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, which is the age of your mind, body and spirit.
The goal: To help you take responsibility for the way you age, where your health span match is almost equal to your life span.
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 he interviewed and established subsequent research. 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.
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.
Physical Exercise
Exercise is our closest thing to a panacea. Try to do regular, moderate-to-vigorous movement most days, and aim for 7-9 hours of sleep. They reinforce each other.
Real Food First
Build meals around 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).
Social & Support Networks
We’re wired for connection. Stay close to your people, join communities and line up a trusted care team for when life throws a curveball.
Purpose in Life
Have a reason to get out of bed in the morning. This could be: going to the gym, swimming in a squad, learning something, creating, volunteering, restoring heritage, learning a musical instrument swimming. Purpose fuels our positivity, energy, enthusiasm and joy.
Minimise Risk Factors
Move more, eat well, don’t smoke, moderate alcohol consumption, and manage weight, blood pressure and lipids. Most ‘ageing problems’ begin with lifestyle risk factors – but we can reduce those risks.
Missing Point #7
Move more, eat well, don’t smoke, moderate alcohol consumption, and manage weight, blood pressure and lipids. Most ‘ageing problems’ begin with lifestyle risk factors – but we can reduce those risks.
My Mission
My Mission is convincing you to be an A Grader, where your lifestyle strategy is Attitude, Activity, Adventure, Appreciation, Associations. A positive attitude is the catalyst for everything, including getting out of bed in the morning to go to the gym or pool. Many believe the way we age is predestined by our genes or our parents. In fact, that only counts for 20-33%. What will determine how you age is the way you live your life or your lifestyle. Ageing does not need to be decline and decrepitude.
Dr G argues that with Successful Ageing:
60 is the new 40; 80 is the new 60; and 100 is the new 80.
Have an improved quality of life, with increased activity, healthier diet and increases connectivity.
A greater chance of avoiding cancer and disease; would you rather being cured of cancer, or never have contracted it in the first place?
Find your purpose in life, a reason for getting out of bed; and retain connections with family, friends, your church and the community.
Being a mentor or be a mentee, there are benefits in both roles.
Ageing is something we all do. 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 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 utilizing only the best ingredients.”
— Dr Ted Arnold FAC lifestyle med“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 years of quality 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 loss. Yet most of them can be turned around with simple lifestyle changes.
Small steps today can transform your tomorrows.
A few alarming stats (ABS)
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.
*The above data was sourced from the 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 with the research topic, Planning for Successful Ageing and three Master’s degrees in planning related fields of disciplines.
He is a lifelong student of health, ageing, exercise and nutrition, mindset and meaningful living. His PhD in planning for successful ageing 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 encouragement to begin.
Start here to transform the next exciting phase of your life
Looking for more?
Explore Insights for articles, research summaries, interviews and recommended resources.
Ready to start living healthier, stronger, and longer?
Purchase My Blueprint for Successful Ageing today.
