Take advantage of your youth, and enjoy your body. Seriously. Treat it well. Move it a lot.

I have coworkers in their early twenties who move slowly and complain about being tired all the time and make noise standing up out of a chair. (To be perfectly clear: they do not have mobility issues, disabilities, or chronic illnesses.)

I know you're not supposed to say it, but excess weight will age you. I'm not talking about an extra 10 or 15 lbs that comes from a life well lived. I'm talking about being truly overweight or obese.

It will murder your joints and your organs. I am 50, and I see people 10 and 15 years younger than me hanging on to their steering wheel to heave themself out of the car. It will only get more challenging as they get older. I'm not concern trolling, I genuinely feel bad to see it.

Here's a fact, too. Hormone levels drop. Menopause will come for me eventually, and it will be a hard cold slap in the face of reality.

With that will come loss of bone density and a laundry list of other things, that will affect me in my own mobility. I'm enjoying a functional body today. As others have noted, I could fall off a cliff tomorrow. Or be hobbled by arthritis in 20 years.

Age does come for all of us. I think you can head a lot of it off by taking care of your body while it's young.

You didn't mention this specifically, but it's worth noting that you should care for your cognitive health as well as your physical.