Bigger is Not Always Better But ...

... I just added one more day of intervals per week. The new schedule is one hour of light weights Mondays and Thursdays, one hour of bike aerobics Tuesdays and Fridays, and one hour of bike aerobics with intervals Wednesdays and Saturdays. Hope it does the body good. The point is to send the body springtime signals in all caps. It's to similar hunter mode. It's to boost circulation and boost the metabolism to red-hot levels. Now I just have to listen to my body and make sure I don't overdo it and get burnt out. As it says in the "Younger Next Year" book, consistency trumps intensity every time.

Spitting into the Wind

Ah, the lunchtime bike ride. Ah, the twitchy spring breezes. Going south on Foothill Road today, I made about 5 mph. Going north, on the return ride, I made about 25 mph. The wind, no matter which direction it blows, is my friend. It provides power. Puts fuel in my energy tank.

It was a little bumpy here and there, good practice for Crater Lake National Park roads, I hear.

Peak Experience

Ah, the joys of playing Buffalo Peak Golf Course in Union. For one, the view from the heights is among the finest views in Oregon. Thursday evening cloud formations were playing the game Battleship in the sky. Playing partner Ernie and I kept one eye on our games and another eye on the sky show.

Golf reinforces the notion that play is good for the soul. As the "Younger Next Year" authors contend, play is one of mammals' finest achievements and we should do it whenever we can.

Of course, as the stress book says, we need to do our work first. Then play becomes a reward for a job well done. Whether we get a birdie on the golf course is immaterial. The main thing is we are out there, having a blast.

Look out, birdies!

The Younger Next Year weightlifting program — mine is two days a week, one hour a time — pays off in all sorts of ways. First, it is a self-help form of physical therapy. You reduce joint pain, arthritis and many other complaints of growing older. Second, it helps with other sports you might pursue. In my case, the weightlifting has helped my golf game. Last evening I went to Buffalo Peak Golf Course with my minister friend, Ernie, and played nine holes. Several times I had short birdie putts. Of course, I missed all of them — and made all my bogey putts. That's golf. The birdies are safe with me.

Risks and Rewards

It would be nice if good behavior had immediate rewards and bad behavior immediate punishments. Such is not the case, whether at work in job number one, newspaper editing, or in job number two, Younger Next Year. This week I had my cake and ate it too, and still weighed 176.9. What's up? Who knows? Maybe, like my Grandma Petersen always said when I was growing up, I have a hollow leg.

I had to work myself all week at the newspaper like a rented mule, yet we learned through good detective work, and not an announcement from corporate headquarters as should have been the case, that we are being given two unpaid days off a month, not just one. Even though our incomes are modest, this makes a big difference in how easily we can pay our bills. It is further punishment for good behavior.

The powers that be say that when the economy improves, we might get our days back. Might. However, I like the days off work, even if the workload is not reduced and can be overwhelming at times. Americans work too much. Americans play too little. One of the main things men in particular say on their death bed is they wish they wouldn't have worked so much.

The Serengeti of Oregon

Ever see those coffee table books that show the Serengeti Plains with flocks of wildlife stretching to the horizon? Sometimes Buffalo Peak Golf Course is like that. Of course, the wildlife is more often deer than such exotic species as zebras, giraffes or elephants. Still, seeing the deer in their semi-natural habitat is a joy. It adds to the pleasure of chasing a little white ball around the course. And, on those days when shots alternate from fabulous to smells like the hind end of a mule, seeing the deer cavorting is like a healing balm.

No, golfing is not aerobics. But walking the course and carrying your own bag is good exercise. Too bad walkers are in such a minority.

Flex Pay

I have done well in incorporating aerobics and strength training into my Younger Next Year repertoire, which I began in earnest in August 2009. Sure, I am not as fast on the bicycle as I used to be. When I was in my 20s, and doing a tin man triathlon, I averaged 18 mph for the bicycle. Now I am lucky to hit 15 when I am pushing it, hard. And my weights are not terribly heavy. I am training to be an endurance athlete, not Charles Atlas or Mike Tyson.

My efforts toward gaining flexibility, however, have been more haphazard. Every hour at work I would get up to do some stretching. That was mostly designed to improve my golf game, and worked predominantly on the arms while neglecting the legs.

Now I am adding an hour-long routine of stretching to my Sunday rest day in hopes of getting some true flex pay.

As a person gets older, he naturally tends to get stiffer. I want to counteract that with an aggressive stretching campaign that targets arms and legs in a more even steven manner. Even if my work does not pay me much, I can become more rich in spirit if I give myself some serious flex pay.

The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Each week I try to find a small gift for my wife, the Wonder Woman. Over the years I've got her all sorts of trinkets, from refrigerator magnets to glass butterflies that hang in windows. Nice stuff. Lately I've taken to shopping for the gift in the health food store. Some wives would find this too north of Boston virtuous. Not Wonder Woman. Her cholesterol is borderline, and a doctor once told her, "Why not just take a pill? It's easier." Wonder Woman decided then and there to try to maintain or lower her cholesterol through nutrition and exercise. She was (and is) adamant. This week, having gotten a lot of good advice from the sales clerks at the health food store, I got Wonder flaxseed to sprinkle on salads, steel-cut oats, stir fries or whatever.

At the check out, the woman was facing the same battle as Wonder. The checkout woman said what had worked for her was cutting out all four-legged meat from her nutrition plan, and being careful about any products containing saturated fat. Good advice. Perhaps Wonder and I can attempt to follow a similar plan in an effort for Wonder to get a lower cholesterol reading, and triglycerides readings, when she goes in for her annual physical late this spring. I hope so. I want her around for a long, long time.

Feeling Hip

I went to bed last night as a 54 year old and woke up this morning as an 84 year old. Or at least that is how I feel, now, with a right hip that is giving me fits. I try to listen to my body. Sometimes, though, it tells me to take it easy when I am better off plowing ahead and sticking to my program. I need the endorphins, the natural pain killers.

It was raining, it was pouring, I, the old man was snoring. Moaning anyway, as I rode the indoor bike. Typical late March weather. 61 in La Grande. Fog on Cabbage Hill. 46 in Milton-Freewater. The kind of weather that makes people my age feel every hitch in their giddy-up.

It's the kind of weather the indoor bike was built for — no excuses weather. It's always 65 and sunny in the beach condo and mountain cabin. Perfect sweat and burn weather.

Grow or Decay

Yesterday county commissioner Mark Davidson, in for an editorial board meeting, said economies either grow or decay. Funny how that is the same core message from "Younger Next Year" in regards to physical fitness. For years, La Grande, the city where I work, has been growing at an average rate of 1 percent a year. Hey, we need to send our town and our bodies growth signals as often as possible.

Surprise Storm

My goal in spring, summer and fall is to ride bicycle during lunch hour at work as often as possible. The new schedule calls for bicycling on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. That means bicycle at work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and then, most often, at the "beach condo" in Milton-Freewater on Fridays and Saturdays. This morning the weather looked promising so I put the bike on top of the car for the first time this season. Halfway to work I started to get blasted with 40 mph winds and then torrential rain. By lunchtime the weather may be much better. For now, I'll be satisfied with getting a good bike wash.

Dysfunction Junction

Some days at work are better than others. Yesterday was a bear. Today is a bear's bottom. I'm doing vacation relief, and our system is dysfunctional. This creates special challenges for keeping up an exercise routine, but the routine prevails. Sure, it's nice to keep the lights on and the groceries paid for. But exercise is even more important. I hope to be here long after this job rides off into the sunset.

The Sleep Diet

Oh, the glories of getting seven to nine hours of sleep a night. It's important to allow the metabolism time to repair itself from the rigors of exercise. It's also important for mood. The night before last, thanks to eating too close to bedtime and drinking beer, I got only five hours of sleep. Alcohol will help you get to sleep quickly. It also is known to awaken a person at 3 a.m. This time, because of an incident at work, minor albiet, I laid awake caught up in depressive rumination, looking for a solution. My usual tricks — 4-7-8 breath as taught by Dr. Andrew Weil, the mantra "freedom," visualizing Beartooth Pass and being on top of the world — failed to sooth me enough to gain sleep.

I survived the next day of work, and was glad when the salt mine whistle blew and the weekend began. The 8 1/2 hours of sleep I got Friday night was not without a few awakening incidences, fairly common for a man in his 50s. Yet it was a joy, and recharging.

Good sleep can help the body not pack on extra pounds. Combined with exercise and nutrition, sleep can do wonders in helping a person be Younger Next Year.

Challenging the Sand Dune

Sometimes in this pursuit of the Fountain of Youth you feel like you're trying to climb a sand dune. You take two steps up and slide one step back. And you dodge land mines in the form of food and drink temptations every day. Most days you make good choices. Some days you slip up, big time. The good part is, you get a new chance the next day. You start with a clean slate. You have a good breakfast of shredded wheat, a banana, blueberries, Greek yogurt and cinnamon topped with skim milk and are one-third of the way to a healthy day.

The important thing is, when you slide back, don't get too discouraged. Keep going. The view from the top of the sand dune, I'm told, is magnificent.

Efficiency Expert

Danes are known for their efficiency. As a Danish-American, I take pride in squeezing the most out of every day without letting my blood pressure soar.

To that end, I am contemplating changing my schedule. Currently I bicycle Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and lift weights Wednesday and Saturday. I rest on Sunday.

The new schedule will see me riding bicycle on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, lifting weights on Monday and Thursday and resting on Sunday.

When days are longer, and especially warmer, I can ride bike over the lunch hour at work. I can also squeeze in weightlifting during breaks at work. That will give me more evenings free to walk on the golf course and do chores around home.

Sounds like an efficiency expert's plan, Sam.

Feeling Groovy

It's nice to be getting back in the exercise and nutrition groove. Those eight pounds gained over a week of vacation, however, will go flying away if I keep up a good routine. The refrigerator is again stocked with healthy options, the exercise bike is ready to go whenever I am. With some intensive salt tablet and Tums therapy, the leg cramps that were giving me fits a week ago are starting to subside.

The secret to success in this program is building a habit and showing up, six days a week, an hour a day (or whatever time you choose). As the "Younger Next Year" authors say, this needs to be protected time. If you still work, it needs to be the first thing you do after work.

Over days, weeks, years, being in the groove, you will get "younger." Guaranteed.

Back in the Saddle

Last night I managed to ride indoor bike 15 minutes four times, or an hour total, at about 12 mph. My usual pace, sans cramps, is 15 mph. Still, I was happy to slog my way back with help of lots of salt tablets and Tums.

I also filled my refrigerator up once again with a healthy assortment of complex carbs, proteins and good fats. It's time to get back in the saddle and re-establish the healthy routines that will make me younger next year.

Salty dog

A bit of research tells me I need to boost my calcium and salt intake plus add some stretching to deal with the leg cramps. Yesterday I got back on the bike, but managed just 19 minutes before the pain became too severe.

A similar bout of leg cramps occurred just before I was to leave for RAGBRAI, the great bike ride across Iowa, and a few days rest plus adding potassium, magnesium, calcium and salt did the trick. I had been extremely worried all my preparation would be down the drain and I would not be able to ride across Iowa. But the combination of willpower and supplements worked wonders.

This time, who knows? I've added some Tums to the daily regimen, for calcium, and will begin taking salt tablets tonight, for a brief time, I hope. The recovery continues.

Cramping My Style

The last time I suffered leg cramps was right before RAGBRAI, the great bicycle ride across Iowa with 20,000 of my newest, closest. most personal friends. Then I added a mixture of potassium, magnesium, calcium and salt to my daily plan and was able to ride away just fine into the Iowa sunrise. Now I am getting cramps again. After a week's R&R, and a nasty cold to boot, I got back on the bike today only to suffer gripping pain. I had to get off after just 19 minutes and take some ibuprofen.

I will drink plenty of water and add some salt tablets to my daily regimen in hopes of making a quick and full recovery.

Life's a Beach

Finally we caught a break. The sun popped out Thursday afternoon and we made a run for the far northwest corner of Oregon, the south jetty at Fort Stevens State Park. Got some serious walking in there and at the Astoria Column, with its 168 steps to the top of the wind-swept tower. Good exercise. Not aerobics, but activity. And perhaps enough to send the body springtime grow signals.

Walking on the beach, we soaked in the power of the waves. The Pacific is the world's largest and most powerful ocean. I'll use that power to fuel my campaign to continue Younger Next Year through to a bachelor's degree in 2013. Then I'll amp up the program, if at all possible, to pursue a Gray Seals master's degree.

Pi Day

I just threw my nutrition plan out the window. We celebrated Pi Day March 14 with not only a slice of marionberry pie (shared) but also a small pizza from eateries at Cannon Beach. We did this special family holiday up right.

I also jogged a few blocks trying to dodge raindrops flying sideways, and spent some time turning inside out umbrellas back to right. It's not enough to burn off the calories, but I don't care. I know enough to feel just a tad guilty. And I'll be back from R&R soon enough, and recovered from this cold, with a fresh outlook and more motivation than a mule with a nose for molasses. Or pie.

Merely the Possible

Ah, vacation. It's a time to rest and recreate. I tell myself if I can't exercise an hour a day, six days a week, like normal, it will be OK if I just stay active.

Today our main "activity" was a hike to Cape Meares Lighthouse near Tillamook. We did merely the possible. The highway getting there was snow covered in its higher elevation stretches. Branches and trees had fallen, and crews were clearing the way. When we got to the turnoff, we discovered a gate across the main access road. We would have to park and hike the half mile down to the lighthouse and then back out again.

The Cape Meares hike was a good challenge considering I am under the weather with a cold and not at peak energy. Tomorrow maybe I will do more.

A person occasionally needs a short break from the grinding routine, the perpetual motion, the endless virtue of Younger Next Year. The main thing is, I will try to stay active enough to send springtime signals to my body to grow and not decay, to get younger in all the ways that matter.

Wafflemania

OK, so I'm a sucker for waffles. When some people go to motels, they look for the bar. I look for the waffle bar. I love a good bed and breakfast joint where I can make myself a waffle, smother it in peanut butter and honey and get two-thirds of the calories I need all day in one sitting. I'll also probably have a carb craving in a half hour and be tremendously hungry again. I don't care. Yes, I do feel a bit guilty. But one waffle now — or maybe two or three — could keep me from having a waffle a day back home. And that seems like a fair trade to me.

Where's the Pep Talk?

Welcome to the Common Cold Zone, Day 3. I feel about as peppy as a moss-covered rock. Normally, this would be my one-hour bicycling day, a time to sweat to aerobic bliss. Today, however, I think I'll just take my Dayquil and go into survivor mode. I need to get more rest, recharge my batteries.

I'm also in vacation mode. R&R is the order of the day. By the time we get home again, after a few days on the fabulous Oregon coast dodging rainstorms, looking at great and not so great art and eating crab, I'll be ready to hit the Younger Next Year program hard. In the meantime, I'll stay as active as I can, walking here and there, having a first dance each day, beachcombing.

If I'm lucky, I'll also get the seven to nine hours of sleep a night my body needs and doesn't often get when I am in work week mode. The body needs time for metabolism maintenance, and only with seven hours of sleep or more a night can it run most efficiently. Sleep is a gift. To do it right requires due diligence. To me, it's even more of a challenge to get seven hours or more of sleep a night than it is to exercise hard one hour a day.

Sure, there's a weight room downstairs at the motel. But today the Common Cold has removed my initiative. The weight room is not giving me a pep talk. If it's calling my name, today, it's only in a whisper.

The Not So Common Cold

Let your guard down and — wham! — here comes the beast of the common cold. I finished my Saturday morning weight workout, and then Teri and I went out to breakfast at our favorite Walla Walla restaurant, the Maple Counter, to celebrate our six-month wedding anniversary. I felt great.

Soon, however, I was starting to drag for no good reason. I was getting extremely crabby and my muscles were getting achy. Still, I kept thinking maybe I was just in some mood phase. We went on a long walk in the sunshine, before the storm hit, to see if that might help matters. It was fun, like usual, a great way to make connections and enjoy what Mother Nature has to offer.

However, I just could not muster any energy, and soon I was getting a sore throat. No denying it. I pride myself in not getting sick often, but now I had to face facts and admit that I was as susceptible as the next guy at getting the common cold.

I figure I have two weeks to suffer this beast before I kick him out of my life. Not for good. But hopefully for a long time. In the meantime, if my body gives the green light, I need to continue my workout regimen so I continue to grow, not decay. Rest is important. Exercise is important. We'll see which wins.

Vacation Trepidation

I look forward to vacations like some people look forward to root canal. Sure, I love to go to the Oregon Coast. And I absolutely, positively love spending time with my Sweetie Pie going through galleries, eating out at nice restaurants and shopping. Well, maybe not shopping.

Anyway, my goal on vacation is to get in my hour of bicycling or weights when I can, and otherwise just stay extremely active. Do a lot of walking in town, or on the beach. It's not aerobics. But if I can do enough to send those springtime signals the authors of "Younger Next Year" talk about, to grow and not to decay, I'll be fine. It's my choice. I want to make each day count.

My other goal is to make good choices in the restaurants. I need to watch the layering of fats, sugars and simple carbs and just be cautious when ordering, to stop at 80 percent full, to aim for moderation. But, as Oscar Wilde said, Moderation in everything, including moderation.

If I emerge from the week feeling refreshed, reinvigorated, less fat than a walrus and ready to plunge back into a full hour a day, six days a week heavy exercise program, that will be just fine.

Biathlon Beckons

The first test of the emergency exercise system (golf and Younger Next Year) went off without a hitch this week. Thank goodness for indoor bicycles. When the sun goes down, I just keep right on going.

Sunday we spring ahead to Daylight Savings Time, when we will get another hour of sunlight in the evening after work. That will make a huge difference. Living close to the eastern edge of the Pacific Time Zone, we face early sunrises and sunsets all year long. I've advocated everything east of the Blue Mountains in Oregon going to Mountain Time, to no avail. So we're stuck with our early sunsets, and less time in the evening after work to get in the golf and biking.

I have a golf membership for four days a week, Monday through Thursday. I will try to play nine holes of golf as often as possible — and do my hour of exercise on these days. It's a biathlon challenge that I look forward to, something that should crank up the metabolism big time as well as supply plenty of Vitamin D. Let the games begin.

Fore!

Four is my lucky number. It's also what golfers holler when an errant shot threatens to disrupt the serenity of other golfers on the course. Yesterday I bet myself $500 that I could play enough golf in 2012 to make a Monday through Thursday membership at Buffalo Peak Golf Course in Union pay for itself. I need to golf at least once a week through October to win the bet.

The hard part is not the golf, however. It's keeping up my six day a week, an hour a day Younger Next Year exercise routine. Golf is fun, a great social activity, and the walking, carrying of a bag and swinging the club is good exercise. But it's not aerobics. As Dr. Henry S. Lodge and Chris Crowley make clear, even if you golf, you still need to get your aerobics.

It's going to be one busy summer. But losing a spouse at age 48 to complications of diabetes and a dad at age 70 to bone cancer, I know that I won't live forever. If a window of opportunity opens, I need to climb through it and get all the Vitamin D I can. Watch out, birdies!

The Weight-ing Game

How to lose weight? It's easy. Just exercise hard, six days a week. You may well boost your resting basal metabolism by 50 percent. You'll be burning calories night and day, even when you sit on the couch watching TV and while you sleep.

There's no need to diet. But as the Younger Next Year authors suggest, quit eating crap. Ditch the french fries and Oreos. Stay out of the fast food joints, and the processed food aisles in the center of the grocery store. Fill your refrigerator and pantry with healthy foods. Eat half as much twice as often. Aim for 75 percent plant products, 10 helpings of fruits and veggies a day.

The weight will magically go away until you are at maintenance level. If you're like me, that might be even less than you weighed in high school. OK, exercising hard six days a week is not easy. It takes work. Discipline. But it sure beats yo-yo dieting, and spending lots of money on fad food plans that make the author rich and you fat.

Going Nowhere Fast

Riding indoor bike is a joy. Sure, you don't get the fresh air treatment. Or Vitamin D. But you do, if you have the right kind of indoor bike, get a lot of feedback, such as heart rate, miles traveled and calories burned. All this information is helpful if you want to get in the prime fat-burning mode, for me about 65 percent of heart rate capacity. It also helps to compare performance from day to day.

Another nice thing about riding indoor bike is watching taped programs on TV. My favorites are "Dr. Oz," "Rick Steve's Travel in Europe" and "Seinfeld." "Dr. Oz" in particular gives me lots of good health information and tips that I can use to improve incrementally my lifestyle.

Sure, I'm going nowhere fast on the indoor bike. And I prefer outdoor riding. But so far, in about a year's time on the indoor bike, I've traveled about 2,000 miles in the direction of the Younger Next Year Fountain of Youth.

Warning: Vacation Ahead

Just one more week of work and we'll be on vacation to the Oregon Coast. Vacations are great fun. They're also land mines for the Younger Next Year program. I'll make sure to take sure my journal along and accurately what I eat, drink and do for fun. I'll try to keep up my aerobics and weightlifting, but if I fall short of one hour a day, six days a week I'll be OK. If I get more calories than normal, I'll be OK.

The main objective is to try to stay active and to make good food choices most of the time. We want to sit less and be in motion more while making sure we do get the rest and recreation needed to recharge batteries. Hey, we're not 21 anymore. We're 54. But we are getting younger next year.

Man of Steel

Teri is making me into a man of steel -- steel-cut oatmeal, that is. And now, totally by happy accident, we have a back-up supply of Bob's Red Mill Steel-Cut Oats, our favorite brand. Unbenounced to me, Teri got a small bag while shopping Thursday after work at the health food store in College Place. I got a small bag as a "gift" for Teri Friday after work at the health food store in La Grande. Great minds think alike, and sometimes so do fair-to-middlin' minds too.

When in Doubt, Go Out

The wind was howling yesterday like a love-sick coyote. The car was shaking enough on the freeway coming down Cabbage Hill that I thought a tire might be going flat. I thought about how difficult riding bicycle outdoors might be and chickened out. I rode indoors while watching "Dr. Oz" and then a Rick Steves' travel program about traveling Basque country in Spain and France. Great shows. And I was happy with trying to do intervals, the calories I was burning and the "distance" I was covering. Still, the ride had no continuity. I kept finding reasons to get off and take short breaks.

That would never happen outdoors. If in doubt, I should ride outdoors and challenge the elements. It's good Vitamin D. It's also good training for conditions I might encounter on an important kedging trip, like the one Bill and I plan to take this July around the rim of Crater Lake, Oregon's only national park. Next time, if the conditions are at all favorable, in other words not downright totally miserable, with rain, sleet, snow and hail when only the postal service delivers, I'll ride outdoors.

The Ultimate Revenge

My former boss has to take seven pills a day to combat high blood pressure. I ride bike. My goal is to have the lowest blood pressure of any newspaper editor in Oregon. Of course, I also believe in the occasional news fast, as recommended by Dr. Andrew Weil in the book "Spontaneous Happiness." I am in the business of causing blood to boil. I am in the business of stirring up cortisol to unprecedented levels. I am in the business of entertaining curmudgeons and causing the petulant and judgmental to become even more so. No matter. This makes Younger Next Year all the more important as a natural antidote to the unhealthy vat of fires, crimes and accidents that make up a successful daily newspaper.

What an exceptional challenge. I love being able to stay healthy while other, supposedly smarter and more successful individuals, fly off the tracks.

The Weighting Game

Lifting weights can make your day job look exciting. My goodness. Talk about sensory deprivation. But lifting weights, making those muscles burn, twice a week for an hour can do a lot to ward off minor arthritis and the other aches and pains that some people think are inevitable as you age.

The best part of weights is how they benefit other sports you love. Your golf game will improve. You'll be able to do fight or flight drills (intervals) on the bicycle. You'll look good to your mate.

It's no surprise that only about 10 percent of people 50 and older lift weights regularly. They are the lucky ones who refuse to quit before the miracle. The other ones are often seen standing in line at the physical therapist's office. What is physical therapy, after all, other than guided weight lifting with an expert coach?

I choose to lift weights, feel better all the time and avoid those medical bills. The two hours a week is a small price to pay for big results.

Ooooooo, Chocolate!

I try to start each day with a good breakfast. As Dr. Henry Lodge advised, eat shredded wheat, blueberries, banana and skim milk and you're one-third of the way to a healthy day. Yesterday I made it to 99/100 of the way to a healthy day. Then I broke into the chocolates. Someone had left small boxes of chocolates on the table at work. I took a couple home, thinking I might regift them to my wife. As they were not dark chocolate, and lots of calories, I told myself that would not make a good gift to someone who is trying to be healthy. So I ate them myself. Two boxes worth.

Some day I might make an entire healthy day, 100 out of 100. But don't bet on it.

Feeling Ducky

Some days you feel like a duck. Some days you don't. But even on those days when you don't feel so ducky, you can still go through the motions of a workout. Sure, if you have a major case of the flu, or food poisoning, or are recovering from an operation, maybe you have a strong case for skipping exercise. You are also skipping a rush of endorphins and the most natural way to beat back minor depression.

The bigger point is, keep at it. Don't quit before the miracle. Show some resilience. Younger Next Year is not for the weak of character. It will make you stronger, sharper. But you have to do the work.

Life is a Crap Shoot

The biggest thing I gained from Dr. Andrew Weil's book "Spontaneous Happiness" is learning meditation skills that will get me back from emotional turmoil to my emotional set point the quickest. It's all part of my Even-Steven Philosophy. If something bad happens, I believe something equally good will happen, balancing everything out. For example, in 2005 I was diagnosed with the chronic ailment neurogenic bladder. Having to catherize four times a day helped me to better understand the challenges my first wife Tina faced dealing with diabetes since the age of 2. Today, after an operation, I catherize twice a day. It's not fun. But life is more manageable, and it doesn't stop me from taking big kedging trips like the bicycle ascent of 10,945-foot Beartooth Pass on the Wyoming-Montana border northeast of Yellowstone National Park.

Having neurogenic bladder also made me more open to take on the challenges of the "Younger Next Year" program when my mom, who normally gives me religious gifts, gave me the evolutionary and revolutionary book as a 52nd birthday present in 2009. I wanted to do everything I could to stay as healthy as possible. I wanted to offset some of the inevitable challenges of neurogenic bladder and to be strong, sharp and clear.

When I lost Tina to complications of diabetes in 2007, when she was 48 and I was 50, I was devastated. Never had I gone through anything so painful as that grief. Yet deep down I knew that if I eventually got myself back to my emotional set point something good would happen. That something turned out to be meeting Teri in the fall of 2008. I had always had some dedication to physical fitness, but I had never pursued nutrition and built those skills. Teri changed that focus for me, and for that I will always be grateful. She also gave me reason to laugh and feel joy again, and another reason to work out regularly and take good care of my body.

Teri and I were married on 9-10-11. Having both lost parents at early ages to forms of cancer, we know that life is a crap shoot. There are no guarantees. But with each other's help and encouragement, through good nutrition and regular exercise, through regular contact with other people, we can grow stronger. I like to think of the Younger Next Year program as giving me the best chance at a life of both quality and quantity. And it makes me mentally stronger so I can get back to my emotional set point quicker when the inevitable turmoils of life stir the waters.

Playing the Numbers Game

Some people trying to lose weight weigh in every hour. They weigh in every time they eat a doughnut or a double bacon cheeseburger and a supersized order of fries, or a giant tub of popcorn. They get on a diet rollercoaster where they actually gain weight.

I got off the diet rollercoaster and onto a lifestyle program that works — Younger Next Year. Each week I like to weigh in. I do it first thing in the morning, before I take on water weight, without clothes, so that I can make an accurate comparison from week to week. I am no longer trying to lose weight. Maybe I never was. I just want to see where the Younger Next Year program will take me if I exercise hard six days a week and quit eating crap.

This morning I weighed 177.6 pounds. At my peak weight in life, in 2004, long before I discovered the Younger Next Year program, I weighed 240 pounds. That's a lot of weight to pack on a 5-foot-11 frame, but not uncommon in America, which is in the midst of an epidemic of obesity. I was at about 200 pounds when I discovered Younger Next Year in the summer of 2009.

Chris Crowley and Dr. Henry Lodge advise not to go on a diet but to just follow the program as closely as you can and the weight will take care of itself. They're absolutely right. Diets don't work. Lifestyles do. As the authors say in the "Younger Next Year" book, losing a pound or two will take time, but it will happen. I can live comfortably at 180 pounds. Anything below that is gravy on the cake — err, make that olive oil and vinegar on the spinach.

Preparing for Anything

It's 90 degrees. It's 20 degrees. The wind is blowing 40 mph. It's raining, cats, dogs and small frogs. It's like a sauna out there. It's like a freezer.

No matter what the conditions, what punches are thrown, it's good to work out in nature. If you wear the right clothes, you will be reasonably comfortable. And you will be training for whatever conditions you might find yourself in when you take your next kedging trip. That's the big reward for all this daily exertion, for riding bicycle intervals uphill against a 30 mph wind, as I did today.

Of course, you should hope for the best conditions when you take the trip that has captured your imagination, like bicycling up Beartooth Pass in Montana or riding around the rim of Crater Lake in Oregon. But ideal conditions are not guaranteed. And if you find yourself facing some elemental challenges on the kedging trip, if you have been diligent in your workouts, and not chickened out when the going gets tough, you can tell yourself you have faced this, and a lot worse, before, and lived to tell the tale.

'Spontaneous Happiness'

I am currently reading Dr. Andrew Weil's book "Spontaneous Happiness." I'm hoping it will help me get the emotional side of my life into balance, since that contributes so much to physical progress. It's not always easy. Sometimes, as the "Younger Next Year" authors say, you don't like all the members of your pack but you still need a pack. That's especially true for those of us still plugging away at jobs where not all our co-workers are uniformly pleasant.

We can't control what kind of cortisol, negativity, perfectionism or dogma co-workers bring to the job. We can only control our reaction to that.

I am learning various meditation techniques that should help me interrupt the whirling of the brain when co-workers act in untoward ways. One meditation technique is to do a deep breathing exercise involving the numbers 4-4-8. The other is to repeat the mantra Beartooth Pass, in honor of the 10,945-foot pass on the Montana-Wyoming border I bicycled up last summer.

Becoming better able to handle "attacks" is a long-term challenge. I can't change other people. I can only change my reaction to them and how long it takes for me to return from negativity to an optimistic emotional set point, my calm center.

Just a Regular Joe

I thought I was something special. After two years of working out 45 minutes a day, six days a week, I bumped the program up. Now I was working out an hour a day, six days a week. I told friends I had got my Associate of Arts degree in Younger Next Year and was now pursuing my Bachelor's Degree in Gray Seals. That's my own invention. Modeled after the Navy Seals, the Gray Seals involves people 50 and older willing to push their bodies to the max in pursuit of a quality life.

Then one evening I was watching a fundraising program on National Public TV starring Dr. Henry Lodge and the Younger Next Year program. There Dr. Lodge revealed that the most efficient way to get the most out of this program, and not go crazy, is to work out one hour a day, six days a week.

So goes my thunder. Now I will have to do (get the privilege to do) two more years of Younger Next Year and get my Bachelor's Degree before moving on to Gray Seals master's program, whatever that entails. The good part is I still have a year and a half before I have to figure that out.

Going to Plan B

It's great when you can don the Younger Next Year leather jacket, strap on the aviator glasses and go on automatic pilot. You shouldn't have to make a fresh decision to exercise or not eat junk each day.

Some days, though, go smoother than others. Much smoother. On other days to finish your exercise program you need to go to Plan B, Plan C, maybe even Plan Z.

Monday was just such a day. Usually I ride bike for an hour as soon after work as I can. This day, however, the new DVR recorder for my TV showed up on my doorstep, thanks to the friendly folks at UPS, and I felt obligated to hook it up before I exercised. I wanted to be able to watch TV as I rode the indoor bicycle.

Well, long story short, hooking up the DVR was relatively easy, with help from a friendly voice on the other end of the phone, a troubleshooter who happened to quick draw from Texas, but by the time the TV was up and running it was almost two hours after my usual bicycling time.

The point is, be thankful if you have developed the skills of being adaptable, because to make this program work, month in and month out, there will be days when major adaptation is the order of the day.

Sailing the Sensory Deprivation Sea

If a guy was looking to sell a lot of books, he'd promise you could lose 30 pounds in three weeks and keep it off forever working out only 10 minutes a day. "Younger Next Year" is not that program. Dr. Harry (Henry S. Lodge, MD) and Chris Crowley would probably like to make billions on the next blockbuster diet book, but their mission seems to be more important than money. And one part of that mission, as Dr. Harry points out in the fundraising video for national public TV, is encouraging people to work out six days a week, an hour a day. That's not easy. Most of us would probably rather sleep on a bed of nails. We'd rather take the five-minute cold shower to raise our metabolism.

Dr. Harry says an hour a day, six days a week is the exercise sweet spot. It's where you get the most gains without going totally nuts.

For some people, day after day of aerobics and weights can be monotonous. For me, a Scandinavian-American at peace with sensory deprivation, it never gets boring. I just ride the exercise bicycle watching "Dr. Oz" or a travel show on TV or listening to a book on tape. Or in better weather I ride outdoors and enjoy the scenery. It's more exciting than watching haircuts, usually.

Breaking the Fast

Breakfast may well be the most important meal of the day, even more important than the Midnight Snack. Breakfast is a chance to make good choices and get one-third of the way to a healthy day. During the work week, I like to start the day with shredded wheat, a banana, frozen blueberries, cinnamon and soy milk. The cinnamon helps with not only flavoring but also to slow the release of free sugar into the system for more even-Steven energy distribution.

According to nutritionist Joy Bauer, it's important to eat breakfast within 90 minutes of rising. People who wait longer, or skip breakfast altogether in hopes of losing weight, aren't doing themselves a favor. Instead, they are undermining their efforts at losing or maintaining weight. The body at that point is getting fast signals and stores calories that come in primarily as fat.

It's important each morning that we don't wait too long to break the fast.

Celebrate Good Times C'mon!

It's the end of the work week, and we want to go out on the town and celebrate a week well done. It's a reward for keeping our noses to the grindstone and figuring out solutions to pressing problems. It's also a reward for being disciplined during the week with nutrition and exercise, for enjoying super stews and super salads and not eating out of a box. It's a reward for grinding out hour after hour of aerobic exercise and weightlifting, which some days is more fun than other days.

Out on the town, we might eat and drink a few more calories than normal. We might indulge ourselves with four-legged meat, potatoes, bread and dessert. So be it. An occasional indulgence will keep us from everyday bingeing on the white foods and foods packed with sugar, salt and fat. We will celebrate — and not feel guilty in the least — knowing that overall we remain on the path toward vitality and well-being.

The Cove Comet

I'll never be mistaken for the Cove Comet, Jim Puckett, the guy who set all sorts of Oregon sprinting marks back in the 1950s. But when I get on the bike some days I feel fast. Of course, when I was in my 20s, I could average 18 mph on a bicycle, and today my best is about 15.5. So it goes. My goal of getting back to being as fast as I was as a 20-something may be unrealistic. But I have achieved my college weight, about 180 pounds, and that is a badge of honor for a 54 year old.

Some days, when my biorhythms are in synch, I feel as if I am flying down the road on the bicycle. I may never catch the Cove Comet. That's OK. Just to feel the wind in my hair — and in my "sails" — is enough.

Water Boy

Yesterday, I drank enough coffee to float a horseshoe — with the horse still attached. I need to drink more water. The "Chemistry of Calm" book recommends I drink two large glasses just as soon as I get up in the morning, so I started that routine today. Of course, it takes a month to build a habit. Check back in a month to see how I'm doing.

I also try to drink a quart of water with each hour of exercise. The exercise isn't done until the water is finished. I usually add a drop or two of lemon in the water to make it more palatable.

We're lucky to have great water in Cove. It's the nectar of the Wallowa Mountains, and consuming it is good for the soul.

The Lifestyle Diet

Don't diet, that's the headline. As the Younger Next Year authors make perfectly clear, 95 percent of diets fail. That's why whatever you choose to do, with exercise and nutrition, make it repeatable, day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out, year in and year out. It's got to be fun, to a degree. When you see results, and can maintain the program with lots of energy, feeling great, Younger Next Year becomes a joy.

The Great Almond Experiment

The "Dr. Oz" show, tapes of which I often watch while bicycling indoors in winter, had a guest, Tim Ferriss, author of the New York Times bestseller "4-Hour Body," who does experiments on himself. One experiment was to discover what would promote better sleep for those who tend to toss and turn. Ferriss recommended taking two tablespoons of almond butter before bedtime to stabilize blood sugar overnight and help a person feel better upon waking. Not having almond butter, I tried two tablespoons of almonds. The experiment will take several nights, of course, but on the first night I still woke up early and did my share of wrestling with the covers.

I love the idea, however, of a person conducting safe experiments on themselves and hope to read the book someday. But I think I will forego his recommended way of supercharging the metabolism — taking a five- to 30-minute cold shower each morning. I think I'll stick with exercise and green tea.

Waddle While You Work

My wife, the Wonder Woman, is an excellent baker, just like her mother before her, and on Valentine's Day Wonder goes wild in the kitchen. Over the weekend she made almond paste that was then added to her own special cinnamon rolls. Yum! And that's not all. She also made the world's loveliest loaf of bread and two kinds of cookies, plus gave me a small box of chocolates and a bunch of cinnamon gummy bears. I love gummy bears. Wonder spoils me rotten.

Now, after a day of rest, I am once again taking up my Gray Seals Younger Next Year campaign of an hour a day, six days a week of exercise. I may waddle a bit when I crawl onto the indoor bicycle this evening, but I will labor on until I burn up all these extra and well enjoyed calories.

The point is, no matter how disciplined we are, none of us will be perfect. Some days we'll eat healthy foods all day and exercise with precision and energy. Other days we'll fall short of the glory. No problem. The main thing is that we waddle over and get back on the bike.

No Offseason

Back in the Pleistocene epoch, when I went to school, we'd train for a sport during the season and then go back to being sofa slugs. We'd have a few weeks of sweaty daily doubles in football, for example, and then launch into the games. After the season, we'd go back to watching "Gilligan's Island" and eating Twinkies and Ding-Dongs.

In the Younger Next Year program, however, there is no offseason. You need to send springtime signals to your body, to grow and not decay, each day. Day after day, week after week, year after year you build incrementally on your fitness foundation.

Because of this discipline, I feel at age 54 I am in the best shape of my life. I am stabilized at 178 pounds, down from a high of 240. I feel great and have lots of energy. That's amazing considering I am now going through manopause and all the typical bodily challenges that occur in the AARP years.

I'm Just a Lightweight

OK, so I lift weights twice a week. You'd think by now, in my third year doing this Younger Next Year program, that I'd be able to lift a Volkswagen bug off a button-nose child in distress.

Not so. Unless, that is, I had a tremendous sudden release of adrenaline sparked by some crisis.

The main thing I learned at my 9-10-11 wedding to the woman I call Wonder is a lot of the menfolk in my family, and those in my wife's family, are way, way stronger than me. That's true even though I am a recovering junior college shot putter. Yes, I once tossed around a 16-pound iron ball, just for fun and giggles.

The men helping out at the wedding could lift really heavy objects like arbors that made my knees buckle and my eyes bulge. They made lifting heavy objects look effortless.

Maybe I need to lift heavier weights in my twice-a-week, hour-a-day weightlifting sessions. I need my muscles to burn more. I need to get the most return for my investment in time.

Still, I'm happy with the results I'm getting with light weights. It does wonders in the battle against minor arthritis that sneaks up on a guy in the AARP years. And it makes me not be embarrassed if I get caught without a shirt on. I am not Charles Atlas. Or Mike Tyson. And I don't really want to be. What I want to be is an endurance athlete. I want to have good muscle tone and quality of life. And if I don't win the family Volkswagen bug-hurling contest, so it goes.

I Have a Pistachio Problem

Some people have problems with booze. Cigarettes. Hoarding junk. Collecting pets. I have a pistachio problem. There, I admitted it. That's the first step toward getting help.

Every night this week, just before bedtime, I've hauled a stash of pistachios and a book to bed and read for an hour, way past my bedtime. Of course, the book is Bill Bryson's "The Thunderbolt Kid" about the author's upbringing in Iowa. I have a Bryson problem too. I love his writing. I love the way his mind works.

Sure, nuts are good fat. Nuts also have lots of calories. Moderation is the key. One recommendation is getting a nut spoon and never eating more at one sitting than can be contained in the spoon. Another good rule might be, "Never eat in bed." Boy, do I hate rules.

Catch the Endorphin Wave

Exercise is the best cheer-up medicine, and all it costs is time and effort. I especially like doing stomach crunches at work. I try to do 500 a day Monday through Thursday on my lunch hour. The crunches add up over time. They help my golf game, on the rare instances when I get to play, strengthening the core. The crunches also release endorphins, those feel-good chemicals that flood the body in the hour or two after exercise.

The exercise helps me deal in a positive way with the stresses of work. The calmer I can be, the better the quality of my life.

The S Rule

"Food Rules" by Michael Pollan offers some great advice about nutrition in small bites. One bite that I particularly like and want to adopt is the S rule: "Eat no seconds, snacks or sweets except in days that begin with the letter S." Of course, last night I grabbed a book, Bill Bryson's "Thunderbolt Kid," and a couple handfuls of pistachios and had a most enjoyable snack just before bedtime.

I am definitely a work in progress.

The S rule will be easier to follow while I am in the work world, which at the current rate of income should be about age 80. I just bring a cooler to work with snacks for 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m., and very occasionally go out to lunch with friends. At home the refrigerator beckons at all hours. In retirement I will have to find clubs to join, volunteer activities to do and recreational pursuits to follow to get out of the house and away from the refrigerator.

With discipline, the S rule should help me maintain my weight at a healthy level, and for that even the Thunderbolt Kid might approve.

Hot Stove League

The secret to losing or maintaining weight is out of the bag. Exercise hard six days a week. That's all there is to it. Do that and you can boost your resting metabolism by 50 percent. You'll be burning more calories than the sedentary guy even if you're just sitting on the couch talking on the phone. You'll be burning more calories while you sleep.

Of course, most Americans will instead jump in with both feet to the diet pool, hoping, wishing, praying the latest fad diet will help them lose 20 pounds in a week. Seems easier than exercise. After all, who wants to sweat and burn? Some 95 percent of these people will gain back the 20 pounds and more. They'll continue on the diet roller coaster, frustrated, wondering why nothing seems to work, mystified.

Something will work. It's called motion. Exercise hard, six days a week — an hour a day of aerobics four times a week and an hour a day of weights two days a week. Dance. Jog. Bike. Swim. Walk. Do whatever activities are most fun for you. Before long you too will be losing or maintaining weight as the newest member of the Hot Stove League.

Only Splurge on Days that Start with the Letter S

Ah, the weekend. I've been good all week, living the disciplined life. I've done my four days of aerobics and two days of weights, one hour each day. I've followed the rules of two: eat twice as often, eat half as much and chew twice as long. I've followed the Indian proverb: "Drink your food, eat your drink." I've tried to get enough sleep and come up short.

Now it's the weekend. Time to let my hair down. Time to relax. Time to snack if I really, really want to. I like the saying "Only splurge on days that start with the letter S."

I never say never to anything. I try not to eat fast foods or stuff with trans fat or saturated fat. I try to eat 10 helpings of fruits and vegetables a day. I try to not deny myself things so the cravings get out of hand.

As Oscar Wilde said, "Moderation in everything — including moderation."

Maybe on the weekend I'll even sleep seven to nine hours. Hmmm.

Obsession with Weight

Too many people in America are obsessed with weight. In the Younger Next Year program, however, the weight will take of itself if, as authors Chris Crowley and Dr. Harry Lodge say, you exercise hard six days a week and stop eating crap. Crowley mentions losing 40 pounds on the program, a terrific accomplishment, and keeping it off year after year. As the authors say, it is not a diet. It is a lifestyle.

Since my top weight of 240 pounds, I've lost more than 60 pounds. That's one-quarter of my body. Not all of this occurred while I was on the Younger Next Year program, starting in earnest in August of 2009. I probably weighed about 210 pounds at that point. I weigh 178 now.

But the weight has melted off without me stepping on a scale more than once a week, or even thinking about it much. The secret? Making exercise six days a week, an hour a day a habit. And getting out of the grocery store with almost all good stuff — the complex carbohydrates, proteins and good fats.

Sure, I still indulge myself occasionally with ice cream and pizza. Sometimes I still have chips. But not often. And I know enough to feel just a little guilty with these pleasures.

Now my big challenge is not having beer at home. Dr. Lodge advises never to have a sugar pop again as long as we live. Beer is different. One a day for women and two a day for men might actually help people live longer. Any more than that can be a problem. As the authors say in "Younger Next Year," a lot more than that can be a big problem. The calories quickly accumulate. Weight builds.

I like to think of it this way. Each beer is equal to eating one more Twinkie. I even have a laminated card in my wallet that tells the toll of binge drinking. It's a long list: dehydration, fatty acids on and cirrhosis of the liver, increased weight, impaired cognitive function, diabetes, increased cancer risk, high blood pressure, stroke, moodiness, sleeplessness, motor skill decline, interpersonal problems and last, but certainly not least, shrunken brain.

Worst of all, binge drinking — that is, having three or more beers at one time more than once a month — can take six years off a person's life. Those years would be a shame to lose since the Younger Next Year program can give you quality years, if you're lucky, well into your 80s and possibly your 90s.

However long you live, you will continue to have nutrition challenges. That's a given. One difficult thing, as the endlessly virtuous Dr. Lodge advises, is to try to avoid snacking and having seconds. But in those times when we open the refrigerator or pantry, the snacking becomes less destructive.

The secret is to exercise six days a week and not eat or drink crap. Easy, almost peezy.

Blue Toes

I love riding bicycle outdoors. Even if Vitamin D from sunlight is in short supply from November through March in the northern hemisphere, even if it is foggy and 32 degrees as it was Friday, even if the only other bicyclists on the streets are ones who have recently received DUIs, I love riding outdoors.

I dress in my regular bicycle gear and then add a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt, wool cap and winter gloves. Then I jump on my bike. Before long, I get up to speed and generate plenty of heat.

I try to do intervals once a week, usually Friday afternoons, and that adds to the warmth. My mode of operation is to ride as fast as I can primarily concentrating on my right leg from one telephone pole to the next, then my left leg one telephone pole to the next, then coast one telephone pole to the next. Repeat. To get the full hour in, I ride up the modest hill at the east end of the course three times. It's a challenge, especially when a south wind is blowing in my face.

I love my Milton-Freewater course. Only problem is, when I get home and get off the bike, I notice my toes are cold. I go through a painful few minutes while they thaw. Next time, if I remember, I will wear two pairs of socks to avoid the blue toes.

Give It a Month

Home is where the heart is, not where the beer is. I'm now on Day 6 of an experiment to not bring beer home. As a former copy editor at Hazelden Educational Materials, the publishing arm of a major national drug and alcohol abuse recovery center, I know a thing or two about treatment. I also know a thing or two about relapse and addiction. It seems there is a reason why the typical treatment program lasts 28 days. It's all about building new good habits. It's about putting yourself in positive environments and figuring out new patterns where temptation is minimized.

The experiment is an extension of lifestyle changes I've already made that start with exceptional discipline at the grocery store. My goal? To have only good stuff in the refrigerator and pantry. No matter what I grab for, it will be good for me. I will not eat junk or drink junk, because I will not have brought any junk home from the store.

This isn't a diatribe against alcohol. For many people, alcohol in moderation can actually extend life. It may be OK for men to have two drinks a day and women to have one. Any more than that, however, can be a liability. A lot more can be a major problem.

It's not just the empty calories. If sugar pop is bad, sugar beer must be equally damaging. In quantity, beer can be especially damaging to health. Bingeing once a month or more can take six years off your life.

The bigger issue is, I really want to see what this Gray Seal program will do for me. And if I add 500 extra calories a day of beer, before long I will see incremental declines rather than gains. All the work — the hour a day six days a week of exercise — will be in vain.

I will give the beer-free home experiment a month. If successful, it could give me six extra years to enjoy life. A month for six years. Seems like a fair trade.

Sweat and Burn

Last evening's one-hour ride on the indoor bike ended up with me soaked in sweat. Of course, riding 15 feet away from a roaring fire in the wood stove helped. The ride helped stoke the fire of my metabolism, too.

The indoor bike is extremely durable. At this point, I have 1,450 miles on it, or the equivalent of halfway across the United States. I ride the indoor bike when light or poor weather conditions prevent outdoor rides. It takes away one more excuse to skip exercising.

I welcome the sweat. The physical portion of the Younger Next Year program encourages us to sweat when we do aerobics and to burn when we lift weights. Certainly, we want to avoid injuries or overwork. But we do want to make the most efficient gains, and monitoring the sweating and burning is a good way to do just that.

Owl Alarm Clock

This morning at 4:30 a pair of great horned owls began hooting back and forth to each other in the ponderosa pines not far from my bedroom window. I love listening to the owls. I also love my sleep. Most of us need seven to nine hours of sleep a night to repair our bodies and rejuvenate ourselves for the challenges in the day ahead. Getting less than six hours of sleep a night can be particularly devastating to health. And getting more than nine hours of sleep a night on a routine basis may be a sign of depression setting in.

Most nights, I manage six to seven hours of sleep. Not bad. Could be better. We need to be passionate about getting our z's. It's important to overall health. Give a hoot.

Junior Year

For two years I attended the Younger Next Year Junior College. I did 45 minutes a day of aerobics four times a week and 45 minutes a day of weight lifting two days a week. The whole program kicked off with the RAGBRAI bicycle ride across Iowa with 20,000 of my newest, closest most personal friends — and good buddy Bill Rautenstrauch.

I celebrated graduating from YNY Junior College by climbing Beartooth Pass in northwest Wyoming twice — first from the east side and then from the west side.

Then I moved on to the Gray Seals University. Now I do one hour a day of aerobics four times a week and one hour a day of weight lifting two days a week. This summer I plan to celebrate finishing my junior year by riding around Crater Lake with Bill.

I have not yet decided what my graduation ceremony from Gray Seals University will involve, but hopefully it will be a challenge that captures the imagination.

My New Mountain Bike

I just bought a new mountain bike. Well, actually, I got glasses. And since I have no eye insurance, because eyes apparently aren't part of the human body, I paid full price, which coulda, woulda, shoulda bought me a mountain bike. So it goes.

Some mountain bike routes in Eastern Oregon capture the imagination. Take the Steens Mountain Loop, for instance. Or the ride to the Hat Point Overlook, near Imnaha. Or perhaps the ride through the Zumwalt Prairie, near Enterprise, and up, around and through the Chesnimnus country. Any one of these would be a supreme challenge.

The dream will have to wait. Real life keeps getting in the way.

Quality, not quantity

A 37-year-old Kenyan marathoner was asked how he could compete at an international level at such an advanced age. Quality, not quantity training, he replied. Favorite coaches John Gagliardi (Division III football, St. John's University, Minnesota) and John Wooden (Division 1 basketball, UCLA) emphasized quality, not quantity. Watching another team perform vigorous pre-game calisthenics, Gagliardi laughed. "That team is going to be the best in the nation at pushups. Unfortunately, pushups aren't part of the game." Gagliardi emphasized the fundamentals, blocking, tackling and running the plays. Mainly his teams practiced by just running plays. Wooden, meanwhile, programmed his practices down to the minute, and they moved faster than games. When players got in games, they were better conditioned than the other team and it seemed as if everything was unfolding in slow motion.

The practices of both Gagliardi and Wooden were some of the shortest in the nation. The results? Multiple national championships. They practiced smarter, not longer.

How does this equate to Younger Next Year? Well, we do weights twice a week, an hour a time. Those weights should be specific to your needs. I program mine to help with my golf swing, my balance and the ability when I'm older to get out of a chair or of a car. I don't pump huge weights overhead or do curls with massive barbells, not that there's anything wrong with that. But I know what I need. That can change. When it does, I will adapt my program to the needs of the moment.

Slug Day

Even God rested on the seventh day. What's good for God is good for me. Of course, like all good Americans, I tried to defy this basic law. I thought, If working out six days a week is good for me, working out seven days a week would be even better. Soon, however, my body rebelled. And if you don't listen to your body, it will scream louder and louder in an attempt to get your attention.

The Wonder Woman, my wife, agreed with God. She told me, in no uncertain terms, that I needed to incorporate a Slug Day each week.

On closer examination, the authors of "Younger Next Year," Chris Crowley and Dr. Henry Lodge, also recommend a day of rest. Dr. Lodge, in his special fundraising event on national public television, said the sweet spot for getting the most benefit for the least effort, and not turning yourself into an Olympic athlete or a crazy person, is six days a week, an hour a day, four days of aerobics, two days of weight lifting.

Of course, due to circumstances, some weeks the rest day gravitates. This week, for example, I have an appointment in the Tri Cities of Washington state for the Prius Snow Leopard, so I'll take the rest day on Saturday rather than on the usual Sunday. The important thing is to get into a healthy routine and not have to make a fresh decision each day to exercise or each week to take a day of rest. If Slug Day was good for God, it's even better for me. No, scratch that. Too American. Try again. If it's good for God, it's good for me.

Beating Daylight

Vitamin D is in short supply in the northern hemisphere in January. Today I hit the road at 3:30 p.m. and barely beat sundown. It was great to be able to bicycle outdoors in the heart of winter, but I had to watch the traffic. I was the invisible man.

Some people say they don't have time to exercise. The truth is, they just have other priorities. It's not that difficult to invest an hour a day, six days a week, not when you begin seeing the results.

I've taken away most of my wintertime excuses by setting up bicycles that can be ridden indoors and outdoors. No matter what the weather, or the light, I can still ride. The indoor bike at the mountain cabin in Cove now has more than 1,400 miles, while the indoor bike at the beach condo is just beyond 400. I'm more than halfway across America in search of the Fountain of Youth.

You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

After 20 years of using Quark for laying out the newspaper, we switched, suddenly, dramatically, irrevocably, Tuesday to InDesign. Now I'm an old dog. I'm 54 years old. I had all the shortcuts down in Quark. I could whip out pages like a card dealer in Vegas deals blackjack. The switchover has been slow. I'm learning. I love the challenge. I will learn the InDesign shortcuts and pretty soon wonder why we didn't switch over from Quark years earlier. For now, I've got a full-body cramp from the stress of so much learning, so fast.

The bigger point is this. No matter how old you are, you can start something new, whether that is weightlifting, aerobics or joining a bird-watching group. Just do it. Go for it. Have a good time and enjoy the new challenge. An old dog can learn new tricks.

Cookie monster

My wife, the Wonder Woman, likes baking cookies, which for her is a labor of love. And she's good at it. She even made a chocolate chip with orange zest, which was spectacular.

Most of the week I am disciplined. I eat five times a day, with a combination of 60/20/20 complex carbs to proteins and fats at each snack. I eat by the rules of 2: twice as often, half as much and chew twice as long.

On weekends, though, I like to be more relaxed around food. And when cookies are tempting me, I have cookies. Once I start, though, I have a hard time stopping. I have a really large sweet tooth. It's about the size of a walrus's, apparently.

The fewer sweets I eat, the fewer I'll want. My theory, though, is to not put any food on the banned list. If I have a craving, I just try to limit the damage. I try not to stay on the carb rollercoaster too long and get off that glorious ride, the Blood Sugar Express, express before roars up the mountain and then comes crashing down into the valley.

The good part is, exercising six days a week, an hour a day, I'll burn off the cookie calories. And it's good to feel loved.

Drink Your Food, Eat Your Drink

The Indian proverb — "Drink your food, eat your drink — resonates with me. I've always been a man who bolts down food. Before the 20 minutes an appetite lingers is up, I've gone back for seconds, thirds even.

Now it is important, for weight maintenance, for longevity, for feeling good, that I don't snack between meals and that I don't go back for seconds. It's all about portion control. And eating on the 2x2x2 plan — eat twice as often, eat half as much and chew twice as long — helps with not snacking. It keeps my blood sugar at an even keel and not riding on the unsettling big waves.

I struggled, mightily, with bolting food, with hurrying through meals and snacks, until I discovered the Indian proverb, "Drink your food. Eat your drink." Drinking your food means chewing it up fully and tasting every bite. Maybe even — probably even — setting down the fork or spoon between bites. "Drinking your food" also helps with digestion. It helps avoid that most common of older American concerns — heartburn — and the accompanying gas that can lead to major social faux pas.

The Indians know that eating is about quality and not quantity, and if you drink your food you're more likely to live longer and better.

Dr. Ball's example

One of my wife's favorite people, Dr. George Ball, died the other day at age 96. He was a fixture on the Whitman College campus, a man long ago retired as a professor of religion but who still maintained an office on campus. Dr. Ball was known a huge smile and good word for everyone he met, and carried with him a robust energy. Dr. Ball taught by example through his wit, wisdom and love. The image of Dr. Ball riding his single speed bicycle across campus, recycling cans — each 12-ounce can recycled saves six ounces in gasoline, he was fond of saying — and exchanging pleasantries with staff and students will endure.

The lessons from Dr. Ball are all about connection. About being involved. About caring. About reaching out to people. About listening. About helping people think clearer and feel better about themselves.

Dr. Ball was always upbeat and optimistic. No retiring in front of the TV and going into isolation and low-grade depression for him. No loss of identity. He was active and engaged until the end.

Sitting is the Next Smoking

For a time smoking was cool. Everyone wanted to be the Marlboro man, until he got lung cancer and died. Then smokers were uncool. Smokers gathered in little knots, outside doors, no longer allowed even in bars and restaurants.

Today sitting is the next smoking. We are in the midst of a sitting epidemic. The average American sits 10 hours a day. We sit in the car on the commute to and from work, we sit at our desks at work, we watch four hours of TV a day, we sit in front of our computer doing Facebook and exploring the web.

All this sitting is leading to epidemics of diabetes, stroke, heart disease and cancer. We need to get up and move more, even if that is just walking three days a week, 30 minutes a day. We need to park at the other end of the lot at the grocery store and take extra steps. We need to get off the couch and move. We need to get up from the desk at work and move every hour. Move. Move. Move.

By moving more, and quitting eating and drinking junk, we can eliminate half the illnesses and injuries in people 50 and older. We can reduce a lot of the health care costs that are soaring and stressing out our pocketbooks and our national budget. Each of us needs to make the decision to sit less and move more, and if we do it will make all the difference for us as individuals and as a country.

B6

B6 is more than just a vitamin. It is a rallying cry I am using to try to quit taking in empty or unnecessary calories. Lately, I've been drinking too much sugar beer, which like sugar pop contains a lot of empty calories. One or two drinks a day is OK. More than that can be a problem, especially as the calories add up into pounds over time. The incremental effect is what hurts the most.

I also need to cut out seconds and snacks. Of course, eating five meals a day helps. I try to eat a balanced meal or snack at 6 a.m., 9 a.m., noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. The meal is about 60 percent complex carbohydrates, 20 percent proteins and 20 percent good fats. I also aim for 75 percent plant products and 25 percent animal products.

And lately I've been following the Indian proverb, "Drink your food, eat your drink." That goes hand in hand with the rules of two: eat twice as often, eat half as much and chew twice as long.

B6 refers to finding something to do for six minutes when a craving arises. Usually, by the end of the six minutes, the craving will be gone. Wish me luck!

The Incremental Gym

Life is what you make it. And I am fortunate enough to socially engineer my work so that I can do weight training throughout the day. Ten minutes here, 10 minutes there. By the time I go home in the evening I'll have completed a one-hour weight workout. Sure, I use a rock painted gold as my "weight set." The rock was once thrown through the office window by vandals late one Friday evening. Someone got drunk and was mad at the newspaper for one reason for another and took action. I made the most of the opportunity by turning the vandal's weapon into my own personal weight set.

Doesn't seem like much, 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there. But over the year, even doing weights one day a week at work, I can get in 48 hours of weights (minus four weeks off for vacations). That's the best part of being a member of The Incremental Gym. It's all about staying disciplined. Building positive habits. Over time good things happen.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

"One of the great things about the Younger Next Year program," I was telling my wife, Teri, the other day, as I got out of bed, "is how it helps minimize the aches and pains. All the stretching, aerobics and weight lifting does wonders. You really ought to join me on my hour-long bike ride."

"Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" I hollered before my feet hit the floor. "Oooh, my aching back."

"Are you OK?" she asked, extremely concerned.

"Sure, just a minor thing. No big -- yooooowwww! -- deal."

There is no guarantee that exercise will cure what ails you. You still might develop a rutabaga in the brain pan, or debilitating arthritis, or whatever. But following Younger Next Year will most likely put way more spring in your step than there is now. Even if the word "Aiiiiiiiiiiiii" is still an integral part of your vocabulary.

Peaking for the Big Race

It used to be we'd start football practice in August, work like whirling dervishes for several months and then the season would be over. Same with track. We'd start training in March for the start of the season in early April. By May we'd peak for the district or state championships and then go on to other pursuits.

Today, athletics is a year-round endeavor. It's about preparing not for a season but for a life.

The Younger Next Year program that pays the most dividends for the least investment is an hour a day, six days a week, four days of aerobics and two days of weights, with a day of rest a week for good behavior. We are not in this to win a league championship, or a state title. We are in this for quality of life, because most of us will live a long time, whether we want to or not, and it's up to us whether those years are quality.

The Big Race now is life.

Play 60

The National Football League has a nifty advertising campaign aimed at targeting the national epidemic of childhood obesity. It's called Play 60. The program, however, is good for not just children but adults of all ages. Face it: we are a nation of couch potatoes. Many of us sit at a desk all day at work and then come home and sit for hours in front of the TV or computer playing on the Internet. We all need to get up, get outside and Play 60 minutes a day.

Sitting, it is said, is the next smoking. We are in the midst of a sitting epidemic, and paying the price through heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and various cancers. Play 60 encourages us to get off our duffs and be active, whether it is around the house or around the neighborhood, so we can whip these pesky health maladies and improve our quality of life. If we can make this activity into play, all the better.

32 degrees

32 is just a number. It's the mark in the Fahrenheit temperature scale that designates freezing. Above 32 and you're thawing, sweating, burning or roasting. Below 32 and you're getting popsicle toes.

As long as the road is bare, the wind is taking a nap, and there is daylight in the swamp, 32 is plenty warm for bicycle intervals. Today I did 16 miles of intervals. The course was in the rolling hills east of Milton-Freewater. It was Friday. The sun, however, had had enough work for one week. Only its color piercing through the thin clouds suggested warmth.

That was OK. You can be as comfortable as you dress to be. Getting too cold just means you haven't put on the right clothes, or have yet to invest in adequate insulation. I wore two pairs of cotton socks. My toes still got cold. I needed wool socks. There's a sheep somewhere grazing innocently in some meadow that is growing the wool I need for my next 32-degree bike ride. I hope he is growing the wool quickly because I will need it soon. Winter is only just getting started, and it's a joy to be able to have a few hours off work in the daylight to ride outdoors and get a Vitamin D fix. A number on a thermometer won't stop me.

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

A sale is on at the mall. Got a hangnail. Dog ate my homework. There are 1,001 excuses not to exercise for an hour a day, six days a week. A lot of us are extremely busy with family and job obligations. But consider how much time we watch TV and sit on the Internet in an average a day. It all becomes a matter of priorities. After all, there will always be a sale on at the mall. There will always be minor health complaints like hangnails that are annoying but should not derail you from your program. And the dog will always be hungry for homework.

Ode to Joy

Aerobic exercise is better than any antidepressant medicine. The cost is just time. And the payoff is several hours (all evening if you exercise right after work and happen to have a day job) of endorphins being shot throughout your body in gay profusion.

It's a physical ode to joy I try to give myself six days a week. The Younger Next Year doctor says the greatest payoff for the least investment is six days a week, an hour a day. I am for four days of aerobics and two days of weights.

I'm also smart enough, finally, to not think always, if an hour works great, more would be better. Not always so. There is a point of diminishing returns.

I can maintain the six-day-a-week, an-hour-a-day schedule without burnout. But I do need a day of rest. I take that on Sundays.

Aerobics can be addictive. Yet no matter how much I want to get out there, how sunny and beautiful the day, how much my body yearns for physical activity, I try to take a slug day and recuperate. That discipline of "not doing" will better ensure me future joy.

9 mph in a Cloud of Dust

The idea is not to wait for inspiration. It's to just keep going no matter what. Coming back from food poisoning, however, I was more or less energy free. I usually ride the indoor bike at about 14 mph, but I found myself running at 9 mph Monday. That's OK. Long and slow aerobics are good for you, too. I went a half hour, took a break, then finished with another half hour. On the second leg, I was back to about 12-13 mph. My energy was coming back.

Food poisoning is not the best way to achieve weight loss. Mostly, you just achieve dehydration, and it takes several days of concerted effort to recover.

It's also important not to wait for inspiration but to reach out to people. Make the phone calls. Get on Facebook. Email. Whatever. This is the area I need the most help with. I am shy by nature, and used to have to make long pep talks just to get myself to pick up the phone. My first wife, Tina, claimed I spent two months just nodding at her before I said my first word.

Fragile health

No matter how much you exercise, or how well you eat, health is not guaranteed. A recent bout with food poisoning has brought that fact front and center. The main thing I was thinking was, well at least it happened the evening before my rest day. My goal is to work out six days a week, an hour a day, with Sundays off for good behavior. Now I have about as much energy as a pancake. Will I be able to do the hour of biking I had planned for this evening? Or will I have to rest and recover? No one is perfect. It's making good choices most of the time that counts. In the end, I will just have to listen to my body and make an educated decision about when to resume training.

The down time has allowed me to read a good book, Michael Pollan's "Food Rules," which tells us to eat in moderation and mostly plants. Moderation? That's my biggest nutrition bugaboo.

The downtime has also helped me reconnect with my sweet wife, who is bringing me tea, warm Jell-O and homemade chicken noodle soup. The caring and connection will help me get better sooner.

Choice cut

When it comes to nutrition, it's all about choices. Last evening Teri, my wife of four months, had just returned from the dentist after having a root canal. She was limited in what she could eat. Of course, she loves Jell-O and could have lived on that for a month. But we needed something more substantial — and something she could eat using just the right side of her mouth. So we chose pizza. The real choice, however, was between thick crust and thin crust. We chose thin crust. We also chose medium size rather than large size or family size.

It might also have been better to cook the pizza and then immedicately cut and wrap half to put in the freezer for a future meal. There is still plenty of room for improvement.

Life is like that. Whether we live to 70, 80, 90 or 100, there will always be something in the in-basket, something still being "worked on," when we die. We are not afraid of death. We are afraid that the pile in the in-basket will be embarrassingly large.

Fight or flight

Friday is interval day. It's a chance to change up the aerobics to prepare for that day when you're in a dark alley and a group of guys with glowing eyes, yellow teeth and Mama tattoos approach. My standard operating procedure is to do the rolling hills east of Milton-Freewater by bicycle. I focus on the right leg for the length from one telephone pole to the next, then move on to the left leg for the next segment and then "rest" for the next. I love the challenge. It helps me prepare for the next big adventure, whether it be Ragbrai, the great bike ride across Iowa; the ride up 10,947-foot Beartooth Pass in Wyoming; or Crater Lake.

Fight or flight also comes into play on the social sphere. I can choose to do things with people, or hide out. Today's challenge was to attend the funeral of a true American hero gunned down by a coward. The service for Rob Carter at the Seventh-day Adventist Church was truly inspirational. Carter paid close attention to detail, never took the easy way out, and always had the time to build relationships.

Freeze frame

Jack Frost has sent storms north and south of us this winter. Today it was 36 degrees for my one hour of bike intervals in the rolling hills east of Milton-Freewater. The high Blue Mountains wear a blanket of snow.

I called mom this morning, thanking her for collecting my letters over the years and sending them to me in three notebooks. At first I wondered about delving into the past. There's no looking in the rearview mirror. You might see something gaining on you. Truth is, there are a lot of details missing from my memory that the letters bring back and for that I am thankful. I am also going to a funeral today with Teri for an authentic Northeast Oregon hero who was gunned down in his plumbing office by a coward seeking revenge.

The shredded wheat and blueberries for breakfast got me one-third of the way to a healthy day.