My Longevity Story

Author: Jack

HOW IT STARTED

Hi, my name is Jack, I am a senior, born in 1946 (babyboomer 🙂 ). I am the initiator, creator, and chief editor of LoveableLongevity. I could never have guessed that I would come to the point that I would create a website aimed to help people to live better and hopefully loveable longer lives. And still, that is what happened. What ignited it was the passing away of my dearest wife Marije, whom I had to let go in 2011 after 42 years of marriage. Spot on, on our wedding anniversary day. She lost the unequal battle with cancer that lasted a one-and-a-half year. This devastation incident changed my life forever and strange to admit, also for the best, as you will learn later.

BALI

In 1999 we decided to prepare for our retirement in Bali, the beautiful holiday island in the “Emerald Belt”, as Indonesia is called by its former colonial ruler The Netherlands. After our first holiday there in 1998, Marije instantly fell in love with the climate, nature, culture, and the people of Bali. “Preparing” meant, that we started creating a home. That was easier said than done. It took us a few years to accomplish that. A story on its own, building in Bali. It was ready in 2006. Since then we live there, starting 5 years before planned retirement. This became possible because my entrepreneurial mind and skills enabled me to start a villa-development project. And that 5-year lasting project bridged the gap towards my retirement date. We also started renting out the luxury villa-accommodation that we created and we still do. It is located on the northern slopes of the volcanic ridge that divides Bali into a Northern and Southern part. It is called Gunung Paradis Retreat. And all looked good.

TEARS AND GETTING UP AGAIN

But then, in the year that I was reaching retirement age, she stepped out. At first, I was angry, disappointed, and grieved, but I knew I had to go on. For myself, my children, my grandchildren, and my purpose. However, the latter was not really clear to me at that time. But it was soon to be revealed and I am a completely different person now.

Over a few years since that year 2011, still in Bali, I enjoyed the consecutive company of some lovely, (mostly much younger) women, who taught me aspects of life I was not aware of at that time. I learned about Spirituality, Healthy Nutrition, Rawfood, Food- and Environmental toxins, and I started practicing Yoga, Senior gymnastics, body flexibility, and power training. Over a period of 4-years, I changed from a nearly obese person into a lean, much healthier, stronger, and younger-looking person. Without any special dieting, I lost at least 15 kg of unnecessary bodyweight. To my great surprise and joy, I gained more energy and a very positive look at life. And that was enforced by the next surprise.

POWER OF LOVE

The last and most important one that came into my life is Karina. She was a widow since her husband died, also of cancer, so we shared a common horrible experience. An experience that underlined for us the importance of living a healthy life. To both our luck she was living in North Bali too, about 33 km apart from each other. We became close and intimate friends, gradually turning into lovers, and ultimately married on 1-6-’16. Already since 2015 we share our lives full-time and are mutual coaches. Karina has become great on the subjects of healthy nutrition and supplements. Together we are constantly growing in the knowledge of integrative nutrition and functional medicine, body exercises. Not as professional health practitioners, but as reporters and publishers.

LONGEVITY COMMITMENT

It is already great to live a healthy, energetic, and satisfying life, but I even dared to add a commitment to it. On the day I married Karina, I promised her to celebrate our 25th anniversary with a big party. That is supposed to happen on 1-June-2041. I even do not want to stop there. The next milestone will be “Charming Centenarian”. In The Netherlands, we have a saying: “noblesse oblige,” meaning that what you promise you have to make come true. And this commitment fuels us to live our life’s purpose.

MY LIFE’S PURPOSE

In my quest to know my life’s purpose, I realized that helping people around me is a red thread in my life. As a 12-year old boy, I was already helping my mother, who suffered from anxiety and migraine attacks. My whole career after my education phase, I was working in the services industry (weather forecasting, financial services, management consultancy, villa project development). I love helping organizations or people getting things done or improving their life circumstances.

For most of my professional career, I was helping large institutions like banks and post- and telecom providers, to transform into better performing organizations. In the autumn of my life, I now can use this experience to coach people to transform personally into a better and stronger version of themselves. Even if it are only little steps. I am driven by the conviction that there is always room for improvement.

AMBITION OF LOVEABLE LONGEVITY

With all that in mind, the start on the healthy living path, the aim for what I labeled Charming Centenarian, and being a coaching couple with the same purpose, it is not difficult to understand that the LoveableLongevity.com website aims to promote a LongeVITALity Lifestyle. Our ambition and joy is to build a community of like-minded people to enforce each other to commit to longevity, adopt a lifestyle that enables that, transform to a healthier lifestyle and pursue ultimate HEALTH, JOY, AND HAPPINESS.

We will provide you with the necessary motivation, knowledge, proven tools, roadmaps, and coaching. If you ever need a hand or have any questions, please leave them below, and we will be more than happy to help you out.

To Loveable Longevity,

Jack & Karina

Email: jackandkarina@loveablelongevity.com

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