Growing old gracefully? As the baby boomers get older and their children transition into caregivers, the parent / child roles reverse…but are there unrealistic expectations for these elderly parents? Jancee Dunn, author of Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo? joins the show.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Incoming search terms:

• spider vein treatment intext:keywordluv
• seniors this site uses KeywordLuv
• seniors keywordluv
• djing tips this site uses keywordluv\
• tattoo aging
• rose tattoo intext:keywordluv
• inurl: tips “this site uses keywordluv”
• inurl: personal development -comments closed this site uses keywordluv
• inurl: damage hair“this site uses keywordluv”
• inurl: baby

In our war-torn, terrorist-ridden, disease-ridden, inequitable, cataclysmically climate-changing world, it’s hard to imagine a more superficial topic, literally and figuratively, than hair color. Believe me, after researching the topic for a year and interviewing hundreds of people across the country, I know this. But we are people, all of us, not saints.

We worry about getting sick and whether we’ll have enough savings to take care of our parents and our children, let alone ourselves. And, in our various tiny ways, we try to contribute to solutions or salves for the big, profound problems – but we also care about how we look.

And hair, and its color, as ridiculous as our obsession with it may be, is a very real, visible, emotionally central sign of what each of us is trying to be – a sort of personal flag. So please bear with me for one more column on the subject.

The majority of the women I interviewed, as research for my book, were highly concerned with a loss of sexual attractiveness as they aged, and the color of their hair was central to their sense of attractiveness.

In a poll that accompanied a piece I recently wrote for Time, an overwhelming 79 percent of people believe that gray hair is a disadvantage in social life. In a separate survey, I asked 500 people the following questions:

• Do you think men find gray hair attractive in women?
• Do you think women find gray hair attractive in men?

Less than 30 percent thought men found gray hair attractive in women while a resounding 90 percent found gray hair attractive in men. Talk about a double standard!

So I decided to make myself a guinea pig and put the gray hair vs. brown hair to the acid test on Match.com. I assumed that if I accurately reported my age and posted a photo of myself with gray hair and then, three months later, the same image but with (Photoshopped) brown hair, that the photo with the brown hair would be deemed more attractive by more of the Match.com men.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Among Match.com-ers in New York City, Chicago, and – most shockingly of all – Los Angeles, three times as many men were interested in going out with me when my hair was gray as when it was dyed. This blew my mind.

And I’m not alone. ABC’s Good Morning America conducted a similar online dating experiment with Gail Cohen, a 61-year old widow from Dania Beach, Florida and she had similar, and surprising, results.

Twice as many men (and men younger on average by two years) were interested in dating Gail with her natural white hair, than with the photoshopped brown.

I’m not certain how to interpret our results. Maybe the men sensed that if we were being honest about the color of our hair, we’d be more accessible and easier to date. Or maybe the gray made us stand out from the overwhelming majority of Match.com women our age who color their hair.

It remains a mystery, but I was heartened by the results – it seems to me there is a much wider range of attractiveness than that which is presented to us by the media.

Incoming search terms:

• grey hair men attractive
• naked gray haired ladys
• NAKED WOMEN WITH GRAY HAIR
• gray hair attractive
• naked grayhaired ladys
• white-haired woman tube
• men salt n pepper hair vs women with gray hair
• poll is gray hair attrative
• gail cohen 61 years old
• What is thought of women with gray hair

A growing number of us can now expect to live close to or past 100 years, so 50 has become midlife.  Today instead of approaching midlife with the obligations of work and family, baby boomers are looking to a second half they pretty much design as they wish.  For many of them, the results don’t look much like what their parents and grandparents called retirement.

Whether because of layoffs or because they’re weary of their jobs, many are considering new possibilities for their post-50 years and that includes starting a business of their own.

Many of these business endeavors combine their passions and talents into a revenue-producing career.  This marriage fits their goals in ways a salaried job rarely could.  Some work full-time, but some work part of a day, week, month, or year.  Many are pursuing work similar to what they did when employed, while others are staking out entirely new careers.

The obstacles that post-50s face in starting a business are not substantially different from those anyone else faces when becoming self-employed. Without exception, most consider their age as an advantage in communicating credibility to clients and customers.

What a difference from the ageism experienced by so many on the job!  No wonder the U.S. Small Business Administration is finding the ages of start-up entrepreneurs is trending older.

I know of a friend who after a 30-year career as a journalist found his work shifting from working on articles to working with administrators.  The bureaucratic and political hassles that came with the job of editor of a consumer magazine were no longer what he wanted.

Figuring there was a good chance he’d live to 90 or beyond, he started thinking about what he wanted to do with the next third of his life.  Luckily he’d developed a passion for pottery in his 40’s and the more he did it, the more he liked it.  So when offered a chance to retire early at 63, he jumped at the chance to turn his hobby into a second career.

His biggest challenge was to find ways to market his work, and he found doing studio sales several times a year worked for him.  He and his wife purchased a 20-acre home in Virginia, and remodeled a four-stall barn into a studio workshop and living quarters.  Three years later, between the studio sales, galleries that carry his work, annual crafts shows, his Web site and some great publicity his business is growing well.

Best of all he loves what he does and envisions doing it until they carry him out.  He sees no reason for not having another 30-year career after his first. More and more “old gray mares” are following the same path.  So if you’re nearing or are 50, you are coming up to bat in the second inning of your life.  Why not hit it out of the park!

Incoming search terms:

• artist career change
• artist studio with living quarters
• becoming an artist midlife no experience disabled
• disabled how to become artist at mid-life
• how to career change after a disability
• life\s career-aging
• midlife career artist
• starting careers at midlife
• thoughts on life starting disability

One of the best ways to reduce your chances of dying from heart disease, colon cancer, diabetes, or high blood pressure is regular physical activity. Physical activity contributes to healthy bones, muscles, and joints — as well as controlling your weight. It’s also a source of mental well being as many studies show being active reduces depression and anxiety. The activity does not need to be strenuous to be beneficial, but unfortunately people tend to exercise less as they age.

[Read more...]

Incoming search terms:

• muscle building for seniors
• muscle building for seniors at home
• muscle building supplements for seniors
• muscle fottness for seniors
• MUSCLE BUILDING DVDS FOR SENIORS
• best muscle building moves for senior men
• muscle fitness seniors
• muscle building for the elderly
• muscle building elderly
• muscle building activities for disabled people