The Juggling Act : The Healthy Boomer's Guide to Achieving Balance in Midlife

After Peggy Edwards, Miroslava Lhotsky, and Judy Turner published their highly successful first book, The Healthy Boomer: A No-Nonsense Guide to Midlife Health for Women and Men, they embarked on a series of workshops with health professionals and men and women in midlife. Like them, the participants often found it almost impossible to juggle the responsibilities of midlife and still find time and energy for themselves. Translating the principles of balance and good health into daily action is difficult, and the authors knew from their seminars that participants were always pleased to hear stories of struggle and success from others. It made sense, they concluded, to ask Boomers themselves the best ways to manage midlife.

To get a sense of common issues in midlife and possible coping strategies, they sent out a questionnaire and conducted telephone interviews to draw out more in-depth ideas. The results are found in this book, a collection of anecdotes, quotes, and wisdom from Boomers themselves.

In midlife, we start to get in touch with the fact that our time on earth will not last forever and is precious. This book provides a variety of ways of looking at this fact and of thinking about the choices ahead. There are motivating stories from Boomers (some, such as Pamela Wallin, known to many), brief updates from the scientific world, and interesting tidbits of information from the survey.

Peggy Edwards is an Ottawa-based health promotion consultant and a respected writer, speaker, and commentator on health issues.

Miroslava Lhotsky, M.D., C.C.F.P., is a family physician in Toronto and a strong advocate of preventive medicine. Her interests include nutrition, fitness, obesity, and aging – particularly menopause and other issues of midlife health for men and women.

Judy Turner, Ph.d., C. Psych., is a psychologist in private practice, who works with midlife adults and couples. Drs. Lhotsky and Turner are the founders and directors of the Toronto Midlife Health Institute.