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Age Defiance!

A website dedicated to all the things that can be done to defy AGE and AGING!

OK, Dave Anderson here, who was 80 years old on 05 June, 2023, and a guy who is on his wey to his life’s goal – to reach 100 years old! This website will illustrate what I have done and am doing to reach this goal. At this point in my life, I feel this goal – another 20+ years on this planet - is quite achievable. The steps taken so far and those to be taken to get there I will document here in some detail so family members will be cognizant of my age defiance attempt. But this website might also serve as a guide to others nearing or at my advanced age to give them ideas on how they too can live a vibrant, rewarding, stimulating life and also approach or even achieve their Century milestone!

I have no particular background that would prepare me for this feat. Average middle-class childhood, and no real physicality, genetic or health advantages that put me forward as an excellent candidate for this achievement. But I have pursued some steps and continue to take those that I feel make 100 years possible. And this is discounting any breakthroughs in medical longevity advancements.

So here is a list of the activities and the thinking I’ve done and am doing to give me the best chance at this goal. Broken down into categories. And where applicable, I’ll provide some illustrations or examples. Hopefully, this will serve as a blueprint for this goal in life (recently set) to reach 100 and to also retain almost all of my mental and physical faculties and my lifestyle over the next 20+ years.

All this should be Present and Future Tense events, things to work on and accomplish. Move any past accomplishments to the Google Doc

Attitude/Mindset

Attempting to maintain a mindset of a person three or so decades younger than I. Open to new things, exploring new ideas and experiences, attempting to act and behave like a guy in my 30s or 40s vice that of a guy now 80 years of age. Attempting to pursue a lifestyle that will keep me healthy and vibrant for two or more decades. Working hard not to tail off on physical or mental activities to keep body and brain as “young” as possible. Dress accordingly – in mostly workout clothes vice in old man’s clothes, and move (walk, bike) at a younger man’s pace.

Marriage Partnership Strategy for Thriving as We Age

This is a real partnership where my wife and I do darn near everything together. Quite different from the average marriage. There’s a “team effort” in much of what we do; lots of sharing of responsibilities and individual tasks. My wife, Judy, is almost 14 years younger than I and I strive hard to keep up with her elevated level of physical activities and mostly succeed.

Physicality/Exercise/Physical Fitness

Sports. I Played lots of sports since a young boy. Played with my pals from age 10-14 a pick-up game called Over-the-Line. Played many years of organized baseball - Little League, Pony League and Colt League and four years in high school (where I was selected as Team Captain my Senior year and earned Varsity letters as a Junior and a Senior. I also played baseball my first summer at the Naval Academy. Made All-Stars at age 12 in Little League and All-Conference Senior Year in high school. I wrestled in high school for four years, earring Varsity letters my Junior and Senior year. In my Senior year, I lost only one wrestling match. I played football for my high school team for four years as a guard and line-backer. Earned Varsity letters both Junior and Senior years and was selected as Team Captain my Senior year. Also selected for the All -Confernce team Senior year.I took a few lessons and then got quite serious about tennis while at graduate school in Monterey. Played there about 4-5 times a week, and started entering local tournaments at the C Level. Kept doing better and better in the tournaments, winning a couple before leaving Monterey. And I've continued with this sport, taken up at age 27 and have pursued it with gusto every year since then. These days I play at least twice a week for about 1.5 hours, either with a hitting partner or against the backboard. Over the years, I competed in over 200 tennis tournaments, winning or runner-up in 50, many of those in doubles. I have a dresser top and bookcase top filled with trophies. I intend to keep playing tennis for as long as I can get around a tennis court.

Calorie Burning Events (CBEs). One might say I (and my wife, Judy) have a CBE-driven life and lifestyle. Exercise is an essential part of our daily activities. Include among the CBEs we engage in weekly are running (Judy), tennis (Dave), hiking, walking, biking, floor exercises and stretches in our homes, gym workouts (Dave), exercise classes (Judy). I may be up there among the Guinness World Record holders of Crunches. I do about 1800-2400 of these weekly - even at age 80, and have done so for decades. Daily, when my wife heads for her bath, I plop on a towel on my living room carpet and bang out 150 crunches and 75 geezer push-ups (done from hands-and-knees position and including pushing my rear back to my heels after completing each push-up). I think all the CBEs - which add up to 25-32 each week (a CBE being roughly a half-hour of a pretty good workout or physical activity (walk hike, tennis match, etc.) - has helped me keep my wait and waistline the same as it was in my Senior year of high school where I wrestled in the 165 pound weigh division. Current weight: 164 pounds, waist: 33 inches. In the gym, I work machines religiously - about 13 stations, often doing them twice while my wife is in an hour-long exercise class. Weights on the machines have not diminished in several decades. And I've added about 5 pounds to the resistance each year for the last 3 or 4 years. Please see the 80th Birthday Certificate below for a summary of my CBE accomplishments over the last seven decades.

Brain Stimulation Activities. It seems I've been exercising the ol' bean for as long I've been alive. Creating games and activities to play wih my mates in grade school and beyond. Also doing a lot of reading since I learned how. Found I loved math problems as a youngster and actually have gone in search of those.

Artwork. Started drawing around 5 years old and even created some marginal art for a school PTA meeting program in Kindergarten in 1948, at the request of the PTA president. That kcked off an avocation that endures through today. Graduated from cartoons, to comic strip characters to the wonderful caricatures in the Mad Magazines of the 1950s, moved on to doing spirit posters while at the Naval Academy as a Freshman (Plebe) and won weekly poster contests in my USNA Company throughout the 1961-62 Footballl Season. Dabbled in art work - drawing - thru my Naval career and my career as an IT professional. And since 2008 when I retired from permanent employment, it has been gangbusters. Please see my birthday certificate below for a summary of my artwork accoomplishments.
Reading and Audiobooks
Creative Activities

Pursuit of Individual Passions/Interests

Artwork
- List all my DAA activities and projects
Poetry
- All my poetic endeavors
Dogs
Cooking
Authoring – 3 books: 1 hardcopy published, 1 hardcopy self-published, 1 eBook on iBooks