I subscribe to bloggers and newsletters than I care to admit, but rarely do any of them get more than a cursory glance before I hit the “archive” button (gotta love Gmail’s endless storage supply). For some reason, today I actually did read a few sentences of Portland Picks’ weekly missive, and it led me to take a test to determine my “real age” (meh, I was bored). According to their site, the test “provides medically valid metrics that compare biological versus calendar age, based upon your answers to the test.” Their free services also include using that test to compile “your personalized recommendations to grow younger” and other related tools. Again I tell you, I was bored!
Anyway, here’s what I got. According to the calendar I’ll be 26 in less than two months, but my “RealAge” (biological age of your body, based on lifestyle, genetics, and medical history) is supposedly four years behind that. Not bad, and also intriguing enough to make me explore the site more.
The RealAge plan has five components: Health, Habits, Relationships, Diet and Fitness. Each has ten items that are classified, based on your test, as either younger or older (obviously younger is better). For example, under Habits, being a nonsmoker is a checkmark in the “younger column”. Yay for me!
I found this ironic though … I got a check in the “older” column of health because I don’t control my allergies enough, and another “older” check for my lack of a furry friend. Apparently they didn’t consider pet dander allergies, just seasonal ones, because getting a cat or dog would be hazardous to my health instead of improving it! Which, on a related note, makes me sad … so I’ve been getting shots to lessen my dog/cat allergy in hopes that someday my nose will be able to tolerate a furry friend in the house.
