How to Stay Slim and Healthy at Fifty

I am a 50 year old man and I am the same size today as I was when I was 15. People think I have some magic genetic reason that prevents me from putting on weight.

I’m just like anyone else. I’m just like anyone else, if I eat more than I need I put on weight. If I don’t take any exercise I know my weight will increase, just the same as it will for anyone. So my trick, if it is such a thing, is to only consume as much as I need.

A key aspect of the way that I maintain my weight is exercise. I don’t go to the gym, I don’t play any form of sports, I don’t go swimming and I don’t jog, so how to I maintain my youthful physique and remain fit and healthy? I use what I call passive keep fit.

What is ‘passive keep fit’ you ask? Passive keep fit, for me, means getting exercise while going about my daily business. For example, rather than drive to the local shops to pick up a newspaper I will walk. And when I walk I walk fast so that I get a little breathless. Driving to and from the shop will just make you fatter and lazier but my visits to the shop burn off calories and help me keep in shape.

I use the same approach when I encounter lifts in buildings. I will always use the stairs and often two stairs at a time to burn even more callories. Also, when sat in front of my computer screen at work, I’ll take a break and get a little upper body exercise by lifting myself on the arm rests maybe 10 or 20 times a few times a day.

I also try to get a little light exercise while relaxing in front of the TV by doing a bunch of abdominal scrunches that help to keep my stomach flat. This has helped me to retain my flat stomach and six pack, much envied by my friends who all have beer bellies.

When it comes to eating and drinking, I try to stick to a healthy diet. I don’t eat any junk food and when I do it is a very special treat. I actually get a lot more pleasure from resisting the temptation than I do from giving in. I have a pretty good idea of how much I can eat before I begin to accumulate fat so I have a habit of visualising everything that I have consumed in a day, as if it was all spread out on a table in front of me. My visualisation technique highlights whether I’ve had my five portions of fruit and veg in a day and quickly tells me if my days consumption has been less than ideal.

I don’t count calories, I don’t follow any sort of fad diet, I don’t work out at the gym and I don’t play any sports. Yet I am the slimmest and fittest 50 year old man that I know, and I still look OK in my Quiksilver board shorts and my cool Rip Curl T-Shirts – which can’t be bad for a many of my age.