The Portal to Boomeranger World

Report Warns Of Obese Baby Boomers -- Red States the Worst

     by Nancy Mehegan

A new report in obesity in America, has little good news.

Obesity rates among adults ROSE in 23 states over the past year and didn't decline anywhere.  "Red States" were the worst:  Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia.

  ( report from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. )

Mississippi, put down the Grits and Bacon!

 

Among the findings:

Mississippi had the highest rate of adult obesity, 32.5 percent, for the fifth year in a row.

Three additional states now have adult obesity rates above 30 percent, including Alabama, West Virginia,  and Tennessee.

 

Colorado, what are you doing right??

Colorado had the lowest rate of obese adults, at 18.9 percent, followed by Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

The Slender French Woman

I lived in France one summer, and believe me, French people do not eat like we do!

My friends and I stalked followed & watched a stunning, slender French women in town, to see what she ate!

 She had 5 children, yet looked like a fashion model. Guess what? She drank a lot of water, and for lunch just some bread & meat (no mayonnaise).

But seriously, what is Americans' problem with weight??  And baby boomers??

Boomers Become Facebook Friends--Banish Depression and Loneliness

Building Community

After some reluctance, I am now a big fan of Facebook and will be setting up my Twitter account soon.(In fact, I am going to tweet a novel I have been thinking about for a long time and never seem to have the time to write, what with all the www.thimbleberrypress.com writing, business building and development, and parenting my kid, laundry, cooking, shopping, gardening, bill paying--whew! it is a lot for one person. BUT I think I can handle 140 characters.

So stay tuned for that project and I hope you all will give suggestions as I go along. anyway...) I invite readers to come to Facebook and become friends. I have found old friends and classmates from high school and college. Long lost friends--one who is now in Geneva. Had brunch with another who lives across the river from me. Went to classmates.com today and found another 10 or so former classmates/friends and asked them to come to facebook. Love that it is free. Love that you can communicate privately or to the whole group of friends. I'm even starting to love the pictures--need my kid to teach me how to upload and edit, etc. I took a pic on her macbook last week. she has edited it and we'll upload it on sunday night to my facebook profile.

For someone who sits alone in her house most days, staring at this screen, facebook is really wonderful. I feel I am starting to have again what I had as a kid--a big community. I really get it now. I get why my kid loves facebook and IMing. why she is a maniac about texting--I think I will have to get a bigger keyboard or an iPhone or similar touchpad phone to text.

There Is Only Here Now

 The internet has erased time and space--and there is no more there there, there is only here now--we are all one in the internet cloud. The ramifications for us Boomers is profound. Kids grow up and scatter. Friends move away--as I did to far flung parts of the world--all over the US, then to China for several years. And while I needed to shake the dust off my small town feet, my roots got parched because I could never really stay in touch with friends and family in an easy way. Facebook has changed all that. And when I found my drama department pals from UNC-Ch, I was so happy. I began to feel grounded again.

Baby Boomer Depression and Loneliness

 Many Boomers are suffering from depression and loneliness precisely due to severed human connections--they are no longer at their jobs, their elders are dying, their kids are going, their ages are bringing new issues to the fore. But the new social networking platforms are a tonic to depression and loneliness. Anthro 101 and Psych 101 are very specific that human beings are social animals. We travel in packs. We like to congregate.

But some of the conditions of contemporary society obviate our most basic needs and means keeping us connected and happy.  The new social networking platforms are a great anti-depressant.

Join me as a friend on Facebook

www.facebook.com. It's really simple even for a pretty tech mini knowledge person such as I. You go to Facebook, open an account--it's free and you are set. Noodle your way around. Then, go to the "Find Friends" button at the top of the page (or "Search"), fill in my name---'Virginia Cornue" and ask to be my friend. I'd love to be yours.

Here's to raising everyone's spirits!

Get A (Wine) Buzzzzz On---Organically

False Debate over Nourishing Vineyards

I'm always puzzled about the debate over organic VS non-organic farming/gardening practices.

That conversation/debate is now extending to organically grown grapes for wine making. Less than 60 years ago, almost everyone farmed everything organically. Synthetic fertilizers did not exist. Farmers used heavy mulches, green cover crops which were planted in the winter and then plowed under (winter rye and red clover being two favorites), and manure. That's the way my family farmed. We had good crops, healthy ones with few bugs or wilts, rich land and delicious smelling dirt!

And didn't all vineyards everywhere rely on these same practices as well? They must have. They had to have had, because there were no fertilizers other than cow, pig, chicken and horse manure. No waste, no want.

Organic = No sulphites

Thank you for honoring her."> I am not a wine expert, in fact one of the reason I rarely drink wine is that sulphites in most of today's wines give me galloping headaches and shooting eye pains. YUCK!! who would want to drink and feel so horrible? But the new organics may change my habits. It does sound nice to sit out on a summer evening with a chilled glass of white wine, good friends and a lovely sunset. Ummmmmmmmm.

Here is an interesting Forbes Article on this issue.  And one factor in longevity is tied to a small consumption daily of drink. Just make mine organic.