Feisty Side of Fifty/Baby Boomer Women

Once you’ve hit fifty, you’re supposed to do all sorts of things to support your health: you need to take those special vitamins that come in the silver wrapping, you shouldn’t start an exercise program until you seek the advice of your physician, and you need to take a myriad of tests that probe and measure everything from your endocrine system to your alimentary canal. Doctors and other health gurus advise us at this age to get serious about watching our diet, our exercise regime, and getting enough sleep. The unspoken message seems to be: “you’re hanging on by a thread—so don’t mess it up!”

I recently received an email from a dear friend who’d had it with all the dire warnings from the medical profession. At last, she found a doctor who thought as she did and advised a lifestyle she could live with. Since I know she is not alone in her frustration, I thought I’d share this physician’s advice. Here are a couple of the doctor’s pronouncements for living a full and joyful life after fifty—

About exercise:

“Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that’s it—so don’t waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart rate won’t make you live longer; it’s like saying you extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Do you want to live longer?  Take nap.

About cutting back on meat and eating more vegetables and grains:

“You must grasp the concept of logistical efficiency. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables and grains. So steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need more grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (a green leafy vegetable). And pork chops can give you 100% of the recommended daily allowance of vegetable product.”

About restricting fried foods:

Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they are permeated by it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?!?

Concerns about too much chocolate consumption:

“Are you crazy?!? HEL-LO-O!! Cocoa beans! That’s a fruit! In fact, chocolate is the best feel-good food around. You can never eat too much of this nutritious delicacy!

How to calculate your body-fat ratio:

Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio would be two to one, etc.

So there you have it—straight from the doctor’s mouth. Of course, we do need to honor our bodies, those amazing vessels that have kept us boomers feeling groovy all these years. But, as far as I’m concerned, a few less tests and a few more laughs would certainly help make life a lot more fun!

And a gentle reminder—if you or a boomer friend are unemployed and looking for work, don’t forget to check out Land the Job You Love: 10 Surefire Strategies for Jobseekers Over 50. It’s gotten great reviews from professionals in the job search business and is guaranteed to help you turn your age into an advantage!

March 2nd, 2010 | Tags: baby boomer, baby boomer blog, baby boomer blogs, baby boomer generation, baby boomer women, baby boomers, boomer, boomers, find a job, finding a job over 50, finding work, healthy aging, humor, job search over 50, job search over fifty, Land the Job You Love!, looking for work, Mary Eileen Williams, mature women, mature women over 50, mature women over fifty, older women, over 40, over 50, over 50 women, over fifty women, turning fifty, women 50+, women fifty plus, women over 40, women over 50, women over fifty, women over fifty blogs | Category: Aging With Attitude | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL