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Do You Really Want to Live to 100? · My Sexy Menopause Body

0:02
SPEAKER_00: This is My Sexy Menopause Body with Kim Nicholson.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: Real conversations about your health, your choices, and how you want to live after menopause.
0:18
SPEAKER_01: Everybody seems to be obsessed with living to 100 years old.
0:23
SPEAKER_01: But I have a different question.
0:25
SPEAKER_01: What would have to be true for me to actually want to live to 100 years old?
0:31
SPEAKER_01: Because when I picture my 100th birthday, the number on the cake isn't really what interests me at all.
0:38
SPEAKER_01: I, you know what I actually want to know?
0:39
SPEAKER_01: I want to know, can I still participate in my own life?
0:44
SPEAKER_01: You know, can I get up and move around?
0:46
SPEAKER_01: Um, can I make decisions for myself?
0:49
SPEAKER_01: Can I have an interesting conversation?
0:52
SPEAKER_01: Or can I even recognize the people I love?
0:55
SPEAKER_01: Can I, I don't know, read a book or sit at a table or laugh or go outside?
0:59
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe can I still cook something?
1:02
SPEAKER_01: You know, or am I limited to a microwave oven?
1:06
SPEAKER_01: Can I maybe travel if I'm fortunate enough to be able to?
1:10
SPEAKER_01: Do I have people I want to spend time with when I'm 100 years old?
1:16
SPEAKER_01: Is there still something I'm curious about at 100?
1:19
SPEAKER_01: Is there a reason I want to get up in the you know tomorrow morning if I'm a hundred?
1:24
SPEAKER_01: Because if we're going to be having this enormous cultural conversation about longevity, you know what?
1:31
SPEAKER_01: I think we need to talk about something besides the number of living to a hundred.
1:38
SPEAKER_01: What kind of life are we trying to extend?
1:43
SPEAKER_01: Hey, it's Kim.
1:45
SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to My Sexy Menopause Body.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: I have absolutely become fascinated by this longevity conversation because you know what?
1:54
SPEAKER_01: It's everywhere.
1:55
SPEAKER_01: And we're testing biological ages.
1:58
SPEAKER_01: I know I have done that.
1:59
SPEAKER_01: We're tracking sleep, glucose, uh, heart rate, um, muscle mass, field max, you know, and there's a ton of supplements out there, full body scans, um, cold plunges, saunas, peptides, wearable longevity, longevity clinics, I mean, and promising, you know, each one of these are promising to tell us how fast we are aging.
2:26
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
2:27
SPEAKER_01: Some of the science is generally fascinating, right?
2:31
SPEAKER_01: But every once in a while I want to interrupt the entire conversation and say, wait, hold on, people.
2:38
SPEAKER_01: Why are we trying to do all this?
2:41
SPEAKER_01: Is the our goal really to reach 100 years old?
2:45
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm gonna let you in a secret.
2:47
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure it's my goal.
2:50
SPEAKER_01: Um, my goal is to have as many years as possible in which I can fully participate in my life.
2:58
SPEAKER_01: Now that's different.
3:00
SPEAKER_01: And there's a word you will hear, and I'm gonna use it a lot, especially in today's podcast, but I use it a lot on my website, and it's called health span.
3:09
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure most of you have probably heard it, but generally health span refers to the years of life spent in reasonably good health and function.
3:19
SPEAKER_01: Now that's different rather than simply the total numbers of years we're alive, right?
3:25
SPEAKER_01: And that distinction is huge to me.
3:29
SPEAKER_01: I don't particularly want to become, you know, an Olympic athlete at 95.
3:34
SPEAKER_01: It'd be kind of cool, but that's not really one of my goals because I don't really need to be proving anything at that age.
3:42
SPEAKER_01: But I would love to be able to, I don't know, get out of a chair without having somebody to help pull me up.
3:49
SPEAKER_01: Or I'd like to, you know, carry my own things, you know, my own groceries.
3:54
SPEAKER_01: I'd like to, I'd like to walk on my own.
3:57
SPEAKER_01: I'd like to think clearly enough to participate in the decisions about my own life and that around my family.
4:04
SPEAKER_01: I'd like to continue having relationships that matter to me.
4:09
SPEAKER_01: And I'd also like to be interested in something, you know, have a purpose.
4:14
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a very different conversation than simply saying, you know, how do I live longer?
4:22
SPEAKER_01: Well, here's something that surprised me when I started looking in at the actual research on people who live to 100.
4:29
SPEAKER_01: I know you've heard about the blue zones.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: We've all heard about it, it's fantastic.
4:35
SPEAKER_01: But we sometimes assume that if you live an extraordinarily long lifetime, you simply spend more years accumulating disease.
4:44
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
4:45
SPEAKER_01: That's not actually necessarily what researchers see.
4:48
SPEAKER_01: There was a large Swedish study that was published in just 2024 that actually followed 170,000 people from age 60 onward and compared people who eventually reached 100 with people born in the same era who didn't.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: The centenarians generally developed major age-related diseases at a lower rate at later ages.
5:14
SPEAKER_01: They weren't simply just surviving heart attacks or strokes or other illnesses for 20 years.
5:19
SPEAKER_01: Many appeared to delay and in some cases avoid major disease longer than their shorter-lived peers.
5:29
SPEAKER_01: Now I know that this doesn't mean everybody who reaches 100 is healthy, far from it, and I'm not promising you that, and I'm not trying to sugarcoat this because there was another U.S.
5:39
SPEAKER_01: study looking at people who reached 100 found something equally as important.
5:45
SPEAKER_01: Centenarians were incredibly diverse.
5:49
SPEAKER_01: Some reached 100 with significant disease and disability, and others didn't.
5:53
SPEAKER_01: In that study, about 23% reached 100 without the major chronic diseases the researchers were measuring.
6:01
SPEAKER_01: And about, I think 18%, let me look at my notes, 18% had no disability, and more than half reached 100 without cognitive impairment.
6:12
SPEAKER_01: Now, think about that for a moment.
6:15
SPEAKER_01: That's just huge to me.
6:17
SPEAKER_01: There isn't one version of being a hundred, right?
6:20
SPEAKER_01: And I think that is very important because sometimes we talk about aging as though the ending was, you know, has already been written for us.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: You know, like we've say to we say to ourselves, well, at 60, this happens.
6:33
SPEAKER_01: And at 70, this is this is what's supposed to happen.
6:36
SPEAKER_01: And at 80, guess what?
6:37
SPEAKER_01: You can't do these things anymore.
6:39
SPEAKER_01: And at 90, you know what, you're gonna be this way, like it or not, this is what life is.
6:44
SPEAKER_01: But the science doesn't support that kind of certainty, right?
6:48
SPEAKER_01: People age differently.
6:50
SPEAKER_01: I age will I will age different than you, you'll age different than me.
6:54
SPEAKER_01: Genetics do matter enormously, okay, but so does socioeconomic circumstances.
7:01
SPEAKER_01: Um, healthcare access does matter, environment, illnesses, chance and factors that, you know, there are things that we just can't control.
7:10
SPEAKER_01: And I want to say that very clearly because I don't believe in turning longevity into another, you know, uh morality context.
7:19
SPEAKER_01: I mean, like you don't, you know, earn a hundred because you ate enough vegetables in your lifetime.
7:24
SPEAKER_01: That would be nice though, wouldn't it?
7:26
SPEAKER_01: I would definitely be doing that more.
7:29
SPEAKER_01: I would be eating more vegetables every single day.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: But you cannot guarantee yourself a disease a disease-free future by following the perfect morning routine, like you see on social media, because sometimes people do everything right, right, and still get sick.
7:45
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people do things we never recommend and live an incredibly long lifetime.
7:53
SPEAKER_01: Because guess what?
7:54
SPEAKER_01: That's biology, that's life.
7:56
SPEAKER_01: And a coach should never promise you control that you actually don't have, right?
8:02
SPEAKER_01: But lack of complete control does not mean we have no influence.
8:07
SPEAKER_01: So don't think what I'm trying to say here is what you do on a daily basis doesn't have influence because I think it does.
8:14
SPEAKER_01: And I think that distinction is where this kind of this conversation becomes really useful.
8:20
SPEAKER_01: So, according to one of the most recent final US data, a woman who reached 65, okay, talking about us, on average can expect roughly another 21 years of life.
8:34
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I first read that study, I'm like, that's it?
8:37
SPEAKER_01: I got 21 more years?
8:39
SPEAKER_01: Now that's an average.
8:41
SPEAKER_01: It's not a prediction, okay?
8:43
SPEAKER_01: It's not a prediction for any individual woman.
8:46
SPEAKER_01: But let's just sit on that for a moment.
8:50
SPEAKER_01: You know, think about what that means.
8:52
SPEAKER_01: We're not talking about, you know, some tiny little epilogue after menopause anymore.
8:57
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about decades, you know, and I don't want to spend, you know, those decades obsessing about whether my biological age is 4.7 years younger than what my chronological age is.
9:09
SPEAKER_01: But you know what I do want to ask?
9:11
SPEAKER_01: I want to ask, what do I want those years to contain?
9:15
SPEAKER_01: No, that's a question I think that gets lost in the longevity culture.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: Because when I imagine a long life that I would actually want, I don't picture a lab report.
9:28
SPEAKER_01: I picture function and independence.
9:32
SPEAKER_01: I picture people around that I love.
9:35
SPEAKER_01: I picture my purpose in life.
9:37
SPEAKER_01: I picture having a you know physical ability to do the things that matter to me.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: And those are not those are not all medical outcomes, right?
9:47
SPEAKER_01: Those are life outcomes.
9:50
SPEAKER_01: So let's start with function, okay?
9:53
SPEAKER_01: Because I care tremendously about strength, and you know that.
9:57
SPEAKER_01: Um, but not because I want a certain number printed next to my deadlift when I'm 85 years old.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: I care about strength because I want to use it.
10:07
SPEAKER_01: That's why I work out, that's why I believe in progressive overload, because I care about strength because I want to use it.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: I want to carry my own luggage.
10:20
SPEAKER_01: I want to climb the stairs.
10:22
SPEAKER_01: I want to get myself up off the floor.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: I want enough leg strength to get in and out of a boat or a tiny sports car.
10:33
SPEAKER_01: I want enough endurance to walk through a city.
10:37
SPEAKER_01: I want enough balance also to cross uneven ground, you know, without having to become a frightened of it.
10:44
SPEAKER_01: You know, there was a large study published in 2024 looking at physical activity and modeled life expectancy in more than 70,000 adults, and many of them were women around the early 60s, okay?
10:57
SPEAKER_01: And higher levels of physical activity were associated with longer estimated life expectancy.
11:02
SPEAKER_01: And activity intensity appeared to matter as well.
11:08
SPEAKER_01: So that doesn't mean walking an extra 30 minutes literally will guarantee, you know, a certain number of years to your life.
11:15
SPEAKER_01: It was an observational research, and that's an important distinction.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: But it does add to an enormous body of evidence telling us that movement does matter.
11:27
SPEAKER_01: And I think we sometimes make that message far too complicated.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: If you spend any time on social media, you know it's complicated.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: One person will say this, another person will say that, and 50 others will follow behind with different opinions.
11:44
SPEAKER_01: But um, I think that we just gotta uncomplicate this message.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: That's how that's what I believe.
11:51
SPEAKER_01: The body you want later is actually influenced by what you repeatedly ask your body to do now, not just one workout, not one just perfect month, the cumulative effect of the choices you make over time.
12:09
SPEAKER_01: So that's the part I believe in.
12:12
SPEAKER_01: That to me is the secret of living in a wonderful health span.
12:19
SPEAKER_01: And if it makes it to 100, if I make it to 100, that's great.
12:23
SPEAKER_01: But if we're gonna talk about living longer, we also have to talk about people.
12:30
SPEAKER_01: Because what's the point of preserving your health if you've built a life with nobody in it?
12:36
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you don't want to be alone, right?
12:38
SPEAKER_01: You know, there was a large meta-analysis involving more than two million people, yep, two million people, found that social isolation and loneliness were associated with a higher mortality risk.
12:54
SPEAKER_01: That's, you know, we need to be talking about that on social media more often.
12:59
SPEAKER_01: Is we need how the importance of social interaction, again, I want you to hear the word associated.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: It does not mean loneliness directly causes a specific outcome in every individual, but the consistency of the relationship across many studies tells us that the social connection deserves to be a part of our health conversation.
13:22
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's fascinating because we've all turned to wellness, you know, into something that's very individual.
13:28
SPEAKER_01: You know, this is my workout plan, this is the supplements that I take, this is my sleep schedule, this is my glucose numbers, this is my the steps that I take every day, this is my morning routine.
13:40
SPEAKER_01: But maybe one of those questions we should be asking is who am I doing this life with?
13:46
SPEAKER_01: You know, who can I call?
13:48
SPEAKER_01: Who knows me?
13:49
SPEAKER_01: You know, who do I want to laugh with?
13:51
SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, who am I showing up for day after day?
13:55
SPEAKER_01: And who would notice if I disappeared for a week?
13:58
SPEAKER_01: Because guess what?
13:58
SPEAKER_01: That's health too.
14:00
SPEAKER_01: And not because friendship needs to become one of the most important items on your wellness checklist, but because human beings aren't meant to experience life entirely alone.
14:11
SPEAKER_01: And I think there's beauty in that.
14:13
SPEAKER_01: And there's also sadness if you don't have anybody.
14:16
SPEAKER_01: Think about this as important as taking care of yourself because this is a part of taking care of yourself.
14:24
SPEAKER_01: And I want to get on to the next one.
14:26
SPEAKER_01: And then there the next one would be purpose.
14:28
SPEAKER_01: This one matters so deeply to me.
14:31
SPEAKER_01: There was a very large meta-analysis published in 2026, so that combined the data from nearly a half a million people across multiple countries and found that a greater sense of purpose in life was consistently associated with lower risks of earlier mortality.
14:50
SPEAKER_01: That's amazing to me.
14:53
SPEAKER_01: Now, purpose, of course, is difficult to study because you know you can't put that into a pill and you can't randomly assign someone a meaningful life for 30 years and compare them with a control group, right?
15:04
SPEAKER_01: So we need to be careful again about saying purpose causes longevity.
15:09
SPEAKER_01: We don't know that.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: But people with a greater sense of purpose may behave differently, they may be more socially connected, they may take better care of themselves because they are socially connected.
15:23
SPEAKER_01: Uh, they may have other advantages that matter too.
15:25
SPEAKER_01: I remember my um my mother-in-law, um, my father-in-law had passed, and my mother-in-law made sure that she got she had a routine.
15:35
SPEAKER_01: She got up and had her specific breakfast every day.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: She did her workout and then she would shower and then she would put on clothes.
15:42
SPEAKER_01: You would think that she's going to work.
15:44
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she dressed immaculately.
15:46
SPEAKER_01: And I asked her one time, why you know do you get so dressed up?
15:50
SPEAKER_01: And she says, Because it's my purpose.
15:53
SPEAKER_01: I feel like it gives me a sense of purpose.
15:55
SPEAKER_01: And I thought about that because I thought, ah, I'd probably be walking around, you know, like warm-up clothes or something, or loungewear.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: But I think that there's a lot of importance to that.
16:05
SPEAKER_01: Now, of course, that's going to differ from person to person.
16:09
SPEAKER_01: But the question is, is can I still find that association with purpose interesting?
16:15
SPEAKER_01: Because what if a part of healthy aging isn't simply just keeping your body alive?
16:19
SPEAKER_01: What if you know it's continuing to have a reason to use it?
16:23
SPEAKER_01: And purpose doesn't have to mean running a company, it doesn't mean you have to save the world, it could be your family or your faith or volunteering or being a mentor to somebody.
16:37
SPEAKER_01: How about being creative?
16:39
SPEAKER_01: You know, I've got so many friends, and including my husband, that they found painting has really opened up a whole world for them and they're good at it.
16:49
SPEAKER_01: Whether you're good at it or not doesn't matter.
16:51
SPEAKER_01: But create something, um, teach something or grow something, start a garden, take care of something, you know, learn, learn that language you've been wanting to learn your whole life.
17:04
SPEAKER_01: You know, contribute to your community or your neighborhood, you know, just being a friend.
17:10
SPEAKER_01: You can make friends at 90 years old, you can make new friends, you know.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: Um, but having something tomorrow that requires your presence is so powerful.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: I think sometimes when women hear the word, I'm using air quotes here, purpose, and they think they need to discover a second career or launch some sort of like, you know, nonprofit organization.
17:31
SPEAKER_01: No, that's not what I'm saying at all.
17:32
SPEAKER_01: Maybe purpose is simply just knowing that there are people and places and things in this world that matter to me or you, and I still matter to them.
17:44
SPEAKER_01: That's enough.
17:47
SPEAKER_01: That's it, that's all it would take.
17:49
SPEAKER_01: So think about your purpose.
17:52
SPEAKER_01: So when I ask myself again, do I really want to live to a hundred?
17:59
SPEAKER_01: My answer is maybe.
18:03
SPEAKER_01: But the hundred isn't the important part.
18:06
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I actually want.
18:09
SPEAKER_01: I want, and I've given this thought, so this is not something that I'm just you know talking about right now.
18:16
SPEAKER_01: I have thought about this for the last several years because I want as much independence as my circumstances allow.
18:24
SPEAKER_01: I do, and I want my mind, I want my relationships, I still want to be curious, I want something to contribute to, and it could be very small, but I want to feel like I've made a contribution.
18:39
SPEAKER_01: I want enough physical ability to participate in my life rather than just sit back and observe it.
18:46
SPEAKER_01: I want freedom and not freedom from every illness.
18:49
SPEAKER_01: That's not realistic, you know.
18:51
SPEAKER_01: Wish it was, but it's not.
18:53
SPEAKER_01: I mean the freedom to make choices, the freedom to decide what I want to do with a day, the freedom to continue being a part of the world.
19:01
SPEAKER_01: That's what longevity means to me.
19:04
SPEAKER_01: And once you define it in that way, you know what?
19:08
SPEAKER_01: Something does change.
19:09
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to think about that.
19:12
SPEAKER_01: Because now the question isn't, what should I buy that's gonna help me live to 100 years old?
19:20
SPEAKER_01: Here's the real question I want you to walk away with today.
19:24
SPEAKER_01: What abilities and relationships do I want to protect?
19:28
SPEAKER_01: That is so much more of a useful question, and it changes how you elevate health information.
19:34
SPEAKER_01: You know, someone tells you that you need a new longevity supplement.
19:38
SPEAKER_01: Well, okay, but what job am I hiring it to do?
19:42
SPEAKER_01: You know, what do I really want it to do?
19:45
SPEAKER_01: Or let me give you another example, see it on social media all the time.
19:48
SPEAKER_01: Someone tells you to buy, you know, a$2,500 health test.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: Well, what decisions will that test actually change?
19:56
SPEAKER_01: What's it going to do for me?
19:58
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that's not a good idea, but what decisions, you've got to answer that question before you give away your money on these tests, what decisions will that test actually change for me?
20:10
SPEAKER_01: You know, someone tells you you need to take a cold plunge.
20:13
SPEAKER_01: Now, personally, I love a cold plunge.
20:15
SPEAKER_01: It really gives me this natural energy for like hours.
20:19
SPEAKER_01: But again, you need to ask yourself, what is going to be my outcome for that?
20:25
SPEAKER_01: So when someone tells you to, let's say another example would be like uh eat a specific food that will help you live longer, you see a lot of that in the blue zones, and I believe in a lot of them.
20:35
SPEAKER_01: But what did the study actually measure?
20:38
SPEAKER_01: These are the questions I love a good case study, and these are the things that I just kind of tear them apart first, which I did with all these that I've already discussed here today.
20:46
SPEAKER_01: But you also want to know who was studying in this program, and was it randomized, or was it just observational?
20:54
SPEAKER_01: You know, were women included?
20:56
SPEAKER_01: Were women, you know, that were anywhere near my age included?
21:00
SPEAKER_01: And then what how big was the effect of the results of this case study?
21:04
SPEAKER_01: And did the study look at what things that I care about?
21:09
SPEAKER_01: Because those are the questions I want women learning to ask themselves, because evidence should help you make these decisions, right?
21:17
SPEAKER_01: It shouldn't simply just give somebody another way to sell you something, and that's so powerful.
21:25
SPEAKER_01: So, this is where my perspective as a board certified health and wellness coach is different from someone simply handing you a list of like longevity rules.
21:35
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what your 100 years old should look like, but I think you should give that some thought.
21:42
SPEAKER_01: Sit with that.
21:43
SPEAKER_01: What do you see for yourself if you are blessed enough to live to 100 years old?
21:48
SPEAKER_01: What is that going to look like?
21:51
SPEAKER_01: Because I, you know, I don't know your medical history or your family history or your resources, and I don't know your relationships or your priorities, I don't know your body.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know your risk factors.
22:02
SPEAKER_01: And I really don't know your life.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: And neither does any other influencer out there who you met just 10 seconds ago as you're scrolling through social media.
22:13
SPEAKER_01: But the evidence does give us some information.
22:18
SPEAKER_01: Your healthcare team gives you individualized medical guidance.
22:23
SPEAKER_01: And then there's this other piece.
22:25
SPEAKER_01: How does all of this fit into your actual life?
22:30
SPEAKER_01: Now, to me that's powerful, and I use this with my clients.
22:35
SPEAKER_01: How does this information fit into your actual life?
22:39
SPEAKER_01: Because that's where behavior change comes in.
22:42
SPEAKER_01: Because knowing that strength does matter doesn't automatically put strength training on Tuesday afternoons, right?
22:50
SPEAKER_01: But how is that going to fit into your life?
22:54
SPEAKER_01: That's the answer that you need to come up with.
22:57
SPEAKER_01: And then that becomes your motivation for strength training.
23:01
SPEAKER_01: Another example that I love to use with my clients is knowing that sleep doesn't make you, you know, turn off Netflix.
23:08
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't.
23:09
SPEAKER_01: My husband thinks it does, but it doesn't.
23:12
SPEAKER_01: Or knowing connection matters doesn't make you want to call your friend.
23:16
SPEAKER_01: Knowing vegetables are good for you doesn't make them appear magically on your plate.
23:22
SPEAKER_01: There's always that space, you know, in between.
23:24
SPEAKER_01: I know and I do.
23:26
SPEAKER_01: So you may know this information, but what you do with this information, that's the space in between I know and I do.
23:37
SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
23:38
SPEAKER_01: I know and I do.
23:39
SPEAKER_01: That space is what I find super, super fascinating as a National Board certified health and wellness coach.
23:47
SPEAKER_01: And that's what I love asking people.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: Because you don't build health in gigantic, dramatic transformations.
23:54
SPEAKER_01: Most of the time you build it through ordinary choices, repeated long enough that they begin to shape your life.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: So instead of asking you to create some enormous longevity protocol after listening to this episode, I want to give you three questions.
24:11
SPEAKER_01: And I would actually like you to write these down.
24:14
SPEAKER_01: Alright, so give you a second to get a paper and pen.
24:18
SPEAKER_01: And my first question for you is this if you live to a hundred years old, what would you want to still be able to do?
24:31
SPEAKER_01: Hmm.
24:32
SPEAKER_01: Now, don't give me a medical answer.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: Give me a life answer.
24:38
SPEAKER_01: I told you mine was to, you know, walk independently.
24:41
SPEAKER_01: Maybe yours is to travel, to cook, to still drive your car, to still live in your own home, read, to be able to garden, you know, to be able to dance or to attend church or to still be able to go out to lunch with friends, or how about even, you know, hold a grandchild or even a great grandchild?
25:06
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe the independence of still being able to make your own decisions.
25:11
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to write three to five things because now we know what you're actually training your day-to-day life for.
25:21
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
25:22
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
25:23
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
25:24
SPEAKER_01: I I ask myself those questions over again because they may change.
25:29
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
25:30
SPEAKER_01: Every time they change, they get stronger for me.
25:33
SPEAKER_01: So that's the first one.
25:34
SPEAKER_01: If you were to live to 100, what would you want to still be able to do?
25:39
SPEAKER_01: Okay, now my second question to you is which one of those abilities can you support right now?
25:48
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you know you want to keep getting up off the floor.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: You know, I see people my age who struggle to get up off the floor.
25:55
SPEAKER_01: Well, guess what?
25:56
SPEAKER_01: I use that, those muscles that it takes to get your body up and off of the floor is a part of my strength training, my flexibility, my mobility, my coordination.
26:07
SPEAKER_01: I actually do that ten times three days a week.
26:12
SPEAKER_01: I put myself on the floor in all these weird positions, and I get up off the floor without using my hands.
26:18
SPEAKER_01: So then if that's important to you, then you gotta think about it.
26:22
SPEAKER_01: That what your answer is telling you that strength and mobility and balance all deserve your attention today.
26:28
SPEAKER_01: Because maybe you want to stay, or maybe another thing is um you want to stay socially connected, and then perhaps the behavior isn't another exercise, right?
26:38
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's just putting an actual lunch on the calendar.
26:41
SPEAKER_01: I know that's I need to do that.
26:43
SPEAKER_01: I don't spend enough time socializing, um, but it is important, so you know, put uh go out there or call somebody and make a lunch arrangement, go to the movies, just go for a walk, you know, um, or maybe you just want your mind engaged here.
27:02
SPEAKER_01: That's another one, you know.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: Then what do you want to learn?
27:05
SPEAKER_01: You know, who are you talking to?
27:07
SPEAKER_01: Or what are you gonna be curious about?
27:09
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe what purpose matters deeply to you?
27:13
SPEAKER_01: And where are you contributing in life to?
27:16
SPEAKER_01: Is it just, you know, it could be your neighborhood, it could be your community, it could be your state.
27:21
SPEAKER_01: Because there, guess what?
27:22
SPEAKER_01: There is no universal answer.
27:24
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing right or wrong with any of those.
27:27
SPEAKER_01: But that's the point.
27:28
SPEAKER_01: Your longevity plan shouldn't look exactly like mine.
27:31
SPEAKER_01: Nope.
27:32
SPEAKER_01: So again, the second question is which one of these abilities can I support now?
27:39
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
27:39
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: All right, so now the third question is the one that I think may matter the most.
27:46
SPEAKER_01: Am I so busy trying to extend my life that I'm forgetting to live the one I have right now?
27:56
SPEAKER_01: That is where I want us to be very, very careful because we know wellness can become another form of postponing life, right?
28:06
SPEAKER_01: I'll go to dinner when my weight is where I want it.
28:09
SPEAKER_01: I'll travel when I'm fitter, I'll wear that when I look better, or I drop those 10 pounds, or I'll enjoy my life after I fix my sleep, or after I fix my cholesterol, or my glucose, or my body composition, and whatever metric my watch told me was terrible this morning.
28:29
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
28:31
SPEAKER_01: Take care of your health.
28:33
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
28:34
SPEAKER_01: Go to your screenings, talk with your physician, move your body, build strength, eat in a way that supports your health, sleep, and take your medications if they're prescribed, but know your risk factors, do the things that have solid evidence behind them, because you don't want to spend the next 20 years preparing to enjoy the life that you had 20 years behind you, because that counts too.
29:05
SPEAKER_01: So today is a part of your health span that you're trying so hard to protect.
29:11
SPEAKER_01: What you do today matters, and maybe that's my biggest realization from this whole longevity conversation is I don't actually want to live to 100 years old simply to say that I did.
29:25
SPEAKER_01: It'd be kind of cool.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: I heard you get a you know, a birthday card from the White House, but that'd be kind of cool.
29:32
SPEAKER_01: But I want to be in my life for as much of it as possible.
29:38
SPEAKER_01: That's different because I don't need a guarantee.
29:41
SPEAKER_01: There are, well, we all know there aren't any guarantees.
29:44
SPEAKER_01: I need direction.
29:46
SPEAKER_01: I need to know what matters to me.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: I need good evidence to support that.
29:52
SPEAKER_01: I need good medical care, I need good, great relationships, and I need a sense of purpose.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: And then I can need to keep making those small choices that support all of those big things consistently as much as I reasonably can.
30:08
SPEAKER_01: Not perfectly, but the consistently.
30:12
SPEAKER_01: That's the key word there.
30:13
SPEAKER_01: Because guess what?
30:14
SPEAKER_01: Perfection isn't available.
30:15
SPEAKER_01: We all know that, and it's not required either.
30:18
SPEAKER_01: So here's what I want you to do after this episode.
30:22
SPEAKER_01: I want you to find one woman you really love, the kind of woman you'd actually want sitting beside you on your 100th birthday party, and send her this episode and then ask her that one question.
30:36
SPEAKER_01: What would have to be true for you to actually want to live to 100 years old?
30:43
SPEAKER_01: Don't just ask, do you want to live to 100?
30:45
SPEAKER_01: That's not interesting enough.
30:48
SPEAKER_01: And what would have to be true if I think you were going to, you know, you're gonna have different conversations?
30:55
SPEAKER_01: Maybe because you know, between you and her, maybe she'll say, Well, um, I have to still know who you are.
31:02
SPEAKER_01: Well, maybe I need to live independently, maybe.
31:06
SPEAKER_01: I want to, I want something to look forward to, maybe.
31:10
SPEAKER_01: I'd want family around me, maybe.
31:13
SPEAKER_01: And she'll say, Nope, 92 sounds perfect to me, and that's okay too.
31:17
SPEAKER_01: Because the point isn't choosing the correct number, right?
31:20
SPEAKER_01: The point is asking, what makes a long life worth wanting to you?
31:27
SPEAKER_01: Because you once you know that, longevity steps or longevity stops being this kind of like abstract number, it becomes personal.
31:38
SPEAKER_01: And maybe that's where the real work does begin.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: Now we're not trying to beat aging here, we're not trying to win some longevity contest because but protecting as much as we reasonably can of what allows us to participate in the life we actually value.
31:54
SPEAKER_01: That's what is.
31:55
SPEAKER_01: So, do I really want to live to 100?
31:57
SPEAKER_01: Maybe, but I know this.
31:59
SPEAKER_01: I don't want more years just for the sake of having more years.
32:03
SPEAKER_01: I want more life in the years I have.
32:07
SPEAKER_01: And this is Kim, and you've been listening to my sexy menopause body.
32:13
SPEAKER_01: So send this episode to someone you'd like to grow very old with and then ask him or her the question, then really listen to their and to their answer as well, and share responses because your choices add up.
32:26
SPEAKER_01: Your next one still matters, and keep choosing the life you want.
32:32
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for listening, and I will see you next week.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to my sexy menopause body with Kim Nicholson.