How to get back the motivation to take care of your health?

Ilya

Ilya

New Member
It seems that I am too often lazy from the lack of sense in constant identical physical exercises and from maintaining a proper diet. Why would I do that? My brain doesn't seem to want to find the reason, and the abstract reason for "living long" is too far away.

I even tried to use apps on my phone, for example, to improve memory. But due to the constant need to repeat and the lack of understanding of the final goal and meaning, I periodically drop all this.

How do you find meaning in this and what helps you?
 

Ilya, if not for my wife, my younger grandkids, and the little boy who stays with us every other weekend, I'd lack the motivation, too.
To be honest, if not for them, it wouldn't matter to me if I died sooner than later.

So I guess my answer is; being here for people I love, and people who need me, gives meaning to my methods for staying as healthy as I can.
 
My motivation to take care of myself is staying out of doctors offices and munching on a ton of pills to keep me alive.
I'm 76 now and take no medication and haven't seen a doctor in years.
I stay active. have many hobbies and eat well.
I'm not a health nut and most times I eat what I please. Usually my body tells me when it doesn't appreciate what I'm eating.
Recently I haven't felt well after eating a lot of sweets. It took awhile before it dawned on me that I don't like that feeling and I better quit.
Of course I do indulge now and then.
Exercise for me is not running on a treadmill or doing hours of mindless exercises. I garden and get great satisfaction in the results. In the winter I putter around the house, try new recipes but never spend the day in front of the TV set.
 

My only motivation is the desire to remain independent.

I do fine until I get bored, over confident, or just hit a bump and fall off the wagon.

After a little pity party I climb back up on the wagon and start over.

The good news is that every time I go through this cycle I learn a little something that helps me.

Keep at it, aim for progress not perfection!

Good luck!
 
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Ilya said:
How do you find meaning in this and what helps you?
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(this is a faith-based response...it's who I am and I don't expect everyone to be me)

For me, life's meaning and motivation all comes from Love and Focus. Focus on my life's purpose...and Love.
Love of myself, love of others, and love of God (in opposite order).
We all have an unfulfilled purpose if we are still alive...even if shut-in (bed-ridden).

Focus comes with will-power and that's my struggle.
But prayer helps me with that as I seek first God's will for me and wanting to please Him.

As for health...since my body is to be the "temple of the Lord" then I want it to be clean.
He wouldn't be pleased to live where it's dirty. That motivates me to eat right, exercise, and fill my mind with positivity.

So I start my day with reading a short daily devotion, or listening to Inspirational music on my playlist...and then a prayer.
I'm far from perfect but this practice helps me and I'm really content.
`
 
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Ilya, I have grandkids that keep me motivated. Also several people I go out to eat with. We have long chats with other people next to us in the restaurants. Mostly all older folks like me.​

To live a long life just to see if they put people on Moon or Mars. That I would like to see.​

 
Living alone I think I need to maintain a level of physical fitness in order to be independent. Have no choice really to keep working at it. Struggle at times to get going but everyday i try and accomplish both a cardio exercise (walking the dog a number of times) and physical such as stacking firewood.
 
There's a saying that happiness is something to do.
"Happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for." -- Immanuel Kant
Another that impressed me, "Man who finish house - die" - So it's good to not be finished with everything.

Important activities for me include healthy eating, daily exercise, good sleeping habits, and good habits in general.
I keep an ongoing list of things to do, and never come even close to making a dent in them all but I keep at them anyway.
 
It should be viewed as a ratio. Like a 20 year old body organ is capable of withstanding X number of things not healthy. A 70 year old body is less capable by a factor of Y. Y=time, exercise and food intake. You can't treat a 70 year old body the same as you would a 20 year old body.
 
Loving these responses.

Like so many, my grown children and my grandson are a big motivation to stay as healthy and alert as i can for as long as i can. Usually the only thing i see Doctor for is my annual check up, or to review lab results after they get them back. My Insurance is a good Medicare maintenance plan so those visits are covered. (Saves them $$ in long run if any issues that need addressing are caught early), that i don't have to squeeze those annuals into my budget helps.

i have never been an 'exercise just for the sake of exercising' person. But i do stretches in the morning. And if my lower back starts acting up the 'Superman' thing Lay on floor, lift legs, stretch arms out in front of you (mimicking the Superman flight pose) and lift as much of upper torso, shoulders and arms as you can off the floor. It helps me. A lot of my 'exercise' comes from routine chores so i can't 'forget' or let them slide. Tho unless under a LOT of stress my memory is very good.

i play video games like 'Bookworm' and various 'matching' type games matching games to exercise my brain because staying sharp mentally is important to me and that's a fun way to do it.
 
Cameron said:
Living alone I think I need to maintain a level of physical fitness in order to be independent. Have no choice really to keep working at it. Struggle at times to get going but everyday i try and accomplish both a cardio exercise (walking the dog a number of times) and physical such as stacking firewood.
Click to expand...
Luckily my daughter lives with me but she works full time so i'm on my own a lot. Stacking and some splitting of Firewood looms large on my list of 'chores'. i don't have to walk my grand-dog, because we have lead that's attached to a huge log and her to keep her from harassing neighbors livestock or tangling with wild critters at night. (We have some big ones that come thru our land. but they generally stay clear of the 'house yard'. ) But i do sometimes, when ground not soggy as it is right now from almost a month of daily rain, walk her on a leash around our place, and i'll take walks to see what is blooming--wet years like this one we often get plants that have laid dormant during our usually drier summers popping up.
 
Ruth n Jersey said:
My motivation to take care of myself is staying out of doctors offices and munching on a ton of pills to keep me alive.
I'm 76 now and take no medication and haven't seen a doctor in years.
I stay active. have many hobbies and eat well.
I'm not a health nut and most times I eat what I please. Usually my body tells me when it doesn't appreciate what I'm eating.
Recently I haven't felt well after eating a lot of sweets. It took awhile before it dawned on me that I don't like that feeling and I better quit.
Of course I do indulge now and then.
Exercise for me is not running on a treadmill or doing hours of mindless exercises. I garden and get great satisfaction in the results. In the winter I putter around the house, try new recipes but never spend the day in front of the TV set.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you're doing really well. Not a fan of prescriptions for everything. i only have two: One is steroidal eye drops because i have corneal implants the other is Levothyroxine which i've been on for some 20 yrs. i know my body well and i knew my energy levels had dropped drastically, but first doctor i talked to about it kept dismissing as 'normal aging', because i worked full time had minor child still at home and did all the necessary things. i kept saying 'No, you don't understand my 'normal' was way above what most people's my age was---i know something's wrong. Sure enough, a new GP ran a TSH test and thankfully i had no ill side effects from it.
i routinely inform GP's (my Insurance actually motivates by picking up whole tab on annual check ups) that i will not get on the merry go round of taking pill A for an issue then pill B for the side effects of A and C for those of B etc.
 
cdestroyer said:
why would you want to live a long life,,say 150 years...what you gonna see or do during that time that would satisfy you
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Not to mention, some of us in our 70s already---what makes anyone think think all the world's problems are going to be solved/fixed in that time? But even the world was 'perfect' who wants to stay in these bodies another 70+ years. Some of us talked about this on the thread about Silicon Valley types wanting to extend life to 150 yrs. No thank you, not for me.
 

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