Longevity beckons to boomers! We're looking for something to keep our minds alert and our bodies strong. My eyes have been drawn to chocolate and cookbooks and yes, in that order.
John Robbins is a best selling author of a number of books including Healthy at 100, and he wrote the foreword in a friend of a friend's cookbook "Health By Chocolate". He speaks of the wonderful mood-enhancing phytochemicals in chocolate that benefit both body and mind.
As I grab for a piece of 70% fair trade dark chocolate, I remember that little gem. "Mmmm chocolate, this is going to make me happy today." My voice sounds oddly like Homer Simpson, when he says "doughnuts"!
The fantasizing begins as I flip through "Health By Chocolate" by Victoria Laine. Wonderful pictures of chocolate creations (ALL GOOD FOR ME!) and recipes which the author promotes as "health benefits with guilt-free pleasure". The "Double Double" Chocolate Fudge Brownie recipe has me roped in and I begin sounding like Liz Lemon from 30 Rock as I stare at the chocolate creation on the page, "I want to go to there...."
www.healthbychocolatebook.com
I grab for another piece of chocolate. This time it's a piece off the Licorice Manuka Honey Chocolate Truffle bar I have recently purchased. It was a toss up between the licorice or the mint chocolate. Both are excellent from ZibaDel Natural. The outer wrapper says "Happiness Guaranteed" ! For a supplier near you, go to www.zibadel.com
Snapping back to reality, I open the Saturday paper and see another cookbook worth checking out. This one is an e-cookbook and is available as a download. MINDfull co-authored by Carol Greenwood and Daphna Rabinovitch interweaves scientific facts about brain health with recipes that supposedly lower the likelihood of developing dementia.
If you would like to order the e-cookbook it's a $9.99 download from iTunes, Amazon, etc. Some of the proceeds go to support programs and services that promote excellence and innovations in aging and brain health. You will see more about Baycrest Health Sciences where research is ongoing at this link
www.baycrest.org
And now if you'll excuse me I must get back to my own research. I am looking into the benefits of eating dessert BEFORE dinner.
Tuesday 30 October 2012
Thursday 25 October 2012
Looking For Ways to Make Life Easier
I am always looking for ways to make my father's care home living easier. Dad is having trouble getting his shoes on and off, so today I went and got him some shoes that have Velcro instead of laces. Recently my mother bought him some bigger socks made for diabetics and they slip on and off his feet, easier. Dad doesn't have diabetes but the socks are better fitting.
Last week when I was having lunch with him I noticed that he wasn't drinking his fluids. I observed that his hand wasn't tipping the juice into his mouth. I promptly went and got him a straw and he finished the entire glass of juice in a very short time. I asked the staff to start giving him a straw when they serve him his cold beverages.
The dry erase board I purchased for him is handy for writing reminders and every time someone visits they change the date and write down events of the day. A guest book is useful as well but the memo board he can easily look at and see that today I brought him pumpkin pie and we went for a walk and tomorrow Mom will visit.
If your loved one has a cordless phone and has mobility issues, you can purchase a pouch that can go over the bars of their walker or wheel chair and the phone will always be handy for them and so will their television remote.
One of my clients had terrible eyesight and so I bought him one of those huge universal remotes from Staples so he could always find it and could use it on his own! As well, I got him one of those EASY buttons from Staples. It was a lot of fun for him (and for his visitors) to push the red button and hear "THAT WAS EASY!" and really, isn't that the name of the game these days?
Last week when I was having lunch with him I noticed that he wasn't drinking his fluids. I observed that his hand wasn't tipping the juice into his mouth. I promptly went and got him a straw and he finished the entire glass of juice in a very short time. I asked the staff to start giving him a straw when they serve him his cold beverages.
The dry erase board I purchased for him is handy for writing reminders and every time someone visits they change the date and write down events of the day. A guest book is useful as well but the memo board he can easily look at and see that today I brought him pumpkin pie and we went for a walk and tomorrow Mom will visit.
If your loved one has a cordless phone and has mobility issues, you can purchase a pouch that can go over the bars of their walker or wheel chair and the phone will always be handy for them and so will their television remote.
One of my clients had terrible eyesight and so I bought him one of those huge universal remotes from Staples so he could always find it and could use it on his own! As well, I got him one of those EASY buttons from Staples. It was a lot of fun for him (and for his visitors) to push the red button and hear "THAT WAS EASY!" and really, isn't that the name of the game these days?
Health Care Worker Appreciation Day
It's pouring rain today, but that didn't stop me from driving 45 minutes to visit my father in the care home. I made a stop first to pick up the Rogers Chocolates for the contest I had. You winners will be getting your prizes soon.
BTW, this is a fact: people drive faster in the rain! I heard a driving instructor say that on the radio the other day and as I was driving the highway and the danger of hydro-planing was real and present, sure enough I noticed that everyone was going a bit higher than the posted speed limit! I took my speed down a notch or two and drove in the slow lane with classical music playing on the radio. It was quite relaxing.
Anyway, back to the visit with my dad. He's pretty tired and it was easier to put him in a loaner wheelchair and push him around the garden than to have him accompany me with his walker. We did go for a bit of a drive in my car as well, but he fell asleep!
The workers at the care home were in good spirits. Actually, they are always in great moods. There's a good atmosphere there even though they have tough jobs! They all were given colorful pens from the management today and I got to take one too.
I stopped in at my mother's place and her junk mail was piling up and it gave me a great idea. After shredding any important personal info that I come across, and after making a few calls to the charities to see if they can stop their barrage of unwanted mail, I am going to give the rest to my father. I think he may actually enjoy opening something addressed to him. He can write on the free memo pads and he can stick the labels they give him on envelopes and he can even write on the Christmas cards.
I know there are charities out there that need donations but this unsolicited stuff that arrives in seniors' mailboxes is just too much! My father in law is going through the same thing, dealing with all the stuff arriving at his place now that my mother in law is in a care facility.
Anyway, that's it for my ramblings today! To summarize, don't drive fast in the rain, tell a health care worker you appreciate them, and get rid of unwanted charitable solicitations.
Tuesday 23 October 2012
Friday 12 October 2012
Everyone's a Winner!
Right after announcing my contest encouraging readers to write and tell me about someone they knew who had lived to be a ripe ol' age, I attended a Jazzercise class and saw a friend I hadn't seen for ages. Before the music started and we were warming up, I asked her to tell me about her father who I knew had lived into his 90's.
"He passed away at age 96" was her response.
I coaxed her, looking for more, "what do you think was the secret to his longevity?"
Without a second thought she spouted out "LOVE"!
"I believe my father stuck around so long because of his love for everything".
"He loved children, he loved nature, he loved animals, he loved me!"
Now both of us were teary eyed and as the music started and we began to march on the spot I asked "and what else, did he drink tea, did he drink coffee, any special diet?"
and she said enthusiastically, "well, come to think of it, he had a shot of espresso every day after age 90!"
Love and a strong shot of caffeine! I liked that answer! So, even though Linda didn't officially write to me and enter my contest, I am going to bring her some chocolate as a prize anyway.
As well, four readers submitted their stories and I have decided to give them all Rogers Chocolates, made right here in Victoria, Canada. The most detailed of the lot (Janna)gets the most deluxe prize, but all of you are winners and all responses will be published here on my blogspot beginning first with Janna's:
Almost a century ago, in 1917 to be exact, three small islands in the Caribbean by the names of St. John, St. Croix and St. Thomas, which had been under Danish sovereignty for the previous 300 years, were sold to the United States. These days huge cruise ships call in at Charlotte Amalie, the capital city of St.Thomas, but at the beginning of the last century when this story begins, visiting ships would have been merchantment and Danish Naval vessels, with the opportunity for the crew of those vessels to meet and mix with the residents of the city and their families. The head of one of those families and part of the Jewish community was a pharmacist by the name of Petit.
He had a daughter, Clara, whose last named suited her most admirably, for she was indeed petite in stature. At a dance given for visiting Naval officers she met, and was wooed by, my husband's great uncle, eventually coming to Denmark to become his bride.
Two generations later, I, another young island bride, this time from England, came to live in Copenhagen at a time when Great Aunt Clara, by then eighty-three, was the matriarch of the immediate Danish family. A dainty, dignified figure in what seemed like her unchanging outfit of a long black dress, set off by a high white lace collar that complemented the elegantly coiffed white hair atop her head. A tiny black velvet ribbon circling the neckline completed the picture of a lady whose appearance seemed frozen in time.
She was a Danish citizen, but when the infamous round-up of persons of Jewish origin took place in l943 during the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, she was subjected, with hundreds of other Jewish Danes, to the utter indignity of transportation in a cattle wagon to Teresienstadt, a concentration camp in German occupied Czechoslovakia. A camp remembered to-day not only for the totally inhuman conditions that prevailed there, but also for the fact that before International Red Cross inspectors were permitted to make their one and only visit to report on what they saw and experienced, the camp authorities were instructed to create a facade of normalcy by planting flowers, painting buildings and permitting some cultural activities for the benefit of the visitors. A facade behind which, when the Red Cross inspection was over, the brutality of every aspect of camp life was continuous, including the forced witnessing by the whole population of public executions of fellow prisoners. Two and one half years later, in May of 1945, Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces, and the return of concentration camp survivors to their homelands began.
I met Great Aunt Clara in the summer of 1946 and very soon learned from other family members that her horrific wartime experiences were never to be alluded to or spoken of. She lived, with her two unmarried daughters, in a spacious fifth floor apartment reached by a spiral staircase of the style of 1800's buildings before the advent of elevators.
The fact that she lived to be almost 101 years old just may be attributed, in part, to the exercise imposed by those stairs, in addition to her very firm will.
Readers of this story who would like to learn more of the camp/ghetto at Teresienstadt to gain some concept of what this little lady survived, will find all the information they need on "Google".
And submitted by Bill:
An uncle of mine lived to be a ripe old 92, probably because of no single factor but several.
Not an educated man, Uncle John was a good carpenter. He built houses - one a year. He'd begin building in the spring, by fall the house was finished. In November he would go deer-hunting for a week or two and for the rest of the winter it seemed he more or less hibernated.
Later in life I learned that he would often walk the neighbourhood; sometimes on his meanderings he would, finding an old bicycle left out for the trash vehicle to pick up, take it home and work on it over the winter... come spring he would sell it.
Uncle John read the newspaper every day; he enjoyed a particular columnist and would write him a letter from time to time; occasionally his letter would be published.
But more important than his simple lifestyle, it was a deep and abiding love relationship between him and Aunt Norma that gave his life longevity...but also, in a way, ended it. He was approaching his 90's the last time I went to visit them. As we sat chatting I could not help but be impressed by them holding hands while telling me how they had worked together on the lovely needlepoint picture they showed me. She died the following year and he, sick with loneliness, died a year later.
From Dana:
Both of my Great Aunts lived to 91. They were the oldest ever in our family where the average age of passing seems to be 66. I put it down to having LOVE and SUPPORT when they needed it and a sense of humour. Auntie always said it was her Mum's stodgy puddings. Or, it could be that I gave them some crystals that had healing properties one year at Christmas. Aunty swore that they worked!
From Susan:
I had a grandfather who lived to 95!
I think he lived so long because he had a great sense of humour and loved to golf.
He played golf until the very last year of his life!
"He passed away at age 96" was her response.
I coaxed her, looking for more, "what do you think was the secret to his longevity?"
Without a second thought she spouted out "LOVE"!
"I believe my father stuck around so long because of his love for everything".
"He loved children, he loved nature, he loved animals, he loved me!"
Now both of us were teary eyed and as the music started and we began to march on the spot I asked "and what else, did he drink tea, did he drink coffee, any special diet?"
and she said enthusiastically, "well, come to think of it, he had a shot of espresso every day after age 90!"
Love and a strong shot of caffeine! I liked that answer! So, even though Linda didn't officially write to me and enter my contest, I am going to bring her some chocolate as a prize anyway.
As well, four readers submitted their stories and I have decided to give them all Rogers Chocolates, made right here in Victoria, Canada. The most detailed of the lot (Janna)gets the most deluxe prize, but all of you are winners and all responses will be published here on my blogspot beginning first with Janna's:
Almost a century ago, in 1917 to be exact, three small islands in the Caribbean by the names of St. John, St. Croix and St. Thomas, which had been under Danish sovereignty for the previous 300 years, were sold to the United States. These days huge cruise ships call in at Charlotte Amalie, the capital city of St.Thomas, but at the beginning of the last century when this story begins, visiting ships would have been merchantment and Danish Naval vessels, with the opportunity for the crew of those vessels to meet and mix with the residents of the city and their families. The head of one of those families and part of the Jewish community was a pharmacist by the name of Petit.
He had a daughter, Clara, whose last named suited her most admirably, for she was indeed petite in stature. At a dance given for visiting Naval officers she met, and was wooed by, my husband's great uncle, eventually coming to Denmark to become his bride.
Two generations later, I, another young island bride, this time from England, came to live in Copenhagen at a time when Great Aunt Clara, by then eighty-three, was the matriarch of the immediate Danish family. A dainty, dignified figure in what seemed like her unchanging outfit of a long black dress, set off by a high white lace collar that complemented the elegantly coiffed white hair atop her head. A tiny black velvet ribbon circling the neckline completed the picture of a lady whose appearance seemed frozen in time.
She was a Danish citizen, but when the infamous round-up of persons of Jewish origin took place in l943 during the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, she was subjected, with hundreds of other Jewish Danes, to the utter indignity of transportation in a cattle wagon to Teresienstadt, a concentration camp in German occupied Czechoslovakia. A camp remembered to-day not only for the totally inhuman conditions that prevailed there, but also for the fact that before International Red Cross inspectors were permitted to make their one and only visit to report on what they saw and experienced, the camp authorities were instructed to create a facade of normalcy by planting flowers, painting buildings and permitting some cultural activities for the benefit of the visitors. A facade behind which, when the Red Cross inspection was over, the brutality of every aspect of camp life was continuous, including the forced witnessing by the whole population of public executions of fellow prisoners. Two and one half years later, in May of 1945, Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces, and the return of concentration camp survivors to their homelands began.
I met Great Aunt Clara in the summer of 1946 and very soon learned from other family members that her horrific wartime experiences were never to be alluded to or spoken of. She lived, with her two unmarried daughters, in a spacious fifth floor apartment reached by a spiral staircase of the style of 1800's buildings before the advent of elevators.
The fact that she lived to be almost 101 years old just may be attributed, in part, to the exercise imposed by those stairs, in addition to her very firm will.
Readers of this story who would like to learn more of the camp/ghetto at Teresienstadt to gain some concept of what this little lady survived, will find all the information they need on "Google".
And submitted by Bill:
An uncle of mine lived to be a ripe old 92, probably because of no single factor but several.
Not an educated man, Uncle John was a good carpenter. He built houses - one a year. He'd begin building in the spring, by fall the house was finished. In November he would go deer-hunting for a week or two and for the rest of the winter it seemed he more or less hibernated.
Later in life I learned that he would often walk the neighbourhood; sometimes on his meanderings he would, finding an old bicycle left out for the trash vehicle to pick up, take it home and work on it over the winter... come spring he would sell it.
Uncle John read the newspaper every day; he enjoyed a particular columnist and would write him a letter from time to time; occasionally his letter would be published.
But more important than his simple lifestyle, it was a deep and abiding love relationship between him and Aunt Norma that gave his life longevity...but also, in a way, ended it. He was approaching his 90's the last time I went to visit them. As we sat chatting I could not help but be impressed by them holding hands while telling me how they had worked together on the lovely needlepoint picture they showed me. She died the following year and he, sick with loneliness, died a year later.
From Dana:
Both of my Great Aunts lived to 91. They were the oldest ever in our family where the average age of passing seems to be 66. I put it down to having LOVE and SUPPORT when they needed it and a sense of humour. Auntie always said it was her Mum's stodgy puddings. Or, it could be that I gave them some crystals that had healing properties one year at Christmas. Aunty swore that they worked!
From Susan:
I had a grandfather who lived to 95!
I think he lived so long because he had a great sense of humour and loved to golf.
He played golf until the very last year of his life!
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