8 Longevity Lessons From A Senior
[Interview 📝]
Happy May!🌷
Last month I had the privilege to talk with a local 84-year-old senior about the habits that contribute to her longevity, and I’m excited to share that with you today in our first guest interview post!
She requested to remain anonymous, so I will be referring to her as “Mary” in this post.
Mary was so full of life and energy, and a joy to talk to! She started playing pickleball in her 80s, is part of a hiking group, and prioritizes her health and social life. She gets 10,000+ steps in every day (!), makes her own meals, and is in several types of groups/activities to stay connected to others.
I hope that you’ll find this interview as inspiring as I did, and walk away with a few habits and lifestyle practices that you can apply to your own life!
Here are 8 longevity lessons from Mary that have contributed to her longevity.
1. Eat mostly whole, real foods.
Mary shares that she grew up on a farm, eating home-cooked meals. They had their own beef, chickens, and pigs, grew vegetables in the garden, and never ate out.
Mary continued to eat this way into adulthood, while raising her own children, and now into her 80’s.
Here are some of the meals that Mary eats on a regular basis:
Breakfast: A piece of multi-grain toast with almond butter or a mixed nut/seed butter and a banana. She always checks the ingredients list and gets nut butter “without any filler ingredients” (just the nuts/seeds, no oils or sugar). She also enjoys a cup of coffee with breakfast.
Lunch: Oatmeal with blueberries or raspberries, cinnamon, chia seeds, yogurt, and walnuts. She shared that she puts “cinnamon on my oatmeal always.” Another lunch that she commonly has is a baked potato with cottage cheese on it.
Dinner: Typical dinners for Mary include meat + vegetables. She shared that it’s usually a serving of meatloaf, pork loin, beef roast, or chicken, with either “salad and vegetables, or a huge amount of vegetables.” She often gets frozen mixed vegetables and has them with dinner. Other meals that she enjoys for dinner include spaghetti with ground sirloin in the sauce, a hamburger on multi-grain bread, or homemade chicken dumpling soup.
Snacks: veggies with hummus, a piece of fruit, pickled beets, popcorn with a little butter, or a piece of 70% dark chocolate.
Mary explained that she doesn’t “follow a meal plan” or diet, she just eats a variety of whole, real foods.
🥩For protein, Mary eats a variety of meat, fish, eggs, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, nuts, seeds, beans, and nut butters. She reports eating 1 serving of meat per day (usually at dinner), and 1-2 servings of fish per week in the form of tuna, salmon, or cod.
🫛🫐She has an impressive 4-6 servings of vegetables per day and 3-4 servings of fruit per day! Fruits and vegetables provide important nutrients that contribute to health and longevity including fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
🧈Butter is the main type of fat that Mary uses, which she grew up using as well. She also eats walnuts, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, ground flaxseed, almond butter, and olives as sources of fat.
🍶Mary gets probiotics most days from sources like yogurt, cottage cheese, and fermented vegetables like pickled beets.
💧Water, tea, coffee, and skim milk are the main beverages that she drinks. Mary drinks lots of water, and reports drinking 1-2 glasses of water first thing in the morning when she wakes up, then carrying a water bottle with her and drinking it throughout the day. Alcohol is rarely consumed, “sometimes not for weeks,” and when she does have alcohol, it’s “usually only one red wine.” 🍷
2. Get nutrients from your diet.
The only supplement Mary takes is a Multivitamin because she’s getting the nutrients she needs from her diet by eating a variety of protein, fruits, vegetables, and whole, real foods.
She also gets omega-3 fats in her diet by eating fatty fish like salmon or tuna 1-2x per week, and eating walnuts, chia seeds, and ground flaxseeds most days as well.
3. Enjoy your favorite foods, in moderation.
Mary shares that while the majority of her diet was whole, real foods, they’d occasionally go out for pizza on Friday nights, enjoy ice cream, and “still had treats” in moderation.
Mary shared that her husband’s doctor advised them to follow the 80% rule.
“His doctor said if you eat good 80% of the time, treating yourself is okay,” and she lives by this advice “becuase if you don’t treat yourself you might as well be dead.”
This is such great advice! I have the same mindset and believe that the majority of what we eat should be healthy foods that nourish our body, but it’s also important to eat foods that we enjoy and not to deprive ourselves.
4. Find Healthy Foods You Enjoy + Control Your Environment
Mary’s advice for sticking to a healthy lifestyle is this: “The trick is to find the things you like that are healthy.”
For example, she likes chocolate, so she gets 70% dark chocolate rather than milk chocolate. She likes baked goods, but she makes homemade baked goods rather than purchasing the processed store-bought varieties.
Mary also emphasizes the importance of not having tempting foods in the house, because if it’s there, it’s easy to eat.
She shared that she likes ice cream, baked goods, etc., just like anyone else, but she tries not to bring them into the house unless company is coming over.
In addition, she’ll give most of her baked goods away to the neighbors so they’re not a temptation.
5. Move daily.
Mary reports walking at least 10,000 steps each day! Our interview was at 2PM and she already had 7,477 steps in at that point. This is seriously impressive, especially at 84 years old 🙌
Mary stated she tries to get 1,000 steps in right away in the morning before she has breakfast, then she’ll try to get another 1,000 steps in every hour or so. If it’s winter and icy out, she shared that she’ll walk around inside the house to get steps in. She’ll also park far away in parking lots to help her get more steps in.
Mary is part of a hiking group, plays pickleball, and is in group exercise classes.
6. Get 8 Hours of Sleep Each Night
Mary reports getting 8 hours of sleep each night and usually sleeping through the night.
When I asked Mary about her sleep routine and what things help her fall asleep and stay asleep, she laughed and stated, “you just get tired and you go to bed.”
I wish it were that easy for all of us😆
Mary shared that she wakes up naturally around 5:30 each morning and is very active during the day, so she sleeps well as a result. She also takes a bath in the evening before bed, and goes to sleep between 9-10 PM.
She shared that on nights when she’s not that tired, she’ll listen to soothing music which helps her fall asleep.
Mary also tries to drink most of her water during the day and avoids fluids in the evening so she doesn’t wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.
7. Connection & Mindset Matter.
Mary shared that connection is a major contributor to her longevity. She reports being connected to her family, children, grandchildren, the community, and God. She loves camping and hiking with her children and grandchildren, reporting that the kids are “pure joy for me.”
She shared that since her husband died 6 years ago, she’s very intentional about being involved in group activities during the day that give her a sense of connection including church, exercise class, hiking club, book club, volunteering, etc.
Mary’s mindset is one of gratitude. She shares that there is always something to be grateful for if you just look around.
During my interview with Mary, I could see that gratitude is simply the filter through which she views life. What a beautiful lesson for all of us to implement.
8. Consistency is key.
Mary is very consistent with the things that really matter in terms of health and longevity:
She consistently gets in 10,000+ steps daily
Eats a mostly whole foods diet with minimal processed foods
Gets 8 hours of sleep every night
Drinks lots of water
Has a positive outlook on life
Stays connected with others
Mary’s final piece of advice at the end of the interview was this: “If you’re trying to eat healthy, then find healthy things you really like,” because that’s what’s going to make consistency achievable. She also emphasized that “gratitude and positivity are so important,” especially as we age.
It was so much fun getting to know Mary and to learn about her daily habits that contribute to her health and longevity, and I’m looking forward to bringing more interviews to you each month!
Mary is a perfect example of what longevity looks like and has so much wisdom to share with us all. I hope that you can take a few things away from this interview and apply them to your own life.
I’d love to hear the biggest takeaway that you got from this interview! Leave a comment below or hit the reply button to let me know.
-xo Kate
P.S. If you know anyone over the age of 80 who is an example of what longevity looks like for a future interview, I’d love for you to refer them to me if they’d be interested 🤍