Health and Fitness Journal

My 50th birthday is rapidly approaching next month and whilst for some people the thought of turning 50 scares the living hell out of them, I’m actually quite excited. Throughout my life I have always maintained a healthy diet and exercised. My body feels fit and my mind feels even younger. One thing that also excites me about hitting the big five oh is the fact that I am only five years away from being able to join one of the 55+ communities.

I am not sure whether you have heard of these before but they are fantastic communities of people over the age of 55 who live in either apartments, condos, townhouses or the like, kind of like a retirement village but a lot more fun. From what I have read some of these places have some really wonderful activities for staying healthy, from Yoga to Pilate’s, they even have billiard rooms for the men.

Whilst I am still totally capable of taking care of myself, they also offer emergency assistance to those people who make suffer a fall or are in need of some other kind of urgent medical assistance. Great peace of mind if you ask me. I also think my children are quite thrilled for me too. Well, probably they are probably just thrilled they won’t have to look after me when I get older!

I had an important business meeting with a client to discuss an upcoming development project. I’d spoken fairly often over the phone with her but thought it a good idea to meet face to face in order to provide a bit more info before we ironed out our final construction and payment schedule.

I thought I’d covered all the bases that mattered in order to make a good first impression: tie straight; shoes polished; hair cut previously the night before; fingernails trimmed; every necessary document properly ordered and deposited in my unlocked briefcase. I expect my staff to be prepared when meeting valued clients, and I always try to lead by example.

The meeting started well. In fact it had just about wound up when as I was speaking my left leg began buzzing. I almost leapt up from my armchair in surprise. Then I noticed that Sally, the woman with whom I was meeting that day, was doing the same thing! What on earth was going on?

“Excuse me – that must be my boss calling me to see if everything’s okay,” Sally said, and reached into her purse and retrieved her cell phone. The thing was buzzing and flashing like some miniature UFO. I had totally forgotten my own cell phone – which coincidentally was buzzing away on its own. I pulled it out of my briefcase and looked at the caller – it was my younger daughter Samantha. She had given me the phone for my birthday.
She was calling to see if I was free for lunch, now that my meeting was over.

I had hardly used the cell phone; it took me months to get used to operating my Blackberry, and the cell phone was still just another black box. I was still a bit embarrassed at carrying one: for a lot of people in my generation the whole thing seemed a bit showy. I was a bit embarrassed that it had gone off, even though the meeting was technically over and it was time to break for lunch.

But much to my relief, young Sally assuaged my fears. Seeing my phone, her eyes suddenly widened and she beamed, “Oh! How cute! We have the same phone! You have super taste. Have you downloaded any ringtones for it?” “Oh, no, not yet, I replied. All the forced formality of the just concluded business meeting had somehow evaporated. “But I’m thinking of do so very soon,” I assured her.

Shortly after that we both got up, said our goodbyes, and exited separately. Things had gone well. When I got home I called Samantha. I had to find out what “ringtones” were.

Over turkey dinner the other night my brother Dave brought up the passing of our father last Christmas. It had been rough on the whole family when the old man bought it unexpectedly, snowmobiling without a helmet. He left few things behind when he passed, but one of the treasures found in the snowmobile’s battered glove box was a copy of Character Building Thought Power by Ralph Waldo Trine. It gave me chills when I saw it because the old man had often read it to me as a child.

Dave, who teaches law now that he’s retired from his practice, told me he’d been reading sections of Trine’s book to his law students. A lot of the younger students had never heard of Trine or his unique approach to changing habitual patterns of thinking. Dave took it upon himself to nip that one in the bud; he assigned Trine’s Character Thought Building as required reading for the final semester. It turned out to be the students’ favorite book.

I was glad to hear Dave was sharing the book. My dad had counted it among his top 5 reads, standing alongside Plato’s The Republic, and Great Sea-faring Yarns, by H.M.S. Captain Leroy Belling. I feel it was no accident that my father had been carrying Trine’s book when he had his accident, since he had loved it so. I just wish he had been carrying his snowmobile helmet too.

Everyone gets old. It’s an inescapable fact of life. And yet a lot of people seem to be having trouble accepting it, including me it seems. It’s not me that’s having trouble with getting old; I’m having trouble with you getting old. Would you mind doing it a little more logically?

Case in point : I went to visit my uncle the other day. He has just turned seventy-three, and although he looks pretty good, he is starting to lose his hearing. I know the proper response to this sort of thing should be empathy, but it my case the response is anger. Barely suppressed. Why? As he gets older he seems set on also prematurely aging the people around him.

How? I’ll give you an example.

Here’s the setting: My aunt Marnie, my uncle Steblen and I are sitting in the den. A light snowfall can be seen through the picture window behind my aunt Marnie’s head. An antique grandfather clock chimes eight o’clock. I had planned to get out of my meeting with my aunt and uncle by six, by they had insisted I stay for supper. I had found it hard to refuse. Now supper is over and we are seated together for some light after-dinner conversation. My uncle cocks his head towards me and speaks:

“What…did…you…saaaaay?” he breathes, sounding a lot like hotcakes on a griddle, air hissing out of your bicycle tyre, a snake. “I didn’t say anything,” I say with a smile, back. “Whaat?” replies my uncle. He turns to my aunt, “He…said…something. What..did..what was that?” My ears are turning red. It’s…8:20. “I can’t..you’ll have to..speak..,” my uncle stammers. “I.. didn’t.. say anything,” I repeat.

At this point my aunt intervenes, “Your uncle Steblen’s having a little trouble with his hearing recently.” Oh my god. My brain is melting. I can see a bit of it pooling on the floor by my shoe.

Why doesn’t someone give him a pad and a pen? Like that Amish girl in “The Piano”. Or that hot Japanese high school girl in “Babel”. That thought reminded me of my date with my girlfriend, waiting for me at the Duck N’ Fox Pub. Listening to U2 without me. Brutal.

“I…Am…SORRY..,” I announce suddenly, glancing back and forth between my aunt and uncle as I say this. “But..I…have…to LEAVE…NOW.” I have chosen self over deaf uncle. God has cut ten years from my life as payback. But I have to leave.

My aunt looks at me as if she isn’t seeing me. How do she and my uncle function when I’m not here? Perhaps she’s crazy…Wait. Don’t think about it. My uncle looks back and forth between her and myself. “I…HAVE…,” I begin.

“Yes, yes, we know,” says my aunt, with a wave of her hand. “Steblen, Arnak has TO GOOO,” she bellows across the space separating their easy chairs. The force of her bellow ruffles the pages of a House And Garden magazine lying on the side table between them. I grit my teeth. The open page shows a vibrant grey-haired man playing with an Irish Setter. They both have great heads of hair.

Eventually I leave. When I arrive at the Duck N’ Fox I find my girlfriend has gone home. Somehow I feel I am failing in both my duties to her and my family.

The term menopause literally means the end of the menstrual period for a woman. The time leading up to this last period is often referred to as the peri-menopause and the time following known as post-menopause.

Menopause is a normal event in life for women, characterized by hormonal changes and often occurs in ‘mid-life’, between the late 40s and early 50s although women who smoke generally experience menopause around two years earlier that non-smokers.

Whilst most women see menopause as the beginning of old age, it actually signals the start of a new life, one full of new and different expectations, opportunities and experiences. As a woman’s life expectancy is generally 85, it can signal the sign of another 30 years of new beginnings.

The experience of menopause varies from woman to woman and even from culture to culture. All women, however, undergo the same basic hormonal changes during menopause. A woman’s ovaries produce three types of hormones – testosterone, progesterone and oestrogen. These hormones play a vital role in pregnancy, ovulation and menstruation. During the peri-menopause phase the ovaries’ production of these hormones diminishes until finally dying out when menopause is reached.

While there are numerous side effects to menopause, such as hot flushes, night sweats, sleep disturbances, genital changes and joint or muscles pains, most woman go through the menopause period with little problems, except for of course personal issues in reaching menopause. My only advice is to look at this as a wonderful new beginning with great unknown chapters in your life waiting to be written.

Can you prevent osteoporosis?

While we tend to think of osteoporosis as an old woman’s disease, the fact is that preventing the disease starts at a far younger age. In fact, building strong bones before the age of 30 is considered to be the best defense against developing osteoporosis. Maintaining a healthy life style is very important in keeping your bones strong.

In most cases, medical studies have shown that osteoporosis is largely a preventable disease. Preventing the disease is important because while there are treatments for osteoporosis, there is no cure. There are several steps that you can take to help prevent osteoporosis:

•  Get your daily recommended amounts of calcium and vitamin D. Calcium can be found in foods such as milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, navy beans, almonds, shrimp, broccoli, and oranges. Vitamin D does not come naturally in very many foods, but can be added to foods. These foods with vitamin D added are called fortified foods. Foods that naturally contain vitamin D include milk, salmon, and tuna.

•  Avoid smoking and excessive alcohol. Both can limit the amounts of calcium and vitamin D that your body takes in, and deprive it of essential nutrients. Not to mention they can cause other problems such as lung disease and liver disease.

• Engage in regular weight-bearing exercise. This doesn’t mean you need to bench press your body weight. Light weights and weight bearing exercise can help keep your muscles and your bones healthy and in shape.

•  Talk to your doctor about bone health. Ask him or her about other tips that they might have for you, and find out what your risk factors are.

• As you get older, you should have a bone density test done to see where you are at. If you fall below what you should have, or are dangerously close, there are still things you can do to help prevent or minimize the effects of osteoporosis. In some cases you may need to take medication.

Following just one of the above steps alone will not prevent osteoporosis, but following all of the recommended steps can put you in a better position to prevent yourself from getting it.

Alzheimer’s is a debilitating disease that significantly affects the daily lives of those who suffer from it. Not only that, but it can cause rifts and problems in families. As you can imagine, scientists are eager to get to the root of the Alzheimer’s disease problem, and figure out once and for all what causes it, and what we can do to prevent it. Interestingly, it seems that diet and eating habits play a role in staving off the disease. Read more