Joan’s Boomer Blog

When I first thought of creating this website for baby boomers, I wanted to help people over 50 create multiple streams of income to supplement their retirement. This is what I’m doing for myself and I know finances are a huge issue for those facing retirement. However, when I stopped to think about it, there are many issues specific to baby boomers: health and fitness after 50, seeing our own parents, if we’re lucky enough to still have them, get older and frailer, while our children are moving away from us to lives of their own (hopefully!). I know that others over 50 are still trying, as I am, to decide “what I’m going to be when I grow up” while all the time realizing that the years left to us are not unlimited.

When we’re young, time stretches before us, sometimes too much so. We look forward to getting married, having children, our next vacation or our next promotion. We’re always looking ahead and life, with all its problems, is pretty good because there’s always the hope that with all our tomorrows, something magic could still happen for us.

I think most everyone has a dream tucked away inside, something they’d like to do someday, something they plan to do someday or something that just makes them feel good to think they might do. A day comes though when you first think “Gee, I’m really too old to do that now.” That’s the day when you can either begin to feel depressed about getting older or you can find a new dream.

I think somewhere in our 40’s we realize, as my sister once told me, “I’ll never be a rock star.” Somehow, time has flown past us while we were busy making other plans and we begin to see things from the perspective of the second half of our lives. The questions we ask ourselves become different. We assess our health, realizing that now we’re paying for all that fast food or sitting at a desk all day with no exercise. We see sags and bags where there were none before and we feel aches and pains, seemingly everywhere as our bodies let us down.

Statistics are showing that most of us baby boomers WILL live to be 80-90 years old. For some that is a delightful prospect but for others, like my own father who suffers from arthritic hips at 84 years old, that the days can stretch long and be full of pain.

I grew up on a farm in southern Oregon. We raised our own food and my mom preserved it. We had no toxic substances in our food, air and water. As years passed, I probably drank too much alcohol, ate too many burgers and fries and worked with very little sleep too many times. By my 40’s I was somewhat overweight, depressed and stressed out. I had allergies and was beginning to suffer from osteoarthritis. I’d worked in conventional medicine and believed in pills as a remedy for everything but pills were no longer working.

In my late 40’s, I decided a change was in order. I loved to cook so I made healthier meals for our family. I loved to walk and had always done so off and on, but I became religious about it. I began studying vitamins and their uses, reading books on health and self-improvement and studying alternative remedies. Over time, my health became better. I rarely ever get a cold and my allergies are gone. My husband and I are now both in our late 50’s and take no medications or suffer from any conditions.

I’d always wanted to be a writer (that was the dream I had tucked inside) and about the time I turned 50, I got the chance to be a freelance journalist and write articles for newspapers, both online and in print, and articles for  various magazines. I created my own health & wellness website (one of my multiple streams of income). I found some healthy living products that I believed in to use and promote as part of my other streams of income. In bringing all this together, it occurred to me that I could help others do the same thing.

What I would like anyone over 50 reading this is: No matter what shape you are in right now in the major areas of your life, mind, body and spirit, no matter if your finances aren’t what you’d like and you have health problems to deal with, the second half of your life CAN be better, more fulfilling and more meaningful.

I welcome all questions and comments, or ideas for future posts. Click here to send me a comment or question.

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