Youthful Secrets #1

There are a lot of health and fitness gurus and nutritional experts out there who will be glad to sell you the "Secret to Staying Young". Our TVs are awash with ads for concoctions to grow hair here or remove it from there, skin and facial creams and... uh... other products to restore youthful vigor.

There are diets left and right, all Protein, no Protein, all Carb, no Carb. Eggs are good for you - eggs aren't good for you - and, by last survey, eggs are good for you once again! Each fad diet promises that you will lose weight, get in shape, add years to your life. All for $19.95 plus shipping and handling.

The best thing about those exercises devices that store under your bed is that... they store under your bed.

Nobody talks about mental health. I don't mean those sad, depressed individuals (but they'll sell you some pills...) or those serious issues that do indeed need proper doctoring. I'm talking about you and me - the so-called "normal" folks that are getting older one day at a time and somehow living to tell about it.

From a physical standpoint, I always teach older people to work on keeping their legs in shape. To do so, you will need to do a combination of weight bearing and aerobic exercises that will keep your heart strong, work the lungs - even take care of the back and stomach muscles. Don't worry about the rest of you, focus on legs!

From a mental standpoint, I explain that when your legs are in shape, you'll have the strength and dexterity to get down on the floor and play with the grandkids.

And there's the important part, the Secret of Eternal Youth: Playing. With the grandkids. On the floor.

As adults, when we play, we tend to do things that we enjoy. Too often, the same things, over and over. It's tough to jump in with new games, unfamiliar ideas or strange directions. But when we play with the grandkids, suddenly we're swept up into a world of imagination that our ossified brains haven't visited in years. We are shown new toys with new uses, bright colors and defined shapes that go together in so many ways.

This then, is the fountain of youth, this is how one truly stays young. Don't sit by yourself and pine for worlds that might have been. Instead, be young. Play young. Don't be afraid to imagine, to dream of worlds that might yet be.

There are always more choices to be made: which ones will bring you to the Best You that you can be?

(Picture used with permission - that's Grandpa G. (aged 76) and Grandson C. (aged 2.5) playing with blocks!)