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The whole question of body weight is a balancing act – and that’s not on the bathroom scales. Ignore all those fad suggestions you should count those carbs or eat small mountains of grapefruit or cabbage. The simple reality is it all comes down to those pesky calories. You have to burn more than you eat. This means either seriously cutting down the number of calories you eat or significantly increasing the amount of exercise you take (or both). Once you accept this, you can start making sensible plans. First, remember you don’t have to do this alone. There’s your family, all those friends and, if you’re really desperate, your regular doctor who may recommend a dietician or nutritionist to give you the basics of healthy eating. There’s also the possibility your excess weight may be due to a more serious health problem, or be causing a disease. You should discuss treatment options for the underlying cause, and may have to consider the possibility of weight loss surgery. You also need to include your emotions in this plan. Looking ahead, there are bound to be situations in which you feel your diet challenged – as in when your friends invite you out for a meal in one of those restaurants where you don’t get to see the plate underneath the food until you’ve been eating ten minutes, or you’re suddenly tempted to binge from the fridge.

So what should go into your diet plan? Well, the answer depends on you. These are the food choices you have to live with for the next few years, so whatever you decide has to fit your tastes and lifestyle. It should have variety with plenty of fruit, vegetables, grains, lean protein and low-fat products. There’s no point in picking things hard to find or too expensive to fit comfortably into your family budget. The diet must be easy to manage, avoid boredom and keep your healthy. When it comes to exercise, never worry about the word. There’s no need to spend money on a gym membership or equipment to be used at home. An exercise program simply means being more active. There’s a strong piece of research from Scotland in which people were encouraged to maintain their yards. That meant digging and planting, hoeing and weeding and, of course, mowing. The plan was not less than 30 minutes at least three times a week. Their weight loss was impressive. The rule is a simple one. Whatever you do should be reasonably vigorous and you should do it regularly.

Put a healthy diet together with increased activity and you have the building blocks of an effective weight loss program. The key problem, as always, is keeping yourself motivated. That’s where phentermine may come into the calculation. As your body adjusts to expecting smaller portions, you may feel really hungry for the first time in your life. This can come as a surprise and, as it grows stronger, you can find your willpower disappearing. Phentermine is an appetite suppressant. It works fast, cutting off the messages coming from your stomach to your brain. With hunger pangs controlled, life on a diet just got so much easier. The only thing to remember is not to take the drug for too long. Within a few weeks, your stomach starts to shrink and you will feel full on less food. It’s better to get used to that feeling without having to rely on a drug.

In The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Murial Spark, we are allowed the privilege of an insight into the world of young women, supposedly before they enter their prime. A part of the fascination is their great curiosity about sex, but their equal revulsion at the thought of actually doing it, particularly when they get older. As young people with firm and, depending on the viewer, potentially beautiful bodies, there is something “off-putting” about the development of wrinkles. Written sixty years ago, it explores how sexual relationships development in a more strongly puritanical culture just recovering from World War II. Life expectancy was still relatively short with people seeming to age faster and give up on sex earlier. Coming into modern times, the culture of puritanism is still with us and the original narrative would now be viewed through the lens of pedophilia. But one basic truth remains. People of all ages remain sexual animals when they have the chance. Whether older people continue to have that chance is often the source of bitter recrimination and anger. Such is the price we all pay when we toy with each others emotional expectations.

This March sees an interesting article published in the BMJ. It reports the results of two surveys with about 6,000 participants, undertaken in the US, to explore whether older people continue to enjoy sex. The first conclusion is gender-related. Older men were more likely to claim continuing sexual success than women. This was most pronounced in the over 75 years group. But, what is equally clear is that the probability of being able to engage in sexual activity is decided by opportunity. Both genders reported higher levels of sexual activity if they were married or had a regular partner available. All this was, of course, subject to the issue of health. People reporting the best levels of health and strength had sex more often than those whose physical condition made sex more challenging. Why should this matter? Well, as life expectancy inches ever higher, the quality of life we can look forward to as seniors will be affected by our ability to continue sexual activity. Indeed, there is very good evidence to show that happy people have better health and live longer. Thus, as a matter of public policy, the US should be earmarking resources to maintain sexual activity in the aging population.

As it stands, very few doctors have any interest or expertise in sex for seniors. Even when men come into the surgery to complain about erectile dysfunction, the routine (and unthinking) reaction is to write out a prescription for cialis. As the Boomers enter their prime, their expectations should be met. No matter how good cialis (and it is very good at maintaining sexual ability in older men), there should be detailed counseling and support for both married and unmarried couples to help them maintain active sex lives. This is particularly important for women. The development of the erectile dysfunction drugs has left them marginalized. They deserve better. If big government cannot spend money on training the medical profession to deal with this, perhaps the capitalists will see a money-making opportunity to bring couples together and help them develop active lives. Younger people might find the idea of seniors dating unsettling, but there’s a real need for sympathetic services to encourage older people to find happiness and live more fulfilled lives.