New Jersey Baby Boomer

As a Baby Boomer, I’m always looking for ways to add years to my life, and not only years, but quality! You may not know that I’ve had training in the field of Nutrition, and have done my best to eat well and feed my family well over the past 22+ years. Here’s a little something that I received that I thought you’d not only enjoy, but find helpful. I wonder what your health score would be, or mine? At the end they mention some snacks with unusual names…I’ve enjoyed many of them and they are delicious!

“New research published in the January, 2008, issue of the journal of the Public Library of Science shows that people who drink moderately, exercise, quit smoking and eat five servings of fruit and vegetables each day live, on average, 14 years longer than people who do not practice these lifestyle habits.

“British researchers followed 20,000 healthy British men and women ages 45 to 79 from 1993 to 2006. Each participant was assigned a “health score” receiving one point for each healthy habit. Those who practiced none got a health score of zero; those who practiced all of them got a health score of four. The researchers also tested each participant’s blood to measure vitamin C intake, an indicator of how much fruit and vegetables they were eating.

“After adjusting for age and other factors that could affect one’s chances of dying, the researchers found that people with a health score of zero were four times more likely to have died during the course of the study, particularly from cardiovascular disease.

“The researches noted that a person with a health score of zero had the same risk of dying as someone with a health score of four who was 14 years older. The lifestyle changes offering the most health benefits were not smoking and eating five servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

“In our fast paced society, it can be difficult to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day – but that’s where Wholefood Farmacy foods can help you, your family and your children to bridge the gap.

“Fruitalicous contains a wide variety of fruits which are preserved through the natural process of drying – this increases the nutritional density dramatically. Eating one ounce of Fruitalicous is the same as eating about half a pound of fresh fruits – one ounce of Veggielicious is the same as eating about half a pound of fresh vegetables.

“There’s no better way to make sure that you, your family and your children are getting five servings of fruits and vegetables every day!”

I’m older than I was, and I’m an American, does this mean I fit into the criteria to be taking Older Americans Month seriously? The following was taken from U.S. Administration on Aging site, a page dedicated to the observance of “Older Americans Month“, after you read this you may want to visit the site, it has a lot of great resources:

We celebrate older Americans and their families by praising their contributions to our country. We also celebrate and express our gratitude to the countless number of dedicated health and human service professionals, scientists and volunteers that work with or on behalf of elders in communities across the country every day.

As a nation we are beginning to experience in “real time” the aging of our population with the first wave of Baby Boomers beginning to turn 65 now and building the ranks of the 78 million Baby Boomers into the future. We have a unique opportunity to address these changing demographics and some of the solutions are right in front of us.

Well I’m not a 65 Baby Boomer, but if you switch the numbers, you’ve got my age, a 1951 born boomer. Maybe this is a good month to look around us at those who are older than we are and thank them for the good they have done. Maybe it’s a good month to look ahead a bit and make sure that we’ve planned for the days to come, and if the picture doesn’t look so bright right now, may the fact that this is the National Day of Prayer turn our focus toward a God who loves us and promises to provide our needs, maybe not everything we want, but our needs.

Now don’t think I’m being pious here, I have spent more than my share of time looking at our little home, wishing it was bigger, wishing we hadn’t become victims of the job loss epidemic for a time so that we had minimal income and had to pay COBRA to keep our medical insurance alive…wishing, wishing, wishing. Then one day I was blind-sided while listening to a Bible reading on CD from Matthew 26, and realized that I really do have everything I need. I’m warm, I have cloths, I have a refrigerator stuffed with food, the COBRA saved us a lot of money because hubby had a heart attack while unemployed, he’s doing great now, my son just got a job in his field after a long time looking, my daughter and her husband are happily married, yes, there are lots of things that could be better, but there’s lots more to be thankful for.

One great thing about being a Baby Boomer, at least one my age, born in 1951, is that you have new choices. You can dye your hair, or you can let it go Grey. You can get a face-lift or keep those wrinkles.

I’ve opted to “go natural”, enjoy the new crow’s feet that are multiplying around my eyes and wrinkles that surround my smile. I’m letting the Grey hair that glistens in the sunlight when I look at myself in the rear view mirror of my little red Volkswagen Cabrio convertible keep on going grey.

I’ve told this story before, but when I was in my early 20′s, that’s about 30something years ago, I was at one of those hippie Jesus festivals standing in a circle holding hands and singing, and looked at the woman next to me with her denim jacket, long greying hair pulled back in a clip, and her weather-wrinkled face and thought she was beautiful, and said “when I get older, I want to look like that”, I’m on my way!

Oh, you want to see a picture? I’ll get on that right away and have one for you within the week, the one I’ve been using is a couple years old, time for an update!