Growing Older Gracefully? Bloody Oath !

I remember what seems like only yesterday I was young! or considered to be young in the big scheme of things. The next thing you know it, your not a kid any more but an adult aged 42 with two kids and a wife........ this isn't a bad thing, but just how things have evolved for me, and to be honest I am more than happy with how things have played out.

Guess what though? I still feel young on the inside! Life does go by too quickly, and when I look back over mine so far, I reckon it's been pretty good and I wouldn't want to change a hell of a lot.

I live in the best Country in the world, in a comfortable house, have a good amount of money in the bank and my future looks OK financially (albeit not as good as it did 12 or so months ago before the Stock Market shit itself......) but I consider myself lucky with another 18 years of work to contribute and many more ups and downs ahead on the stock market over that time.

Many others aren't as fortunately particularly those who have recently retired and have lost 50% of their "nest eggs" with the market crashing. One thing I have learned from this market meltdown is that about 5 years before I am ready to retire I will hedge my bets and make sure I don't have too much high risk exposure in my portfolio.

The first 42 years of my life have gone by in a flash so I reckon the next 42 will do the same..... key upcoming challenges for me are:

1) Loose the 30 or so kilograms to get me back to "not looking like a fat bastard". This will improve many things: general health, longevity, blood pressure, cholesterol, future employability and will make me feel a hell of a lot better about myself.

2) Once the weight is lost - maintaining it within a healthy range.

3) When the kids inevitably "fly the coup" in the the next 4 years or so, we will purchasing a smaller home to suit just my wife and myself.... We will get something nice and tasteful as we will be able to keep it looking nice and look after it. As is par for the course, we are continually having "kid accidents" some of which include but are not limited to: accidentally damaging walls, accidentally punching a hole in the gyprock while showing friends how tough you are (without realising that gyprock isn't that strong), dropping food on carpet, dropping coke on the carpet, consistently wrecking things with no rhyme nor reason.

4) Putting more into my self managed super fund (going into Cash at he moment !) - and setting us of for our retirement

5) Once the kids move onto their own lives the wife and I will be able to save allot more money than we do now, and we will get into some world travel! (BTW, I am not trying to get rid of my kids, I love them dearly)

Both my wife and I, love a good holiday and seeing new places but haven't been able to do a great deal of late with trying to cover the costs of living and building a modest nest egg along the way. We will definitely be doing at least one big overseas holiday per year (maybe 2 if we can afford it!)

A picture of my beautiful wife and a few of her friends taken during our last holiday on the Gold Coast

This is me in my element at Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast, QLD.

Well there's a few thoughts from the deepest recesses of the Regmiester's brain, but I wanted to share them so people understand a bit more about me and where I am trying to go in life.

Reg

Still Off Work

Went to the Doctors yesterday and had an ECG (might have a letter wrong there) but it's the test they do where they hook about a dozen leads to you and do a printout of your heart etc. They also did blood tests to see what was causing the chest pain etc. The results for the ECG were provided almost immediately and were all good :)

The blood tests were due later in the day and I had to call back. When I called back they wanted to see me so have another appointment today - I don't think this is a good thing as usually they will give you the all clear over the phone...... anyway time will tell.

Today I will have an easy day maybe do some work email, and a general catch-up, I want to make the most of this opportunity and actually gain some "work benefit" from it - it is rare for me to have time off during the week so I will make the most of it. Besides if I don't keep on top of email etc there will be a major backlog when I return. I aim to go back to work on Thursday - hopefully all will be running "like a well oiled machine" while I have been off, but I have my reservations.

Diet wise all is on track, looking forward to a good weigh-in later on in the week, the exercise has been on the back burner the last few days while I have had these chest pains, but intend to get back into that once I get the all clear.

My daughter changed schools yesterday which is good for her, as apparently where she was they learned SFA, most of the time they were watching video which I find very disappointing. The new school looks OK and my daughter has many friends who go there so hopefully the transition will be smooth and the amount of video watched substantially less!

That just about covers things for today - probably the main thing is the Doctors appointment to get the blood test results.

Have a good one... Reg

A Good Weekend Followed By Crappy Monday

Last weekend was OK, from a low carb perspective, consumed a gutful of scotch and diet coke on Friday night and had nothing else I shouldn't have all weekend!

I feel crap though, think I have a wog or something (I am hoping this is what's wrong with me). I went to work today and only lasted four hours or so and had to come home. The concerning thing was that I was feeling pressure across my chest, pain down my right arm, hot and cold sweats and a hell of a headache.

Some of these symptoms could suggest something I do not even want to think about - so I hope it wasn't that. The trouble is there is a history of coronary disease in my family, so I hope I am not the next person it affects.
At work I didn't want to make a fuss, just said I was feeling sick and went home, I almost went to the Emergency Department at the local hospital but thought I would try to have a sleep and see if things improved. I didn't get any sleep but the chest tightness isn't as bad and the pains and sweating have stopped, just leaving me with a crappy headache, which isn't going away.



The information on this heart diagram above provides a timely reminder that loosing this excess weight is not an option for me.... It's something I need to do or I mightn't be around long term :(

Regards

Reg