Update: I am 62 years young. I have followed all of the health and fitness plans and eating healthy diets and yoga and meditation. I look 20 years younger than my age, and I feel fabulous. But I have started something new that is fun, exhilarating, and makes me feel empowered – like I can do anything! It not only works my body, strength, endurance, and flexibility, it works my brain. I have to learn new things everyday. New patterns, new skills, new ways of moving, new ways of thinking. This is the most fun I have had in years. I can’t wait until my next training session and would train all day everyday if I could.
Martial Arts
What is this wonderful new thing I am talking about! I am practicing Martial Arts! I have joined a Taekwondo School and am also learning Wing Chun Kung Fu. If you are looking to feel younger, more confidant, and empowered, I highly recommend you search martial arts near me and find an amazing Martial Arts School like I have. You will thank me later.
Aging gets to us all. It tends to come with a decline in mental and physical abilities, and that is the part of aging we all dread. We all want to look forever young like Pharrell or run the marathon at 100 like Fauja Singh. Everyone wants to grow old without losing touch with feeling young. There are no certainties of running the marathon at 100, but by living a healthy lifestyle, we can greatly reduce the rate of cognitive decline.
Below are tips to help us feel younger with age:
1. Socialize: Being socially active has been proved to be an important tool in fighting cognitive decline. People who socialize more are less likely to be depressed or suffer from dementia. No matter how busy your schedule is, you should make time for family functions, dinners, movies, and all other social activities that keep you close to friends and family. Not only will you be forming a stronger bond with your loved ones, but you will also be doing your health a lot of good by doing so.
2. Diet: A crucial part of our lifestyle that affects us the most is what we eat. Often, doctors recommend a type of diet to patients to help in the treatment of medical conditions. If we eat the types of food that are essential to our body at the right time, we can live younger and have fewer visits to the hospital as a consequence. Follow these diet tips to improve your health and feel younger:
• Eat Breakfast: Nutritionists say a healthy breakfast is the best way to start the day. A breakfast rich in protein and carbohydrates helps the body for the physical and mental demands of our everyday living.
• Try Mediterranean Diet: This is a type of diet that consists mainly of vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, whole grains, fish, and olive oil. Research has shown that people who eat a Mediterranean diet are less likely to suffer heart attacks and dementia. Switching to this kind of diet will help slow down cognitive decline.
• Stay away from Sugar: Excessive intake of sugar has been associated with heart problems and obesity. Try to avoid food that has high sugar contents.
• Avoid Processed Food: Process food has been linked to obesity and diseases like cancer. Avoid processed food as much as you can.
• Drink a lot of Water: Drinking enough water keeps us hydrated and fresh
• Avoid Red Meat: Eating much of red meat can cause obesity and diseases like heart attack and stroke. Reduce the intake of red meat to the barest minimum.
3. Learn: Learning a new thing is the best way of improving cognition. Whether it’s a new language, a new skill, culture, reading a book, learning to play a musical in or visiting new places, learning stimulates and improves brain functionality. If you want to feel young always, never stop learning.
4. Don’t Smoke or Drink: when asked why he was able to run the marathon at 100, Fauja Singh said he never smoked nor drank. Smoking and drinking have been long associated with poor health and organ malfunction. Smokers risk lungs damage and heavy drinkers risk liver damage. Most people who smoke or drink know it’s injurious to their health, they only keep doing so because of addiction. Cut the harmful addictions, stop smoking and drinking to prolong your life and live healthy till old age.
5. Sleep: Inadequate sleep has been linked to heart diseases, kidney diseases, stroke, and many other diseases. A lot of repairing and resetting is done when we sleep, this keeps us fresh and ready to go again after the daily stress. It’s recommended for an adult to get at least 8 hours of sleep every day. Naps (when it doesn’t affect our sleeping pattern and stops us from sleeping at night) can also do our body a lot of good. Make sure you have enough sleep every day.
6. Yoga: There is a lot of health benefit in practicing yoga. 20 minutes of yoga a day can help reduce pains, help with weight loss, reduces stress, stretches, and strengthening the body. Allocating 20 minutes of our time every day will help calm the mind and the body.
7. Exercise: Along with a good diet, exercise is the most important of all tips to keeping the body and mind young as we age. Benefits of regular exercise include:
• Better Sleep: A major benefit of exercise is a better sleeping experience which improves the functionality of the body
• Energy Boost: Regular exercise improves energy, fitness, and stamina. A consequence of which is a healthy living
• Helps Fight Disease: Regular exercise reduces the chances of getting the disease
• Maintains Body Weight: It is impossible for someone who exercises regularly to be obsessed. It’s also the solution for those that are obsessed and willing to lose some weight
• Depression: Reduces the chances of being depressed
• Lessens Heart Failure Risks: Reduces the risk of heart attack
• Eradicates Cholesterol Drastically: It lowers blood cholesterol
• Normalizes Blood Pressure: Helps regularise body pressure
• Socializing: Exercising in a group or visiting the gym is a common way of socializing.
8. Have sex regularly: Apart from the pleasure of having sex; regular sex has many health benefits. Regular sex eases stress, makes sleep come easier and natural, reduces the risk of prostate cancer, reduces the risk of heart attacks, lowers blood pressure, and improves the immune system. Apart from all the listed benefits, sex is also an excellent form of exercise.
9. Volunteer: Volunteering for a cause or just community service can have a far-reaching impact than you can imagine. It connects us to people we might not be connected to due to our class or working schedule. This is another way of socializing, and it is very beneficial to health.
10. Music: Music brings satisfaction to listeners, apart from dancing away or miming to your favorite songs, let me tell you the health benefits that come with it as well. Music reduces stress, improves cognition, helps us exercise better, reduces anxiety, improves memory, and provides comfort.
