If you were building a house, where would you start? The foundation, right? You can’t exactly install flooring and put up wallpaper without a strong, solid base to support the structure. The foundation of your newly fortified body is made up of five basic building blocks that support every one of your body’s systems in unique and often surprising ways.
These elements are movement, avoiding smoking of any kind, maintaining a healthy weight, staying hydrated, and eating essential nutrients. These basic, essential elements are my first five anti aging essentials.
#1: Movement
Think you need an expensive gym membership in order to make exercise a priority in your life? Unless you’re surrounded by sweaty, bodybuilding dudes pumping iron and high-ponytailed women donning spandex while prancing on the treadmill, then you couldn’t possibly be taking exercise seriously, right? Wrong. So many people have the wrong idea in their heads that burning calories and building muscles are actions that can only occur within the confines of a gym.
That is categorically untrue. It doesn’t matter whether you’re trudging your way through a half hour on the Stairmaster or walking up the stairs instead of taking the elevator in your office building… you’re still torching calories, incinerating fat, and increasing your muscle mass.
Your body doesn’t know or care whether you take it to a fancy sports club with state-of-the-art equipment or if you are just taking an extra lap around the block before you walk into a store; it is going to experience the positive effects of your decision to get moving regardless of where, when, or how you move.
#2: Maintain a Healthy Weight
If you are already at a healthy weight, let me congratulate you and encourage you to maintain it. If you aren’t, let me empower you to target your healthy weight.
Getting yourself into a healthy weight range and maintaining those habits so the needle on the scale doesn’t move much is a huge part of controlling the five factors of aging. This is especially true when it comes to inflammation, which we know is triggered by excessive weight. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported on a study involving 48 overweight people who cut their calories by 25 percent over several months lost weight and had lower insulin levels. This cut their risk for serious illnesses like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. But there was one more: they also showed a decrease in the amount of DNA damage occurring throughout their body, meaning their organs were experiencing less oxidative stress.
Less oxidative stress means a lower production of free radicals, which means a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease, coronary artery disease, Parkinson’s disease, and much more. Reducing your caloric intake by 25 percent if you are overweight is a very small commitment when you compare it to the incredible anti-aging rewards it provides to your body and all its systems.
#3: Drink Water
It never ceases to amaze me how many people walk around all day long completely ignorant of the fact that every cell in their body is desperate for water. Maybe you think that cup of coffee at 8am and a few sips of diet soda with lunch are enough to keep you going, especially if you aren’t dying of thirst.
If you are not drinking six to eight glasses of water per day, or more if you’re on your feet a lot or exercising regularly, you are not drinking enough water. There are really surprising was that water can work magic in your body—from keeping the mucous lining of your lungs robust, thus improving your breathing, to boosting your memory and regulating digestion. I’m really passionate about getting people to drink water.
#4: Avoid Smoking
Right now, allow me to directly address the smoker voice in your head. You are stealing away minutes, hours, days, months, years from your own future. You are not the only victim either. Every time you put a cigarette to your lips, you are committing a crime against your family and your friends who love and need you both now and later in life. Even if you do live for a time, odds are very good that if you continue smoking, even occasionally your body will incur damage and you won’t be the healthiest happiest version of yourself as you get older.
#5: Eat Essential Nutrients
You should be getting most of your essential nutrients, which include vitamins and minerals, from the foods that you’re eating. I feel that synthetic supplements will never be as good as the real thing. Given a choice, I will always guide you toward the most natural solutions, and vitamins are in their most natural form within foods. However, all too often, it can be difficult to come by the freshest, most nutrient-dense foods. My prescription is to start eating essential nutrients within your diet in addition to taking that multivitamin every morning.
So, there you have them: no matter which system you’re targeting, these essential elements are going to be at the core of your new, reinforced body that could last you 100 years and beyond.
Fortunately, there are other strategies, in addition to diet, that you can follow on your journey. You can find more strategies in my newest book, The 17 Day Plan to Stop Aging.
My book explains that it is totally within your power to prevent and even reverse these symptoms of aging and proposes a 4-cycle plan that uses nutrition, physical fitness, and mental exercise to get you ready for longevity.
Please visit this page to learn more about the 17 Day Plan to Stop Aging: CLICK HERE!
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