CREATING A LIFESTYLE FOR MY GOLDEN YEARS

How long do you hope to live?  Do you want to live beyond a hundred?

This book says it is possible.  It says that statistics claim that the average life span of Americans today is 94, but scientific and medical research  show that it is possible to live up to age 120.  

I'm so happy that I attended this  interesting seminar yesterday at one of my favorite places, The Artists Gallery. 

I love to go there often to visit Cynthia, the owner, who became my good friend after I organized my sister's milestone birthday party last year. Cynthia turned her beautiful house into a gallery and it became an interesting event venue.  It is big enough to accommodate 140  guests but she has dividing doors to isolate an art class, give privacy to a family dinner or a business meeting, and even a ladies' tea party or a seminar like the one we had yesterday. 

Cynthia's sister, Fatima Bustos-Choy MD, now based in the US  unselfishly gave this free seminar for 30 people along with a very generous merienda. A delicious spread was set up at the dinning room.  There were salad greens, tasty noodles, dainty tea sandwiches, finger foods and various sinfully-delicious sugar-filled but irresitibly tempting desserts. 

In the above picture on the left is my friend, Nitz with Dr. Fatima between us. 

Nitz and I were greatly inspired by the insights shared by Dr. Fatima lifted from the book of a Korean bestselling author and one of the most renowned meditation teachers of our time: 

ILCHI LEE.   I am just starting to read this book and the 6-paged introduction alone already inspired me and got me all excited. 

I can easily relate with Ilchi Lee's book especially after reading another book of basically similar topic. 

The  100 Year Lifestyle book is by Dr. Eric Plasker, an internationally acclaimed wellness expert and a renowned chiropractic Doctor. 

My younger daughter who is into wellness, meditation and such and has been practicing yoga for years believe that many books has been written about the subject and they say basically the same things only in varying  styles.  I started reading  "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind"  by Deepak Chopra sometime ago but it is quite heavy for me to absorb easily so I'm taking it slowly.

I was telling myself that this seminar couldn't have been given at a better time than now.  Recently, we sold our 31-year-old convenience store.   I have been managing it while I was employed full time.  When I retired in 2005, I was glad I had the store to focus on and to exercise my management skills.  

For the past two months after parting with the store, I felt like I was hibernating in spite my attempt to keep myself busy fixing things around our home.   I'm also gardening along with Jim for a more productive edible backyard garden.  Most importantly, I've been soul searching for activities to make my life more fulfilling and purposeful.  

When our son FaceTime on weekends, he would ask what's keeping us busy.  Likewise I heard that my younger daughter is checking out from her older sister who lives in town about my current pre-occupation.  I guess our children are so used to seeing Jim and I always pre-occupied.  I know they want us to be happy.   Now I wonder, are they worried that we are already slowing down? 

At the seminar we were asked to look back to the first half of our  lives and to recall the challenges and struggles in the pursuit of our ambitions.  Ultimately it was said that the first part of life is mostly defined as the time spent in search for success, something people in general perceive as a prerequisite for social acceptance.  That's the reason it seemed so important during that period. 

What then shall we live for in the second half? 

What can we look forward to?  Shall we just sit back on our rocking chairs or in front of the TV and relax?  If we have the means, shall we keep on traveling in the hope that fulfillment maybe found somewhere away from home?   Shall we stop competing, just take it easy, go with the flow and let circumstances take over our lives?  

The book says, we need a plan, make an outline if we must, for the remaining years and decades.  It is also important to make up our minds how long we intend to live. 

It is a well-known fact that in this day and age people live longer than in their parents'  time.  This book says that in Japan where people are known to live the longest formulated a method by multiplying our current age by 0.7 to determine the age we actually feel physically and mentally.  I'm 73 now; if I multiply that by 0.7, I should be feeling and thinking like I'm only 51.  Interesting, right?  How do seniors feel about this?  To find out more about it, I think I have to check out how people really think and feel in their early fifties. 

Going back to the decision about how long we want to live,  I feel that this should be based on how we want to live, and what we want to live for.  I hope that my life plan will dawn on me after I finish the book.   Moreover, I need to line up goals that I still hope to accomplish; family milestones that I hope to be part of in the near and distant future; including other major considerations that I still couldn't put my finger on at this point. 

One thing is for sure though, regardless how long I intend to live, I want to look forward to a life of optimism, "in health and happiness, feeling that life is fun and rewarding".  

CUPCAKE MEATLOAF, MY FIRST TRY

I've been making meatloaf in forever using a loaf pan.  When I saw this idea on Facebook, I felt I've got to try it.  So I prepared it for our Friday dinner with my daughter and granddaughter following the suggested recipe and not my tried and tested meatloaf recipe. 

This is the meat mixture with egg, carrots, celery stalk, Parmesan,  bread crumbs and seasonings. 

I made big balls and dropped them on muffin pans lined with paper.  Popped them in the oven at 350 for 40 minutes. 

Baking doesn't complete the job though, this is not yet the finished product.  It should look like a real dressed -up cupcake. 

Here they are  with mash potatoes topping.  I'm not great in putting on icing that they're really not looking that great like a cupcake should be.

"What's for dinner, Nana?", my granddaughter asked.

"Cupcake meatloaf", I replied. 

"Interesting!"

Interesting but it was not quite popular.  I learned my granddaughter doesn't eat meatloaf, though she ate one.   Moreover, when my daughter cooks at home, she fries the slices like any meatloaf, homemade or otherwise.  But to be fair, they taste good as well and so not a flop afterall. 

Well, they're not really looking nice like all cupcakes do.   "Better luck next time", they all say, but there won't be a next time, promise!  Well not cupcake meatloaf anyway.  Im going back to my traditional meatloaf method and recipe.