As a child, my only role models of old people were my grandparents. They didn't exercise or eat carefully, at least one smoked like a chimney, and at least one other drank too much. In their 60s, they were not active, did not appear to have much energy, they sat around on the couch a lot, swallowed handfuls of prescription meds every day, and went to the doctor a lot. Being old, it appeared to me, was a depressing and unavoidable state of existence.
But something changed my pessimistic view. I went on two bicycling trips - one in Alaska in 1998, and one in the Bryce/Zion/Grand Canyon area in 2000. On these trips, almost all of the other cyclists were older than me, and several were in their 60s or 70s. These older cyclists were not marathon runners or professional athletes. They were just ordinary people who, during their 40s and beyond, made a point of exercising regularly and not gorging on unhealthy foods too often. Yet, they were in amazing shape - their legs and arms looked "young" and reasonably toned, and they could bike 50 miles without any more difficulty than me or others in my age group.
At about the same time, my grandmother passed away. Until she was about 80, she made a point to walk two miles every day. One day, she injured her knee and had to stop walking for a couple months while it healed. By the time the doctor cleared her to resume her long walks, she was out of the habit and had lost the motivation, so she never picked it up again. This was precisely when everything started going downhill.
These observations - seeing healthy 70-somethings do bike trips and seeing my grandmother go downhill - have led me to no less than an epiphany that has radically changed my beliefs and values about aging.
I now see that aging does not have to mean settling for that depressing existence that my grandparents had when I was a kid. I see that we can influence how we age, we can almost control it, to an extent. How? As I type these words, I'm amazed that it took so long to internalize what must seem obvious to most people. Exercising regularly and eating reasonably well.
In your 20s, your metabolism will cut you a lot of slack if you aren't exercising much. Not so in your 30s and beyond. You really need to start taking care of yourself with regular (3x/week minimum) exercise and a reasonably good diet (not too much splurging on bad food), or else bad things will happen - weight will rise, quality of life will fall. These changes will happen so gradually that you won't really notice them on a day-to-day basis, but if you compare yourself at age 30 and 40, the difference will be profound - and the worse it gets, the harder it is to turn around.
The good news is that you can dramatically increase the chances of a high quality of life in your 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s by making significant lifestyle changes. It's never too late, but definitely the earlier you start, the better off you'll be.
If you take care of yourself with reasonably regular exercise and a diet that doesn't have too much bad food, you will dramatically increase the chances of a high quality of life in your 40s and beyond. My goal is to be able to do bike trips in my 70s like the people I've met on the bike trips I've done so far.
Take me, for example. Most everything thinks I'm in my mid-30s when they meet me. (If it were just a few people, I'd say they're just being polite. But it is literally everyone.) I'm actually 45. I look young, feel as good as I ever did in my 30s, and have the energy to do these bike trips only because, as much as my lifestyle allows, I stay active and exercise regularly. I'm convinced that if I keep this up, I will very likely postpone most of the bad things that normally come with aging.
I'm not in awesome shape, as anyone who has seen me can tell you. I'm about 15 pounds overweight, and I often don't eat as well as I know I should. Nobody would confuse me with an athlete. But for 15 years, I've been taking fairly good care of myself, more or less, especially when it comes to exercise.
I really do not want to get old. I don't want to be passive and sickly like my grandparents were when I was growing up. I have seen that I can stave off most of the bad things about getting old, and continue to enjoy a very high quality of life well into my 60s and 70s.
Suddenly, aging does not look so bad.
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Postscript 1
When I started realizing these lessons about exercise and quality of life, I began harping on my parents to exercise more. (I love them dearly and want to have them around for as many years as possible.) I became somewhat annoying, I'm sure they would agree.
At some point, something clicked, and they "got it." This happened around the time I gave them a copy of "Younger Next Year" by Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge - I'd like to think my gift played a role. But it could be something else. They started taking various exercise classes at their gym around this time, which might have pushed them past that "tipping point."
In any case, something happened and they "got it." Since then, more or less regularly, they exercise and eat reasonably well. And now, in their upper 60s, they look fantastic! They are active and have high quality of life, and I am proud of them and inspired by them.
And most of all, I'm happy for entirely selfish reasons - their investment in their health greatly increases the chance that I will get to enjoy having them around for many, many more years.
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Postscript 2
My post (before "Postscript 1") doesn't say how much exercise you need or what is the "right" diet. You'll need to learn this for yourself, preferably from reputable sources (and my blog is not one!). But the lessons I've learned from reputable sources might be a useful point to start from.
How much exercise is enough? I've had 5 different personal trainers and read a half-dozen books on health and fitness; all of them say rigorous exercise at least 3 times per week. With exercise that frequent, each exercise session builds on the results of the previous one, and the results cumulate over time. With less frequent exercise, the benefits of one session fade away before the next session, so you're basically starting over each time. And by "rigorous" I mean that the exercise has to push you, it has to be hard work, and your heart rate has to get up and stay up.
(How high? That'll depend on your age, in part. But in general, if your heart rate is below 120, you're probably not working hard enough to get any lasting benefits.)
What about diet? I'm sure not an expert, and the "right diet" is probably different for everyone. To learn what's right for me, I saw a licensed dietitian a couple times, and read a half-dozen or so books on diet and nutrition. From all of this I derived what for me have proven to be useful lessons:
* Limit deserts (if you're trying to lose weight, two a week max)
* Limit junk food and comfort food (if you're trying to lose weight, one junk food meal per week max)
* Limit meals and snacks on the run (e.g., grabbing a coffee and breakfast sandwich at McDonalds on the way to work) to maybe once a week - this is where much damage to your diet occurs
* Fat is not the bad guy. Sugar is. As long as your total calories is reasonable, don't stress over fat. Fat satisfies the appetite and keeps you full longer. Sugar, on the other hand, must be burned right away, or it'll turn to body fat. And, you'll get hungry again soon. Unfortunately, many people buy "low fat" foods thinking fat is the problem; but these foods are typically manufactured with extra sugar to make them taste good.
* If you think you're eating well but you're significantly overweight, don't blame your metabolism or genes before taking a hard, honest look at your eating habits. People (including me) are often not aware of how much crap their putting in their mouths.
* If you're trying to lose weight, your chances of success are MUCH MUCH HIGHER if you keep a food journal - write down everything you eat and drink, the approximate portion size, time of day you eat it. And if you're limiting deserts to twice a week, mark down each desert in your journal so you can easily tell when faced with an attractive desert whether you've met your quota for the week.
If the reason you're overweight is that you're eating more than you think, you have no chance of losing weight unless you begin to become aware of how much you're eating. The food journal takes care of this. Critically important is to be 100% honest and accurate, even when you cheat or are weak and give in to a craving. Be completely accountable to your journal.
As I said, I'm not qualified to give medical advice - these are the lessons I've learned and try to live by. My hope is that you will become motivated to invest some time and energy to learn about diet and exercise yourself, and form your own guiding principles that give you results and a high quality of life. My guess is that the principles you learn and settle on will be pretty similar to mine, but that's for you to learn for yourself, from the expert resources you trust.
