Ain’t Living Long Like This
Have you taken one of those How Long Will You Live quizzes? I thought it would be fun to give it a try. Turns out, it wasn’t really that much fun. I spent a lot of time changing my answers to see how to up my score! It really all came down to three things, the most important being your BMI (Body Mass Index for those of you who aren’t into that kind of thing.) There’s a handy little calculator to type in your age and weight, be it your, “seems great now” pre-COVID weight or your, “wait, what?!” current weight or the always delusional, “I can drop ten pounds in a week easy” number. The age thing, though, well, you’re unfairly stuck with that. My BMI isn’t terrible, only because I attempt to run so I can eat chocolate and drink wine but, it isn’t optimal for longevity. Not yet, anyway. Probably after I easily drop that ten pounds. So, after you tamper with your BMI, you move on to the second most important thing, alcohol use and, dang, it turns out the whole French custom of drinking wine everyday for good health doesn’t apply to longevity. Nor does the whole only-drink -on-the-weekend thing. It all comes down to the number of weekly drinks. Two or less is the magic number. 14? Not so much. I stoically attempted to reduce my number until I reached one that seemed both achievable and acceptable. That never happened. The last thing? Attitude. Are you a worrier, a negative thinker, a pessimist most of the time or do you look on the bright side of things, don’t stress, an eternal optimist? There’s a reason it’s called eternal optimist. Yep. I thought about it for awhile and realized I fall more into the worrier category. I figured I could work on that or maybe order that Positive Thinking book. Yep. It turns out, if I run a few more more miles a day, cut out steak, chocolate and alcohol and become an optimist, I can add ten years to my life….ten long years. I read an article by a leading cardiologist the other day ( it’s always a leading cardiologist, isn’t it? Never just an average one.) He was asked what he thought the optimal age to die is, based on physical and mental decline. “Seventy five,” he said. 75! Wow. Now, don’t everyone get all upset. There are exceptions to this, I’m sure. But, given everything he’s seen, all of the studies, etc., if he could choose when to die, he would choose 75. So, I’m just gonna change my answers until I get 75. Looks like I’m good! I’ll drink to that!