Longevity vs Vitality

Do you really want longevity without vitality?

I am always talking about health and vitality -- words that mean different things to different people. If you've been keeping track of my newsletter and blog posts, you'll see I mention Men's Health magazine from time to time (my family often jokes that it's my playbook). Recently, I read an article that put both health and vitality even more into perspective for me.

What's clear is that we can separate age from aging. We all want to continue to get older -- or continue to get that opportunity to increase our age, right? Getting older is known as longevity or our lifespan.

Aging, on the other hand, includes the things that happen to us as we age: mainly, chronic conditions like joint and muscle pain, skin and hair changes, muscle loss and, of course, mental conditions, including depression and various forms of dementia. The aging part is what composes vitality: how well you can enjoy life, all of the things that allow us to interact with our spouse, family and surroundings.

What's interesting to me is that there are many areas of the country that lend themselves to longer lifespan and vitality...what we can call our "healthspan." What sets these areas apart is enjoyment and participation in the community, friends and relationships, access to physical activity opportunities and...very important...access to healthy food.

Healthspan - or really the measure of vitality for me - is the goal of a truly healthy life. Longevity does not mean much without vitality, does it? Without the ability to enjoy and participate in life? To continue to achieve your purpose? Your reason for being?

The only way to achieve healthspan or vitality is to make the proper choices to pursue health. This requires stepping away from what we are told is "health" care, and demanding more for ourselves and our families...

Learning how to improve our nutrition, cardiovascular conditioning, physical and hormonal balance and mental conditioning are all part of a comprehensive anti-aging strategy.

While all of this can seem overwhelming and you might be thinking "how am I supposed to do all of that myself"...or "easier said than done," I'm here to tell you that it doesn't HAVE to be overwhelming and it is achievable. I've seen amazing impacts of healthspan -- 80 year olds in better shape than 50 year olds, clients who have seemingly reverse the impacts of aging on themselves.

Part of the reason I love what I do is that I get to help my clients increase their vitality...to enjoy life and do it for longer. If this sounds intriguing to you, comment below.