50 Ways to Leave Your 40s
Living It Up in Life’s Second Half
By Sheila Key and Peggy Spencer, MD (New World Library, $14.95 paper)
Five million people turn 50 each year — more than 12,500 every day — and must come to grips with that milestone. Whether it marks the start of the decline or the beginning of a new life is up to the birthday boy or girl, say the authors, who challenge readers to consider aging in new ways.
1. Our metabolisms slow as we age. Use your 50th birthday to prompt you to increase exercise, which, in addition to myriad other benefits, boosts metabolism.
2. It is natural to acquire more stuff throughout our lives, but crucial to know when to empty the closet. Purge! “How gratifying to move into life’s second half without a ton of dead weight from the first.”
3. Sometimes it’s better to act your shoe size, not your age.
4. “Musical memory is stored in the brain differently than other types of data.” So sing. It strengthens the brain in ways other forms of stimuli cannot.
5. While we can grow rigid with age, it is important to “be open-minded, openhearted, physically unblocked, and earnestly open to serving the common good.”
