Want to live longer? Or want to be a centenarian?
Resolutions are properly thought of and composed for a strict adherence. But sometimes, resolutions are broken as days go by. Would you like to have a specific resolution, like, i want to live longer or I want to be a centenarian!
While browsing the facebook lately, I have encountered an inspiring YOUTUBE on how to live longer with this thought provoking headline: “What reduces your chances of dying the most!” And this question locked my attention to watch and to listen on what the host would say about living a longer life. My intention is to be a centenarian!
And this is my fervent resolution, a mantra of ways on how to live longer which I have been doing since then. On this Youtube segment, there are ten predictors on how to stay ALIVE! And for this year, I will try to do religiously on some of these 10 predictors! The game has been going on!
And I perused the video with so much gusto, I was intrigued by the findings after many years of research. The group of researchers interviewed thousands of middle-aged men and women. And they waited for seven years to find out who were still standing or alive. And surprisingly, they got many predictors to live a longer life: predictors for STAYING ALIVE!
At the bottom of the ten (10) predictors is Rank 10: Clean Air – No problem, we are breathing a clean air, day and night and this is gift of nature to us,Canada has clean air. God’s gift I conclude. 9th: Hypertension Fix- still working on my high blood pressure. Hopefully this year, I will maintain my 130/80. Attainable with discipline and honesty! 8th- Lean or Overweight- I have been maintaining my 130 lbs. I think I have a lean body. My waistline has changed from 32 to 30! Getting leaner? Yesssire!
The 7th predictor: Exercise- What? Exercise ranks No. 7? I know that Exercise is Medicine! Every weekday, at Reh-Fit Centre, I do religiously one and half-hour jogging, stretching, walking, running, rowing, weightlifting, talking to people, dancing and mind-boggling push-ups! 6th: Cardio Rehab- after a mild heart problem, I had been undergoing a cardiac therapy for 4 months. (The assembly line operation scene at the cardiac department at St. Boniface could not erase from my mind, thinking how many people are suffering from many kinds of heart disease. I was bumped once for an emergency case. I said: “Okey, I do not feel I’m dying.”
The 5th predictor: Flu Vaccine – I got it. In spite of some pros and cons about vaccine, I did find myself receiving last December at Shoppers. the 4th Rank: Quit boozing! Well, as a social drinker, I do raise my red wine glass at least 3 times a week and lambanog or Marka Demonyo? Never! Yes, beer and tequila once in a while! Scoth on the rocks? Pass! 3rd Rank: Quit smoking! Forty years ago while teaching at UST, i did smoke to be inspired how to write. After the birth of my 1st son, Ronald Francis, I did quit. Timely indeed, i had a flu! I tried to go back to smoking. Darn! Cigarettes tasted awful, so bitter!
But the 2nd and the 1st predictors will surprise you. I was surprised. And the researchers were not expecting the result on how to reduce your chances of dying. And for me, these two predictors would cost no money at all. Hold your breathe! Close your eyes and try to examine yourself!
Here are the two predictors for living a longer life! Affordable and attainable!
Rank Second: Close relationship! How close is your relationship with your family, with your siblings, with your cousins and relatives, with your friends and colleagues? Closer relationship with people who will bring you to a hospital! to a jam session? to a zumba? to a meeting for fun? to a person who will be visiting you in the hospital? How close you are with your loved ones?
Number 1 criterion to have a longer live, or to be a centenarian is very important but easy to be done! And this is SOCIAL INTEGRATION! Have you talked to your neighbor or to a woman or man walking with their dogs? Or to the delivery man or to the coffee man? Or to stangers while having a walk in the morning?
How are you integrated with the people around you, around your area? Have you talked to your janitor? To the homeless? To a senior waiting for a visitor? Or a person seated beside you in the Church, or inside the elevator or in the arena or in the basketball court? Have you talked to a child?
Unfortunately, we are obsessed with FACEBOOK. A generation of non-talkers. With so much attention to the gadget, we seldom talk to other people. We are addicted to the cocaine of communication. We are becoming a very private person.
We communicate with to the machine while Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg and other inventors have been raking millions of dollars for every minute.
And while I have been doing most the 10 predictors,now i can claim that at age of 75, going to 76 in May, I have more than 25 years of loving my loved ones, and of integrating with the people especially the employees, the readers, the advertisers of our Filipino Journal and with our thousands customers and clients and suppliers of our Premium Sweet Longanisa! and of our Hot Rod Grill! And meeting our kababayans and other Canadians by joining the many volunteer organizations inside and outside of our community.