The Live Temperately table is where you will perform the computer health age assessment and discuss temperance issues with the participants, encouraging them to avoid that which is harmful and use wisely that which is good.

For the computer health age assessment, you will use the Microsoft Excel program in the resources section. Load the program on a laptop computer which has Microsoft Excel and open it. You will notice that there are several yellow boxes (cells) on the form. These are to be filled in by the staff member running the table.

In the Health Fair Booklet, one of the pages has the questionnaire for the computer health age. The participant will need to answer the questions on the questionnaire before you can complete the assessment. Match the yellow box on the program with the questionnaire and fill in the responses. Weight is to be recorded in pounds (not kilograms), and height is to be entered in inches (not feet or centimeters).

For the body frame, have the participant grab their wrist with their thumb and middle finger. If the thumb overlaps the middle finger to the first joint or further, put 1 in the box. If the thumb touches, but does not overlap that far, put 2 in the box. If the thumb and middle finger do not touch, put 3 in the box.

Follow the directions as noted in the Computer Health Age Instructions form. Be sure to discuss the results of the assessment with the participants, as this is the most important part of the assessment. As you will see, the computer health age will identify areas in the life of the participant that need to be improved and gives you reasons to improve in those areas. You can compare the actual age of the participant with the health age and the potential health age. The actual age is, of course, their current age. The health age tells you that they will likely live as long as someone who is the age that is listed. The potential health age is how “young” they could be if they were practicing all of the health habits covered in the questionnaire.

Let us use an example to help. Let us imagine that you have a 65 year-old man sitting before you, who has a health age of 71 and a potential health age of 58. That would mean that because of his unhealthy lifestyle practices, he would be expected to live as long as a 71 year-old, even though he is actually 65. However, if He practiced all of the healthy lifestyles, he would be expected to live as long as a 58 year-old. You can not talk to him about the lifestyle factors that need to change and encourage him in that change by showing him that he can improve his longevity (how long he is expected to live) by changing his lifestyle.

We want to tie in healthy lifestyle choices and temperance issues (avoiding tobacco, alcohol, drugs and caffeine, etc.) with our spiritual life as well. This would be a good time to point out the fact that healthy bodies make healthy minds, that healthy minds lead to a greater sensitivity to God’s voice in our lives and helps us to make wiser decisions. We can remind them (or show them) that the Bible shows us how to take care of our bodies and that those who are living in such a way as to have better computer health ages are simply following the directions as outlined in the Bible and reaping the results from doing so.

Make it interesting and engaging, and lead them step by step to a better lifestyle in Christ.

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