When I Reach 100

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Thank you to Be Natural for supporting our family and sponsoring this post.

I agreed to do this post not because I suspected Be Natural might throw free food at us to try, but because the premise it came with was fascinating: I had no idea there might be more than just plain luck involved when it comes to living to 100.

“I’m putting some new snack bars in your lunch boxes,” I called out to the kids.

Miss6, who was walking past, caught a glimpse of what I was expecting her to eat.

“Yuck,” she said, and within a minute all the kids were standing around me complaining.

This is going well, I thought, my heart sinking. How was I supposed to write about how good they are if the kids won’t even try them?

Rather cleverly I gave them no choice because a Be Natural bar was their only alternative to starvation – a word a Devereaux child associates with not having any more chocolate biscuits in the house, or if we’ve only wholemeal bread, which probably gives you a bit of an insight into our usual diet.

I know if you eat poorly and don’t look after yourself you increase the chances of having a great looking corpse, but I really thought a long life was something you were genetically up for or you weren’t.

But it turns out, the world is full of hot spots where your chances of getting a letter from the Queen of England are vastly improved. Blue Zones they’re called, and through research it turns out it’s not just a matter of being well put together on a DNA level – it’s what you put in your mouth. Specifically, the research shows it’s a plant based diet.

Which is why I’m not wasting time: I’ve started my list of things I’m going to spend my extra years doing:

  1. Learn a language. Specially I want to learn to swear on every continent and in every culture. If my father is anything to go by, by 100 I’ll have thin skin and be a little shaky on my feet so I’ll probably bump into things a lot and therefore need to cuss. The importance of this will become evident when you get to point 10.
  2. Rock A Concert. Most of the artists I know would have died though. Keith Richards should still be around though.
  3. Bad Habits. I’m going to start some. Eating with my mouth open. Whistling in the public. It’ll be epic good fun. For me.
  4. Hang Out With My Kids. I’ll be like reruns of MASH on the telly. Hundreds of storylines but I only repeat the same three or four episodes.
  5. Party. Have a huge family reunion for my birthday. At my family’s current rate of population growth I think we can expect just over one hundred guests so I’m putting it out there now – someone else has to cater.
  6. Sleep In. Surely by now.
  7. Annoy my wife. I’d start by going to the fridge and drinking from the bottle of everything in there. Juice, milk, tomato sauce. Just because I can. Then I’ll put them all back on the wrong shelves.
  8. Brush. Hygiene is important, so I’d send my teeth out for a polish. Pearly whites will look nicer in the photos too
  9. Parachute. I’ve been building up my courage to do this for a number of decades now and at the rate I’m going I should just about be nearly almost ready.
  10. Travel. Do a victory lap of the Earth. On a mobility scooter.
  11. Diet. Never again. If I’m fat at 100 I’m keeping it. But I should probably keep chomping on plant based foods, whether it’s in the form of Be Natural cereal, granola, bar or simply raw because the data is in. Fortunately it also tastes good, so I actually want to eat more plant based foods like Be Natural plant powered food we’ve been trying out.

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So how did the kids go their lunch snacks?

“Dad!” Miss9 exclaimed that afternoon. “Those bars are del-ish-shussss.”

You know she’s excited when she breaks her words down like this. And our Miss9 is especially hard to please. Like she doesn’t eat cooked vegetables for dinner: hers have to be raw.

“I liked the chocolate chip one,” said Miss12. No surprise there.

In fact, the big surprise was they all liked them.

All.

Of.

Them.

Do you have any idea how big a thing that is? These bars are the Meryl Streep of healthy snacks.

And this was a problem – until yesterday I hadn’t managed to try one of the damn things myself, even after I’d gone to the shops twice for replacements: the kids keep scoffing the things down after school.

Fortunately, Be Natural also sent me a breakfast cereal to try for this post – Pink Lady Apple & Flame Raisin full of plant powered ingredients like a whopping 5 whole grains, linseed and pepita seeds, fruit, and the super food quinoa –  which I finished in two days!

At this rate I’ll be plant powered in no time! Like Popeye.

Seriously though, the cereal is the bomb and the snack bars are delicious. Importantly, they didn’t taste like I was being healthy at all. Put a pack on your grocery list and join me on my victory lap of the planet!

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