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111 pages

English

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Does being older mean enduring a life of chronic disease and disability? Is this all we have to look forward to as we age? This 72-year-old author really doesn’t believe so. Despite what many of us think and what we’re led to believe, most all of us do have choices in terms of how we live in our “old age”. Doug Melody is challenging the script currently in place that directs us on how we’re expected to live out the third and fourth quarters of our lives, arguing that adherence to this false narrative is the root cause of our age-old beliefs about old age itself. There’s a difference between passively getting older and actively growing older. But the author is up front with his readers - “How To Die Young As Old As You Can” is not an anti-aging treatise that promises to extend your lifespan. It’s your health span - the ability to engage with life in meaningful ways on your wished-for terms - that needs to expand in concert with these extra years the medical miracles are now granting us. Aging is an unavoidable experience. There is no denying this and Melody is not. But the multiple effects of aging are reversible and, if not completely avoidable, subject to a significant slowdown. There are several factors within your grasp that can assist in tapping the brakes to this inevitable decline. “How To Die Young As Old As You Can” provides directions on just how to do this, with extensive scientific research combined with personal experience to support his beliefs.

Sujets

Santé et bien-être

Santé du quotidien

Santé au quotidien

Fitness

Health

Longevity

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Publié par	Outskirts Press
Date de parution	01 décembre 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781977260208
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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How to Die Young as Old as You Can A New Script on Growing Healthier Into Your 60s, 70s, 80s, and Even 90s All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2023 Doug Melody, Ph.D., CFT v4.0
The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.
This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Outskirts Press, Inc. http://www.outskirtspress.com
ISBN: 978-1-9772-6020-8
Cover Photo © 2023 www.gettyimages.com . All rights reserved - used with permission.
Outskirts Press and the "OP" logo are trademarks belonging to Outskirts Press, Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
©HowToDieYoungAsOldAsYouCan
Doug Melody is a lifelong educator who has served in a variety of roles during a 46-year career in the profession, teaching at every level from kindergarten to graduate school and each grade level in between. With a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, a dissertation completed in the area of sport performance, several certifications in the fitness field, a lifetime of working out in - literally - hundreds of gyms, and collaborating with scores of individuals in their quest to become more fully functioning human beings, Doug is now sharing his knowledge and experience with the hope that readers can begin to shape a new narrative on how to grow older in healthier ways. We can do better and this book is an attempt to explain both why and how we can do this.
Doug Melody, Ph.D, CPT www.dougmelody.com
Table of Contents
Foreword: Challenging the Script

PART ONE – PRESENTING MY CASE: A BETTER SCRIPT
Chapter 1: An Uncommon Path
Chapter 2: Is Age Really Just A Number?
Chapter 3: Why Do We Age?
Chapter 4: How Do We Age?
Chapter 5: How Our Healthcare System May Help Us Age Prematurely
Chapter 6: Measuring Health & Wellness
Chapter 7: How Old Are You Really?
Chapter 8: Muscle Matters
Chapter 9: Moving Experiences
Chapter 10: Being Wrong Is Human

PART TWO – INDIV-DUAL: THE MIND & BODY AS ONE
Chapter 11: Starting Over: Find Your "Why"
Chapter 12: Our Habits, Our Selves
Chapter 13: Empowering Habits
Chapter 14: The Value of Voluntary Pain
Chapter 15: The Obstacle Is the Way
Chapter 16: The Endocannabinoid System: How It Works

PART 3 – IMPLEMENTING AN EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONAL FITNESS PLAN
Chapter 17: Essential Components
Chapter 18: A Menu of Movement Options

PART 4 – ROLE MODELS & REFLECTIONS
Chapter 19: Role Models
Chapter 20: Conclusion

Epilogue
References
About the Author
FOREWORD
Challenging the Script
We don’t see things as they are. We see them as we are.
LET ME ACKNOWLEDGE this up front: reading books about growing old is getting kind of old and yet here I am offering another one. So I wouldn’t blame you for a moment if you’re thinking this book is another gimmicky new-age plan that will add years to your life while juicing the quality of it, make you pain free, and even generate the kind of energy you want in order to throw your arms completely around life on your terms…all in just five easy minutes a day. It’s not. It’s definitely not new-age, and I’m not suggesting anything here that will be easy. You can be sure of this. No crystals or magnetic bracelets or magic potions will be offered in this book. What I am offering, though, is a time-tested plan that actually will add quality years to your life, reduce and even eliminate chronic pain, and produce a youthful energy with which to embrace life throughout a lifetime. But it will take more than five minutes a day to achieve this. Despite what many of us think, most all of us do have choices in our "old age" .
If you read this to its conclusion and I’m successful at constructing a persuasive argument in support of healthy aging, then I’m hoping you come to your senses and recognize the untapped potential inherent in each passing year that we’re gifted in this life. I’m telling you that the script written for us regarding how we age is filled with misleading fallacies. You can actually look forward to growing older. Really. And why shouldn’t you? You just need better directions, and I hope to provide them for you here on these pages.
Seriously - does the aging process really have to be a long, inexorable slog to inactivity, incompetence, incontinence, and even inattentiveness? Does being older mean enduring a life of chronic disease and disability? Is this all we have to look forward to as we age? I really don’t believe so. I’m challenging the script currently in place that directs us on how we’re expected to live out the third and fourth quarters of our lives, arguing that adherence to this false narrative is the root cause of our age-old beliefs about old age itself. There’s a difference between actively growing older and passively getting older.
Having now personally completed 72 laps circling the sun, I’m writing to share with you that there is another lane available to most all of us. What we "know" to be aging is nothing more than a self-fulfilling prophecy grounded in misinformation and misconceptions. More accurately, our attitudes about the aging process make us brittle and broken long before our bones become so. The medical world, perhaps unknowingly, most certainly contributes to these misguided perceptions of aging, and so do many other established institutions in our culture, including our federal government. We belong to a culture that promotes these stereotypes, and I will explain how this is done in subsequent pages.
As already stated in the opening paragraph, it’s just as important to emphasize that "How To Die Young As Old As You Can" is not an anti-aging treatise that promises to extend your lifespan (more on this later), nor is it a book that attempts to deliver on a pledge that you can lose 5 pounds in "just 5 minutes a day" of doing…whatever (there are enough bogus claims out there already that used to be the sole province of late night TV and have now been mainstreamed). Our healthcare system has indeed developed medicines and therapies that now extend the lifespan. It’s our health span - the ability to engage with life in meaningful ways on our wished-for terms - that needs to expand in concert with these extra years the medical miracles are granting us. The average health span in the US is currently 66 years. But our lifespan is, on average, closer to 77. Do the math. We don’t need to endure the last decade(s) of our lives in chronic pain and compromised health.
So, having cautioned you in the first paragraph that it won’t be easy, these pages are meant to challenge as well as move you out of your comfort zone - physically, emotionally, cognitively, even spiritually - and to achieve this on a daily basis will require you to become comfortable with being uncomfortable . In the words of the poet E.E. Cummings, "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." It takes hard and smart work, no doubt. But it’s well worth it with what the work gives back to us in return. We’ll address this pain-pleasure relationship in a subsequent chapter.
Let me be up front here - aging is an unavoidable experience. There is no denying this and I’m not. But the multiple effects of aging are reversible and, if not completely avoidable, most definitely subject to a significant slowdown. There are several factors within our grasp that can assist in tapping the brakes to this inevitable decline diet, sleep, regular visits to doctors, social networks yet the single most critical link to physical, emotional, and cognitive well-being is physical activity . We require more "moving experiences" in our lives, some of which need to literally take our breath away. More about this will follow.
It takes courage, as Cummings reminds us, to age with grace and gratitude. A rare breed of older adults is already doing it, some of whom will be referred to in subsequent chapters here, proving that we can still generate the kind of energy necessary to live a full and active life right up to the "final horn" . George Burns, the lovable comedian, certainly did it, and he got it right when he said - "You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old." Our goal should be "to die young, as old as you can!" He surely did.
And, finally for now, here’s an invitation you may wish to consider from the distinguished Victorian poet, Robert Browning - " Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be." For most of us, it’s a choice we make, knowingly or otherwise. How can you be so certain that you’ve already lived the best years of your life? The best may yet to be. Why not find out… before it’s too late?
Really, what do you stand to lose by going for it?
P ART O NE P RESENTING M Y C ASE : A B ETTER S CRIPT
CHAPTER 1
An Uncommon Path
I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.
Stephen Covey
HERE’S SOME BACKGROUND on me to help you understand how and where I’ve travelled through life to arrive in this lane and space of what I believe is healthy aging.
It probably would be accurate to describe me as a contrarian. I have a rebellious streak that often has me exercise the belief that "if it ain’t broke, then we should damn well break it…and why wait?"
Like you, I’ve had my pivotal moments. And, like you, it’s how I’ve responded during these critical times that’s made the difference in moving forward for me. After all, it’s not just what happens to us that matters - it’s how we respond to what happens that matters even more.
An acquired taste of mine along the way has been to remain comfortable with ambiguity while working at figuring out which turn to take next,