How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

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TopHatFox
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How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by TopHatFox »

My goal: trying my best to maintain functional fitness, a relatively lean aesthetic, my original teeth, and a resilient/loving mindset from age 21 through, say, 80-100.

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The strategies:

1. A holistic, unprocessed vegan diet w/ a vit B-12 supplement
2. Intermittent fasting via the Warrior Diet
3. Muscle over motor whenever possible
4. Progressive Acrobatics/body weight training
5. Cold showers/cold training (includes lots of flexibility training)
6. Vision training (maintaining 20/20-30 even under advanced age)
7. Trying my best to learn more on & practice stoicism as a main philosophy
8. Learning all I can about emotion sharing/listening & interpersonal connection
9. Learning about risk management, first aid, etc.
10. Having the money resources to see holistic health people, or western medicine people, when necessary

-----------------------------------------------------

Interestingly, most if not all of the things above can be integrated into daily life, so doing them eventually feels intuitive & normal.

Any other suggestions?

I really like this site-- http://gettingstronger.org/ --it's a mine for emotional & physical growth.
Last edited by TopHatFox on Sat Jun 27, 2015 9:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

henrik
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by henrik »

Zalo wrote:A holistic vegan diet
Isn't that an oxymoron?

TopHatFox
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by TopHatFox »

henrik wrote:
Zalo wrote:A holistic vegan diet
Isn't that an oxymoron?
Hm, depends on how broad your definition of holistic is. A holistic vegan diet means a diet that includes balanced meals from all food groups available under the vegan diet; a holistic omnivorous diet means a diet that includes balanced meals from all food groups available to that diet. But more food groups does not necessarily mean better.

Hoosier Daddy
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by Hoosier Daddy »

Do we believe meat will shorten your life? I eat 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight and strength train 6 days a week. I often worry about this as I hear it a lot but the fact of the matter is when you get older you get weaker, thus I would think maintaining strength at younger ages (I'm 25) would give you a better starting point from which to deteriorate... Disagree?

Kriegsspiel
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by Kriegsspiel »

Lift weights.

steveo73
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by steveo73 »

I like those points above but I doubt I could be so focussed. Personally I also like meat and intend to eat it for life.

BeyondtheWrap
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by BeyondtheWrap »

Get plenty of sleep!

Kriegsspiel
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by Kriegsspiel »

steveo73 wrote:I like those points above but I doubt I could be so focussed. Personally I also like meat and intend to eat it for life.
I'd also continue eating meat, but I don't think I could convince anyone it leads to a longer life. Just a better one.



Hmm, I just reread Zalo's original post, and I see he isn't just going for a long life. Eat some damn chicken, in that case!

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Ego
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by Ego »

Two things.

1) Introduce (or induce) volatility. As we age we (typically) gain increasing control over our circumstances. Most use that control to eliminate volatility, randomness, disorder, stressors and uncertainty from their lives. That control can also be used to do the opposite, to increase volatility.

From a health and fitness perspective that may involve cycling a different route every day, walking backwards, taking a zumba class, reversing the utensils in your hands while eating, juggling unusual objects, and/or using a random method to determine your daily workout.

I like the philosophy underlying Crossfit
We have sought to build a program that will best prepare trainees for any physical contingency — not only for the unknown, but for the unknowable.

using

Increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains.
2) Aging = Decline. This belief is destructive. Friendly competition is an antidote.

chenda
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by chenda »

Use suncream.

tonyedgecombe
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by tonyedgecombe »

chenda wrote:Use suncream.
Does it really work?

chenda
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by chenda »

tonyedgecombe wrote:
chenda wrote:Use suncream.
Does it really work?
Yes although you need to be careful of what you buy. Physical suncream (containing zinc oxide or titanium dioxide) is usually superior to chemical suncream as they are broad spectrum, whereas most chemical creams are not. Chemical creams (which absorb rather than block the Suns rays) can also be harsh on the skin. Remember that factor 30 is about as high as you can realistically go (factor 50 provides a very marginal increase in protection) Factors beyond that are marketing inventions.

chenda
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by chenda »

And daily moisturising of face and body of course. That includes men.

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jennypenny
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by jennypenny »

(1) Have fun. Frequently.

(2) Don't just work out at the gym. Real activity is more dynamic. GTOO has mentioned hiking and chopping wood for exercise. And an activity like surfing is a better core workout than burpees. More fun, too.

Dragline
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by Dragline »

You might like to look into the Blue Zones research on various long-lived populations:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/201 ... blue-zones

Probably what's equally important is what you refrain from doing, which would include smoking, excessive drinking, drugging, exposure to radioactive or toxic substances, and participation in statistically dangerous activities, especially without proper safety equipment like helmets and seat belts. With these things, its probably not an issue if you do them infrequently, but repeated exposures will raise your risk of dying early considerably.

See http://www.besthealthdegrees.com/health-risks/

Not on that list is flying in small planes -- don't make a habit of that, especially if there is bad weather.

I would also have your dna analyzed at some point to determine whether you are more prone to particular ailments or diseases than your average person.

Avoiding contact and relationships with unstable people who have violent or psychopathic/narcissistic/borderline tendencies would also be advisable, especially if they own or have access to weapons.

jacob
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by jacob »

Dragline wrote:... especially if they own or have access to weapons.
Such as kitchen knives, screwdrivers, scissors, Louisville sluggers, 2x4s, pillows, ...

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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by jacob »

11) Drink a surprisingly large amount of coffee (up to 5 cups, that's cooking cups, not extra-big-ass mugs).
12) Drink 1-3 units of alcohol daily. Preferably red wine. More is destructive but so is zero. It's a J-curve. Google Cochrane.
13) Do diversified manual labor at a gardening intensity and do it consistently!! Try to avoid sitting down as much as possible throughout your life.
14) Stay the @#$#@$@#$ away from processed food as much as possible. Especially anything to do with corn syrup or refined sugars. Cook from scratch!

7Wannabe5
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

1) Don't smoke pot or drink hard liquor in excess. Aging potheads are the most likely group to experience total E.D. I believe that the only reason this is not well-known and documented is that it involves two things people lie to their doctors about.
2) Shave your head as soon as you start losing your hair. Do not hesitate.
3) Either regularly playing hockey and skating on off-months or doing 500 push-ups a day should be adequate to keep your posterior up to standards well into your late 50s.
4) Pay particular attention to maintaining lower back strength and flexibility. Often the weak link on an otherwise attractive and fit-for-service older man. Don't rely on your partner(s) still having good knees.
5) Try chopping wood and/or playing basketball using only one arm. The oldest man I ever dated did this and it led to attractive hyper-development. Do something to avoid having your limbs get all skinny while your center gets wide. I, personally, have more objection to the first than the second but taste varies within the peer group from which I have garnered this advice.
6) Do not develop rigid routines or lazy habits in achieving orgasm. Vary your positions, methods and triggering mechanisms as much as possible.
7) Don't give up on being a player just because you've learned/mastered how to be the coach.

zarathustra
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by zarathustra »

7Wannabe5 wrote:Aging potheads are the most likely group to experience total E.D.
Amen

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Ego
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Re: How to maintain health, fitness, and aesthetics through age 21-100?

Post by Ego »

jacob wrote: 12) Drink 1-3 units of alcohol daily. Preferably red wine. More is destructive but so is zero. It's a J-curve. Google Cochrane.
There are a few problems with these studies. The first is that many self-reported teetotalers are alcoholics. Their previous lifestyle contributed to their early mortality and skewed the numbers. Others who report abstaining from alcohol are doing so because a medication or medical condition requires it.

I've known a few (non-alcoholic) absolute-abstainers and my intuition told me that they have particular personality characteristics that make them socially isolated, which is a risk factor for early mortality. Turns out my intuition was correct.

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/short ... to-be.html
They also note that the problems are most pronounced in people who actually label themselves as "abstainers": people who don't drink, but don't call themselves abstainers, are less at risk. Why that should be so is unclear.
I'll have a nice glass of wine along with a good meal every once in a while. I don't do it believing the alcohol is somehow making me healthier.

I mention it because the handful of depressed people I know who drink alcohol (a depressant) do so with the belief that they are doing something good for themselves.

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