Dick Van Dyke has just written his second book. It’s called, Keep Moving and was just published in late 2015. He is out on the book promotion circuit now, telling everyone about it.

Van Dyke is a classic example of how one can age well and feel young and vital, even at age 90. He just turned 90 in December 2015 (last month). His positive and upbeat attitude about life is part of the reason he retains his youth, and he attributes a daily hour long workout at the gym to be a major reason why he is able to Keep Moving, .

His book is filled with one liners, aphorisms, stories and suggestions, all related to aging and living a life filled with youthful thinking and vitality. I’ve included enough so you get the gist of his message, but not enough to run afoul of the copyright laws. Consider this article a review and endorsement of the book (No I don’t receive anything if you go and buy it). Here are two quotes and a couple of the truths and tips included in the book.

Quote: “Good habits matter. Eating light and fresh. Staying away from fast and processed foods. Not smoking. Working out regularly. Even going for a walk every day is extremely beneficial for longevity. p. 43

Quote: “In the morning I work out at my local gym. I’ll be honest, every day it gets tougher to get out of bed, put on the sweats, and work out. But it’s important.”   p. 42

Tip: “If a doctor tells you he can make you look twenty years younger, don’t believe him. Everybody will notice. And nobody will think you look twenty years younger.”  p. 143

Truth: “Yes, you wasted too much time worrying about things that didn’t matter.”  p. 144

Tip: “New experiences are the only things you can collect in life that end up being worth it.”  p. 144

By the way, the book is a great read, and I recommend it to anyone who can remember back to the old Dick Van Dyke Show with Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam.

Dick Van Dyke is still singing and dancing at his current age of 90. He says that while he still dances, it hurts more and he takes Advil. I would guess that he’ll keep on dancing for another ten years, or even more. What a great lesson in longevity.

Thank you for reading.

You have everything you need to be healthy, fit, strong, flexible, mobile and independent, already within you. Whether you are 55, 85, or somewhere in between, you already have all you need to stay young, vital and healthy. You are your own Fountain of Youth.

How do you find it? Look within, it’s already there.  Just start drinking from it.

How do you drink from it? I covered the five ways two weeks ago in the post titled No Lectures, but once again, here are the five keys to your own Fountain of Youth.

• How you move
• How/what you eat
• How you breathe
• How well you rest and recover
• How you Think!

I’ve said for years that if you don’t move your body the way nature intended it to move, your body will quickly deteriorate. Your muscles will atrophy, your bones will become porous and brittle, your circulation will stagnate, you will lose your lung power, and your hinges will become rusty and creaky. If you don’t fuel your body with high octane fuel, your engine will cough and sputter and eventually break down and leave you helpless. If you don’t breathe fully and deeply, you won’t fill your body with the life supporting oxygen it needs to survive. If you don’t get enough rest and sleep, you will become a walking zombie. And if you don’t have a Come Alive Attitude toward life, your quality of life will deteriorate as well. That’s not a very enticing future, is it?

Chris Crowley, author of the excellent book, Younger Next Year says that seventy percent of the effects that we attribute to aging can be prevented. Only thirty percent of aging’s effects are biological. That means that you have complete control of seventy percent of your health. It means that the Fountain of Youth is yours for the taking if you choose to find it and drink from it. It’s all about exercise, eating right, breathing deeply, and getting enough rest and sleep. And, of course, it all starts with the way you’re thinking. The bottom line is that you already have everything you need to drink from your own fountain of youth, but it’s entirely up to you to do it. By the way, I highly recommend the book. It’s easy to read and makes sense.

That fountain of youth is also restorative, just like Ponce de Leon believed. Even if you think you are past the ability to restore yourself, and even if you are in your seventies or eighties, research has demonstrated that starting with small sips from the fountain can start the restoration process and get you started back on the path to health and fitness. Studies done at Tufts University as far back as the 1980s showed that a group of men ages 60 to 72, were able to reverse the loss of muscle mass in their legs and double their strength over a 12 week period (that’s week as in 7 days). It’s never too late.

So, locate that Fountain of Youth within yourself and start drinking from it. You will look better, feel better, become filled with health and energy, and dramatically improve your quality of life as you move through the rest of it. I’ll drink (from the fountain) to that.

Stay healthy and thanks for reading.

Happy New Year.

I’m expanding the scope of The Come Alive Project this year. I’ll be reaching out to more active older adults who realize that we will hold onto our health, vitality and independence, only by actively nurturing a healthy, fit and energetic lifestyle. We can be our own Fountain of Youth when we fully understand what we need to do to maintain that health, and then actually do it.

So, yes, I’ll be reaching out to more people with information you will find useful, practical and valuable. Here are some of the things that I am doing now, as well as have in the planning stages for the first part of the new year:

• Reviewing and upgrading everything about The Come Alive Project, including this website, to provide more useful, practical and valuable information for the benefit of our growing online community.
• Inviting more participation from the community. I plan to open up the blog posts to reader comments shortly. I haven’t so far because I got too many mass spammers in the beginning. This is a common problem with new blogs but there are methods available to filter out these mass spammers. All comments, positive or critical will be welcome. In the meantime, please feel free to email comments to me at bob@thecomealiveproject.com at any time.
• Putting on live seminars and workshops throughout the year. Information about these workshops will be posted on this website.
• Getting back onto the speaking circuit to spread the message and widen our growing community.
• Asking readers to help spread the word about our community by inviting others to subscribe to the blog. Please forward this article to someone you think might find it useful and enjoyable.

There are many “half-truths”, distortions and outright deceptions in the health, fitness and nutritional fields. There are many differences of opinion about exercise, nutrition and the mental and emotional factors that go into High Energy Health and Fitness. Confusion is rampant and that confusion needs to be addressed.

I want to know what specific things you would like to see addressed. Please feel free to tell me at bob@thecomealiveproject.com.

There is a large community of seniors who want to improve their health and boost their energy, who understand that they don’t need to go to extremes to do it. They also recognize that their health and energy are their own responsibility and no one else’s.  Most already understand the importance of those healthy habits, mental and physical, that will drive up their overall health and energy levels, but there is always that resistance which somehow holds them back. I want to help those people to break through that resistance and reach up to a higher level.

If you have just found this website, please join our growing community and subscribe to future articles by adding your email in the box at the top of this page. If you’ve been a reader for a while, stick with me, we’re going up a notch.

Thank you for reading.