Eating like a geezer

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cashflo2u2

Recycles dryer sheets
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My wife and I have been retired about 6 years now. Many of our friends and relatives now eat their main meals at midday and don't eat much of anything after 5PM. We still eat a robust meal anywhere between 6:30 and 7:30 PM, put on the music and enjoy home cooking together. I like cooking with wine (sometimes I even put it in the food). We still go out to eat often. They don't even like going out at night. Are we going to die? Should we be eating like geezers now?
 
Great thing about this. There is no right way. You are retired and can do whatever the heck you want :)

My in laws are in their mid 80s. Both in good health. They get up really early around 4 to 6. Eat lunch earlier than most and eat dinner earlier than most. Get to bed early. They must have been doing something right in retirement.
 
We tend to eat less per meal and are starting to split meals because of the huge portion sizes in most resaurants. I have GERD so I don't like to eat a large meal after 7 PM unless I am not going to bed until pretty late. DW eats very little so a full meal for her will be lunch the next day or maybe two.

Some older folks like to catch the Senior discounts at some places so tend to eat 5-6PM to get it. Others just don't want to deal with the screaming kids and cell phone chatter of the younger crowds so eat early to avoid them.

I think a lot of the eating early phase of retirement is more related to age than anything else. Older folks tend to go to bed earlier so eating earlier makes sense. I guess they just run out of things to do other than eat and watch TV before they go to bed at 9 PM. My FIL gets up at 6 AM and has a very very regimented time schedule for eating and other activities....heaven help you if you upset his schedule. Dinner IS 5:30PM...everyday. Be prepared of pay the price of his wrath. :bat:

I hope I don't get that way when I am 80+. :(
 
SteveR said:
We tend to eat less per meal and are starting to split meals because of the huge portion sizes in most resaurants. I have GERD so I don't like to eat a large meal after 7 PM unless I am not going to bed until pretty late. DW eats very little so a full meal for her will be lunch the next day or maybe two.

Some older folks like to catch the Senior discounts at some places so tend to eat 5-6PM to get it. Others just don't want to deal with the screaming kids and cell phone chatter of the younger crowds so eat early to avoid them.

I think a lot of the eating early phase of retirement is more related to age than anything else. Older folks tend to go to bed earlier so eating earlier makes sense. I guess they just run out of things to do other than eat and watch TV before they go to bed at 9 PM. My FIL gets up at 6 AM and has a very very regimented time schedule for eating and other activities....heaven help you if you upset his schedule. Dinner IS 5:30PM...everyday. Be prepared of pay the price of his wrath. :bat:

I hope I don't get that way when I am 80+. :(
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Steve, I think you may - IMO kind of goes with age, I think. I have to really work at not getting upset when stuff does not happen as I think it should have. Takes a concerted effort to just "go with the flow" and not let things get under my skin. I think it started at about age 60 (now almost 68). Fortunately, it helps to have a DW that just puts up with me. I wish you good luck.
 
R Wood said:
Steve, I think you may - IMO kind of goes with age, I think. I have to really work at not getting upset when stuff does not happen as I think it should have. Takes a concerted effort to just "go with the flow" and not let things get under my skin. I think it started at about age 60 (now almost 68). Fortunately, it helps to have a DW that just puts up with me. I wish you good luck.
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And I thought it was just because I don't like to be around people. :D
 
The key to eating like a geezer is to open you mouth and stick your tongue out as you start to move the spoon from the plate or bowl.
 
The key to eating like a geezer is to show up for happy hour promptly at 4 so you can throw a few martinis down while the little woman has pink chablis before you get the all you can eat fish & chips from the early bird menu for $6.99.
 
Moemg said:
The key to eating like a geezer is to show up for happy hour promptly at 4 so you can throw a few martinis down while the little woman has pink chablis before you get the all you can eat fish & chips from the early bird menu for $6.99.
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Hey, you make it sound nice. Maybe the geezer route ain't so bad afterall.
 
cashflo2u2 said:
My wife and I have been retired about 6 years now. Many of our friends and relatives now eat their main meals at midday and don't eat much of anything after 5PM. We still eat a robust meal anywhere between 6:30 and 7:30 PM, put on the music and enjoy home cooking together. I like cooking with wine (sometimes I even put it in the food). We still go out to eat often. They don't even like going out at night. Are we going to die? Should we be eating like geezers now?
Click to expand...
We eat a light dinner because we have taekwondo workouts three nights a week. Not much fun getting kicked in the head while you're burping up pepperoni pizza.

As for that "going out at night" thing, my FIL had a lot of problems with glare and loss of night vision. I started driving them to evening events when they were still in their 60s. I think it's the next aging betrayal after presbyopia and getting up six times a night...
 
Now that Spring has arrived and the farmers' market is open, I am working on reconfigurating what and when I eat.
 
Take a trip to the local Nursing Home. You'll see what eating like a geezer looks like. At 5 pm, the food trolley rolls around to my mother's room. By 7pm, she's ready for bed. The highlights of every day involve eating.

We still eat the evening meal sometime between 6-7 pm. Two glasses of wine are a necessity. Restaurant meals are almost always too large, so the takeout becomes lunch the next day. I usually have that before my nap. Life is good.

Being able to drive at night makes you an attractive male geezer to the female geezerettes. As long as you can drive at night, you've got sex appeal. I guess I need to buy some of those night vision goggles. :D
 
In one small step toward geezeritis, we've started eating lunch, rather than supper, in restaurants - smaller portions, lower cost, and usually the same amount of take-home for another meal. One local Japanese restaurant even offers different bento boxes each weekday - miso soup, salad, 4-5 pcs tempura veggies, meat/fish & tea for $6.99 (!). We stop about 2pm after the w#rking class has clocked back in & things are more relaxed, enjoy lunch, and are back in the barn before rush hour.
 
Ever the contrarian, I'm actually eating later in ER than I did when working. For one thing, my whole schedule has shifted later (no more getting up at 5 a.m.! Now it's 7 to 8. No more going to bed at 10---now it's 11). Now that we are not dictated by the clock or forced to compress chores and leisure into a couple of hours after work, we no longer eat at 6---more like 7. I'm not saying I could handle the Barcelona thing where people eat dinner at 11 p.m., but this is a definite improvement.

And there aren't any Early Bird specials here, so that's not an incentive.

I agree that lunch is a great bargain in most places, although I don't think any Japanese places offer a $6.99 bento box like Old Guy gets---more like $8 or $9.

Occasionally we have to rush a little to be ready to watch the couple of TV shows we watch at 8, but maybe we will start taping them and play them back later...or forgo them all together.
 
Getting up as early as 10am each day, we have a healthy, small breakfast of oatmeal (geezer food) and coffee with our newspaper. Lunch is a healthy soup and salad around 1ish or a bit later. So we have a late(r) 6 or 7 dinner ... again trying (and sometimes succeeding) to eat healthy. steamed/grilled/baked fish, chicken, the occassional steak, with lots of veggies.

Do we qualify as geezers yet?
 
My problem is that I eat on the early schedule AND on the late one too. I really like eating. It's difficult to get enough exercise to avoid turning into a whale.
 
Eating Late

We eat late, always have. Eight or nine o'clock most nights. I loved Barcelona because the restaurants don't even really open until 9pm and then you get the table for the entire evening.

Then you go out for drinks and to meet with friends. Go home about 2am and start it all over the next day.

The two hour siesta helps along with the lower alcohol wine unlike our high test Napa Valley style.

Works for me. I'd move in a second.

boont
 
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