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Laughter, Sex, Vegetables and Fish — 10 Secrets of Long-Living People is definitely a book title that is going to grab your attention. Many years ago, I was standing in a bookshop in Tasmania, trying to find my credit card so that I could invest in a book on how to live longer. It was a long-life investment!

Dr John Tickell is a medical doctor, international speaker, bestselling author, and television personality, who has spent the last four decades researching the health, well-being and longevity patterns of people around the world.

Dr John and his wife Sue have five children. Two are medical doctors, who with Dr John, have visited in total over 100 countries in our world, studying the living and eating habits of the longest-living healthiest people on earth.

If curiosity killed the cat, I would be dead nine times. Dr John Tickell impressed me, firstly because he is an Aussie; secondly, because he is a doctor; thirdly, because he has a good sense of humour and can laugh at himself; fourthly, he was rated as among the top 20 motivational speakers in the world; and fifthly, because he has five kids and is still happily married.

Watch him talk about the Stress of Success in this video:

Sometimes curiosity works for you.  In the case of Dr John Tickell’s book, this was the case for me. This book is brilliant, very real, very funny and very achievable. I encourage you to buy it. No, I beg you to buy it. Watch this video if in doubt!

I can honestly say reading this book has changed our lives. My wife and I have started to be more selective about our eating habits. We are eating more vegetables and more unrefined foods. One of Dr Tickell’s favourite quotes is from the Greek father of medicine, Hippocrates, in 400 BC: “Let thy food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Victor Lindlahr said it this way in the 1930s: “You are what you eat.”

My wife and I also have tried to eat less food. In the West, we are killing ourselves by overeating. My wife and I work hard at doing the opposite. Often at restaurants, we order a serve for one and share that serve between us two. It is cheaper too. I have taken to making my own muesli for breakfast and we have both cut back on our fast-food consumption.

My wife and I go to the gym three mornings a week between 6 a.m. – 7 a.m. My wife swims a kilometre three times a week and I do the same once per week Both of us enjoy long walks and work hard at being active. It is quite simple. If you don’t use it, you lose it!

Watch this video, which promotes the best way to live longer. You will never guess what it is!

You have to invest in yourself as a father. This goes for your health too! If you don’t lead an active, balanced, healthy lifestyle, you will have great difficulties being a father; in fact, you might drop dead without finishing the job. Living longer should be one of your main obsessions. You have to take an active interest in your health.

Dr Steven Covey, a highly acclaimed author, writes about taking time to renew yourself in the four key areas of life: physical, social, mental and spiritual. If you don’t do this, you risk getting out of balance.

Life is all about a good balance of the key ingredients. There is a saying from Proverbs: ‘A just balance is the Lord’s delight’.  Maybe we should change it to ‘a just balance in a dad is the children’s delight,’ or a ‘just balance in a husband is a wife’s delight.’

Lovework

Do yourself a favour — take some time out.  Buy a book about exercise, health, nutrition, food and fun, read it and put it into practice. If you do, you will love longer, live happier, live smarter, become a better lover, and become a better father because of all of the above.

Anyone would think that I owned shares in Crown Content, Melbourne, the publishers of Laughter, Sex, Vegetables and Fish — 10 Secrets of Long-Living People.  No, I don’t, but I do own shares in life, and so do you.

If you don’t learn, you won’t grow. If you don’t read, you won’t know. Go and buy this book. If you can find something better, buy that.

Investing in your health will change your life.  I will finish with a quote from the book by Dr John Tickell:

“Notice how so many people take themselves far too seriously? For God’s sake, lighten up a little. Try laughing. You can’t be angry when you’re laughing. You can die laughing, but you can’t get sick laughing.”

Yours for Living Longer,
Warwick Marsh

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First published at Dads4Kids. Photo by Nubia Navarro.