the foundation
of looking younger
If you don't have a strong foundation to build on, the effectiveness of any product, treatment or surgery will not be as successful in achieving the goal of looking younger.
So START WITH THE BASICS!
Exercise | | Eat a Balanced Diet, | Maintain a Healthy Weight, | Stop Smoking!
EXERCISE-
No one is too young or too old to exercise. The United States Surgeon General recommends at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise, such as brisk walking, nearly every day. However, strenuous exercise has risks that people should discuss with a physician. You should always check with your doctor before starting a new exercise program. Fifty percent of all people who begin a vigorous training regime drop out within a year, so the key to reaching and maintaining physical fitness is to find activities that are exciting, challenging, and satisfying.
A TIP:
A study in the February 2006 American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that dog owners do almost twice as much walking as those who don't have a four-legged friend. Regular walking is a good way to stay in shape. A report published in the February 2006 Journal of Aging and Health found that an exercise program that combines walking and weight lifting can have a big impact on senior fitness. The average age of the study participants was 83.5. After exercising twice a week for four months, the volunteers significantly increased their body strength, balance, and flexibility.
The following are some suggestions and observations on exercise and weight loss:
The treadmill burns the most calories of standard aerobic machines. It may be particularly effective when used in short multiple bouts during the day. Exercise sessions as short as 10 minutes in duration that are done frequently (about four times a day) may be the most successful program for obese people.
The more strenuous the exercise, the longer the metabolism continues to burn calories before returning to its resting level. This state of elevated metabolism can last for as little as a few minutes after light exercise to as long as several hours after prolonged or heavy exercise.
Resistance, or strength, training is excellent for replacing fat with muscles. It should be performed two or three times a week.
Fidgeting may be very helpful in keeping pounds off. Regular exercise is certainly the best course, but for people who must sit for hours at work, frequently shifting positions while sitting may have some benefit.
It is important to realize that as people slim down, their initial level of physical activity becomes easier and they burn fewer calories per mile of walking or jogging. The rate of weight loss slows down, sometimes discouragingly so, after an initial dramatic head start using diet and exercise combinations. People should be aware of this phenomenon and keep adding to their daily exercise regimen.
As people age, they also need to exercise more to keep off the same amount of weight.
Changes in fat and muscle distribution may differ between men and women as they exercise. Men tend to lose abdominal fat (which lowers their risk for heart disease faster than reducing general body fat). Exercise, however, does not appear to have the same effect on weight distribution in women. A study of women who underwent aerobic and strength training resulted in fat loss in their arms and trunk, but no gain in muscle tissue. Because obesity is one of the risk factors for heart disease, anyone who is overweight must discuss their exercise program with a physician before starting.
A HEALTHY DIET
A 2001 study reported that older adults had fewer wrinkles if they ate whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, and the use of healthy oils (such as olive oil). Diet played a role in improving skin regardless of whether the people in the study smoked or lived in sunny countries. The following foods and phytochemicals may be especially skin protective: Both green tea and ginger appear to have properties that may provide some protection against skin cancer. Green tea skin care products are now available. The substance silymarin, found in the milk thistle family (which includes artichokes), may inhibit UVB-promoted cancers in animals.
In one interesting study, eating garlic protected animals very effectively against UVB damage by interfering with urocanic acid in the skin. Whether these results may apply to humans (and what quantities of garlic might be beneficial) is still unknown.
WEIGHT LOSS
Even modest weight loss can reduce the risk factors for heart disease and diabetes. The simplest (but still difficult) approach to weight loss is reducing calories and exercising at least 150 minutes a week. Behavioral and mental changes in eating habits, physical activity, and attitudes about food and weight are also essential to weight management. For people who are very overweight and cannot lose weight using lifestyle measures, a number of effective weight-loss medications are available. And for those with severe obesity, surgical procedures are proving to be very beneficial.
Some Tips for Losing Weight.
The following offer some general suggestions for dieters:
Start with realistic goals. Diet failure is extremely common and the odds of significant weight loss are low, particularly in people with the highest weights. People who are able to restrict calories, engage in an exercise program, and obtain help in making behavioral changes can expect to lose between 5 -10% of their current body weight--which is generally all that is needed to achieve meaningful health changes. Certainly, the unwholesome and distorted image of a super-thin female shape should not be anyone's goal.
Maintain a regular exercise program, assuming no precluding health problems. Choose one that is enjoyable. Check with a physician about any health considerations.
Do not use hunger pangs as cues to eat. A stomach that has been stretched by large meals will continue to signal hunger for large amounts of food until its size reduces over time with smaller meals.
Be honest about how much you eat and start by recording all calories in writing. Studies suggest that when many people report their own calories intake they significantly underestimate their consumption of high-calorie and over-estimate the low-calorie foods. People who do not carefully note everything they eat tend to take in excessive calories when they believe they are dieting.
Observe weekend eating. People tend to eat more on the weekends. If it is difficult to monitor all meals during the week, it be may be useful to at least track eating habits during these days.
Once the pound are lost, strive to maintain the healthier weight. Make daily, even hourly, conscious decisions about eating and exercising activities. Such thinking, in many cases, can become automatic and not painful.
Don't give up, even after repeated weight loss failure. Most studies indicate that yo-yo dieting or weight cycling has no adverse psychological or physical effects. Repeated dieting also does not impair the body's ability to burn calories efficiently.
Weight loss, in any case, should not be the only or even the primary goal for people concerned about their health. The success of weight reduction efforts should be evaluated according to improvements in chronic disease risk factors or symptoms and by the adoption of healthy lifestyle habits, not by just the number of pounds lost.
STOP SMOKING
It can slow down the aging of your skin. Smoking produces oxygen-free radicals, which are known to accelerate wrinkles and aging skin disorders and increase the risk for nonmelanoma skin cancers. Studies also suggest that smoking and subsequent oxidation produce higher levels of metalloproteinases, which are enzymes associated with wrinkles.
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