Part 8 and 9 of my interview with a very healthy octogenarian
Q: You mentioned a couple of times in our interview about whether you’re religious or spiritual. And how that might play into your health and wellness. So with the lifestyle issues that you talked about, is spirituality a part of your lifestyle? How do you think that plays into this whole wellness aspect for folks?
A: I read a book many, many years ago called The Power of the Subconscious Mind. And I had never really given that a lot of serious thought. But after I read the book, I thought about it and the more I thought about it, the more I recognized that yes, the subconscious mind is being – being, you know – is a product of what our conscious mind is doing. And saying and thinking. And so that people can understand, the subconscious mind – your heart functions, for instance, your liver functions, your kidneys function.
You really don’t have much to say about that, that’s being done automatically. And that’s what we call the subconscious mind. Then you have the conscious mind, as you and I are talking right now, we’re consciously aware of what’s going on. And we send signals to our body and the kinds of signals that we send will probably be received and interpreted in a certain manner. Now, whether it’s your religious affiliation that helps you to send the proper messages to your body or whether it’s any other factor – for instance, there’s a book out called The Secret, it’s a number one best seller here for some time now. And in there, they don’t really talk about religion, but they talk about the universe and how people who are positive thinkers can accomplish much more in life than those who are negative thinkers.
And so whether it’s a religious attitude or whether it’s your belief in the universe, I think there is not much difference. They are all connected with your subconscious mind, and how you send the messages and how they are accepted by the subconscious mind, is a very, very important factor. And it –it’s how you live. And probably, at least I think has a big factor in the longevity of your life that if you can’t dream it, you cannot accomplish it.
Q: What is your daily routine or regimen look like so that we can share that with our audience?
A: Well, I – my wife and I have been retired, as you know, for 20 years. And I have not really done any serious physical or mental work during that time. I retired at 60 primarily because I was sick and I just felt at that time I had – if I’m going to live, I have to find out a way to do it. Because my father and some brothers, and several first cousins, all had difficulty with heart trouble and all died before they were, most of them, between 50 and 60.
And so I just felt that I would have to do something. So that’s at the time I started to do a lot of reading, but I – it was in 1980 when I had the angina that I decided to start walking. So my regimen, primarily, my days are pretty much planned in that I get up in the morning at 6:00, seven o’clock and I take my drink of barley, and I get the newspaper and I do a little reading at that time. And an hour or two, I have a little light smoothie, as I said. There are many combinations of smoothies.
I get up each morning very happy that I’m going to see another day and we think – we discuss some of the daily routines that we do. And we have a little, light – light, as I said, smoothie, a liquid breakfast. And then sometime in the morning have a piece of fruit or a piece of toast or – We – in my case, we usually make oat bran muffins and we have one of those and we have a cup of green tea. And then we do the housework and if we have a little yard work to do, we do that. And Most every morning, about five to six days a week we have a fast walk. And then we come back, we shower and then I make carrot juice. And by that time it’s 12:30, one o’clock, and if we have housework to do, well, we do that or whatever. If we have yard work to do, well, we – and as summer residents, we have a nice – flowers outdoors and we manage to take care of that yard work and sorts.
We also have the days we have to go do errands and I may get a half hour, an hour reading in the morning. And if we don’t, then we have our lunch. And the lunch, as I said, consists of carrot juice and then we have a green salad. Practically every day. We just vary the different fruits and vegetables that we use, that’s all. And then in the afternoon, if the weather’s nice, we may go outdoors and sit in the sun for a half hour or play golf.
