Robert Calvano
Gerontology
Week 4 assignment
Due: February 16, 2014
Longevity Game Assignment The game indicated that I would live to be 83 years old. I think I have a pretty good chance at living to be this age because of the daily choices I make and my particular lifestyle. I am a very active person and play baseball at UNO. We have practice for usually between 2-3 hours a day not including weightlifting 3 times a week. When you are this active you usually have to maintain a steady healthy diet of foods high in carbohydrates, protein, and you need to make sure to got a lot of vitamins and minerals. Exercise is a very important factor when studying aging and the factors that contribute to longevity. As someone who has been consistently running and lifting weights since I was in high school I can say that it has the probability of being a staple in my later life. It is my goal to not become a middle aged man with a beer gut like you would typically see of older males and even many of them being prior athletes. I want to be someone that others may look at and not expect to be the age they are. Hopefully if I can pursue my health habits and proper diet I can avoid the inevitable “gut” that so many of my uncles have. Another factor that will help obtain longevity is having low blood pressure. I try to keep my stress down by staying organized as possible. I like to stay on top of my homework assignments, my social life, and my duties and priorities as a college athlete. I did mark that my stress can move up and down because even though I try and stay organized there will always be obstacles and surprises that can become overwhelming and weigh you down mentally. Something I will be incorporating into my lifestyle as I age will be portion control. This is something I already practice during the season as we are not working out and conditioning as much as we do in the off-season. In the off-season it is not always a bad idea to “pig out” when we eat because we are trying to gain some needed weight before the season starts and we will not have as much of an opportunity to gain muscle mass. In Barrow (2011, Cornell University performed a study where scientists found that