{"id":593526,"date":"2026-09-08T03:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T03:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/593526\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T03:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T03:58:09","slug":"what-these-kiwis-do-to-stay-fit-and-healthy-in-their-80s-and-90s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/593526\/","title":{"rendered":"What these Kiwis do to stay fit and healthy in their 80s and 90s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Owner of handmade gifts and furniture store Buana Satu on Karangahape Rd. She first opened in 1991 and has been at the store\u2019s current location since 1996.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of people about my age often looking around K Rd, shopping, and they stop and have a chat. I have a lot of conversations with people, and I think that\u2019s a good connection to have. It keeps your brain ticking over.<\/p>\n

I go to bed quite late, because I\u2019m a late sleeper. We don\u2019t open until 11. We have a nice quiet cruisy morning and then we close at 5, so the hours are reasonably short.<\/p>\n

My sleep is good, because I can get up quite leisurely at 9, have breakfast and walk here. It takes 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

My husband\u2019s saying, \u201cWhen are you going to retire?\u201d. I go, \u201cNot yet\u201d, because my health is fine. I don\u2019t have any health issues. Just a sore knee, but it\u2019s getting better because I\u2019m using it and walking to work every day and back. You have to move things, otherwise they get even stiffer.<\/p>\n

I have acupuncture from time to time. I tried the gym but I overdid it. It made my knee sore, so I stopped.<\/p>\n

I do crosswords every day. I used to read a lot when I was young. Now I don\u2019t, though my eyes are okay. I mostly watch TV in the evenings. I like watching quiz shows, answering the questions. The Chase is my favourite. It\u2019s amazing how many things I can remember because I read such a lot back in the day … the brain is amazing.<\/p>\n

I eat a lot of fresh, green vegetables. I always have salads with my food. I have salmon every morning on my toast for breakfast. My blood pressure\u2019s slightly high, but I haven\u2019t had to have any medication for it.<\/p>\n

I was drinking quite a lot until I got to about 80 … so I cut back, and then I cut it off completely. Once I stopped drinking I got a lot healthier. I make hot ginger drinks from fresh ginger, I have turmeric.<\/p>\n

I think I\u2019m blessed with good genes. My mother was 99 when she passed, but she suffered from arthritis from about the age I am now. I\u2019ve worked hard to try and keep everything intact. If I have to [have a knee operation] I would. I\u2019m fortunate I haven\u2019t had to go there yet.<\/p>\n

\" Leigh Elder is the author of Don\u2019t Act Your Age: Living Younger Can Be Age-Defying.<\/p>\n

Leigh Elder, 83<\/p>\n

A former PE teacher, health coach and author of Don\u2019t Act Your Age: Living Younger Can Be Age-Defying. He lives in a retirement village in Devonport.<\/p>\n

I wake up, do a couple of stretches in bed, [have] breakfast, then I\u2019ll do about 20 minutes of stretches after breakfast. [My wife] and I walk around Devonport every day. It\u2019s got a couple of big hills which we really love, North Head and Mount Vic.<\/p>\n

A couple of afternoons a week I play golf. I play a bit of snooker. Pretty much every day I lift weights and do resistance training. I do 50 press-ups a day, and I do biceps curls, triceps curls, flies and more stretches. I do a lot of balance work on a wobble board.<\/p>\n

As you grow older, your movements become more limited. I try to take that in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

My doctor, when I was about 68, was hassling me about my blood pressure. At that stage I thought I was invincible. Nothing was going to happen to me. He said, \u201cYou need to get [that hernia] fixed, because it\u2019s not going to get better\u201d. In the same week I\u2019d had a colonoscopy, and the surgeon said I had to have a quarter of [my] bowel out.<\/p>\n

It was a defining moment. I\u2019ve always hated the idea of growing old. [Previously] owning a rest home validated that \u2013 people came in in their mid-60s, needing to leave their house, needing full care.<\/p>\n

I thought, \u201cHow am I going to spend the rest of my life? I\u2019ll try and live like somebody 20 years younger.\u201d It\u2019s been a great challenge and focus for me.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way. A couple of games of golf, a game of bridge, a game of snooker … a bit of socialising, that does me.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m on blood pressure medication but that\u2019s pretty much it. I\u2019m proactive on trying to stay ahead of things.<\/p>\n

What I do every day, the stretching and the exercise and the hydrating and climbing up hills \u2013 some people would think is boring, but it\u2019s that boring consistency that you\u2019re going to find with adults living well into their 90s.<\/p>\n

\"HelenHelen Drinkwater enjoys playing pickleball. Photo \/ Denise Piper<\/p>\n

Helen Drinkwater, 91 <\/p>\n

Former office worker who lives in Whang\u0101rei. She started playing tennis in her 50s and learned how to play pickleball at 84.<\/p>\n

[I started playing pickleball<\/a>] six or seven years ago. One of my grandsons married a girl [who] was a great pickleball player, and I had never heard of it. She said, \u201cGrandma, you must get into pickleball\u201d. I\u2019ve been going ever since.<\/p>\n

On Thursdays I play tennis, and on Mondays and Wednesdays I play pickleball. I\u2019ve got a lot of energy and I\u2019ve got to use it that way. I feel I\u2019m achieving something and meeting a lot of people.<\/p>\n

[I\u2019m] one of eight children. My parents were farmers. We had to do a lot of work on the farm and always had to be busy, so we continued that on through life.<\/p>\n

I do a lot of walking, at least 45 minutes a day … sometimes I go with friends, other times I\u2019m happy to make my own pace. Some people say, \u201cShe doesn\u2019t walk, she runs\u201d. I don\u2019t run, but I like to go at a good pace.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still in the family home. My husband died just gone nine years ago, so I\u2019m here on my own now. I can go out and get company whenever I want and have my sport to keep me entertained. I watch tennis and rugby.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got a big section to look after… it keeps me out of mischief. I\u2019d been mowing my own lawns until about six weeks ago when my youngest son decided, \u201cNo, Mum, I\u2019m doing them now\u201d. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m in a two-storey house, so I\u2019m up and down the stairs all the time. People say when you get older, you should consolidate and get in a smaller [house]. I don\u2019t agree with that. I\u2019ve got more room to move around.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t think of yourself as being old. It\u2019s a mindset. Enjoy doing what you\u2019re doing. I think it keeps you healthy. I keep regular contact with the family, keep in contact with people. Sport is a great way to do it.<\/p>\n

Make the most of every day and be thankful. Every day you wake up, it\u2019s a good day.<\/p>\n

Bethany Reitsma is a lifestyle writer who has been with the NZ Herald since 2019. She specialises in all things health and wellbeing and is passionate about telling Kiwis\u2019 real-life stories. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Owner of handmade gifts and furniture store Buana Satu on Karangahape Rd. She first opened in 1991 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[7577,68461,3225,95,7054,124,6309,5818,28419,5110,5838,78,807,60724,4960,2250,111,139,69,74184,5415,9621,213,2069,165,24359,61,53549,6436,6923],"class_list":["post-593526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-80s","tag-90s","tag-according","tag-and","tag-breakfast","tag-could","tag-do","tag-eating","tag-fit","tag-healthy","tag-help","tag-in","tag-kiwis","tag-lifting","tag-live","tag-longer","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pickleball","tag-playing","tag-salmon","tag-sports","tag-stay","tag-their","tag-these","tag-to","tag-weights","tag-well","tag-what"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}