Cracking the code

Author Louis Bezich pens motivating strategies for men over 50 to achieve optimum health.

Story: Theresa Campbell

Bookstore shelves are loaded with diet and fitness books, yet Louis Bezich feels sedentary men in their 50s and 60s—one of the most health- challenged segments of the American population—need a motivational pep talk.

“I really want to reach out to the everyman; the men walking around the block a couple days a week,” says Louis, a healthcare executive at Cooper University Health Care in Camden, New Jersey. He shares motivational tactics to enrich men’s mental and physical health in his first book, “Crack the Code: 10 Proven Secrets that Motivate Healthy Behavior and Inspire Fulfillment in Men Over 50.”

“This is a point in life where you can see the graduations coming up, the weddings, travel, retirement, a second or third career, and you would think an individual guy over 50 would say, ‘I really want to be there for my loved ones and enjoy all that life has to offer. I should really take care of myself.’ Instead, men do the opposite,” Louis says in a phone interview with Healthy Living. “Too many men become more sedentary and neglect their health. It’s explicable to all generations, and it’s so evident in men over 50.”

With less than 3 percent of the American population living healthy, Louis believes traditional approaches to men’s health have not worked, particularly for older men. However, Louis was inspired by research that shows a strong correlation between health and happiness. In his book, he shares motivational findings from a nationwide survey of 1,000 healthy men, some of his own personal experiences, and insights from 30 men he interviewed.

“They enjoy being able to swim in the ocean with their grandchildren, playing a round of golf with their son or grandson, participating in a 5K race or something like that,” Louis says. “The successful guys really blend their social agenda and their social aspirations with their behavior, and that seems to be a winning strategy.”

The author maintains that “underlying motivation is a prerequisite for healthy behavior.” Working out was his coping mechanism in college and later as a single father raising two boys. Louis was motivated to be healthy “for the kids,” and exercise helped him cope with work demands and stress, and it continued as his “passion” in his 50s and today in his 60s. He regularly runs 5K races and hits the gym at 5am every weekday