Our daily decisions impact how long we live. Additionally, our diet, exercise, and mental health choices also greatly affect the quality of life in our later years. If you want to live longer, there are some choices that you have to start making now.
That’s why deciding early on to embrace a lifestyle of longevity is the key to living a long, happy, and healthy life. This means no longer thinking of eating healthy and exercising as things you only care about for a couple of months before and during summer, or during a sports season, but rather as things you make sure to take care of every single day.
To give “make longevity a lifestyle” a more concrete definition, below you’ll find a number of clear examples of how you can implement “longevity as a lifestyle” into your own life.
Examples of what you can do to extend your lifespan and make longevity a lifestyle
One of the easiest ways to extend your life and increase the quality of life in your later years is to exercise consistently, with an emphasis on strength training. More specifically, strong legs have been shown in studies to be one of the biggest predictors of future health. Jogging isn’t necessary to extend good health into your later years. Simply walking every day like clockwork will do the trick. It’s a very minor effort with a pay-off of years of extended, healthy, life.
Parallel to exercise for longevity is eating a healthy diet, which could be described as any diet with mostly-natural foods that don’t include undereating or overeating. Interestingly enough, eating too few calories, as you would during a restrictive diet, has been shown to potentially be just as harmful to longevity as eating too many calories. Superfoods are also paramount to living a long healthy life.
Finally, we come to stress, also known as the “silent killer.” Did you know that heavy stress can take nearly three years off your lifespan? That’s 1,095 extra days of living gone to waste! No matter how stressful your life becomes, always make time for stress reduction practices, which could include hobbies, meditation, exercise, and anything else that brings you back to a blissful state of being. You will not only live longer, but happier! So scheduling “playtimes” and playdates with friends and family isn’t just for kids. Make it a regular part of your life. Increasing your happiness will improve your health and finances (since it will reduce your medical expenses). Put more joy back in your life. It’s your duty and your right.
