No matter what you say, getting old sucks. The only good part of getting old is that you are getting to retire sooner. That is it. If you were fortunate to have children and then grand children, then you could spend some time with them. But that is about it. Everything slows down, your brain (Pres. Biden) and your metabolism (author). The older you get the less people want to hear from you. They just want you to go away. In the era of COVID, governors tried to kill you by putting COVID positive patients in nursing homes. I think our elderly deserve better than that. Luckily for us, we can slow down the aging process a little by eating healthy and exercising. They say even an active sex life can help. One thing is definitely for certain, Homo Sapiens are social creatures. While you don’t necessarily need a spouse to live a long healthy life, you do need a companion. That companion can be pet. The attachments you develop with your family pet can help increase your life span. I find that to be pretty amazing.

I know that for most of my life I have burned both ends of the candle, and I am for one am looking forward to retiring. If you have read this far, you will know that I have been fighting a constant battle against weight gain. It has taken me 50 years to find the woman of my dreams, so I am damned if I am going to go quietly into the night. I know that the higher your BMI the shorter your life span, so I have done something about it. I have always been proactive about health. So I opted for a life altering operation. The reason for this is that I simply was not able to lose weight. When you reach a certain weight, you simply don’t have the energy and strength to exercise. I was getting to that point. While I was by no means morbidly obese, I was finding that it hurt just to walk, I was also getting out of breath walking. I finally decided to take the plunge.

I was never in favor of getting gastric surgery mainly because of what my Aunt Alida experienced with her surgery. However, there is one great thing about the Internet and that is the amount of information that is available to you. So I started doing some research on the subject. As I expected, great strides have been made in the procedures that are available but also in the post operative care that is provided. You are no longer just left to your own devices.

Obviously the best thing to do is to maintain a healthy lifestyle all your life. Sometimes you are just dealt a bad hand and you have to make due with what you have. Since I made the commitment to have the surgery, I have lost 50 pounds in a little over two months. This is something that I never thought possible. I am already feeling better. Even with a slower metabolism, the surgery can cause your body to burn off your fat. Who says you “can’t teach an old dog new tricks”?