One of the greatest misconceptions in this country is people thinking that they know how they're going to age. Believing that they're going to get old, weak and just rot away. The truth is that you don't know. And you probably have the wrong picture in your head. You know what it meant for your father … for your mentor and a few billion other people. But the rules are changing. Right now. And your prospects are different. Quite different.

Feeling young and healthy in your forties, fifties, sixties -- and beyond -- is relatively simple. Not easy, but simple. Science has proven that people who follow these three basic rules live longer, healthier lives.

Rule #1: Exercise six days a week.
This is how you take charge of your body and your life. Biologically, there's no such thing as retirement, or even aging. There is only growth or decay, and your body looks to you to choose between them.

So exercise is the master signaler, the agent that sets hundreds of chemical cascades in motion each time you get on that treadmill and start to sweat. It's what sets off the cycles of strengthening and repair within the muscles and joints. It's the foundation of positive brain chemistry. Exercising six days a week reverses the chemistry of decay. You grow a little stronger in every part of your body, every day, and that leads directly to the younger life we are promising.

Of those six days you spend exercising each week, four days should be dedicated to cardiovascular workouts. Aerobic fitness is all about making more energy in your muscles. That means building more mitochondria—the engines for motion—and bringing those new mitochondria more fuel and oxygen through your circulatory system. When done on a regular basis over months and years, aerobic activity produces dramatic improvements in your circulatory system, which is one of the main ways exercise saves your life. It's why the fittest men and women have less than half the cardiac mortality of their sedentary friends. Aerobic exercise also builds your muscles, heart and circulation, mobilizes your fat stores and then goes beyond that to help your body heal from decay. Aerobic exercise is a miracle. It's the opposite of the chronic inflammation of modern living. It's the tide of youth.

The other two days a week should be spent strength training. While aerobic exercise is primarily about fitness, strength training is primarily about your muscles' ability to deliver power, which, surprisingly, has as much to do with a special form of neural coordination as actual strength. Strength training causes muscle growth, and that's important, but it's the hidden increase in coordination that changes your physical life. Proper strength training forces your muscles to grow, and your neural networks to come back to life. That's what your body needs—lots of work, and then lots of repair and growth. Growth, strength—youth.

Rule #2: Quit Eating Crap.
Back in nature, every calorie was precious, so our early ancestors developed very specific —and very successful—ways to handle predictable swings in the food supply. But much of what we eat (and do) today sends the wrong message to our bodies. Sedentary life signals famine—we're just sitting around because there's no food to hunt—triggering the storage of fat and energy. Our incredibly high intake of white flour and sugar convinces our bodies that we've eaten a huge meal, causing digestion to speed up and make us hungry again in no time. The saturated fats we eat send our bodies an automatic signal that it's time to decay. In a deeply weird but profoundly real paradox, our modern lifestyles of gluttony and sloth tell our bodies that we are in the grip of deadly famine, and so our bodies decay. To make matters worse, while they are decaying, we load them with the most inflammatory chemicals we can find. It's no wonder obesity, diabetes and all the other devastating lifestyle diseases we create are making their way down to children in grade school. But as with all biological decay, this is all reversible. You can turn your body around in a heart beat.

The message is simple: "Quit eating crap." Refocus your diet. Add in tons of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. And do your best to cut down on both the crap that is left over and on the enormous portions that have become the American norm. You will be healthier, younger, and maybe even thinner next year.

Rule #3: Care, Connect and Commit.
Caring is a biological imperative! You are hard-wired to care, which is why following that imperative adds richness, meaning and health to your life. It's a big part of what makes these next decades worth living. And ignoring this imperative adds apathy, boredom, loneliness and illness to your life.

Connect and commit to the people and things that matter to you. Organize, join, volunteer, give, enjoy, build—in short, work at your life. Alone and with others. Commit to friendships, to relationships, to volunteering, to community. We are hard-wired to be part of packs, groups and tribes. Lonely people suffer. They get sick, and they die. Connect and commit, in other words, to generate positive emotions and drive away despair. It's why we're alive!

Learn more about how you can start growing instead of decaying, feeling younger and healthier instead of older and achier at my website, YoungerNextYear.com:
http://www.youngernextyear.com/www/yny/main/MainAffiliateRedirect.aspx?cid=40&eid=RJM_articlealley_article2&go=www.youngernextyear.com

About the Author:
Dr. Henry Lodge was born in Boston, and grew up in Massachusetts. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1981, and from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1985, where he received the Robert Loeb Award for Excellence in Clinical Medicine. He did his Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, and after completing his training in 1988, joined the faculty of the medical school at Columbia University, where he has been ever since. He is named in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare, and Who's Who in Science and Engineering, as well as in the Best Doctors in New York and Best Doctors in America surveys. Dr. Lodge is a past president of the New York Clinical Society, and a past president of the Presbyterian Hospital Alumni Association. He is a member of the American College of Physicians, and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine. He has two daughters, and is an avid skier, hiker, bicyclist and sailor.