Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Chronological age versus physiological age versus psychological age

Have you ever heard someone say "she has the body of a 20 year old", or something to this effect? While there is some exaggeration at play, there is a difference between a person's chronological age and physiological age and psychological age.

Chronologically, you may be 60 or 70 years of age, based on when you were born. There is no arguing that unless you've embraced some new alternative way of doing math. The real question is how old do you feel?

Through exercise and good nutrition, you can actually be physiologically younger than the average person of your chronological age. For example, if you compared two 80 year old women, one who has exercised and eaten well for most of their lives and the other who has never exercised, smoked, and eaten poorly, the results would be dramatic. You would likely find the active woman to have a better body composition, at less risk of diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, while the inactive woman would be likely stricken with at least one of the aforementioned diseases and less than ideal quality of life.

Psychologically, you may feel even younger than you are chronologically or physiologically. Your psychological age is determined by you, not anyone or anything else, so you can actually feel as young as you want. You may think you should act a certain age, but that is more than likely your desire to fit into some conventional notion of who a person of your age should act.

Regardless of how you feel right now, recognize that you have within you the ability to change how old you feel today. With a positive attitude and a commitment to exercise, you can turn back the clock immediately.

So, how old do you feel?