Sheila Howard didn’t recognize herself in the mirror after she ballooned to more than 300 pounds in her late 40s. “I looked foreign to myself. I said, ‘I know you’re in there. You’re trapped inside yourself, and we’re going to get you out,’” Sheila recalls now at 57. It took years, but she finally did,
Philip Rafshoon loves starting the day with a run through Atlanta’s Piedmont Park, above, or on its BeltLine trail. “It feels so good to get outside!” he wrote recently on Facebook, with an early-morning photo. “Up with a three-mile run. Ready to enjoy the weekend.” Philip, in his 60s, knows that getting outside regularly is
Have you ever heard the old saying, “The horse is out of the barn”? It’s a folksy way of telling someone it’s too late to make a change. It’s also one of the myths about fitness after 50 that we love to bust every chance we get. And here’s a great example of someone who
Big life changes often follow a moment of clarity that can be startling, liberating or even painful. For Gina Gross, 59, her epiphany came while she and her husband were taking a tour of a gym in their new community. Gross was a recently retired nurse and had become obese over the years, weighing 340
Remember in school when the health teacher warned you about drinking? She probably said something like: Alcohol kills brain cells, and YOU NEVER GET NEW BRAIN CELLS. Scary stuff. Well, guess what? It’s not true about never getting new brain cells – although the choices you make in life affect your brain health and even
September is Health Aging Month, a chance to celebrate all we can do with our bodies, minds and spirits, no matter when we were born. There are countless ways to celebrate. Here are some categories to get you thinking about all that’s awesome about how we can practice healthy aging. Move your body every day.
Pickleball just keeps growing and growing – in popularity and in media attention. It’s beyond trendy now, with some 5 million people playing, many of them active agers over 50 – and beyond. So, it’s important to point out something that many folks might not realize: Gym workouts make you a better pickleball player. It’s
Everyone wants a “magic bullet” about healthy living and staying fit. But the truth is, there simply isn’t one. Still, successful active agers do share a few traits, along with the basics of exercising regularly, eating well, sleeping enough, and managing stress. Here are 5 truths among them: Slow Progress Is Ideal. You’ve learned that
Ricky Banks is a walking advertisement for fitness over 50 – which makes sense, because he owns a successful gym and turned 57 this year. But it’s true now more than ever after a near-fatal medical emergency this year. Doctors and Ricky believe his healthy lifestyle helped him survive the loss of blood, the surgery,
A common myth about aging says that after 50, people (especially women) face a dreary life of loneliness, physical difficulty, and despair. But the opposite is true for millions, who are finding that the “grandma years” are turning out to be the best time of their lives. Adults 65 to 79 say this is their