Decoding the Complex Cocktail of Healthy Aging with Marilyn

Ever pictured what life would be like at 82? Imagine it filled with vitality, activity, and a memory sharp as a tack. My recent encounter with the charismatic Marilyn, a few days shy of her 82nd birthday, shatters all stereotypes of aging. Marilyn's life is a thrilling adventure tale, from riding motorcycles in her youth to leading an active lifestyle even in her 80s, proving that aging isn't always about dwindling mobility and fading memories.

Join me as we dive into my captivating chat with Marilyn and uncover the secrets behind her graceful aging. Marilyn's story inspired me to investigate the factors that influence how we age, and I'm sharing these insights with you. From genetics and lifestyle choices to diet and social engagement, aging healthily is a complex cocktail. Tune in and let's debunk the myths and misconceptions of aging together, one episode at a time. Aging might be inevitable, but with the right balance, we can make it a beautiful journey - just like Marilyn did!

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to the BWB podcast, balancing with Becca. I'm Becca, I'm in my fifties and I'm still trying to find balance in all of the ways. If you're looking to balance your relationships, your food, your fitness, your lifestyles, join me here on the BWB podcast. Let's get started. Hello Balanced Babes, it's Becca. I'm here to talk to you today about aging. Now for some of you it's so far away, it's so much in the future that you're probably thinking ugh, I don't need to hear this. But for some of us who are right in the middle of our lives right now which I'm 58, so I feel like I'm right in the middle when you think about the average expectancy for women in the US to live is 82 years old and the average life expectancy for men is 76. I mean, I'm kind of in the middle. I'm on the upper, half upper scale of the middle, but still so, I definitely consider it and I'm a little obsessed about it in a sense, I think, because when you care for an aging parent, like I did with Granny, with my mom, which I did a show on recently you might have heard that one on caregiving it kind of scares the hell out of you Just watching your parent into their 80s or 90s. Aging is so, it's so real, and so of course, it's going to make you think about it a little bit more.

Speaker 1 1:57

And what inspired me to come talk to you on this episode is that I met a woman yesterday and she was beautiful, little, petite, beautiful, curly, blonde older woman. Her name was Marilyn. She stopped by my desk at work and was telling me some of her experiences on the back of a motorcycle with her first husband. She said that she's only been on two motorcycles One was her first husband and one was on her son's motorcycle. And she started telling me the story about how she went for a ride on her son's motorcycle and he did a wheelie all the way down Central Avenue and Riverside and she said that's the last time I've ever been on a motorcycle. And then she's proceeded to tell me that he had just retired at 65 years old. So I'm staring at her and my brain is trying to do the math right now, because I'm like how is it that she has a 65-year-old son? She then told me she was about five days away from turning 82. And I am blown away at this point seriously, because this woman is gorgeous. I told her.

Speaker 1 3:18

I said I don't want to be one of those people that say you look so beautiful for your age, because I think that's weird and rude to say that to somebody. So I told her I'm just going to say that you are gorgeous. And she laughed. She loved that. Why do I think it's rude to say you look so good for your age? Because that's stupid, that's ridiculous. For your age you're beautiful. Just say you're beautiful, because how do we know at what age you're? How is it supposed to look? Ok, if I'm 58 and you're like oh, you look so good for your age, what is 58 supposed to look like? So that kind of I don't know it makes it seem negative to me. I just say that you're beautiful or just say you're handsome or whatever.

Speaker 1 4:10

So she told me that she has and I could have heard this wrong but she told me she had 26 great-grandchildren. So I don't know how many actual grandchildren she had, but she's getting ready to have her first great-great-grandbaby. She still plays with her grandkids, she picks them up from school. They actually part of them live right across the street from her, which is heaven in my mind. I can't even imagine living down the street from my grandkids. I live about 10 minutes away from my grandkids and two hours away from my other grandkids, and so to have them live across the street from me or up the street would be so fun I can't even imagine.

Speaker 1 5:01

But back to Marilyn she was so pretty, her skin was so pretty. She did not look like she had a facelift at all. So she did. She had a really good one. She had just the perfect amount of wrinkles. Her hair, like I said, was curly and blonde. We talked about gray hair and she said, oh, I'm just starting to get a little gray and I'm thinking to myself I barely have to get my hair done anymore because I have so much silver in my hair. But I knew this when I was in my 20s because my grandma we called her Gimma. My Gimma had white hair when she was like 45 years old and my dad, when he passed away in his early 70s, he had here white hair. And I remember one time asking my Gimma when did you start getting gray? And my dad said that's rude, you don't ask somebody that. And I told him I need to know. I mean, it's a family thing you need to know when you're going to start expecting gray hair. So I'm platinum blonde, but most of my platinum comes from my Gimma.

Speaker 1 6:12

So back to Marilyn. I was just staring at her as she's speaking, because she's so clear, her memory is so good about how. She's telling me how she used to ride with her husband in the 70s, and then just we're talking about dates and just experiences and I'm just looking at her like, OK, not everybody loses their memory. Not every old person is immobile or sitting around watching TV all day long. This woman is a woman who has stayed active, it seems like her entire life. And I'm telling you guys, I'm only talking to this woman for maybe 20 minutes, but my brain is going and I'm just wrapping my head around this because I'm thinking, oh OK, I can age like that too.

Speaker 1 7:15

So I started researching and what are some of the aging factors, what matters? Because Ms Marilyn tells me that she's never exercised a day in her life. I'm now, I'm seriously blown away. I'm like what? So genetics obviously play a huge role in her aging process, but also the fact that she has stayed active. Maybe she doesn't work out, but she stays active. So I'm thinking about this going. Okay, I try so hard. I'm trying so hard to incorporate a more active lifestyle, a healthier lifestyle, balancing more my diet, you know, quitting drinking 11 months ago.

Speaker 1 8:06

She asked if I ever smoked. I told her just for a small amount of time I did smoke like an idiot. She's never smoked so, and I know we can't compare ourselves to everyone. I know, like my mom says to me or has said to me in the past, you can't judge babies or old people. Babies are going to walk when they're going to walk and old people are going to age the way they age. You can't judge them. I am not judging right now at all. I'm I'm being real with you guys. I'm being honest and saying that getting old scares the shit out of me because of my experience in taking care of my adopted mom.

Speaker 1 8:48

Now, she was super active go get her, went on cruises, went on all kinds of different trips all the way up until like 80 years old I believe. She started really getting her symptoms of being older when she hit like 82 and she passed away at 87. So she was really starting to get signs of age related dementia and then she had diabetes and she started to fall and all those things started happening into her 80s. But she lived an active lifestyle before that. She was always doing things. She lived on her own for over 40 years, so she didn't work or anything. She didn't have to work but she she had a nice retired lifestyle. And so talking to Marilyn again, just about her lifestyle and how the things that she does, and again just blown away and impressed and I love talking to her. But again it brought up a lot for me. It brought up a lot of thoughts and I wanted to share them with you.

Speaker 1 10:04

So let's talk about how people age, why they age the way they age. So obviously, aging well and aging healthy is going to involve maintaining a balanced diet, staying physically active. Now you don't have to technically work out, but if you're physically active, make sure to get those regular checkups. We got to manage our stress and we have to keep engaging in social activities. It's important to prioritize both physical and mental well-being to promote that healthy aging. So why are people so different and how they age?

Speaker 1 10:48

From what I'm reading, people age differently due to a combination of genetic factors, lifestyle choices, obviously, environmental influences, obviously, and underlying health conditions. Things play a significant role in determining factors like how quickly cells deteriorate, susceptibility to certain diseases and overall longevity. However, lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, stress management and sleep quality also greatly impact the aging process. So if you're like in your 30s and 40s and listening to this, listen up. These things make a difference. These factors make a difference. If you're like me and you're in your 50s, get on it. Environmental factors like exposure to pollutants, access to health care and social economic status can further influence how individuals age. Additionally, obviously, pre-existing health conditions and how they're managed can significantly affect the aging process. All of these factors leads to the wide variation of how people experience aging. So then I started thinking how does genetic factors affect how you'll age? How important are those? Genetic factors play a crucial role in determining how an individual age. So you can look at your parents, although obviously, while they were younger, they had a different lifestyle. So you have to think about that Medical care, that kind of stuff. So how cells repair and how they replicate, how the immune system functions, how the body responds to stressors and inflammation all of that influence on how we age.

Speaker 1 12:52

There's certain genetic variations that predisposed individuals can predispose individuals to specific health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes and certain types of cancer. These conditions can impact the aging process and overall health. Moreover, genetic factors contribute to the rate of cellular aging and the efficiency of DNA repair mechanisms. Some individuals may have genes that are associated with longevity, while others might have genetic variants that make them more susceptible to accelerated aging. So sometimes we see, well, like Marilyn, I would have never thought she would be 82. I thought maybe she was in her 60s. Honestly, guys, I don't even think she was 70. So obviously she has genetic variants that make her less susceptible to accelerated aging, like a girl Again.

Speaker 1 13:53

While genetics do play a role, it's important to note that lifestyle choices and environmental factors also significantly influence the aging process. A healthy lifestyle can mitigate the impact of certain genetic predispositions and promote more graceful aging. So again, I looked up that life expectancy for women in the US as of September 2021. The average life expectancy for women was about 81 years. The average life expectancy for men was about 76 years old. So we have time. We have time to get it together.

Speaker 1 14:44

Change your lifestyle now. If you're already in your 80s and you're listening to this, or maybe even in your late 70s, keep living your best life, because obviously you're doing something right. But if you're in your 40s, 50s, 60s, get it together. Start making those little changes right now. Stop doing the things that you know you shouldn't be doing anymore. Listen to your intuition. I'm not lecturing you. I'm just saying listen to that intuition. If that intuition is telling you to stop doing what you're doing, get your shit together.

Speaker 1 15:33

Do you want to live a long life? Do you want to live a healthy, mobile life? Do you want to be able to still be picking up your great grandchildren from school? Because I do. I want to see my great-grandkids grow up. I want to see my grandkids grow up. I want to see them have great-grandkids and I'd love to be able to say I have a great, great grandchild on the way. To me, that's living a full life. So I hope that you're going to get on board with this and change the way you're living your life right now. Okay, let's do this. Let's do this together. Let's live a big life together. All right, balanced babes.

Speaker 1 16:26

I hope that you've enjoyed this episode. I hope that you got some value from it. I know that my brain was going yesterday and I'm like, oh, we got to talk about this, we got to talk about aging. So thank you so much for listening. Let's all age well together. Stay balanced, babes. We'll talk soon. Now for the legal part, all that legal shit we got to talk about. I am not a doctor, I'm not a psychologist. This show is just for entertainment purposes only. Thank you so much for joining in. Bye, balance Babes. Thank you, friends, for joining me on the BWB podcast Balancing with Becca. Until next time, keep on balancing babes. You, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you. Thank you, friends, for joining me on the BWB podcast balancing with Becca. Until next time, keep on balancing babes.