There are basic principles to living well, and living longer  that are the foundation of every book, article, magazine and podcast on wellness.  Information doubles every 5 years. It takes about 10 years for something to become accepted in the mainstream.  Science discusses everything in a microcosm, and you’re just trying to raise a family and do the best you can.  The result for many people is confusion.  Good news!  The basic principals of health are unchanged.  They have been verified by science numerous times.  There are reliable proven ways to optimize your health and longevity without living a lifestyle dominated by “don’ts”.

Here are a few basic concepts that you can follow to stay sane, young and healthy for as long as possible. They’ll even help you maintain a healthy weight without ruling your life with calorie counting.

1) Hydrate. Drink half your body weight of purified water daily.  A 150 pound person needs 75 ounces or 8 1/2  cups of water daily.  Water. Not tea, juice, or energy drinks.  Proper hydration with water can increase your metabolism by 30%.  Any water purification system you buy should be certified by  NSF the National Sanitation Foundation. It’s a non-profit organization with strict standards for it’s Seal of Approval.

2) Eat simple, clean and colorful foods. Eat a variety of foods and cuisines. Eat as close to nature possible. Avoid processed food.  That eliminates 80% of the grocery store. Lots of whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Your preference should be for raw fruits and veggies first, then frozen, then canned. As much as possible,  eat clean food- organic and free of pesticides and additives.  (Sure, the 3 second rule for food dropped on the floor counts).

3) Muscle = metabolism and longevity.  Exercise. Variety matters here too.  Weight training, dancing,  play games like tennis. Sweat at least 20 minutes. The lower your BMI,(less than 24.9) the better you are preventing disease and maintaining a healthy  weight.  Weight training does double duty for building muscle mass and bone density.  No time for exercise?  Every day you exercise and sweat for 20 minutes you add THREE DAYS to your life and prevent sarcopenia.  Sarcopenia is muscle loss due to aging.  Exercise creates more time for you.  Chasing toddlers while carrying bags of groceries is exercise in my book.

4) Avoid foreign substances in your body like tobacco, alcohol, over the counter, and prescription drugs. Avoid food additives, chemicals and definitely avoid artificial sweeteners.  Foreign substances pollute your body, lower your metabolism and often initiate diseases like cancer. Use non-toxic cleaners, as you absorb residue from laundry, personal care and cleaning products into your body.

In our family, the simple act of changing brands to Shaklee changed our lives. Shaklee is so careful with their manufacturing and quality control practices, that they’ve never had a product recall in 52 years.  Their research is so thorough and picky, that they never use ingredients with even a hint of controversy.  And they test every raw ingredient in every batch of every product for over 350 pesticides in a 50 year database.  I let Shaklee worry about it, and I just live my life and use their stuff.

5) Choose fat wisely.  Good fat is great.  Bad fat is evil.  Make your diet 25% good fat like virgin olive oil,
coconut oil, nut oils. 25% fat might mean 40-60 grams/day.   You need good fat to make the good cholesterol that your body uses to make all of your hormones and neurotransmitters (brain chemicals)!  Your body metabolizes vegetable fat more easily than animal fat.  Avoid fats from animal fat whenever possible.  Fat stores toxins, therefore animal and fish fat store toxins.   Avoid toxins whenever possible.  (See rule #4)

6) Kill Stress because stress kills. The more stressed you are the less time that you feel you have.  But since stress shortens your life span considerably, you increase the amount of time you have by managing your stress. Multitasking actually reduces productivity! Tackle stress by reducing multitasking, limit technology, go outdoors in the sunshine more and just sit.  If you’re stressed out by your job, click here for more time freedom.  A home business can do wonders to beat stress and increase income!

7) BREATHE deep relaxing breaths. Our breathing is shallow when we are stressed.  Oxygen is precious to
your body. Use non-toxic cleaners in your home and work space to lower indoor air pollution. Choose natural products, carpets and fabrics for your living environment whenever possible to reduce outgassing.  Open windows on breezy days.  Breathe clean air. There are many good  quality air purifiers on the market.  Look for one that is verified by a 3rd party.

8 ) Sleep. It’s amazing that we need to be reminded to do something so natural.  Chronic sleep deprivation,
less than 6 hours/night can lead to mental illness, increase in  car and workplace accidents, lower your
immunity, increase the toxin load in your system, and make you an unpleasant person to be with.  Sleep
at least 8 hours.   Get at least 2 of those hours in before midnight.  You will be more productive with
more sleep.  Avoid alcohol.  Cocktails can disrupt your sleep.  If you have difficulty falling asleep try
taking calcium regularly throughout the day to relax muscles.  I like Valerian and a natural anti-stress
product for those nights when my mind starts running 100 miles hour when I hit the pillow.

Sleep allows your body to detox and repair.  Dreaming is a type of detox for your subconscious.

9) Play. Relax, have fun, socialize with people you enjoy. Infants and children who don’t  play or aren’t touched actually stop growing, and lose IQ. Adults too, lose function and health when we don’t play and relax. Laughing releases pain killing endorphins.  Even God rested on the Seventh Day of Creation. Take the hint.

10) Keep learning and living. Research shows that those who keep learning and using their  minds tend to keep it. A positive mindset has a good bio-chemical influence on your immune system.  People who are active and involved live longer than passive, or negative people who are isolated.

11) Take good vitamins. The value of supplementation has been proven in thousands of studies.  You don’t have to be a mad scientist with a hundred bottles on your kitchen counter to enjoy the long term benefits of supplementation.  A good supplement program consists of  those things that build and protect cells: Vitamins, minerals, protein, essential fatty acids, and antioxidants. Use a reputable company who’s products have been proven in  third party studies.  If you’re not sure, ask the company for studies where it’s product  was the subject of the study, and published in peer review journals.  That’s the Gold Standard.

These steps may seem too simple to be valuable. They work and will help you prevent disease and enjoy your life.  For more in-depth tips on maintaining a healthy weight, get my free report, 11 ways to boost your Metabolism without Drugs or Spending a Dime.

I am a wellness educator with a focus on longevity and ethical life extension.  I have long believed that we have an obligation to care for our bodies and to maximize our health spans.   Healthy Living is an act of physical stewardship, in much the same way saving money and investments are financial stewardship.

A wellness and longevity lifestyle is part of my response to my Creator.  Many Christians, however see an anti-aging philosophy as vanity or playing God.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were created to have eternal physical lives as well as eternal spiritual lives. After all, they created in the image of an eternal God.  I understand life extension and anti-aging principals from that perspective – as a restoration of God’s original intent.

The main theory as to why men lived so long before Noah’s Flood is that the Earth was still in an environmental bubble from creation, and that genetic mutation was limited since Adam and Eve had original, pure DNA. There is evidence to suggestion that in the pre-Flood era, humans were vegetarians.  It wasn’t until after the Flood when God refined His covenant with Man that animals were given to men to eat.

Methuselah was almost 1,000 years old before he died.  Enoch never died, he was taken directly into Heaven, so was Elijah.  Noah was several hundred years old when God called him to build the ark.  Moses was 80 when God called him to lead the Israelites, and around 130 years when he died.  Joshua was around 120 years, and Caleb was 80 and “as fit as a young man”.

I firmly believe that part of the restoration that Jesus brings, is also the restoration of long lifespans (maybe to 150 years or longer) for the purpose of doing good and serving others.  As a Christian I also understand that God has numbered and ordered my days (Psalms). He also tells me to care for my body, as an act of obedience.  Long years and health is traditionally seen as a gift from God. My role, as I understand it, is to be the best steward of my body as possible, practicing longevity and wellness, and leaving my ultimate expiration date up to God.

Diabetes has a New Face                                                        

Alzheimer’s disease is now being recognized not only as a deterioration of the brain, but as a problem of too little insulin, that then begins destroying brain cells.  In other words, Alzheimer’s may start with the blood sugar levels in your body, not in your brain.  Too few insulin receptors on your brain cells (neurons)and you can’t learn, or remember and the cells die sooner.

Now that may sound techy, so let’s simplify it. Insulin is a hormone in your body. It signals to your cells that there is glucose (blood sugar) available to feed the cells.  Basically insulin says to your cells-”Dinner’s ready!  Come and get it!”, and attaches to the insulin receptors on the cell (think- door knob).  The insulin, grabs the “door knob”, the door to the cell opens and the cell then takes in the glucose and goes about its business well fed.

The problem is when you eat way too much sugar, refined carbohydrates, and white starchy stuff, you don’t exercise, or get enough lean protein, and your blood sugar remains high.  The door knobs start coming off of your cells.  your cells don’t get the glucose.  Insulin, doing its job, starts making even more insulin, in effect shouting- “HEY! Wake Up!  Open up!”.  Too much insulin and you crash.  Repeat this over time, and your pancreas figures that you aren’t cooperating, and now it won’t make any insulin.  Now your blood sugar is permanently high.

Welcome to Type 2 Diabetes, a serious disease with fatal side effects like heart disease, nerve damage, blindness, premature aging of your cells, increased cancer risk, and oh yes, it can progress to Type 3 Diabetes – Alzheimer’s.  Scientists are now studying the connection between insulin, memory, and brain health.

So here’s the good news – you can prevent Type 2 Diabetes, even if it runs in the family.  Your older relatives may have Alzheimer’s but you don’t have too.  And preventing all of this misery are relatively simple steps that can extend your life.

For starters, take a look at the Cinch program(TM- Shaklee Corporation).  It’s extraordinarily effective, the products are safe enough for children to eat, and very good for Type 2 diabetics.   We’re talking about simple lifestyle changes and renewed health.

Other Resources: Health Daily News Central

Phys Org.com

In the backyard of my Virginian home grows a humble fruit.

It has a thick tart skin, sweet juicy pulp, annoying seeds.  It’s an old traditional fruit, that is now the center of the longevity and anti-aging scientific research.  It’s called the muscadine grape. It’s ironic that the grape is so common, and demand for it is so low, that some grocery stores in the South don’t even sell it.  Yet, inside the muscadine grape is a secret – an extra chromosome that holds tremendous potential for extending human life.

To me, the irony is that the muscadine is a humble, almost forgotten fruit, even though it is amazingly easy to grow.  As I sat in the seminar learning about the newest Shaklee Corporation product Vivix, and how it was the muscadine grape that gave the product its unique edge, I was reminded of the scripture 1 Corinthians 1:27 King James Version (KJV)

But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty- the humble shall confound the wise.

It is a principal of Scripture and of the wisdom of God that in humility is found great power and influence.  So rather than some exotic berry or root from a far off land with great ritual and legend, it’s the muscadine grape, grown in thousands of backyards, and wild in the Southeast United States may be the secret of healthy long life.

God is the Author, the Giver, and the Creator of Life.  In the muscadine grape, He has exalted the humble.

Karen Miner Hurd
Shaklee Independent Distributor
Email: karen@gohealthygo.com