fitover50

I’ve seen a bit of the world. I’ve been to Spain, France, Italy and Croatia. I been to the Carribbean and many locations in the continential United States. I’ve seen a bit of Canada.

It’s not enough. I must see more of the world before I leave it. Top locations on my personal itinerary:

Paris - I must sip wine by the River Seine.
Vienna - Birth place to so many classical musicians.
Southeast Asia - I urge to see that culture is strong.
Egypt - For the pyramids.

There are more. . .

Once we pass the ripe old age of 50, things change. I’m not talking about the shift in muscle mass, the gray or white strands in our hair (or the total lack of hair), the presbyopia that attacks our vision or the way certain foods affect us like they never did before.

No, I’m talking about changes in the way we see things. In the way we dream dreams. In the way we anticipate what lies ahead in life.

By this time in life, many (most?) of us have faced some close calls with our health or our lives in general, or we have had people close to us face these close calls. We know for a fact, no room for doubt, that we are not immortal. At twenty-two we might have felt like there was an infinite amount of time before us. Now we know better.

This general way of thinking falls in line with the Tim McGraw song, Live Like You Were Dying. If you know you have a finite amount of time left to live, it’s important to get on with the business of living. Do what you want to do. See the parts of the world you want to see. Create what is in you to create. Before it’s too late.

Like Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List, we need our own list of things to do before we die.

Drop and e-mail and help us start our own list here at Fit Over 50. I will start the list on this site today.

Being over 50 means I spend more time reflecting on my life than I ever did before. Maybe that’s because I have a lot more life under my belt to reflect on than I ever did before. At no time is the sharp jab of reflection felt more strongly than on a holiday. Today, Thanksgiving Day 2008, is no exception.

My husband and I were fortunate enough to share part of this day with my sister and one of my brothers. I am the youngest of the siblings by quite a few years (actually I have always thought I was an accident, but my parents denied it even though they couldn’t quite contain a little smile while doing so). And, since I have admitted to being over 50, that gives you the idea that my siblings are well into their sixties.

I have so many memories of the time when we were young; when our parents were still around to give advice; when most of our lives were still ahead of us and we had big plans and grand dreams.

Today, we all have a pretty good idea of how the course of our lives has played out. We know in large part what we might expect of the future. We have gained enough wisdom to figure out how to control what we can control and how to give up worrying about what we can’t control.

As I look around, however, I can’t help but reflect on the people, the places, the times and experiences that have passed before us, only to find life in our memories. I am grateful.

At 52, my life is good. My health, on this day, is still excellent. My finances are in order. My goals are being pursued. I have good people and good times at this point in my life. I believe more good is ahead of me.

To those people who have given me strength, hope, education and a desire to pursue my own happiness, I want to give thanks. Many of them don’t walk this earth any longer. Others have only a small role to play at this point in time. Still others encompass my world today. To quote a common cliche on the day, “It’s all good.”

Nope, this time I’m not here to offer a recipe. Kitchen experiments are one of my great pastimes. I have lots of ideas to share. But this time I’m asking you to share with me, and others who might have an interest in some of the foods I would like to prepare.

Italian food is a huge favorite of mine. . . okay, so are Greek, German, American and Mexican. . . but, for the moment, the topic is Italian. I am looking for a stuffed shell recipe that has a crabmeat filling. Maybe cheese, maybe not, I’m willing to consider all options. I’ve looked online and in my vast cookbook collection and I’m having a problem coming up with anything. So . . . anyone out there with a crabmeat filling stuffed shell recipe who is willing to share, drop an e-mail so the world will come to know just how good your recipe is. I promise to try it and give my opinion and rave reviews in the near future.

Turn about is fair play - Is there anyone out there with a recipe need that is going unfulfilled? Again, drop and e-mail and a call will go out to help you in your search for the perfect . . .

With Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday season upon us, many of us are starting to dust off the family collection of recipes and prepare to cook, bake and assemble those once a year culinary delights that tie us to our family and our childhood. I know I will be enjoying my traditional favorites of turkey, bread stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, a couple of vegetables and, for dessert, a chocolate pie.

What? You say my chocolate pie doesn’t match up with the traditional pumpkin pie you may be used to consuming at the end of your over-stuffed holiday dinner? Maybe not, but that is my tradition. It is my family tradition. Oh, we always had pumpkin pie and, believe it or not, mince meat pie for dessert as well. Those varieties had their followers at my family dinner table. But for me and several others, the holiday dinner always ended with chocolate pie.

Over the years a few traditions have changed. It’s still the turkey for the main course, but new and unique recipes for stuffing, variations on the theme for vegetables and a definite bend towards lower fat, more health conscious options has definitely emerged around the dinner table. For a while I even gravitated away from the chocolate pie.

But, not this year. This year will be dinner with family members of the old regime. The traditions will be the ones I grew up with.

Next year, who knows, maybe lobster tail and king crab legs on the menu for the holidays. That idea has a lot of appeal to me. I like to start new traditions so that, years from now, people will look back on the holidays and remember traditions that I am given credit for initiating.

What traditions do you hold onto? What new tradition would you like to start in your family this year?

I don’t belong to a 12-step program, but perhaps I should. No, I’m not addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex, cigarettes or soap operas. But, truth be told, I would have to say I’m addicted to chocolate. I know, I know, it’s harmless enough. And, according to current studies on the topic, my all time favorite, dark chocolate, is being praised as a nutritional powerhouse superfood. I know I believe that’s true.

I view chocolate as a “mental health” food. I find it soothing, relaxing and extremely pleasureable to my taste buds. Seems to fit the definition of addiction to me.

I wonder if any of us can claim to be totally addiction-free, if we honestly look at everything that word encompasses. Is there anyone who doesn’t seek out, desire and react in an obsessive way to some animal, vegetable or mineral in the world around them.

If you feel there is absolutely nothing to which you are addicted, or if you want to confess your own personal addiction, drop an e-mail and share. Right now I’m going to go find a 72% cacao chocolate bar to feed the beast of addiction that has taken over my body and mind.

There is one disturbing fact I have noticed as time marches on. Time marches on. Yep, time, those 24 hours we each have every day, no more, no less, is tromping its merciless way through the days and weeks and months and years of our lives.

I see it in my own life and that, at times, is troubling enough. More troubling still, is the way I see time tromping through the lives of the essential people around me. I see family members, co-workers, friends, neighbors and nameless people in the streets experiencing some of the inevitable changes of aging. I still feel like I have a pretty good handle on myself but, others around me, I’m not so sure.

There is a man I pass every night on my drive home from work. He sells flowers at the intersection approaching a major bridge in my city. I’ve seen him there for years. He has never been young. Lately, the sands of time are taking their toll on him. His lumbering walk now sports a decided limp. Gout? Arthritis? Who knows.

Clearly, he works because he must do so for survival. In heat, rain, snow, sleet or any combination thereof, I have seen him. How much longer can he maintain this livelihood?

I have seen changes, aging processes really, in my family. How long before the family dynamics changes yet again with the passage of another dear life from our midst? A member of my extended family celebrated her 100th birthday just a few days ago. A great milestone. How many more can there possibly be?

I don’t mean to be depressing. I’m not feeling depressed. I just want to make note of the fact the time is passing by, maybe more quickly than we realize.

What else did you want to accomplish in your life? Maybe it’s time to put your foot on the gas of some of those goals.

Care to share any of those goals with Fit Over 50? Drop an e-mail.

Are you worried about the financial state of the world? I know I am. I used to fantasize about early retirement. Now, my fantasy consists of wondering if I will ever fully retire at all.

My greatest fear about retirement has always be the idea of a fixed income for life. With the turbulence we’re seen recently in the stock market, the oil market, and the price spikes at the grocery store, a fixed standard of living has little chance of carrying me through for the decades I hope I still have in front of me.

I don’t want to have to go to work bagging groceries at 82. If there are more years of full time employment in my life, I plan on working on them right now, while I’m as young as I’m ever going to be, and still completely healthy and able-bodied.

Do you have any clever or unique ways that you plan to supplement your life and your lifestyle after you put your traditional work life behind you?

Drop an e-mail and tell us all about it. There’s a whole generation of us dying to know.

One of the readers to this site, a lovely Fit Over 50 lady by the name of Rhonda, has had a dream all her life to write a novel. Originally the goal was to write the “Great American Novel.” It was to be an astounding work of brilliance to rank up there with the greatest classics of all time.

Time and life got in the way quite a bit on the road to fame and fortune (where have we all heard that before).

Today, the desire for fame and fortune may be less compelling, but the desire to write a novel still burns strong in Rhonda’s heart.

As so, she has begun to write. This is not the first attempt, to be sure. But this time, there is something different. The wish for fame and fortune may flicker in her brain, but the real passion is to write the story she carries in her heart. If it is famous, if it is ever read by a publisher, if it has any literary merit whatsoever - none is this is of primary importance anymore. This is just one of the goals in Rhonda’s “bucket list” (more on that great movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman in a future posting).

What dream do you carry around in your bucket list? For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, the bucket list is basically a list of things you want to do before you “kick the bucket.”

For the Fit Over 50 crowd, I know the bucket list is weighing heavily. I want to hear about the bucket you carry.

When I was a teenager I made a solemn vow to myself that I would always be at the height of fashion. I would wear the “in” clothes. I would sport the latest hairstyle. The length of my skirt would always be runway fresh. My look, in general, would always belie my advancing age.

As I so often say, “With age comes wisdom.” As I grew older, I grew wiser. I developed my own style. For the most part I am very comfortable with that style. Am I “in style?” I haven’t a clue. I suspect not. I see clothes on younger people that are an embarrassment to me. I see tattoos and piercings that appear to be remnants of torture. Most astounding to me, I see women going bare-legged in skirts and heels. UGH!! The concept of my bare foot sticking to the inner sole of my pumps makes my flesh crawl.

Okay, we can all agree I’m not “in style.” But, today, in my Evan Picone suit, flesh colored hose, 2-inch pumps and Liz Claiborne purse, I look good enough to feel good about my look. And there is the accomplishment. I am an adult.