Selma Hayek and I are a lot alike. Well, maybe not a lot, but we do have a couple of things in common. In a recent interview with Oprah, Hayek confessed that she never exercises and she eats pork. Combined with her other lifestyle choices, she’s not doing too badly despite a few bad habits. Me too. I also never exercise; I eat pork, and I spend far too much time sitting on my gluteus maximus reading and writing. And I’m not grossly overweight (although a ten-pound weight loss would make me the happiest person on the planet); I have no significant health issues and I can eat Black Jack Cherry ice-cream without major consequences.

Sometimes I think we worry too much about maximizing a healthy lifestyle. Every day there’s something new in the media to scare me about what I should or should not be eating. Today it was about probiotics and how I’m doomed if I’m not gobbling down massive quantities of good bacteria several times a day. How on earth did the Eskimos ever live for centuries on a diet consisting solely of seal meat and blubber? Somehow they managed to survive without ever eating a single fruit or vegetable in their entire lives. It was only when western or European-style diets were introduced to them that they became sick and developed diabetes and other chronic illnesses.

My lifestyle choices are based on my intense dislike of competitive sports (despite winning overall first place one year for girls in our elementary school field day—I still have the trophy), an enduring sweet tooth and a healthy dose of common sense. I probably watch too much television in the evening although I efficiently combine it with perusing my multitudinous magazine subscriptions, painting my nails, pumicing my feet or Googling how to get the most out of life. I’m not as conscientious about walking my dog as I should be but she’s only three pounds and in hot weather it’s too much for both of us.

In an earlier blog entitled “Have you found your passion?” I outlined all my failed efforts at every type of sport and hobby known to humankind. When people ask me what I “do” with myself now that I’m retired, I simply inform them that I’m a lazy slug who would sooner be reading or writing than doing anything else I can think of. Like the early Eskimos, it seems to be working for me. My genetic makeup points to hopefully living to be a reasonably old age in comparatively good health despite my lifestyle shortcomings. In fact, I think life now is not so much about what I do but is more about what I am and that’s one happy old boomer who’s never bored and regards every day as a gift. And for that I say, “thank you”.