Would You Like A 30-Year, Healthy Retirement?

My father is now 98. Nothing remarkable about that, you may say, and you would be right. The most recent statistics that come to hand show that, in 2017 at least, there were 580,000 people aged over 90 living in the UK, of which 14,000 were centenarians.

However, throw in the fact that he still leads a normal active life, give or take the occasional walking stick for extra balance, and sets off on daily walks of at least a mile, and it becomes a little more noteworthy. The fact that he was a premature baby (in the 1920s), and not expected to live, then subsequently emerged unscathed from being shot at from time to time during the Second World War, (sustaining more injuries from playing cricket), and you could say that he has led a charmed life.

This isn't a biography of my father though. I write this to highlight one of his frequent utterances. "All my contemporaries have gone - friends, relations, work colleagues. I am the last one standing."

Indeed, looking back to his retirement, some 33 years ago, he has witnessed a regular dropping off the perch as, one by one - in their mid-sixties, early seventies, eighty, eighty-five - friends, former work colleagues and relatives become just memories.

Healthy Longevity

This has led me to thinking about longevity, and healthy longevity at that. Does my father possess a secret formula for his good fortune, is it all down to genetics, or simply plain good luck?

After all, if you can see your retirement moving closer on the horizon, wouldn't you like to feel confident that you may avoid the clutches of the grim reaper for a few years yet? You probably envisage yourself playing endless rounds of golf in the sunshine, or travelling the world with a healthy vigour, watching your children mature and your grandchildren grow up. None of us would wish to be numbered among the people who, like my father's work colleague, died suddenly just before retirement. Nor would we wish to live a frail older age, in and out of hospital, dependent upon other people all the while.

Of course, luck and good genes do play a part, in the same way that any of us, no matter how healthy, could walk under a bus tomorrow.

Nevertheless, I have identified several traits that have stood my father, and others like him, in good stead through the years.

Key Features Of A Healthy Longevity

Probably the first among these - and you may be expecting me to write this - is exercise. Not necessarily any structured exercise, but a recurring theme in my father's life has always been walking or cycling, rather than driving or catching a bus unless unavoidable. Cycling may not be quite as easy or pleasant on today's busier roads, but I recall that he used to think nothing of cycling twenty or thirty miles for a day out. During the war, in fact, he cycled from camp in south Wales back home to Lancashire for the weekend, despite the fact that free travel on trains was available for servicemen.

Being active in general seems to be a key feature for a healthy longevity. Do you regularly sit down for longer than 30 minutes at a time, or would you, like my father, be up and stretching or squatting (in a home or office environment rather than in a gym) periodically? It becomes a habit, one that my father still has to this day, at 98.

I will describe a couple of these which you could easily do later in this article.

Moderation in all things is another identifiable trait. Not drinking to excess (or much at all, to be honest), not smoking very much (yes, everybody did back in the day), and having the willpower to cut out known bad habits. Eating good, wholesome food in average-sized portions - not pigging out in other words. Avoiding random snacks. Drinking plenty of water. This has been the way to maintain a consistent 11 1/2 stone weight throughout his life.

The Anti-Couch Potato Lifestyle

Sitting down for long periods, binge-watching TV or gaming is not great for you, let's be honest. Combine that with a dose of Deliveroo and this would definitely be at the opposite extreme to my father's lifestyle over the years. Watch a bit of wrestling or motocross on a Saturday afternoon, standing up and stretching every 30 minutes or so, then out in the garden to harvest some rhubarb or up a ladder to touch up some paintwork. That's an active lifestyle, which seems to have paid dividends.

Agreed, this is a rather simplistic and unscientific overview of a lifestyle which may serve you well, but one truism is that the more you put in the more you get out.

In terms of exercise, this need not be more and more to the nth degree, but more in the sense of consistency and excellence of execution. Being physically active on a regular basis will reduce your risks of all sorts of conditions significantly - dementia, heart disease, diabetes, depression, breast cancer and colon cancer (as reported by the NHS). A corollary of this states that physical inactivity is responsible for 1 in 6 premature deaths, which could be prevented with just 30 minutes of physical activity 5 days a week.

Reducing Risk Of Premature Death By 36%

Being highly active, on the other hand, has been associated with even greater benefits. Research at McMaster University in Canada has shown that people who spent more than 750 minutes walking briskly each week reduced their risk of premature death by 36 per cent. On the face of it that does sound a lot of minutes - over 100 minutes a day - but if you approach it from a different angle then it seems more realistic. You probably walk around in your everyday life for around 100 minutes a day without realising it, so you would simply need to consciously make an effort to walk more briskly than you do currently. Throughout the day, you should seize any opportunity you get to do a bit of walking.

Walking up the stairs instead of taking the lift is another oldie but goodie. It can also get your heart pumping before you sit down at your desk for hours. Of course, standing up periodically - every 25 minutes of so - will reap dividends, but that is not always possible in every working environment.

As James Rudd, senior lecturer in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Cambridge puts it, "the clear-cut results (of medical research) reinforce the message that exercise is the best medicine for reducing the odds of an early death." 

Quick Exercise Tips

You may feel out of the fitness loop but, believe me, once inside you will be drawn in. For starters, as I mentioned earlier, here are some quick tips which you could apply at home or in the office.

Chair Squats

These exercises are really simple yet very effective. Stand up with your chair behind you, and sit down again - almost! Stop the sitting motion when your posterior is just above the chair, and then stand upright again. Repeat this 4 more times initially, two or three times a day, then gradually increase to 20 chair squats each time.

This routine will strengthen your legs and push up your metabolic rate through the course of the day.

Stand when you can

There is no need to stay seated when the phone rings. Landline or mobile, you can stand up to take the call, moving around a little as you speak. In general it is not a good idea to remain seated for longer than 30 minutes at a time, without standing up and stretching a little. This ties in very well with the Pomodoro technique, of focusing intently on one task for 25 minutes before taking 5 minutes off for a change of scene.

These two simple reminders to exercise when you can are just on the periphery of the Easy Fitness course. Now that the Easy Fitness - The Director's Cut edition is available, you may wish to reduce your chances of age-related illness and increase your chances of a long and healthy retirement.

I can't claim that my father followed the Easy Fitness plan, because he didn't. I can claim, however, that as an overall health, well-being and longevity program it has been modelled quite closely on the lifestyle that has led him through a well-deserved long and healthy retirement from a very stressful career.

The Elixir Of Longevity

The elixir of longevity, now there's a thought. Having read Dr Steven Gundry's occasionally controversial book The Longevity Paradox, one ingredient which I would definitely include would be mushrooms, particularly ones enriched with lashings of olive oil. Add a few extra vitamins - vitamin D3 and plenty of Omega 3 in particular - and you would be well on your way.

Would you like a 30-year retirement or more? No guarantees, but if you don't help yourself than you may just have to leave it to fate.