Before the great recession, around 2005, I was recently divorced and working on figuring out my retirement plans. I was meeting with my bank pals, Stan and John. During the process I was asked “How far out do you want to plan?” My answer was “Until I’m a hundred years old. I’m going to try to live to a hundred.” Stan, who is around forty, replied that an older guy in his sixties had suggested Chris Crowley’s Younger Next Year.
Being 55 and struggling with severe lifestyle adjustment, I absorbed Younger Next Year. This book provides a fine and practical study about conscious aging, as well as tips for creating a fun and self-aware lifestyle. Taking charge of your body leads you to take charge of your life. You choose your state of health.
Author Chris Crowley pulls no punches; you have to connect to yourself and commit to doing what you need to do to take care of your health. Chris’s point is that we have to learn to take care of ourselves, and exercise is the only way to engage your brain and physical body. If you do it you will get younger. Through work and routine, we can resist old age.
Chris states that we need to exercise six days a week (with aerobic exercise at least four days) for the rest of our lives. There are no negotiations on this until you die. Make being healthy your new job. Have a schedule and exercise until you sweat. This creates circulation, which more than any other single thing is the key to health. After fifty, exercise is not an option; you have to exercise or you just get old. By exercising and paying attention to what you eat and drink (alcohol is my guilty pleasure) you slow up the slippery slope to an unhealthy death.
Separate chapters by Chris and Henry (his doctor) help us understand the meanings of these truths. Becoming aware of our health is the first stage of having more physical happiness. Our awareness that we are working to control our health fate is important. We are taking charge and doing our part to decrease the needs of entitlement health demands, which our country can’t seem to afford or be realistic about.
Trust me, this is a good book. Reflecting back to Stan’s suggestion–I thank him, too. Reading Chris’s book made me a happier and healthier sixty-year-old guy. Forty years to go until my one hundred! I look forward to Chris’s update, which I hope he will write as he turns 80.
Crowley and Lodge have also written Younger Next Year for Women.
See Chris Crowley’s newest book Thinner This Year: A Diet and Exercise Program for Living Strong, Fit, and Sexy written with nutritionist Dr. Jan Sacheck.
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