We've purchased a number of Harvard Medical School's short publications; as expected they're excellent. I just was re-reading on on "living to 100." Most of the concepts, e.g., don't smoke, exercise regularly and eat a healthy diet, are well known to almost all of us but less commonly followed than I'd like to see. Some of the others, like take care of your teeth, establish a social network that lasts and kept your brain working hard, are also fairly obvious, but less well-publicized.
But then there was an idea that I really liked: keep an optimistic viewpoint on life. I tend to be cheerful, like puns (that's a "two-fer," optimism and brain play) and view the cup as mostly full, rather than partially empty.
My wife isn't hiking this summer as one knee has been bothering her; she goes to the gym for Pilates and/or yoga two or three times a week and is still in her "Strong Women, Strong Bones" class twice a week. She has a group of friends who attend one class and sit and converse afterwards; she has a close friend in the Strong,Stong class and has a snack with her afterwards.
I've noticed her social network and thought I needed one myself. So this past weekend I went for a hike in the mountains with a close friend of ours. I'm ten weeks out from back surgery and have been walking, but not going to the gym. In the week before the hike I walked further, three and a half hours without pause one day (actually I stopped to pet a dog for a moment) and two hours up and down hills another day.
My legs weren't as strong as usual going up the mountain to 11,440 feet and I had to stop twice, but made it to the summit. Then, on the way down, something extraordinary happened. We had seen a couple hiking up and later heard the man had stopped with Acute Mountain Sickness. Someone called 911 when they got to a point where they had cellphone reception and ten of us gathered around the couple and, in one way or another, contributed to getting the man down the slope.
The National Park medics arrived with oxygen and another group brought a stretcher with a single huge wheel. When my friend and I got to the trail-head I thought, "What a great day; exercise, a superb group effort and lots of positive approaches to solving a problem."
Then to top thing off, our friend came back with me, and joined my wife and I in celebrating our anniversary. With days like that I may live to 100.