Making good health a priority in retirement

twh601

Hi,
New member here. Today is my 1st official day of retirement after many years in healthcare (oncology nutrition & behavior scientist) taking care of others (including 3 kids, grandkids and siblings). Now it’s time to take care of me and make my own health a priority! My goal is to complete a weeklong backpacking trip in CO with my daughter. And to 1) lose 20 pounds gained these last two years; 2) strengthen my muscles - especially lower and 3) walk up to 12 miles a day comfortably with a backpack. (Did it across the Alps a couple of years ago for 10 days so I know it’s possible.) Would love to hear about you and your goals to live a healthy “senior” lifestyle. Thanks!

sijomial

Congrats! :flowerforyou:
Retirement is a proper lifestyle change and a good time for reflection and change.

Personally I split healthy retirement into three elements: physical, mental and emotional.

Physical was easy as I love exercise and simply staying active and having more time was and remains wonderful. I was already a good weight and quite fit before retirement but have taken my fitness to levels I didn't expect. I've always challenged myself in sports and exercise and that hasn't changed with age. Sleep was interesting as I could now adopt my favoured late to bed, late to get up routine as I'm not driven by clocks and timetables. Quantity and quality of sleep is far better and I feel more lively as a result.

Mental side I realised had to compensate for when you are working in a fast-changing and demanding environment it keeps you mentally sharp because you have to keep learning. In retirement I have to drive myself not to stagnate so have deliberately challenged and expanded into new knowledge areas and skills. Considered formal education or training but decided instead to take up a part time and very varied job in a completely different field to my career(s). Mentally about the only thing I miss about my former life in IT is the problem solving aspect so I do try to compensate where I can plus daily puzzles to keep the brain working.

Emotional aspect I found quite surprising. My last job was 99% conflict and losing that stress was fantastic. Saw my blood pressure reduce spontaneously over several weeks - didn't know I had been stressed as stress was simply normal life for me for the previous 20 years. Also made me evaluate what and who is most important to me. Far more time for family has been great.

AnnPT77

Hello, and welcome to the MFP Community!

It sounds like you have some great goals, realistic ones, and that's a great start. What's the plan, now, for chipping away at accomplishing them . . . or is that still in the thinking stages?

I'm 66, enjoy being active and getting good nutrition (by eating yummy things). MFP helps me structure the latter, especially.

I got active in my mid-40s after treatment for stage III breast cancer. (Tip of my hat to you and others in your profession here, because the oncology staff here were wonderful humans, as I'm sure you are, too; and as gratitude to the entire specialty, as I've found being alive to be a great start to my day, every day, so far.) Back then, after sampling many things, I found rowing (on water when I can, machines when I must), and I do it out of sheer enjoyment. It's a bonus that it's also good for me. Besides that, I like to bike (outdoor in Summer, indoor in Winter), among other things.

I decided, post cancer, to retire as soon as I thought I could swing it, because it would have been really a drag to get metastatic BC before I could get around to retirement. So, though I was in a comfortable but not super-lucrative middle-management job in higher education administration (IT), I focused my mind on making that work, and retired at 51.

I'm not the structured, balanced human that sijomial above is, or that it sounds like you are. I'm sort of an aging hippie hedonist. Calorie counting has been perfect for me, as a weight management approach: It lets me eat every delicious calorie I earn now, but keeps me in a healthy weight zone so that future Ann can be happier, longer, too. Plus, as a retired IT person myself, it appeals to my inner data geek.

Despite the rowing - including training regularly and even racing - I stayed overweight to class 1 obese for another dozen years after becoming active, until 9+ years after I retired, then lost 50+ pounds (using MFP), from that weight to a healthy weight, have been at a healthy weight for 6+ years since.

For me, retirement was . . . an interesting transition. I wasn't bored or anything - I've always had so many hobbies that I couldn't possibly get to all of them. But I found that there was a passage that felt like I needed a biochemical/physiological transition, almost. I was used to working at a high-stress job where I changed subjects or topics hour by hour, even minute by minute sometimes. When I retired, it was like my body expected that pace. I'd find myself struggling to relax into one pursuit comfortably, feeling driven to shift activities kind of meaninglessly (and slightly dysfunctionally) through the day. Eventually, that calmed down, but it was weird for a while there!

I tend to tell other people about this, in case it happens to them (as it has, to some of my friends). It passes. I feel like a handful of people I know returned to working, because of similar feelings, but having had a different reaction to them. Finding a new structure and routine in retirement is the useful thing, but patience was useful for me, in addition to planning. (Maybe I'm just weird, dunno.)

Retirement is great: I get to do those hobbies, shop when all the workers aren't in the stores, row during the daytime instead of only before/after work, and generally have a bundle of flexibility. I love it. I hope you will, too!

Best wishes for achieving your goals with MFP, too!