fitover50

I have a friend who, like so many people in the current economy, has lost her job. She is intelligent, talented, educated, motivated, experienced, dedicated, honest and loyal. Doesn’t that sound like everything an employer could want in an employee?

So, why is she having such a hard time finding a new job? Sure, times are a little tough right now and everyone is having to work a little harder than ever to find employment. But, my friend has one characteristic that appears to be working against her in, oh, so subtle ways. She is 52 years old.

No, I didn’t say 102, I said 52. By all forms of logic she will likely remain in the work force another ten to fifteen years, minimum. And, with the way social security and the cost of living are going, she may well be working quite a bit longer than that.

This lady, if she found the right job, is not interested in gaining enough experience to put on her resume so she can go out and find something better, as is the case with the majority of 22 year olds in the job market today. No, she wants to give her heart and soul to a company that will appreciate her efforts and reward them with long term employment. The lucky employer who hires this woman will not have to re-train her replacement until sometime past the year 2020.

For some reason, the 22 year olds are being snatched up and put to work, even though the statistics tell us that they will have anywhere between 7 and 15 different jobs in their lives and are, therefore, not likely to be employed with the same employer three or four years from now.

I’ve got to tell you - give me a solid 50 year old any day of the week. I want to work with a person who understands their role as an employee and is not feeling entitled to a large salary, great benefits, and an abundance of perks just because they walked through the door.

I want the employee who shows up every day and puts in eight good hours. I want the employee who is seasoned enough to know what it takes to work in their lifetime, expects to work in their lifetime, and is excited at the opportunity to work in their lifetime.

I want the business world out there to wake up to the strength and power of the mature, experienced worker. Take a look at what you are letting get away. And, three years from now, when you have the position open again that you just filled this week with a 22 year old, remember that a 52 year old woman could have been pumping out the work for you, never missing a beat, and would have been there for you on Monday morning doing the job for you instead of leaving a vacancy that you are, once again, stuggling to fill (with another 22 year old??).

From time to time I may make reference to my “stuff.” I like my stuff. I like to keep it. I like to look at it. Okay, maybe I like to hoard it. I attribute this to my parents who scraped through the early years of their lives during the Great Depression and never forgot the lessons they learned about scarcity and the importance of not being wasteful. They taught me well.

But, here is my question to you. I love recipes. I collect (hoard?) recipe books, subscribe to and store in binders (hoard?) seven different magazines devoted to cooking and recipes and have an entire software program (Mastercook Deluxe) devoted to storing (hoarding?) my favorite recipes in cyberspace. I will not live long enough to try 5% of the recipes I now possess, let alone the future recipes that will come my way to be stored and collected (hoarded?). Oh, I do experiment in my kitchen. It’s my favorite pastime. I’ve produced some great meals. I’ve produced some food concoctions that will never see the light of day. I’m okay with that.

What worries me is that I may have reached the definition of “Obsessive/Compulsive” with my love of recipes. What do you think? At what point will I have gone too far?

Drop an e-mail and let me know what you think.

It has been well documented in recent years that the overall civil behavior of society has declined dramatically. Children, teenagers, adults, senior citizens, it doesn’t matter. Everyone is in too much of a hurry to behave in a courteous manner to those around us. If we’re honest, at least with ourselves, we can probably all recall at least a few bad examples of our own.

One place where the decline in social graces is especially prevalent is on the highway. Somehow, when we get into our cars we stop being human beings and turn into some sort of robot on a mission. Woe to anyone who dares cross our path, or cut into our lane. The amusement park ride of bumper cars from our childhood must have been designed to prepare us for this time of life.

I make a conscious effort, each and every time I am in my car, to give someone a break. I believe in reciprocity, whenever I extend courtesy to someone on the highway of life today, I am building up a savings account of sorts, that will pay dividends for me down the road when I need a break.

And so, if you happen to be driving down the road along side me, rest assured, I will allow you space to change lanes in front of me. I will give you an opportunity to merge safely. I will not blast my horn at you if you are lost, confused, or if, heaven help us all, you are actually driving at the speed limit and not twenty miles an hour over it.

I, for one, will give you a break, and a brake, if our paths cross in life. My personal mission, in trying to be a better person, is to be a better driver. We can all certainly use more of those in our life.

I see a lot of articles and news stories about the fear of Alzheimer’s disease. Because we are living longer on average, the incidence of this horrible affliction is greater and more likely than for any previous generation. We may all remember elderly relatives whom our families labeled as “senile” but who were likely suffering from the effects of Alzheimer’s. For our own generation, we are not only able to identify it, we pretty much see it coming like a freight train straight for us.

It is being broadly claimed that the best way to fight against this disease is to never stop learning. If we keep the brain struggling for knowledge, we are, in essence, exercising our brain in much the same way as we are constantly told to exercise our bodies. A brain that is not tested and tried and exercised on a regular basis is an open invitation for the devil, “Alzheimer’s disease”, to enter into his favorite workshop, our idle brains.

I work hard to keep my brain on the treadmill of knowledge. I have a full time job that requires mental effort. I have my various blog sites, web content producing efforts and website development classes to keep my mind active. I’ve started working again towards a lifelong goal of reading as many of the great, classic novels as I can.

What other activities do you engage in to keep the “devil” out of the “workshop?” Drop an e-mail and share one or more of the activities you enjoy that make your brain work overtime to keep brain cells alive and kicking. Remember, it only takes one small change to begin on the road to an enormous change.

I am confused about something. If a potential employee came to me to interview for a job, I feel certain that he would arrive, resume in hand, with a long and detailed description of all his grand and glorious qualities and a list of all the reasons why I should hire him. He would never even consider the possibility of berating the three other candidates out in the reception area awaiting their turns to impress me with their qualifications.

So, why is it, during political campaigns, I am being beaten down with long lists of what’s wrong with the other guy? Doesn’t candidate X realize that every time he tells me candidate Y is pond-scum he is reinforcing candidate Y’s name in my brain? If the only thing a candidate has going for him is that he’s not as bad as the next guy - well, I might as well just write in my next door neighbor’s name for the office. At least I know some of his good qualities.

I do not want to elect the lesser of two evils. I want to know what benefit there is for me if I vote for one candidate over the other. After fifty + years on this earth, I am smart enough to know that voting for a candidate solely based on his party affiliation is a bad idea. The candidate being elected is basically the front man for an entire political movement that he represents. I need to know what he represents before I can make an intelligent decision.

And, so, Mr. Politician, please don’t waste another breath telling me what’s wrong with Larry, Curly or Moe. I probably already have a good idea. Tell me what you plan to do about it.

When I was in my teens and twenties, I remember adults (usually my mother, aunt or some other well-meaning individual) giving me advice about this or that. Of course, at that age I still knew everything and people that were thirty, forty or more years my senior were hopelessly old-fashioned. Like most of us, I had to learn life’s lessons through the school of hard knocks. It’s amazing to me how many lessons I learned that actually turned out exactly the way my mother said they would. How could she possibly have known?

Well, today, over 50 myself, and fully aware that I do not know everything, I have finally begun to understand. I often have this little mental fantasy where I have my mother back on this earth with me for one final conversation. I imagine myself saying to her, “you know, Mom, if there’s one thing I’ve come to know in my lifetime it’s that you were right about pretty much everything.”

And then I imagine her reply, “I told you so.”

On this, as on every day of my life, I think about that great lady with love and the joy of knowing I was lucky enough to have had her in my life for thirty-three years.

For anyone past the age of 50, we know that the economy rolls along like the waves on the ocean, highs and lows, rip tides and tsunamis, it all comes with the territory. We have all been through the good times and the bad. This recent roller coaster ride with the stock market is, maybe, a little scarier than others before. Most of us are getting to a point where, even if we aren’t thinking about retirement yet, we would like to think we could be thinking about it sometime soon. The idea that we may have to work longer, maybe the fear that we will have to work the rest of our lives, is more than a little unsettling.

I don’t really have anything to say to calm your, or my, fears. It’s been a rough year. Even if things have bottomed out, recovery will be a slow and arduous process. All I can say is, keep your chin up. We must all just keep on keeping on, because there really isn’t any other alternative. I will say that I believe recovery will come, and with it, a better overall level of economic stability. That doesn’t help a whole lot, I know, if you’ve just retired or were planning to do so in the near future. I, personally, have rethought the whole retirement thing. I’m not sure if I will ever be fully “retired.” I may not be doing what I am doing forever, but I’m pretty sure I will be doing something to earn some level of income for as long as my mental and physical faculties allow.

That’s not all bad. I actually like being productive and I never want to reach the stage where I will be a burden to anyone.

What are your thoughts on working, retiring, or doing something in between. Drop an e-mail and your views will be shared in this space.

Guess I’m not the only one out there with a bad habit or two to battle. A couple of good suggestions have come in for fighting off the evening munchies.

1) Set time limits. No snacking for three or four hours before bedtime.

2) Make any evening snacks yogurt or fruit. (Guess that means stay away from the refined sugar. . .)

3) Exercise to combat the effects.

I have a friend who, right now, is good at talking the talk, but she can’t seem to get it together to walk the walk. She would like to change some of her bad eating habits (chocolate muffins for coffee break, snacks at her desk . . .) but she is allowing the everyday stress and strain of life to push her into eating more and exercising less.

Instead of helping her, I feel that she is pulling me into some bad habits. I have to fight the mindset that “one little brownie won’t hurt” or “I’ll do better tomorrow.” I know none of us are perfect, but I need to be better than I am.

My exercise routine is holding up right now, so that’s good. In fact, tonight I plan to add a couple minutes to my elliptical workout duration. The treadmill is going strong as well. If I could just add a little free weight routine I would feel pretty good about it all.

Any simple free weight exercises to recommend?

I haven’t always been a saint with every aspect of eating well, exercising properly, and doing what was necessary to lead a happy, healthy and long life. Okay, I’ve never been a saint regarding those things, but we’re just spliting hairs here.

I have a few bad habits. Most of them didn’t seem to matter too much - until lately. Being Fit Over 50 means that I have to start paying attention to my previously evil ways and remedy them before it’s too late. For example, I never thought too much about how late into the evening I might be snacking. Eight o’clock, nine o’clock, later . . . it didn’t seem to affect me before. Now, I’m not so sure. The body, as I have said, seems a little softer now. The firmness of youth and early adulthood is fading.

I suspect I’m not helping matters any by eating later at night. My body is in the cool down stage by then and none of these new calories have anywhere to go except directly to my thighs.

Awareness is always the first step to making changes. I’m open to any suggestions out there for how I can un-learn my bad habit.

Drop an e-mail with either a suggestion to help me or, even, a bad habit of your own that you either have found a solution to or are looking for a solution to help fix. Bad Habits I Have Known will be there for you.

Well, here I am, at it again. My exercise routine is working alright for the month of October. We’re twelve days in and I can legimately claim my exercise routine on six of those days. I know, I know, my goal is set a bit higher than that, but the way I figure it, if I aim for the moon and only reach a few stars, I will be further ahead than if I only aim for those stars and fall flat on my face on the ground.

I’m researching some additional exercises to add to my routine. I have a book on Yoga, an article on Pilates, and a few general purpose stretching and weight bearing movements to add to my repertoire. Not all at once, mind you. I still like my elliptical, my treadmill and every outdoor walk I can manage to fit in. It’s just that I feel I need some variety to keep my interest alive.

I’d be greatly appreciative of any suggestions you might have on ways you spice up your exercise routines. We all seem to have more interesting and more important things to do in our lives, so making necessary time for something this important can be a struggle. How do you do it?