E x c e r p t s |
Introduction:
When considering the content of your retirement agenda you can look at it as having three components. Part one should be to continue with your choice of established hobbies, interests and good lifestyle habits. Part two should consist of changes to those areas of your lifestyle that will promote longevity and improved health. In part three, you should incorporate activities that you have been unable to participate in while you were working. You may attempt to start your participation in some of these activities before you actually stop work. By making changes gradually, the transition into retirement will be much easier.
Chapter 1: Why Plan Ahead?
We plan to give ourselves a sense of direction and structure. As working adults, to varying degrees, we try to approach our lives in a manner that facilitates a sense of achievement. We feel most satisfaction when we are accomplishing our goals or doing what we want to do. In looking ahead to retirement, we may ask this question: What possibilities does the final 1/3 of my life hold? Exploring a multitude of possibilities and preparing a blueprint containing our choices should allow us to continue experiencing a sense of satisfaction and achievement.
Chapter 3: Healthy Eating
When choosing new recipes, consider these guidelines:
- Does the recipe contain ingredients that you like? (At first you may need to try some new ingredients so that you can determine whether you like them or not.) An example of this is buckwheat groats. A recipe for a buckwheat casserole has been included in APPENDIX B.
- Does the recipe contain ingredients that can be easily substituted with ones that are better for you?
Examples of these are in recipe section APPENDIX A.
- Do the foods in the recipe help you fulfill the requirements of your diet? If you have a need to make changes in your cholesterol readings, you would make choices that avoid certain foods and have an abundance of foods that would promote healthier consequences.
Another example is choosing foods that help you maintain appropriate blood sugar levels if you are hypoglycemic. In order to keep your blood sugar from slipping too low too quickly, it is suggested that you eat foods with a low glycemic index number. "The factor, or GI, of foods affects the speed of conversion of foods to blood sugar (glucose). High value foods show a rapid response and subsequent increase in blood sugar. Conversely, complex carbohydrates and low GI range foods (those below 50) are absorbed slowly, causing a gradual rise in the blood sugar."
A snack of peanuts (glycemic number of 13) is a better snack than a chocolate bar (glycemic number of 68-76).
Source: Eat to Beat Low Blood Sugar, pages 46, 47
Complete reference is in Chapter 15 of this book.
Ask your doctor for more information.
- Are the recipes a combination of ingredients that you should be including in your diet? Do they contain healthy fats, minerals, vitamins, fiber, proteins and complex carbohydrates?
- Are you recognizing foods and ingredients that you should avoid or eat in smaller quantities? Avoid recipes that contain those ingredients. If you love and want to eat a particular food, treat yourself occasionally.
Some recipes that I would personally choose are in APPENDIX B at the back of the book. Each recipe contains at least one ingredient that is not commonly used. Each has ingredients with high fiber content, and each contains some ingredients with low glycemic numbers.
Chapter 7: We are Social Creatures
To determine your social interaction level, each of you must first be familiar with your own comfort zone of social contact. That is your balance between personal time and social time. Is your personal/social balance 50/50, 20/80, 70/30, or some other ratio?
Is your present level of social interaction somewhere in your comfort zone, or do you need to become more involved or less involved?
If you need more social contact, what can you do to change that? The answer is GO-CEP. More specifically you can give, organize, cultivate, extend, and participate.
As I discuss each of these strategies, you will soon see that many overlap, and you may choose to place the overlapping ones in a different category.
Here are suggestions for the five strategies:
GIVE: Volunteer some of your time.ORGANIZE: Take on a leadership role.
- Sit on a board of a service-providing agency.
- Be a member of a charitable committee.
- Volunteer at a hospital.
- Become a member of a service group or club such as hospital auxiliary or Meals on Wheels.
- Act as a host or hostess at a museum.
- Help family with baby-sitting occasionally; accompany grandchildren to games, concerts and performances.
- Inquire whether you could assist in some capacity with the fire department.
- Assist at your grandchildren's school as a room helper or a reader.
- Support your art gallery with the gift of time.
- Mentor or tutor a teenager.
- Read with a primary grade student at his/her school.
- Organize a neighborhood garage sale.
- Organize a reading group. Exchange books and use these books as a reason to get together and have discussions.
- Organize a group that would exchange videos or DVDs.
- Lead a group, or just participate in a letter- writing campaign for a political or social cause.
- Become active in environmental causes.
- Organize a league or event: senior's golf, fun curling bonspiel, bridge club, game or tournament, cribbage games, shuffleboard tournament, horseshoes, bowling, or a day cultural trip.
- Offer your home for a specific craft lesson or workshop.
- Give basic computer and Internet lessons to friends or neighbors.
Chapter 10: Financial and Legal Matters
Important Documents. You must plan for a time when you are not able to manage your own financial matters. There are also other decisions that should be made while you are able. These decisions will affect you when you are disabled or elderly. I am referring to a will, a personal directive and an enduring power of attorney. All adults, regardless of age, should have these prepared and stored in a place where they can be accessed by loved ones, executors or attorneys. If you are of retirement age and have not yet committed those decisions to paper, do not waste another minute. Have them written by you or for you now.
Chapter 12: Planning for the Final Years
You normally cannot predict when you will be in your final years. Because each person's time is unpredictable, the wise thing to do is to plan early. You are preparing for two events. One is for the years when you will require some degree of care from others, and the second is your death. In order for everything to happen as you would like, you must make your wishes known. If you spend your final years possessing a mind that is clear and able to make judgments, how lucky you would be. However, you must be prepared for the possibility that your mind may not be clear. Many diseases or conditions of the elderly cause psychological, physical, and mental impairment.
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