by
Carl Hampton
09/14/2006
No, the fountain of youth has not yet
been discovered. Genetic codes have not been
altered so that our bodies stay young
forever. There are, though, some very simple
steps that you can take to prolong your
lifetime.
Finding a workout routine or a gym
membership that fits our needs can be both
frustrating and costly. Most doctors now
agree that simply taking a 30 minute walk or
bike ride can do it wonders for us, even
gardening is considered a workout. There's
no real need to do hard-core activities to
get our hearts pumping.
Are you ready for a vacation? Good because
vacation time can have very positive effects
on our health by lowering the risk of
premature death. But don't get too excited
and take all your vacation days at one time.
Believe it or not, studies have shown that
there is no real benefit from a vacation
that is longer than 5 days - and it takes 3
days to actually unwind. Your vacation
should include some exercise, good sleep and
time to relax. That means no working on your
vacation, which 42% of Americans tend to do.
You should try to stay away from your laptop
as difficult as that may be, or keep your
phone on silent unless you are really
expecting an important call. Try to minimize
your daily stresses while on vacation.
If you work hard, you will get stressed and
that stress effects your diet, your sleep
pattern, and your social life. Stress can
also effect your mental well-being and that
can result in physical issues, mainly
increases in blood pressure, cardiovascular
disease and a shorter lifespan. Take it upon
yourself to depart from stress. Step away
from you desk for a few minutes, take a walk
around the office to get your circulation
flowing. Remind yourself to breath deeply
every so often. Clear your mind because just
thinking about stress can take its toll on
your body.
The age old idea that eight hours of sleep
every night is what we should be getting is
still valid. The lack of sleep affects your
hormones, that regulates your appetite which
in turn can lead to obesity. Twenty millions
Americans are now affected by insomnia
usually due to stress. That sleep loss can
impact your lifespan. But there is also no
benefit for sleeping more than 8 hours so
play it safe by starting a good sleeping
pattern. Go to sleep and wake up at the same
time everyday and cut back on the food,
caffeine, and alcohol before you go to bed.
A lot of people get sucked into extreme
dieting tactics like the ever so common
cabbage diet (which is really just a liquid
diet), the grapefruit diet, and the very
popular Atkins diet. There seems to be an
assumption that dieting is a temporary
phase, you can loose the weight in a short
amount of time, reach your goal and then
stop. However, what we should be doing is
making changes in our eating habits, real
long term adjustments that we can live with.
Making small replacements in our diets like
replacing a soda with juice or water.
Replacing red meet like beef with chicken or
fish, and cutting back on the size of the
meal will have a massive impact on our
health.
Have an opinion or a question you would like
me to answer, then write me!
http://www.CarlHampton.com
