Five months from now the 2015 National Senior Games will be hosted in Bloomington, Minneapolis and St. Paul Minnesota. For those of us who qualified in our respective sports, we're doin' the hustle and the training. To the right is a pic my trainer took as I dutifully hoisted my weights, secretly wishing I could be outside swimming, running and cycling instead. However, icy, snowy streets and single digit temperatures precluded those thoughts. Such is the challenge of winter training! I'm comforted knowing that there are lots of us making do as we adapt and adjust to icicles and snowflakes, our minds wandering off to Spring time.

I'm now going to take off my athlete hat, and share my excitement as the newest member of the National Senior Games Foundation Board. I'm taking on the task of promoting health, wellness and fitness to anyone willing to take themselves on. So, regardless how old you are, it's so critical for everyone to get and stay active for a lifetime. What do I mean by this? I do not mean everyone has to aspire to compete in the Senior Games. What I mean is that kids, teens, young adults and everyone else should adopt an active lifestyle, looking for fun and wonderful ways to get up and move. This is an intergenerational health and fitness campaign. Fresh in my mind is this picture I took (below) of then 97-year-old swimmer Russ Witte at the 2013 National Senior Games and his 60+ son Jim, also competing at the same Games. I'm sure there were more kids and grandkids in the bleachers cheering them on, and inspiring them to do the same. Living an active lifestyle is the gift that just keeps on giving.

Why is this so important? If you think this is all about weight loss, you're wrong. Science shows that people of all sizes who stay active are less likely to die early. One European study followed 334,000 men and women for 12 years and found that there were twice as many deaths due to a lack of physical activity as due to obesity. Others studies confirm this life-extending benefit of an active life. Did you know that folks who engaged in regular leisure-time activity actually increased their life-expectancy by at least 4.5 years? And newer studies say that a 20-minute walk done at a brisk pace makes a huge difference in health, wellbeing and longevity.

Lots of people associate physical activity with weight loss. You get active in order to shed extra fat. I'm saying "Stop this diet mentality and start associating an active lifestyle at any weight with increased health benefits." It doesn't matter how much you weigh right now. Becoming active, even if you don't drop weight, confers health benefits. Physical activity all by itself is a powerful tool to improve your health. Clearly, adding healthy nutrition from whole foods ramps this whole effect up and helps you to achieve a healthier body composition.

Please don't be dissuaded by the pervasive gym mentality where the workout room walls are plastered with lean, hot-looking bodies. Instead, realize deep inside that you're smarter than that and you know that anyone at any size will derive awesome health benefits by showing up and taking care of yourself. Pay attention to yourself, enjoy moving your body and revel in the whole health and fitness adventure.

SENIOR ATHLETES - Here's some fun, and it only takes a couple of minutes. Click here to take THE FITNESS AGE TEST and compare your actual chronological age to your Fitness Age. You'll be very pleasantly surprised! Once you know your number, please take another minute to report your result to NSGA in our Senior Athlete Fitness Age Survey.

Please do it, there's even a Grand Prize Drawing for people who respond. Most important, you'll be helping science, since we're collecting this information to study active adults who are 50+.

So come on everyone. Click on and discover a hidden benefit of living that active lifestyle- a youthful mind and body!