Advice to achieve fitness goals at age 70.

*Sorry - I just started writing and all this came out. It's lengthy.

I retired last year beginning June 1st. I really loved my corporate job. I was global and worked with technologies for defense, space, robotics, and scientific research. Many people were shocked when I accepted a retirement package, but for me, the timing was right. My mom was in her last years and my family needed me to help support her and relieve them from time to time. She passed away several weeks ago, so now, looking back, I have zero regrets about retiring. I never could have had the time I spent with her otherwise.

What I hated about my job was the amount of time away from my family and the hard work and effort to stay emotionally connected to everyone and to get projects and upkeep done. In the process, I ignored my own health. Lots of airports, taxis, Uber rides, bad food, client dinners, trade shows, conferences, booze, and stress. Lots of stress staying ahead of the curve on technology when my clients were four star generals, defense contractors, space systems engineers and a plethora of physicists to challenge me on my knowledge. Then the ever-present stress of making numbers for the quarterly and annual reporting of a publicly traded multi-national corporation. I ballooned up to 237# on a 5'-9" frame and was wearing 38 inch waist pant and shorts, and extra large shirts. My job was slowly killing me

After retiring I started a bunch of different projects around the house. Going back and forth to Louisiana from DFW to help with my mom took a lot of time away from those,band I still have many in the planning stages. I dropped 10 pounds from the increased activity and lack of airport food, I guess.

In April of this year, after my physical, my doctor said he was going to increase some meds. I take cholesterol and BP medication. I had edema. I snored a lot. I slept erratically. Later that night I had sex with the wife and sweated like a pig. The next day, I rolled out of bed and decided that I needed a change. It was like snapping a finger and the lights turned on. I made a huge change in my diet and started walking. I purchased good shoes, some comfortable exercise clothing and started going out for long walks. I purchased a Samsung smart watch and track my daily vitals, distances and calories. This helps a lot with motivation.

Today, I weigh 189, walk/run in a 50/50 mix for between 6-10 miles every day, joined a fitness center and gave started attending various fitness classes to improve my balance and stability. I use a treadmill, ellipticals, resistance machines, and have started using barbells and kettlebells. I'm stretching, planning and doing squats and crunches. My legs are just solid muscle now and my back (which I fight against due to a degenerative, slightly bulging disk in my lower back) is improving. I breath better, practically no snoring, my blood pressure is great, my cholesterol is amazingly low, my stress levels are way down and my appetite is in check and very little alcohol enters my body now. I'm down to wearing large shirts and 34:waist pants.

My doctor saw me earlier this month to run blood and urine analysis. He tells me he's going to wait six months and see where I'm at, but he believes I've made so much progress that I'm a good candidate to be weaned off some of the meds I'm taking.

So, if you're ready this lengthy intro to where I'm at, thank you. Here are my concerns and questions and goals.

1. Continue to slowly reduce weight, but do it in such a way that I'm replacing fat with muscle. It's very hard to add muscle and I desperately need advice for this. I don't want to look muscular, just not look fat but don't look scrawny.

2. Protect my back, knees and hips. I take a daily regimen of vitamins, fiber and glucosamine. This seems to help a lot, but I'm being realistic. At age 70 I feel a slight little pain occasionally. I want to keep this up as long as I can. In fact, I love that I can go walking and my body is telling me, "let's go faster!" and I intuitively just start running. I worry that I'm putting too much stress on my back, knees and hips by running, but I use really good running shoes with great stability, balance and shock absorbing materials.

3. Should I engage the services of a trainer to put me in the right exercises to achieve those first two goals, or even work with a PT? Otherwise, I feel like I'm sort of flying blind on what specific exercises will help the most with reducing potential for injury or if following an online program designed for my age all I really need?

4. Dietary supplements and protein products. I have no clue here. I need help and advice.

5. My short term goal is to get my weigh down to between 165# to 170# but not look emaciated. I can slow roll the weight loss but I need to add the muscle as I go.

So, that's it. I never thought I could go out and walk 10 miles in a day, but here I am walking 5 and running 5 in a day. And my heart beats per minute top out at around 141 and when resting comes down to 56. I just need advice for what to do to keep building up my routine on diet, supplements and exercises that strengthen my core and upper torso while also building my glutes, strengthening my back and protecting myself from injury.

All advice is welcomed!