Great News! Grab Your Forks and Napkins Because Now Many of Your Favorite Comfort Foods Are Still On the Menu, Even If You’re Newly Diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes

Cool Weather and Comfort Food: You Know It’s Coming, Don’t You?

It’s hard to miss the signs here in the heart of the Midwestern United States.  No doubt the same thing is happening all over the northern hemisphere. With the advent of cooler days, longer nights, football in the stadiums and autumnal color on the trees, it’s time to think about serving up a slew of your favorite cool weather comfort foods for dinner.

(Sorry for talking “fall weather” to you readers in the southern hemisphere, especially those of you in Australia and New Zealand. I know it’s springtime for you… But keep reading,  you won’t want to miss the book I discuss  at the end of the post…)

No Doubt You Have an All-time Favorite Hearty and Comforting Meal

When it comes to comfort foods, my favorite – hands down – is a fabulous beef pot roast, complete with potatoes, carrots, onions, and maybe some green beans.  All slow-cooked or stewed in a delicious tomato-based beefy gravy.  Served with homemade biscuits on the side…  With perhaps a nice hot apple cobbler for dessert.

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As Obama Seeks Healthcare Reform, Now’s the Time to Stand Up, Make Your Voice Heard: You Do Want Solid, Affordable Benefits & to Enjoy Excellent Health, Don’t You?

My friend Shelby — who was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes a couple of years ago, at the same time I was  –  confided to me last week that this year, for the first time in her 50+ years, she’s actually put off her normal healthcare maintenance appointments.

She says it’s not because she doesn’t believe in their value. That wouldn’t make sense, as not only does she have diabetes, but her husband’s a 10-year cancer survivor, whose tumor was discovered during a routine physical…  She knows the value of regular health maintenance appointments!

No, her decision is based on financial necessity: she’s been laid off, so money is tight. Oh, she still has health insurance through COBRA, but she says she’s saving that for real medical emergencies. On a preventive care basis, she can’t afford the out of pocket portion her insurance expects her to pay.

This has to be a “bitter pill” for Shelby, after all, she’s:
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You Can’t Do Much About the Economy, But That’s No Cause For a Midlife Crisis. Quick! What Would It Take To Make You Truly Blissful Right Now? As in “Happy From the Inside Out?”

As you were growing up, how did you envision your adult life?

Unfortunately, if you’re like most people, your childhood vision for your adult life doesn’t at all match up to the life you’re currently experiencing – quite possibly due to the recession.

After benefiting from all the high-flying financial success Boomers enjoyed during  the 80s and 90s, who would have ever dreamed you might find yourself today, 50+ and facing a midlife crisis because you suddenly – and unexpectedly -  find yourself:

• Financially challenged – OK, let’s really lay it out there: too broke to be able to contemplate near-term retirement
• Fighting foreclosure and on the verge of homelessness
• Scrambling to have a reliable job and affordable health insurance
• Worried that no one loves you – and getting by without a sex life, too
• Dogged by chronic illnesses including arthritis, osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, type 2 diabetes, depression, sleep disorders, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease and cancer
• Feeling totally alone in the world

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Need to Generate Income? What if You Could Enter the Growing Home Health Care Field to Financially Benefit From the “Uptick in World Aging and Chronic Disease?”

There’s no two ways about it: The fact that we humans are all getting older every day is as sure as the inevitability of death and taxes.  

Your challenge is to figure out how to use this to your advantage… And do it in a way that will make you money. One big idea is to develop a home health care oriented business related to helping people deal with chronic health conditions.  And do it now:

• Don’t be like, Vivian, one of my former coaching clients, a 60+ physical therapist, who had an idea for a product to be used by Alzheimer’s patients.
• It was a great idea: Simple, elegant, effective, dignity-enhancing, and inexpensive to manufacture.
• A product that, if developed, would have sold like hotcakes, and made her a wealthy woman.
• Sadly, she was so bound by fear that her idea would be laughed at that she waited a decade to seek help in bringing her idea to fruition.
• In the end, just as I was aiding her to explore the manufacture of her “baby,” she was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer, and didn’t survive her treatment.  Talk about a tragedy.

So as you’re sitting there, wondering what sort of business you can get into that will help you successfully ride out this current recession, think about the obvious: Read more

Worried That You May Actually Have Sleep Apnea? Realization Often Comes Slowly.

Part 1 of this series discussed how men rationalize their denial about having “Sleep Apnea“.

Today, in Part 2, the discussion revolves around starting to recognize that you might actually have sleep apnea, and the transition from denial to accepting the possibility.

Two new factors took me from absolute denial to grudging acknowledgement of the possibility:

• Meeting a new doctor at age 50
• Discovering that all my siblings either had or suspected they had Sleep Apnea

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Yummy Recipe for Stress Management: With All the Trauma in the World, Why Not Take Action to Relieve Your Stress by Baking Something Healthy & Delicious – Sharing With Friends?

With All the Economic Drama of Recent Days, You Know We’re All in Need of Some Good Stress Management Techniques.

Hopefully you’ve been able to find an opportunity for a big belly laugh every day, since you know laughter’s a proven stress reliever. No need to head to a comedy club, there have been some great opportunities offered by the presidential campaign:

• Tina Fey’s impressions of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live have really had the world laughing
• The real Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live this past weekend was another good chance to laugh, especially Amy’s the end of show rap  
• Not to mention the ably delivered standup comedy of both McCain and Obama at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner

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Do You Fall Asleep During The Day But Deny You Have A Sleep Disorder? I Did And It Almost Killed Me!

Hello, my name is Steve and I have sleep apnea.

My wife diagnosed this more than five years ago, but I was in denial. The only reason I’m alive today is because my doctor died and my wife is VERY persistant.

What you say? – Alive because my doctor died? – How does that work?

Well, it goes like this: I’ve been mostly healthy all my life – the kind of guy who eats anything, does whatever I want, and avoids the doctor like the plague. My family doctor also treated my parents and knew the whole family health history. That means he knew that I’m never sick, so every few years I’d show up to prove I’m still alive. We had this GREAT arrangement, where he’d leave me alone until I asked for help.

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Chronic Insomnia, Stress, Depression, Sleep Apnea: Why Has Getting a Great Night’s Sleep Become an Elusive Dream for Baby Boomers? And What Can You Do to Help Yourself?

Remember how much you played when you were a kid? Likely you had so much energy you played outside after school, and maybe even headed outdoors again after dinner; coming in only after your parents repeatedly hollered for you to come home. And didn’t they usually have to holler at least three times — because you pretended not to hear them?

Perhaps your favorite games were: “Tag,” “Red Rover,” “Kick the Can,” “Hide and Seek.” Or maybe kickball or softball in someone’s back yard. Then again, maybe you played that slightly more strategic and mentally challenging game, “Mother, May I?”

No matter what games you preferred, chances are:

• Once you got home, you fell asleep as soon as your head hit the pillow, totally spent.
• When you woke up in the morning you were alert, refreshed, and ready to get right back into it.
• Nobody gave any thought to having problems with sleep.

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Newly Diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes: Wondering if You’ll Ever Be Able to Enjoy Treats Like Chocolate, Ice Cream, or Granola Again?

If you’re like most Baby Boomers who’ve suddenly found themselves with newly-acquired Type 2 diabetes, you were probably totally shocked when routine blood work during your annual check-up revealed your blood glucose numbers were “out of whack.” (Sorry, Highly Technical Term)

It Seems Baby Boomers Are More Likely to Develop Type 2 Diabetes

The typical Type 2 Diabetic profile includes:

• Over 40
• Sedentary and overweight, especially with excess weight around the middle (“Apple” body type)
• Hispanic, Black, Native American, or Asian background

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The Shocking Truth About Hip Hop Dancing: Who Knew It’s Actually A Hellaciously Fun, Heart-Healthy Workout That Also Benefits Your Brain?

If you’re like many Baby Boomers, you’re always planning to get to the gym “next week” when you life won’t be quite so busy. (Yeah, right.) You probably already know that what you really need to do is to find an exercise program that is so much fun you can’t wait to get back to it. (And of course, it’d be even better if you could do it wherever you find yourself – at home, at work or on the road – without having to buy any expensive equipment). Otherwise, with your “busy-busy-busy” lifestyle, fitting in a trip to the gym falls to the bottom of your to-do list…

Maybe the Beijing Olympics Inspired You a Bit?

No doubt watching 42-year old Dara Torres anchor the U.S. women’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay to a silver medal finish encouraged you to find time to get back into a fitness routine. Dara’s certainly a testament to dedication, passion and willpower. Doubtless she motivated millions of Boomers who’ve slipped away from the health benefits of a regular exercise routine.  But for fitness-challenged Boomers, Dara may not have been the most inspirational presence at the recent Beijing Olympics. Nor were the 20 other older Olympians – motivational as they were — who represented other sports, including:

• John Dane, a 58 year old sailor, whose pursuit for an Olympic berth began 40 years ago in 1968. Dane has teamed with his son-in-law to make the team in the Star event.
• Libby Callahan, 56 year old pistol shooter and retired Washington, DC police officer, who competed in her fourth Games.
• Hiroshi Hoketsu, Beijing’s oldest Olympian at 67, who competed on the Japanese equestrian team.

No, For Pure Fitness Inspiration, Nothing Could Possibly Beat Beijing’s “Hip Hop Grannies” – Who Weren’t Even IOC-Sanctioned Olympians!

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