When Rob and I started writing our book, the War on Aging, we needed a place to summarize our experiences with aging and staying fit. Hence we starting writing this blog, Senior Fitness for Life.
Our main objective is to help other people like us, in our “third half” of life, through exercise, diet, and healthy lifestyle habits. As seniors, we face an onslaught of degenerative diseases and most of us are totally unprepared. Heart disease, diabetes, strokes, Parkinson’s, and cancer—who knew that just by virtue of being alive past 65, our chances for getting sick and disabled skyrockets. Not fair.
But then we learned that aging isn’t dependent upon genes so much as health habits. We can take measures to prevent these chronic diseases. All we have to do is exercise, eat right, sleep well, socialize and try to be as happy as possible. Piece of cake, as they say.
Knowing Isn’t Doing
Even knowing that these “old people’s diseases” are deadly, and that before they kill you they will attack your body and your mind, still doesn’t motivate the majority of seniors to exercise. That’s similar to the research that shows the warning label on cigarettes can actually stimulate smokers to light up, instead of demotivating them.
Once you’ve got heart disease, or had a stoke, or a cancer, it’s hard to start an exercise program, but not impossible. While physical fitness can be recuperated after disease and healing, it makes sense that preventing chronic diseases in the first place should be every senior’s objective.
The Hard Truths about Getting Older
Nobody is going to fight your battles with aging and disease for you. There are no magic bullets. No magic foods, or supplements. Okay, scientists are hoping to discover why we age, and market anti-aging pills, but don’t wait for it.
Cosmetic surgery doesn’t change what your cells look and feel like. It’s not true your life-span is in your genes. You are responsible for 80-90 percent of how quickly you will age and get sick. So it’s up to you!
Here’s what we know:
- You don’t have to be a lifelong athlete to adopt a healthy exercise habit.
- If you aren’t using your muscles, you are losing your muscles… and brain cells.
- Anyone can and should start at a comfortable level of exercise or sports and build up.
- You start now, do a little bit on two, then three, then four to six days a week, and you keep accumulating health benefits.
- You make it fun and social by playing sports or training with friends.
- If you maintain more healthy than unhealthy days, you will get fit, be happy, and live longer.
- All exercise requires healthy (real) food for the body and brain, and one without the other doesn’t work.
- Avoid all industrialized fats made from seeds or plants, they are harmful because of too much Omega-6 in our diets; use extra-virgin olive oil because it’s full of beneficial Omega-3s, and protective to heart and brain.
- I’m no nutritionist or MD, but from what I read, for most people, it’s a good idea to boost your body’s Omega-3 fats with supplements.
Making the Decision
Sometimes extreme measures are needed. Rob and I decided more than a couple of decades ago to go all out for health. We don’t smoke, don’t drink any alcohol, and the only drugs we use we buy at Walmart’s. But we’re not saints, and it’s up to you to make those lifestyle choices.
And we’re definitely not getting any younger. Rob has a serious heart condition, I have mild arrhythmia, and we’ve got the seniors’ medley of bad body parts and surgeries (knees, back, shoulders). When it comes to life, nobody gets out alive.
But there are some better ways to experience this whole old-age adventure. If you make life fun and adventuresome, some of the pain gets ignored. AND, here’s one big secret: proper exercise, done moderately, can actually reduce a lot of the causes of pain in joints and muscles. Using your joints sends a signal for lubrication and decreases stiffness.
Reject those awful cultural biases that paint seniors as weak, sick, and irrelevant. Many of us are finally free of the many responsibilities that consumed our time, focus, and energy for decades, such as raising our families and having full-time careers. This truly can be your golden age where you are more creative, alive, and thriving than ever before.
Join us in winning the War on Aging!
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