September is designated as Healthy Aging Month among other observances. Yours truly would like to address my fellow Gen Xers with a reality check. We have bypassed the peak and are on the downslope of the human aging bell curve. To the early Xers, it’s not the mid to late 70s anymore. No longer is society designed to keep you moving for entertainment, work, and hanging with friends. Same to the mid-Xers. Riding bikes to friends’ houses or the arcade and physical part time jobs just aren’t as prevalent (or sought after). To the late Xers, you certainly know what I’m talking about, but middle school and high school was just a little different experience than that of the older Xers. In home video games, beepers (and early cell phones) to keep up with friends, and other technological advances made moving a little less necessary during the 1990s. Even with that, you still experienced more moving to live.

Growing up in an era when moving more was part of life should be a psychological advantage as we age. We know we can do it because we already have. The only factor to overcome is whether or not we want to do it. This, of course, is not exclusive to aging Xers. Generations before X have even a better grasp on what moving to live and living to move is all about. Still, we have to make it a priority and continue to do so while society evolves requiring less physical movement. So, fellow aging adults, take your curmudgeon attitude and aim it directly at yourselves. Go against the societal grain and find ways to keep moving.

Besides physical activity, diet considerations are important for us. Older generations were exposed to more “real” food. Even though you may look at an old family casserole recipe and be astounded by the amount of fat and carbs in the ingredients, it may be better for you than the “diet” meals in the freezer section. Older recipes depended more on fresh foods. Also, any canned items for a particular recipe may have come straight from the garden without a list of 20 ingredients that are difficult to pronounce. When cooking with butter, it was probably actually butter versus the hydrogenated oils on the market. The point here is to take some of those old recipes and try making them as is. It may take a little more time to find stripped down ingredients without all the additives and preservatives, but they are out there. Trying to incorporate more real food versus processed food should be another goal of healthy aging and health in general.

A third consideration for health at any age, but specifically for us on the downslope, is mental health. I’m not referring to emotional status or feeling down. The basic, day to day usage of our brains through reason, logic, and retaining information is becoming less of a requirement. We have been carrying around computers in our pockets with access to unlimited information on the internet for over 25 years and they aren’t going away. The next step is not just looking up answers, but actually processing reasoning and thought behind the answer with those handheld computers. Welcoming Artificial Intelligence to the world is yet another transition for us to make. Overusing technology to think for us is like asking a friend to exercise and expecting to reap the benefits from your friend’s workout. Regular reading, doing puzzles, playing card and board games, and socializing are among ways to keep your brain in shape.

Healthy aging is no different than healthy living at any age. It takes appropriate physical activity, a diet with real food in appropriate amounts, and not depending on technology too much to stay cognitively sharp. To those of us “aging”, you’ve done all of this before. Keep it up or jump back into a moving to live and living to move lifestyle.