Live a Healthier, Happier, and Longer Life: The Secrets to Feeling Young Forever

KEYPOINTS

• 01

  Mel's 4-foot-1 mother-in-law returns to answer listener questions at 86

  Judy Robbins, turning 87 in September, went skydiving for the first time at 80 and got her first tattoo at 85. Her first appearance drew so many questions that Mel brought her back. Mel calls her an expert in longevity 'with lived experience,' a counterpoint to doctors and researchers.

• 02

  She's walked daily for decades: four miles minimum

  Judy started running at 33 or 34 in the early 1970s to keep up with her husband Ken, who is 6'2". Today she walks four miles a day, tracked on her Apple Watch: 'it can be five but it can't be less,' or she feels guilty and walks somewhere else to make it up. She adds yoga or Pilates once or twice a week. Mel has watched her head out in Vermont winters in a snowsuit and spiked shoes.

• 03

  Exercise creates energy rather than draining it

  Judy's pitch to older people who say 'why start now?': you're less tired. Many assume a walk will exhaust them, but she says endorphins build and you come home wanting to do something rather than nap. She also notes that most friends her age, especially men, don't walk, and that anything, a walk or a nightly glass of wine, becomes a habit you miss.

• 04

  She's no health purist, and enjoys herself

  Judy drinks coffee as soon as she gets up, skips breakfast and admits she drinks 'not enough' water, counting kombucha, apple cider vinegar and a fresh orange. After exercise she has a smoothie: a full packet of vanilla MET-Rx, a bodybuilder protein mix, ice, kale, sprouts, blueberries, strawberries and coconut water, with at least four Nabisco ginger snaps. Mel jokes that this is not a health episode.

• 05

  Appetite naturally shrinks with age

  Lunch is grazing, like eating chicken salad standing at the fridge, unlike her partner John, who eats three square meals with a napkin on his lap. Dinner is usually chicken or fish; she's moved away from meat out of thinking about animals. Judy says older people often simply aren't as hungry, and she and John often split a main course. When she wondered about quitting wine, her son Chris told her not to bother at 86.

• 06

  Social connection now comes first for longevity

  Judy says what she reads about longevity used to put the Mediterranean diet and exercise first, but now ranks social connection first, because loneliness brings depression and self-doubt. You can't wait for people to call. If nothing is going on, she creates a dinner party. Six guests is her ideal number because everyone talks together.

• 07

  A retirement community gave her security and activity

  A self-described FOMO, she decided to move the morning after a friend said she was going. On her second day a neighbor named Mary walked over with orchids. If Judy doesn't emerge for four or five hours, someone checks on her, unlike her old 25-acre property or her Florida community, where 'I could have been flat out for a couple days.' There's even pickleball on grass.

• 08

  After losing her husband, she built a life through adventure and volunteering

  Ken died about 19 years ago, around 2006. She rented a New York apartment for three months, found it lonely and signed up for Art Students League classes. Then came a solo bike trip to New Zealand. After a Cambodia bike trip, in her late 70s she went back for winters, arranged to tutor English at an elementary school without being a teacher, and got involved with the NGO Cambodian Living Arts.

• 09

  A hard childhood gave her courage

  With only two years of college and no money for more, at 19 she moved to Chicago, answered phones at American Airlines, became a receptionist at a top ad agency, went to secretarial school and then moved to San Francisco. In high school she started the first girl cheerleaders at New Trier after 100 years of boys only.

• 10

  Lessons at 86: listen more, care less what people think

  Judy says she used to want to be the center of attention and barely let people finish; now she's patient and interested in listening. As a child she was 'an incredible liar,' telling tales so people would like her. Now 'the package is done and wrapped up.' She still won't go to the grocery store without SPF 50 CC cream from Ulta.