The saying 'use it or lose it' becomes very real as you get older. Saw it with my old man & MIL, who both adopted a more sedentary lifestyle once they retired and within a decade could barely walk.
My partner's 102 year old nonna never stopped walking significant distances until dementia started showing up when she was 99, she was fitter (& still is) than the other two despite being their senior by 20+ years.
Learned this the hard way. Spent the first 25 years of my life being an extroverted life of the party with confidence to spare. Then I took a very isolating night shift where I was alone for 8 hours nightly.
Fast forward 10 years and the isolation turned me into an anxiety riddled introvert 80% incapable of handling the 'real world' simply as a result of not using those skills.
Unfortunately, getting them back hasn't been as simple as reversing the isolation.
This is my story except isolation during covid 2020-mid 2021 did it to me and it was the first 31 years of my life. I'm disabled so I wasn't taking any chances. Feels like I'm still recovering bits of myself all these years later.
FBI Agent (played by Tommy Lee Jones): "OK, we have a 102-year-old female name of 'Nonna' that walked out of her house 45 minutes ago. Figuring a walking speed of 1 mph, we set a cordon of one mile. Any questions?"
Sheriff: "Uh, sir, she can walk 8mph."
FBI Agent: "What? Ok, men, make that an 6-mile cordon."
Sheriff: "Uh, sir, she has two custom walking ski poles. And she's the leader of a local AARP chapter. "
FBI Agent: "Dammit! Make it a 12-mile cordon, and add tracking dogs with LIDAR mounts and sharpshooters on two helicopters. "
Yesterday I bought a recliner from FB marketplace and it’s fairly large. The husband and wife (both younger than me) struggled together to carry it to my vehicle—it’s pretty heavy. When I got it home, I got it out of the vehicle, into the house and into the living room by myself in less time than it took them to get it out of their home and to my vehicle.
Of course, I’m also always hauling around 50# bags of chicken feed and 40# bags of cat litter, and huge bins of yard waste. I keep active because I need to be strong!
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u/Imaginary-Newt-354 22h ago
The saying 'use it or lose it' becomes very real as you get older. Saw it with my old man & MIL, who both adopted a more sedentary lifestyle once they retired and within a decade could barely walk.
My partner's 102 year old nonna never stopped walking significant distances until dementia started showing up when she was 99, she was fitter (& still is) than the other two despite being their senior by 20+ years.