My look at Lifespan vs Healthspan…

My look at Lifespan vs Healthspan…

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It seems most fitness people are worries how long they will live but what about the quality of that life. That’s what I’m really obsessed about these days.

The average life expectancy is Canada is just over 82 years, which is 4 years higher than our American friends at 78. I guess I have decent genes since both of my grandmas are alive and kicking into their 90’s. So unless something tragic happens, I’m probably at the halfway point of my life.

I wrote recently about the difference I find between fitness and wellness. I find it’s a similar difference between healthspan and lifespan. One is great for stats (your death age) but I find the other is way more important, as in what I fill my days with into my 70’s and 80’s.

Perfect example, I got a dog recently. It probably won’t make me live any longer but from the short preview I’ve gotten, it should really help with the quality of my (and his) remaining years.

These days I’m doing a lot of physical activity to make myself feel better and hopefully that will translate into a decently long life but for me, the number one goal is to keep this quality of life as long as I can. Same with ChiRunning and the Primal Health movement. All about quality over quantity. Same with food.

Fasting has shown to extend life in rats (and in people from what I can see), but fasting all day everyday would be boring and you’d eventually die. A sad death. I do some prolonged fasts but that’s mostly to teach my body some resilience and work on my discipline and mental fortitude.

I’ve been thinking about this concept for the past few years but it really crystallized when I heard the Peter Attia podcast that looked at that very topic.

All that to say is that while being healthy is important, you should also enjoy the journey.

How are you doing that?

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