Exercise keeps your brain healthy!

You may get the impression that all I do and think about is fitness. Actually, I do think about it quite a bit. I probably do that because I like it!  It makes me feel good. I feel as if I’ve accomplished something! When you’re my age almost anything I do that works out and is successful makes me feel good!

One of the great benefits of being fit in my nineties is that I am also mentally alert and can participate in pretty much any activity I want to. So I've cultivated hobbies, collaborated on projects, started businesses -- and best of all, spent time playing with my grandchildren!

Seriously though, being fit when you’re retired has many hidden benefits. You may have read about how much I enjoy running around and playing with my grandchildren (see my blog The greatest benefit of being fit at 90!). Well, that may be the greatest benefit of all. But there are a lot of other things that are very nice about being fit in your old age. Just the things you do every day that you have always taken for granted -- they are still doable! No change in that! Because regular exercise also keeps your brain healthy!

Being fit when you’re retired has many hidden benefits -- playing with your grandkids is one. If you're fit, your brain is more agile and you can cultivate hobbies and activities, even start businesses~

There are some things that I have always wanted to do and I never really had time to do them. One of them was building model airplanes and boats. When I was a little kid I used to try to make them from a kit. The kind with balsa wood parts and you stick the parts with pins onto a plan covered with wax paper, glue them together, then cover the frames with paper, paint the whole thing, and you have a nice model.

I was probably too small to try build these things myself and so I never actually got one of them completed and ended up frustrated and disappointed. Years later when my own little boy got older, I helped him make the very same model airplanes that I had tried to make and together we made and finished them! So, we ended up with several very nice model airplanes and he was very happy! So was I!

About fifty years went by and occasionally I would wonder if I would ever be able to actually make a complete model airplane again and do it myself! When I was about 72 or so, I thought I would retire so I bought a kit and I built a WWII model airplane complete with a pilot sitting in the cockpit! All the models I’ve built are the balsa wood types! Then I made two more. Then I switched to model sail boats and made three of them plus two little row boats complete with oars. Very nice!

So, I finally got that item off my to-do list. But I realized that making model boats and airplanes wasn’t enough to keep me busy. I went back to the work I did right after school. My first job way back then was working on an oil rig in a remote part of Alberta, Canada.

I had now returned to my original interest and about age 78 I started an oil project in South Dakota with a couple of other people. And, yes, I continued with my daily exercises including aerobics using a stationary bike (only thing available) in a remote farm house with an outhouse on a huge cattle ranch in the middle of the South Dakota prairies 25 miles from a tiny town of 300 people.

I continued with my daily exercises including aerobics using a stationary bike (only thing available) in a remote farm house with an outhouse on a huge cattle ranch in the middle of the South Dakota prairies, 25 miles from a tiny town of 300 people.

That led to the start of several years of work developing an oil field tool that increases production in certain types of oil wells. It has kept me busy ever since and I still work on it. I suppose you could say that I have never really retired.

I always wake up in the morning with something to do. And now I am writing this blog! Of all the things to do this is the one thing I would never in a million years have thought of doing! I like doing it though. I think it must be one of those things in life you do that keep you focused and before you know it years go by.

I always wake up in the morning with something to do!

Dr Peter Attia talks about ‘lifespan’ and ‘healthspan’ in his book, "Outlive: The Art and Science of Longevity, and although I’ve spent years exercising I can now appreciate what Dr Attia is talking about. It seems that to some extent my healthspan has kept up with my lifespan and that is what makes it possible for me to do the things I do.

A regular fitness program has so many benefits! Short term and long term! Just keep on with your own little tailor-made program and feel good about it! Each one is a success no matter how it went!

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Get your own copy of Dr. Peter Attia's book, "Outlive: The Art and Science of Longevity"!

Dr. Attia argues that we can extend our "healthspan" (the period in life in which we are healthy -- as opposed to lifespan, the period in which we are merely alive) by making the right lifestyle choices. You can buy your own copy of Dr. Peter Attia's fascinating book by clicking here.

It's definitely worth reading!

Dr. Attia also has a website (https://peterattiamd.com/) with lots of interesting information about health, fitness, nutrition, exercise and longevity. It's definitely worth checking out!

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