Yes, sometimes I talk to myself in public. Some would
call this insanity, but I call it writing a column.
Columns
are the way I lecture myself and of course, you too. Together we learn to up
our Vitamin D, check out our blood pressure and note the salt content of prepared
foods such as pizza before we scarf down a day’s salt limit in one encounter
with pepperoni.
So here’s another of those self-lectures---this
one about how to stay independent, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed into the years
ahead.
First,
the bad news from a study at the University of Pittsburgh. Women are living longer than men, but
some of them aren’t living better. Women who gained weight over the years and
women with arthritis are more likely than other women to be disabled in their
later years.
Translation: Being disabled can mean needing help
from our children, the ones we say we don’t want to bother in our old age.
Being disabled can also mean we miss a lot of family fun. Example: If we are obese
to the waddle point, we are not going to take nature walks our grandkids. And
forget travel. On most trips, we have to be able to get up and keep up. And I don’t
know about you, but I don’t want to stay home sitting in my decliner, watching
Golden Girl re-runs while I miss out on seeing the rest of the world.
Trying for Better As Well As Longer
The experts at the University of Pittsburgh expect
things to get worse unless we get smarter. Obesity rates are still rising which
will translate into rising disability rates. This trend will have an enormous
impact on the quality of life of older women. So can you say expensive in-home care? Can you say nursing
home?
To be fair, skilled nursing facilities can be a
godsend and despite the stereotype, some of them are well-run. (Aside: check
out the turnover rate of the facility’s staff. If they are in and out fast, you
should be too. However, if they remain on the job, it may mean they and their patients
are well-treated.) Still, a
nursing home is not the upbeat mental picture most of us want to have about our
old age.
So let me ask: What’s the five-star movie in your
head about being 60, 70. 80, 90 and 100?
Mine involves a much thinner woman, one whose
joints are not aggravated by the weight she puts on them. She is folk dancing
on the terrace of Nepenthe in Big Sur.
She is waltzing at the weddings of great grand kids. She is still
writing columns hoping to preach herself into good behavior.
And I hope you dance along with me.