Outsmart Your Aging with the Pounce Pot Protocol: Five Essential Actions for Achieving Vibrant Longevity
In my recent article introducing The Pounce Pot, I defined vibrant longevity and active pro-aging, setting both as foundational goals of our mission statement.
Now that we’ve defined those key terms and reviewed our mission, let’s talk about the five essential actions that you can adopt to reach your personal goals for your heathspan.
Remember, healthspan includes the years that we are living without major chronic disease and aging-related disabilities. The age in which the top 10 major diseases first occur can give us a ballpark age of when we might expect our health to decline without our active intervention and preventative measures.
Very simply, our current average healthspan age (the age some form of chronic disease is likely to show up) is about 64. Current average lifespan in the US hovers around 76. A little quick math, therefore, tells us that we could expect on average about 12 years of poor health.
Professor Tim Peterson from Washington University in St. Louis warns us, “...that we, on average, live up to 20% of our lives unhealthy. Needless to say, that is a long time.”
It appears that his statistic is indeed equal to about what we can calculate ourselves; 12 years out of 76 is about 16 percent. (That’s 12/76, or about .16, and that multiplied by 100 gives us the 16% percent.)
Our goal, therefore, is to shorten this “unhealthy” decade of our lives and replace it with healthy and vibrant years! In his bestselling book, Outlive, Dr. Peter Attia calls this extra decade without disease, our “bonus decade.”
I like that term.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful indeed to have a bonus decade where we’re not just getting old, but one decade (or maybe even two or three!) in which we are still learning, improving, and enjoying life as we age with a positive and joyful outlook, even when facing life’s many obstacles.
This is possible! You’re NOT too old, and it’s NOT too late to add length to your healthy years….and it’s never too early.
Let me be clear: it’s going to take effort, and you might not be able to do everything.
For example:
Your budget may allow for healthy food, for example, but not a gym membership.
You might live in a rural area without access to healthcare.
Maybe you feel too unsafe in your neighborhood to take walks.
Perhaps old friends and family live far away.
There are real and valid obstacles to staying healthy and increasing our healthspan. Do the best you can within your means and abilities. We’re here to make the data and research more accessible and easier to understand for everyone.
Beyond Genetics: Categories of Research
As we’ve learned, up to 93 percent of our aging is influenced, not just passively through genetic pre-destiny, but actively through our lifestyle, thoughts, and environment.
Current longevity, dementia, and aging research focuses vary widely, from cultural and social influences, to the role of fitness, to what we eat; however, most information from research groups, institutions, and doctors who specialize in aging--regardless of their specific focus--fits together quite nicely into the following five broad categories:
Five Broad Categories of Research
Enhancing or maintaining cognitive abilities
Impacts of our social life, family, and community
Effects of our internal physiological processes
Nutritional and supplement advice
Enhancing or maintaining physical fitness and activity
Because you can actively influence each of these five categories (unlike our inherited DNA, which we have zero control over), these will be five areas for you to personally take responsibility for to the best of your abilities and within your means. Even improving in just one category can have a profoundly positive impact on your life.
Shifting into Action Toward Vibrant Longevity and Active Pro-Aging: The Pounce Pot Protocol
These five actionable initiatives form the foundation of The Pounce Pot. Remember the definition of a Pounce Pot? The pounce (what we now would call grit) made writing easier. Helped to smooth the parchment. Assisted in speeding up the drying of the ink.
That’s what we’re doing here for you. We’re collecting and simplifying the enormous volume of research and news that gets published about aging, saving you time. We’ll help explain difficult concepts, compare data from respected yet varied sources, and sort it all out for you.
Make it all easier. Smoother.
The Pounce Pot is a helpful tool. A practical time-saving instrument.
But categories of data aren’t very interesting. They give us organized information, but we need to know what actions to take daily to reach our healthspan goals. We don’t just need knowledge to file away; we need to know what to DO.
So what do we DO to earn that “bonus decade?”
To have, as Debra Whitman calls a “Second 50” just as fabulous (or even better!) than our first 50?
So let’s reframe the five categories instead as five actions--in fact, five essential actions that are going to help us celebrate, not dread, aging.
Let’s explore the protocol that’s going to help us pounce on life’s possibilities!
A Review of Each Essential Action
P.S. Enjoyed this Pounce Pot Post?
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Not quite sure? Check out past issues in our archive.
Please take a moment to understand our purpose and guiding philosophy. You can also find more in-depth articles in the Pounce Pot Post.
Explore the Pounce Pot Protocol: five essential actions for proactive aging based on global, established longevity research:
Your personal feedback fuels this community. Which protocol challenges you most? Share your ideas and stories. I’d love to hear from you!
Let’s pounce on life’s possibilities together! — Laura Lee
