The Secrect To Longevity ~ Live Healthy!

Truly, living healthy is way to ensure living a long life. I come from a family where many family members have lived to be a ripe old age. However, there's more to living healthy than good food and exercise, although that is vitally important. But I think if you examine the lives of those who have lived to be seventy, eighty, ninety or over, we'll find some common ground between them.

Health is taking care of all the areas of our being. This includes physical, emotional and spiritual. You may be healthy in one area, but if another area is lacking the other areas will soon begin to deteriorate. To ensure a long and quality life, we must not neglect any of these areas.

• PHYSICAL HEALTH I'll discuss this area first since this is often the first thing people think about when they think about health.

Physical health has to do with what we take into our bodies, our activity, and how our body performs as a result. Lets take a look at a few steps that we should take to ensure great physical health.

DRINK HEALTHY It is widely discussed on the importance of great food and the necessity of lots of water but the reality of it too often never sinks in. Many of us walk around every day dehydrated not realizing that our caffeine intake depletes our fluid supply. If you think that drinking a pot of coffee everyday will keep you hydrated, well, think again. Not only does the caffeine drain your necessary fluids, but it also constricts the blood vessels making it harder for your heart to pump blood through your body. Water was put here for us to drink in the beginning and it's still the best choice today. Unfortunately, our water supplies aren't quite up to par anymore, so make sure that you're getting pure water or your benefits will decrease. You may want to opt for store-bought purified water or invest in an in-home water filter. Many claim to drink at least eight full glasses of water a day. This is great if you weigh 128 pounds but the truth is, the more you weigh, the greater your need for water. This means that the standard eight ounces won't work for everybody. There is now a better way to figure how much water you should get on a daily basis. Take half of your weight in pounds and drink that number in ounces of water everyday. For instance, if you weigh 200 pounds, you should drink 100 ounces of water everyday. This number increases with higher activity levels and of course, caffeine intake.

EAT HEALTHY Finding good, quality food can at times be a chore since everything nowadays is so overly processed and fake. However, it can be done. Try keeping your diet mostly of things that have been grown in the earth, such as vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. Then, you may add animal products such as dairy, and lean meats that have been raised without chemicals and steroids. Avoid white sugar as much as possible which hides in many foods that you wouldn't even expect. It is also better to substitute white flour products for whole wheat options. If you're able to go organic, go for it. Any little positive change that you can make will mean better health for you. Usually, the overly processed and unhealthy choices are cheaper monetarily, but you'll pay for it over and over through your health. It's better to pay a little more to get better quality. Think of it as buying an extra day to your life each time you spend extra on good food. Unhealthy food additives and chemicals make the liver have to work harder to cleanse our bodies. We get enough toxic overload from cleaning agents, commercial body cleansers and even the air we breathe without adding this extra work for our liver. Many sicknesses result from the problems with today's food including heart disease and cancer. Live healthy by eating healthy!

GET MOVIN' The word "exercise" causes many to cringe. The thought of pumping little weights, doing crunches or jumping jacks may make you feel like climbing into bed and pulling the covers over your head. It may help to quit thinking "exercise" and start thinking "activity," especially if you're already beginning to approach the golden years. Anything from a relaxing walk, riding a bike to dancing in the living room with your spouse can get the blood pumping and produce the wondrous benefits of exercise. It's not how hard or how long you exercise as much as the quality and consistency of it. So grab your water bottle and get movin'!

MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING It is important not to neglect your mental and emotional states while you're looking out for your health. Negative thinking, extreme stress and depression can actually kill a person if not dealt with quickly and properly.

It's hard to retreat from the ordinary stresses of life but you can control how you deal with the stress. Refrain from thinking negative thoughts by surrounding yourself with the positive. If situations threaten to bring you down, start counting your blessings. I'm sure that you'll find that for every bad thing in your life, you'll have at least ten good ones to outweigh it. Keep in touch with family and friends even if your the one to make the first move. Call people up that you haven't talked to in a good long while and just talk about good things.

Take time for yourself to relax. Do things that make you happy. Work toward fulfilling the dreams that you've kept bottled up inside.

Don't forget to laugh. You've heard it said that laughter is the best medicine? Well, the Bible even claims how a merry heart does good like a medicine. It really works! Listen to some good clean humor, go to a park and watch children play - anything that will encourage you to get laughing.

If for some reason you should find yourself inside a depression that you just can't seem to break free from, don't be afraid to seek professional help. This does not mean that you're crazy or losing your mind. There have been plenty of successful and intelligent people that have found themselves in the pit of depression. Get help. Soon you'll be back on your way to happiness. Remember, it's not a shame to admit you need help, it's a shame not to.

YOUR SPIRITUAL HEALTH This is often one of the most excused areas of healthy living but at the same time, the most important. We as human beings at some point must come face to face with the reality of our frailty. We have limitations as humans and we need to learn to connect with our Creator to get beyond these.

We should devote ourselves to daily prayer and worship. We'll soon find ourselves believing and reaching for the impossible. Dare to believe in miracles and daily surround yourself with inspiration.

Give of yourself to others and treat them as you would have them to treat you. The Golden Rule is still in effect today and the benefits often bless the one doing even more than the one receiving. Resist the urge to complain or criticize and find kind and uplifting words to say instead. You'll be surprised at how the whole atmosphere around you will change for the better, and it won't cost you a thing. In fact, you'll feel better yourself and you may just give someone a little hope.