I'm 70 and I'm in better shape than most people half my age, and the secret isn't a routine or a diet, it's that I stopped exercising for my appearance decades ago and started exercising to keep my own life within reach

I'm 70 and I'm in better shape than most people half my age, and the secret isn't a routine or a diet, it's that I stopped exercising for my appearance decades ago and started exercising to keep my own life within reach

I spent most of my thirties and forties exercising the way most people do—to look a certain way. I tracked calories burned, weighed myself after workouts, and chose exercises based on what would shrink the parts I didn’t like. I was reasonably consistent, but I was doing it from a place of persistent low-grade dissatisfaction with my own body. The exercise was never quite enough because the body was never quite enough. At some point in my early …