Tips for Your Boomer Years

Who is John Galt? Get Your T Shirt & Bumper Sticker Today

Who is John Galt? This is the opening line of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged and throughout the book, this question is asked and that question is being asked again today when we could use a  John Galt. I read Atlas Shrugged many years ago and over those years, it has popped into my head hundreds of times. What’s funny is that I’ve begun seeing “Who is John Galt?” bumper stickers and t shirts popping up too.

Written in 1957, Atlas Shrugged asks the question “What if all the creative minds went on strike?” As socialism and socialistic ideas destroyed people and society, it stole people’s will to take care of themselves and turned them into users, always demanding more from those providing it. The individual capitalist, the businessman is used to support the rotten system but reviled and hated at the same time.  John Galt steps in and persuades the thinkers, the businessmen and the doers to just leave and let the system fall so they can step back in and rebuild it.

Ayn Rand grew up in Russia during the Revolution and saw the rise of Communism there. Her books, like Atlas Shrugged, the Fountainhead and We the Living, all grew out of her experiences and her belief in Capitolism. If you haven’t read Atlas Shrugged, I’d highly recommend it. See if you can find parallels to our life today.

The first time I saw a “Who is John Galt” bumper sticker, I couldn’t help thinking how relevant that question is today. My next thought was “I want a John Galt bumper sticker AND a John Galt t shirt.” Strangely enough, a good friend of mine sent me a link to the John Galt Gift Store.

This website offers John Galt t shirts, John Galt bumper stickers and anything John Galt, as well as memorabilia for other Ayn Rand books such as the Fountainhead and We the Living. You can get a Reardon Steel t shirt or a Howard Roark t shirt.

Reading all the quotes on the t shirts and bumper stickers, brought back memories of what I liked about Ayn Rand’s books. My daughter is an architect so she’s getting a Howard Roark t shirt that says, “The question is not who is going to let me, but who is going to stop me.”

If you remember John Galt, check out the John Galt Gift Store.

Anti Aging Review - Younger Next Year

I bought the book, Younger Next Year for Women Live Like You’re 50 - Strong, Fit, Sexy - Until You’re 80 and Beyond -

Younger Next Year

about 3 years ago and it is by far the most motivating book on diet and exercise that I’ve ever read. I read it cover to cover in a few sittings and made some antiaging fitness changes to my life.

After reading Younger Next Year, I joined the YMCA and started taking fitness classes and I increased my daily walk to one hour, using a wrist watch heart monitor to track my heart rate. I lost 15 pounds and went from a size 10 to a size 8. I was thrilled!

However, like anything else, I found myself slipping. I still go to the Y and have started taking yoga classes too but I decided to get out Younger Next Year and re-read it for more anti aging motivation.

Authors Chris Crowley and Dr. Henry S. Lodge, MD, advocate exercise and lots of it to ward off the effects of aging and decay. As they say, aging is mandatory in life but decaying is not! Seventy percent (or even more according to some experts) of how well we age is due to our own lifestyle choices! Think of that! Would you like to be energetic, mentally alert and healthy until you die? Even if you die at 100 years of age? I believe if you follow the Younger Next Year program, you can achieve that goal of a healthy old age.

If you’re over age 50, then fitness after 50 is essential! Either move or rot, as the authors tell us. There is lots of great advice in this book too on how to eat - not dieting to lose weight either - that gives lots of motivation to drop the “crap” that is not good for us and our health.

This book really changed many things in my life - changes I’ve stuck with, like the exercise classes. I have to admit I did let a few pounds creep up over the past year so I’m back to the program. I truly believe that eating a good diet and exercising are the key to anti-aging health. I am approaching 60 this year and my heart, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar are ultra-healthy. I feel energetic and mentally alert.

To keep me motivated to do a little more, I purchased a pedometer to count my 10,000 steps a day. If you hit the treadmill for about 45 minutes a day, you have no trouble getting your steps in either.

If you’re looking for motivation on your quest for fitness after 50, then I highly recommend Younger Next Year to help you along.

There is also a Younger Next Year for Men and a Younger Next Year Journal: Start Now and Live the Promise Day-by-Day too.

More information on the Younger Next Year program and to join their community.

I watched Wayne Dyer on the PBS station talking about his new book, Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits. This 3 hour presentation was a perfect way to begin my new year. Manyu Baby Boomers have excuses for not achieving their goals based on age. Are you using any of these excuses for not creating a better life:

• It will take too long - At my age, I don’t have time!
• It will be too late to change now
• I’ve always been this way
• It’s too risky to try at may age

Louise Hay wrote her first inspirational book at age 61. Wayne Dyer himself is in his late 60’s and still speaking, writing and motivating people. What is too old anyway? As for being too late - do you plan to die tomorrow? If you don’t, then it’s never too late to live a better life for whatever years you have left?

I think seniors especially need to read Excuses Begone. You may have spent your entire life making excuses for not achieving what you want in life and by now, after multiple failures in life, you believe it’s not possible to change now and live a better life.

What do you want to achieve in the new year? Do you have a medical issue you want to heal? Do you want to retire? Do you want to volunteer more and work less? Would you like to lose weight, write a book, have a more loving relationship with your family? All these things are possible if you get rid of the excuses that have been holding you back.

In his book, Wayne Dyer goes over the 18 most common excuses, sent to him by his readers, people like you. He goes over each one and helps you look at the excuse, and your thoughts about it, in an entirely new way. Using this new perspective, Dyer offers a plan for you to over come the excuses and achieve whatever goals you may have.

One of Wayne Dyer’s books, 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace, literally changed my life, helping me to be happier and have more loving relationships in my life. That was the first of his books that I read and since then, I’ve read all the others. They’ve helped me to set out a plan for my life and achieve what I think is important for my happiness.

The Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Make your first step reading Excuses Begone and you can then lay out a blueprint for the rest of your journey to the life you’d really like to live. At our age, we don’t have a single day to waste on excuses!

Want to retire and live the RV lifestyle? Full time RVing can be a rewarding way to spend retirement,

Support Your RV Lifestyle by Jaimie Hall

filled with fun and adventure. My husband and I are planning for full time RV living as soon as he retires in a year or so. Although people of all ages would love to live the RV life, retirees and others also need to make money on the road. Believe it or not, there are many ways to so this.

When we began our search for ways to support full time RVing, I purchased Jaimie Hall’s book Support Your RV Lifestyle! An Insider’s Guide to Working on the Road, 2nd Edition I highly recommend this book at a great RV lifestyle resource. Jaimie interviewed full time RVers for over 10 years and put together their tips and advice for working on the road.

It’s possible to take your job with you using her recommendations and resources. First, you need to evaluate how much money you need to make, what sorts of qualifications you already have for making money on the road and setting goals for yourself.

Hall covers setting up your own business that you can take with you while RVing, like writing, or how to find jobs at campsites, state parks or through tourism bureaus or temporary or seasonal work for RVers. She even has a section on managing your RV expenses and lifestyle considerations which are taken from stories told to Hall by other RVers.

The resources for those who want to live the RV lifestyle are worth the price of the book. Get a complete listing of state parks and tourism offices, tax information, grocery shopping and budget work sheets, websites for job searches, budgeting, using computers on the road, how to do a job search for the type of job you want, how to get hired at parks or resorts and so much more! I refer to this book again and again in our planning.

Since I like to write, I am already planning an RV blog about our travels. If you’d like to make money blogging about your experiences or some aspect of the RV lifestyle, visit the The Niche Blogger - a terrific resource that I used to help me set up my five money-making blogs. The Niche Blogger is a subscription site but you can learn all you need to learn in about 3 months of the subscription. You can cancel at any time and keep reusing the information to set up more blogs.

Jaimie Hall also has a free ezine and blog about her RV lifestyle experiences.

At present, my husband and I are RV shopping and downsizing our possessions so we can hit the road in another year. I’ll keep you posted on our progress.

I love to get creative at holiday time and one way to be creative and save money too is to make my

Gifts from the Kitchen

Here’s one of my favorite gifts to give from my kitchen - these Holiday Spiced Nuts. Everybody on my gift list loves them and they are also a hit at our annual family Christmas party. Seniors on your gift list will love the idea that you made this gift yourself.

Ingredients for Holiday Spiced Nuts

1 c whole almonds
1 c blanched peanuts
1 c sugar
1/4 c butter or margarine
1-1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 tsp Cinnamon (6 oz)
1/2 tsp Allspice
1/2 tsp Ginger
1/2 tsp salt, if desired

Directions

Using a heavy skillet, cook all ingredients over medium heat, stirring frequently until sugar is melted and has turned a golden brown – about 15 minutes.

Stir to make sure all nuts are evenly coated, then spread them out on waxed paper and let them cool.

Break these holiday spiced nuts into clusters of 2 or 3 nuts each.

This recipe yields about 3 cups.

Wrap in food grade plastic and tie with a holiday ribbon and give as a gift or add to a foodie gift basket.