Superbly Fit After Sixty: Seven Strategies for Aging Well
George was standing at the bottom of the first set of some 200 stairs when I caught up with him. Graying, compact, with a neatly-trimmed mustache, a very fit sixty, George is the perfect example of what so many men of that age would love to be: athletic, active, energetic.
Like me, George is a veteran. We stopped to chat on this breezy, cool Sunday, a lovely respite from the brutally hot weather we’ve been having. We’d just met earlier that morning through a mutual friend.
George exemplifies the discipline that so many of us veterans learn in basic training. I went through two of them: one as an enlisted woman and again as an officer. We were laughing that my sock drawer is still as neat as I learned to make it while in basic training back in 1974. While I’m naturally inclined towards physical activity, being a farm-raised kid, the Army taught me a great deal more about everyday discipline, goal-setting, and the absolute importance of maintaining fitness.
At sixty, which for far too many of us is an age where folks start to come up with excuses for why not to exercise, George regularly punches out steps and does the kinds of…
