Now, I’m not saying to become a “monk” and avoid all the “joys of living”!!

The point is this: If we want to live a vibrant life and avoid illness and age gracefully, we have to develop healthy habits. We can’t burn the candle at both ends all the time and eat mostly junkfood throughout the day and expect to feel good or even look good, for that matter. Everything in moderation.

Below are some simple but very powerful, health-promoting habits we can develop to really improve our sense of well-being and help fight off disease as well as slow down the aging process.

1) Get some form of regular exercise 3-4 times a week. It was mentioned on the t.v. show “EXTRA” that 75% of AMERICANS do not do any form of regular exercise. Is it any wonder that obesity is on the rise in this country. A good exercise program would include stretching, some form of cardio and strengh-training. Try to include all 3 forms of exercise during the week.

2) Get Plenty Of Restful Sleep. (2 hours before midnight is better than 4 hours after midnight.) Don’t stay up too late.

3) Keep Your Body Properly Hydrated and alkalined. It’s important to drink about 8 glasses of fresh, clean water with a high pH every day.

4) Eat Fresh, Organic Fruit And Vegetables Everyday. They are loaded with “live” enzymes, fiber and vital nutrients your body needs to stay young and vibrant.

5) Keep Your Colon Clean by eating a high fiber diet and taking probiotics. (Almost every disease starts in the colon. That fact alone shows how critical it is to keep your digestive tract clean and functioning properly. If you do not have 2-3 bowel movements a day, then, your colon probably needs some attention.)

6) Get Some Natural Sunshine Everyday For about 15 minutes. (Your body needs sunshine to assimilate vitamin D and help you avoid depression.) Remember, the sun is at it’s hottest during the hours of 10:00am-2:00pm. If you are worried about skin cancer or have a pre-existing condition, don’t sunbathe during these hours and consult a qualified physician first.

7) Develop A Positive Outlook On Life And Avoid Dwelling On Negative Emotions. ( It is well documented and no longer a theory. Just about every “wellness expert” and doctor agrees that negative emotions release chemicals in your body that can effect you adversely. Some of the conditions related to negative emotions are: heart attacks, constipation, acid indigestion, shingles and hairloss. Just to name a few.)

Take Lots Of Anti-Oxidants Everyday To Prevent Free Radicals From Multiplying In Your Body And Compromising Your Health. Free radicals lead to aging and cancer. Some great anti-oxidants are acai berries, fruits high in vitamin C, broccoli, apples, etc.

9) Avoid Excessive Alcohol And Don’t Smoke.

10) Try To Remove As Many Unnecessary Chemicals As You Can From Your Life By Using Natural Cleaners, Laundry Detergents And Avoiding Processed Meats and junk food.

Another hidden danger is the use of many popular shampoos and skincare products sold on the market today. They are loaded with unnecessary, cheap chemicals that make their way into your bloodstream and compromise your health.

You’ll find carbohydrates in the healthiest foods you eat, and in the least healthy. Check the food label to find out exactly how much is in your favorite foods.

How you eat can affect blood sugar
Choosing the right kind of carbohydrates and spacing them out evenly throughout the day can keep blood sugar from rising too high, too fast (90% of the carbohydrate calories you digest end up as glucose, so they have a much bigger impact on blood sugar than fat or protein).

“The goal … is to take in enough carbohydrates to nourish ourselves, but never so much that it causes high blood sugars,” says Linda Sartor, a diabetes nutrition specialist at the Penn Rodebaugh Diabetes Center at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Up until about the mid-1990s experts believed that people with diabetes should never eat foods that contain so-called “simple” sugars—those found in cakes and candy—and instead eat “complex” carbohydrates, or those with longer chains of sugar molecules such as potatoes, fruit, vegetables, and grains.

We now know that all carbohydrates can cause a rise in blood sugar. Pasta and potatoes, for example, may cause a rapid rise in blood sugar, as can pastries (although other beneficial ingredients in food, such as fiber, cause blood sugar to rise more slowly).

Some carbs are better than others
The goal is now to maximize intake of the good stuff—vitamins, minerals, and fiber—and minimize carbohydrates that boost blood sugar too much, offer few nutritional benefits, or are packed with fat and calories.

A dietitian or diabetes educator will help you develop a meal plan to get a good balance of carbohydrates, protein, and fat, and an appropriate amount of calories. They’ll teach you how to manage carbohydrate intake, usually by carbohydrate counting, but sometimes using the exchange diet, the plate method, the modified food guide, or other meal plans.

You’ll need to fine-tune your meal plan by testing blood sugar before and after meals. Specific foods that cause blood sugar to rise too high can vary from person to person (for example, you may find you can only have small portions of orange juice or pasta due to a big rise in blood sugar).

Carbohydrates generally have their peak effect on blood sugar about an hour to two hours after they are eaten, and are gone within three hours.

The Washington State Apple Commission reports that Americans eat approximately 19 pounds of fresh apples annually, compared to about 46 pounds consumed annually by residents of European countries.

You may think we are slackers by comparison, but the bounty and variety of fresh fruit that we have at our fingertips is far superior to that of European countries, particularly given the many climates our country has and our proximity to Central and South America, which grows a large amount and variety of fruit. So don’t feel bad, but you could consider eating a few more of our homegrown fruit, helping out American growers and doing yourself some good as well. One large apple (8 ounces) has 130 calories, 5 grams of fiber (20% of your RDA), no sodium and no cholesterol. Full of healthy goodness, an apple a day just might keep the doctor away, or at least help with the process.

We all have our favorite kind of apple, and our favorite way of eating them:

• Sliced with salt, peanut butter, or served with a cheese plate
• Juiced or made into cider to drink
• Cut up for a pie, crisp, brown betty, or apple cake
• Whole baked apples, stuffed with nuts and/or raisins and sweetened with brown sugar or maple syrup
• Cooked and made into applesauce (I love this served warm right out of the cooking pot)
• Covered in chocolate, caramel, or red candy, with or without toppings, and eaten right off the stick
• Dried, to snack on

I grew up on homemade applesauce, spoiling me to the point that I cannot eat the store-bought version. When my children were young and my family had apple trees, it was a favorite family pastime to make applesauce. I have an old-fashioned apple-peeler-corer that the children could use to prep the apples in a jiffy, and everyone took turns stirring the pot. The fragrance in the house is unmistakable and heavenly, reminiscent of days gone by.

I don’t make applesauce much anymore, but I do make a simple apple tart, freeform in style, that is delicious and easy enough for a child to prepare. I use a pre-made pie crust, the flat version, and because the tart is freeform, when you roll it out it doesn’t matter if it comes out round, oblong, or amoeba-shaped. Your local store probably carries the Pillsbury brand in the refrigerated biscuit section. I let it thaw slightly and roll out a bit thinner than you would use for a pie. And since this is so easy to do, I often use both crusts and make 2 tarts at the same time!  Served warm or cold, topped with a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream or low-cal vanilla ice cream, it will be a crowd pleaser.

Quick and Easy Freeform Apple Tart
1 prepared flat pie crust* (homemade or store bought)
4 large apples (red and yellow apples make the best tart)
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel, core and thinly slice apples. Roll out prepared pastry on floured board to about a 12-inch round. Transfer dough to a lipped nonstick baking sheet. Seal any tears in the dough. Leaving a 2-inch border, begin placing apples in concentric circles, starting from the outside and working toward the center. Mix sugar and spices and sprinkle over the apples. Dot with small knobs of butter. Then fold the edges of the pastry over the apples, making overlaps as you go around.

Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce oven to 375 degrees and bake an additional 30-35 minutes, until apples are tender and crust is golden.

While those are some of the obvious steps you can take to age well, researchers have discovered that centenarians tend to share certain traits in how they eat, move about, and deal with stress—the sorts of things we can emulate to improve our own aging process.

Of course, getting to age 100 is enormously more likely if your parents did. Still, Thomas Perls, who studies the century-plus set at Boston University School of Medicine, believes that assuming you’ve sidestepped genes for truly fatal diseases like Huntington’s, “there’s nothing stopping you from living independently well into your 90s.”

Heck, if your parents and grandparents were heavy smokers, they might have died prematurely without ever reaching their true potential lifespan, so go ahead and shoot for those triple digits. Follow these 10 habits, and check out Perls’ lifetime risk calculator to see how long you can expect to live.

1. Don’t retire. “Evidence shows that in societies where people stop working abruptly, the incidence of obesity and chronic disease skyrockets after retirement,” says Luigi Ferrucci, director of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. The Chianti region of Italy, which has a high percentage of centenarians, has a different take on leisure time. “After people retire from their jobs, they spend most of the day working on their little farm, cultivating grapes or vegetables,” he says.

“They’re never really inactive.” Farming isn’t for you? Volunteer as a docent at your local art museum or join the Experience Corps, a program offered in 19 cities that places senior volunteers in urban public elementary schools for about 15 hours a week.

2. Floss every day. That may help keep your arteries healthy. A 2008 New York University study showed that daily flossing reduced the amount of gum-disease-causing bacteria in the mouth. This bacteria is thought to enter the bloodstream and trigger inflammation in the arteries, a major risk factor for heart disease. Other research has shown that those who have high amounts of bacteria in their mouth are more likely to have thickening in their arteries, another sign of heart disease. “I really do think people should floss twice a day to get the biggest life expectancy benefits,” stresses Perls.

3. Move around. “Exercise is the only real fountain of youth that exists,” says Jay Olshansky, a professor of medicine and aging researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “It’s like the oil and lube job for your car. You don’t have to do it, but your car will definitely run better.” Study after study has documented the benefits of exercise to improve your mood, mental acuity, balance, muscle mass, and bones. “And the benefits kick in immediately after your first workout,” Olshansky adds. Don’t worry if you’re not a gym rat.

Those who see the biggest payoffs are the ones who go from doing nothing to simply walking around the neighborhood or local mall for about 30 minutes a day. Building muscle with resistance training is also ideal, but yoga classes can give you similar strength-training effects if you’re not into weight lifting.

4. Eat a fiber-rich cereal for breakfast. Getting a serving of whole-grains, especially in the morning, appears to help older folks maintain stable blood sugar levels throughout the day, according to a recent study conducted by Ferrucci and his colleagues. “Those who do this have a lower incidence of diabetes, a known accelerator of aging,” he says.

5. Get at least six hours of shut-eye. Instead of skimping on sleep to add more hours to your day, get more to add years to your life. “Sleep is one of the most important functions that our body uses to regulate and heal cells,” says Ferrucci. “We’ve calculated that the minimum amount of sleep that older people need to get those healing REM phases is about six hours.” Those who reach the century mark make sleep a top priority.

6. Consume whole foods, not supplements. Strong evidence suggests that people who have high blood levels of certain nutrients—selenium, beta-carotene, vitamins C and E—age much better and have a slower rate of cognitive decline. Unfortunately, there’s no evidence that taking pills with these nutrients provides those antiaging benefits. “There are more than 200 different carotenoids and 200 different flavonoids in a single tomato,” points out Ferrucci, “and these chemicals can all have complex interactions that foster health beyond the single nutrients we know about like lycopene or vitamin C.” Avoid nutrient-lacking white foods (breads, flour, sugar) and go for all those colorful fruits and vegetables and dark whole-grain breads and cereals with their host of hidden nutrients.

7. Be less neurotic. It may work for Woody Allen, who infuses his worries with a healthy dose of humor, but the rest of us neurotics may want to find a new way to deal with stress. “We have a new study coming out that shows that centenarians tend not to internalize things or dwell on their troubles,” says Perls. “They are great at rolling with the punches.” If this inborn trait is hard to overcome, find better ways to manage when you’re stressed: Yoga, exercise, meditation, tai chi, or just deep breathing for a few moments are all good. Ruminating, eating chips in front of the TV, binge drinking? Bad, very bad.

8. Live like a Seventh Day Adventist . Americans who define themselves as Seventh Day Adventists have an average life expectancy of 89, about a decade longer than the average American. One of the basic tenets of the religion is that it’s important to cherish the body that’s on loan from God, which means no smoking, alcohol abuse, or overindulging in sweets. Followers typically stick to a vegetarian diet based on fruits, vegetables, beans, and nuts, and get plenty of exercise. They’re also very focused on family and community.

9. Be a creature of habit. Centenarians tend to live by strict routines, says Olshansky, eating the same kind of diet and doing the same kinds of activities their whole lives. Going to bed and waking up at the same time each day is another good habit to keep your body in the steady equilibrium that can be easily disrupted as you get on in years. “Your physiology becomes frailer when you get older,” explains Ferrucci, “and it’s harder for your body to bounce back if you, say, miss a few hours of sleep one night or drink too much alcohol.” This can weaken immune defenses, leaving you more susceptible to circulating flu viruses or bacterial infections.

10. Stay connected. Having regular social contacts with friends and loved ones is key to avoiding depression, which can lead to premature death, something that’s particularly prevalent in elderly widows and widowers. Some psychologists even think that one of the biggest benefits elderly folks get from exercise the strong social interactions that come from walking with a buddy or taking a group exercise class.

Having a daily connection with a close friend or family member gives older folks the added benefit of having someone watch their back. “They’ll tell you if they think your memory is going or if you seem more withdrawn,” says Perls, “and they might push you to see a doctor before you recognize that you need to see one yourself.”

Most people who suffer from constipation will tell that it is one of the most uncomfortable experiences they’ve had. There are various reasons and causes of constipation: 1. Consumption of fast foods and foods that lack lots of fiber. This is the single major reason behind most occurrences of constipation. Because we live in an “instant” age, fast foods have become the order of the day. People just don’t know what it is to eat healthily.

As long as you can grab some sandwich, burger or fried chicken and the stomach feels full, everything’s settled. As a result, foods are not readily digested. All the fiber necessary to stimulate bowel movement are almost non-existent. 1. Inadequate fluid intake. People don’t drink fluids these days -at least not enough to compensate for bodily needs.

Hence, when the feces gets to the rectum, the little moisture remaining in it is absorbed by the rectum. Because stooling requires moisture to enable the easy passage, it becomes hard to freely pass stool. That’s why there is a lot of straining to get eliminate the waste. 1. Leading a sedentary life.

People who don’t take care of themselves physically, tend to easily develop constipation as a result of the fact they are not involved in any sort of exercise. One of the very first recommendations for those who need constipation help is exercise. The fact that you move around would improve your bowel movements and hasten the relief of constipation. 4.

Pregnant women also suffer from constipation as a result of a change in hormonal balance in the body and also because of the pressure of the now occupied uterus on the intestine. Since you have read some of the causes, it would be better if we moved so you can get all the constipation help you need: 1. Eat lots of FiberDietary fiber which is also known as bulk forming laxatives is gotten from the consumption of fruits and vegetables.

The easiest way to incorporate this into your lifestyle is by increasing the quantity of fruits and vegetables in your meals and cutting down on the excess of dairy and meat products. In some cases however, some individuals may find it hard to cope with the bulk of fruits needed. When this occurs, it is best that fiber supplements such as wheat bran, oat bran, psyllium seeds be added to the daily diet. To make this routine easier, when you have the itch to grab a snack, pick a fruit instead and you’re on your way to relief.

The only downside to this method is if the patient has strictures and adhesions. In this circumstance, it is advisable to consult a physician before getting on in the treatment. Also, some fibers have sugar; as a result, diabetic patients cannot take such. When this occurs, it is best that the patient gets sugar-free fibers.

Fibers should not be taken in large quantities suddenly. Small quantities are best for starting. Then, it can gradually increase if the patient finds it necessary. A space of one week is adequate for each phase of increase in fiber content. Sources of fiber are fruits, vegetables, Citrucel, Konsyl Fiber, Maltsupex et.c