Healthy Boomer Lifestyles

Eating Well To Reduce Stress In Midlife

When you are worried about your finances, health or relationship you can feel overwhelmed and completely stressed out.  Your nutrition and health are often taken for granted.  We tend to eat poorly and grab quick, unhealthy foods when we are stressed or overwhelmed.  Not only is nutrition sacrificed, stress hormones release high amounts of insulin, resulting in stored fat and weight gain. 

Obviously, avoiding stress will solve this, but is not always possible in today’s world.  When we are overwhelmed, the best thing to do is to simplify as much as you can and to prioritize.  Health should be a top priority during stressful times. 

These tips and suggestions can help you simplify your nutrition by eating healthy, convenient foods.

•  Drinkable yogurt's meet nearly 20% of our protein requirements, are good sources of fiber and calcium, and are perfect snacks to grab on the go.

• Stock your purse, briefcase, backpack or car with bags of mixed nuts and dried fruit for a quick snack that is full of healthy, cholesterol-lowering fats, fiber, and iron, and also tastes great and has staying power.

• If you can, anticipate busy times and pre-cook healthy meals that you can portion into separate meals, refrigerate and reheat for a healthy dinner.

• Choose fast-food restaurants such as burrito places and fresh markets that offer healthier alternatives.  Avoid fried foods that are high in trans fats and choose baked or grilled options such as a grilled chicken sandwich and a side salad. \

• Avoid empty calories in candy, sodas, sweet teas and energy drinks.  Stock your workplace, kitchen and or your car with easy-to-eat foods listed below. 

Convenient, healthy foods are:

• Fruits that don’t need preparation such as apples, bananas, plums, peaches and grapes 

• Veggies such as baby carrots, edamame (baby soy beans), celery sticks, radishes, cherry or grape tomatoes and pre-packaged salads

• Drinkable and regular yogurt

• Trail mixes

• Nuts (almonds and walnuts pack the most health benefits)

• Low-fat microwave popcorn

• Nature’s Valley granola bars (avoid high-sugar “granola bars”)

• Dried fruit

• Instant oatmeal packets (just add hot water from your office’s coffee area)

• Pretzels with peanut butter already in them

• Water, water, water! 

To learn more about staying healthy in midlife go to www.healthylivingandbalance.com.

Recommended Reading to Assist Midlife Transition

Marianne Williamson, Embracing the New Midlife: The Age of Miracle.

Midlife is not a crisis; it’s a time of rebirth. In our ability to rethink our lives lies our greatest power to change them. What we have called “middle age” need not be seen as a turning point toward death. It can be viewed as a magical turning point toward life as we’ve never known it, if we allow ourselves the power of an independent imagination—thought-forms that don’t flow in a perfunctory manner from ancient assumptions merely handed down to us, but rather flower into new archetypal images of a humanity just getting started at 45 or 50. Click here to order.

Gail Sheehy, Understanding Men's Passages: Discovering the New Map of Men's Lives

The years after 40 offer men a "second adulthood," declares Sheehy, a chance to reinvent themselves. But first they must shift from competing to connecting, from incessant striving for external rewards to a quest for inner fulfillment through meaningful pursuits, after determining what they really want of the second half of their lives. In a constructive, enlightening guide to self-discovery for men and their partners, the author of Passages and New Passages uses 100 male interviewees, case histories and medical and psychological research to probe men's feelings about death, spiritual hollowness, empty nest syndrome, separation anxieties, their envy of their empowered working wives, pre-retirement jitters and waning sexual potency. Click here to order.

Hello! Are You Listening to Your Life?

Hello, Are You Listening to Your Life?

--Are you yearning to make change in your life but find it overwhelming?
--Do you continue to work at a job that drains your very soul?
--Are you fearful of doing what you most desire to do?

Listen you will be told what to do.

There is always a particular moment when you clearly know you need to change your life. That desire for change is like a grain of sand in a shoe, imperceptible at first but grinding away until it becomes the only thing you notice. Your instinct is to dismiss the feelings. Saying, “I can tough this out “or “it could be worse”.

Often we find it easier to recognize the emotions and feeling of others but nearly impossible to recognize our own needs and yearnings. Why is this?

By midlife, after years of loss, comprise, denial, and fear we loose track of our “true self” and the dreams we had. We often struggle, letting go of what does not serve our highest needs.

The ego has great difficulty letting go of anything and will defend itself with great intensity. The truth is we must let go of who we are in order to become who we want to be. Gregory Levoy, author of Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic life says, “Sometimes we hear the calling but fear what will be demanded of us if we respond to the ‘call’.”

Our lives speak through our actions and reactions, our intuitions and instincts, our feelings and our words. If we can learn to listen, read our own responses, we will receive the guidance we need.

You must slow down to hear the “calling”, as to why you need to change your career, leave or start a relationship, go back to school, move to another part of the country, have a child or sell your house and travel.

Wake-up calls come in many ways to point us toward action.
They include:
--A dream that keeps coming back.
--A symptom in your body that reoccurs
--A song you hear that seems to be just for you
--A call from someone you need to hear from
--A book that falls into your lap
--An  emotional issue that keeps reappearing
--A letter or a phone call to do volunteer work

These wake-up calls stimulate your intuition; encourage you to ask deeper questions and to seek the answers. This process is a gateway into the deepest layers of your soul.

Some people do listen to the message, take the risk, and change their lives!

As we move into a new year, we all are being moved to a higher frequency. This shift will call upon each one of us to become more attuned and sensitive to our soul’s purpose. You will be shedding old stuck beliefs that are no longer working and releasing old wounds and resentments, so that you can step into you authentic power. When will you begin the journey that will take you there?

Life Strategies for Making Changes in Life and Work

Joyce's live presentation will give you Five Practical Strategies that will help you immediately make permanent change in your life and work.  Get clarity, take on new direction and take action on what you've been putting off for years.  Complete with lecture handout and exercises to help you answer the critical question: "How do I make lasting change in my life".  Read more about what you will learn here http://www.healthylivingandbalance.com/life_strategies.php

Finding and Living Your Authentic Life: Embracing Your Soul’s Calling in Midlife

Finding and Living Your Authentic Life: Embracing Your Soul’s Calling in Midlife
A one-day workshop with Carolyn Dott, PhD and Joyce Dillon, RN, MN on Saturday, April 5, 2008 at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, Atlanta,GA. Don’t miss this transformational program. Click here for more information. Early Bird Discount ends March 5, 2008.