​It is hard to believe that we are entering the sixth month of the year. Where has the time gone? If you are over 50 you have probably asked yourself, where have the years gone? Our brains interpret time differently as we get older. When we are young, days go on and on and when you are over 50 the days get shorter and shorter. Time hasn't changed, we have. Our perceptions of time have changed.

People are living longer and healthier nowadays. Just as our brains start to interpret time differently, we start to interpret our age differently. If we were not flooded with commercials directed towards old age and if we saw more older people represented in positive ways in the media, we might have a different attitude towards getting older. I say it's time to write our own commercials and seek our own representation. 

There are lots of famous people who are over 50, over 60, over 70 and beyond. They are living full and happy lives, but if you listen to the media if you are over 50 you should be slowing down, consider retiring, make room for younger people, and just plain disappear. Look at the presidential campaigns.  Sixteen out of the twenty original nominees (both Democratic and Republican) were over the age of fifty. 

Here's how they roll:
    4 are in their 50s
    9 are in their 60s
    3 are in their 70s
    (only 4 are in their 40s)

The top two candidates are both over fifty - Hillary Clinton is 69; Donald Trump is 70 (and for the record, Bernie Sanders is 75 years old). Tack a four-year term to that and all of them are well into their 70s and one of them will be running a country! That is inspirational!

Now consider that most of our past presidents were sworn into office when they were well over the age of 50. 

Here are a few:

    Obama - 2013:  50 years 5.6 mos.
    Obama - 2009:  46 years 5.6 mos.
    Bush - 2005:  58 years 6.5 mos.
    Bush - 2001:  54 years 6.5 mos.
    Clinton - 1997:  50 years 5.1 mos.
    Clinton - 1993:  46 years 5.1 mos.
    Bush - 1989:  64 years 7.3 mos.
    Reagan -1985:  73 years 11.5 mos.
    Reagan - 1981:  69 years 11.5 mos.
    Carter - 1977:  52 years 3.7 mos.
    Ford - 1974:  61 years 0.9 mos.

During a  campaign debate in 1984 with Sen. Walter Mondale, a 73 year old President Ronald Reagan,  boldly declared,
     "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."  

Getting older is a fact of life, we have to face that fact. We don't, however, have to adopt the attitude towards age that Hollywood and the media presents. The only person who has control on how old you feel and act is YOU! You hold all the keys. Fight back, don't accept old age, do all you can to live each day as full and complete as possible.

One of my favorite sayings is "Growing older, but not up". (☺)

Would you be willing to take on the responsibilities of President of the United States if you thought you could win an election? How do you feel about being over fifty and your value to the world? Do you let a number dictate how you feel? How young do you feel? Set your life on fire!

XOXO

​As I have stated before, I have always been able to eat anything. My favorite foods are hot and spicy. So when I found this product at Trader Joe's I couldn't resist giving it a try. Let me tell you, this stuff is exactly what the label claims - HOT and SWEET.
I tried it on toast, on a biscuit, and then a spoonful all by itself. I do not recommend a spoonful all by itself.
 
This stuff is really hot, I think it has to do with the pepper seeds in the jam. The sweet flavor is good, but it is over powered by the hot flavor. It is far better on a biscuit than on bread or alone.  Trader Joe suggests eating with brie or cream cheese. I tried it with cream cheese on a wheat cracker. The cheese helped tone it down a bit, but it was still really hot and spicy.

Here are the details:
⦁    Ingredients are: cane sugar, apple cider vinegar, water, dried garlic, crushed red pepper, pectin, and salt.
⦁    Made for Trader Joe's by  a small, family-owned company and sold exclusively at Trader Joe's
⦁    Trader Joe's sells a 13 oz jar for $2.99
⦁    A serving of 2 Tbsp has 100 calories with 5 fat calories

This is really good jam regardless of the heat of the peppers. However, unless you like really, really hot and spicy foods, you should steer clear of this one. Also, if your stomach is sensitive to hot and spicy foods, then this is not for you. I want to stress that this stuff is hot and spicy.

I like hot and spicy, so I will enjoy it again in the future, but it is not something I will eat everyday. With the first bite, I said to myself - Whoa, I can't eat this, it's way too hot...but then it grew on me and I started wanting it. (Just keep a glass of milk handy to cool down your mouth....😊).

Can you eat hot and spicy foods? Have you found as you get older, your stomach tolerates less and less spicy and hot foods? Have you ever eaten anything so hot and so spicy your mouth literally burned? 

XOXO

My whole life I have always eaten exactly what I wanted and never had any issues. I ate spicy food without any problems and I ate it at any time of the day or night. Now that I am older, I have finally found my limitation.

For a few weeks at the end of January and the first part of February I was ill with a serious sinus infection.  Normally, if I get sick with something like this, I take an antibiotic and allergy medication and within a few days I am good as new. I hardly ever get sick (or least I haven't in the past), but this little infection ended up lasting over  two months and included three doctor visits and two rounds of antibiotics.
As a result of the double round of antibiotics, I got heartburn for the first time in my life after eating Mexican food. I didn't know what it was - my sister helped me determine what I had. I then thought, how do I prevent that pain again? I did some research and found that antibiotics not only destroy the bad bacteria in your body, it destroys the good, as well. The good bacteria in your gut is what helps you digest foods without  problems.
So, after two rounds of antibiotics, I basically had no good bacteria left in my gut, hence the heartburn. Let me tell you, it was very painful.

After I did my research, I bought a probiotic in  capsule form. After taking it for about a week, I felt the difference. I slowly started eating more and more foods with more and more spice. It has put me back to my normal state. I intend to take probiotics for a while longer and then make yogurt or kefir a part of my regular diet.

What is a probiotic? 
    "Probiotics are live bacteria and yeasts that are good for your health, especially your digestive system. We usually think of bacteria as something that causes diseases. But your body is full of bacteria, both good and bad. Probiotics are often called "good" or "helpful" bacteria because they     help keep your gut healthy. Probiotics are naturally found in your body. You can also find them in some foods and supplements."
   - Mary Jo DiLonardo,  http://wb.md/MqQx1A

What kind did I take? 
⦁    Saccharomyces boulardii lyo (Florastor) 
⦁    Another good one, but one that I did not take is:  Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (Culturelle)
 (Disclaimer: This is not a recommendation. Only you can decide what probiotic, if any, you need to take. I made this decision only for myself based on my own research and symptoms.) 

As we age, our bodies change, even if we don't easily see it. If you know your body, then you know what is normal and what is not. I knew something was not right with my gut, I just couldn't put my finger on it until I did my research.

So, are probiotics important after taking anitbiotics? Yes! You may not need a capsule, you may only need a cup of yogurt now and then, only you know your own body. But consider the fact, that the word anti-biotic means anti-life and the word pro-biotic means pro-life. If antibiotics kill good bacteria in your gut, it certainly can't hurt anything to add probiotics back in through your diet or a supplement. (You may want to consult your doctor before you add a supplement into your diet.)

Consider this next time your reach for the antacid after antibiotic treatment. Maybe what you really need is a probiotic. (My gut is back to normal and I can once again eat anything I want with no problems. 😊)

Do you suffer from heartburn? Have you ever considered a probiotic instead of an antacid? If you did, how did it work for you? As you get older, do you find things bothering your digestive system that never have before? Join or start the conversation so we all may learn how to better take care of ourselves.
​
XOXO

It has been said that loneliness can be felt even when you are surrounded by people. You can be surrounded by family, friends, loved ones and still feel alone.

"When marrying, ask yourself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this person into your old age? Everything else in marriage is transitory."
  -  Friedrich Nietzsche, German Philosopher -

When you marry, you marry because you think the other person will add to your life. You think that the other person will provide companionship, acceptance, and love. Yet, there are many, many people who are married in name only. They didn't start out that way, but they ended up that way. How does this happen?

It happens because promises are broken, because people hide their true selves from one another while courting or early in the marriage, and because people change. But mostly it happens because one of them or maybe both of them start taking the other for granted. They don't put into the relationship the same energy they started it with. If couples treated each other with the same level of love, respect, and interest that they had when they first met and married, neither of them would ever feel loneliness again.

Even when one of the marriage partners has a memory disease, such as dementia, if the kindness and care is still there between them, the ill partner does better. If the other partner ignores or just does the duty of a spouse, the ill partner does not do so well. If the ill partner feels alone while also going through the dementia or other illness, it compounds their separation from reality. 

I have known two cases that demonstrate this quite well. One woman had full blown Alzheimer's, was loved by family, never left alone, never put in a nursing home and was cherished. She did well, lived longer than expected and was easier to manage. The other woman was ill with dementia and while her husband was alive, did okay. When her husband passed away and she was alone, their was no one to fill that gap. Her children were too busy with their own lives to give her the attention she needed and thus, she suffered more, was harder to manage, and eventually died alone while living in a nursing home. 

Married couples need to  take care of each other and that is more than just paying the electric bill or buying food. It's more than sleeping in the same house. There needs to be that extra level of concern that is expressed by asking questions and showing interest: Have you been to the doctor lately, honey? Let's go out tonight for fun, where would you like to go?  How did your day go?  Let's watch a movie together, I'll pop the corn. What movie would you like? 

It's also talking about significant things and expressing thoughts. Not just listening and then saying yes or no at the appropriate times. It's being an active participant in the conversation. Maybe it's politics, maybe it's the grown children or the grandchildren, maybe it's where do we want to go on vacation next year? Many couples go through days and days without saying a word to each other, except the casual - would you like some coffee? breakfast? 

Sometimes when asked a question, instead of responding with yes or no, they only give a sound, like "well," or "ugh". The communication is dying and no one is willing to give it CPR. This is death to a marriage and creates loneliness where love should live.

When you commit to someone and begin to build a home with them, you should continue to invest in that relationship at the same level that you did when dating. Slacking off is cruel and dangerous. There are many marriages that end in later years of life and after many, many years of marriage simply because communication between the partners has died. There is no stimulation, no interaction, no growth. One day you may be the one left alone clinging to either good memories of your spouse or regrets of time wasted.

"Marriage is not a noun; it's a verb.
It isn't something you get, it's something you do.
It's the way you love your partner every day."
- Barbara De Angelis

Just because we grow older doesn't mean we should forget those things we loved when we were younger. It doesn't mean that we just occupy space in the same house together but share nothing. You can be married and  still love each other a great deal and still be lonely. 
Sometimes that type of loneliness is the hardest to take.

Are you married and still have good communication with your spouse? Are you divorced and was a lack of communication the problem? Are you surrounded by family and friends and still feel a lone?

XOXO