Happy Friday everyone! This post was inspired by a tag on How Old Do I Feel? by Bill at the blog A Silly Place. Thanks for the tag Bill! 🙂
I found the image above when I did a Google Search and I think it describes how I feel quite well!
I think Covid had the biggest impact on how old I feel. I am currently 43 years old (eeek!), but until the pandemic changed my lifestyle I didn’t feel my age at all. So I do believe that a person’s lifestyle has a huge impact on how they feel.
For example, prior to Covid, I was extremely active – always had events to attend for myself, friends to socialize with, events to attend for my daughter, always going to the office, commuting, and interacting with coworkers. Overall, just very busy and social. Rarely any downtime at all. I never thought of my age very much then, nor the fact that I was getting older. My recollection of these times is that I felt energetic enough to handle everything and I probably felt young enough to handle it all quite well.
But the pandemic pretty much ended all of that for me.
And with the fact that I suddenly had nowhere to go, nor people to hang out with, I had become very sedentary in my life. As sedentary as possible, actually. This new sedentary lifestyle had many negative effects on my life: I am now more tired, less energetic, more depressed, and even though my diet hadn’t changed at all, it was impacting my body differently than it did before and I’ve found myself gaining 20 pounds in 2 years.
On top of all that, I’m now experiencing pain that I never did before. I have a chronic pain in the back of my head that is omni-present now, the only variable is how severe it is. It is very distracting and contributes to me being more tired, depressed, and less active. I also have an omni-present pain in my hips now that I didn’t have before. It’s most painful when I’m finally getting-up from my normal seated position during the day, or from laying down.
So honestly, now I feel like I’m in my 70s+ due to my inactivity, chronic pain, and depressed state of mind.
I know that to turn this all around, I would need to counter-act everything and become more active and introduce constant exercise in my life. This is in the forefront of my mind everyday now, but I do get easily discouraged from it due to all my new pain sources that I never had before.
So, I know that I need to change the trajectory that I am currently on. But it’s much easier to say than to do…
How about you all? How old do you feel?
Hey Pepper- I can
relate to a lot of what you are saying. I’m 53 and have gotten so out of shape. A lot of it has to do with moving to a place that has winter. When I lived in Texas I was a lot more active.
I totally understand that. This week while I was pouting about feeling bad all the time and needing to go out and exercise, it was below freezing tempurature outside and sleeting. So that was an additional discouragement on top of the normal discouragement I have. It’s tough to change the momentum. I get it.
I’m right behind you at 42. I’ve had to change me goals to fit pandemic life in order to keep from never moving. Some days are better than others. Hopefully with your glow up will come inspiration to socialize, even if it’s a zoom wine tasting. Or a FaceTime treadmill walk. ((HUGS)) to a happier you.
Thank you so much Kristie. I do need to make a change – and even “some days better than others” I need to accept too. Because it’s 100x better than nothing.
I definitely feel older now that I rarely leave the house. I need to get in better shape and out of these walls
Me too, Tater! Let’s do this for 2022! 🙂
I feel younger than I actually am, mostly because my life didn’t take the usual path. Most of my age peers have families of their own now, and that has never even been on the radar for me.
That does make alot of sense. I have stress and pressures now that I didn’t have before that are related to my family issues such as in-laws, finances, and raising my daughter. My work is a stress but if I were on my own I could easily quit it for a less-stressful job. But I can’t afford to quit it and still support my family. And stress I do believe ages people prematurely. I’m glad you feel younger! Enjoy it! Because it’s not fun on this side of it.
Very relatable! I feel it tooo… I feel like I’m 80 and I look about 90 lol Everything hurts and I can’t tolerate much these days.. I find the need to numb all pain from very slight to horrendous pain lol…
were our elders like this? Lol complaining about aches and pains in their late 30s/early 40s??
Lol me and you are in the same boat! I don’t believe our elders were like this. My parents are alot older than me and they don’t complain about anything like this at all. But also, they’re active and always out and about and keeping themselves busy, so they probably don’t have the time to let stuff like that bother them. They must be built alot tougher. 🙂
Awww Pepper, all those aches and pains sound horrid. I was that inactive person 2.5 yrs ago but exercise has been my saviour mentally. Just getting anything from 20mins peace to a couple of hours at most, has kept me sane during the pandemic. Escaping all the chaos at home and work, it’s been vital. What do you think about the c25k to get physically active again? If that’s your thing anyway.
For me, getting socially active again is much more challenging. I just don’t wanna.
Holy smokes! You’ve completely validated my belief that activity and exercise is the answer. I do believe this with all my heart. I think it’s awesome that you’ve accomplished this because it’s such a struggle for me. I’ve heard about the c24k thing and I’ve seen other people experience such success with it. But dang, it’s so tough for me to get started! Maybe I’ll look into it more. And shoot – I hear you about being socially active too. It’s so difficult to get together with people anymore since we’re all getting accustomed to staying home all the time. When I visit your town, you better come on out and see me! 🙂
I can totally relate. I have more migraines since working from home and really there’s little to look forward to. On workdays I miss the commute, interacting with colleagues, stepping out for lunch, etc. I tried visiting the office once and it’s like a ghost town.
Oh gosh! I feel the exact same way! I miss office-life (the non-toxic part of it) and it’s sad that it seems to be gone for good now, and it was supposed to be temporary! I’m sorry about your migraines now and the lack of things to look forward to. I totally feel that. Hang in there! 🙂
I’m 69 years old but in most ways, I still feel like I’m 30-something. That’s not to say the past year has been a cakewalk–it’s been harsh. I’ve been reexamining the path of personal development to keep my head above water.
Oh wow – congratulations on feeling so much younger! That’s actually quite impressive to me and I’m so happy for you! I’m wishing you are able to maintain that feeling forever. So awesome! 🙂
Pepper, have you ever read the book called – You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay? It’s a great way to spiritually heal ourselves. I have found that I am able to help myself by using the tips in her book.
I have become more sedentary as well during this whole covid thing and the isolation in not going out or seeing friends has been hard. But I keep in touch with friends via phone a lot and that helps. Of course, getting a Christmas puppy has erased the whole sedentary thing since he likes to go out a lot to walk, to play etc. I know my Fitbit numbers have increased dramatically as has my joy because of his funny antics. The sleep factor has diminished dramatically too, but hopefully in time he’ll be able to sleep through the night and I’ll be feeling better. It’s like having a newborn all over again! LOL
Oh, so sweet about the puppy! I love that you have him now and that he keeps you on your toes! 🙂 No, I haven’t read that book but I’ll have to look for it on Amazon now. I do believe that alot of healing is emotional and mental. Alot of that comes from seeing how my mom survived cancer 3 times! (I should probably blog about that sometime). I 100% believe that part (not all, because I give alot of credit to her doctors too) of how she survived was due to her positive attitude. I’m just lacking some of that positive attitude right now. I’m sure things will start turning around for me physically if I can turn around my attitude. Lol, good luck sleeping through the night!