When I was a youngster and met an older person, I had no mental filter and was routinely shocked at how aging adversely effected people – their looks, mental agility and movements. I have always been pleased that I didn’t ever fall into that category. That was until about 12-13 years ago when I was playing football on the Padang in Singapore. I was early 40’s and figured I was still pretty fit, moved pretty well and (according to trusted sources….) still looked like I was in my 30’s.

I had played a few balls through “the lines” as they now describe them and was going well in this particular match. We were about 20 minutes into the game and we won a corner and their team were arranging their defenders and one of them said, “someone mark the old guy”! I looked around for the old guy and in about 1-2 seconds realised the old guy was me. I went red, seriously. Luckily the hot tropical Singapore sun had me so red anyway no one could notice! But it was a burning red, I was so embarrassed.

Damn!!! I AM THE OLD GUY! Did I let that defeat me? Did it stop me from playing a terrific game that day? Was I mortally wounded by those extremely hurtful words………

Yes. Pretty much all of the above!

Those words swirled around in my head for 20 more minutes until halftime and while I played pretty well that day, I couldn’t get that one comment out of my mind. That time was right about 1 year before I built my fitness business, UFIT. It was also right before my family lost our Dad to cancer. There were several other things going on in my life at that time, it was an interesting period – big change and a lot of challenges.

Looking back it was a catalyst for me to get moving. To really start taking shit seriously. I had been coasting through my life, a lot and it wasn’t serving me being in “coast-mode”. My Dad’s death was a massive wake up call.

I was no longer a young man and my life was slipping through my fingers.

In the 12-13 years from those events my life has changed significantly. To summarise some of the key changes I will bullet-point them:

• I rarely drink more than 2-3 alcoholic drinks a week
• I exercise 5-6 times a week and it’s a priority
• I prepare 90% of my food myself
• I became vegetarian 8 years ago, animals are too important to me for me to eat them
• I sleep 8 hours every night
• I do breathwork exercises 5 days a week
• I get natural morning sun 3 times a week for 45 minutes each time
• I give gratitude at night prior to falling asleep
• I give compliments to people as often as I can
• I smile and greet as many people as I can every day, especially strangers

The cliche often spoken is the small 1 percenters add up to big gains. These 10 are my 1 percenters and they add up to way more than 10%!

And it has taken me 12-13 years to implement these changes but what a rewarding journey it has been. You can initiate all the above, NOW, today!

For me personally I can assure you the reader that my vitality, my fitness including strength, cardio, agility, speed etc, my general health are all in a very high percentile for a man my age (56). Last Sunday I played 18 holes of golf at 730am, the first game in 6 months and managed 4 pars on the back 9 including pars on the last 2 holes and then played a tough hour of singles tennis in the afternoon. I woke up Monday feeling pretty awesome with absolutely zero aches and pains!

Ultimately as I have written about previously, it’s all about the hormones. As we age cortisol begins to dominate our hormonal profile (as the stresses of life accumulate), as men we produce less testosterone and women less estrogen so our sex lives deteriorate. It’s almost as if nature doesn’t want older people to reproduce, which I think is clearly the case. And older men and women that can manage it are probably robust enough to produce tough kids. But for a majority it is simply not going to happen. Men and women also see a precipitous drop off of growth hormone (GH) which is required for the formation of new tissue necessary for the healthy reproduction of bones, muscle, skin, teeth, everything!

I am constantly amazed at the lack of understanding of basic health knowledge among the general population. As a species we are constantly renewing all of our tissue, all of the time. Bone is regrowing inside to out, teeth, hair, nails, skin, all the same. We age because that reproductive process gets tainted by poor quality ingredients which I hope is no surprise to you, is totally compromised of the food you eat. Yes. You eat poor quality food at your peril and if you do not know the source of the food you are eating and 99% of you don’t, then there’s a problem.

If you are in the small group that purchases (or even better, grows) most of your food and use basic preparatory tools and techniques, well done. But you must also consider water quality, household cleaning products, sleep and rest and the other parts of the hormonal puzzle.

Otherwise physical decline is guaranteed.

Don’t be a statistic. Take control of your life by making changes to how you live it. Don’t make excuses, you’re only lying to yourself!