Tips to Turn Back the Clock
It’s time to age-proof your body
Every day in your body 432 billion cells die and are replaced with new ones. This process varies greatly between individuals depending on how we take care of ourselves.
The key to regenerating cells and staying young is giving our body what it needs to look good, feel good, and stay vibrant every single day! The heart regenerates cells every six to nine months, liver every five months, and digestive system every five minutes. Not only that, but recent research now points to the brain’s ability to regenerate new cells. This process makes it possible for all of us to have a better body, mind, and system a year from now. The question is whether our new cells will be healthier or not.
The quality of new cells and our body’s ability to regenerate at the most optimal rate is dependent on our lifestyle behaviors. Making new cells, but unhealthy ones is attributed to unhealthy lifestyle behaviors (just think, every time you eat a donut or gulp down a sugary, chemical-filled drink, you are inhibiting your body’s ability to make healthy new cells). Research continues to show that only 30 percent of our overall health is impacted by genetics. The good news is we can decide and have control of the remaining 70 percent of our new cells’ health and the entire ‘aging process. That’s pretty hopeful!
10 Age-Proof Steps to Halt Aging and Regenerate Beautiful New Cells
Optimal Nutrition
Stop eating processed foods. My easy-to-remember saying is: “foods from the ground, foods that walk around, foods from the sea, nuts, and seeds.” Eat foods in their natural state and not filled with chemicals, preservatives, or coloring. Not only are processed foods deficient in enzymes necessary for digestion, but they also rob your body of essential nutrients and put unnecessary work on the liver, slowing down the process of optimal cell turnover. Processed foods slow our metabolism, cause weight gain, and are linked to depression. Imagine drinking dirty water to hydrate yourself. While you may love eating junk food, your body is suffering and your aging will not be pretty.
Start Your Day With A Lemon
Squeeze a lemon in water and guzzle it down for liver, digestive and immune support.
Stop Eating Sugar
White death is what I call it. One teaspoon of this white poison can depress the immune system for up to two hours—a fast track to sickness. It overworks the pancreas and leaches important vitamins from our systems. More studies continue to show that sugar’s addictive potential in some people exceeds alcohol and many drugs.
Eat Colorful Foods
These foods are loaded with vitamins and minerals. Eat a lot of veggies. Think blood sugar balance and add good fats and lean proteins to each meal. Power foods that regenerate your cells at mach speed are spinach, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, and lettuce.
Don’t Overeat
Try intermittent fasting instead. Over the last decade, more research has surfaced showing intermittent low-calorie eating (going way down on calories one to three days a week) leads to a better metabolism, weight control, aging, and digestion. Giving your body a break one to two times a week so it can focus on regenerating cells and not having to work on digesting food is very helpful in the overall aging process. Fasting adds years to your life. Consider putting aside one day a week for very low-calorie intake or full fasting.
Alcohol is Toxic To Your Liver
Fatty liver slows the detoxification process down—the opposite of anti-aging. You need your liver in tip-top shape, so give yourself a little liver vacation. Stop drinking every night of the week. Alcohol depletes B-vitamins, depresses the nervous system, and compromises the bone marrow’s job of regenerating new cells. Studies show excessive drinking shrinks the brain. Consider taking an alcohol holiday for a few days, a week, or a month. I recommend BalanceDocs Liver Detox to support the liver and re-boot the anti-aging system.
Move Your Body Daily
Time to automate your body. 10,000 steps per day is what you need. Get a watch and start tracking. No excuses. Just moving your body keeps you limber, less painful, less overweight, less depressed, and looking younger. The key to age-proofing your body is getting your weight under control and keeping it there. Not letting your weight fluctuate much is key for reducing excessive toxic fat stores. Find a friend or a team to be active with––don’t rely on yourself to be accountable. Be social while being active and get double the anti-aging rewards!
Set Goals
Setting goals, writing them down, and thinking about them with enthusiasm is clearly one of the smartest things you can do every day. All successful people do this and it works!
Surround Yourself With Winners
Focus on the bright side. It’s exhausting and miserable to surround yourself with drama. Get to a place in your life where you are energized and happy with work, friends, and time off. Happiness is part of good aging. If you are constantly the cheerleader in your group, it’s time to dump and run towards happier, uplifting people. Angry people age rapidly. Let go of anger, it causes wrinkles! Smile more and start saying how grateful you are for what you have and where you’re going—even if you don’t believe it, you will in time.
Stress Down
Studies show excessive stress will fast track your aging. If you are going from one thing to the next every day with no break and feel constantly hurried, your body is always in flight or fight mode, speeding up the aging process. Breathe from your belly all day long, meditate at least ten minutes per day and say no to what you don’t have to do. Focus on what you really want and stop wasting time on anything (including social media) that’s a time-waster. Support your stress system with good adrenal supplements, like AM and PM Stress supplements support healthy cortisol levels day and night.
Feel Young At Heart
Remember to take time to play and have fun. I understand there is a lot to do, but having fun and saying “Okay, that’s enough for today” is important. Take time to laugh, relax and play—it is good for your soul and your aging process. If you didn’t know your age, how old would you feel?
Get Beauty Sleep
This is totally underrated. If you think you can get away with six hours of sleep at night or less, think again. During sleep, your body makes many necessary hormones and regenerates new cells because that’s its time for recovery and restoration.
Love Your Partner
Now that I have logged in over 30 years of working with women on health and hormones, I am convinced more than ever that you need intimacy (good sex) to live longer and healthier. A healthy and happy love life will make you glow, improve your attitude, lighten your load, balance your hormones, and make you smile. Learning about healthy intimacy and sex and what it does for men and women in the area of aging is extensive and important. Work on this if this area of your life is failing. We have many options for men and women today to help them find better intimacy.
Remember: it’s never too late to age-proof your body.
Originally published in the Spring 2017 issue of Southern Oregon Magazine