Senior Citizen? Good Health is Important!

It’s hard being a healthy senior citizen.  Most of us have taken care of families and worked all our lives, planning meals and getting regular exercise.  Then comes the day we retire.  Suddenly, everything changes.

It’s more important in your senior years than ever before to eat healthy and exercise.  Information is thrown at us every single day about cancer-fighting foods, health and fitness, benefits of red wine, taking vitamin supplements and similar treatments for those maladies that plague us as we age.

The trick is not to get too bogged down in the information, but to disseminate it so that it works for you.  Follow a few rules for healthy eating and make some physical changes.

1. Research your family history.  Know warning signs and symptoms of things that you might be susceptible to, i.e. diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.  By making a few simple changes in your diet you can add cancer-fighting foods to your table and by lowering portions and cutting out extra sugar you can manage diabetes.
2. It’s very important to get some exercise.  It doesn’t have to be all in one chunk. Walk around the mall a couple of times.  Park your car farther from the store.  Make an extra trip around the inside perimeter of the market or climb a set of stairs.  All of these things will give you benefit.
3.  Practice good sleeping habits.  Go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning.  The continuity will allow your body to function better and leave you feeling refreshed.  Late night parties are a thing of the past.  Take a good book to bed, read for a little while and fall asleep naturally.
4. Stay involved in activities you like to do.  Turn off the television and do something – anything!  Studies have shown that people who age have a longer life and better brain function if they stay involved.  Do volunteer work, visit a shut-in, lead the choir, sew baby blankets for the hospital or be a wheelchair pusher at the VA.  These things keep you feeling good about yourself.
5. Cultivate friendships.  Now more than ever you need people around you who care.  Spend more time with family but be independent and enjoy your life.

These are only a few things that will keep you healthy and happy in your senior years.  Make them the best years of your life!

Thinking of Adopting a Senior Citizen?

You have just acquired a Senior Citizen.  You know nothing about them, except what you have read on the Internet and a few well-meaning words from your next-door neighbor.  You picked out a doozy and you’re pretty proud of yourself.  Time to show him off later.  Right now you need to brush up on what to do so that your senior will flourish and thrive.  Follow these tips to keep him healthy and happy: 

Here are the number one things to remember about this rare breed:

1. Feed them at least three times a day – they get very cranky if you don’t.  They also seem to like warm milk at bedtime.
2. Seniors like burnt toast (hey, remember the “It’ll make your hair curly” comments?  You can also feed them loads of carrots (good for the eyes, don’t you know?)  Along with the burnt toast, seniors like veggies, peanut butter, tuna, jelly, and a doughnut thrown in occasionally for good measure.  You have to control what they eat – they can’t.  You certainly don’t want to have to put them on a weight loss diet later – they’ll make you pay.
3. Give them something to keep them busy and occupied.  They like to work and feel needed.
4. Give them praise and a pat on the head every so often.  They’ll work even harder.  You might even get a smile.
5. Lay in a supply of disposable diapers.  You never know when you might need them.
6. Senior-proof your home.  They aren’t known to be chewers, but they might lose the remote control or forget to turn off the oven.  Better safe than sorry.  Put valuables away or in a place they can’t reach.
7. Disconnect your landline phone.  You can use your cell.  Seniors cannot be trusted on the telephone.  They use up way too much time chatting with their cronies.
8. Get some anti-gas medication and slip it in their milk.  They’ll never know the difference but you will.
9. Be very careful when putting your senior in the car.  They are known for slipping out of seatbelts and climbing out the window, waving frantically to someone they think they know.  How embarrassing.
10. Get a night light for the bathroom.  It seems the species is nocturnal.
11. Buy them comfortable clothing.  They can get a little wild and crazy if the jeans are too tight.  You don’t want your neighbors calling the cops over a naked woman in their front yard.
12. Give them a covered container for those disgusting teeth.  Who wants to look at that on the bathroom sink?  And while you’re at it, get a beeper for their glasses.  They are forever losing them.  It’ll save you time, money, and lots of hassle.
13. Never leave a senior home alone and unattended.  They can get into all sorts of trouble.  Put child locks on the cabinets and stove and a baby gate on the steps.  That way they can’t hurt themselves or others.
14. Take them for regular checkups.  They’ll need their shots and medications.
15. Make room for the c-pap machine.  And get used to the sound.  It’ll be around for a while.
16. Invest in a good television.  It’s a great baby sitter and they’ll glue themselves to it.

Enjoy your new senior citizen.  If you follow these suggestions and take good care of him, he’ll give you joy for years to come.  He is a good breed, and loves unconditionally, with no strings attached.  Come to think of it, maybe you should adopt two?

Senior Lifestyle and Fitness

1. Senior fitness is a hot topic these days.  Millions of baby boomers are beginning to hit “oldies” status and they bring with them their active lives.  Although elderly people have worked hard in the past, and rested when they retired, this new crop of senior citizens isn’t happy to sit idle when the time comes to leave the working world. 
2. Senior exercise  - while some of us think that’s a dirty phrase, others take it to heart.  Millions of people use treadmills, go for evening walks, or ride bicycles through their neighborhood.  A good number of them just happen to be over sixty.  
3. Senior sports are on the upswing, too.  My brother-in-law is an avid softball player and is equally good at tennis. While he is the eldest of my siblings, spouses and me, he is in the best shape.  He has never discontinued playing to win and he often does, over much younger opponents.  No rocking chair for this old man!

Personally, I find my senior lifestyle to be easiest in the city.  In the summer my husband and I live in beautiful farming country, far from any town.  In the winter we go to Mexico and live in a city of over one-half million people.  I am definitely healthier in Mexico.  Why?  Because we don’t take a car and we walk everywhere.  Those miles add up – I wore out a good pair of shoes last year and dropped thirty pounds!

Riding a bicycle has always been a favorite pastime of mine.  I don’t like to call it exercise because then I hate it.  There’s just something about the word exercise that makes me cringe.  But when I jump on my bike and pedal down a country road I have the same feeling of being carefree as when I was young and I like it. 

Our lives don’t end when we enter our senior years.  They begin.  With a positive, can-do attitude we can be even healthier than we were in our younger days.  I just read an article that said people with more education live longer.  I know some who have gone back to school to get degrees even in their seventies and eighties.  I had a good friend who was a ninety-three-year-old author.  She had sold a lot of books (after beginning to write in her sixties).

What can we take from this?  These are important to research and remember:

• Senior fitness
• Senior exercise
• Senior activities
• Senior Lifestyle
• Senior Eating habits

If we practice them all we’ll live longer and lead healthier lives!

Am I Old or Just Senile?

I sat with a group of Senior Citizens this morning in a meeting and I realized something.  I AM ONE.  While I was secretly chuckling at some of their mannerisms it struck me that I probably have idiosyncrasies of my own.  I realized that I have been thrown to the wolves – no longer a nifty-fifty, but a dyed-in-the-wool sixty-something genuine old lady! 

“When did this happen?” I asked myself.  Yesterday I was twenty and I had the whole world ahead of me.  Today I’m forty-two years older with a soon to be birthday on the horizon – next week in fact!

This morning it happened again while I was getting ready for my day.  “Oh, there’s another wrinkle,” I moaned.  I looked closely to be sure it was true, and then reassured myself.  “Don’t worry dear, everything will be fine.”

 “Yeah, it’s easy for you to say that.”

Startled, I glanced up at the twenty-something face I saw reflected in my mirror.  

“By the way, you might want to apply some concealer under those baggy eyes.”

“What?”  I reached in my bag for the white stuff and smeared it lavishly all over my face.  Can’t ever have too much, right?

“What on earth are you doing?” Mirror Girl asked.  “Didn’t you listen to that makeup artist yesterday?”

“What makeup artist?  Did I miss something?  Who are you and what in the heck are you talking about?”

“Settle down,” she replied.  “You know who I am so don’t try to act like you don’t.  Remember that time you caught your dress in your pantyhose in the bathroom and walked into your niece’s wedding reception with your butt hanging out for the world to see?”

“Oh, you are so cruel,” I said.  “You would have to bring up the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to me.”

“Well, actually…”

“Ok, just shut up.  I get it.  Where’s my coffee anyway?  It’s too early for this nonsense.”

“It might be nice to add some color to your hair.  It’s getting a little drab,” Mirror Girl said with a smirk.

“At least there’s no gray yet,” I muttered.  “One of the good things about being blonde.”

“Have you been doing those arm lifts the trainer said would firm up your biceps?”

I decided it was time to brush my teeth and end this nonsense.  But when I finished and looked back, she was still there. 

“What’s up with this?” I wondered, as she began again.

“Are you getting a little thick around the middle?” she looked down and tried to see me naked.

I threw a towel around myself.  “Oh no you don’t,” I said.  “We’re not having THAT conversation today.”

“What conversation?” she asked innocently.

“That one about cellulite and varicose veins.”  I began applying mascara.

“You’re pretty cool for an old lady,” she said with a smirk.  “If I were a little older we’d probably be best friends or something.”

I gave her the evil eye and put on my lipstick.

“Don’t you think that color’s a little dark?” she asked innocently.

“Do you always have to be so uncomplimentary?” I replied.  “Sure would be nice if just once you liked something I did.”

“Oh, I do,” she replied.  “You made me special.  See you tomorrow.”  She gave a jaunty wave that I just caught out of the corner of my eye.

I looked up to see the mirror was blank.  Except for some sixty-year old hag that peered back at me.  

“Where did she come from?” I wondered.  I paid her no mind as I got dressed and walked out the door.

“I look good,” I thought to myself.  “It’s going to be a glorious day.”  I backed out of the driveway listening to the sounds of Bruce Springsteen on the radio. 

“Humph,” I snorted.  “Old lady, my ass!”

MEET ME AT THE LOCAL SENIOR CENTER

Your local Senior Center can offer many helpful tidbits of information.  The Senior Center usually has lots of activities planned for older adults that may include meals, concerts, table games and other events geared to people your own age.  Often the Senior Center also offers transportation to doctors and information about where to obtain services an older adult may need. 

For instance, perhaps you have questions about Medicare.  Your Senior Center is likely to have a person well-versed in the jargon needed to wade through the rules and regulations.  Also, there are often guest-speakers at the Senior Center who offer free advice and help to older adults about Medicare laws.  Many seniors don’t know about these services.

The Senior Center posts schedules of monthly activities.  Pick one of the activities you are interested in and attend an event.  Many of these events will entice lots of people your own age and is a chance for you to meet new friends.  Often, a local County Fair will hold Senior Days, with food and gate fees greatly reduced or free to those over fifty years of age.  Also, the local zoo often has one day of the year earmarked for seniors and it’s free!  All of these events and more will generally be posted on the bulletin board of your local Senior Center.

If you are interested in meeting other people your own age and becoming involved in new activities, why not volunteer some time?  It’s a great way to get involved, get out of the house, and spend time with others your own age.  

SENIOR ONLINE DATING PROFILE

So, you've decided to take the plunge and create a senior online dating profile, hoping to meet someone on the Internet.  If you are reading this you are most likely a senior citizen, perhaps a Baby Boomer, over fifty and single.  You have thought about creating a senior online dating profile but perhaps you are procrastinating, worried about all the hype and the bad image you think it might give you.  Rest assured, a senior online dating profile is fairly easy to create and meeting other people your age online is a thing of the present.  It’s a hip thing to do in today’s computer-generated world.

A few years ago many adults turned to pen pal letters to meet other people.  Whether contemplating friendship or romance, it gave the correspondents time to get to know each other before they actually met.  If the two found they weren’t compatible on paper there is a good chance they wouldn’t want to even get together.  Let’s face it – it isn’t always easy to meet people our own age with our own tastes close to home.  Many mature adults live in small towns or rural areas with little opportunity to meet and date other people.

Today the Internet has changed everything.  There are many dating sites available, both paid and free.  It is relatively easy to create a senior online dating profile, just fill in relative information and give as much or as little as you feel comfortable with.  Don’t give your telephone number and address – there’ll be lots of time for that later.  Pick a few keywords to show the things you are most interested in and the computer will do the rest, matching you with other people who have the same likes and interests.  The senior online dating profile allows mature adults to email each other and take time getting acquainted.  If the two are compatible, they may want to exchange telephone numbers and meet eventually.  Many wonderful friendships and romances have begun this way.   

SENIOR DATING

Senior dating can be a daunting task.  Many people who reach mid-life are thrown back into the dating game due to separation, divorce, or the death of a spouse.  Suddenly, the remaining spouse faces loneliness and decides to try senior dating.  Unlike the connections made in younger years, senior dating can be difficult, but it can also offer great rewards.  Meeting new people is a good way to stave off the depression, loneliness and anxiety some older adults feel after circumstances have found them living alone.

The first question often asked is where do I meet someone?  Here are a few ideas to get you started.

• Church
• Parents without Partners (and other single groups)
• Online senior dating services (there are many to choose from)
• Campgrounds and other recreational activities
• Meet and greet get-togethers.  Check your local Chamber of Commerce or newspaper for dates and times
• Senior citizen’s groups and events
• Movies, supermarkets, department stores
• Local classes held by colleges or community school districts geared to the older adult
• Laundromats
• Social events (i.e. county fairs, movies, music events, senior fairs)
• Restaurants and supper clubs
• Cruises and travel groups

These are just a few suggestions of the many ways to meet people if you are contemplating senior dating. 

SENIOR SINGLES

Senior singles live differently in today’s society than they have in the past.  Many years ago these seniors were sometimes ridiculed as “old maids” and the like.  Senior singles today are much different, due to our changing world.  Often they are well-traveled, educated baby boomers who have a zest for life and the new things it has to offer.  Computer literate and comfortable using new technology, these young-at-heart adults stay connected wherever they are.  No longer content to live their lives being babysitters or living with grown children, these forward-thinking adults have become an important part of our ever-expanding society.  Not afraid to travel alone, daring to explore new horizons and try new things, they routinely defy the stereotype we have come to expect of those who are middle-aged.

Senior singles are loosely categorized as people over fifty who live alone.  Although many are still in the working world well into their sixties and seventies, many of the over-fifty crowd opt to take early retirements, allowing them to travel and have new experiences.  While they love the closeness of family and friends, senior singles find themselves finally able to expand their horizons in ways that they had never imagined.  Many move to other countries to live, some take on new careers as consultants in their area of expertise or even begin new careers, choosing something they have always wanted to do.  These senior singles are happy, contented with their lives, and dare to explore the world on their own terms.  When they choose to date they are confident, interesting individuals and are looking for someone to spend time with who is not only fun to be with, but a fascinating companion as well.