Motivated to age well

My parents are in their mid 80s. Neither one of them has taken particularly good care of themselves for the past 20 to 30 years, or really, at any time. I mean, they both avoided the ravages of alcoholism and addiction, gluttony, bitterness, serious mental illness, serious physical ailments, injury, accident or even catastrophic loss. Our family so far has been blessed to have few surprising tragedies. The parents will celebrate their 64th wedding anniversary this month. 

But there are a lot of realities for them that I don't want for myself, if I can manage to avoid these things. They just moved last November out of the house where they had lived for 50 years, for example. There's no chance that I will ever become that rooted in one place, and I'm glad for that. I appreciate the downsizing, re-evaluation and fleetness that comes from moving a lot and having a small footprint. My recent project of digitizing 300 records and selling five boxes of those and getting rid of 3 boxes of books has been salutary along these lines. 

I want to be in excellent physical condition until I drop over. I think what this will take will be dietary refinements, yoga and continued exercise. I don't smoke and I don't drink or use drugs, so I might be around for a long time. If that's the case, I want to find out how to avoid chronic pain, illness, stiffness, lack of mobility, etc.

I also want to be in excellent mental health. It seems that my parents' biggest challenges now, in spite of their frail physical condition, center on their mental and emotional resilience. They have become acutely isolated, for example, and this makes me grateful for the AA community, since, if I want to stay sober, I will have to stay connected there no matter how old I am. Neither one of my parents has ever had much of a creative, productive art-like hobby or activity, and I will always want to be able to play music, grow plants-- something like that. Maybe even something entirely new. 

They are both relatively happy, considering, and maintain a positive outlook, which is great. They are doing their old age the way they want to, in many ways. But there are a lot of things I want to do differently, if I get the chance. The simple fact is that time moves very quickly. The way of life that will make it more likely to have a good old age has to start now. I'm already into a lot of it-- better diet, exercise (I'm in better shape than I was in my 30s and 40s), staying interested and mentally active (PhD program in my mid 50s?), gaining more effective emotional skills, etc. 

Of course, I could get hit by a train tomorrow. That would be hilarious.