Redefine Aging with Eric

10/14/2026

10/11/2026

One of my clients came over for her longevity coaching session looking exhausted.

Before we even started, she said: “I'm really tired today. I'm not even sure I want to do this.”

Our longevity coaching sessions aren't simply workouts. We work through a curriculum covering exercise, nutrition, sleep, recovery, habits and other pieces of healthspan.

Depending on where we are in the curriculum, we might be sitting on my couch talking about sleep or nutrition—or working on strength, cardio, power, balance, mobility or core stability.

That day, we were going to exercise.

😴 But she was tired. Really tired. She wasn't sick or unusually run down. It was more of that familiar: “I just don't have the energy today.”

So I suggested: “Let's just start. We can always stop.”

She got on the elliptical. At first, she was simply going through the motions. But after a few minutes, something changed.

She started talking more. Moving faster. Her face changed. And she told me she was actually starting to feel better.

As the session continued, more and more energy seemed to come back. By the end, the person standing in front of me looked very different from the tired person who had walked through the door.

She was energized. She was smiling. And she was very happy she had decided to give it a try.

That session reminded me of something that's easy to forget:

⚡ SOMETIMES YOU NEED ENERGY TO EXERCISE.
SOMETIMES YOU EXERCISE TO GET ENERGY.

Of course, sometimes fatigue really does mean your body needs recovery. But ordinary “I just don't feel like doing anything” tiredness can be different.

🔄 Sometimes waiting for energy before you move gets the sequence backward.

👉 THE MOVEMENT MAY BE WHAT CREATES THE ENERGY.

That's part of what I teach in longevity coaching—how to train with a purpose, understand why you're doing it, and eventually make good decisions on your own. And that works whether we're together in person or remotely.

That day, my client didn't need a harder workout. She just needed a little nudge to start.

A few minutes later, her own body took over.

Have you ever started exercising when you really didn't feel like it—and felt completely different afterward?

Aging is inevitable. Decline is optional.

— Eric
Redefine Aging

10/04/2026

Some friends recently came back from a vacation abroad. They were telling me about the trip when one of them said proudly:

“We were doing 20,000 steps a day. Quite a workout!”

Twenty thousand steps? I was impressed.

Apparently they went on vacation and accidentally joined an endurance event. 😄

It also reminded me how fascinated we've become with one particular number:

10,000 steps.

Our watches congratulate us.
Our phones celebrate.
We compare numbers with friends.

Hit 10,000 and somehow it feels like:

Mission accomplished. I exercised today. ✓

And to be clear—20,000 steps really can be quite a workout. And getting 10,000 steps instead of spending most of the day sitting is absolutely something to feel good about.

But here's the distinction I think we sometimes miss:

👉 BEING ACTIVE ISN'T THE SAME AS TRAINING ALL THE ABILITIES WE WANT TO KEEP.

Your step count tells you that you moved. But your step counter doesn't know whether you can:

• Lift something heavy
• Get off the floor easily
• Catch yourself when you stumble
• Push your heart and lungs considerably harder

🎯 10,000 STEPS TELLS YOU HOW MUCH YOU MOVED.
IT DOESN'T TELL YOU WHAT YOUR BODY CAN DO.

That's why walking should absolutely be part of a longevity plan. But it shouldn't be the plan.

We need to challenge the body in multiple ways because life is eventually going to ask us to do something other than walk in a straight line.

So walk. Get your steps. Be proud of them.

👏 Just don't mistake one excellent habit for a fitness plan.

And don't let your watch convince you that you're done. 😄

👉 If you like practical ways to think differently about exercise and healthy aging, follow Redefine Aging with Eric and share this with another walker.

Aging is inevitable. Decline is optional.

— Eric
Redefine Aging

09/27/2026

I exercise regularly. I play pickleball, lift weights, run and ski.

And I still deliberately get down on the floor and practice getting back up.

Not because I have trouble doing it.

BECAUSE I DON’T WANT TO HAVE TROUBLE DOING IT.

Getting off the floor looks like one simple movement. It isn’t:
- It asks your ankles, knees and hips to move well.
- Your legs have to produce enough strength.
- Your core has to control your body.
- Your balance and coordination have to organize the whole thing.

Take away enough of any one of those, and something that once required no thought starts requiring a strategy:
- A hand on the floor.
- A knee down.
- A piece of furniture for support.
- And eventually, perhaps, avoiding the floor altogether.

That’s one of the things I find fascinating about aging:

⚠️ We often don’t notice an ability disappearing. We simply find ways to stop using it.

I’d rather work on these abilities while they’re still easy.

So I spend time on the floor. I sit there. I move between different positions. I get up in different ways. I always try to do it without using my hands.

It doesn’t feel much like a workout and that’s the point. I’m not training to become better at getting off the floor today.

🎯 I’m training so that getting off the floor still feels pretty easy 10, 20 years from now.**

Your body keeps many of the abilities you continue to ask it to use.

👇 So here's a small challenge: Spend a few minutes on the floor today. Then get up, try to do it without hands if you can. Not as a test. Just notice what feels easy—and what doesn’t.

The best time to protect an ability may be while you still take it for granted.

👉 Want to stay strong, capable and independent as you age? Follow Redefine Aging with Eric for practical ideas you can actually use.

- Eric
Redefine Aging

09/20/2026

A young woman was visiting our house one day and asked for something to drink.

“Tea?”

"Sure".

“Would you like some honey?”

She looked at me as if I had just offered her a cigarette. “Absolutely not! Honey is sugar. I don’t eat sugar.”

I admired the conviction. 😄

But it made me think about how frightened we’ve become of certain foods.

Yes, honey contains sugar. Quite a bit of it, actually. But saying “honey is sugar” is a little like saying “an orange is sugar.”

There’s more going on.

🍯 Honey contains natural antioxidant compounds that help protect our cells from damage.

❤️ Studies suggest that modest amounts of honey may have favorable effects on blood sugar, cholesterol and other measures of metabolic health—although the evidence is still developing.

🦠 Honey contains compounds that can feed beneficial bacteria in our gut.

🩹 Its antibacterial properties are real enough that specially prepared medical-grade honey is actually used in wound care.

😷 And that old spoonful-of-honey-for-a-cough remedy? Grandma had some science on her side.

So should we start eating honey by the jar in the name of longevity?

Nice try.

It’s still mostly sugar and calories. More is definitely not better. But I think there’s a larger lesson here.

We’ve become very good at reducing foods to one ingredient:

Honey has sugar → bad.
Eggs have cholesterol → bad.
Fruit has sugar → bad.
Nuts have lots of calories → bad.

Nutrition rarely works that neatly. Foods are packages, not individual nutrients. And a little sugar—even regular sugar—doesn't suddenly turn an otherwise healthy diet into an unhealthy one.

What matters much more is how much, how often, what you eat it with, and what the rest of your diet looks like.

There are also simple ways to reduce the impact of sugar on your blood glucose—things like what you eat with it, when you eat it, and even what you do after the meal.

That's a much more useful conversation than simply declaring:

SUGAR = BAD

So yes, I’ll continue putting a teaspoon of good honey in my drinks and yogurt. And somehow, despite this reckless behavior, I remain optimistic about my longevity. 😄

👉 If you want practical longevity without the all-or-nothing rules, follow this page. And if you'd like help figuring out how nutrition, exercise and other longevity strategies fit together for you, send me a message.

And share this with someone who's still afraid of the honey jar.

- Eric
Redefine Aging

09/13/2026

On Monday, I failed a very difficult longevity test.

The test was called: Getting out of a comfortable chair.

My day actually started impressively. A few hours of pickleball. Lots of movement. Beautiful weather.

Then we had a sumptuous breakfast with close friends and settled in for a long, relaxed conversation by a pool.

And that's when I met my opponent. A very comfortable chair. It literally pulled me in.

I knew I had been sitting too long. I'm a longevity coach. I always tell people what to do in this situation.

Get up.
Walk around.
Do a few squats.
Spend some time on the ground.
Sit in a deep squat.
Do a 3-minute mobility snack.

I knew all of it.
I considered all of it.
I did none of it.

Apparently, knowing 17 different ways to move your body is not particularly useful if you refuse to leave the chair. 😄

I continued sitting in the chair.

Eventually, my professional integrity kicked in and I did a few minutes of mobility. Then my professional integrity apparently needed a rest, because I sat back down.

And later, just to make sure there was absolutely no danger of accidentally becoming a longevity role model that day, I had ice cream.

🍦 Naturally, I did not take a walk afterward.

The funny thing is, I had already exercised more that morning than many people do in an entire day.

And that made it incredibly easy to tell myself: "I've done enough."

Maybe that's the real lesson. We tend to think healthy aging is about knowing what to do. Most of us already know plenty.

The harder part is doing the small, boring things when the alternative is comfortable, enjoyable—and sitting right underneath you.

So, my Monday's longevity score:

🏓 Pickleball: A
🧘 Mobility: C-
🚶 Moving throughout the day: D
🍦 Ice cream consumption: Outstanding

I'll try again tomorrow.

Apparently, even longevity coaches are a work in progress.

👉 If you want practical longevity from someone who occasionally ignores his own advice, follow this page.

- Eric
Redefine Aging