As someone who has been a regular exerciser since age 13 (that’s 36 years and countin’), the cover of Time magazine’s Aug. 17 edition felt like a slap in the face. “The Myth About Exercise” was all about how exercise doesn’t necessarily have any correlation to weight. Apparently, a lot of folks who exercise reward themselves later in the day by indulging in extra calories that they otherwise would have forgone.

It’s easy to imagine the coach-potato reader looking no further. Summoning up the superhuman effort required to raise his head to speak to a family member, he says, “See, if I exercise I might actually weigh more.”

We have gone totally nuts.

My grandmother’s peers weren’t gym rats, but they were rarely obese. Cars weren’t the norm, and they walked back and forth to work, the grocery store, etc. They ate a healthy diet, by which I mean fruits, vegetables, nuts and meats, avoiding sugar, flour, almost anything artificial and deep frying. The diet was and is delicious and more satisfying, and doesn’t put your blood sugar into a pogo-stick-like dance with disease.

Knowing that I am going to exercise on most days makes it easier for me to avoid overeating, because I either don’t want to be weighed down for the exercise, or I feel ridiculous getting a large french fry at the fast-food drive-thru when I just lifted weights and did 30 minutes on the treadmill. 

My 17-year-old son, Dexter, returned from an exchange program in Japan last month. Here is our town of Plymouth, we send a delegation to our sister city of Shichigahama every other summer; and the Japanese city sends a delegation here in the opposite years. Dexter exclaimed, “The old people there don’t act old. They walk quickly, and they seem to be fine.” All I could think about was the phrase “use it or lose it.” The Japanese value their time outdoors, doing light, regular exercise such as walking and gardening. I think that when you lead even a moderately active life, you’re less likely to suffer the physical ravages that aging can bring.

What would happen if you added 20 minutes of walking to your routine each day, while keeping your food consumption the same? Besides the psychological benefits of being outside and the health benefits of breathing fresh air, you would gain muscle and rev up your metabolism. Maybe not by much, but who cares? Improving your outlook and lowering your risk for heart and other diseases, with a free activity? Where do I sign up?

Buried inside the TIME magazine article was this important gem: “Today doctors encourage even their oldest patients to exercise, which is sound advice for many reasons. People who regularly exercise are at significantly lower risk for all manner of diseases – those of the heart in particular. They less often develop cancer, diabetes and many other illnesses.” 

Maybe the bold print on the cover should have read “Exercise wards off cancer, heart disease, diabetes. DO IT NOW.”

Plymouth, Mass., resident Marilee Kern Driscoll is a professional speaker and the author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Long-term Care Planning.” She has been quoted in hundreds of newspapers and magazines, including “The Wall Street Journal” and “Kiplinger’s Personal Finance,” and has been interviewed on the CBS Early Show. She encourages you to ask your questions, subscribe to her free newsletter, and find local help with long-term care anywhere in the U.S. at www.LTC123.com.