By Staff
There is a company that has a little quiz you can take to find our your &#8220real age.” A co-worker and I took the quiz this week, and I'm sorry to say that my &#8220real age” is about 11 years older than my chronological age. Apparently at the rate I'm going, I should be eligible for retirement in about five years.
I feel young. I have a 7-year-old son. I work every day. I do my best to keep my home somewhat tidy and have some outside interests including singing on the praise team at my church. I don't understand how I got to be so old.
According to the quiz, lifestyle and eating habits are the main reason a person's body may age beyond its years. When I looked at the final tally, I kind of understood why that may be so.
My doctor has told me several times that I need to lose weight. Yes, I certainly agree with him. However, my stomach and my taste buds don't have ears or a conscience, so they are not participating in the lose weight idea. I do love to eat and, unfortunately, I love to eat the wrong things.
Having grown up as a Southern child, I have a fondness of biscuits and gravy, fried chicken, banana pudding, potato salad and such delicacies as that. I even get a craving every now and then for a great pan of lasagna complete with a salad and plenty of toasty garlic bread. Any good meal should be completed with a nice slice of cheesecake and a good cup of coffee with real sugar and artery-clogging non-dairy creamer.
I have tried to be good by eating a little more salad lately. I've tried to cut down on fat, but when you eat on the run most of the time it's pretty hard.
My job does get me up and about somewhat, but when you sit at a computer to compile information for a news story, only your fingers and eyes get any exercise. Somehow that doesn't help my &#8220real age” at all.
There were some other items on the quiz that indicated I might be a little younger if I had less stress in my life. That's not likely to happen. With several deadlines to meet each week and laundry that multiplies daily, it's hard to get enough ahead to take a breather from the stress of my life.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy everything I do. I love chasing a story and I love putting it together in a way that readers will find easy to follow. I love to cook, but I hate to clean, therefore a pile of dishes and an out-of-order dishwasher tends to keep my stress over dirty dishes at an all-time high.
With the holidays quickly approaching and facing all that cooking, cleaning, entertaining, shopping, wrapping, decorating and such, the stress won't let up anytime until after the first of the year. To tell you the truth, I'm a little happy about all of that kind of stress. I love the holidays and am happy to see them approach.
The only things in my favor in the whole &#8220real age” quiz is that I have a good marriage, am the mother of a child and I drive the speed limit.
When it comes right down to it, I don't care if all the other things about my life cause me to age beyond my years. As long as I can answer yes to being happy, generally healthy, and being a good wife and mother, I can eat all the biscuits I want.
Besides, being old and happy is way more satisfying that being old and crotchety. I'm looking forward to my senility with a smile on my face.
Lisa Tindell is a news writer for The Brewton Standard. She can be reached by phone at 867-4876 or by email at lisa.tindell@brewtonstandard.com.