gondaily

For example, take my aunts and uncles.

I have two uncles and one aunt on one parent's side. One uncle is nearing his late seventies but has always been active, doing rock climbing, hiking, kayaking, etc, and tends to eat well. He looks younger than people I've met in their sixties and some in their late fifties and is in better physical shape than many of my peers.

The other uncle is five years younger and has had more physically active jobs over his life, but doesn't really exercise recreationally. He looks older than his older brother and is rapidly declining physically with age, both in health and capability.

My aunt is 11 years younger than her oldest brother and is worst off of all. She has always eaten poorly but never ran heavy (she has an eating disorder), didn't exercise past her twenties, and made generally poor health decisions. She's a wreck but is self sufficient despite looking and moving like a walking corpse.

The other side of the family is pretty simple - they were descended from farmers but, despite no longer farming, continued to eat like they were. Of the three brothers, only my father made it past his fourties, the rest dying of cardiovascular diseases. He died of preventable illness in his early sixties but had been disabled for over twenty years. Of the four sisters, each has been on disabled for over thirty years from complications due to obesity and diabetes.

So yeah, I exercise. I also have a heritable chronic illness, but that's from the side with the fit uncle, and we ALL have it on that side. By moving around enough and not eating like shit, we're doing better than the "normals" that are dead and disabled.

Oh, and my mom looks easily ten years younger than her actual age and absolutely could kick my ass.