Della and I have been retired for 7 years. We quickly learned how isolating retirement can be. Of course, the pandemic 2 years ago did nothing to help the situation.
Fortunately, we quickly saw the issue and took action. We started volunteering, we got seasonal employment as campground hosts and we got involved in the Juice Plus+ business.
Della is especially good at talking to people about how our physical and mental health has improved since taking these steps. We’ve learned that educating ourselves and being our own health advocates is vital.
One of the ways we educate ourselves is to attend conferences. My takeaways from a recent virtual conference from Las Vegas are the importance of getting started, no matter how small the step may seem.
Stephen Ritz is a teacher from the Bronx who teaches children, now the rest of us on the possibilities of growing our own food using the neighbourhood and Tower Gardens.
My second takeaway is the need to increase the number of plants in our diet. I know that I feel much better when two-thirds of my plate is plant-based. Dr. Mitra Ray is the one that continues to inspire us to continue to improve our diets.
Staying informed and connected to people has become one of our goals in life.
As we meet people in our summer job, or in our volunteering we bring up our information about plant-based diets only when it becomes comfortable. We’re happy to share what we’ve learned. We are very aware it may not be for everyone, we were not ready to listen when we first heard either.