Chapter 1: Getting Your Body Fit and Healthy

In This Chapter

• Tallying up the benefits of being physically fit

• Assessing your own fitness level

• Figuring out what to do, how often, and for how long

• Harnessing the power of the mind-body fitness connection

Aging is inevitable, but you don't have to shuffle into old age as a hunchback with a cane, looking for the nearest park bench to sit down on. You can feel 10, 15, even 20 years younger than the birth date on your driver's license. And if you take charge of your fitness today, you'll not only increase your chances of living longer, but you'll improve your quality of life. When you're healthy, you're able to travel, care for loved ones, give back to your community, spend time with your family and friends …the list is endless.

Don't worry if you haven't exactly been a regular exerciser your entire life — it's never too late to start. In this chapter, we show you how.

Raising Your Expectations: Preparing for a Longer Life

You don't want to grow old. Old age is for …old people. Old age is your back going out more than you do. Old age is running out of breath walking down a flight of stairs. But old age doesn't have to be that way, at least for a very long time. Yes, it's inevitable that you'll grow old someday, but what influences the need for getting in shape now is the fact that folks are living longer than ever before.

People living at the dawn of the 20th century lived with the strong possibility that they could be pushing up daisies when they reached 45 years of age. One hundred years later, you find yourself living in a highly technological society with breakthrough medical advancements. You've been handed 30 extra years of life on a silver platter. What you do with those years is up to you.