Aging --- how are you doing it?

[Crimson]

Oh, I know we could change our lifestyle and probably add a bunch of years to our lives. But seriously, why? I wouldn't want to live forever if I had to live being miserable.

If your concern is being miserable or feeling deprived, I think you'd be surprised how fast your tastes and preferences can change. I made drastic changes to my eating and activity habits about 10 years ago. I thought, at the time, I was sucking all of the joy out of my life. I miss none of it, not even a bit. Most of the stuff I considered tasty is now nauseating to me. I don't feel deprived because the things I enjoy and crave now are different (and healthier) than they were a decade ago.

Whether you want to or need to make changes to your life is personal, but I can guarantee you that in a few years time you would not miss the things you think you would miss.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

That's basically how I feel too. I turned 43 last month, and my health had been steadily going downhill since my mid-30s. I ended up making a lot of dietary changes and started exercising more, and it has done wonders for me. I feel better now than I did during my entire 30s. That said, I still try to not get too obsessive about the food I consume. I've never smoked or drank, so food has really been my only vice. And while I've worked hard to make better choices, I also allow myself to enjoy certain foods from time to time so I don't feel completely deprived. I know it's not what's best or recommended, but I'm not hung up on the number of years I have left to live. I just want to strike the right balance between decent health and enjoying myself while I'm still alive. As long as I have my physical and mental faculties, I don't mind enjoying something decadent now and then.

My character issues surround sugar. I have no problem avoiding any carbohydrate, be it refined or complex, except for sugar.

Proper Vitamin D-3 levels help everything. It's so effective for immunity, there have been big pharma efforts to suppress the information -- they don't even want the medical community to talk about it... Big pharma are aware of the benefits from D-3, which is why they've attempted to get a patent on it, but when the courts wouldn't permit that patent, there were then attempts to trivialize the benefits of the vitamin (which is really a hormone) using too low a level of supplementation to prove D-3 was "worthless."

In some counties, one has to obtain a prescription for D-3. (Which presumably keeps the price up).