These Healthy Habits Will Help You Extend Your Life Up To A Hundred!
- Get a colo-rectal cancer screening – The Center for Disease Control guidelines recommend a full screening at age 50 to include fecal occult blood test, flexible sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy.
- Eat better – Limit sodium, sugar, saturated fat and trans fat. Eat veggies, fruit, low fat dairy, whole grains and more seafood.
- Exercise and practice strength training – Adding these at any age lowers the risk for a wide swath of deadly diseases: heart disease; diabetes; dementia; Alzheimer’s; colon cancer; hypertension; and obesity. Even if you have NEVER exercised, the benefits abound at any age.
- Create a house plan for later – You are likely still able to live an active, youthful life yet waiting until you begin to have aches and pains is no time to scramble and consider a different dwelling.
- Make your healthcare decisions – age 50 may be the new 40 but sadly, many people die or become unhealthy quickly after age 50. If you really love your significant other and your family, make the decisions and make them LEGAL so your loved ones do not have to guess when your health takes a wrong turn.
- Move More – Besides formal exercising, begin parking farther away from the stores, pass on the escalators and opt for stairs more often.
- Watch less TV – An Australian study found a correlation between those people who spent 4 or more hours in front of the TV and an earlier death. Those subjects died sooner from any causes than those who limited TV to 2 hours each day.
- Eat Nuts – Harvard researches have found those who ate nuts each day were 20% less likely to die from any cause. More nuts, fewer deaths.
- Escape to your Zen – Mindfulness is everything it’s cracked up to be. Reduce stress, protect your brain, reduce blood pressure, sleep better, be happier – Learn to meditate, pray or practice spending quiet time alone.
- Abandon your grudges – Anger and resentment cause cortisol levels to surge in the body. This stress hormone has been associated with greater mortality.
- Forget about All or Nothing thinking – 100% transformations are rare at any age for any reason. Begin seeing the exponential value in small shifts in thinking, behavior and emotions. Big benefits are at hand by making tiny changes without overhauling everything.
- Do a 180 turn – Forget about thinking and repeating: “I’ve never _____” (fill in the blank) or “I’ve ALWAYS ______” (fill in the blank). You are the ruler of your life and you can create new rules at any time. A shift in this mindset can help you find your new normal and the pattern interrupt can add more excitement and spirit to your life.
- Create your estate plan – most people don’t realize the heartbreak and huge expenses families experience each year when loved ones did not prepare for their demise. Costs in probate fees and attorneys fees can be huge and the frustration of months or years of waiting can be very trying for your surviving family members.
