Creaky old, or creaky young?

by Anjali Gupta

This weekend I ran into my 47 year old ex-boss who among other things remarked that his wife now refers to him as her “creaky old husband”. And the reason: he’s been having a back ache that comes and goes, his stamina is not so good, and he has accumulated a few extra pounds. That’s about it.

Now the scary this is that he sounded a lot like me!

Initially I thought he was kidding but as I visualized every occasion on which I had met his wife I realized why her comment made sense. She always looks young and energetic and there’s a glow on her face that he doesn’t have. He shortly revealed her secret – she doesn’t miss a chance to get up and move around even if it’s just between rooms in the house, and she eats only 2/3rd of her capacity at every meal. Basically, no bad postures for long without breaks and no extra calories.

On a similar note, my dad recently met an 80-year-old who had a different secret – he washes his clothes every morning to keep himself fit. His wife complains about it all the time as she thinks the clothes need another wash after he’s done :).

I’m not the only person searching for that one healthy habit that lasts beyond a week. My “creaky young” colleagues are in the same boat. In fact at startups, we have many more excuses available to us – the office does not have a gym, the workload is overwhelming, the mind never stops churning, that email must get answered now, and finally, the best of them all – we’ll get to a healthy way of life once the startup has made it!

After that honest confession, I’m going to make an enthusiastic attempt at one of the above habits.

A humble request – please share your health secrets, I might need to switch to a new one very soon 😉

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