A 95-year-old man works out in the gym and shares tips for a long and healthy life.

At 95, David Scott hits the gym regularly, lifting weights to keep his muscles strong – the latest chapter in his lifelong health regimen.

He works out at Planet Fitness in Dover, New Hampshire, three times a week, using weight machines to train his shoulders, arms, legs and abs. When it comes to cardio, the US Army veteran also walks several times a week.

“I feel good,” Scott tells TODAY.com about his exercise habits. “Blood circulation is important if you are too sedentary. And that too good for the mind“

Scott and his 86-year-old wife Lydia live separately in their home in Dover. Both share a lifelong love of the sport: the couple met on a bus in her native Italy while they were going skiing in the Alps and struck up a conversation on the ski lift.

“When we got to the top (of the mountain), she said, ‘Let’s go,’ and disappeared. She skied much faster than me. But eventually I caught up with her,” Scott recalls. “For me it was love at first sight“

“It was the same for me. Two weeks later we were engaged,” Lydia Scott told TODAY.com. They have been married 62 years and have three children.

Scott says he is approaching 100 years of health. Here’s what you need to know about the nearly 100-year-old man and his tips for living a long life:

Eat a healthy diet

Scott and his wife eating Mediterranean dietwhich is known to be good for the heart and brain. The menu includes home-cooked meals with lots of fruits and vegetables, some chicken and fish, and plenty of… olive oil.

The couple has a vegetable garden where they grow salad greens, carrots, zucchini, green beans, edamame, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and all sorts of herbs.

Lydia Scott is the cook in the house.

“I make a lot of soups that I freeze for the winter. Plus, we eat fresh vegetables all summer long,” she says.

“I also make jams from all the fruits we grow and freeze a lot of berries for smoothies.”

David Scott’s favorite dish is “spaghetti, which my Italian wife makes,” he says. “I’ve never eaten so well since I got married.”

Vegetable pasta dishes are a tasty and healthy part of the Mediterranean diet.

To live a long life, Scott advises others to stay away from fatty foods and minimize alcohol consumption, sticking to small amounts of wine rather than spirits if you choose to drink. He stopped drinking alcohol about 20 years ago.

For dessert Scott loves dark chocolatewhich is rich in polyphenols, or beneficial compounds produced by plants.

Choose the right spouse

When asked about the secret to longevity, David Scott is quick to answer.

“Good wife,” he says without hesitation. “She knows what I need and she’s there for me.”

Married people have significantly higher life expectancy and active life expectancy (years without disability) than their unmarried peers, with men particularly enjoying the protective health effects of marriage. research found.

Married men tend to eat better, exercise more and receive more regular health care than unmarried, divorced or widowed men, according to the study. Harvard Health.

Marriage even increases your chances of surviving cancer. research shows.

Think positively

But Lydia Scott believes there’s more to her husband’s longevity than their long marriage.

“The secret is positive thinking, a good sense of humor and accepting life as it comes. And not have too many complaints,” she says.

Optimists live longer research found, perhaps because optimism can help people develop and maintain healthier habits, as well as regulate their emotions during stressful times.

Be enterprising

Scott went to Harvard at 16, joined the U.S. Army when he was 17 in 1945, then returned to the university after World War II to earn a degree in Greek philosophy.

He attended Harvard Business School and worked for several companies before deciding to move to Europe.

“I thought I should go to Italy because I love skiing,” he recalls. The bachelor was working in an American factory in Milan when he met his future wife on a bus heading to the ski slopes.

He lived in Italy for two decades and, as part of his work, traveled to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Nigeria before returning to the United States, writing about his adventures in a book entitled: “My twenty years in Italy: how opera and skiing changed my life“

Move your body

Scott still remembers reading a magazine article at age 10 about a muscular man who said people could get as big as him if they exercised.

He’s been thinking about being strong ever since, especially because he grew up in Chicago, “a pretty tough neighborhood,” he says.

He always liked sports and played football and wrestled in college.

He and his wife love to ski. Lydia Scott also practiced fencing and was on the Italian national team. In subsequent years, she practiced tai chi and qigong. exercises that engage the mind-body connection.

“Exercising is very important in our family,” she says. “We’ve always played a lot of sports, and our kids play a lot of sports, too.”