By “any random woman”, I mean me. I’m also quoting “old age” because I don’t really know what it means exactly, if it’s possible to put a number on it. When I’m imagining it, I’m thinking my 80s and 90s, should I live that long. But more than anything, I’m thinking of being able to stay active until the end of life, regardless of the age.
I want to understand – can a woman like me still be healthy, strong and active as kong as I live without making the whole life about fitness? I think it is possible, and my main goal writing here is to figure out how.
I’m not assuming most of people in their 80s are just sitting somewhere without moving at all, however, there’s a difference between being somewhat active (e.g. walking to a supermarket daily) and being strong, able to run, hike in the mountains, etc.
I’m a regular person – I have a day job, I’m a mom, my work involves a lot of sitting behind a screen. I’m not a fitness expert, nor do I have medical education. Regardless, I also want to be able to go running and hiking and generally live an active, enjoyable lifestyle as long as my life lasts.
Recently, Jeannie Rice came to my attention – a woman who started running in her 30s and has since been running marathons, including setting world records in her age group. That’s what I also want! Not necessarily running a marathon and becoming the world champion, but being able to run 10k at that age would be awesome. It made me think – okay, what actually needs to happen between now and then? That’s what I want to figure out – can just a regular person do this?
There’s a lot of information out there about longevity and exercising: Peter Attia, Stacy Sims, Andrew Huberman, Rhonda Patrick, etc. All of them focus on slightly different aspects of longevity, and honestly, it’s overwhelming to navigate all the information out there. Not to mention trying to find information specific to women. It’s hard to understand what brings the most benefit, what’s actually worth the time spent.
And well, life also gets in the way.
I want to become an expert in my own body through testing and adjusting. I’m going to try out what really works, what makes a difference and what doesn’t, and more importantly – what’s even possible really, considering occasional viruses, low energy/mood episodes, limited time, work, and family.
I’ll be writing about experiments, training schedules, results and failures.
To be clear, I don’t just want to live longer, I want to be able to actually do things all my life. I want to have a strong, healthy body long-term. This blog is where I’ll document the process, what I try, and what actually turns out to work for me.
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