Guest Blogger
Introducing Susan Charles, MS Pennsylvania State University and Messiah Lifeways Guest Blogger
After working for 25 years in sales and marketing for IBM and Lexmark, Susan undertook a second career in Wellness with a degree in holistic nutrition along with many fitness certifications with an emphasis on older adult exercise. Her new passion has formed the foundation for public speaking, writing, counseling, and exercise teaching as a second career. Let’s hear a little bit from Susan and what she has in store for our readers.
I’m a new blogger for Messiah Village. I’m 70 years old, live in Hampden Township, and have seven grandchildren. I am healthy as a horse, and whatever I share in this blog, I have tried myself. I just hate it when people preach about things they read on the internet but haven’t made any effort to find out if they really work. You can call me Wellness Grandma because the things we’ll cover will include wide-ranging “wellness” topics. Some examples are purpose-driven living, healthy holistic nutrition, getting in shape for travel, keeping your mind sharp as you age, and much more.
Why am I writing about these things? I feel like my life is fabulous right now, and I revel in getting up every morning with energy and enthusiasm. I strongly believe all of us can do better and sometimes a little guidance helps. I just returned from 12 days of hiking very rigorous trails in the Himalayas, and last fall I went scuba diving with hundreds of sharks, rays and barracudas in Bora Bora. I feel great all the time and take no meds. Although I have lots of academic credentials, I think the results speak louder than the words of advice found in scholarly articles or just about everywhere. I live the life of wellness and love every minute of it. It has paid off very well, and I am enthusiastic to share some of the insights I’ve learned along the way. My goal is to be able to help you create a better version of yourself.
In future blogs, I hope to be able to have online discussions and make this information more interesting and helpful for you! So, let’s get started…
At Messiah Village you hear about embracing life more fully, which is something I hope all my readers would like to do. This blog will generate ideas offering concrete suggestions about how to fully embrace life and improve your overall wellbeing. There will be lots of wide-ranging topics and suggestions. For example, we will discuss things about how to keep your mind sharp, how to create more energy, how to make healthier food choices, and lots more. Hopefully, you’ll want to incorporate some of these suggestions into your daily life.
Let’s get started
Healthy eating is a perfect place for us to start. In terms of results. It offers terrific odds for success because a positive change in eating habits will make you look and feel better than just about any other single thing you can do.
It’s easy to form bad eating habits, and most of us do. Many fast foods, sweet foods, fried foods, and greasy foods taste incredibly good, and so we eat them regularly. Replacing them with healthy food is a process that takes some knowledge of better options and (you will probably hate this word) willpower.
The word willpower has gotten a bad rap in the food world because of its association with dieting. But we won’t use it to mean starving yourself like some half-crazed person on a low calorie diet who beats themselves up later because they couldn’t stick with it. In fact, that kind of dieting is virtually guaranteed to fail. We’ll elaborate on this whole issue in the future because it’s worth a bit of digging in.
What we mean by willpower is about developing a willingness, and later a preference, to reach for a piece of fruit instead of a junk food snack in the middle of the afternoon. Soon we’ll dive into topics such as how to get off processed foods, a mighty hurdle but critical to success. We’ll talk about the (boring?) topic of eating your veggies and loving them, which actually doesn’t have to be boring at all.
I hope you will follow this blog. Right now, just take my word for it; the dividends for making the effort will be well worth your trouble.
Stay tuned for future blog entries as Susan shares her insight, energy and adventures – helping to “Change the Conversation About Aging and Wellness.”
