I don’t know about you, but growing older has not been one of my favorite things. My knees are creaky and crunchy and cranky a lot of the time. If I need to get on the floor, I have to have a plan for getting up, like a nearby couch or bed to use as a boost. My feet ache when I’m on them for too long, and I seem to have a kill switch in my bottom that causes me to fall asleep in the middle of whatever television show I’m watching, regardless of how exciting it is. So, all in all, growing old is just not for me.

So, I’ve decided I’m not going to. In fact, I’m going to grow younger. I’m a few months past my 60th birthday, but my plan is to reverse that number. Not completely reverse it. I’m not even a little interested in going back to grade school. And the science doesn’t even exist to allow for that. But more and more evidence seems to exist for the ability of humans to stay around the age of 50, and to even age backwards to roughly the age of 50, not only physically, but mentally as well, allowing themselves to live healthy, vital lives well into their eighties, nineties, and even into our hundreds. Not to say we are guaranteed to avoid diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, or Alzheimer’s, but we can definitely lower our chances by a large margin and even delay the onset of things like Alzheimer’s by several years.

I’m not just making this up because I want to believe it. Books like Younger Next Year, by Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge and The Blue Zones Secrets for Living Longer: Lessons From the Healthiest Places on Earth by Dan Buettner make a thorough, scientifically backed case for humans’ ability to slow down or even stop our biological clocks from moving forward, not by taking a magical elixir of supplements or following a special diet, but by simply living our lives the way we were designed to live them. Moving–a lot–and doing hard physical labor–picking up heavy things–will go a long way toward building our vascular capacity and protect us from many of the dangers of aging. But it has to be a lot of moving, as in get your heart rate up to 65-85% of your maximum heart rate for at least 45 minutes a day, four or five days a week, and lifting heavy weights to failure two days a week. If that seems hard, it is. But not as hard as realizing you can’t get out of bed, let alone off the floor. Beyond that, there are lots of things we can do to turn our age back, such as eating way less (Americans generally eat 2-3 times what they need to) and eating wholesome, whole foods, mainly fruits and vegetables. So exercise and eat right. Not exactly shocking. But I was surprised to find that there are two lifestyle choices that can make as big as, if not a bigger, difference in our real age than healthy eating and exercise. For one, being a part of a supportive friend and family group can add in excess of a decade to your life expectancy. Years may also be added by busying oneself with important things: working at a job you love, being a part of a ministry or mission, serving your fellow human in a real and meaningful way.

That’s exactly what I am endeavoring to do in 2024. You may ask which part. All of it. I’ve started getting up at 4:45am on the mornings I substitute teach and go to the gym. I’m only doing aerobic exercises so far, though I plan to add weights once I get the go-ahead from my physician. But even after only 20 sessions, my aches and pains are way down and my energy is way up, as is my attitude. And my speed and endurance have both grown by leaps and bounds. In less than a month. The food part is definitely still a work in progress, but I’m making strides. I’ve only lost a few pounds, but I have lost them, and this is a long game I’m playing. As for the other parts, I feel like I’m already in pretty good shape. I work part time as a substitute teacher and part time as a youth minister. Additionally, I’m busy with Habitat For Humanity and Operation Christmas Child.

If I do my job well enough, I’ll be writing a post this time in 2025 reporting I have indeed decreased my real age and that, despite having a birth certificate declaring me to be 61, I’ll have the physical and mental age of a 50-year-old. And the year after that. Even a few decades after that. I’d love to be able to celebrate Sarah’s and my 50th anniversary, at the ripe young age of 104. Will I make it? I don’t know, but I intend to live a young life until I’m good and old.