Don Everett Bitle’s Guide to Healthy Aging After 50: What You Need to Know is a catch-all for folks who are 50 and better, and want some direction on how to stay that way. Here is a demographic that has reached the sweet spot where health and energy can be optimized, and life wholeheartedly enjoyed. In this smartly written book, older adults will find counsel on such subjects as supplanting bad habits with healthier ones, how to make the most of the gym, and healthy eating. Throughout, Bitle ups the ante by sharing his own experiences and healthy habits. Rather than insisting that its audience wade through a tangle of highly technical terminology or become de-facto PhDs on the subject, Guide to Healthy Aging After 50 takes a gentler approach. With its easy language and abundance of pragmatic advice, the guide offers a hopeful roadmap for older adults keen to sustain a healthy life for many years to come.

Growing up, author Don Everett Bitle was never very healthy. Often sick, skinny, and significantly deprived of athletic abilities, Bitle sought to turn things around. He started running after high school, and lifting weights at a local gym. In no time, he was rewarded for his efforts. Early employment in the food and semiconductor manufacturing industries taught him about discipline and details, and a degree in exercise and movement sealed the deal.

Bitle has thrived for many years as the recreation and wellness director of a major retirement community in Eugene, Oregon, where he takes great delight in his work with octo- and nonagenarians. Bearing witness to their health challenges prompted his reflection on whether these seniors might’ve fared better if they’d had access to a guide to staying healthier.

Bitle, a father and grandfather, lives with his wife of more than 45 years in Oregon’s Eugene-Springfield area.