Who hasn’t heard about the latest and greatest treatment, cream or lifestyle that is supposed to offer happy healthy longevity?
There are lots of theories and therapies out there that offer to help hold back time, but maybe the simplest solution is the best. In a recent article in the New York Times entitled Closest Thing To a Wonder Drug: Try Exercise author, Aaron E Carroll, suggests that simple non stressful exercise is the key to great physical and mental health.
He recommends 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity physical activity for adults or about 30 minutes each weekday. Intensity of exercise may be less than you think! He says walking briskly, at 3 to 4 miles per hour or so, qualifies. So does bicycling slower than 10 miles an hour. Anything that gets your heart rate somewhere between 110 and 140 beats per minute is enough. Even vacuuming, mowing the lawn or walking your dog could qualify. Imagine how fit we’d all be if we attended the Latin and American Dance classes on Sundays with Widowed Friends of Halton! Two hours of movement and fun!
Another recent article in the New York Times entitled Better Aging Through Practice, Practice, Practice by Gerald Marzorati suggests finding a new activity you’ve never done before, then immersing yourself in it and working hard to master it. Doing something new and working to gradually improve with practice provides a different and satisfying level of accomplishment. In the author’s words “You seize time and you make it yours. You counter the narrative of diminishment and loss with one of progress and bettering. You spend hours removed from the past (there is so much of it now) and, in a sense, the present (and all its attendant responsibilities and aches), and immerse yourself in the as yet.”
What’s your advice? Do you exercise to keep young? Play brain games, bridge or solitare? Share your tips in the comment box!
