- Gladys McGarey is 102 years old and still has a 10-year plan for her life’s ambitions.
- He has developed a “simple” daily routine that includes prune juice, salad, and consulting work.
- McGarey also knits to keep her hands busy so she won’t be tempted to reach for her cell phone.
At 102 years old, Gladys McGarey has seen many lives begin and end.
As a trained physician and birthing expert, she has witnessed the birth of thousands of babies around the world. She also survived the death of her ex-husband, and some of her five children died as well.
Now, living in a sunny house in her daughter’s backyard in Arizona, she has developed a practice that she says will help her achieve her 10-year plan. She wrote about it in her new book, “Life Well Lived: A 102-Year-Old Doctor’s Six Secrets to Health and Happiness at All Ages.and guided Insider through his daily routine. Although the doctor no longer has a license to practice medicine, “they didn’t tell me to stop talking,” she said.
Start the day with prayer, Raisin Bran and prune juice.
McGarey told Insider that about two months ago he received a stem cell infusion. “I think he’s made a difference,” he said.
Insider/Zoom meeting with Gladys McGarey
McGarey starts most days the same simple way: he gets up, greets the new day with a morning prayer, heads downstairs and enjoys Raisin Bran and prune juice for breakfast.
Later in the day, “I have salad for lunch and some kind of soup or something for dinner,” he told Insider. “It’s the routine, and I think it works for me. It is important that each one finds what works for us”.
Throughout the day it keeps your hands and mind busy
To keep her hands busy throughout the day, McGarey continues to practice knitting regularly.
“I can’t see to knit patterns now because my eyes can’t, but I can knit little gifts that I give, and that keeps my hands busy,” she said. “If I don’t keep my hands busy, I do something on my cell phone and it makes people nervous, you know?”
She also continues to consult and stays true to the “holistic” approach to medicine that she helped popularize in the US in the 1970s. McGarey believes that treating the whole person, taking into account their mental and social status, as well as any physical symptoms of distress, is critical to healing.
When she’s not knitting or consulting, McGarey listens to audiobooks or talks with friends, something aging experts say is crucial to human happiness and, in fact, can help us to live more.
And, she recently received a stem cell infusion, which she believes has made a difference in her vitality. — although scientists are still gathering evidence to determine if this technique really aid slow aging.
“I’m not really stocky and stocky, but I think it’s helped me and I’m really looking forward to it,” he said.
She says creating a 10-year plan is critical to healthy aging.
“When I was 86 years old, I went to Afghanistan to help women with childbirth,” she said. “I rode a donkey up a hill. A woman had to hold me on the donkey, but!”
Gladys McGarey
Ultimately, says McGarey, the most critical part of aging well is finding your central purpose, a “juice” of life that is your mission and what you will strive to do with your time on Earth.
These days, he uses his own “juice” to think about how to create better ways for people to live together and take care of each other. His own 10-year plan, something he believes everyone should have, includes creating a “living medicine” village where the elderly, babies and everyone in between can live together and care for each other more harmoniously.
“A 10-year plan leaves room for everything,” he wrote in the book. “It’s a far enough range to keep our life force activated. Yet it’s close enough that we can pull it off, dust ourselves off, and plan again.”
You are not concerned with what your own final “number” of years on Earth may be. Instead, she keeps her eyes locked on what comes next.
“I still think I have work to do, and I’m going to keep working on it,” he said.
