When you’re young, it feels like you barely have to do anything to maintain your physique or feel strong. But as you get older, you notice you can’t quite get away with living a reckless life. You might feel unusual pains in your back or joints because you haven’t stretched since high school gym class. You might find yourself groggy and slow after a night of casual drinking. You find that street food tends to give you stomach aches more often than not.
The fact of the matter is that as you get older, you need to take concrete steps to ensure you remain healthy. If you do, you would be able to hold on to your best years for a little while longer. That said, listed below are some tips to help you appear young and healthy.
Maintaining the youthful look
There are both organic and surgical ways of retaining your youthful looks, even after the days of youth are gone. Which method works for you depends mostly on when you start to change your lifestyle to this healthier alternative.
Picking up a better diet plan and exercising regularly is great if you’re in your twenties, as you would be able to improve your skin, hair, and muscle tone easily. However, purely organic options might not be enough if you’re in your mid-thirties or beyond. At this stage, there is no shame in looking for medical help to regain the glow of your skin or body. For example, if you think you’re starting to lose your hair, you might want to opt for a PRP treatment to improve your hair health and slow down hair loss without any risks. Similarly, some treatments can revitalize your skin, making it smoother and tighter. You can look into options like EOS Rejuvenation and determine whether the surgical or non-surgical path is right for you. Getting regular health checkups is another essential part of maintaining your health and youthful glow as you get older. A house call doctor in Seattle can bring your appointments directly to your home, making it easy to get the routine care you need.
Cut out bad habits
Most of us have picked up a bad habit or two in our lifetime. This might be something innocuous, like having too much coffee, or you might have an addiction you need to overcome. There are multiple resources available online to help you figure out which habits of yours are unhealthy.
In some cases, like caffeine, you don’t need to cut yourself off completely, but simply ensure you consume the substance in moderation. However, if you’re battling an addiction, you might want to consider getting some help. These could be tobacco cessation aids to help you quit smoking, a support group for alcohol withdrawal, etc. For most people, it’s easier to break one habit if you replace it with another one.
Remember to get your five a day
Based on the findings of the World Health Organization, it is recommended that you have at least five portions of fruits and vegetables a day, with each portion being approximately 400 grams. These additions to your diet can have a considerable impact on lowering the risk of serious health problems, such as heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer. 5 A Day also helps ensure you get important minerals and vitamins, such as vitamin C, fiber, and potassium. A simple way to increase your daily intake of fruits and vegetables is by including veggies in your meal.
Having a vegetarian side dish is not only good for you, but it can make the meal much tastier. You should also try eating fresh fruit and vegetables as snacks instead of chips or chocolates. Finally, ensure you eat various fruits and vegetables and opt for the produce in season.
Decrease salt and sugar intake
Unfortunately, it has become common to consume processed, high-energy foods, which are usually packed to the brim with salt. Salt contains high amounts of sodium that can lead to hypertension and an increased risk of heart disease and stroke if taken in excess.
The two most common ways of decreasing your salt consumption are avoiding eating out too often and reducing the amount of salt you use while cooking yourself. If you must eat out because you need to grab a quick bite or are too busy to cook, do your best to avoid fast food joints. You can perhaps ask them to make unsalted fries, but you can’t pull the salt out of the meat patties. If you’re cooking for yourself, you can replace salt with healthy herbs, such as oregano or basil.
Meanwhile, sugar can enhance the risk of tooth decay and unhealthy weight gain. Reducing sugar isn’t simply a matter of cutting out desserts, but avoiding food items that have sugar added to them, such as fizzy drinks or artificially sweetened juices. Sugar can also negatively impact your skin and cause adult acne. So if you want to feel and look better, it’s best to switch to fruit snacks or unsalted nuts.
Exercise makes you healthy
Working out is less about getting in shape and more about staying in shape as you get older. Your metabolism slows down after 30, so you’ll gain weight more quickly and have slower muscular recovery. It is recommended that you get at least 150 minutes of exercise a week to maintain your physique. This should be quite simple, as it comes out to about 20 minutes a day. You can do this in the morning before work to give yourself a boost or later in the evenings when you might have more energy.
If you want to see muscular growth and other health improvements, you should aim for at least 300 minutes a week. Remember that your exercise is not limited to getting a gym membership. You could buy some weights for home, go on a run, practice yoga or any other means of ensuring your muscles are in use.
Conclusion
It can be a challenge to maintain your good looks and stamina as you get older, but it is possible if you put in the time and effort to do so. No one needs to age like a celebrity — they have personal trainers and nutritionists anyway. You just need to do your best, and it will be enough to make sure you look fit, young, and healthy for as long as possible.