14-How To Keep Your Health and Beauty

How To Keep Your Health and Beauty

As we grow older, most of us are concerned with how to keep our health and beauty. Approaches range from health fads to surgery (plastic or otherwise). We are assaulted with a plethora of product advertisements, professional advice and the opinions of well-meaning friends. How to make sense of it all? Starting with the basics, quality is key:
Heredity - The hard truth that no one wants to discuss is that genetics plays a large part in the process. Like it or not, we will probably resemble our parents as we get older and are likely to be subject to similar infirmities, and similar life span. However, not everything that runs in families is hereditary. Although we cannot control the hand we are dealt, we DO have a say in how that hand is played. In this light, rather than focusing on extending the years of our lives, it might be better to focus on the quality of those years. To remain vital to the end seems a worthy goal.
Diet - Many people hear the word ‘diet' and think of temporary programs to modify eating behavior and lose weight. That is NOT what we mean. Instead we are referring to the practice of paying close attention to the quality of what we put into our mouths. This means eating fresh, unprocessed foods as a matter of course. Heredity comes into play when considering the proportions of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. The form of the food matters as well. Lately a consensus has been reached that the so-called "Mediterranean Diet" is the healthiest. Environment - In this modern urban age we are exposed to a variety of environmental toxins which include air pollution from a variety of sources, heavy metals and pharmaceuticals in our drinking water. In addition, we face "natural" toxins in the form of allergens, microorganisms and acidic oxidants. Current research indicates that consuming alkaline foods and alkaline water dramatically reduces the harmful effects of these environmental toxins.
Lifestyle - Our lifestyle choices age us to varying degrees. Life events, career choices, addictions and relationship difficulties can place physical and emotional stresses which result in accelerated aging. We can offset this with wise lifestyle choices such as giving up addictions, choosing less stressful careers and by deliberate cultivation with exercise and meditation.
Delusion - Perhaps one of the most powerful forces draining our health and beauty is our belief systems. Cyclical thought patterns of self-deprecation, victim mentality or learned helplessness serve to distract us from the truth of personal sovereignty in our own lives. Many of us look to doctors as the sole arbiters of health rather than looking to assemble a team of health and beauty providers.
What To Do - Based on the aging factors listed above, here is a list of recommendations for keeping health and beauty:
    * Seek quality rather than length of life
    * Follow the Mediterranean Diet
    * Consume alkaline food and water
    * Give up addictions (Studies indicate the most effective approach is to develop a life plan)
    * Fix or get out of dysfunctional relationships
    * Resign from unrewarding jobs
    * Take up daily exercise and meditation
    * Discard negativistic thought patterns and seek opportunities
Resources
    * Wellness At Warp Speed An amazing book about the extraordinary positive impact of personal responsibility on accelerating healing.
    * Mediterranean Die Web MD description of the Mediterranean Diet
    * Acid/Alkaline Food A helpful list of foods that have an acidic or alkaline effect on the body.
    * Exercis Information on exercise from About.com
    * How To Meditate A beginner's guide to meditation.