Interesting concept about our energy levels.
 

I was at dinner with friends last night and since we are all 50 + years old, we started talking about our energy levels and how much we can accomplish in a day now compared to when we were younger. One woman said she saw a video about our energy being compared to 10 spoons. She said that each morning you have 10 spoons of energy given to you. If you decide to paint your living room and clean it up in one day, that will most likely take all 10 spoons of energy. If you decide to do some laundry, vac the floors, dust the house and straighten up the quilt room, then that might take 9 or 10 (depending on how bad that quilt room looks). The idea is that each day we need to not use up any more than 10 spoons of energy. We need to be realistic about what we do so we do not wear ourselves out. My DH and I have talked a great deal about this lately and kind of follow this idea too. Each morning we discuss what we want to do and what is possible. We don't accomplish even half of what we did when we were in our 20's and 30's but that's OK, we do have a nice clean house and our yard looks nice. We work hard for a few days and then we have some fun or just lay back and read books. This thread is mainly for older people but I think even younger people can relate to their parent's energy levels as they get older. I am 71 and DH is 76. We still do a great deal of work, far more than any of my friends in their 60's so that shows that the energy in those 10 spoons is not the same for everyone.

The spoon analogy was actually written by a woman suffering from Lupus. https://butyoudontlooksick.com/artic...-spoon-theory/

But it is such a good analogy it can be applied to just about anyone. The idea is when you are young and healthy you pretty much have unlimited spoons. So I think different people, depending on their health, both physical and mental, can start with different amounts of spoons. One little thing can change it, and it even changes from day to day with some chronic illnesses. And it is entirely possible to try and use more spoons then you have for the day. Many of us will pay for that the next day by starting with even less spoons than normal.

A few years ago DH and I would work in the yard, but not with his hip pain and heart problems, most of the yard care lies with me. I am 75 and am pretty able to do most of it, but that drains me and I am then too tired to do any sewing. We have a big yard so mowing takes about 3 hours, with a walk behind mower. Yes, sometimes my spoons runneth over.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately because I have always been the person who couldn't sit still. I am now 62 and have begun to see that I get tired easier and have more aches and pains than I did four years ago. I find myself sitting down during the day way more than I used to. I also thought when I lost my job two years ago I'd quilt all day long and I don't find myself doing that. When DH has a day off we get some things done but he is so tired from job stress that we don't always accomplish much. I think mental exhaustion plays a part in our tiredness also. I don't deal with handling problems as well as I used to. Calling the phone company to get someone to come out and figure out why the internet isn't working properly causes a stress where it used to be just a thing to be taken care of. Paying the bills, going to the doctor or just cleaning the house seems like a chore for me now.

AMEN to that, Tartan!
Until my mother was diagnosed with Cancer (one year, cancer free...yay!) she could run circles around people literally half her age. Now she has slowed down some, but still is more active than people her own age of 70!

I think also that the more you stay active then the more you can do.... I know that the days I get up and get going right away, I get a lot more done, I feel more energetic and I sleep better too.

Aside from illness, when working there were always daily events, little "excitements" if you will, that kept us moving along, getting ready for work, dealing with traffic, time schedules, project deadlines, meetings, reports, etc. then, hurry home to fix supper, get ready for whatever evening events you had planned and so on. Always goals to be made and met. And then,.............you retire.........if single, your time is your own........you get back into your quilting, sewing, all kinds of sit-down activitiies that you never had time for when you were working and raising a family and.........it becomes just TOO easy to just.......sit there.....content......warm....quilt rack up....TV on.....and it doesn't take long at all for your energy level to dissipate. ....and your hips to spread. Walking was always my thing.....LOVED it!......but, I've sat so long being content that when my son says, "This is a gorgeous park. Let's go for a little walk" I offer as much resisitance as a 5 yr. old being told they had to eat their spinach or they couldn't go outside. I'll be 80 in a couple of months and, even though I know there is energy loss as you grow older, for myself, I feel that I have to accept part of the blame. Spent all my working and child rearing years being highly goal oriented but then, when I retired, I failed to set any goals for myself except to enjoy each day doing the things I couldn't before.

We retired first of this year. My goal for the last five or more years has been to use up as much of my fabric stash as possible before I go to the big quilting studio in the sky. I sew at least 4-5 hours most everyday. I finished a comforter in Jan. and have made 9 kid sized quilts, now I am making a queen quilt for us.
My husband gets outside most everyday and works like he use to on the weekends when we were working. Not me. Somedays I have boundless energy, not a lot any more. I sure am enjoying my quilt making though.

I retired 4 yrs ago from a mentally high stress (and sometimes emotionally as I was a mental health professional)career. while I don't just sit every day like my Mom ended up doing when she retired, I do find that I "pace" myself more now--I think part of that is I have the time to stretch things out--so now instead of staying up until 1am sewing and quilting because that was the only time I had, now I'll sew or quilt for 4-6 hrs during the day--and stay up on the Quilt Board until 1am! due to arthritis, both DH and I are finding that there are some farm chores that we need help getting done,which bums both of us out. Plus I'm no longer able to stand the heat, so outside work is limited.

I am 60+. I have certainly slowed down but consider myself to be quite active at this point. I still remember my mother at this age and think I am light-years beyond her activity level at a much younger age. And much of what I do is fairly 'extreme' for my age (at least I think so).

But as to yard work...I was out in one garden a couple of weeks ago... That particular bed is 30' x 15'..not small. I'm only about 1/2 way through weeding it to within an inch of it's life, along with some new plantings. It occurred to me at the time - don't plan your flower gardens/planting beds when you are in your 30's - they will come to haunt you in your 60's! I have another 10'x 24' bed; 2 more 3' x 15' and 2 more smaller beds yet to deal with. Sigh. And have 3 part time jobs that really stretch the available hours to manage those in addition to regular household chores.

But it all beats the alternative....

The spoon thing is a great analogy...I'll have to share with my husband. He is 18 years older than I am but his energy and physical level is above average for a man of 73. He over estimates the things he can get done in a day but not on account of his physical abilities, more that he runs out of time or gets side tracked.

I'm right there with you fellow quilters. Out of energy, falling asleep in the middle of the day and once behind the wheel. Took out a mailbox and a street sign and narrowly missed the fire hydrant. The next day the Dr. changed my meds. Am better now.

I've been doing a lot of reading on energy levels and trying some new things. My latest thing is a Vit B 12 lozenge in the a.m. and then another just before noon. Seems to help.

There is supposedly a certain kind of magnesium that starts the metabolic process of making energy. My mind is blank right now.

One thing that I've got that I hope the rest of you don't have is hemochromotosis, (Iron Overload). Often called the Irish Disease. It doesn't show up in women until about 65 and in men about 60. The symptoms are the same for aging. A blood test for ferritin is what you need.

A regular person takes in 4 molecules of iron and uses one and excretes the other 3. People with Iron Overload, store the other 3 in places in their bodies that cause trouble: the liver, kidneys, heart, etc. If your ferritin level is over 1000 you are in organ damage territory. Normal is below 50. Mine was 1060. I had come down with colon cancer, hyperparathyroidism, restless leg syndrome, fatty liver and more.

This is a hereditary thing and my dr. never caught it. My brother's dr. in Calif. found it in him and he called and I tested positive for it too. There are 6 bad genes and I have two of them. But I don't have the two worst, just one of the worst and one of the minor ones.

I really thing that this hemochromotosis is what is the cause of all my ills. I am one quarter Irish.

I agree totally!

Same here......My Mom will be 89 this month.......Yay Mom!!!!!!

She still walks at least 2 miles a day. She lives near the grocery store, one of the few Kmart's left and restaurants.
Travels across country to Michigan several times a year ALONE!!. Her Doctor says she has the energy level of a person half her age.

There is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with that life style.

I have several disabled friends like me, and we have running joke about our"spoons". Some days we have enough spoons for what we want to get done, and some days all of our spoons seem to be made of plastic. Lately I am happy to finish one extra job a day. Tomorrow I want to put out slug bait (never buy cheap potting soil at a dollar store, this is year three of trying to get rid of them, resorting to chemicals this year.), transplant the gorgeous 3' wine colored rose DH bought for me today, transplant my three little tomato starts, and put up the fencing to keep cats and dogs away. Wish me luck. I will need it. Weather man says expect warm sun.

Good article. Makes you think!
i am not to 60 yet but am coming up that hill. Harder to get up from the floor playing with grandkids. Used to be able to just hop up on counters to reach tall shelf. Now it's a long thought and I can't make myself do it. I do think we can think ourselves old! We slow down gradually until we just can't do things. There's nothing wrong physically with me? I just can't do stuff any more. This makes me want to MAKE myself get out more!

Me ... I'm going to be like my mom. She retired last Dec. at the age of 93 and still get around better than most of my friends do that are in their late 60's and early 70's. She is just like the energizer bunny... she keeps going and going and my friends tell me I'm just like that.

Energy...ebbs and flows. Mostly ebbs. Sublingual B12 has helped. And a husband who helps tremendously as an additional caretaker for my mom. We have had to hire out yard work as hubs is 73, and I developed arthritis in spine/hips this past spring. We are working on eating better and exercising. Plus, we switched to a new GP who actually asks, "What are your concerns today?" So things are looking up energy wise. The whole retirement thing is too depressing to even talk about here, but one thing is that I will never ask my son to do anything for me after I'm "late." Lots of unintended consequences, and none of it needs to be repeated. So each day is to focus on, "Today I get to..." instead of looking at it as a chore, and that has actually helped my energy. Each day is a privilege.

A suggestion for you: buy a riding mower to save your energy and time! That seems like a good way to go so you don't drain your own energy for something you'd like to do. If that doesn't work, find a hungry kid who needs to feed his truck and his girlfriend and hire him to do the work.

Boy, I can relate to all you that just don't feel the energy like they used to.

I waited too long to get my knee replaced and when the surgeon replaced my knee 3 months ago, he said that I didn't have any cartilage left and that the arthritis was so severe that it wore my knee smooth. I plan on getting my other one replaced in about 4 months. Although the new knee to doing fairly well, the other one is really holding me back a great deal.

Then I started thinking about how long that my knees have been hurting me and realized that it has been about ten years. Over that ten years I have done less and less and now I find that I not only have to exercise to help the new knee get better, but I also have to exercise to get my wind back up. Being sedentary has left me rather breathless and I get winded just walking a block. I also realized how small my world has become.

The moral of the story is if you need to have knee replacements, don't hesitate. I found that the amount of pain post surgery wasn't any greater than the pain I was enduring before the surgery. But, the best part was that as the weeks have gone by the pain has lessened to the point of non-existence in the knee that had surgery. I think of all of the things that I have stopped doing because of knee pain and I really regret not getting it done when the surgeon first mentioned it.

Ditto, Mac!! Only my pain dated back 15 years coupled with back pain related to the way I had to walk to try to ease the pain. Had my total knee replacement 2 years ago this coming August and, like you, why oh why didn't I do it sooner. My other knee is not a bother as of yet so I'm lucky there. Everything you said is true. For those of you who are considering a replacement I offer this advise. DO YOUR EXERCISES following surgery. Yes, they are painful but each day it gets a little better and you'll be so happy down the road that you did.

I'm disabled, so i go thru those spoons early in the day.
I'm upset with myself for taking too long to get dressed, shower, do my hair and all that. it's taking me at least twice as long as it all used to be. I keep asking what's wrong with me, and i guess that's my problem. I can't go buying new spoons, i have to use the ones i have.

Energy is often a factor of desire to do something. If I like to do something, I have a lot more energy for doing it. If I don't, there is never enough energy.

I feel a like that, too. It seems to me that I avoid stuff that I don't like to do as if that stuff will multiply. I
especially hate to file things away. It's retirement syndrome for me - that stuff feels too much like WORK.

Pain has been my constant companion for over 25 years and I know how to mentally ignore it for hours at a time. But at the end of the day, it suddenly hits and then fatigue overwhelms me. Curiously, when that happens it is difficult to sleep at night. The brain goes into overdrive and thinks about stupid stuff, long over, long resolved, as if it was happening right now. No sleep for the weary.

Something to ponder: each decade of life we have different wants ( and needs ) than the previous decade. I repeated this to our financial advisor. He looked thoughtful for a minute, then said that's exactly right. As for myself, I strive to be more of a minimalist. this gives me more time to do what I want to do instead of cleaning around too much stuff. I can discard easier now than earlier in life.

Ive just gotten lazy in my older yrs (77) Nothing gets me going like it used to. If I dont feel like doing something, I dont.
Even housework can wait till I feel like doing it. Ive got the energy to do what I want to do, even yard work when I want to.
I do need to take a nap in the afternoon after a busy morning.

I have found that, for me, mental attitude is more of an energy boost than physical well being. If I am excited about doing something, or getting something new or different, or even cooking something different, I have much more energy.
Planning a trip, or starting a new sewing project, or having a visit from a friend gets my energy up. At least for a while.

The best slug bait there is, is a jar lid full of beer. They crawl right in and drown.

I retired when I was 67 from a very stressful - but loved - job. My gift to myself was a volunteer stint in St Petersburg Russia -- unearthing a Peter the Great fortress for the Hermitage Museum and then Visiting quilters in the Baltic States.

My first day in Vienna I met a wonderful lady who borrowed my guidebook. She was backpacking - as I was -- and she had just come from Milan Italy. She was 84 and had 2 hip replacements. I thought --- If SHE can do it -- so can I!!!!

That was many years ago and I still use her as an example. Granted, I need more rest between hard work, but I still go for it. I volunteer as a docent at a museum one day a week and actually come home tired but enthused.

Old is a state of mind -- taking into consideration health issues.

Go for it!!!! Mim

my Grandma was half my size, with three times the energy. she could work all day on the farm doing all the chores and tend a big garden, chickens, pigs, etc. and still find time to sew much, raise kids, including neighbors who needed help and wore me out. She died at 94 after having broken her leg in the barn, dragged herself to the house and phoned for help. She is probably still going strong in Heaven and wowing the angels. When I get tired I think how soft we have become and wonder if we could do more work. Probably if we had too,,,,,, and I'm thankful we don't. :)

I agree as well I guess i am a morning person,and if I go out I don't want to work when I get back

Part of the change is that our priorities change. We realize that a weed in the yard won't kill us, dust on the furniture won't go anywhere without our help, dishes survive soaking in the sink overnight (although I personally hate dishes in the sink at any time), and so on.