Learn About Health From 'The happiest Woman'

From -http://yourlife.usatoday.com

"When I turned 40, I swear, it struck midnight and I gained 5 pounds!" Mary Claire Orenic confided to me. When she complained to her gynecologist, he gave her the straight skinny: "From now on, if you do everything the same as the year before, you will gain 3 pounds a year."

That's when Mary Claire — who may be one of the happiest women in America based on her very high rating on the Healthways Well-Being Index for midlife women — determined to keep moving every day for her next 10 years. She has her hands on a ball every day, whether it's shooting hoops in the driveway after work with her son — "it's when we talk" — or playing a furious game of volleyball in the sand on weekends. She lives a quarter-mile from the ocean in Manhattan Beach, Calif. At 5-foot-6 and 115 pounds, the 50-year-old looks petite next to the two athletic men she lives with, 6-foot-5 husband Chris and 6-foot-4 son Christopher. The family belongs to a gym where they work out together on weekends.

After a decade of reframing her lifestyle, Mary Claire doesn't have to watch what she eats. She can get away with a breakfast of eggs, toast, OJ, and café mocha, plus a bagel for a mid-morning snack, and still have chips and a cookie with a turkey sandwich for lunch, without gaining an ounce. Dinner is usually grilled fish and vegetables and a pasta or potatoes, topped off with mini brownies. How does she do it?

"I eat all day," she admits, "but I don't eat much." Five mini-meals keep her energy level quite steady and she never comes to the table complaining, "I'm starving." The Orenics rarely eat red meat and skin their poultry. "I never eat late at night," she adds. The real luxury is a husband who does all the cooking —and he's good at it. A doctor of optometry, Chris Orenic's luxury eye care center is two minutes from their home. Grocery stores with temptingly fresh fruits and vegetables year-round are so convenient, Chris shops every day.

If you don't hate Mary Claire already, listen to this: Despite working 45 to 60 hours a week as a high-powered executive in the health care business, she doesn't grumble when her next-door neighbor waves from the window to signal she wants to take a brisk walk. They vent as only girlfriends can do. Studies find that a mere 10 minutes of fast-walking boosts energy for the next two hours. And confiding in a friend is a surefire way to put a smile on your face and problems in perspective.

In taking the pulse of Americans' well-being on a daily basis for the last three years, Gallup-Healthways finds that emotional health is lowest in the 45-54 age bracket compared to all other age groups. Emotional health cannot be separated from physical health. The average number of chronic physical problems rises as emotional problems mount in women 45-54.

Women peak in worry and sadness during the midlife passage as they move through menopause and shed a younger, fertile self. Today, more than 20% have three or four emotional health risks and complain they don't have enough energy to get through the day. As stress, worry, sadness and clinical depression increase, so does the proportion of women in this age range who report having diabetes, hypertension, and admit to being obese. They are also smoking more and many have asthma.

"No previous generation of women has recorded this high level of disease this early in life," says Jim Pope, chief science officer at Healthways Research Center. "Women already have more demands at this age than men, so when disease and pain are added to their workload while they are caring for aging parents, they neglect caring for themselves. It's a downward spiral."

The positive news from Healthways data is that stress decreases gradually from 50 to 55 and then drops off quickly after the mid-50s. I have observed in thousands of interviews with women that as they cross the midlie hump around 50, what opens up before them is a whole Second Adulthood and the potential for a new self.

"It's not too late to turn things around at 50," emphasizes Janet Calhoun, a well-being educator for over two decades at Healthways. "Even at 55, you can revitalize your health and retrain your eating habits and cultivate high well-being."

What can you do to begin improving your health, energy and emotional vitality right away?