Younger Next Year (& creation of Younger Next Year – 2018 Facebook group)

Younger Next Year. How’s that for a New Year’s Resolution?

Seriously, as we head into 2018, who wouldn’t want to be younger in 2018 than they were in 2017?

Impossible, you scoff? Clearly, you haven’t read the New York Times bestselling book, Younger Next Year, or its spinoff titles, including Younger Next Year for Women.

The authors are a vibrant 70-year old (at the time of writing) and ex New York litigator Chris Crowley and his personal physician (25 years his junior), named Henry Lodge (Harry in most of the text; I should clarify that this is the late Henry Lodge, since he passed await at age 58  early in 2017 of prostate cancer. Ironic.)

The subtitle says it all: Live Strong, Fit and Sexy — Until You’re 80 and Beyond. I’m grateful to one of my sources — Hub contributor Doug Dahmer of Emeritus Retirement Strategies — both for twigging me to the book’s existence and to supplying me a copy. (He appears to have laid in a good stash of the book).

Take control of your Longevity

And for good reason. The book is all about taking control of your personal longevity, chiefly  through proper nutrition but first and foremost by engaging in daily exercise: aerobic activity at least four days a week and weight training for another two days a week. Week in and week out, for the rest of your life. And the payoff is what is promised in the subtitle.

Apart from daily exercise and “Quit eating crap” (to use the authors’ phrase, one of Harry’s 7 Rules reproduced below) the authors urge readers to “Connect and Commit,” which means staying engaged even after formal retirement. In fact, as we argue in our own book Victory Lap Retirement, there’s a case to be made for never entirely retiring. Leaving the corporate workplace, probably, but semi-retirement and self-employment from home are certainly viable alternatives.

While Younger Next Year only touches on retirement finances, it certainly reinforces the main theme of this web site (FindependenceHub.com). It’s encapsulated in Harry’s 4th Rule: Spend Less Than You Make.

Harry’s Rules

I can see at this point that it’s best to simply list Harry’s 7 Rules, which formally appear in the book’s appendix (page 305 of my copy):

1.) Exercise six days a week for the rest of your life.

2.) Do serious aerobic exercise four days a week for the rest of your life.

3.) Do serious strength training, with weights, two days a week for the rest of your life.

4.) Spend less than you make.

5.) Quit eating crap!

6.) Care.

7.) Connect and commit.

As someone who has coauthored various books over the years, I found it interesting that Younger Next Year took the approach of identifying which section of the book was written by each author, more or less alternating. Generally, Crowley is the raconteur and story guy, while Lodge provides the hard science and facts that support the main thesis. Lodge is still firmly entrenched in the formal work world, heading a 23-doctor practice in New York City. Crowley is clearly on his post-legal career Victory Lap, with the book project and its spinoffs the chief fruit of his post-retirement career change.

How this all fits with my own “Victory Lap”

So am I personally adhering to the 7 rules? I had certainly started paying attention to these themes when I left the corporate world almost four years ago, and have been emphasizing both proper nutrition and regular exercise in my own Victory Lap. Ironically, weight training bit the dust when I no longer had access to the subsidized corporate gym but just this week I rejoined a gym, supplementing my existing regime of yoga, walking, skating and hockey.

Put it this way, by the time the calendar formally declares me 65 years old in April of the new year, I hope to look and feel closer to 63. And by the time it says 70, I’m shooting for 60! And I’m fortunate in having my friend Meta as a stellar example of longevity: Meta is now 101, never smoked, continues to live on her own on the top floor of a house and still maintains connections from Work and the church, among others. But most of all, she is engaged and has a positive mental attitude, which is one of the central messages of Younger Next Year.

This seems an appropriate time to wish all readers and supporters of FindependenceHub a happy and most assuredly a healthy new year.

P.S. New Younger This New Year 2018 Facebook Group

I’d like to spread the word that this weekend’s Younger Next Year blog triggered via Twitter the creation of a new Facebook group called Younger Next Year – 2018. I believe I am member #5: thanks to Vicki Peuckert Cook for taking the initiative to create this. As with the Hub, the group consists (at least initially) of both American and Canadians. Hope to see you there!