Healthy Aging Doesn’t Have to be Hard
Healthy aging is a common goal for everyone. After all, we all want to age gracefully, right? It’s a maze out there of advice and advertisements for products to help you as you morph along into your older body. Let’s face it, today is as young as you’re going to ever be again. But you don’t have to go down without a fight and once you’ve incorporated these 10 easy things into your daily routine it simply won’t feel like a fight at all. These 10 simple lifestyle changes will increase your energy, have you sleeping like a baby and your weight will automatically adjust to your perfect size. Are you ready? Let’s jump in…..
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Eat Real Food
EAT REAL FOOD – What is real food? It’s anything that your great grandmother would recognize as food. Real food doesn’t come in a package. Indeed, if it doesn’t rot within a few days simply don’t eat it. Eat More Plants. This is important because fruits and vegetables are powerhouses of nutrition and provide the building blocks your body needs to have sustainable energy. By the way, if you must buy packaged food try to keep the ingredient list to 5 or fewer ingredients. And if you don’t know what the ingredient is it’s a safe bet you shouldn’t eat it. This could be the single most important lifestyle change to make for healthy aging.
Go Organic
GO ORGANIC – Eating organic food is an important component of healthy aging. Of course, it can be a little confusing, right? What should be organic, and what foods are ok to not be organic? Fortunately, the Environmental Working Group has a list you can access here. The Dirty Dozen & The Clean 15. Despite the added cost of organic produce, before you start in with the “I can’t afford it”, please check again. Organic food is everywhere now and the prices are not that far off when you really look. In order to get the best prices buy produce that’s in season. In reality, you can buy in bulk and find bargains if you put in a little detective work. Even though it’s a bit more expensive to eat more healthily but my mantra is, “Pay the farmer now or the doctor later.”
Ditch the Chemicals
DITCH THE CHEMICALS – Oh my, this could be on so many levels. Number 3 on the list of changes for healthy aging is tossing out all the harmful cleaning products in your home. After all, you don’t need them and they’re dangerous. As a matter of fact, they’re damaging to your respiratory tract, your brain, your lungs, just to name a few of the fabulous aspects of your body that you want to nurture and protect. Besides, you can clean your whole house with a little white vinegar, baking soda and all natural soap. As a matter of fact, you can find great recipes online for making your own laundry soap, glass cleaner, even carpet cleaner. Add a few essential oils and voila! Your home will be clean and oh so sweet.
Drink More Water
DRINK MORE WATER – Keep your body hydrated for healthy aging. Make a pact with yourself and hold off on that first cup of Joe until you’ve had 16 ounces of lemon water in the morning when you get up. Lemon helps to alkalize your body and water hydrates. If you can, drink even more water because all of your bodies organs and cells depend on a good supply of fresh clean water to do their jobs. Besides keeping your body hydrated is one of the most important things you can do to add energy and clarity to your life.
Stretch Your Body
STRETCH YOUR BODY – Another key point to remember is that mobility is important for healthy aging. With this in mind take at least 15 minutes a day to stretch. Accordingly, try a short stretching or yoga video on YouTube. As a result, stretching your muscles keeps you lean and supple. Also, stretching supports your spine and makes everyday activities easier and more pain-free. Stretching:
- Increases your flexibility and range of motion
- Improves your performance during physical activities
- Increases blood flow to your muscles
- Improves your posture
- Helps to prevent and remedy back pain
- Relieves stress
One of the most important elements of healthy aging depends on your ability to keep your balance and mobility into your golden years.
Move Your Body
MOVE YOUR BODY – Apparently, sitting is the new smoking. While it’s not necessary to run marathons to keep your body healthy, you must get out of your chair for aging healthily. To begin with, you can try a standing desk for part of the day. Secondly, get up and go for a 15-minute walk most days. Perhaps you cold begin to take the stairs or do a few squats. Certainly, you can go outside and do a little gardening., clean your own house. and overall just be more active. I love the line in a Tom Petty song, Mary Jane’s Last Dance “You never slow down, you never grow old”.
Prayer and Meditation
PRAYER AND MEDITATION – Take a few minutes a day to get quiet. Really quiet, for the purpose of resting your mind. You’ll find the benefits are tremendous. Meditation reduces stress, improves concentration, increases self-awareness, increases happiness, slows aging, increases acceptance and benefits cardiovascular and immune health. I like to have a nice meditation track playing and incorporate a mantra to mentally repeat. In order to drop in fully try repeating a mantra, which keeps you grounded in your practice when your monkey mind tries to take over. One of my favorites is “So Hum” which in sanskrit means “I Am”. It is proven that spending time in meditation grows the telomeres in your brain, keeping it in good working order to ensures healthy brain aging.
Get Some Sunshine
GET SOME SUNLIGHT – The sun is a wondrous life giving big ball of joy. Think about it, we plant our gardens in the sun because the sun gives energy and nourishment to our food. Also, sunlight kills bad bacteria, lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, helps to build the immune system and can cure depression. Sunlight has beneficial effects on skin disorders like psoriasis, acne, eczema and fungal infections. We need adequate amounts of vitamin D to support our bone health and immune system. Moreover, vitamin D protects against dementia, decreases symptoms of asthma and protects us from cancer. Commercial sunblocks negate all these benefits. So get some sun on your skin but remember, start slowly. If you are not used to the sun your skin will be sensitive to it. Avoid sunburn by building up your tolerance slowly.
Keep Your Gut Healthy
KEEP YOUR GUT HEALTHY – Incorporate gut healing probiotics into your daily routine. Keeping your gut healthy decreases inflammation and increases healthy elimination. Eating fermented foods and drinking bone broth are excellent additions for a healthy gut. Also, avoid or limit antibiotics, antacids, and NSAIDS as much as possible. This is because these medications harm your gut biome and can cause inflammation that weakens your intestinal wall and leads to a leaky gut. Leaky gut releases toxins that trigger an immune response, leading to chronic, body-wide inflammation. In order to ensure healthy aging, it’s important to incorporate pre & probiotics into your diet.
Get Good Sleep
SLEEP…zzzz – Who doesn’t want a good nights sleep? Shorting yourself on even a few hours of sleep each night can trigger pro-inflammatory changes. Try to get at least seven hours of pillow time nightly. You can ensure more restful sleep by turning off electronic devices well before bedtime and use blackout curtains to block outside light. Additionally, plan your sleeping time so that you won’t need an alarm clock. Did you know that sleep and meditation have been proven to lengthen telomeres keeping you younger and more vibrant? So when you feel like taking a nap, just do it! And remember, you’re not being lazy, you’re growing your telomeres.
So there you have it. My Top 10. I hope you’ll try some or all of them. Be good to YOU!
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