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How to Improve Health and Fitness After Age 50

The longevity lifestyle allows people to improve their health and fitness – even after age 50.

The longevity lifestyle is a way of daily living that stacks small, positive habits.

These small habits might not accomplish much individually, but their overall impact on human life can be startling. The motivational video located lower within this article can help you get started.

I encourage those over the age of 50 to consider upgrading to the longevity lifestyle because it’s a balanced way of daily living that utilizes a holistic approach to improve health – focusing on habits of nutrition, exercise, money, relationships, and personal development:

  • The longevity lifestyle invites each person to craft (and then periodically update) his or her strategy for healthier aging.
  • That strategy must be specifically designed for each person’s unique circumstances and needs – if it’s to be helpful and effective.
  • The idea behind the longevity lifestyle is not just to extend lifespan but, most importantly, to improve daily quality of life.

Improve Health: How to Be in the Top 3% of the Healthiest People

Here’s the shocking news: under 3% of Americans live a longevity lifestyle.

Recent research – a study sample of 153,000 adults in 50 states – revealed that the vast majority of people are not managing all four of the fundamentals of wellness:

  • exercising regularly
  • eating healthily (including consuming enough servings of vegetables each day)
  • keeping body weight within safe ranges
  • not smoking

If only 3% of people in the US live a healthy lifestyle, this does not bode well for future outcomes.

But your outcome can still be positive.

fitness after 50

You can improve your health significantly.

Action Step:  today, I encourage you to look at the above four lifestyle bullet points and ask:

  1. which one am I managing the most effectively?
  2. which one am I managing the least effectively?

This increased awareness about your current habits will help you in the upcoming weeks as you begin to turn up the dial on your self-care protocols.

The Best Year of Your Life? It Probably Hasn’t Happened Yet.

I’m Dane Findley, and my message is simple: it’s only in your thriving that you have anything to offer anyone – therefore, the best investment you can ever make is in your own health:

  • my free weekly update is for those who’ve decided they want to be even healthier than they are now
  • the evidence-based, actionable strategies for a better life are for those intrigued by personal development
  • if you are kind and curious, you will likely find this information motivating and helpful
  • there’s nothing wrong with someone being rigid in their beliefs, but if that’s you, you’ll likely not enjoy my newsletter (no hard feelings – I wish you well on your journey)
  • if you go more than two months without opening one of my email messages, you will automatically be unsubscribed.
two mature adults over fifty and fit and firm

If you are someone for whom improved health is becoming a top priority, then I invite you to sign up for my free updates.

What is Holistic Health?

The holistic approach to wellness seeks to improve health and facilitate healing by addressing all aspects of a person’s physical body, mental agility, and life purpose.

Having worked passionately for decades as a wellness coach and fitness trainer, I’ve learned first-hand that taking a more holistic approach to self-care helps reduce the risk of accelerated aging.

As a believer in prevention, I aim to inspire others to turn up the dial on their wellness now – and not wait until they experience significant symptoms.

The big idea here is to think ahead.

It’s easier to improve your health while you already enjoy a certain level of good health. It’s more difficult to improve health when you have a significant health challenge.

Age successfully Improved Health

I believe strongly that each person must craft their conscious aging strategy successfully.

You’re never too young to create your aging strategy, but if you’re over 50 I strongly suggest you start immediately.

Most people do not plan smartly for healthier aging because the whole topic of aging can be unappealing. I encourage you to be the exception to this tendency.

You probably think of yourself as healthy. But how important is it to you to improve health even more than what you’re currently experiencing?

How Do I Begin to Improve Health?

When you improve your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness, you are setting the stage to add more years to your life and – more importantly – more life to your years.

“If everyone over 50 would implement the steps in Silver and Strong, relationships would improve, energy levels would increase, productivity would skyrocket, and time in the doctor’s office would decrease. Just do it.  You can’t help but improve the quality of your life.”


–– Stephen J Anderson, Executive Coach

Build Your Happiness Momentum to Improve Health

To improve health, you must move your body strategically and consistently.

Engaging in daily physical activity is one of the scientifically proven (see sources below) keys to happiness.

mature friends stretching, improving health and fitness after age 50

The funny thing about exercising daily is that it can be hard to start.

But once you do it a few times, it starts to better regulate your brain chemistry – the hormones and endorphins start pumping, which brightens your mood and lifts your self-esteem.

You begin to feel competent and increasingly agile.

Your spirits rise, which, in turn, becomes rocket fuel for subsequent workouts, making you feel even better. And so the cycle continues.

Do you believe you might be an exception to this dynamic?

You’re not.

Working out is self-perpetuating. It’s rough-going at first, but as your exercise sessions become more consistent and habituated, they become easier to do until one day: it’s almost like muscle memory.

Case in point: I take a yoga class on Wednesday mornings at 10 am. Many months ago, it was difficult for me when I first started “trying” to attend this new class. As a writer, I’m often in my writing flow in the mornings, and getting me to stop while crafting a writing piece is similar to pulling teeth.

At first, trying to get to the class was stressful.

I was harried and inconsistent.

My inner critic would whisper inside my mind that I was too busy to take a yoga class.

But I’ve been intrigued by how to improve health for many decades now, and I’ve long since learned that a resistant inner voice is just a natural part of trying to build a new positive habit into an already-busy week.

So I stuck with it.

Now, taking that class is almost automatic. I’m no longer rushed. I no longer “fight” with stopping my work to get ready for class. I even clean my yoga mat on both sides before I walk out the door.

There’s nothing special I’m doing; it’s just that I’ve been going every Wednesday for so many months now that it’s as if I’ve worn a comfortable groove into the process.

I no longer have to use a machete to clear a path through the jungle – there’s a well-worn trail now.

Action Step:  today, I invite you to build your happiness momentum by moving your body (even if it’s just a short walk). Take a quick self-assessment of how your mind and body feel before you exercise, and then again how they feel after.

Be especially aware of your thoughts.

This awareness will prove valuable to you as you begin to slowly craft all types of exciting, new, positive activities in your weekly life.

strength, flexibility, energy, improved health

Make a Positive Impact

The more strength, flexibility, and sustained energy you have, the bigger your impact will be on the lives of the people you love.

The degree to which you enjoy excellent health correlates with your ability to make a positive difference in the world.

Dane Findley age 54 helps others achieve stellar wellness and a healthier physique.
Dane has a master’s in Depth Counseling and has spent decades as a professional fitness and Pilates trainer. Today, Dane is a Healthy Lifestyle Advocate who curates the popular Quality of Life Newsletter – a free weekly update for those who want to UP their joy levels.

You can use this idea – of how improved health correlates to increased impact – to inspire yourself toward better self-care.

The path to improving health can be a lot of fun, but it’s not without obstacles.

When you are challenged, feel like giving up, or are tempted to slip back into old habits, that is time to connect with the reason behind the goal – you want to be healthy so that you can live your best and most purposeful life.

New Healthy Habits (Start from Where You Are)

You have the best chance of optimizing your daily life if you take small steps in their proper sequence.

If all you needed to create inner peace, improve your health, and lengthen your lifespan was information, you could simply Google a question and get an answer.

 

However, information is ultimately meaningless unless you can turn that information into a daily positive habit and then – and this is the challenging part – make the new habit stick for the rest of your lifetime.

The longevity lifestyle is a holistic, solution-oriented, evidence-based approach to living that seeks to establish new, positive habits in daily life – so life can be longer, more meaningful, and more enjoyable.

Staying inspired is extremely important to your success. I provide free weekly updates to help start you on the new leg of your journey to increased wellness (opt-in above). It will help keep you motivated.

The longevity lifestyle is about living the longest, happiest life possible by optimizing your thinking, feelings, beliefs, and habits.

I invite you to ask your doctor about disease prevention and also ask your doctor if the longevity lifestyle is a good fit for you.

Additional Sources about How to Improve Health in the Second Half of Your Lifespan:

Research: Physical Activity Increases Long-Term Happiness – http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/staying_active_increases_your_long-term_happiness

Percentages of Healthy Americans – http://www.livescience.com/216-study-3-percent-americans-live-healthy-lifestyle.html

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