able to construct this blog in a program called, "WordPress." The actual writing itself, is something I have always done. Writing has been a big part of my life, both creative writing and technical or report writing in a number of disciplines. So this blog is a way of continuing that. I am also having to learn about Internet Marketing - IM - and to learn about "web traffic" and a host of other things. Sometimes I fall asleep at the keyboard when the information overload gets too much!

However, this activity and the learning process is both motivating and mentally challenging. I've been comfortable with computers from early on, having bought my first 128K Mac in 1984. I am now venturing into a whole new world, the existence of which I was completely ignorant just eighteen months ago. When I started this blog in the spring of this year, it was complete hubris to imagine that I could ever get to the point where I would be dishing out advice on, "How To Make Money Online!" And, of course, I'm still not. I'm not making money, and I'm not dishing out advice! But I can see the day coming when I shall succeed. I'm not giving up. It's a challenge and I will rise to it.

So my advice to my fellow boomer retirees, is to take on some challenge that is meaningful to you, and to pursue it until you succeed. Go at it as if it's the last thing you do... because, guess what? It may well be the last thing you do. Be passionate about it, be proud of it. These years may well be your real legacy - and not that career you spent 35 years on! Think about that! You may well live longer because of it than if you do nothing - almost certainly you will.

3. Stay healthy.

When I was in my late forties, I used to joke that I must be approaching my "best before" date! Within just a few short years into my early fifties, I had a succession of health issues. I had been well and healthy all my life, but suddenly the bottom seemed to fall out of my world. I had shingles, then I had gall bladder surgery, then I had a heart attack - two actually, one week apart, later I had a hernia operation, plus I'm coping with the unpronounceable Dupuytren's Contracture, and not to even mention benign prostate enlargement (BPH) or erectile dysfunction (ED). Yes, it's horribly true, I now suffer from Acronyms. I thought my entire body was going to slowly fall apart!

I recovered from much of this in due course, and even got back to running again for a few years. Then I started to fall over all the time, returning bloodied and lame several times a week. Enough! I stopped running. Then I got fat! If you have heart issues, there is nothing worse for you than gaining weight around the middle. I seemed to be spiraling out of control.

I am not one to suffer in silence, much as I'd like to be stoic and brave in the face of my own mortality. I complain. Often loudly. This, it turns out is not such a bad thing. And here is the real advice - when something feels wrong, go do something about it. I can never understand someone who says, "I'm scared to go to the doctor in case it's cancer." WHAT? If I thought I had cancer - and many times I've thought exactly that (I've had three prostate biopsies) - I would be instantly out the door and on the way to see my doctor.

You don't always have much say in what goes wrong in your body, but when you sense something is wrong, get it seen to as soon as you possibly can. On the other hand, practice preventive healthy living. Don't drink to excess, don't overeat, don't smoke. "Moderation in all things," is a good motto to live by, especially with advancing years.

Keep Active, Stay Alert, Stay Healthy. Three principles to live by for Healthy Retirement Living. I wish you a long and fulfilling one.