Outlive

Outlive compiles the latest science on health and longevity, combined with practical advice anyone can use to live better today and beat four types of chronic disease with the four pillars of good health: exercise, nutrition, sleep, and emotional health.

The most important part about exercising is to go from zero workouts to getting any regular movement at all. In one study, participants going from inactive to 15 minutes of daily, moderate exercise saw a decline in overall mortality of 14%. That’s huge!

Unfortunately, most guidance around exercise is either too specific (“how to run your first half marathon”) or too generic (“just move more!”), Dr. Attia laments. That’s why he recommends you create your own “Centenarian Decathlon.” What’s that?

Your Centenarian Decathlon is a list of 10 exercises you’d like to still be able to perform when you’re 100 years old. What are they? They could range from walking for 10 minutes to taking 20 stairs in one go all the way to completing a 3-hour hike. Take some time to think of cool physical feats for a 1oo-year-old to accomplish, and write them down.

Regardless of whether your Centenarian Decathlon is ambitious or humble, the message is clear: Start working on those exercises now. After all, how can you expect to do something at 100 if you can’t do it at 40?

Pro tip: If you want to set more ambitious exercise goals, make up another decathlon for a closer decade of your life. If you’re 30 now, what would you like to be able to do at 50? And so on.

The exercise you dream of but never do is pointless. The exercise you do on a daily basis, no matter how small, is everything.

While he no longer believes in multi-day water fasts, like he used to do on a monthly basis, Dr. Attia still thinks eating less is one of the easiest yet healthiest things we can do. In our modern world, food shortages aren’t a problem for most of us. We suffer from too much choice and too much food — especially too much bad food — not too little. If you want to try eating a little less to see if you’ll feel better, more energetic, and maybe even lose some weight, Attia suggests picking one of three dead-simple restrictions: Caloric restriction, in which you count calories for all foods and then try to lower how many calories you consume. Dietary restriction, in which you only cut out specific foods. Time restriction, in which you only eat during certain time windows throughout the day. The first option is highly flexible but requires lots of discipline. You’ll have to count and track calories and…