Aging - As the Violin, the Wine, & the Silver - We Get Better

[Tilden]

I try different things trying to be as healthy as possible. Later I find they are not so healthy.

I have a White House Cookbook from, I think, 1914. Anyway, in the back, there is a list of common diseases/illnesses and how to combat them. One of the "illnesses" is leanness, and one of the recommended ways to combat it is to "cultivate the company of jolly people." I guess if you hang around with Santa, you don't have to worry about being overly skinny.

That's the thing about trying to be healthy--they are always changing the rules about what is healthy, and apparently they always have been.

Of course, in the nineteenth century, some "experts" thought that higher education for women diverted the blood supply from their wombs to their brains and made them infertile. No one ever suggested that higher education might have a similar effect on the male anatomy, however.

[Dragonlady]

The White House cookbook sounds great..I'd enjoy reading all those crazy notions they had then. As for what's healthy, I always figured that if God made it, we could eat it and what man did to those foods was something else entirely!
As for beauty and aging, I think we all need to do what makes us feel better. If wearing a lot of makeup makes you feel pretty, you should do it. If not wearing it makes you feel good, don't wear it. I think a good amount of self confidence can be the very best thing we can do to look good. If you feel good about yourself, that will show in your sparkly eyes (with or without wrinkles!) and a great smile. Far better than any surgeon's knife or makeup.
We've all seen people without great beauty that because of their self confidence can totally command attention of others. But it takes work to keep that self confidence up. I'm still working at it!

[Lizard]

Dairy + Diet Sodas = cellulite

On The View, they weresaying people who did not take a daily vitamin were healthier than those that did. In my twenties I was by myself and did not make much money. I consumed a lot of dairy and a high end daily multiple vitamin to try to take care of myself. I would get colds twice a year and they were BADDDdddd. I do not take supps now. And I do not get colds. Husband has been home sick for the past week.

[Tilden]

My favorite new "discovery" is that dark chocolate is good for you. Well, hot damn. I've been eating dark chocolate my entire life and now I have an excuse to do so.

[Dragonlady]

I think cellulite is genetic...some have it, some don't.
Seems like people want to make everything about one thing when it's really about a combination of things.

[spockwhat]

I had this old cookbook from the 50's(?) that I chucked a couple of years ago and I now wish I hadn't. It was absolutely ridiculous in it's advice for women that I would get such a good laugh reading it... such as:
Wives and mothers, be sure you dress up before your husband gets home from work and children get home from school. They will have had a long day and it's your job as a mother to be cheerful and happy for your family when they come home for dinner. Your husband will appreciate that you took some time to apply makeup and put on a nice dress. I wish I had it to quote it because I'm sure I understated the ridiculousness of it.

Dragonlady, thanks for your comments. I am sometimes somewhat painfully conscious that my thoughts and feelings on certain subjects (when stated) can make me sound like I'm on some kind of 'high horse'. I'm aware that they are just my thoughts and I care only how they apply to me and are never meant to be a judgement on any one else. However, I worry all the same that someone take them negatively... they are not meant to be.

I find as I age, my health does become a greater worry. I also sometimes get saddened by the loss of the things I used to be able to do that I no longer can... toboganning, anyone?
Ah, no, I didn't think so!

[Gutmutter]

I know what you mean. My knees are blown and any kind of physical activity besides swimming is difficult for me.
I have my Junior Girl Scout book from the 60s. For one activity you make puppet heads with a recipe that includes Asbestos Powder!!! My dentist used to use mercury in the process of filling our teeth and afterwards gave us a little vial of it to play with. How did we ever survive?

[Tilden]

We also rode bikes without helmets, learned to skateboard without safety gear, learned to roller or ice skate by falling down repeatedly (again without any kind of safety gear), used playground equipment that allowed us to fall directly onto cement or asphalt, and figured out how to climb trees by trial and error (but at least if we erred, we generally fell onto the grass).

Oh, yeah, and no one had ever heard of sunscreen.

We should all be dead.

[Miss Scarlet]

I recently had someone with a 9 year old tell me that her child NEEDED a cell phone for safety & emergency purposes.
My reply was that neither myself or either of my children(or her for that matter) had a cell phone growing up. We had criminals, nuts, & bullies too. We went to friends' houses, movies, the park, school, after school activities, too. Guess what? We're still here! Healthy, well adjusted, safe, have friends. We just made sure to let our parents, families, friends know where we were, what we were doing, & we checked in regularly.......WITHOUT cell phones. We also were taught to act in a safe sensible manner. Revolutionary, isn't it?

Obviously, this woman didn't like my answer.

As said above, How on earth are we still alive? lol

[Gutmutter]

Parents get really upset sometimes when their darlings have their cell phones taken away from them at school (our policy is that a parent has to retrieve it). Same thing - they need to be able to get in touch with them. They are supposed to be locked in their lockers during the day. There is a landline phone in every room. The funniest is when one has been confiscated without being given the chance to shut it off and then another student gets busted because s/he texts while it is in the principal's possession. One 6th grade boy got his taken away and the background picture was an outrageously pornographic spread shot. Why don't the parents know what is on their kids' phones?