My dad was pretty active when he was young. He grew up on a farm in Kentucky so he was no stranger to a hard day's work. During his adult life he played basketball alot and when he wasn't doing that you could usually find him swimming. He was an engineer for 30+ years, and like most Americans he packed on some pounds as he got older. His diet has always been pretty good because he grew up in a time of few processed foods, therefore he loves to eat fresh fruits, veggies, and meats. The problem is - he's a big guy with a big appetite so he eats way too much. My mom said he used to order 2 dinners any time they would go out to eat. Yikes. Finally ...he has been a lifelong alcoholic. After nearly dying from alcohol poisoning twice he has kept his drinking to a minimum. He will be 80 this year (my mom is 71, I was a late baby) so he's had his share of injuries and health issues.
Despite dealing with a lifetime of alcohol addiction and a ugly divorce, he keeps on truckin along every day. He lives alone in a crappy apartment and works as a pizza driver. Yet he maintains a positive attitude. He's always friendly and sociable with his pizza customers and will stay until 1am scrubbing dishes and taking out the trash while the 20 year olds stand around and complain. He swims every day and spends his spare time working on his old cars with a mechanic friend of his. He is one of the most active 80 year olds I have known, second only to his 84 year old sister who still plays basketball.
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| My aunt, my dad and me -2009 |
When I talked to him this morning he mentioned to me he has lost about 10 lbs. He's already pretty active so I wondered what he had done to lose the weight. He said he has been eating less - a necessary change for him since he does tend to overeat - and he has also been much more active this summer. He's spent alot of time fixing his cars, going to junkyards and hauling around big heavy car parts and what not. Being a mechanic forces him to bend, stretch, and support his entire body as he gets up under those cars. He's using all kinds of muscles in his body just to do this type of work. He swims every day, sometimes twice. And you would think a pizza driver doesn't do a whole lot, but he has to help out in the kitchen when he's not driving and he helps close the store. Alot of manual labor involved there, and he'll be the first one to volunteer to do the grunt work.
Then he said this - losing a little bit of weight and all that hard work has made him stronger. He can now do all of these things with much more ease. He feels better, stronger, and is able to tolerate the summer heat much better.
I was thrilled to hear my dad say these things. For someone who is almost 80 and has hit rock bottom before, just hearing him say this made me incredibly happy. He says he delivered a pizza to the nursing home in town and saw other people his age who loved it there because everything was done for them. This idea is unacceptable to my dad. He is happiest when he can stay busy and do things for himself. But he fears one day he will suffer an injury or a health problem and that it will all be over. And yes, one day it will happen. But I told him that in order to stay out of that nursing home as long as he can, he just needs to keep on doing exactly what he's doing. Be active. Do things for yourself. Keep on working your job and tinkering with your cars. People who are sedentary are usually the ones who wind up with injuries and health complications. By using his muscles he is strengthening his knees, back, shoulders, etc so he is less likely to injure them. He's keeping his heart and lungs healthy so he can stay out of that nursing home. He's still ridiculously intelligent - he'll talk about mechanics or science for 10 minutes and I have no idea what he's talking about because it's so beyond me. He's doing the best he can do with his life. I'm really proud of him.
I feel this is a lesson we can all benefit from. If we stay active into our old age, not only will we be able to do things for ourselves but we will still be doing the things we love, instead of sitting in a bed hooked up to a bunch of tubes. Our minds will still be sharp. We'll still be sharing stories with our families.
I hope I'm still active when I'm his age, and I'm gonna try my best to make sure I can be.
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