The Come Alive Project

Author: Bob McMillan

  • Energy Bite 409 – Don’t Let Age Define You

    We all have perceptions and expectations of Aging. We see older people shuffling along, bent over, slow moving, morose, depressed, wrinkled and on and on. We often say that we don’t want to be like that. For some, it becomes an outright fear. Yet so many seniors don’t do anything to prevent it. We allow ourselves to “get old” based on those very perceptions and expectations.

    We don’t have to be like that. We know what has to be done and we can do those things necessary to maintain our youthful energy and improve our outward appearance.

    Our age should not be our defining feature. But if not our age, what will define us? How about our actions? How about our energy? How about our service to the people around us? How about what we do vs. how old we are? Just because we’re getting older doesn’t mean we are used up or are useless to the world. Hardly!

    Studies show that this fear of aging, and giving into those perceptions and expectations, begins as early as between 55 and 60 years old. But we have a lot of “life” left in us if we take care of ourselves and do those things we know we should be doing.

    Can you hold the door open for a younger person as a courtesy rather than let them hold the door for you? Can you be upbeat and chipper around your peers when they may be feeling a lack of hope for their future? Can you be a role model for other less positive seniors by being a model of energy and enthusiasm, alive with possibilities? Can you be someone to be looked up to by others instead of being a victim of a fear of your own future?

    Stereotypes happen because we see so much of it and we tend to think of them as the norm. And that stereotypical norm can catch up with you unless you do those things that will keep it from happening: Movement, good eating, sleeping and breathing habits, and those other little things that can keep us feeling young and alive.

    You don’t have to act old. You don’t have to allow yourself to be defined by your age, no matter what you chronological age happens to be. Define yourself by your energy, your enthusiasm and your actions instead. Become the role model for good health, fitness and personal energy so that others can see that they don’t have to “Let the Old Man or Woman In”

    Thank your for reading.

    NOTE: I hope that by next week, I will be publishing these posts under the name  SeniorFlow Moments rather than Energy Bites. I will be migrating the website to SeniorFlow.net which is currently under construction. Everything else will remain the same. But PLEASE, don’t sign up for the blog on the form on the SeniorFlow website. You will get a duplicate of the post. Thank you.  

  • Energy Bite 408 – What Do I Mean by ACTIVE?

    I was thinking about my Website Tag Line: “Health, Fitness and Personal Energy for Active Seniors”. I thought maybe I should define what I mean by ACTIVE. So . . .

    Webster’s New World Dictionary: “Acting, functioning working, moving, etc.”

    Roget’s Thesaurus: “Alive, astir, at work, bustling, effective . . .  And Aggressive, agile, alert . . . And Z is for Zeal.”

    I think you get my meaning. You probably know a lot of Seniors who fit that meaning. I hope you’re one too. If not, you can be.

    Basically it means DOING THINGS, with the implication that the active person has the CAPACITY to do those things. If you recall, in a recent post, I gave the definition of Personal Energy as the CAPACITY to do things. Hence the relationship between PERSONAL ENERGY and ACTIVE SENIORS. To remain alive, moving functioning, working, and all the the meanings of ACTIVE, you must build and maintain your PERSONAL ENERGY.

    Unfortunately, we start to lose our CAPACITY to be active as we get older. Often we dwell on what will happen to us as we lose that energy. But we don’t have to lose it. We can move our bodies with exercise, we can eat right and we can even “think ourselves younger”. Don’t laugh, it’s been demonstrated that we can use our minds to keep our youthful energy. Attitude is critical.

    A while back I told the story about how Clint Eastwood was asked by his golfing partner “How do you keep so active and continue to produce and act in so many films . . . at your age). Eastwood replied by saying simply, “I don’t let the old man in.” The golf partner, country singer Toby Keith, was so impressed that he wrote a song with that title. The song so impressed Eastwood that he used it as a theme for his most recent movie, The Mule. Clint Eastwood will be 92 on May 31 of this year and is still ACTIVE.

    Can you get up and down from the floor? Are you flexible? How is your posture? Do you move fluidly or do you creak and groan? If you have problems with any of those, be aware that they are fixable.

    Do you have the energy to be ACTIVE in your community? There are 85 year olds who volunteer at our local hospital and 75 year olds who have retired from teaching who are still keeping their hand in the classroom by substituting. My wife at age 75 did both before Covid. No more subbing but she still volunteers at the local hospital and loves it. And that’s part of the equation too. Not only must you have the CAPACITY to do it, but do you ENJOY doing it?

    So that’s what I mean by ACTIVE. If you keep moving your body, eating right, getting plenty of sleep and you “don’t let the old man or woman in” then you will be far more likely to live a long, healthy, and active life. If you don’t follow those core factors in being active, then remember that it’s never too late to take action and start doing what’s necessary to become the ACTIVE senior that most of us want to continue to be.

    Thank you for reading.

  • Energy Bite 407 – Tony Robbins on Longevity

    Tony Robbins Points the Way
     to Longevity and Better Aging

    Ever heard of the term “Biohacker” or “Biohacking”? This refers to the fairly recent practice of self-experimentation with both natural and artificial means of getting and staying healthy, slowing down or reversing aging, and other health related matters. This is done primarily via a change in physical state through some form of supplementation.

    I used the term “fairly recent” because the field of biohacking goes back many centuries. It’’s basically the way many medical advances have been made for those centuries.

    Sadly many of these biohackers are in the business of selling supplements. Most of the material I have studied from the Biohacking Community is filled with chemistry sets of advice on how to live longer and better if you just take their supplements. Is it good advice? I don’t know. Do they work? I’ve never heard from people actually taking them one way or the other.

    Enter Tony Robbins and his new book, LifeForce, co-authored with Dr. Peter Diamandis. Wow! Tony Robbins is a name that most people think of as a motivational speaker and the guy from decades old late night TV infomercials. He does an amazing job of helping people make themselves better. He is the personification of Personal Energy.

    Tony Robbins interviewed over 150 top scientists and medical professionals about the root causes of aging and how to slow it or even reverse it. This 700 page tome goes into the recent history of biohacking and aging and describes how the field of Regenerative Medicine is about to explode.

    I am familiar with a lot of the research into Biogenetics, Mitochondria, ATP and the sources of our Personal Energy. I have written about it in recent posts, here and here.  But Tony Robbins has a knack of taking complex subjects and breaking them down in a way that we can understand and he has made the topic of aging and reversing the aging process into fascinating reading.

    Robbins writes about the mindset involved in aging, longevity and the ability to age with vitality. In his book, he mirrors my own thinking about presenting material that will provide people with the information and methodology to help others live the longest life possible – with energy and enthusiasm and a high quality of life. In my case, I address only Seniors who want to continue living a healthy, active and independent life.

    Interestingly, Robbins writes about how the result of a recent survey showed that most younger people, asked whether they would like to live to be 120 years old said that they wouldn’t like to live that long. They gave as their reason that they don’t want to get old and decrepit. They referred to the stereotype of who an old person becomes.

    Take an hour and watch/listen to this great interview between Tony Robbins and entrepreneur Marie Forleo where he goes into some depth about Regenerative Medicine and reversing the aging process. It is a fascinating interview. You can find it here.

    Remember the goal of The Come Alive Project, and now SeniorFlow, is to provide active seniors with useful information and means, to live a long, healthy, purposeful life.  In keeping with that goal, I recommend you watch this interview. I think you will find it to be a huge benefit in learning about what is coming down the road.

    As Tony Robbins says: “Become the CEO of your own life. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF NOW SO YOU HAVE TIME TO CATCH UP WITH THE THINGS THAT ARE COMING.”

    Thank you for reading.

    NOTE: I have no financial interest in the Tony Robbins book