My parents have been out of shape for decades. They simply have no tradition of exercising, and their sedentary lifetstyle is catching up to them. My dad is borderline diabetic, has a bad back, and is losing strength fast. My mom is strong, but has no aerobic capacity whatsoever - climbing a flight of stairs leaves her wheezing. They are both in their mid sixties and overweight.
I actually talk to them quite a bit about health and fitness. They are very interested in what I have to say, and they read extensively, so I have no doubt that they know the basics of a healthy lifestyle. It’s just that they can’t or won’t put it into practice. It’s inertia, and I get frustrated seeing them imprisoned by it. I feel powerless sometimes, and yet they are so close.
How do you actively encourage your parents to live an active life?
Mom - (remarried) Her and her new husband stopped at the Tanita booth at IMMoo. That was enough of a wake-up call for them both. They now go on morning walks rather than horserides…
My dad has always been pretty active, he used to row, then switched to swimming, and when I got into triathlons so did he, now he’s in his mid 60’s and love’s aging up cause it means he can add more medels to his collection. My mom only seriously got into exercising once my dad retired, now they both belong to a gym and thats what they do every morning, wake up at 7ish, at the gym by 8, workout till 9.30 home by 10ish and start writing (My dad never really figured out the concept of retirment- he loves his job). Now my mom has her gym friends and they both walk/run on the treadmill; she’s lost over 30lb’s and now can switch clothing with my sister. Her biggest accomplishment in my opinion was when she did the UofT indoor triathlon last year and completed it - 15 min swimming, 15 min stationary biking, 15 min running - and didn’t finish last - she was super dissapointed with her swim cause she doesn’t like crawl and did it all backstroke/breaststroke!
Both of my parents are reasonable active. Neither of them were/are athletes. Although, my Dad was a very good hockey player and swimmer when he was a kid before he contracted Polio in the early '50’s epidemic. He now spends more and more time in a wheel chair, but he does get out and about and wheels around and swims laps several times a week. My Mom loves to walk everywhere and she does this every day. They are both in their 70’s now and in great health. There is a longevity streak on my mother’s side. My grandfather lived to be 85 despite smoking a pack or more cigarettes since his early teens. He died rather quickly of lung cancer. His brother lived to be 90 and their mother, my great-grand-mother lived to be 96!
Both parents obese… by an standard you can imagine…
Mother lives in a ranch style home, so she doesn’t even have stairs to climb… Her thought of exercise is to go in the back yard and throw a ball to the dog’s while she’s sitting in a chair… 58 years old
Father - overweight, diabetic, history of heart disease in the family, he’s already had a quintuple bi-pass. It’s been a year, he’s gained 10 pounds and still barely does any sort of exercise. If you let him tell you the story, he’s exercising… Walking the 2 blocks to the beach is excercise… 58 years old…
I’ve tried talking to them, but the fact of the matter is that my mother is a lonely hermit, who lives by herself, with her dogs and cats and eat’s absolutely nothing healthy. My father, he just doesn’t seem to care and lives for the moment, not for the future… I kind of believe in that… I’ve died before… I don’t exercise to live a long time… I do exercise because it’s what I need to do to live for today, towards my dreams, it just happens to (hopefully) extend my life.
My dad has always been active, he was a referee of high school football and basketball games into his 50’s. My Mom had kidney disease and passed away 6 years ago. My Dad now in his late 70’s belongs to a senior’s gym and for a while was going every day. He remarried, got his new wife into exercise and she lost about 20 pounds. She has a bad knee and has had surgery. They are both very active and love to travel, which is why they’ve off of their every day gym routine.
The oldest member of their gym is in her 90’s and comes everyday to walk the treadmill and chat with her friends. She is an inspiration to them all.
Both are deceased. They had fairly healthy lifestyles - Dad died at 81. Mom fell victim to Parkinsons and said goodbye at 71. Part of what keeps me motivated was seeing them go. I figure that our lifespan is somewhat predetermined by genetic codes, it is only the quality of our days that we have some control over.
I figure that our lifespan is somewhat predetermined by genetic codes, it is only the quality of our days that we have some control over.
I believe that too. My parents and I were visiting Key West a couple years ago. There was a light house you could climb up to have a view of the whole city. My mom tried her best to climb the stairs but didn’t make it. That’s when it really hit home for me that she was unfit.
It must occur to them that lack of fitness is eating into the quality of their retirement. I’m sure of it. Yet they routinely put off any kind of strength/flexibility/cardiovascular regime. Goes to show that some people DO (like David Clinkard’s parents), and some people DON’T.
It must occur to them that lack of fitness is eating into the quality of their retirement. I’m sure of it. Yet they routinely put off any kind of strength/flexibility/cardiovascular regime. Goes to show that some people DO (like David Clinkard’s parents), and some people DON’T.
My father’s retired and that’s exactly what I think… "Yeah, your retired. Now you do absolutely nothing. " My mother, she’s so out of shape, she breathes heavy from having to get up from sitting in a chair. Now, my parents are like the average american, not so big that they can’t fit in an airplane seat, or anything like that…but they are overweight.
Hell, neither one of them can even run around, just a little bit with their grandchildren…
On the other side of the fence, my in-laws are very fit, 10 years my parents seniors, but act like their in their 40’s. They walk at least 5x a week and are able to keep up with the kids… And my mother wonders why the grandkids seem to get along with the other grandma better.
My dad signed up at a local gym after having a bout w/ some hip issues. He entered the local biggest loser competition and ended up winning a grand in cash. So that motivated him to lose around 30 lbs but he still needs to get some of flab off.
He’s really interested in my triathlon participation and is even willing to help out. He was always coaching me in High school which I never really appreciated. But now he wants to be involved like riding while I’m running and pacing me. Doing SAG stuff w/ me and my buddies. Him I’m not that worried about.
My mother on the other hand, is a mess. She eats next to nothing and lives off of Marlboro lights and coffee most of her day. Then she’ll eat like crap when she does eat. I’ve tried every trick in the book to get her to quit but she just has it in her head that she can’t do it. I could go on about this for a month, but that is another thread…
For my dad it was all about getting him an attainable goal and helping him reach it. The setting another…
My mom is pretty in shape but my dad’s not. The best thing has been my dad going for walks with my mom on occassion.
I think it’s something they have to want to do. You could help by planning an active outing - go for a walk or a hike, or a game of golf… - but if people don’t want to get in shape, they’re not going to.
My parents are in their mid to late 60’s and fairly unfit, but not really overweight. They don’t exercise in the sense that we do. Seems like the view that as selfish. Their idea of keeping fit is just being active- cutting the lawn, splitting wood, painting rental apartments, landscaping their yard. They are constantly doing manual labor around their house and their rental units- but years of preaching to them to exercise has always fallen on deaf ears dispite various health problems. Sometimes I go out of my way to have my dogs stay with them so my dad walks them 5 times a day and gets out of the house
Actually an interesting statistic that I read in my genetics book today said that on 1% of all cancer is inherited. 99% of all other cancer is caused by spontaneous genetic mutations…which of course could have all sorts of causes (lifestyle, environment…)
When I was in my 20’s I climbed a mountain with my 86 year old grandmother.
She ate whole grain unprocessed food all her life and stressed the need to exercise daily. Being born in 1905 she was viewed as being a bit eccentric.
She lived in a downtown high rise and, when 90 would meet a friend in the lobby for tea. They would walk up the stairs to her condo the 28th floor every day. She alternated swimming and walking hills every day until 92 when her health started to slide.
Her biggest complaint was how fat everyone was. She outlived almost all her friends and late in life would visit her friend’s children in nursing homes where she would push them in wheelchairs.
Her two brothers and her sister were active as well and all 4 of them lived until their mid to late 90’s (her brother’s family had a hard time convincing him to quit farming when he was pushing 90)
She’s a strong role model in my life and I’m glad I picked up many of her habits.
“They don’t exercise in the sense that we do. Seems like the view that as selfish”
For most people of that age and older this is an understandable feeling. For many of them was no such thing as leisure time, like what many of us have. Life for them I suspect was fairly straight forward - work, raising kids, doing the stuff aroubd the house that needs to get done. That likley took up 98% of the time, so no time for 10 hour training weeks. Having the time to do these sorts of things has really only emerged in the last 20 -30 years. Pefore that the only people who had time to train for anything serious were the purely fanatical, the very good athletes or the very wealthy.
At least your parents are active. Studies have shown that that sort of activity is very healthy. You really only need 20 - 40 minutes of brisk activity each day to stay on top of the activity levels
