What Will I Be When I Am 70? Creative Essay Example

Unfortunately, age 70 is getting closer than I want. I am a 49 year old female who, by current medical standards is about 20 pounds overweight. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2011) a simple measurement of obesity is kg/meters squared. This yields a number in percentage based on a person’s weight in kilograms divided by his height in meters squared. This calculation is Body Mass Index (BMI). A BMI of 25 means the person is overweight while 30 means the person is obese. Based on my height, I am obese according to current medical standards. Kolata (2007) observed that obesity can cause death. Wanjek (2008) reports on the studies of other scientists who found a direct link between cancer and obesity.

I do try to exercise by playing golf and swimming. In addition I run three miles 4 times each week. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama, 2010, November 12) regular exercise and sports is good for our self-esteem and, assuming an otherwise healthy body, is good for our heart. In my case, my high blood pressure is being medicated. Therefore, I am not helping my heart which already requires medication. Although I was unable to reference the same, self-esteem is only good for self-improvement. For instance, if I swim 100 feet and work up to 110 feet, I can measure self-improvement. However, in certain activities where I may win on one day while losing the next day (golf, for instance) I would think that my self-esteem has deteriorated.

A time long ago (Thank God!) women developed “house maid’s knee” from scrubbing floors, in reality, a low impact exercise. That era has since been replaced by running. The exercise is rated as high impact. Brown (2007) observed that low impact exercise means that no limbs leave the ground while in high impact exercise one or more limbs leave the ground; running is a high impact exercise. Brown and Rhodes (2006) suggested that low impact exercise is good for self-esteem while running is actually a bone strengthening routine. However, in previous health conditions Felson, Zhang, Hannann et al. (2005) found that running can also have detrimental conditions. In my own case I had back surgery followed by the usual period of time-off and rehabilitation. According to studies by Prior, Vigna, Schecter et al., (2011), under normal conditions, running is an excellent bone strengthening exercise. However, with my previous surgery I am doing more harm than good and should switch to low impact exercise tempered with only a little bit ( less than one hour per day; <1/hr day) of high impact exercise.

I don’t smoke. However, I do enjoy a glass of red wine with my dinner. Barrow and Subrata (2009) observed that the red grape itself is just a fruit. However, a naturally occurring chemical in red wine is Resveratrol. Although numerous studies have been conducted, none of these studies have been conducted on humans. It was found in all of the studies on varied animals that Resveratrol slowed down the heart and in all case, depressed blood pressure while lowering “good” cholesterol, thus preventing heart attacks.

My personal physician found high blood pressure and is controlling it by the use of standard medication. He blamed the high blood pressure on my being obese, a condition within itself. However, I did not discuss with him my consumption of red wine which could have a deleterious effect on the blood pressure medication. Too much of a good thing, in this case, wine combined with blood pressure medicine may have morbid effects.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.D. Department of Health and Human Services (2010), human body absorption of carbohydrates should not exceed 25%. Therefore, 75% of what we eat should not be based on carbs. I am on a low carb diet. I like to think that I my diet is successful and that I am losing weight. However, low carb diets can be found on every store shelf and in every brand of diet. The diet I am currently using is showing weight loss but as my body needs change, I may find that this diet, likes so many other diets of the past, are just a lot of hype in pretty colored packages.

One thing that is common to all of these diets is they promise weight loss. The second thing that happens, none of which is written anywhere on the package, is that we must modify our behavior in order to lose weight. The truth is we don’t usually modify our behavior and when we stop the diet we put the weight right back on, sometimes more so than when we started the diet.

I have been married and have four teenage sons. I am reminded of reading about a minister, Pastor Jeff Nell, who told his congregation that buried deep in church liturgy is a story in which God commands all the family members to participate in the household. This made a lot of sense to me and so I have always been supportive of my husband’s activities and he has been supportive of me. Likewise, as our sons grew up we participated as a family in each of their activities, and they in ours. Singularly, I am not a homemaker. We all are and we look out for the needs of every other family member.

There is no way to know where we will be at age 70. For me that is a scant 21 years away. Hopefully, my husband and I will have celebrated our Golden Anniversary. I hope to be a grandmother to my sons’ children—boys and girls. I hope they will enjoy my company as I already know I will enjoy theirs’. Maybe that is really what life is all about—taking pride in the next one or two generations, knowing we created the first and knowing they will be creating the next.

References

Barrow, G., & Subrata, S. (2009). Resveratrol. Natural medicines. American Journal of Sports Medicine 16(12): 146-153.

Brown, W., Burton, N.,& Rowan, P. (2007). Updating the evidence on physical activity and health in women. American Journal of  Medicine 33(5): 404-411.

Brown, S. & Rhodes E. (2006). Relationships among dog owners and leisure-time walking in Western Canadian adults. American Journal of Preventative Medicine 30(2): 131-134.

Felson, D., Zhang, Y., hannan, M., Kiel, D., Wison, P., & Anderson, J. (2005). The effect of postmenopausal estrogen therapy on bone density in elderly women. New England Journal of Medicine39(1): 1141-1146.

Kolata, G. (2007). Causes of death are linked to a person’s weight. New York Times, November 7.

Nell, Pastor Jeff. (unknown date). Church liturgy about raising a family and how every member of the family is responsible for every other member. Author.

Prior, J., Vigna, Y. Schechter, M., & Burgess, A. (2011). Spinal bone loss and ovulatory disturbances. New England Journal of Medicine, 323(8): 221-226.

Wanjek, C. (2009). Scientists agree:  Obesity causes cancer. New York: Live Science.