How my red helmet helps me feel like a kid again

As we age, we all crave feeling like a kid again.  It’s hard to do when we’re mostly worried about our aging health and the dreaded onset of dementia.  But, we can do two things to ward off the onset of dementia.  Exercise and eat a well-balanced diet.  And, we can have fun doing both of those things while we keep that young as a kid feeling alive.

Now that Mr. and I are empty nesters, we keep those two things in mind as we’re adjusting our lifestyle.  We adjust our exercise due to our age and not wanting to break our legs, hips, or knees.  And we adjust our meals so that the recipes last for more than one meal, the kid-sized servings save us money and time in the kitchen.

“What’s good for the heart, is good for the brain.”

I know from experience that exercise and eating right helps us stay young at heart.  And, thankfully, my husband agrees.  For exercise, we run and sometimes walk.  Mostly run.

We keep moving, that’s what counts.

In addition to our daily exercise, Mr. keeps us fed with a variety of eye-appealing and tasty meals – mixed in with lots of fruits and vegetables throughout the week.

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We definitely have variety in our meals, but we’ve had an exercise groove that uses the same lower body muscle groups every day and it doesn’t seem to be cutting it for me lately.  I’ve been bored with just running, and it seems as though some upper body muscles are atrophying.  The wind under my arms seems to have something accompanying it, in the form of flab.

My upper body arm strength was different when we had a full house.  Having kids around was a workout.  Grabbing the steering wheel to drive them places; climbing in and out of the car multiple times a day; hauling their clothes baskets up and down the stairs; leaning and stretching over their beds to make them; vacuuming and sweeping up after them; bending over their toilets and scrubbing shower stalls…yep, it was a workout.  And now, it’s still a workout, but takes me half the time, and I can slack at it all I want – who sees the house anyhow?

The mastery of the housework workout is for the winter months.

I’d much rather be outside in the nice weather, getting exercise in the fresh air.  Yesterday, when Mr. and I headed out for a run, we ended up walking.  My heart wasn’t into the run, and I told him that I wanted to try biking again.  We haven’t used our bikes since our kids were old enough to ride their own bikes.  15 years ago.  Seems like the perfect amount of time for a bit of dust to form, along with flat tires.  Maybe they’ll still work?

Vintage bicycling sounds perfect.

We found the bikes, but we couldn’t find our helmets – must have been the last thrift sale wherein haste I said, “We’re never going to ride our bikes again, might as well get rid of these outdated helmets.”  The Dubious Minimalist in me lost the battle to hang onto to them just in case we need them later.  And, of course, I’m cursing myself for the hasty decision.

Bike helmets are extremely important to have – they protect our brains.

I knew there was no way in hell I was getting on a bike that I haven’t ridden in 15 years without some brain protection.  We headed off to the store to buy new helmets.  I had a vision of purple in my head – purple and gray hair go well together and I wanted it to ‘match’ my bike.  But, I also want to be highly visible to the cars so they don’t run me off the road.

There weren’t any purple helmets my size, just the little girl sizes were bright purple.  Aw…a tug at the heartstrings as I remembered the bike accessories in those colors we bought for our daughters when they first got big bikes.  Next best color available was a color that I love and goes well with my gray hair.  And, it’s the color of the helmet I got rid of…

Red, red, red…YES!  I love it.  I was so excited.  I felt like a little kid again!

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The bikes, of course, needed TLC to get them road-ready.  But…Mr. came to the rescue, with a bunch of elbow grease and some air pumped into the tires, we were all ready to hit the road.

Wind in my face, smiling all the way.

It was glorious ride and holy crap…YES!  My needed-to-be-revived muscles got a workout.  It was so much fun.  The kid in me feeling kept on going the whole ride.  In between moments of “ugh…how long is this hill?… Feel the burn baby!… Okay, let’s walk the bikes for a bit…”

We made it home safe and sound.  I didn’t fall when climbing off the bike.  I used my smile muscles as much as my arms and leg muscles.

This morning…I have the happy as kid memory of the ride.  And an aging body that says, “Oh yeah…those muscles are still alive and definitely in need of a day of rest to recover…”

PS – what do you do to stay young at heart?