Investing in health also a retirement key

"When you're young, you exercise to look good - and get a date," says Philip Smeltzer, vice president of health care quality improvement at BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York. "The further we get away from 50, we're happy to live another day. That's what boomers care about: health and how exercise can make them stay healthy."

Baby boomers, he says, should take a page from their parents' book. As young- and middle-aged adults, that generation was much more physically active during their leisure time because they didn't spend it in front of a computer, television or electronic device. Sedentary, they

were not.

The point to an exercise routine is to make it a habit, and work toward not extending life as much as creating a healthful life. Indeed, exercise helps fight the weight gain that can exacerbate illness, experts say. The World Health Organization has recognized that the illnesses of aging - cancer, heart disease, stroke, adult-onset diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease - are 85 percent preventable.

Catherine Ansuini, chairman of Buffalo State College's health and wellness department, says research shows that adults have good capacity for continued growth and change that will lead to a long and highly functional lifestyle.

"Now that the hormonal fluctuations and life's obstacles are somewhat within our control, the opportunity to shift into a personal renaissance mode is at hand," she says.

She's got some little pearls of wisdom to help the uninspired get active and keep active throughout their lives. One of them: It is easier to act your way into thinking differently than it is to think your way into acting differently.

"So only think about how much you dislike exercise, for example, while your actually exercising," she says.

Another: No more overnight miracle wellness renovation, crash diet, fitness plans that have repeatedly failed in the past.

Source: Biz Journals