Well done and said. In the spirit of your bio and lifestyle I will post mine.
Eighty is a few months away. Fifteen years ago I decided that I would lead the healthiest life possible. My inspiration was coming across Ralph Maxwell a 90+ year old that established a world record in the decathlon. I learned everything I could about Mr Maxwell and it was evident that his physical fitness allowed him to remain engaged in other facets of life including mental, social, and emotional areas.
I divided my own life into five somewhat loosely defined areas- Physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual and developed exercises in each of those.
It soon became obvious to me that developing and maintaining the physical underlies and contributes to each of the other four.
Physical health can be condensed to diet and exercise and those two can have virtually limitless decisions to make on a daily basis. My daily exercise includes movement to music and most days includes a second 'workout' that might be High Cardio Interval Training or a bit lower wrt cardio. Every day cardio to some degree. I have a list of about ten different methods of movement that achieve that goal. Variety is the spice...
Diet is an area I'm still struggling with to some extent. Very low amounts of sugar, gluten, alcohol along with some meat, mostly chicken and pork, lots of fruit and nuts, some vegetables and almost no highly processed foods. I record my weight daily and that helps some. A few supplements including vitamin D3 based on the insurance concept
The social arena(it's competitive right?) is an area that I have made some strides. My high school was a Jesuit style institution that valued athletics and academics so well into my life those were my passions. The social-mental included barbed remarks from the back of Latin class. Based on competitive sports I accidentally led a physically healthy life by looking to improve or get an edge. To some detriment the competitive aspect could be unhealthy socially but I've recognized that and advanced socially. My wife is my social beacon. Just lucky there.
The mental I address through crossword puzzles, sudoku, Jeopardy, current events, film, and too much doomscrolling. My Jeopardy responses are simply slower but that's to be accepted as part of the physical-mental connection.
On the other hand my social-emotional skills are advancing and they too benefit from viewing them as cross connected. One of my social 'exercises' is to try to make the often multiple short interactions I have during the day win-win. It's easy enough and has some accumulative benefit for both or all parties.
My spiritual go to is humility. Easy enough to acquire again based on luck. I live in Seattle with mountain ranges visible both east and west, multiple rivers and lakes, and trees everywhere. The physical size of those elements of nature as well as the etiology and time spans are lovely paths to humility. |
