Do you feel you have aged since the pandemic

Not aged,just got fatter doing very little.

My friend is mid eighties. Fit and very able woman. She is a widow and lives alone. During lockdown I was humbled by her ability to use Whats app,Facebook,Texts, to keep in touch with family and friends . She also taught herself to zoom with the help of grandchildren and set up zoom meetings with friends.
She has always had a very positive outlook on life and loves every moment. She’s an inspiration.

Meryl ?
I think the hermit effect has done a lot of harm, in fact I have a friend only a couple of years older than me who has given up on life outside her home, and as she lives alone anyway has become most miserable.

Skydancer
Good for you for recognising that something has to change ?
We have a neighbour who, before the first lock down was as fit as a butchers dog dispute being in her mid 80s. Out every morning before 7 to get her paper.
Now she is practically a hermit because her family convinced her that if she went out she could possible die.

otherwise these final years will be meaningless

My goodness Skydancer those words really hit home!

I really like the honesty of Gransnetters. It seems almost all of us has been affected by the pandemic. Apathy, lethargy, depression …. this has been a dreadful time and most of us have been overthinking- I know I have. It’s so difficult to become motivated. Few things seem worthwhile. It’s so easy to just sit and eat. But I have vowed to myself this week that I need to make changes otherwise these final years will be meaningless. So what is it to be? Not sure but first I’m going to buy some new clothes and make-up. Then colour my hair. Then I’m banking on looking better so will feel better. Hope it works.

singingnutty ( great name!)
I know the feeling as near the start of the very first lockdown last year, we had to cancel our booked holiday abroad to celebrate our Golden Wedding, we moved it to this year and the same happened again with a lockdown, so sadly have just put it down to bad luck/ timing and have moved on.We had cards and flowers on the day and that was that.
It’s hugely disappointing, but as you say, you are still here and still together.

OH and I have discussed this a lot and feel we have aged a lot as regards state of mind. At the moment things seem to be heading in the wrong direction and it's daunting. Like everyone else, we have had several holidays cancelled, but I am feeling particularly upset today, because next weekend is our Golden Wedding anniversary and we had booked a large house so that the extended family could celebrate together (2 have birthdays that weekend as well.) Our youngest son and his wife now have Covid and the other son has a father-in-law who has just come out of hospital after a life-changing operation, so neither family can help us celebrate. Sorry - I am feeling very sorry for myself. We have so much to be thankful for in fact, and I shall pull myself together by tomorrow.

As your comment GG78 seems to prove, we all need a project to keep ourselves motivated and cheerful. ?

Before the first lockdown I took 2 older neighbours to a sit down keep fit group.
I know that 1 of them carried it on on her own. But I’ve arranged that they come to me and we can all do them together through the winter.
It’s not just the exercise, it’s the social aspect as well.
For anyone on their own, look at what your neighbours might be interested in doing. It’s more than likely that there are some thinking exactly the same as you. But someone has to make that call with a suggestion of getting together.

I find I am having to use the bus a lot more where I would have walked before. Not sure if that's due to the pandemic though, or whether it would have happened anyway.

I coped well with the beginning of the lockdown, doing plenty of walking and eating sensibly. My DD and GD moved in with me in January while their new house was being renovated. I spent a lot of time working with them at the house, doing physically demanding jobs, and coped well.
Since they moved out of my house, in July, I have been on my own again, and seem to have lost all motivation. Eating all the wrong things, because I can't be bothered cooking. Going out only to shop. I am beginning to get aches and pains, mainly through sitting about too much, I think. I have bullied myself into going to my newly-opened choir practices, but the old enthusiasm isn't there. With winter on the way I dread to think what I will be like, come Spring, if I don't shake myself up. I'm not depressed, just apathetic.

The Queen wasn’t rude in refusing to accept an award from a magazine, in doing so she would have been seen to be endorsing the publication. It just isn’t something she ever does?

The most 'ageing' aspect during Lockdown was Facetime, Zoom etc when I could see my face close-up!

I agree Riverwalk. Depressing!

Agree that Queen was quite rude actually in refusing the coveted award! She could and frankly should have stood United with her peers to celebrate ageness! Did she think she was being funny I wonder? She not a northerner so I don't think she should bother trying! Bad manners? Hmm

Cabbie I think you have got the right idea, fresh air is such a mood lifter.Gardening or walking, particularly where there are trees and green spaces are just so good for the spirits, as are get togethers with a few friends.

lemongrove

Will not be engaging with you on this topic or any other kali

You know it makes sense ?

In answer to the OP, no. When lock down hit I carried on seeing 2 daughters as their mental health was far mor important than any virus i might catch
One elderly neighbour in the early stages of dementia needs constant help.
We had a lot of road/ garden get togethers. I carried on my garden jobs all the way through etc etc.
Very busy in my own home doing all the paint work. Spending hours on the phone keeping friends spirits up because I’m a glass full person.

Yes. I seem to have been inflicted with ‘can’tbebothereditis’. Too much time alone, too much overthinking, too much dwelling on the past, too much wondering ‘what if’, too much eating, too much sitting has rendered me thus. I also seem to have developed a few irritating but non life threatening ailments too. However, it’s been nearly 2 years and who knows how much we would have aged & changed in that time under normal circumstances?

Yes I feel as if I have aged, I carry a kind of sadness about how things were before. Like fluttERBY the GC are now all grown up and time has moved on, the AC are all in full-time work so the family side of things naturally means less contact. Friends are now more hit and miss, health problems mean there is less getting together. A long winter I fear even though we are thrice jabbed and flu vaccinated.

It has certainly done me good to get out and about more in recent months. On the whole I can’t say we have suffered too much in lockdown and are still being very cautious.
The other day I went for a walk in a country park, had lunch outside, then ticked lots of things off my to do list back home. It felt good, so I have resolved to be more active.
DH on the other hand, stated yesterday that he doesn’t care if he never sees people again. That quite spooked me, and I said I felt that would be a diminished existence. We need to be as active as we can whilst we can.

Today was our first day of (relative) freedom so I went out with DH and sat in a pavement cafe and had lunch in the sunshine. I can't tell you how happy it made us both. We saw friends we hadn't seen for months, just to smile at and chat. What a relief.

I am of the mind that the pandemic took a lot of my vitality out of me. Days of self isolation cocooning inside 4 walls has seen me chose my comfort in food and the consequent weight gain. I feel incredibly lethargic and although circumstances have denied me the pleasure of being a Grandma/Nanna, I am certainly of the age that many of my friends are and so this led me to register with this group and I am so glad I did!
I find that everyone I have read about and listened to has been so very kind and courteous to one another. This is so comfortable and I want to thank each and every one of you who takes the time to just be kind. Sadly this seems lacking in younger groups. Do we become gentler with age or are we of a different generation who were just born with more consideration for others?

I shielded for nearly a year and a week before shielding ended was diagnosed with arthritis of the knee and hip and two weeks ago was diagnosed with emphysema. I think this is the ageing process rather than the pandemic but diagnosis and treatment has beet adversely affected by Covid.

jeanio

I thought it was just me, when I look in the mirror now I see a wrinkly old lady and never felt like that before ,although I am in my mid seventies. I've also put on some weight.grrr.

Most people have put on some weight this last year jean one of the unfortunate by products of lockdowns.
I am now walking so much more, as I think exercise is the key more than food itself.

Will not be engaging with you on this topic or any other kali