One Way to Extend Your Healthspan

Hello friends, and welcome to Notes from the Road! This is the place for news, advice, tools, and inspiration to thrive in your 50s and beyond. In this issue:

• Live longer and better by bending the curve on your health.

• How travel can help you beat the Groundhog Day effect.

• Advice for new retirees (a wide variety of opinions).

• The shortage of homes for aging in place.

Let’s get started!

I went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago to address some minor physical complaints. We talked about my symptoms, I shared my diagnostic theory, and he agreed that it made sense. The challenge? There’s no official test that proves conclusively that a person has this particular thing.

So I said, “Do you think I have this thing?” And he said, “Yes, you might. And it will progress over time. And the thing we want to do, because it’s chronic, is to ‘bend the curve’ on it as much as we can so that by the time it really causes you trouble, you’re 85, and by then…” and then he shrugged. We both laughed, the implication being that at 85, everything might suck anyway.

In my particular situation, bending the curve requires 1. losing weight 2. reducing inflammation and 3. building muscle mass, cardio fitness and flexibility.

So, no biggie. (Narrator: It’s a biggie).

I’ve always eaten pretty well and exercised moderately but regularly. But in this situation—where there’s more at stake—I’ve had to reinvent my approach to health. Dramatically. And immediately. My healthspan depends on it.

Many of you have shared with me your interest in more topics on health and fitness, so here (and in the next newsletter) I’m sharing my insights so far how to bend the curve.

Let’s start with a cold dose of reality:

It’s not easy. In fact, it’s very, very, very hard. It requires an insane level of commitment and consistency, day after day after day. I’d love to just leave a tidy “5 Easy Ways to Get Healthier” essay here for you and call it day, but the world doesn’t need even one more of those. (Literally. This Google search returns a few billion results.) The only way out is through.

Progress is very very slow. You can’t expect to see improvements in a week. You can expect to see something in a month. And then, you can’t think about that month. You must think only about the next thing you will do to move your body and what your next meal will be. One. Step. At. A. Time.

It may require a reordering of things. I’m most energetic and clear-headed in the morning, so that’s when I work. Once, this was the best choice. But now this precious window closes earlier in the day. That means less capacity for meal planning, cooking, and exercising. I’m exploring how to manage my energy without putting my work or my health at risk. That’s new for me.

I know these are not super inspirational! I feel bad about that. But they’re true for me, and they’ve helped me. To offset this bummer of an essay so far, I will say this has been a fun adventure. I’ve found new, inspiring experts to follow, tools to use, and research to inform my decisions. I’ll share all of that in our next newsletter.

Was this mail forwarded to you?

Breaking Out of Groundhog Day (By Guest Author Allen)

The winter months after the Christmas holidays are usually the worst time of year for us: cold, dark, mostly staying indoors except for walking the dog and taking “exercise walks,” with nothing much to do except for work and media.

We fall into a day-to-day routine that quickly becomes deadening. Get up, breakfast and coffee, work at the computer, maybe stop at the grocery store, eat the same foods again, watch some of the same media, sleep, repeat.

It quickly starts to feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Every day is the same, with few chances for any kind of fresh experience that would break us out of the stupor of day-to-day life. It can get depressing. Another day. No change in sight. We work remotely out of our house, and many days it can be really difficult to face turning on the computer and starting the work day.

That’s when we know it’s time to hit the road. More…

The Weekly Roundup

Worth your time to watch, read, and listen.

📰 Stop “Pretending You Are 40”—and Other Retirement Advice We Get From Readers (gift link). From the Wall Street Journal series Retirement Rookies, retirees Stephen and Karen share the wide ranging (and conflicting) advice they’ve gotten from readers. (7.5 min. read)

🎧 Live Long and Master Aging podcast: The Rest of My Life. Meet Ron, a successful businessman who radically reordered his life in his 50s to prioritize his healthspan. “The feeling of being alive is just so visceral and so joyous…the wonder that is our bodies is just like a ceaseless source of amazement for me.” (35 min. listen)

📰 “We don’t have enough homes to meet our aging needs:” The ideal home for aging in place might not even exist. Fewer than 4% of all U.S. homes offer single-floor living, no-step entries, and wide hallways and doorways. A must-read if you want to age in place. (5.5 min read)

💡Have an idea for the newsletter? Let us know. 💡

If you enjoyed this, please share with friends. Thanks for spending time with us.