THE INSIDE SCOOP ON RETIREMENT

           Working certainly has its benefits, but sometimes the price of working, especially in a stressful job, can have unseen consequences.

GINNIE: "Now, when I have to get out of bed, which is rare, you know, I mean I don't sleep in anyway, I'm an early morning person, both my husband and I are, but when I have to get out of bed I really notice it and I think, 'Boy, the wear and tear on my body'. Just doing that every morning, and then driving 45 minutes to work, and then being in a noisy atmosphere all day. The wear and tear. I mean, I recently looked at a picture of myself from the last day of school and I thought, 'I look at least 5 years younger now, I'm sure. Wow!' I got an objective look at myself then. Yikes!"

LORRAINE: "For me, the big surprise was I always assumed that after 65 you got older. And the surprise to me was that I didn't. I got younger, and I feel better now than I ever did at 40 or 45. I probably don't have as much energy, in all reality. I go to bed earlier. I sleep many more hours than I did before. But to feel that young. Or to be fortunate enough to be that healthy, and I am very healthy, so that's a really nice, big surprise. I don't know that I thought about it beforehand. I thought that you turn 65 and retire and you kinda…and now it gets much better. I thank my lucky stars every day that I am that fortunate. I'm very, very lucky to be as healthy as I am. I exercise every day and I really watch my food intake in order for me to stay healthy.  In order that I'm capable of doing 9 or 18 holes of golf, or walking as many miles as I wanna walk. I went climbing last weekend with no problem."

DORIS: "I noticed that as I had more time to sort of start taking care of my health, I'm feeling much healthier than I was when I was working. More energy and I just generally feel better. And I think it's because I'm getting more exercise and eating better and taking better care of my health. And the energy level involved. You know, I always tried to do it but you can't go walking for an hour every morning when you're working."

RICK: "Do you find that your health matters more to you now?"

DORIS: "No, because I worked in the health field it was always important, but knowing that you should be exercising more, and finding the energy to go out and do it, are two different things. Now you don’t have any reasons not to do it, and it's higher on the priority list, and therefore you do it."

RICK: "Why do you think you're healthier than you were?"

MAUREEN: "Because I have the time I walk to the store. And I go more often. If you've got the car, right, on the way home from work you buy a whole bunch of things. If you walk, then you're only buying one or two items because you have to carry them. So you walk twice as many times. That's just my theory."

MIKE: "You overdo it. You get a sore muscle. At work you can't just stop so you come home as usual. By the time you come home, you might be too bloody tired and you don't want to do anything about it. So you lay down on the chesterfield rather than putting the ice on it when it happened. Now, you can come in at midday, have a break, and put the ice on the shoulder because you're right there. Where you wouldn't do this at work."

RICK: “Have you found you are healthier since you retired, or that your attitude towards your health has changed?"

ANNE: "For me the stress in my life from work, because of the constant travelling, the constant involvement, which escalated as the years went along, has gone now so my body is healthier."

RICK: "How do you notice the difference?"

ANNE: "Because I haven't been in emergency since last February. I don't have the medical problems that I had before. I had heart problems. So now they're gone, which the doctor told me would happen."

The Reporter’s Notebook

  For many people, retirement means they have more time to take care of themselves. They don’t ‘eat on the fly’ like they used to. Less fast food. More prepared meals, and more time for exercise. However, actually waiting until retirement to look after your health is a lousy strategy.