Habits. Your habits will either serve you or work against you. The choice is yours.

Lifelong habits will either shape your life for the better or ultimately imprison you. Much like compound interest, time has a dramatic effect on how habits impact your life.

Lifelong good habits work like compound interest in your investment account. Lifelong bad habits will compound like interest due on an overdue credit card account.

While far from perfect, I have been fortunate enough to have accumulated some lifelong habits that have served me well in the realm of anti-aging.

My Top 10 Anti-Aging Habits

1. Never Smoked. Despite growing up in an era where smoking was quite common and in a family where both parents and all three brothers smoked, I’ve never taken a puff.
2. Never Did Drugs. Gateway or otherwise. I didn’t have my first sip of alcohol until I was a couple of months short of my 18^th While I did endure a few years of making up for lost time in my early twenties, I no longer drink [my 2018 New Year’s resolution] and really never have done too much over the years.
3. Sports. I’ve always been into sports. Ever since I can remember, it was soccer and hockey. Still play soccer. I consistently train 6 or 7 days per week—mostly gymnastics these days. Strength. Endurance. Mobility. Need all of these lifelong!
4. No Meat. In September 1980, I quit eating meat. Cold turkey [pardon the pun]. That includes poultry. For going on 38 years, my main protein sources are eggs and fish.
5. Same Weight Since High School. 155 plus or minus 5 pounds since 1976. Same waist size too. Chalk it up to lifestyle with a little vanity thrown in.
6. No Frankenfoods. Never eat margarine. Never aspartame. No GMOs.
7. No Pharmaceuticals. While I’ve taken some meds over the years—a few antibiotic treatments for pneumonia. NSAIDs for bursitis. Six sessions of chemo treatments [super mild with no hair loss or nausea]. Never had a flu shot, nor will ever get one. No aspirins for rare headaches.
8. Lifelong Learning. About health, human anatomy, and nutrition. You can never know too much. I will never stop learning. Writing these articles in one of the best forms of education I know.
9. Take Great Supplements. This is a no-brainer. We don’t get all the nutrients we need for optimal health from our foods. Regardless of how well you eat, it’s virtually impossible. But be careful—most supplements are crap. Make sure you take a great one!
10. Eat Clean. I tend to avoid most processed foods. My eggs come from my daughter’s chickens—the ones that run around her yard all day long. I tend to buy organic produce. Always wild fish. I rarely eat at restaurants. Avoid the middle aisles at the grocery store and you are ahead of the game.

These are my Top 10 lifelong anti-aging habits. What are yours? Any plans for new habits of your own?