If you’re middle-aged, a strong predictor of your risk of heart attack or stroke over the next decade or more can be determined by a fairly simple fitness test:

How fast can you run a mile?

The National Institutes of Health and The American Heart Association funded these studies.

In two separate studies, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found that how fast a middle-age person can run a mile can help predict the risk of dying of heart attack or stroke decades later for men and could be an early indicator of cardiovascular disease for women.

In one recent study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, researchers analyzed the heart disease risk of 45-, 55- and 65-year-old men based on their fitness level and traditional risk factors, such as age, systolic blood pressure, diabetes, total cholesterol and smoking habits. The scientists found that low levels of midlife fitness are associated with marked differences in the lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease.

Seemingly little things like getting up early in the morning and daily schedules make a big impact in helping to insure the success of your health goals.

Healthy habits create an environment for achieving your healthy lifestyle.

Make a commitment. Write it down, and tell your friends and family and make it public. Ask them to keep you accountable, support your goals, and join you as you build better habits.

Schedule it. Don’t expect exercise time to appear by magic. You have to make time for it, just like you would a dentist appointment, pedicure, or business meeting. Program it into your day planner. Schedule a couple weeks worth of exercise slots in advance so you can plan for it.

Do it first thing in the morning. If fitness is part of your morning routine, you’ll have it over and done with and won’t let anything else that comes up get in the way.

Do it at work. Give up your lunch-hour fast food run and hit the gym, bike trai,l or local track instead. Ask coworkers to tag along. Or, add “fitness” to the end of your workday and exercise on your way home.

Make no excuses. Even if you’re exhausted, bored or feeling lazy, honor your exercise commitment to yourself. You don’t have to do a full-court press every time. If your energy level is low, do something easy like a walk instead of a run. If you’re bored, do something different like a bike ride instead of running on treadmill. Any exercise you do counts as part of your new habit.

Sixty used to be old .

Today’s seniors have a much different view of fitness than their parents.

Now baby boomers can look to Goldie Hawn, Diane Sawyer and Harrison Ford for inspiration as they near retirement age.

Senior citizens are having a moment. The U.S. population is getting older — average life expectancy has passed 80 years for women and 75 years for men, and it’s expected to keep rising, thanks to advances in medicine, nutrition, and safety. In fact, about one in seven adults today is older than 80, and the fastest-growing age group is people over 100.

But many of today’s seniors aren’t content to sit still and age quietly. Lately, we’ve seen headlines of amazing elders who have completed marathons, graduated college, raced in NASCAR, and more.

“No matter how old you are, it’s never too late to start living a healthier, more active, more engaging lifestyle,”