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How to Regain Your Prime and Never Lose it Again
Lawrence Cole
Guys, let's face it.
Aging is an inevitable process for all of us. However, you don't have
to take it "lying down". As a matter of fact, you can literally manage
the whole ordeal and either hang on to your body's prime condition
or regain that which has been lost for years following a few very
basic principles.
Eating Habits
The first and most important aspect of your prime maintenance program
has to do with what you allow to enter your body via your eating habits.
You know what they say---"garbage in, garbage out"---and it couldn't
be more true than when it applies to your longevity and how good
or bad you will age over the next few decades.
One thing that you will want to start doing immediately is to wean
your body off of its cravings for and dependence on sugar. Sugar
has a very insidious way of speeding up the aging process by
weakening your body in a number of ways. In fact, Nancy Appleton,
Ph.D., and author of "Lick the Sugar Habit" outlines the following
detriments of sugar intake:
immune system suppression
upsets the body's mineral relationships
can raise the body's triglycerides
reduces the body's ability to defend itself against bacterial infection
causes a loss of body tissue elasticity and function
contributes to copper deficiency
interferes with calcium and magnesium absorption
can weaken the eye sight
can cause general premature aging
causes tooth decay
contributes to obesity
can cause gallstones
can cause heart disease
can cause appendicitis
can cause M.S. (multiple sclerosis)
can cause varicose veins
can lower vitamin E levels in the blood
increases cholesterol and systolic blood pressure
can cause cataracts
deregulates bowel movements
can cause myopia (near sightedness)
can compromise the lining of the capillaries
can make the tendons brittle
can contribute to Alzheimer's disease
can lead to the formation of kidney stones
feeds cancer
the body changes sugar into 2-5 times more fat than it does starch
may induce cell death
Need I say more about sugar?
Good. Let's move on.
Another thing that you'll want to get a handle on is alcohol.
Not such a bad thing in moderation, excessive alcohol consumption
inhibits the youthfulness and vibrance of the body by making it more
susceptible to a number of diseases and infections which
debilitate its ability to function.
Of course, some of the same diet intake strategies that are affective in
weight loss help to maintain prime condition as well. Not making a
habit of eating late or consuming a lot of dairy and animal fat
products will help to both keep you trim and preserve the
functioning of your arteries in order to help your body keep control
of its blood pressure and cholesterol levels as well, measure
which will protect you from developing heart problems.
In addition to things that you will want to restrict from you diet, there
are several that you will want to make sure to supplement it with or at
least make sure that you get plenty of in your regular intake.
First on this list is water. Cliche as it may sound, there wouldn't be
enough room to discuss all of the things that it does to keep the body's
systems clean and operable. Not to mention the
aesthetic benefit that it has on the clarity of the skin.
Antioxidants will definitely need to be a part of your daily food regimen.
These substances fight the aging effects of free-radical damage to the
body. Some of the more popular antioxidants include:
Green Tea
Vitamin A
Vitamin B
Vitamin C
Vitamin D
Vitamin E
Selenium
Soy and Isoflavones
zinc
Two of the easiest ways to add anti-oxidants to your diet are to drink
green tea daily and to use soy milk with added isoflavones in the place
of where you would use regular milk or cream.
Body Tone and Mobility
You may or may not be currently putting your body through regular
resistance training. However, doing so get more and more important
as you get older. Once past the age of 35, our bodies lose
approximately 1% of their muscle mass annually. Since it is this
muscle mass that gives your body its shape, form, and much of its
strength, you will want to use resistance training to prevent
atrophy and preserve as much of the actual muscle tissue as possible.
A second way in which resistance train helps you is that it keeps
the bones strong and able to take abnormal amounts of pressure.
This "practice" for the bones will come in handy in keeping
them away from breaks and fractures that are very common as well
as debilitating in older people.
Even more important than resistance training is your body's flexibility.
Nothing contributes more to optimal mobility than having flexible joints
and muscles.
What's more is that a regular stretching routine not only adds to
mobility but also helps to guard against 3 of the most common
injuries---those to your back, knees, and hip area. Many of these
injuries are the result of a rigid body being twisted into positions
beyond its strength capacity or its range of flexibility to the point
that something "snaps". Once any of these areas suffers major
damage, it is generally never the same again.
The third major ingredient in preserving prime body tone and
conditioning is cardiovascular activity. The benefits of such activity
are obvious: a stronger, healthier heart and minimized body fat, the
latter of the two helping the body maintain its most attractive shape and
tone.
Preserving What You Have
When someone said "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
cure", boy were they on target.
Taking the best care of your body's condition before it begins to give
you problems is the absolute most important part of any strategy
to regain---or maintain---your prime.
Much of what has already been discussed has dealt with taking care
of yourself through diet and exercise. However, there are additional
things that demand attention cosmetically in order to "put
the icing on the cake" in all of this.
Getting the proper rest so that your body may recuperate properly
is of the utmost importance. Sufficient rest alone does a great deal to
retard at least the appearance of aging. You'll feel a heck
of a lot better as well.
Other things can be done include staying out of the sun to avoid
excessive skin damage, and following at least a basic washing and
moisturizing regimen to keep the face clean and fresh. Good
grooming also goes a long way as well with looking and feeling
your absolute best.
The Final Word
Finally, it is imperative that you keep at least a once-a-year appointment
with your doctor for an annual checkup. This is the best way to catch
any deficiencies that may slip through the cracks with everything that
you've got going on to keep yourself in peak condition.
Even with lots of effort being put into your body's maintenance, a few
things are bound to slip through due to yourindividual lifestyle, habits,
and genetic predispositions. Therefore, keeping tabs on your vital signs
and being on the lookout for common killers like heart problems,
cancers, and auto-immune deficiencies are paramount to your success.
Keeping all of these things in mind AND in practice will not only
help to restore and retain your prime, but will help you to enjoy the
absolute best overall quality of life that you possibly can.
Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach,
Lawrence Cole
YourbestbodyNOW.com
Lawrence Cole is a Lifestyle and Fitness Consultant based out of
Pasadena, CA. He has over 10 years of health and fitness experience
and designing simple, effective nutritional strategies to help individuals
achieve their personal best internal health and physical conditioning.
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