Fitness: Age has many rewards. The more rewards we will be able to enjoy, however, are determined by our fitness as we age.

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Fitness and Health

Fitness: Nine Steps for Healthy Aging

By JB Johnson and Joy Stevens

Fitness: The fitness for age begins at middle-age, however, not when we are retirement age. Now is the time to get fit for your old age!

The role of fitness in health: 

Yet, health and fitness does not start then, it starts now.

There are certain things you must do now if you are going to be fit as you age.

1. Quit smoking.

2. Develop a personal exercise program combining aerobics and weight work. If you need it, hire a personal trainer to get you started.

3. Take charge of your brain. Make an active commitment to learning and growth. According to research on lifespan development: IF you continue to use your brain and develop your intellect  and IF you remain socially connected and active, you can actually increase your IQ scores as you age.

4. Eat a low-fat, high-fiber diet. Plan a few days a week that include no animal products. Learn to live on fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes as much as possible.

5. Stay aware of the latest nutritional information.  Don't fall for fad diets. When something sounds too good to be true such as The Atkins' Diet, it usually is. When something sounds too good to be true and it is too complicated for you to comprehend easily, such as Sears' Zone Diet, be doubly wary.

6. Remember that the pharmaceutical industry makes money from selling drugs. Read, study, and form your own opinions about taking cholesterol, blood pressure, estrogen and other "old-age" medicines. Very few long-term studies are available to show the results of these medicines. The industry does extensive advertising to the medical profession pushing these drugs. The industry does excellent advertising and  good PR work with the public in support of these drugs. Your doctor is not a genius. He/she can not possibly keep up with everything and most rely on the pharmaceutical industry for much of his/her information. It is your responsibility to read, study, and keep up with the truth for yourself. 

7. Practice light to no drinking. Your liver will not last forever if you don't.

8. Remain goal oriented. Regardless of your age, still set one, five, ten and twenty-year goals. Keep on growing!

9. Don't become more conservative than ever. Age is an attitude. Conservative is an old, stuffy attitude that allows life to pass you by and makes you sound old and boring.

More information about health and fitness issues

By the time you are in your mid-forties, you should be getting a glimmer of what age has in store for you. Certainly it should be dawning on you that your will not have enough time to do everything in life. Therefore, you must do what is important. And aging gracefully needs to go to the top of your list!

Despite what the media, the cosmetics/fashion industry,  the diet industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and now the cosmetic surgery medical establishment would have us believe, there are many gains as we age.  We need to be fit to enjoy them.

Additional information about health and fitness.