Few people can convincingly claim to be in better shape at age 51 than they were at age 25. But when Donald Kovacs, MD, says that, he's believable.
At age 25 he was still smoking, having started as a teenager. He didn't break his tobacco addiction until 15 years ago.
When asked if it was hard to quit smoking, Dr. Kovacs jokes, "It was easy. I did it hundreds of times. Actually, it was hard quitting and easy to start up again. I finally quit for good when my second child was born."
Now Dr. Kovacs is addicted to exercise. That includes a wide range of indoor and outdoor activities—mostly for pleasure, he says. Whether easy or strenuous, it's built around something most people can manage—daily walking.
An Ohio native, Dr. Kovacs has lived in Pennsylvania since 1976. He and his colleague, Bradford Wood, MD, work out of the Yellow Breeches Family Practice Clinic, named for a world-famous Cumberland County trout stream.
"I walk two or three miles a day," Dr. Kovacs says. "During the week one of those miles is often down to the Yellow Breeches Creek with one or more of my office staff. It takes about 15 minutes, and we enjoy a little exercise in the lovely rural scenery. A couple of them make that part of a bigger exercise program and have lost a considerable amount of weight. And I often walk a mile or two with my wife in the evening."
In mild weather he rides a bike, usually twice a week for an hour or two per outing-enough for 15 to 30 miles. During winter he keeps his riding muscles in shape by spinning sessions at the Carlisle YMCA, where he also does strength training once a week.
"I don't think of most of that as exercise," he says. "It's fun. I find being out in nature restorative. It's a mental thing as well as a physical thing."
Dr. Kovacs emphasizes to his patients that it's never too late to start exercising. "There are studies," he says, "that have taken 90-year-olds in nursing homes and started them on weightlifting programs. Some people who've been wheelchair-bound have gotten up and started walking."
Donald Kovacs, MD, lives in Carlisle, PA and has worked as a family physician at the Yellow Breeches Family Practice in Boiling Springs for over 22 years. He and his colleague, Brad Wood, MD, try to encourage a "Heart-Healthy Lifestyle" in their patients and to practice it themselves.