David Beard was our guest speaker on 23
rd September and opened his talk with some wise words from his Dad who said: “I wish I was 20 years younger and know what I know now”.
David grew up in Bunbury and told us how his father may have been the forerunner of “bog laps” as he drove up and down the main street in his battered ute, running messages and doing his chores.
David was lucky enough to enter UWA training as an exercise physiologist and on graduating, he worked for HBF promoting good health. Churches of Christ aged care approached him to speak to the board about ageing well for seniors. One of the reasons was because they could see that there would be more elderly people requiring places in nursing homes but there wouldn’t be enough beds to accommodate them.
Churches of Christ asked David to give them a job description of the role and nominate a salary. On reflection, David should have asked for an extra $50,000 but the payoff was working with people in their 80s, 90s and even 100 and learning from them. At this time he was only in his late 20s and advising much older people about health, wellness, good nutrition and exercise.
The people he worked with taught him so much, and based on what he knew about Ageing Well, he started talking and writing about how to live a longer and healthier life. Eventually he was encouraged to write a simple book, with the catchy title of “If Only I’d Known I’d Live This Long” with lots of simple tips and some very funny cartoons.
David bases his suggestions for a good long life on AGE WELL, each letter stands for an important aspect of the whole healthy body/healthy mind outlook. He called for members to think what each letter meant for them and we came up with G for genes, E for enthusiasm, environment and exercise, and L for love.
His take on the letters is, from A:
Attitude: Look for the good things in life and live by the mantra “Do not let what you can’t do interfere with what you can do” by John Wooden.
Goals: Set some goals for later down your personal ageing track. We were asked what we wanted to still be able to do when we turn 100 and we came back with breathe, chat, walk and drive.
Expectations: For this one David played two songs, one of which was very familiar to all the older members (not so much to Essi!), because it was the 1968 Beatles hit When I’m 64. Sixty-four was considered fairly old back then, but another song he played for us (Essi might have known this one but we didn’t) focused on the new “old” of 100.
Work: People in the Western world retire quite early compared to many others. People need a reason to get out of bed in the morning. David’s mentor, Barry Mendelawitz added to this by saying volunteering is another good reason.
Exercise: David couldn’t stress this enough. When we exercise, we need to do so at a pace where we are little puffed or stretched, even if it’s only for 10 minutes out of the 30 or 45 minutes we walk or run. Strength training is particularly important, and he showed us some simple exercises we can do at home on a daily basis.
Eating: As we age, we need more protein (especially in the form of meat) for muscles, bones and our brain.
Learning: We need to keep learning new things, such as a second language. Music is also a motivator, especially dancing where we have to think and move at the same time.
Legacy: Our legacy should be that we enjoy life and we can share that with our friends and family.
David’s talk gave us plenty to think about it, and was 45 minutes very well spent.
