6 Steps To A Longer Life

Let's take a look at six keys to long health and adding them into your own lifestyle.
1) Worry less about weight loss. Losing weight doesn't always equal better health, especially as you age. New research has come out showing that drastic food cutting, scale watching diets so tempting to you know can set you up for bone fractures, weak muscles and weight gain in later years. Worse, so many of these popular approaches don't target the belly fat that causes serious eight related problems like diabetes and heart disease. Instead of focusing on losing pounds, focus on good nutrition and disease prevention. Don't be tied to the scale; instead monitor your waist size. A measurement of 34.5 inches or less for women and 40 inches or less for mean is considered healthy.
2) Eat more food but fewer calories. If you double your daily vegetable and fruit portions and cut portions of fat in half (including fatty meats), you'll ingest fewer calories and less fat but take in more food and more health boosting vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Since antioxidants protect against free radicals, those rogue oxygen molecules that damage cells and cause inflammation in the body, things that stand between you and a longer, healthier life.
3) Fight aging with exercise. Physical activity is a powerful vaccine against the aging process. When University of Florida researchers put healthy people ages 60 to 85 on weight training programs for 6 months, they found that low intensity exercisers had a drop in free radical damage. You don't have to be militant about exercising. In fact, it's better if you aren't. High intensity exercisers showed a rise in free radical damage. And in another study, even those wo added an hour of activity per day for just 3 days a week raised their levels of free radical fighters. The point is to do something, even if it's just a few strength training moves and a few bursts of activity for a full hour a day to 10 minutes every morning, noon and evening.
4) Stay busy. More research shows that doing something that interest you offers big mind-body benefits as you age. Keeping your mind active can slow down the aging process. Staying active socially is a strong longevity benefit. Keeps your mind fresh and doesn't give you a lot of time to dwell on the little aches and pains that life can throw at you as you start tacking on years.
5) Keep in touch. Being alone ramps up stress hormones, raising our risk for heart disease, high blood pressure and depression, damaging health and longevity. Connecting with friends and family, even pets, cuts the stress. So keep up with your phone calls and emails. Enlist family members, neighbors or friends to exercise with you. Even a walk around the block gives you a double long health boost of physical activity and social time.
6) Love your life. An upbeat outlook does more than put a smile on your face. It cuts your risk of illness, speeds recovery when you do get sick and reduces your risk for all manner of problems. Striving for happiness and a sense of control over your life isn't always easy, but it builds stress resiliency a powerful health tool you tap into whenever you focus on doing things that give you joy.
Aunt Millie