Does it ever hit you that you're quite old?

[TeresaFoodie]

I remember about 15 years ago moving house in the middle of a very hot August and sprinting back and forth with our gear from the van to get the job done. This time round I watched everyone else doing the hard work from my window. Boiling a kettle was hard enough! Just watching them wore me out!

[StokeySue]

I spent several minutes with a comb trying to remove a wisp of cotton wool from my hair.

Turned out it was really my first tuft of naturally snow white hair

[TeresaFoodie]

Sue I distinctly remember finding my first pure white hairs. I hadn't even reached 20.

[Herbidacious]

I just found myself absolutely incapable of lifting my (BA compatible hand luggage) suitcase onto the luggage rack over my head (only place for it). A kind young lady (! Calling her such makes me sound even older!) did it for me. It was above my head, but even so...

[StokeySue]

Sue I distinctly remember finding my first pure white hairs. I hadn't even reached 20.

I've had some grey for a long time but it's the first time I've had a clump you could mistake for cotton wool

Herbi - I look older than you (after all, I am !) but I'm also taller and more broad shouldered. I find air crew automatically take hand baggage off me and stow it, but I get smaller people looking at me hopefully.... on planes (I appreciate you are on a train) I check in my main bag even if it is the "cabin bag" on wheels and take an increasingly small hand bag on board, let baggage handling do the heavy lifting!

[Busybee]

When I was returning from our villa 8n Spain a few years ago I had an empty cabin case..........rather than not bring anything home I bought a 10 kilo net of delicious oranges and put them inside the cabin case. All was well wheeling my case through the airport until I boarded the plane and tried to put the bag in the overhead rack. I was mortified when I couldn’t lift it.

I did eventually manage it in a two step process. But it did make me realise I’m not as young as I once was.

BB

[Meganthemog]

For the past 10 months I've been going to something called Bodystreet. It's a form of exercise that uses Electro Muscle Stimulation - you where a suit that has electric connections at strategic points on the body and as you get into various positions it passes a current through the muscle. I have lost a small amount of weight - but that isn't why I signed up as I don't have any weight to lose - but more importantly I have increased my body strength beyond all my expectations. You don't have to be fit to do it and it doesn't matter how old you are. I have dropped a dress size because my muscles are now so toned. My friends are all amazed at the transformation in my body shape.
The reason I'm posting this is because of the strengthening of my body that has happened - I can lift stuff that I would never have been able to - like a case above my head into an overhead locker.
Although very new in this country it is huge in Germany apparently.

[Herbidacious]

I’ll look into that! I did have a gym sub once. It helped tone things but I didn’t enjoy it one bit.
Edit: well maybe a little bit. I liked the arm exercises... and overdid and injured myself. Doh.

[StokeySue]

Bodystreet don't seem to have any London locations, but there are other EMS (that's the generic term for this kind of exercise) franchises.

[Herbidacious]

I hope I can get my bag down again. It has to be easier...? DSLR in there though. Someone has just rammed their suitcase in next to it.

[Meganthemog]

I’ll look into that! I did have a gym sub once. It helped tone things but I didn’t enjoy it one bit.
Edit: well maybe a little bit. I liked the arm exercises... and overdid and injured myself. Doh.

The best bit is that you only do it for 20 minutes a week
I saw real changes after just 12 weeks - I am now wearing sleeveless tops and dresses for the first time in years as I have toned arms - but more importantly to me is that I have upper body strength!

[Herbidacious]

No Bodystreet in London but it is in husband’s town of work in Germany. He was complaining that his arms were getting weak!!

[earthmaiden]

Bodystreet sounds interesting. I have never had particularly good upper arm strength (dreaded trying to climb ropes in gym at school ).
Since having my checked luggage lost twice I take a larger carry on bag with a change of clothes and a few basics now. It doesn't have to be huge but I have waited up to 3 days for my case to be delivered and have known people who have had to wait longer. Thankfully the bags are usually traceable.

[Herbidacious]

I could beat my husband arm wrestling when we first met. It was to do with having to carrying heavy shopping bags home and my cycling technique (pulling on the handle bars enabling me to somehow move further faster. There must be a word for that.)

[Ratatouille]

I have reasonably strong upper arms but this is completely negated by my arthritic wrists and thumbs that can give way at a moments notice

[suffolk]

I had quite strong upper arms (pitching hay bales etc) until my thyroid began to stop working ... then my upper arm and thigh muscles just became very weak ... climbing stairs was almost impossible ... medication has helped a bit,

[StokeySue]

I have week hands and wrists, andvhad fairly slender arnms but the shoulders of a handy prop forward. I haven't triedrecently, but last time I found one of those little gyms in a park, I coukd still pulk myself up to chin a bar

[PurpleLuv]

Bodystreet

I remember waiting for Mum when she went on the "toning tables", never hear of them these days.

[StokeySue]

I must be quite old. Yesterday I packed a bottle of water for my walk, not because I expected to get all hot and dehydrated, but because I though I might need to take some tablets while I was out

[TeresaFoodie]

Oh Sue!

I felt old this morning when someone walked onto the stage of Jeremy Kyle and my thoughts were along the line of 'Crikey, she's let herself go in her old age' for it to be revealed she was seven years younger than me.....

[TeresaFoodie]

It's happened again.....

In the build up to the World Cup next month there has been football talk on TV this morning focussing on the late great Bobby Robson. A hero of mine going back to my youth came on - Terry Butcher - talking about getting match results on Teletext! He looked so old. I thought crikey, if he looks that old, how old must I look?

[suffolk]

Now you're talking Tezza ... dear Sir Bobby, Terry Butcher and the original Bobby Robson's Army
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p064wb5r

[Zosherooney]

Today we went out in my Puma, I am finding it increasingly awkward to get in and out of...... During the day, I also had to get in and out of a new model of a very large Land Rover, I needed a step ladder to get in ! Getting out was like going on a slide, thankfully the seats were leather and I slid out. I am sure there was a point I was in midair !

[earthmaiden]

Zosh, some of those SUV type cars are like trying to get into a lorry - especially if like me, you have very short legs! I am always surprised when people say they are more comfortable for the elderly. My mum and MIL certainly couldn't have managed to get in.