Chris Crowley, New York Times' Bestselling Author

Five years ago, New Yorker Chris Crowley, 70, a retired Wall Street lawyer, went for his annual check-up with a new doctor, Harry S. Lodge, MD, 47, an internist and professor at Columbia University’s College of Physician and Surgeons. The physician told Crowley he could either be “on the slow, stead curve from fifty to death, or be younger next year and for many years to come in all the ways that matter.”

“What do I have to do?” Crowley asked his new doctor. At that meeting, the two men forged a friendship and a bond, and went on to co-author two best-selling books (one for men and one for women) on how to make aging well the most important job of your life.

Their book, “Younger Next Year for Women: Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy – Until You’re 80 and Beyond,” describes ways to change how you age, with methods backed by science. Dr. Lodge provides the scientific background while Crowley lends a hilarious slant and interpretation. The book will show you how to avoid 70% of the normal problems of aging and eliminate 50% of illness and injury. The key is found in Harry’s Rules, a program of exercise, diet, and maintaining emotional connections.

Can we really hold age at bay as these authors promise? We asked Crowley, now 75, to help us understand the years after menopause when women typically experience increases in bone loss, acceleration in heart disease, cancer, arthritis, fatigue and depression. Lodge and Crowley have a practical plan to make the next third of your life – think 30+ years – some of your best. “Our body holds the remarkable ability to repair and renovate itself, provided we help it,” Crowley said.

What made you write a book for women? How is it different than the book you wrote for men? 

The publisher suggested it and said women are generally more interested in reading about health. We found that women age and resist aging exactly the same way that men do – the rules in the first book apply equally to women, but women come at aging in a very different way. Women are much more optimistic about aging, they are not as scared, and they age a bit more gracefully.

Did you come across any surprises in writing this book?

In doing research for the book and spending time with women over 50, I found a surprisingly broad surge of optimism in women in their 50s and 60s – they have spent so many years being good, looking after their kids, and taking care of ‘Old Fred,’ and at this point they say ‘Hey, what about me? This is my turn and my time to shine.’ We found that men get a little scared in their 50’s and 60’s whereas women are optimistic.

What is the typical process of aging and how can I change it?

The typical process of aging in this country is the steady downward curve from 50 to the day you die – every year, you are a little fatter, a little slower, a little less fun. But we want to show you how to flatten out that curve. If you do a few key things, you can be about the same or better than when you were 45 or 50, and these things can make life even better till you are 80 and beyond. The fundamental key is relentless, serious exercise six days a week – four days of aerobic exercise and two days of strength training.

What is the most important thing to do to become, functionally, younger next year?

Exercise is the silver bullet – we just can’t emphasize that enough. Exercise, exercise, exercise – it is a miracle! Listen to these two things: You can avoid 70% of aging until the very end just by doing serious exercise. You can completely avoid 50% of all serious illness – heart attacks, adult on-set diabetes, lots of cancers, Alzheimer’s, – by doing serious aerobic exercise, 45 minutes a day, four days a week. It is a miracle!

What do you say to someone who says, ‘I have never worked out, so is there hope for me too?’

Absolutely! When you think of those numbers I gave you, it’s just nuts not to do something in terms of exercise. We were designed in the evolutionary crucible of survival as athletes. We are all designed to move. Just start going to a gym, do classes, fast walk. Start to do something today and do it for the rest of your life.

In the book you say ‘learn to eat rationally.’ What does that mean

Quit eating crap! I am working on a new book and one of my new rules in the book is: ‘Never eat anything that comes to you through a car window.’ We just eat mountains of crap in this county. At least 50% of our diet should be plant based. I am sure you have read The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, which says that we are all being hosed down with corn byproducts and fructose. There is a prevalence of corn in the American diet and it is not good for us. We are being force-fed all this junk that is so toxic.

You use yourself as an example in the books. Can you tell us about your typical day of living by the ‘Younger Next Year’ rules? Do you ever have a glass of wine with dinner? Is diet coke ever allowed?

Chris with wife Hilary in Colorado

I am an old person and we old people tend to wake up early. I am a pretty good kid about the exercise. I exercise almost every day of the week. In the Berkshires, we have a gym in an old barn in the back that I frequent.

If the weather is borderline OK, I hop on my bike and ride 19 miles in the hills. I ski a lot. My wife and I are both retired, so we are going on a six-week ski vacation in Colorado.

Does your wife Hilary follow the rules?

She is pretty good. We work out together a lot. We work at about the same pace with about the same level of interest. She does a lot of yoga, which I don’t enjoy, but otherwise we ski, bike and take classes together.

What has it been like to go from being a retired guy to becoming a best-selling author?

Wonderful – I think everybody should do it! I am doing a lot of writing now and giving speeches. First of all – who knew? We thought the first book would do well, but who knew that five years later, we could sell 8,000 copies in January, 2010. It has been an amazing journey. We get oodles of lovely letters from readers saying ‘Hey, you changed my life,’ or ‘Hey, I lost 40 pounds after reading the book.’

After I met Harry, I went from being a weekend exercise guy, to being a six- day-a -week exercise guy, and that essentially changed my life. Just last week my wife and I went to a fancy party in New York at a nice club to celebrate a 70^th birthday. I looked around and so many of these folks who were my age were taking these little, short, timid steps….there were some with canes. I thought, ‘Gee whiz, you guys are not paying attention! And these were able people too. They didn’t look like they were having any fun either. And I said, ‘The hell with that, I am going to keep moving in a big way.’ My advice to you is: make sure you are having fun, stay involved and connected, and keep moving.

Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, has taken all of his knowledge, years of research, and helpful advice and packaged it into some simple rules to help you eat better. He tells you which oils and grains are best and which to avoid. He breaks this slim paperback down into three sections: 1. What should I eat. 2. What kind of food should I eat (mostly vegetables and plants), and 3. How should I eat (which focuses on portions and timing). Pollan is America’s trusted resource and consumer advocate on food-related issues. Some of our favorite rules: ‘Don’t eat anything your grandmother would recognize as food (think Pringles),’ and ‘Don’t buy food where you buy gasoline’.

A Few God Lines:

As a journalist, I had a deeply unsettling moment when, after spending a couple of years researching nutrition for my last book, In Defense of Food, I realized that the answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated question of what we should eat wasn’t so complicated after all, and in fact could be boiled down to just seven words: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. In this short, radically pared down book, I unpack those seven words of advice into a comprehensive set of rules, or personal policies, designed to help you eat real food in moderation and, by doing so, substantially get off the (dangerously unhealthy) Western diet.

Co-written by Mary Ann Presman, (featured in JustANumber Inspirational Women features) this wonderful collection of 11 short stories focuses on sports-related tales, but there is some great material about relationships, gamesmanship and colorful personalities. There are stories about golf, baseball, pool, blackjack, horse racing, bocce ball, basketball, tennis, and our favorite: Scrabble Dating. “It’s a fun book of stories with a few surprises,” Mary Ann said.

A Few Good Lines:

Nell was the one who first told me about ScrabbleDate. “This is perfect for you, Fern! You’re good at Scrabble, you can drink a lot of coffee, and you’re single. You need to get yourself over to the Kona Kup, girl. It’s time you shook some of the dust off those dating shoes.”

I’m looking at the floor of my closet, and I’m not sure I have any footwear that qualifies as dating shoes. I hate that I’m doing the stereotypical thing of worrying about what to wear– but I haven’t been on a date in well over twenty years. I know, because that’s how old my son Chad is. I dated Jeff for about six months, got pregnant, got married, and then we moved here to Cedarville, Iowa. He got a job at the John Deere plant and made good money, so I stayed home with Chad until he got to be school-age.  Jeff felt trapped, I think, and found the need to seem sexy to other women. I took some CNA training at the community college where Chad goes to school now, got certified, and got a job with health benefits of my own. Then, when Chad graduated from high school and Jeff was still philandering, I told him I wanted a divorce. Smartest move I ever made.

Younger Next Year for Women: Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy – Until You’re 80 and Beyond

Our Take: For the New Year, consider this easy read that is motivating, humorous, and honest and will inspire you to make your years after menopause your best. While it is written by two men, former attorney Crowley and Dr. Lodge, each takes a chapter to explain how we age and how to age better. This book shows you how to eat and exercise to feel better and take your life back. The message of the book is simple: no matter how old you are, increased physical activity in the way of exercise is associated with a better and longer life. This book will turn you in a new direction.

A few good lines: So here’s the lesson of the book. You do not have to get old the way you think. You can do all the same things, almost the same way. Bike, ski, make love. Make sense!…If you’re a bit of a mess right now, you can become a radically better woman over the next few years and then level off. No kidding.

It’s All About Circulation – About 60 million Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease. Most of them don’t know it, because it’s preclinical, but it’s there. That’s the vast majority of American women over fifty. It’s been the leading cause of death every year since 1918, even during World War II. Being sedentary is formally classified as a major cardiovascular risk factor, increasing risk more than smoking or high cholesterol. Vigorous exercise, the real thing, is the most powerful way we know of cutting down your risk of heart attack.

Our Take: After a 10-year absence, famed short story writer Moore is back with a compassionate and often sad novel. She tells the story of a year in the life of Tassie, a 20-year-old small town girl in her first year of college in Troy, a college town in the Midwest. (Think Madison, WI where Moore has taught creative writing at UW for 25 years). Tassie takes a job as a nanny to an upscale restaurant owner Sarah and her husband who adopt a bi-racial toddler. Moore said she wanted to describe a memorable, formative year in an undergraduate’s life and she accomplishes this with humor, metaphors, graceful prose and believable characters from a town like Madison. 

A Few Good Lines: I feared that Sarah was one of those women who instead of laughing said, “That’s funny,” or instead of saying, “You are a stupid blithering idiot,” said, “Well, I think it’s a little more complicated than that.” I never knew what to do around such people, especially the ones who after you spoke liked to say, enigmatically, “I see.” Usually I just went mute.

A Few Good Lines:  All that seemed like nothing compared to the picture she had of home, of her own room, the house in Friary Street (in Ireland,) the food she had eaten there, the clothes she wore, how quiet everything was. She was nobody here. It was not just that she had no friends and family; it was rather that she was a ghost in this room, in the streets on the way to work, on the shop floor… The rooms in the house on Friary Street belonged to her, she thought; when she moved in them she was really there.

Short story writer Meloy is ingenious in this collection of 11 stories that have well-developed, believable characters battling loneliness, unraveling relationships, distrust, unrequited love, and cheating husbands. The character development that can be done in a few paragraphs is astounding. These stories are powerful, memorable, brief, but achingly honest. Meloy has some immense insights to the human spirit told with a restraint of words that is astounding.

A Few Good Lines:

On a hazy summer afternoon in Los Angeles, while my wife was at work and our children were napping, I answered the ringing doorbell to find my grandmother, two months dead, standing on the stoop. She gave me a happy smile of self-welcome, then turned and waved to a black car with dark windows that purred at the curb. The car pulled away. “Liliana,” I said. “Darling!” she said. She reached for my face, so I bent to be kissed, thinking that the woman I was kissing should be dead, her ashes sealed in an expensive vault. But her lips on my cheek were warm, and she smelled like her old perfume and new wool. “Are you going to ask me in?” she asked.

This historical work of fiction is loosely based on Kelly’s ancestors from 1839 in Ireland, through the devastating Irish Potato Famine in the mid 1800’s, to their immigration to American and Chicago by the World’s Fair in 1893. Told with Irish charm, humor and woven together with historical detail that rarely bogs the story down, this is a good read for anyone who wants to better comprehend emigrating from a home country to America. Galway Bay is a tale of family loyalty, strength, survival and resilience. And you will have gleaned a good history lesson after finishing the 500 pages.

A Few Good Lines:

“Most girls left Miss Lynch’s school at twelve to mind the younger children, mend the nets, sell the catch, and then at sixteen marry a fisherman’s son. But Da and Mam let me stay on to study, except for the days I was needed under the Spanish Arch with Mam and Maire. It was Marie who told me to watch the way Mam looked at the new Presentation Convent and talked about the sisters when we passed it. “Mam wants you to be a nun. She and Miss Lynch have it fixed up between them. Miss Lynch will pay the dowry. You’d better find a fellow fast if you don’t want to go into the convent.”

 This is a great book for people who need to come up with ideas for supper, but don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen. The book includes one-pan meals, 30-minute meals, freezable meals to make on Sundays, dinner salads, six ways to do chicken and beef, and menu suggestions to combine some recipes – appetizers, mains, sides, desserts – to impress at a party without breaking a sweat. Full-color photos and a comprehensive index are provided to inspire the cook.

A Few Good Lines:

“Think of an appetizer as the opening act for dinner – something to keep your hungry guests occupied and allow you time to give the headliner (that would be the main course) one last wardrobe check. Let these tasty snacks, from three-ingredient pigs in a blanket to elegant crostini with chickpeas and mint, whet your audience’s appetite for what’s to come. They are almost as effortless as your stand-by chips and salsa but so impressive, they might just steal the show.”

Of all the “Giada” cookbooks, this one is our favorite. This book is well worth its $20 price just for the chicken parmesan recipe. Instead of breading chicken breasts for this dish, Giada has you dress them with fresh rosemary, thyme, and olive oil. Another great recipe is Giada’s chicken picatta, which is fresh, fast and lemony. This book includes a wonderfully simple Bolognese, a great pesto sauce, some great salads, and desserts. There are plenty of gorgeous picture too.

 A Few Good Lines:

“In this book you’ll find some of the recipes that viewer’s say they like the most and others that have never been on the show (Everyday Italian on The Food Network). You can be confident making all these dishes because they’re simple. I believe a great meal does not have to be difficult or complex. The recipes are easy enough that you’ll enjoy making them every day, but so delicious your family will ask for them again and again.”