Health Product Guide

Aging creates enough problems without our adding more problems. Body parts start to hurt for seemingly no reason. “My leg hurts just because it is there.”

Many of us get fat as we age. We become less active, but we continue to eat as we did when we were active teenagers. We are no longer growing “up,”  so the food we eat makes us grow “out.” We also eat stuff that is not good for us, and the negative effects accumulate over the years.

However, all is not lost. We can help ourselves by remaining active. Choose an activity that you enjoy and do it regularly. Don’t think of getting exercise; think of having fun. We all need to play and have fun. The more time that we spend at play, the less time that we have to eat.

If you are already active, then do yourself a big favor and avoid becoming sedentary. Avoid fat habits: Watching television, taking the elevator at work, eating snack “foods,” sitting all day at the computer. These things do you little good.

Many people live a long time in great discomfort. I’d like to live a long life, but I want to feel good in old age. I’m convinced that maintaining physical fitness by avoiding fat habits is the way to minimize discomfort in old age.

I had a Tai Chi instructor who was also a ballet dancer. Her face was old and wrinkled, but her body was strong and supple. She seemed to have none of the physical discomforts that many older people have.

NPR recently ran a story on ballet dancer Frederic Franklin who is still dancing at the age of 95. When I heard him speak, he sounded not at all like an old person. He has been dancing since he was eight years old. He loves it and keeps doing it, and it keeps him young.

I don’t know about you, but I want to be young in my old age, and I want to die young.