I am not an expert on any one subject. I just seem to have learned a little bit about a lot of things in my lifetime. Of course, I am sixty and that is a long time to have lived and not learned a little something about a lot.

When I think about the things that I really do know quite a bit about and what I do with that knowledge, I have to shake my finger at myself. As I grow older in years, I wonder if I have also become more mature. I certainly don’t seem to take my own advice and especially where health is concerned.

As you begin to reach those senior years, it doesn’t matter much if you have made a monetary fortune in your career, or the lottery winnings and your grandfather’s inheritance money are in the bank, if you do not have good health. And if you have reached the age of sixty and still have reasonably good health in spite of the things poor judgment thus far has done to your body, then you still have time to get on the good living wagon of health.

We all hear about the good fats and the bad fats and the value of daily exercise. We all know that if you eat it and don’t burn it off it will be stored as fat. Nothing you can do to change that. It is just a fact. And those senior years are not the time to abuse the facts you know about good health. I hope if you haven’t been doing it right all along that you will join with me in getting it right, right now.

Starting here and now (not tomorrow or Monday), I am living my life as if I want to still be alive and healthy until I am at least one hundred years old. Since food is my passion, I resolve to keep that passion under control and reshape it into a passion for healthy eating. Healthy eating does not mean boring food with a taste similar to cardboard and wallpaper paste. Eating healthy food prepared in a healthy manner is the least we can do for ourselves and as I am writing this, I wish I could just cook for the world.

So, I know the food pyramid as well as you do and I am going to focus hard on the fruits and vegetables first and the meats and chicken and other proteins next. There are so many more choices in the fruit and vegetable range and more servings also. So let’s make those the easy choices. There are very few vegetables that I do not care for and I bet if I made them for you, you would like them too. And of course, I love every kind of fruit I have ever tried.

In choosing the meat/chicken/general good protein category, I am seriously happy with a good piece of fish or some shellfish. Very lean beef, even lean pork should be consumed no more often than once a week. Chicken, without the skin and fat, is just about everyone’s staple protein source, but there is always turkey and other foul that are low in fat and very good for you. The big deal in the protein category is PORTION CONTROL — and variety.

Getting those grains is easy if you enjoy breakfast cereal (high fiber there too) and can back away from those overly processed breads (though what is better than a croissant). Moderation is the motto to use. Indulge occasionally, not regularly.

Starches — potatoes, rice, pasta — limit those too, as well as sweets — pies, cakes, cookies — those are for the occasional indulgence, not regularly.

I think it is all pretty well spelled out for us, we just have to keep that healthy hundred year old person in mind and hope we can stick to it. If you are a senior, I know you will agree. We only have another thirty or forty years left to get it right. So let’s get going. Right here and now if we want to enjoy more of those tomorrows and Mondays.

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