It is not a news that we all get old, but did you know that the process starts as soon as we stop growing? Well, yes, around 21-22 years old our cells begin their journey to decay. But this is not to get you alarmed. If you are under 30 you not even going to feel it. However taking some care can help your cells to live longer. Medicine has been advancing in developing new fancy treatments and they come with a hefty price tag but I am not going to talk about that today. I want to give you a gift of 5 free ingredients to a recipe that will slow your aging.
-1- Your skin
Skin is the first to show visible signs of our aging. Some will see it as soon as they turn 30, others after 40 but all of us will get there. Genetics play an important role in skin aging, so look at your mom or gramma and you will know how you will age. As of now we cannot stop it, but lets delay it.
The secret is water. Water in your belly, water in your skin. Actually it is not a secret any more. Dry skin ages faster, this is why women in tropical countries with more humidity in the air look younger. Now days there are plenty of different skin products. Scientist have developed different formulas for different skin types. There are lotions for body and creams and gels and serums for face, infused with different vitamins and oils. Choose a product that is suggested for your age they usually will have all you need. And start drinking lots of water if you don’t do it yet.
-2- Your energy levels.
It is not shown visibly but by the age of 34 we all, even the biggest party lovers, begin to change our ways of spending the night or weekends. We prefer calm dinner and a movie to dancing in a club. We don’t jump out of bed right after waking up but stay in bed longer in the morning (of course if we are not late to work). We walk slower, and we definitely cannot jump and sing in the shower (as we did when we were kids) after an our of running or gym.
You often hear people say : ” We are not kids any more” and it is true.
Our bodies grow up bigger and we need more energy to power it up. It is like a bigger car that consumes more gasoline. But don’t rush yourself to the fridge. I am sure you don’t eat kids portions any more so most probably an amount of food is fine. What you do have to pay attention to is the type of food you consume. Here I am assuming you already went through my posts on How to Start Eating Healthier and have a healthy diet. But food is not all. We need more nutrients and in most of the cases our food is not enough to provide us all we need, so getting your supplements will help you to optimize your energy levels.
-3- Your heart
I posted a more detailed explanation on it in My post about cardio but let me explain it here. Heart is a muscle and as all muscles if you dont train it, it looses its strength and its agility, it stays in relaxed stage and then has to work harder for a simple task as going up a staircase. It gets tired faster too. But guess what!? it is trainable as any muscle in our bodies.
Maximum Heart beat rate is 220 less your age. So if you are 40 your maximum heart beat will be around 180 beats per min. It means your heart can bare a heavy load and you should train it for it. Heartbeat monitors are amazing devices to measure your heartbeat. My rest rate is 48-56 BPM (beats per minute). ( I am a very zen person) but when I sprint my heart rate goes up to 183bpm. Start doing your cardio, any cardio, and train your heart.
-4- Your mobility
This is the biggest hit when you age. It even can depress you, it definitely makes you feel older as you start feeling pain in certain parts of your body. (I am not talking about any medical condition like autoimmune deceases or big injuries). The most problematic area is lower back or the neck and there is a reason for that. Problems in your lower back can produce you pain in your hips and legs and neck area will result with pain in shoulders and arms. but the solutions is also located not inside the spine but around it.
This is actually a 2 part secret.
You sure know how our body compresses during the day and then recovers and elongates back during our night sleep. Well, I hate to deliver a BAD NEWS but the true is that it stops happening after the age of 34. This is why our grammas are always small. We can loose up to 3-4 inches by the age of 80. And guess where it all goes… yes, into your spine, this is how most of those herniated disc and pinched nerves occur. As you might have red in my posts I went through challenging times with my lower back, I spent a year in special treatments and when the therapy was finished I was left in bed and needing a walking aide. In those times I did an extensive research on the topic as I wasn’t ready to be an old lady who barely walks. What I discovered amazed me and after I put it on practice it gave me my life back.
Part 1 – And it is kinda related to the Secret number 3, because it is all in your muscles. Muscles need to be stronger. As we get older we prefer quieter activities, we sit at work and sit wile we commute from and to work, we sit for dinner and we don’t move much overall. Imagine after 18-20 years of constant moving your muscles get a relax time for 10 years. Every day they loose their strength and get weaker. Of course every time you do something different and make them work they get sore.
SORE IS GOOD.
Muscles need to be toned, used and trained. This is why I wrote my Lazy Person Exercise Guide and you can download it for free here.
Part 2 – We got covered the muscle weakness but there is more. Same as we loose elasticity of our skin, our muscles become more tight. As you will exercise they will heat up and stretch more but as the norm of our aging the recovery will be slower so we need to help our body. This is why light stretch before any exercise and little bit deeper stretch after your training is a must. Try to make a custom to stretch every morning, even while you are in bed. You don’t need to open wide like professionals (if you can do it is wonderful) Constant stretches will do magic. I benefited a lot from a 30 min weekly stretch with a professional
-5- Your smile!
I would say this is the most important ingredient for this recipe to younger you.
Yes, of course it all relates but all exercises, stretches and lotions in the world will not help you look young if you are in a wrong mood. I am not talking about moments of sadness or stress. It is life and we cannot avoid them but we can control the time one of those negative emotions will be affecting us.
This is on you, it is about your thoughts while you are alone, it is about your real deep feelings about yourself and your surroundings.
Negativity is the best friend of aging. So if you catch yourself getting depressed or feeling useless or feeling helpless angry or complaining too often, it is time to stop. Maybe you have to change your daily activities, maybe look for something new to do or new positive people to hang out. Remember, solutions are always there, you just have to open your heart and let them in.
