Healthy Living after 60

[Marmie4life]

Once again I feel like I am starting over.  Tips for living a fit life after 60?

[USAF-Larry]

I can only offer tips for living a fit life after 75 - eat healthy, and exercise daily. Life is good!

[Baltoscott]

It is probably true at any age, but I'm 60 and there is a huge range of fitness at this age. I'm in pretty good shape and took up unicycling as my new pandemic hobby. But most of my peers probably think I'm nuts. (I did fall on my ass a lot, but after about three weeks at 15-30 minutes a day, I could get across a tennis court and make left turns :-)).  Really, the one thing we all have in common is a desire to remain as mobile as possible for the rest of our lives.  My advice is not much different than @USAF-Larry ... plan some daily exercise and make sure you are eating healthy foods. 

And, if you are trying to change some things, break it down into baby steps. Babies don't learn to walk all at once, right.  Sixty year olds don't learn how to lose excess weight (or how to unicycle) all at once either.  

[SunsetRunner]

I am starting over. I received a Fitbit charge 2 as a present in 2017. By the way, I'm 66. I was doing pretty good, following an exercise program and eating healthier. When the holiday season came I gave myself the ok to eat whatever I wanted. It's now 3 yrs. later. I'm just getting back in to a routine. I find setting my Fitbit to alert me every hour to get moving helps. A lot. I just have it set  to go off from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm every hour. I log everything I eat and drink. I'm sticking with my program, eating better, walking, starting to exercise, and feel better then when I started. I took a tip from another community member that suggested visualizing yourself as you want to be. It's really helped me keep on track. Good luck!

[vasilievnaaaa]

cool topic

[Marmie4life]

I'm still learning how to use this thing.  Yesterday I walked over 10,000 steps and it logged it during the day and even "exploded" when I reached my goal but it's not showing up on my dashboard report.  Thanks for responding!  

[Marmie4life]

Thanks so much for the response!  I'm still learning how to set up my Fit Bit to track things.  Yesterday I walked over 10,000 steps but it's not showing up on my dashboard.  It shows last week steps but nothing yesterday.  Any advice?

[Marmie4life]

Thank you so much for your response!

[SunsetRunner]

I had to reset my charge 2. If you Google how to sync my Fitbit (versa, charge, etc.) or search the community you should find an answer. Good luck. Although kind of cheesy I really like the fireworks when you hit 10,000 steps. Congrats.

[JuanJoFitbit]

Hi everyone! Congratulations for starting over and keep achieving your goals.

I'd like to share this page, which contains articles about how you can get started with the Fitbit model you own so you can learn their features and get the most out of them.

Hope to see you guys more often in the Fitbit forums.

[shipo]

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@Marmie4life wrote:

Once again I feel like I am starting over.  Tips for living a fit life after 60?

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I've been following this thread since you started it because A) I'm starting over (again), and B) I'm well into my 60s.  "So," you ask, "why haven't I posted in this thread before now?"  Probably because I'm a bit of a freak.

My previous fitness restart happened back when I was a few weeks shy of 56, and that held until a few weeks shy of 60, then pneumonia, then a year later a badly fractured bit toe, then four months after that a torn arch, then early the following year a broken leg, and then last year, COVID.  Other than a few thousand miles of hiking, which doesn't do much for me (remember I'm a freak), I've basically sat at my desk and gotten fat, and by that I mean I've added 50+ pounds to my 5'8" frame; not good.

Over the last four years I've tried everything to stay in shape and to keep my weight under control, everything that is except the one thing which I know works, running (which was obviously difficult given the series of maladies I've developed over that period).  So, since nothing else was working, and because the systemic swelling in my knees from the COVID was rebelling under the strain of hiking, this last December I decided to try running again (all but sure it wouldn't work either).  I was wrong!  For whatever reason, I can run, albeit slowly, where I cannot walk or hike, and since it seemed to be working when I restarted, I doubled down, and then doubled down again; having logged just over 300 miles since Christmas.  Better still, I've lost about 25 pounds and two belt notches.

Honestly, restarting stinks at any age, but yeah, it gets even harder the older you get.  The good news is, if you stay after it, eventually your body will grudgingly decide to start shaping up.  😛