"The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important." (Martin Luther King Jr. 1929-1968).

"Nothing else so destroys the power to stand alone as the habit of leaning upon others. If you lean, you will never be strong or original. Stand alone or bury your ambition to be somebody in the world.” (Orison Swett Marden 1850-1924)

"Positive thinking will let you use the ability that you have, and that is awesome" (Zig Ziglar 1926-2012) 

As I work on my objective of “living young” one of the important exhortations I repeat to myself is “use it or lose it.” The two areas that for me are most important to focus on and use, are physical fitness and mental fitness or cognitive functions.  

The Oxford Dictionary defines cognition as “the mental action of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience and the senses.” Among the components of cognition are attention, memory and working memory, reasoning, problem solving and comprehension. 

“Time management is an oxymoron. Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives.  Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have"  (John C. Maxwell 1947 - )

One day I was whining to my brother, about not having enough time to finish any of my projects. He is the Life Coach who is my model for consistency as I described in K is for Keeping Consistent.  He asked "If you are a window washer and you have 10 hours a day to wash windows, and each window takes an hour to wash, how many window washing jobs  can you take in one day?”

"Redeployment is a military term. It means to transfer a unit from area to another" (Phil Klay 1983- )

 As I wrote in my introductory post A is for Aging Youthfully, my plans  for retirement did not include losing my husband of 30 years to cancer at age 58. We had planned tentatively that when he turned 65 and I turned 61 we would consider retirement  to travel and take up the hobbies that we had no time for with two full-time careers. 

“Winners never quit and quitters never win” (Vince Lombardi 1913 - 1970)

“ I  quit school in the sixth grade because of pneumonia. Not because I had it but because I couldn’t spell it."  (Rocky Graziano 1919-1990)

"I'm more proud of quitting smoking than of anything else I've done in my life, including winning an Oscar."  (Christine Lahti 1950 - )

The more  I thought about the topic of “quitting” the more I realized that there are many different ways of looking at it than the simple assumption that a quitter is a loser. Hence the two quotes above.  

"The most important thing is posture: when you get older its the way you stand, the way you walk, that shows it" ( Carine Roitfeld 1954 - )

As I have become more and more aware of the need to consciously remind myself of my own posture, I find myself noticing how many people walk around in a slouched state with their necks bent forward. It used to be something characteristic of older people like some of the folks I would see shuffling around on the ships when I went on dance cruises. But now I see so many young people walking, eyes fixed on their mobile phones, necks bent forward and I wonder how slumped they will be as older individuals. I have a series of exercises I work on to counteract that neck bend, derived from years of working, seated at a desk, looking down at papers or at a computer screen. 

"Freedom is the oxygen of the  soul"  (Moshe Dayan 1915-1981)

Our normal cellular metabolic processes produce reactive oxygen species. These oxygen radicals attack and damage cellular  structures. To counteract this oxidative stress our cells have internal antioxidants such as enzymes catalase, glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase. Trace elements (copper, iron, manganese, selenium, zinc) are integral parts of these antioxidant enzymes.

An unusually bitingly cold wind was blowing off the water as I walked back to my apartment building after an energetic dance lesson. It was freezing outside and entering the warm lobby, I could almost feel the synovial fluid in my joints thawing like congealed olive oil taken out of the refrigerator. That’s also how I feel sometimes, getting out of bed after a good night’s sleep. I bounce out of bed full of energy and raring to go but while my muscles and joints are warming up, my first few steps resemble the Tin Man.  Except on the mornings after the days that I have three hours of dance and an hour of fast walking. Next morning I wake with no stiffness in my legs. The more you move the more you can move.,

A friend sent me a coffee mug. The logo said “Why do you think your 5 minutes on Google trumps my 5 years of medical school” . I laughed and mentally added "and my 6 years of postgraduate training, my research doctorate and my 25 years of practice?”  But then I reflected on how generally the internet has contributed to a decline in the valuing of specialty training, academic knowledge and professional expertise. It’s not just medicine or science but in every trade or professional arena. 

“Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.” (Thomas Jefferson 1743 -1826)

Within the last three months, three of my friends have had falls, resulting in fractures. One with depth perception issues, tripped over a step and fractured several ribs. The second slipped on a pool deck and had a fractured wrist. The third, a fit, active younger person, tripped over an unseen hazard, spraining one wrist and fracturing a carpal bone in the other.

“Genes are merely the blueprint, epigenetics is the contractor." (Bruce Lipton 1944 - )

Epigenetics is a word we are hearing a lot about these days. Epigenetics refers to changes of gene expression that are not due to changes in the DNA sequence of the gene. 

Way back when I was  first taught  about genetics in school, the focus was on Mendelian genetics, and autosomal dominant and recessive genes.

"We should consider every day lost in which we have not danced at least once” (Friederich Nietzsche 1844-1900)

I took up ballroom dancing in my sixties, after I retired. In my blue print for a rewarding and fulfilling retirement, three activities topped my list; growing my website (reviewfromthehouse.com), studying ballroom dance and ticking off destinations on my travel bucket list. Becoming a network entrepreneur, as I did 10 years later, was not even remotely on my mind at that time.

I’m an early morning person. Most days around 5:30 or 6 am, my eyes pop open and I wake from a deep, sound sleep  energized and raring to start my day. For me this happens most days, but for many people this is not their reality. They have difficulty falling asleep or they wake up more often during the night and don’t easily go back to sleep, or wake in the morning feeling as if they never really slept at all. They are one of the approximately 80 million Americans and 14 million Canadians who have some form of sleep disorder. Is this you?

“The key to every man is his thought. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

If you think back to your childhood, you may realize how easy it is for a child to become labelled, slotted into a category, which often becomes self-fulfilling. This child is athletic and strong. This one is a dreamer. This one is creative and artistic. This child is shy, this one outgoing.  This one is smart, this one not so much. Looking back, I think I labelled myself very early as being more cerebral than physical.

“Aging is not “lost youth” but a new stage of opportunity and strength" (Betty Friedan 1921 - 2006)

When was  the moment when you realized that you no longer felt young and invincible? Was it turning 60 or 65? Suddenly overnight you are a “senior”.  You get lower priced tickets at the cinema, cheaper fares on transit but those television commercials about drugs for arthritis, high blood pressure, dementia ... you realize that they are directed at you.