FWIW, here’s how my wife and I have maintained our weight, _+/- 6 lbs, and physical condition for the past 30 years. I’m 61 and she’s 59. I thought it might be helpful to share my life and I’d love to hear about how you stay healthy!

• Keep tempting foods out of the house. This is key. We don’t have ice cream, cookies, tasty chips (we have plain chips), or any other calorie dense snack around.

• Don’t eat after dinner. Good habit for maintaining weight and sleeping well. When you don't have tempting treats around, not snacking is easier.

• Ask family and friends not to expose us to food that tempts us. My daughter brings us some treats now and then, but it’s not a lot and it’s not a habit.

• Weigh ourselves several times a week. When the scale goes up, we don’t panic or beat ourselves up, but we reduce tempting food around and portion size, and we don’t make a big deal about it.

• We don’t count calories and we’ve never “dieted”.

• We treat ourselves when we eat out, but don’t keep treats at home.

• We both wear Fitbits (fitness trackers) and enjoy watching the number of steps we take, and how many calories we burn on a run or out dancing, but we don’t take it too seriously, we just have fun with it.

• We walk, run, dance and rock climb together. Great exercise, fun and conversation.

• We eat good food. Today's breakfast: scrambled eggs, blueberry and broccoli smoothie, chicken sausage, onions and chickpeas.

• Try to keep up with health maintenance: colonoscopes and vaccinations like shingles

Love to hear how you maintain your physical and mental health!

I agree on the sugar and sugary drinks. I'm a sugar addict and try to limit my sweets to Costco samples. I believe our bodies aren't built to handle all the sugar that's paraded around us and we gobble up.

These new weight loss drugs (Ozempic, etc) are proving that people simply eat too much. These drugs work by slowing digestion so your stomach empties more slowly and you feel full longer. So you eat less and you lose weight. It’s all very simple. It’s not that you eat too many carbs, sugar, gluten, fat, corn syrup, etc. It’s that people eat too much.

I avoid doctors like the plague because I don't believe in them. I avoid prescriptions when at all possible. My grandfather was a pharmacist and told his kids (my late mom) not to take prescriptions. As a result, she was only on two prescriptions at the age of 93.

When I do see a doc for my two scripts, it's once a year and she threatens to cut me off if I don't come in. If I am having a medical issue, I go to an excellent, natural nurse practitioner. Insurance doesn't cover her, but for $100, I get an entire hour of her care, prescriptions (I needed an inhaler), and peace of mind; priceless.

First step, do as OREO, avoid the doctors.

Second, don't do drugs, prescription or otherwise, if at all possible. ALL medications have side effects.

Next, don't do diets but rather a lifestyle change as diets don't work, at least not for long. Eat the proper foods and drink the proper liquids in the proper amounts, get off the couch, keep moving, and you will be the proper weight that you are meant to be at.

Turn off the TV, put down the newspaper, stay away from social media, and NEVER listen to the government and their "experts" and you can keep your mental health in check.

Admittedly, I don't do workout routines as I should, but I do exercise every day working on a house, crawling under, kneeling down, squatting, lifting, ect....

I like your list. I need to add dancing. I also weigh every day and don't count calories. I treat the weight the same as you and it works great that way.

I don't worry about doctors' visits or vaccines, especially now.

Thanks for sharing your health tips. May you and your wife live long and prosper.

Don't be smug. Just because something works for you doesn't mean it works for someone else. Our bodies process all kinds of things differently - we are not carbon copies of each other.

I come from a family of four children. Back in the day, we all ate the same, did the same things, took the same vacation, had the same treats, etc. Mom cooked at home, we never went out to dinner except maybe once a year, etc. It was the 50's/60's.

My oldest brother struggled with weight his entire life, from the moment he was BORN. At the end of his life he was walking 5 miles a day and taking several mountain climbing vacations a year. Was fat his entire life even so. My middle brother was a rail his entire life. My sister is thin as a stick, and I am round as an apple.

My two oldest sons: #1 was fat from birth. Huge. Half my height at birth too. He has worked out nearly every day his entire life, was a wrestler in high school, joined the Army, etc. Has an amazing gym in his home, a trainer that comes in on the regular, and a live-in cook. And yet he's huge. Huge.

His brother is thin without effort - still wears clothes from high school, doesn't even think about watching his diet, drinks alcohol, doesn't exercise...I take that back he started walking last year. But he's almost 50 so that's not why he's thin.

My third son has a different dad, my DH, and he's middle of the road: struggles with Dad Bod at 35, but nothing to write home about. Works out sometimes, eats pretty well - just normal.

I lost 50 pounds in about 3 months and got below my ideal body weight. How? Throat cancer. Hard to eat when you have a 3rd degree burn on the inside of your throat from radiation and the chemo drugs work much better than ozempic. I don't recommend that as a weight loss program though. I have managed to keep half of that weight off for 2 years now.

Portion size is something we focus on. When we go out to eat we almost always divide each serving into a healthy portion. In almost all cases, the restaurant size is about twice what a healthy portion is. We and take home a box and have it the next day.

I posted a larger response earlier but it didn't go through. I am still able to be fairly active so I am. I have coworkers who complain about thier weight and ailments. I suggested that the majority of people can change things just by moving more multiple times. No.one wants to hear it. They just talk about how this or that hurts. I have zero sympathy and have shown it.

Pistachios, just a handful watching a baseball game.

WMH is right: one size doesn't fit all. I won the good-genes lottery. But upbringing helps: with nine kids to feed, my mom didn't buy empty-calorie snack food. We drank OJ for breakfast and milk for lunch and dinner. Whole-wheat bread. All the fresh fruit we could eat. Desserts were once a week on Sunday nights: ice cream or oatmeal cookies. Food was there to nourish us, not provide stress relief or entertainment.

Those habits persist, although DH keeps buying chips. My routine when I'm in the middle of a rehab: I pack a PB&J sandwich, two clementines, and several bottles of water. I eat half a sandwich when I get hungry for breakfast, the other half when I get hungry again, and the clementines when I'm on my way home after a long day of rehab work. Then a small dinner. Keeps the pounds off like magic.

Robert, it seems like sugar is a common thread for health problems and like you said, it’s all around us in seemingly innocent food like orange juice, ice cream, fruit juice, you name it.

Yeah Larry, I think they run experiments to make foods taste so good, you’ll almost kill yourself eating more.

That is great NE, that you and your wife did it together and got on a good road. And as for cheating, I read once, it’s like when you get a flat tire, you don’t get out of your car and puncture the other three tires.

Plenty, my daughter read what you wrote tonight over dinner and laughed in satisfied agreement with you.

Thanks for the smoothie recipe, OREO! And, I’ll bet a lot of folks wish they could forget to eat!

All I can say is "wow!". I live very differently than most of the above posters. My family eats what we want and like.

I will comment on the first post of +/- 6 pounds over the years. I can fluctuate that much up and down in any given week.

I also avoid doctors whenever possible and HATE the medical system and the circus/business it has become. I do take one pill that basically keeps me alive for a genetic blood disorder but other than than, I have very little to do with the medical system.

6x6, it seems avoiding doctors is a common thread here, but I’d suggest instead, see a doctor on a regular basis, but not take every test, vaccination, and antibiotic they recommend. Just my two cents

My wife recently had to go into the hospital with bleeding in her intestine caused by H Pylori. The bleeding stopped and they prescribed her a few antibiotics and a medication to reduce stomach acid. She’s decided not to take the antibiotics and instead go with a natural remedy.

I think your right on with lifestyle changes, eating good foods and keep moving. A good one for me is to take the end-of-meal conversation out on a walk. And yeah, staying away from social media and the internet in general to “keep your mental health in check”

Thanks for you kind wish of May you and your wife live long and prosper :-)

As for sleep, I try to read before bed, to calm my mind.

WMH, I’m sorry I came across as smug. I didn’t mean to say this is easy or that what works for me will work for you, I’m just sharing what works for me. My daughter and I really enjoyed reading about you and your family’s history and how siblings can be so different from each other.

MikeA, I happy you made it through the cancer and great tip about the boxing when going out. A friend of ours boxes half his meal before he starts the meal. Interesting about the fasting and I’m going to look into that. Thank you!

MC, you are right and like 6x6 said keep moving. I’ve found the fitbit has helped me to appreciate long walks and good sleep. And yes moderation. It is tough surrounded by all these tempting treats :-)

Yeah that’s a good one Vee, not bring the bag, but only what you can hold in your hand. I tend to take a big hand hold and there’s a cashew trail behind me.

Robin, I think DH and DW make it hard when they bring home tasty treats. I ask my DW to hide the almond cookies and bean buns she brings back from the Korean store so I don’t know about them.

Yeah Ray-N-Pa and I’ll bet you have six pack abs but they’re just hidden :-)

get a dog that needs LOTS of exercise and walk them every day (I try to get 5 miles with the dog a pudlepointer ..yes it is a breed)

I just read that Functional medicine is an approach to healthcare that focuses on treating the root causes of illness, rather than just managing symptoms. Makes good sense to me.

I’ve noticed that an effect of sugar for me is that it robs the body of oxygen. And now that I know that, I’ve incorporated that bit of information into my eating. It helps to connect the sugar with the lack of oxygen (which kills off cells) and it makes it easier to pass it up.

And I walk the dog 2x a day along with cycling and painting & cleaning houses, when empty. I eat foods that have less than 4-5 ingredients on the label and all words I recognize.