Retirement - Re-Invent Yourself!!!

Are you looking at retiring within the next couple of years?  Have you make plans or are you dreading the whole process?  I am sixty -two (62) years old and I am  looking forward to retiring as early as next year.     However as I speak with persons my age around this issue I get mixed feelings on the subject.  Most of us have been working since our teens so the question becomes "What will I do when I stop working?".  Also there are issues around money and being able to maintain your present lifestyle. Some said they would be bored.

How  nice would it be to wake up and not have to worry about being late and punching that time clock? What about not having to figure out how much time you have to take that vacation you want.  Or just waking up and doing whatever pops into your head. Our generation has spent most of our lives taking care of husbands, kids, grand kids and our jobs. We work hard to make the company we work for grow. We are good employees, getting to work on time, staying late to finish that project that was due yesterday, and never using a sick day. While all of this looks good for the job, what are they doing for you? Younger people are being hired and you are training them. Those promotions elude you because you don't have a degree even though you been on the job more than twenty  years.

I say stop dreading the process and embrace it. I suggest several years before you plan to retire you do a couple of things.  First, you start with a financial plan and then a plan to reinvent yourself.  The possibilities are endless. You could write that book or turn that hobby into a business. Maybe you like gardening or painting. You could even take cooking classes to prepare that gourmet meal you always wanted.  You could travel, or just read all those books you never had time for.  With the Internet at our fingertips there is an  app for almost anything you want to do. So relax, and don't see boredom in your future but the beginning of the next chapter in your life.  Remember: Re-Invent Yourself and Enjoy !!

Guess What: It's Just Food!!!

It Just Food!!!

Do you remember the movie "Soul Food"? That movie brought back so many memories for me around food. The Sunday dinners our family used to have.  Eating until you couldn't move. Never leaving the table without have a second helping.  But it was not just Sunday, we ate like this every day. There was no such thing as fast food for dinner, my mother cooked every night.   So I grew up with a love for good food. I am guessing that many of you did as well.

Now with all the cooking shows on television, you too can be a gourmet cook. Fixing those wonderful meals like all the top chefs'. Making all those wonderful desserts (chocolate cake, cheese cake, muffins, cookies and the list goes on and on). But guess what? It gets better! Now there are restaurants, bakeries  and all kinds of places where you can get all this wonderful food without having to  make it yourself.

When I started having weight and health issues the first thing the doctor wanted to take away was all my wonderful food.  Because I could not imagine life without my chocolate cake, ice cream, cookies, fried chicken, fried fish,  mac & cheese and potato chips, my health issues just continued to get worse year after year.  Somehow I came to understand that  I didn't need chips, ice cream and chocolate to survive.  Rather than making food the most important thing in my life I kicked in down a few levels. Being here to enjoy my family and friends became my top priority.  I finalized realized: It's just food.

Shirley

Thinking Outside the Box!

Have you noticed that we tend to follow a pattern in the way we live our lives.  But where did that pattern come from?  We raise our children the way our parents raised us, we eat the same foods that we were taught to cook, and sometimes we even work in the same jobs just like our parents and grandparents.

So is it no wonder that we carry the same problems generation to generation.  Those wonderful recipes passed down  through the years tend to yield the same health problems for each generation. Some things are heredity but some are just us doing the same thing over and over again.

Why not try  thinking outside of the box and  look at changing how and why we do things. We might need to bake sometimes rather than fry.  Maybe we need to look outside of the "food pyramid" for our healthy eating choices. What might have been a healthy choice twenty or thirty years ago may be the wrong choice today.  Dare to be different and start a new trend for the next generation. Throw out that old way of thinking and embrace "thinking outside of the box".

Shirley

What's Really Making Us Fat?

There are many causes of overweight and obesity but eating too much and exercising too little (aka energy imbalance) seem to be the only reasons that people focus on.  As a matter of fact, if you read the page I've just linked you to, energy balance appears to the main cause while everything else is "other". 

For little over a year now, I have been focusing more and more on the "other" causes of overweight and obesity.  I have been growing especially concerned about the chemical additives that are in foods.  This has been mostly because of my personal experiences with weight loss combined with information I picked up in school.  However, this week I was going through my copy of the January issue of Prevention magazine and I stumbled upon an article that seems to validate my concerns. 

The printed version of the article is titled, "What's Making Us Fat?" and it talks about a study done on the effects of obesogens.  Obesogens affect us by 1) increasing the number of fat cells in the body or storage capacity of fat cells; 2) changing our metabolism; and 3) affecting the way our body regulates hunger and fullness (Henig 2014).  Get this: exposure to obesogens will affect future generations.  Example--you could be exposed to an obesogen but the effect will be felt by your children and grandchildren.  Whoa.  Please, read the article to get more information on obesogens-what they are, where they are, and who's at the highest risk. 

Let me just say, I do not think that this absolves us of our responsibility to eat better and to exercise.  In fact, I think eating better (by better I mean real food) could possibly help the body cleanse itself of the toxins we're exposed to.  And, I've been clear that I believe in exercise. I just think if you're trying to lose weight then it's important to recognize everything that has contributed to your weight gain or is making it that much more difficult to lose weight. 

Antoinette


Reference:
Henig, Robin M.  (2014 January).  What is making America so fat?  Prevention. 

Is Time Really the Issue?

 

The number one reason people give for not exercising is, “I don’t have time” (Springen 2014).  This fact is probably the motivation behind several workout programs that are geared toward that belief.  For example Shaun T’s Focus T25® and 10 Minute Trainer by Beachbody®.  Even the CDC advises that 30 minutes of daily recommended exercise can be done “10 minutes at a time” (CDC 2014). 

I wonder though, is time really the issue?  I say that because this is what I know about people:  people make time to do the things they want to do.  If that’s true, then the real issue is that people don’t want to exercise.  And if that is true, then the next question is, “Why?”

Ok, ok.  I know I’m making some really broad, general statements but it is based on what I have observed of my family; friends; former co-workers; and acquaintances.  They always seem to have time to watch TV, read a book, or go to the mall, etc.  And of course, they find time for anything involving their children or meeting the needs of family members.  But let’s get back to exercise. 

Everyone says, “I need to work out” but very few people ever say, “I want to work out”.  If desire is the real issue, then how do we address it? 

Easy (or maybe easier said than done), find something you actually want to do!  There’s so much to choose from: walking, tennis, rollerblading, roller-skating, volleyball, hula hooping, dancing.  Try one, try them all! But most importantly, do something.  Exercise is so important to our health, we can't afford not to.

Anyone who know me knows I love line dancing.  I love it so much that I travel to line dance workshops and I’m constantly on YouTube looking up dances.  I even created a workout, HustleFit™, that is based on how I like to learn and practice line dances.  I invite you to try it out at www.dancepartythrive.com.   Oh, and don’t feel like you have to stick with any one thing.  I’m going to try a kickboxing class with my sister later this month.  Who knows, I might find something new that I enjoy.  Hmm---can I cross line dancing with kickboxing?  LOL-- even if I could, who would do it? 

 

Antoinette

Choices, Choices, O MY!!!

Everything we do in life involves making a choice. From what car to get, where to live, what to wear or what to cook for dinner, a choice must be made. The choices we make every day have a profound effect on us as well as the people in our lives.  So, let me ask this, how much thought do you put into making choices that will change how you feel and live?   I am sure that it is was  not any one's choice to gain weight and to then become burdened with  health issues.  However, it is your choice whether or not to address these issues or to let them ride.

It came to me one day that I had made a choice and I didn't like it very much.   The choice was to ignore the fact that I felt bad and was tired all the time.  I choose to  listen to  "you are just getting old" as a answer to all my health problems. ( yes that answer was for the weight gain as well) One day I made a choice to become serious about living a healthier life.  I chose to be an active participant  in making my life better and healthier. What choices are you ready to make to live a healthier lifestyle???  Choices, Choices O MY!!! 

Shirley

What is your Aah Ha Moment???

Making changes is not an easy task.  But what is even harder is breaking old habits and starting new ones. Our head might know what we need to do but our body is not playing along.  We fall into bad habits that somehow become the norm and we don’t understand why we need to change.  For years I blamed my weight gain on having my children and that somehow made it OK to be overweight.  Well, when they became adults I had to find another reason for the weight gain.  So let’s see, college bills, my job, family issues, health issues, and the list could go on and on.   In other words there was always a good reason for the weight gain and that made it OK.

Have you noticed that instead of changing we adapt. For example, when I would go out to eat, I couldn't fit comfortably in a booth or on a stool, so I always sat at a table with room for me to maneuver. When I would fly I would try to sit next to my kids because they wouldn't care if I was sharing their seat. And guess what, I always had to request a seat belt extension from the flight attendant. I would always be the last person down the steps because I was walking slow and breathing hard and trying not to hold everyone up.  I did this for years, so you see rather than change I adapted.

My aah ha moment came one day  when I was at work talking to two of my co-workers who were 7 or 8 months pregnant. Imagine my surprise when  I realized that my stomach was as big as theirs and no I was not pregnant. That was when I decided to stop adapting to my weight gain and make changes to lose it. Even though change is hard, it gets easier as you work at it one day at a time. When you reach your Aah Ha moment  be ready to embrace the  changes that will make your life better.   

Shirley