Stay young and be happy into your eighties!
By Ron Accornero
This week I attended my 55th Year high school reunion. I was surprised to see fellow classmates looking so much older and several would classify as "old men". It was then I realized how good life has been to me and all the dieting and exercise has paid off.
I attended a party back in 1972 where there were all women and I was the only male, with the exception of the host's husband. We got together at the party and started talking about running and how much it has benefitted him. He was an avid runner and talked to me about the changes it has made in his life. He had given me Jim Fix's book on running to read. I became very excited after reading the book and started immediately to try out this running thing. I started with a ½ mile and gradually climbed to 1 mile and then to 2 miles. Every week I ran stronger and faster and soon was up to 4 miles per day. When I moved to Southern California I lived in front of Mile Square park which was 4 miles square and began running this park circumference twice . Soon 8 miles per day was a regular exercise. I teamed up with another group of runners in the area and their normal Saturday run was 14 to 18 miles. I became a regular member and along with my 8 miles a day, on Saturday we ran a different course of 14 to 18 miles. In 1980 I was introduced to my first marathon, the Orange Master's in the City of Orange. I finished the marathon in 3 hours 59 minutes and was on a high for running. I completed 9 more marathons in the next 8 years with my best time being 3 hours 45 minutes at the San Diego Marathon on December 10, 1989. As the running continued I was gradually becoming very health conscience about what I was eating and how I could improve my eating to run faster. For the next few years I watched my diet and tried to eat healthy foods. I was doing well with the running and feeling great and it gave me so much energy that I became very successful in my real estate business. I enjoyed the success and feeling of having so much energy to complete my day. My running gave me the strength to overcome colds and aches and run through anything that came along.
Another thing that made an impact on my life was reading a book called, "The China Study" by T. Col
in Campbell PHD and Thomas Campbell. It was about comparing the American diet to the diet of the Chinese and examined their average cholesterol of 127 to the American cholesterol of 220. The book also went into the study of how the arteries can rebuild themselves with the proper diet of vegetables and absence of dairy, meat and sugar.
This impressed me so much that I went on this diet of Vegetables and absence of dairy, meat and sugar. My cholesterol dropped from 220 to 150 and raised my HDL cholesterol, which is the good cholesterol. I have been on this diet for two years now and I have been feeling fantastic with even more renewed energy. At 73 I am running 5 days a week, 5 miles a day and play tennis 4 days a week. I work 7 days in Real Estate and feel like 20 years old. I have a very enjoyable life waking up each morning and looking forward to what the day holds for me. I am comfortable knowing it is the diet and exercise that is making me feel so good. Sometimes I am like a preacher trying to share my message to others so they can enjoy the life I am having, but not many can make the change to accomplish this diet and exercise ritual. I realize it is a big change for someone, but isn't a happier and long healthy life worth something.
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