What Can You do TODAY to Age Successfully? by Walter M. Bortz II, M.D.
1.Do at least 30 minutes of sustained, rhythmic, vigorous exercise four times a week. Seek out patterns, times, places, and contacts that make exercises as much a part of your day as eating and sleeping.
2.Eat like a bushman. Return to the habit of eating what nature first laid on our tables: fruits, whole grains, vegetables, and lean meat.
3. Get as much sleep and rest as you need. Make quiet time a major priority. Exercisers, in particular, must acknowledge that their bodies require respite from workouts and the general clamor of the day.
4. Maintain your sense of humor and deflect anger. Make each day an opportunity for optimism for yourself and others. A positive mindset creates the expectation that something good is about to happen and opens the door to new options for success.
5. Set goals and accept challenges that force you to be as alive and creative as possible. Nature operates in such a way that growth and living are nearly synonymous. When one stops, so does the other. Creativity is not confined to the first part of your life. In fact, accumulated knowledge and experience should make the later decades even more congenial to new accomplishment.
6. Don't depend on anyone else for your well-being.A well-developed sense of self-efficacy is the crucial link to a long and meaningful existence. We all need to maintain mastery, autonomy, and independence in our daily lives.
7. Be necessary and responsible. Live outside yourself. Beyond independence, we also need to see each day as a chance to help someone or something. Associate with other active, involved individuals. Sharpen your sense of duty to the Earth, which nurses us all.
8. Don't slow down.Stick with the mainstream. Avoid the shadows. Stay together. Universal law dictates that natural order is preordained by only one mechanism--a well-directed, purposeful flow of energy. Aging need not be characterized by loss. Maintaining your energy flow is the antidote.
Note from Stephanie: A number of years ago I had the pleasure of attending a lecture given by Dr. Bortz, one of the country's most distinguished scientific experts on aging and longevity. He is the author of several books, including We Live Too Short and Die Too Long,Dare to Be 100, Living Longer for Dummies, and Diabetes Danger. Dr. Bortz has two new books underway: The Roadmap to 100: Breakthrough Science of Living a Long and Healthy Life, and Next Medicine: The Coming Revolution That will Save American Healthcare. You can find out more about Dr. Bortz and his work at www.walterbortz.com.