With Years Come Wisdom, Guest Post by Joe Gardewin

Our recent guest post on aging inspired yet another guest post, this one by long-term reader Joe Gardewin. I hope his words inspire you as much as they inspired me!

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Dear Doc Roxanne, 

I may not be an expert on aging but, at 78, I do consider myself aged or, as my friend, Tom Isern, says, “seasoned.” In other words, most of my life is in my rearview mirror. Ha! That is not a bad thing, because I’ve had a pretty full life. But I do hope to live for a while yet and, in all honesty, I think I will. I think that, in part, because I have a good family doc who has now followed me for 20 years. In her words I am “… not the patient I worry about most.” 

These are my thoughts on [hopefully] living a long, healthy life:  Continue reading


Gratitude and Wisdom

When I was eleven years old, my parents, always “early adopters” of the latest technology long before this kind of thing had a name, bought a brand new stove with a smooth white ceramic top. It was called a Corning Cooktop, and its most memorable feature, at least to me, was that its elements remained white even when they were hot enough to boil water. Was it really that hot? You had to take it on faith — or not. No matter how long I stared at it, I could not convince myself that the white ceramic stovetop was hot. And that is why I still remember, all these many years later, the perfectly oval burn on the tip of my right index finger. I only touched that hot stove once, but that was all it took. I did not cry, even though it hurt a lot. I just stared and stared. I could not take anyone else’s word for it; I needed to see for myself. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even tell anyone in my family. I just needed to know. Continue reading


Gifts from my Family

We receive many different kinds of gifts from our grandparents, whether the ability to identify all the trees in the backyard, or a beribboned stack of letters dating from the early 1900s, or a love of card games, baseball, or building castles on the beach. My family loved to cook and eat. This is certainly my inheritance, and a large part of the reason my family ate little or no ultraprocessed food. To use a product like “Shake ‘n’ Bake” bordered on heresy. I come by my love and celebration of good, real food in the most honest way possible.  Continue reading


Eating Well and Being Kind to Yourself (with recipe)

I come from a family of knitters. Our family lore includes a story about my mother and maternal grandmother knitting at the movies, with my 10-year-old mom doing the “easy” parts, and passing it to her mother for the sleeves and shaping. And the fact that my grandmother volunteered to knit the less popular dark blue sweaters for the Navy instead of khaki sweaters for the Army. It didn’t matter to her because she could knit in the dark. 

So when I finally decided that it was time for me to learn to knit, it was a little overwhelming. I took some books out of the library, one of which said to make your projects with the best yarn you can afford because the results will be better, and you’ll be more pleased with the finished product. That resonated with me, because it’s exactly what I say about food. Continue reading


Eating Slowly

Many years ago my mom and I were spending the day running errands when we suddenly realized that it was already the middle of the afternoon and we hadn’t eaten lunch yet. We were famished. I rummaged around for a snack, but all I could come up with was a tiny cellophane package of jelly beans. While my mom kept her eyes on the road, I tore open the package and divvied up six jellybeans. A very short while later we laughed as we realized that now we were barely hungry at all. Knowing that this was going to be a temporary state, however, we soon pulled in to our favorite diner and ordered lunch.

For me, this experience illustrates an important principle, namely that if you wait a little while after you eat, there is an excellent chance that your hunger will resolve. Continue reading


Small Steps

Some time ago, Gene the computer guy showed up at my office for the first time in a while. Right away, I knew something had changed. I said, “Gene, how are you? You’re looking very well!” He responded with an uncharacteristic grin, and answered by telling me one thing all of us know, but few believe (despite numerous confirmatory personal experiences!). I sat up fast when he said, “Diets don’t work.” Continue reading


Every Little Bit Counts

I have some amazing news to share. A recent study published in the journal Diabetes Care observed a reduced risk of diabetes (type 2) in older women who walked just 1000 steps more every day. You can access those findings here. This week’s post might, at first glance, seem a little dry to you, but if you’ll stay with me for a couple of minutes, I think you’ll find an important observation here that may resonate deeply. It’s not about diabetes, or even walking for that matter. It’s about success. Continue reading


Dieting: It’s Not for the Birds and It’s Not for You

This week I’m sharing a conversation that I have had with a lot of patients lately. They want to weigh less, they know that it’s better for their health, but they cannot figure out how to make it work. I tell them that making it work requires a frame shift, a change in the way you think about food. When we talk about what that means for them, I see the lights go on in their eyes and their expressions. It’s slightly magical, every time. They leave with renewed faith and self-confidence, not to mention relief. It was never about dieting. It was about the food. Continue reading


Remembering What You Want

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How to Make a Life

Connie and her husband Duane were my parents’ closest of friends for upwards of 40 years. They drove to Cleveland from their home in the hills of northwest New Jersey to crawl into bed with my father in his last days, to whisper their love for him, to share some memories, and to be, as always, the best friends they could be. My parents shared thousands and thousands and thousands of memories with Connie and Duane throughout the years. Their shared love for their Afghan hounds and Belgian sheepdogs, their joyful July 4th celebrations, hundreds and hundreds of weekly Sunday dinners, restaurant meals, New Years Eve parties, Thanksgiving graces, glasses of light red Beaujolais, local and national dog shows, chaffeuring one other, Zooming together, housesitting, and endless games of Trivial Pursuit. How do you make a life? How do friends and neighbors become transformed into family? This is how. Continue reading