Your Healthy Schedule

Women's 40s and 50s are a pivotal time, says JoAnn E. Manson, MD, chief of the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston. Your body is changing in dramatic ways. Remember puberty? It's like that. You will probably go through menopause during these years (typically around 51). Your memory may become slightly porous. You may be at increased risk for hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic conditions. There's a lot at stake. But as you head into midlife, there's also a lot you can do to be the strongest, nimblest, and healthiest version of yourself possible.

In 44 BC, the statesman and philosopher Cicero advised his fellow Romans "to adopt a regimen of health, to practice moderate exercise, and to take just enough food and drink to restore our strength and not to overburden it." Two millennia later, our knowledge has expanded slightly: Good health comes from more than just commonsense moderation. It's also the psychological and spiritual attitudes you bring to the effort.

To that end, here's a sample daily schedule of all the good things you can do to improve the chances that you'll still be in your prime in 2018.

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