Diana’s golden rules for slow ageing
1. Keep abreast of young people
Moran stifles a laugh when she mentions “the boys”: “I’ve a son of 64 and one of 62, but they’re still my boys.” Thanks to them she has four “glorious” grandchildren aged 30 down who call her GG, short for Granny Goddess. “I love being with them. I love the clothes they wear. Recently, because I’m conscious of being more steady, I’ve passed on my high shoes to them. Fortunately the two granddaughters take size 7, the same as me.”
She also talks about music with them and current affairs. “That keeps you ticking and young,” says Moran. “The worst thing for us older people is to say: ‘It wasn’t like it in my day’. That’s such a turnoff.”
Some things have got better with time, a case in point being that her grandchildren are far more careful about the sun than Moran ever was.
2. Understand your limitations… to a point
As somebody who walked for miles uphill and down dale, played tennis and loved skiing, acknowledging she can no longer do those things can be tough.
“My grandchildren will say ‘we’re going to do a walk in Snowdonia, do you want to come?’ I want to do it. I’d love to do it, but I know I can’t.”
3. Never stop learning
As well as her media work and teaching some exercise classes in local care homes, Moran is a member of the University of the Third Age (u3a) and attends talks and lectures on all kinds of subjects. “I’m interested in philosophy. Last time we discussed the idea of beauty.”
She will be officially opening the u3a’s first ever festival on Friday 19 July, in York. “People are there because they want to learn, but in a social way.”
4. Activity, not exercise
Moran prescribes 30 minutes of activity a day, five days a week. “As far as I’m concerned at this stage in my life, I don’t do exercise, it’s activity.” The garden is her main activity. She also loves the river and enjoys nothing more than a walk to one of the river pubs. One daily activity happens first thing each morning: “When I get out of bed, I do my absolute favourite stretch, which I call the monkey.” (See above.)
Moran has osteopenia, which is the beginning of osteoporosis. “It’s inevitable that a woman my age will have osteopenia or fully blown osteoporosis.” So twice a week she works on muscle strengthening. “If I have 10 minutes I’m down on the floor, feet hooked under the end of the bed or the sofa and knees bent, and I do my sit ups.”
Afterwards she will lie on her back with her knees bent and do some very slow spinal twists on each side. “That’s when I know I’ve got older. But by the time I’ve done it six times the aches that you feel in your shoulders start disappearing, and then suddenly your knees are practically on the floor. So you can work with what you’ve got.”
5. Move little and often
Moran weaves little “snacks” of movement into her day, When watching television she circles her ankles in one direction and then in the other. “I also point and flex my feet, flip-flapping between the two. That gets your calf muscles going, and is good for your heart and lungs as well, because it gets the circulation going.”