Physical activity is paramount to a healthy, long life - and you can
reap the benefits at any age. The opposite also is true: inactivity can
be deadly, Bortz says.
After age 50, you can't afford to be sedentary. "Exercise for young
people is optional," he says. "Exercise for old people is an imperative."
What exactly should you do? Any number of things: Walk, run, swim, row,
bike or dance. Even sex counts, he says, "if you do it right." That
means getting your heart rate up three times a week for at least a
half-hour each time.
2. Own your self-care
Don't cede control to the "disease cartel," as Bortz describes the
medical industry. Be persistent in improving your health behaviors and
build your competence over time. Remove any psychological barriers you
may have set up.
For instance, if you hate the way your make-up runs when you exercise,
don't wear it, he says. If you can't walk very far, make a jaunt around
the block your first goal instead of a mile. Take advantage of
incentives your health plan offers to get healthy.
The four steps to achieving self-efficacy, according to Bortz's friend
and renowned psychologist Albert Bandura, are small steps of mastery,
peer examples, social persuasion and diminishment of cues of failure.
3. Stay engaged with life
The old maxim "make yourself useful" applies to healthy aging, Bortz
says. Maintain social activity and intellectual pursuits. Fight loneliness.
4. Don't believe anti-aging hoaxes
Longevity "experts" who sell vitamins aimed at helping you live longer
are in the snake-oil business, Bortz says, and those who tout the
potential to live 150 years or more are ignoring the second law of
thermodynamics that makes such a human life expectancy impossible.
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