I love birthdays. People call you and you realize how blessed you are. At the same time, you start to think about your own mortality and your health.
I don’t get nearly as concerned about how long I am going to live as I do about my quality of life until I die. As I talk to patients, I get the sense that I am not alone in this. It seems most of us just want to be as healthy as possible while we are alive.
Let me share with you some things we can all do to keep ourselves healthy as we age.
- Decrease the amount of calories that you eat. Increase the amount of lean protein and decrease or eliminate the simple carbohydrates.
- Increase the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables. You need at least four servings per day of fresh fruits and vegetables, more if possible.
- Get the appropriate exercise. You don’t have to become a gym rat, but you do need at least four days a week of resistance training and four days a week of cardio training. The exercise should be interval type training. And don’t forget flexibility exercises.
- Take a multivitamin supplement once a day.
- Get some occasional sun. Most Americans are vitamin D-deficient. The best source of vitamin D is the sun. This is not to say you should ever get a sunburn. But healthy amounts of sun have multiple benefits to your health and psychological well-being.
- Consider hormone replacement. As we age our hormonal balance often changes. It is wise to have your hormone levels checked at least once a year and make changes accordingly.
Put an anti-aging plan in place. If you need help with one, find a good anti-aging physician to guide you.
[Ed. Note: Tim Reynolds, M.D., is a practicing physician and a health and lifestyle expert. For more information, click here.]
The article above was written by Dr. Tim Reynolds - it’s being reprinted, with permission, on Self Help Daily. I spent the morning reading an archive of articles on Dr. Reynolds’ website. (You can see it for yourself by clicking his name at the top or the click here just above.) I recommend reading the articles he has written - very educational stuff!
Some Interesting Things I Carried Away From My Reading:
1. We often will have a fish or chicken sandwich at fast foods, thinking that we’re waxing healthy, when, in fact, both fish and chicken sandwiches from McDonald’s, Burger King and the other fast food restaurants are higher in fat than the cheeseburgers!
2. Dr. Reynolds shares his approach to eating, an approach he calls The Caveman Diet.
“If you can’t grow it or kill it, you shouldn’t be eating it! Fruits, vegetables, grains, poultry, beef, pork, fish … that sums up the cave man diet. These foods are, for the most part, natural. Nature never intended for our bodies to deal with processed foods. No wonder why so many people suffer from heart disease!“
3. The salt most of us use today is “processed to the point of being harmful.” When the salt is processed, the good minerals are taken out and chemicals are put in. Doesn’t sound good, does it?! Processed salt has concentrated sodium and no potassium - potentially leading to high blood pressure and other health problems. Dr. Reynolds recommends replacing the salt you’re using with Sea Salt. He also points out that we should pay more attention to food labels, especially on processed foods (anything that wouldn’t find itself on “The Caveman Diet!”), which he says are “swimming” in sodium. He also recommends getting plenty of potassium to balance the effects of sodium.
4. Whenever possible (which, if we’re honest, is almost always), prepare your lunch at home and take it with you. A lunch made up of, you guessed it, natural foods. It’s not just better for your waistline, it’s better for your heart.
5. If you find yourself out without a lunch, Dr. Reynolds suggests running into a Supermarket instead of a fast food restaurant. A lot of them have salad bars in their produce section - a Cave Man’s delight. He recommends roasted chicken, fresh sushi or sashimi, a whole raw tomato, milk, and some fresh fruit for dessert. I’m going to have to balk at the milk, sushi, and sashimi, but the rest sounds deliciously within reason. I’d rather have water or tea to drink and sushi and sashimi aren’t my dearest culinary friends.
6. There’s also some really good information in a link given on his website (a website which, by the way, is nowhere near as good as the information!). The link is on the “Products” page - but it doesn’t work whatsoever. You have to take the link and do the whole copy/paste routine. It was worth it, though, I found more great info! Here’s the link, you can see for yourself: http://fitdocmd.4idiots.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=12345678
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