How can we stop becoming 'old' as we age?

Mine was in the last 'lot', Ana He's 74 on his next birthday - and he's certainly not 'old'.
petallus, I agree. It's really a case of how we feel, not how we see ourselves, isn't it?

You're right, Marelli - DH just missed out but his friend did National Service and is only 74 or 75...

Why would an elderly person dread behaving in accordance with their age?

I wouldn't make any particular effort to 'stay young'.

I'm just ME. I don't really understand how I'll feel when I become old - when will I know I've become old, anyway? I have a friend who is 73, and for a few years, she's been saying, "Well, I'm an old lady now, you know. She allows herself to be taken for walks, because she knows it's good for her.....However, I've never been 'taken' anywhere - I go myself, if I want to.
messenger, my DH did his National Service as well - there are heaps of them around! They are not old men yet!

Way to go, B!

Well, yes, jings, "the stuff that comes with it". Still no point worrying about it; one just has to get on with it as best one can, same as the rest of life. Besides, plenty of shit stuff happens to young people. I guess I'm just rebelling against the youth culture we live in which seems to think staying young is the be all and end all.

Oh, thanks, jingl! Thought it was just me!

Spill Nonu! Please!

"however"

I still don't understand "RMA" please explain, GNs, in simple terms!

I see messenger is back; any chance of introducing sex, howver tenuous, always taken. Poor chap.

Forgot to say my son bought me the Twilight Saga film set for Christmas so hope to get stuck into that when I have time. Have you read the Hunger Games? have only seen the film [my favourite of last year] but haven't read the book yet.

D'you listen to Radio6 RockNanny? Discovered it a few months ago and have it on most of the time now. Gigs do cost a lot these days; planning to see Neil Young later this year. [one of my heroes].

"why worry? Aging happens".

Yes Bags, but it's the stuff that comes with it.

Granny 23 I loved your story ! What a guy!

I stay young through my love of music. I love rock and alternative music and am into bands and singers that my DD has never even heard of. I go to gigs as often as I can, though a reduced income is currently cramping my style on that score. I dress quite fashionably, though only what I feel suits me (would hate to be mutton-dressed-as-lamb) and I read all the Twilight novels before all the hype started in the UK. These are just some examples. I think my late father tried to stay young too. He always watched Top of the Pops with myself and my sister and tried to dress in some of the younger fashions. However, things changed when we married and left home. My mother always seemed, to me, to want to be older than she was. It always bothered me .

Each to his own I say! People enjoy their lives in the way they choose to - some people enjoy a slower pace, some want to be bungee jumping at 90 - both seem just fine to me.

My OH likes to stay in and take life easy (he does have PD of course) and I am more inclined to want to be out and about (which is why the blooming broken foot is so frustrating) - but neither of us wants to race around the world or take up huge challenges.

Hi Kitty..Happy New Year to you...your question about `age` and stopping from growing old....the answer is simplicity itself..don`t think `old`...be yourself and enjoy life.
I have been retired for 13 years now and one of the few National Servicemen around so you can guess my age can`t you.
I posed a question sometime ago and I was castigated and vilified for it. The bad comments I got didn`t phase me in any way.
The question was about Octogenarian sex...now don`t fall off your chair Kitty.Sex is the greatest form of pleasure whether you are 18 or 80 and superb excercise and keeps your mind and body active.
I met a wonderful lady a few years ago and she was wonderfully sexually active and enjoyed her life to the full and she lived to be 94 and paying me the most exquisite compliment a woman can give a man, she said I had given her an extra 5 years of her life and she was 89 when we met.
So Kitty enjoy every minute of your life for you have only ONE.

Me too Move.

I don't intend to even think about it until I start to feel old! Why would I need to? Since retirement I have done more exercise than ever before and can now touch my toes with my legs straight for the first time in my life. I have overcome my fear of water and swum 20 lengths. I've grwon nearly an inch from doing pilates and DH has reduced his BP meds from 3 to 2 and if he carries on the way he is will soon be down to 1. We are having far too much fun to start thinking about getting old. We are both fitter than ever and having a really good time.

I think non conformity comes with age, not diminishes. No peer group pressure to adhere to. Now, my daughter followed the advice of her headteacher and stuck to 'core' subjects at a time when others were doing rather weird A Levels. He was a pretty rubbish headteacher in every other way but we did appreciate that advice.

I don't think there's anything particularly aging about choosing to opt out of what other people see as conventional or 'normal' either. Eccentricity has a place in a world where there is too much unnecessary conformity and too much pressure to conform just because it's seen as "the thing to do" rather than because it has any intrinsic value.

I don't understand this "in my head I'm still" sixteen, eighteen, twenty-three, woteva. I'm a lot more mature than I was back then and would be horrified if I thought I wasn't. I'm sure the same is true for other gransnetters.

Here's a simple example of how different I am now. When I was sixteen, I was persuaded by my headteacher not to do the four A-levels I wanted to do because they crossed the science/humanities division. They would have fitted into the school timetable so that wasn't a problem, but she was convinced I wouldn't get into university with that mixture. I followed her 'advice'. Now, I would simply go ahead and do what I felt was right and be blowed to anyone else. That's a confidence that increases with age and experience. No way am I the same as I was when I was sixteen.

And I'm jolly glad that that is so.

I think age is very much in the mind, its sounds like they may have aged in attitiude due to choosing to opt out of the conventional world, when people get onste of Altziemas they are encouraged to read and be alert with things as much as poss.

My body may be 69(and a bit!), but in my head I`m still a shy 16 year old. My husband, whos 68, worked till 66, but since then he seems to have aged terribly, getting very vague and forgetful, and nowhere near as strong as he was when working. His eldest brother, on the other hand, is 77, and still working, and still has all his lemon drops, completely different to hubby, who`s the youngest in his family.

jura,

Maybe they have hidden health problems that use up their energy, or take medication that slows them down. Maybe they don't mind being old. I have a friend who has been 'old' ever since I first met her when she was twenty and I was eighteen. Her husband, who is twenty years older than her, has often seemed the younger of the two.