HOW TO LOOK YOUTHFUL FOR LIFE

 

 What do Wang Deshun, Jane Fonda, Jennifer Lopez and Angela Bassett have in common? They are all mature but look youthful and fantastic.

    Wang Deshun started his modelling career at 80 and he flaunts his chiselled body on the catwalk.

      Jennifer Lopez is 50 years old yet she has a fit body of a 25-year-old woman. 

   This is the same with Angela Bassett who flaunts her six-pack abs at the age of 60.

     Late Jeanne Louis Calment who lived to 122 years cycled at 100 and released a hip hop album to celebrate her 121st birthday.

       People always look at ageing as a thing to be afraid of. 

   They fear the loss of their looks, physical fitness and health.

      However, these people above have proven that it is possible to remain beautiful and youthful for life. 

    All it takes is a little discipline, dedication and knowledge.

       So follow these steps to take a sip from the fountain of youth.

Genetics

           How we age is determined by our genes. Some people naturally age slower while others age faster.     However, only 10 per cent of ageing gracefully is determined by genetics.

     The remaining 90 per cent is determined by our lifestyle. 

   So we have a large control over the years of our good health /how we age on the inside and outside.

       The funny thing about nature is that the consequences of bad habits do not show immediately.

      Most times, we look aged not because of our biological age but because we have lived a lifetime of bad habits that catch up with us in our forties.

      However, if you change your lifestyle some of the effects of ageing can be reversed. 

    If you are below forty, prepare for ageing before it comes. That way you may not have the problems that come with old age.

Practice Gratitude.

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    Stop looking at old age as a bad thing. It is a gift that a lot of people will not have the luxury of experiencing. 

    Express gratitude to your creator for the gift of life and look towards the future with excitement at the new opportunities ahead.

     Jeanne Louis Calment usually started her day with a long prayer thanking God for being alive and for the beautiful day that was starting.

Stay Active.

      As the adage goes ‘if you don’t use it, you lose it’. 

   Youthful looks and movement can be preserved and even acquired by exercise. 

    It is never too late to start a fitness routine.

        Wang Deshun started exercising in his fifties.

    He credits his lean and youthful physique to exercising 2hours daily. 

   Exercise offers so many benefits.

        Research has shown that the fountain of youth may flow between cardio and dumbbells. 

    Muscles shrink and weaken with age which results in fat gain, especially in the stomach.

     So it’s important to build your muscles up with weight lifting and cardio.

     Yoga or Pilates should also be included in your exercise routine three times a week to keep you flexible.

  Exercise also aids in circulation and may undo some of the effects of ageing elsewhere in the body.

    A study held at McMaster University took a group of sedentary people aged 20-86 years old.

  They had them exercise twice a week, jogging and cycling at a moderate to vigorous pace.

   At the end of 8 months, researchers found that the outer and inner layers of the older subjects looked like that of the 20-40-year-old. 

  So start exercising if you want to look and stay youthful.

 

Never Act Your Age.

    In Icaria Greece, a region with the longest living people in Europe lives a fit and active lifestyle. 

   Icarians of all ages run up and down their hilly landscape daily.

    Canadian centenarian Katherine Weber travelled across Russia, Siberia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine in her seventies. 

  Ten years later, she made 2 treks to China. As you can see, the Icarians and Katherine don’t let age get in their way.

    They keep doing the same things do. That is what keeps them youthful at age. 

   Never tell yourself you are too old to do anything.

• Change Your Mindset.

     The mind is the pathway to the fountain of youth. 

  When we were children our minds never stopped.   We were open to new challenges, new experiences and we absorbed as much as possible.

        As we grow older, we become set in our thinking and habit takes over.

    You must avoid this at all costs.       Sometimes you may think that being youthful requires sexy looks, physical fitness etc. 

    However, what you need is the flexibility of the mind. 

    Understand this; what worked in the past may not work in the present. 

     Stay up to date with the news, current affairs, and fashion and fitness trends, new business strategies. 

   Then apply this knowledge to your everyday life.

Change Your Diet.

     The fountain of youth can also be found on your plate. 

   You need to not only eliminate all junk and processed foods from your diet but also reduce your calorie intake by 30 per cent without eliminating essential nutrients

  . Research at the University of Wisconsin Madison was carried out on rhesus monkeys.

    The monkeys who ate fewer calories lived longer and healthier lives.  

     They also reported a significant reduction in cancer, cardiovascular disease and insulin resistance. 

   I recommended a diet rich in nucleic acids.

   Examples of these foods are sardines, salmon, shrimp, onions, yeast and mushrooms.

  They aid gut health repair, encourage cellular and muscular growth, neutralization of toxins and reduction of oxidative stress. 

  Eat high fibre foods like cruciferous vegetables. Aim for 8-10 servings daily.

   Portion control should also be practised. Late Miyake Kinjiro who died at 116 years credited eating small portions of food as the key to a long and healthy life.

• Get Adequate Sleep.
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    Sleep is extremely vital to our physical and mental health. If you observe long-lived cultures like the Italians, Icarians and Japanese you will see that they get routine adequate sleep. 

   Adequate sleep helps reduce stress, improve memory, lower blood pressure and inflammation in the cardiovascular system. 

    So sleep a minimum of 8 hours a day. Sleep is your best friend to looking and feeling youthful.

Avoid Stress At All Costs.

    There were things we could get away with like going dancing all night, getting 3 -4 hours’ sleep and feeling vibrant after a cup of coffee the next day.

   Unfortunately, you can’t do this when you are older and expect to look youthful.

    To look ageless, you need to keep your stress levels low. 

     Consciously keeping stress at bay is proven to be the key to reducing chronic inflammation and keeping cortisol levels low.

     Research has shown that high cortisol levels accelerate ageing, leads to abdominal fat gain and destruction of an area of the brain linked with memory.

        The best ways to battle are:

Try meditation.

    Exercises like yoga and tai chi have a very soothing effect on the body, mind and soul.

     Research shows that meditation may increase the activity of telomeres, the sequence of DNA linked to ageing that acts like plastic ends of shoelaces.

      The more they fray, the more you look older.

Avoid caffeine and alcohol.

       Caffeine and alcohol are stimulants. They increase your level of stress especially when taken regularly.

           Swap caffeine and alcoholic drinks for herbal tea and water.

  

Keep a stress diary.

       Write down the date, time and place of every stressful situation.       Note what you were doing, who you were with and how you felt at that moment.

      Doing this will the cathartic. It will also enable you to avoid stressful situations and develop better ways of coping.

        Avoid toxic people and relationships. These people can poison the atmosphere around you in turn will increase your stress level.

  

Take supplements.

     As we grow older, hormonal imbalance is one of the issues we experience.

     It can lead to dry skin, loss of libido, memory loss, fat gain, wrinkles and insomnia.

     Vitamins and mineral supplementation is beneficial for hormonal imbalance and may help to balance them out. 

   These supplements include:

1. Vitamin C- it lowers your risk of cancer and excellent for good skin.
2. Calcium and vitamin D- increase bone density.
3. Vitamin B Complex- it is excellent for stress and the metabolism of carbohydrates. It also prevents depression and strengthens the immune system.
4. Magnesium – reduces blood pressure, helps against insomnia and irregular heartbeat.
5. Zinc- aids brain function and combats depression.
6. Glutathione – is a powerful antioxidant that destroys free radicals in the body.
7. Ginseng – is a potent antioxidant. It aids weight loss, increase energy levels and promotes healthy hair and skin. It also increases libido in men. It stimulates cognitive and neural activity. It prevents the accumulation of plaque and free radicals in the brain. It also enhances testosterone secretion in men.

So take these supplements to more youthful and beautiful.

 

• Nurture your old friendships and make new ones.

    Always make time to reconnect with your old friend and family. The joy and laughter you get from old friends are therapeutic.

    Also, practice the law of infection. If you want to remain youthful, you should make friends with younger people.

 Their habits, energy and zest for life will rub off on you. 

   They in turn will gain from your wisdom and experiences, which makes it a win-win situation for everyone. 

   Make this a rule of life and you will benefit more than from all the therapy in the world.

• Learn new skills.

   They say ‘An idle mind is the devil's workshop”.

     At this stage of your life, it is extremely crucial to keep learning new skills to keep boredom at bay.

      Learning new skills has a vast array of benefits. Some of them are:

1. A sense of accomplishment and pride. Nothing feels as good as setting a task for you and finishing it.
2. You could potentially earn more money from learning a new skill.
3. It may give protection against dementia.
4. Learning something new in one area can ignite curiosity in another area. So curiosity and creative thinking go together.
5. Learning new skills makes you a well-rounded person. This will make you more interesting and attract more people to you.

Your brain activity changes.

   The more you practice something new, a chemical in your brain called myelin becomes denser. 

    This makes you learn better and in turn, keep you sharper.

                    

New skills to learn are:

1. Learning a new language.
2. Learning a musical instrument.
3. Taking an online course in a different profession
4. Martial arts
5. Cooking.
6. Home décor
7. Gardening
8. Consulting

                    

        So follow these steps and you will be amazed at how intelligent, happy strong and youthful you will become.