Successful Ageing with Dr.G
Your blueprint to live healthier, stronger and longer
Understanding the Approach
What is Successful Ageing?
Successful Ageing is enjoying good health, avoiding disease and making the most of every moment, of every day. You can’t change your chronological age. But you can control your biological age. Your biological age is a combination of a number of bio-markers which include good mental health, a strong body, good balance, a positive outlook and a zest for life.
Dr G’s goal is to help you take responsibility for the way you age. He believes your healthspan can almost equal your lifespan, where decline is deferred to the very end of life.
Use it or lose it. Any exercise is good, more is better, and vigorous is best. Start small but start today.
The Blueprint
The 7 Components of Successful Ageing
There are 7 essential lifestyle components that form part of Dr G’s Blueprint for Successful Ageing. These components were identified by the Elders and health professionals Dr G interviewed during his doctoral research, and established subsequent studies. The Blueprint contains a strategy, which is a mantra for life, and a paradigm, which will help you to select your ageing curve to determine how successfully you age.
1. Positive Attitude
A positive attitude is the catalyst. It gets you out of bed, into your shoes and back into life. Aim for progress rather than perfection and try to leave people happier than you found them.
2. Physical Exercise
Exercise is the closest thing to a panacea for successful ageing. Try to do 60 minutes of regular, moderate-to-vigorous exercise most days. Embrace casual, incidental exercise, e.g. take the stairs, walk to the shops.
3. Real Food First
Build meals around a Mediterranean-style diet. This includes vegetables, lean protein and whole foods. Limit ultra-processed, deep-fried and sugary options. Eat to 80% full (the Japanese call it hara hachi bu).
4. Social & Support Networks
We’re wired for connection. Stay close to your family, friends, church and clubs. Join local volunteer organisations. Maintain a trusted team of health professionals for when life throws a curveball.
5. Purpose in Life
Have a purpose for getting out of bed in the morning. This is what the Japanese call your Ikigai. Have short-, medium- and long-term goals. This can include: going to the gym, swimming in a squad, learning something new, volunteering, or learning a musical instrument. Purpose fuels our positivity, energy, enthusiasm and joy.
6. Minimise Risk Factors
Most ‘ageing problems’ begin with lifestyle risk factors – but we can control those risks.
Minimise risk of falls - improve balance, increase leg strength.
Moderate consumption of alcohol & unhealthy food.
Manage weight, blood pressure, lipids and sugar.
7. Get enough sleep
Sleep is our brain’s sewerage system and body rejuvenator. Sleep allows cells and muscles to repair and regrow. Aim to get 7-9 hours of quality sleep, which helps the brain to process information and dispose of toxic waste. Preparation for a good night’s sleep is important - stop eating two hours before bedtime, keep phones and electronics out of the bedroom, and sleep in a dark room.
My Mission
My mission is to encourage you to embrace the 7 components of successful ageing as your blueprint for life. Many people believe the way we age is predestined by our genes or our family history. In fact, that only counts for 20-30%. What will determine how you age is the way you live your life and the lifestyle you adopt. Ageing does not need to be characterised by disease, decline and decrepitude. It can be positive, enjoyable and fruitful.
Dr G believes that if you adopt the Successful Ageing blueprint, the potential benefits include:
60 can be your new 40, 80 can be your new 60, and 100 can be your new 80.
You’ll have an improved quality of life, greater confidence, increased activity, a healthier diet and improved social connectivity.
You’ll be able to embrace short-, medium- and long-term goals to achieve your life’s purpose. Your purpose in life should include exercise, a healthy diet, connection, commitment and enjoyment with family, friends, church and community.
You can become a mentor or be a mentee - it’s the greatest gift you can offer or receive.
Ageing is something that happens to us all. I ask you to take control of the way you age. Avoid behavioural and biomedical risk factors, and you are halfway there.
Live healthier, stronger and longer
My Blueprint for Successful Ageing
In this powerful and practical guide, newly minted octogenarian Dr Gary Shiels – urban planner, healthy ageing researcher and lifelong advocate for active living – unpacks what it really takes to age successfully. Drawing on first-hand interviews with healthy Australian Elders and inspired by the world’s longest-lived people, he challenges the myths that keep older Australians sedentary, over-medicated and resigned to decline.
Instead, he offers a new approach to ageing: where a positive attitude, exercise, nutrition and staying connected are the critical parts of ageing successfully. He shows you how to select a successful ageing curve so you can lower your biological age, even as you grow older. A captivating, down-to-earth read that blends up-to-date research with real stories about remarkable people.
Purchase your copy today!
Testimonials for Dr G’s Book
“At a spritely 80, Dr Gary Shiels AM distills for us the essence of a lifetime’s passionate devotion to maximizing healthful longevity both for himself and anyone else who cares to listen. Written by a vastly experienced life coach and significant contributor to his community, this book is not a recipe book - it is rather a well-referenced kitchen table workbook requiring self-questioning at various stages along a process of preparing a gourmet meal by utilisng only the best ingredients.”
— Dr Ted Arnold“I have known Gary for nearly 25 years through my involvement in North Bondi Surf Club where he is 60-year, life member and patron of the club. I have regularly attended his fitness classes where he has a very strong following. He has always been meticulous about health fitness and nutrition, firmly believing that: you have to look after your body, it’s the only place you have to live. His discipline, consistency and drive are nothing short of inspiring.”
— Dr David Digges, BSC, JP“Dr Gary Shiels is a born teacher who cares deeply about you and your well-being, and shows you the way by his example. That is the essence of his book. His philosophy is you can control your biological age by exercise, healthy eating and a positive mindset.”
— Tim Castle, B.Ec, LLB“Gary is an inspiration to many. His enthusiasm for life is infectious, his generosity and sharing research and wisdom unmatched. His book is a gift: a destination of decades of knowledge, service and passion.”
— Steve Larnack, President North Bondi SLSC
The Reality Check
We can’t talk about successful ageing without being honest about where we’re starting. Right now, too many Australians are living with avoidable health risks, and it’s costing us the best years of our life.
The biggest culprits?
Inactivity, poor diet, excess alcohol, smoking, and too much reliance on medication.
These behaviours fuel the rise in obesity, diabetes, heart disease and bone density loss. Yet most of them can be turned around with simple lifestyle changes.
Small steps today can transform your tomorrow.
A few alarming stats*
90%
of adults aged 65+ take at least one form of prescribed medication.
27%
of all Australian deaths each year are from heart, stroke or vascular disease.
44%
of older Australians use cholesterol-lowering medication, and that figure is climbing rapidly.
66%
of adults are overweight or obese – and the number keeps rising.
*Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
About Dr G
Dr. Gary Shiels (hereby referred to as Dr. G) received an AM for his services to town planning, and working with the community, on Australia Day 2023. Dr G has a PhD in urban planning and design for successful ageing, and three Master’s degrees in planning-related fields.
He is a lifelong student of health, ageing, exercise and nutrition, as well as mindset and meaningful living. His PhD led him to cultivate not just a broad body of applicable research, but a way of life – for himself, and for the community.
On this site you’ll find what works in the real world for real people: clear advice, lived experience and the encouragement to begin.
Ready to start living healthier, stronger, and longer?
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