Right there with everyone else. I am 65 and man have I noticed decreased strength and lack of energy to do more than one major thing a day (i.e. clean the house, clean the horse's pen and ride, etc.). The last time I felt truly fit was late 2012 before my surgery cascade started. I have never been able to get back to that level. I am afraid to hurt something else and need more surgery
. I try not to sit too much but since moving my Mother in with me, I must admit, I sit a lot more to keep her company. Since my back kicked up after shoveling nearly 10 inches of heavy wet snow
, I have tried not to lift much...keeping things at 20lbs or less.
I have improved my diet but still need to work on the added sugar. My Mother (91 y.o.---I don't think I am going to change her much) is a very picky...and very meat and potatoes eater so if I really want to clean things up, I would need to cook separately for both of us. I do make some modifications for me (lots of vegetables) but I think I need to work in intermittent fasting. I know that works but just haven't gotten really serious. I usually get at least 12 hrs of fasting but need to kick that up to at least 14hrs if not 16hrs.
Last year, I did complain to my Dr. about being tired all the time despite sleeping 7-8hrs per night. In fact waking up tired and usually with a headache. I did not feel like I was getting adequate deep sleep. He had me do an at home sleep study and I had at least mild sleep apnea (the home test isn't as sensitive). I went to the sleep pulmonologist who had me try a CPAP machine and it has made a big difference in my energy. The headaches are mostly gone and I can wake up and be much more productive. I still get tired by evening though and I attribute it mostly to my lack of fitness. Too much fat and too little muscle and I have to work on that.
All the surgeries haven't helped either. Hysterectomy in 2012 was a breeze although later found out it was totally unnecessary. Next (2013) was to repair the torn tendons in my right foot. That was successful but while rehabbing the foot, my right hip crapped out so that was replaced with a shiny metal one (2014). Next was tail bone removal (2017). That was why I had the hysterectomy as they thought a rather large fibroid unfortunately located was causing the tail bone pain. No...I had a large spur on the end of it which was finally found like 5 years later which led to removal as by that time, I was lucky if I could sit for ten minutes and riding the horse had become way too painful. The next year, I twisted to catch a bale of shavings that was falling off the tailgate. So what...it was just a freaking bale of shavings
. Ended up with a bulging disc that I could not get to heal conservatively so had a microdiscectomy about 9 months later (2018). While rehabbing the back and dutifully walking like the surgeon said, I aggravated the same tendons in the other foot. After trying conservative stuff for most of a year, I had surgery on that foot (2019). He couldn't really do anything with the tendons. There were some partial tears and lots of inflammation so he reconstructed the bones to take the strain off of the tendons. Unfortunately, that hasn't seemed to help greatly. Two years out and I am having lots of pain on the side of my foot again and walking on uneven ground is getting to be difficult again
. Foot surgery sucks big time and I will wear a cam boot all the time (except for riding
) before I will have foot surgery again. Anyway, my long list of sadness but what can you do? Like Chisamba said...don't sit. Keep going and as Demi said, work smarter, not harder for some of those things that we used to be able to do and now find difficult strength wise.
Susan
I’ll be 50 this coming August. I’ve noticed the last year or two my energy levels, compared to before, are going down the drain. TMI, but for reference for the ladies...yes, I entered menopause in 2018. I’m trying to get back on taking my vitamins regularly as the past year or two kind of threw it askew a bit. 
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