It Must Be Due to Age

As I mentioned, it's Year of Smoothies, so I'm ingesting quite a bit of flax seed^*. It's easy to sneak into my smoothies - along with some spinach - for stealth health.

A few months ago, I was observing how I'm less regular with the "elimination" thing these days, and figured it must be due to age. No, dork. It was due to lack of fiber!

---

I have a 65 year old friend who's 5' 4" and 300 pounds and complains that he doesn't have a lot of stamina. He told me it must be due to age. I stared expectantly, but nothing ignited for him.

---

When I was 30, I noticed I was grunting whenever I rose from a couch. Must be due to age! But around that same time I relaunched my hatha yoga practice, and also started working on my core strength (the modern term for "doing situps"). Now, at age 59, I hop up from sofas like a restless eight-year-old, with no embittered groaning in pidgin Yiddish.

---

Chalking stuff up to age is, more often than not, a manifestation of lazy complacency. Why not just fix it??

I'm not an alcoholic, or a Christian, but I'm nonetheless a fan of the Serenity Prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

The thing is, though, that as shitty as we human beings are at accepting the inevitable, we're still worse when it comes to fixing the fixable.

---

* - Flax seed notes: they're healthier toasted (especially if you're eating them in quantity). I pop a teaspoon's worth in a small nonstick pan on low heat for 3-4 mins, and periodically shake the pan. They will, if you let them, brown (immediately apparently from the toasty smell filling your kitchen). I let this happen for nutty smoothies, and avoid it with fruity ones (unless I'm looking for variety). Also, you must grind your flax seeds, as whole ones pass right through your system (don't buy them pre-ground; they'll almost surely be rancid). You can use a coffee grinder or food processor, but that's not great in small quantity like this. It's faster/easier with old fashioned mortar and pestle (which cleans in a jiffy). It works best to grind after toasting.


Here is the rest of my fast-growing bundle of postings on aging. I think it's some of the Slog's most useful stuff. Per my custom, I only offer counterintuitive thoughts you've likely never considered (I don't like to bore people by restating The Usual).