I used to think I ate rather healthy.

Every night I ate salad with dinner. Dinner was 90% home cooked meals – not pre-packaged junk meals with ready-made sauces or frozen main courses, or canned ‘anything’.

So at 45 I started wondering where the weight was coming from. My lifestyle hadn’t changed, my work-style hadn’t changed, my eating habits hadn’t changed.

Certain that something must be terribly wrong with me, I headed into the doctor’s office wanting a complete battery of tests. I had a good idea it was a thyroid condition or some dreaded ‘fat’ disease.

Now if you’re a boomer-generation woman you probably already know what’s wrong with me. I was getting older. The doctor told me that every year (past 45, I think he said) a woman’s metabolism slows. If we keep eating, living, working, exercising at the same level as we’d done the previous year we won’t be able to maintain our current weight. Nope. We’ll gain ten pounds a year, every year!

Diet? Pretty sure I didn’t have time for all that.

More exercise? Argh! Okay, I could take more walks…buy myself a fancy little pedometer and some cute sneakers to make it more fun…

But would that be enough?

What about messing around with my metabolism a little? What if I could make my metabolism think I was young again and burn more fat and calories without attaching it to my ass first?

After purchasing 3 books and hitting about 10 websites on the topic of womens’ metabolism I gave in. It was apparent I was going to have to do some exercise, some dietary changes and apply some of what I’d learned about metabolisms, in order to see my toes again.

The worst of it all was that I thought I could lose weight as hap-hazardly as I’d done in the past. You know a little walking, a few less potato chips and a lot more water. For a year I pretended not to notice that it wasn’t really working.

When your metabolism changes, so must your attitude about diet, exercise and overall health. When I finally got my head around that, I started losing weight. How much weight? As the title says: 6 pounds in 3 days.

Stay tuned. Over coming posts I’m going to tell you what changed, how easy it was, whose advice makes the most sense and is the easiest to follow and, of course, what I’ve been eating (you may be surprised!).

The year is half over, and even though I hadn’t made any resolutions on New Year’s Eve I can’t help but wonder if I’m doing any more in life than just treading water and trying to stay afloat.

Sure, my business has changed and I’ve adapted to the new economy, but what of other pursuits? Personal fulfillment, health, portfolio growth (financial), and spiritual growth?

I imagine this happens to (or at least I hope it happens to) women of my age around the world. We’ve hit 45+ and, are well aware that most of our life is behind us now.

Have we realized our hopes and dreams? Are we in good enough physical shape to see us through our later years? Are we financially independent or at least prepared for retirement – because make no mistake here, it’s coming faster than you can shake a stick at it.

I know for a fact that most of my generation is light years ahead of me in all departments and that makes me a tad sad. I’ve always been ahead of the crowd, always been on top of the pile in my class but when compared to women of my generation, I’m behind. You see, I’m a late boomer…

Yes, I spelled that right. I am of the group we call the baby boomers and I was born at the end of that generation – in 1963. Technically, baby boomers encompass anyone born between the years of 1946 and 1964.

I’ve been told that I’m now middle age. Ha! I knew I was middle age 10 years ago. Given that the average life expectancy of a modern North American woman is 76, middle age would be ½ that – 38. The age at which I was married. “Why not?,” I reasoned, “live out the last half with a mate, a friend, a partner in life?”

So on this rainy, cold summer day I realize it is time to start thinking about my future. While I’d love to just stop the clock, it’s just not possible.

What is possible however, is going into this last phase of life with my eyes open and perseverance calling me to improve my well being, my health and ultimately ‘buy’ myself a few more years of existence. Since I plan to do this without financial or health hardships I have no time to waste.

This site has sat here too long waiting for me to open up and share my personal journey. As such, while I move about the challenges and discoveries of the next few years I’ll be posting them here. Perhaps in some way I’ll be able to help or connect with the other ‘late boomers’ in the world on some level.

Let’s try this again…

I had originally set up this website in February 2007, but due to many other website projects, it hasn’t been updated since June. Then, the host I originally set this up on, somehow magically lost/erased/deleted my MySQL database that held my text and links to my photos.

For the record, let me state that if you have a website idea and you need to get a good host, at a great price, there is no better than my favorite found over from clicking on InstantInstaller – best website host recommendation.

Over the next few months I’ll be re-instating my content, and including the original photos I had at www.laurajchilds.com so stay tuned!