Antioxidants are Warriors Against Viruses, Infections and Disease

Everyday, the cells in our bodies are subject to threats of all kinds. Viruses, infections and free radical damage to cells and DNA are ongoing. While some cells have the ability to heal from damage, others cannot.

Free radicals are unstable molecules. They attack healthy cells and a chain reaction of destruction in your body called oxidation is the result. These damaging free radical molecules contribute to the aging process and play a part in diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

The body counteracts free radicals with anti-oxidants. They are the body’s chemical warriors that limit or stop damage that free radicals cause. They are empowered to neutralize free radicals, protect and reverse some damage and boost immunity. Evidence reveals they play critical roles in health maintenance as well as the prevention of chronic and degenerative diseases.

Unfortunately, as we age, our bodies produce more free radicals and fewer anti-oxidants, slowly but surely tipping the scales toward physical and mental decline, so it’s essential that we focus on boosting our anti-oxidant supply in order to keep disease at bay.

Free Radicals

Free radicals are the result of natural or man-made elements. Examples of free-radicals are:

Environmental toxins. Tobacco, alcohol and pollution are all guilty

Processed foods are full of unhealthy cell damaging substances

Ultraviolet rays from the sun or tanning beds

Chemicals the body produces when turning food into energy

Anti-oxidants:

The body produces some anti-oxidants and you can also get them in certain foods as well as vitamins. Some common antioxidants are:

Vitamins A, C and E –

Lycopene

Lutein

Beta-carotene

Selenium

Each anti-oxidant had a different chemical makeup and provides different health benefits. Many anti-oxidants are easily obtained in the fresh foods we eat. Produce is a heavy hitter, offering an abundance of warrior anti-oxidannts. They also contian fiber, minerals and other vitamins making them the perfect food.

Whether young, senior or in between, treat your body well – feed it antioxidants and reap huge rewards in quality of life and longevity.

The body has the potential and the power, to slow down the aging process and restore itself to a healthy level of wellness that it may not currently be experiencing. Superior health. the kind that pays off long-term, involves maintaining healthy body weight throughout life, eating a healthy diet, and having sufficient physical activity in our lives.

“Reclaim Your Longevity” can help you do just that…

The information here, when implemented as suggested, will be life changing and you will enjoy greater health like never before.

For more tools and resources from Carolyn Hansen to assist you in attaining your health and fitness goals and achieving the success you desire in life, please visit:

Carolyn Hansen Fitness

Stimulate Your Brain to Prevent Cognitive and Memory Loss…

When it comes to aging, many people believe it is all about physical health. That could not be further from the truth.

Your physical health is important, however, your mental and even your emotional health play huge roles as well.

The reality is, even if you are currently physically healthy, but your mind is not in a good place, this low-frequency attitude will certainly come back to hinder you at some point.

The loss of memory and cognitive processing speed is something many suffer from as they age if they are not paying attention. Just as we must give the body the nutrients needed to stay physically strong and resilient along with proper exercise to keep our muscles strong, our minds require similar attention to stay young and sharp.

Don’t wait for the first symptoms of mental challenge to appear. There are a number of steps you can adopt right now that can help prevent things like cognitive and memory loss.

Continued Learning:

One of the biggest causes of age-related cognitive decline is because many adults imply stop  learning. Don’t be satisfied with the status quo. Make “never stop learning” your daily mantra. Just because you’re out of school and settled into your career doesn’t mean the learning stops. If you really want to stay mentally young, you must continually be looking for ways to learn new things. This creates new pathways and associations in the brain that in turn, help keep the brain healthier and more akin to what is was in its youth. Find something that interests you and set out to learn more about it. This will keep your mind mentally engaged and psychologically sound as you grow older.

Reading:

Reading is fundamental. It is an exercise-like activity for your brain that helps keep you mentally sharp. And, you don’t have to be learning when you read. You can be reading fiction for pure enjoyment and leisure. Spend at least 15-20 minutes daily reading whatever material you find interesting. If you learn something new…all the better!

Meditation:

It’s hard to improve on something you do not understand. Learning to regulate the mind and stay free from all thought processes is empowering and meditation is the key to your inner world. Get your inner world healthy and your outer world follows suit. Meditation helps to improve memory, focus and attention span. It is empowered to reduce age-related cognitive decline and combat psychological related issues such as Alzheimer’s disease and depression. Meditation is a true from of medication for your brain, offers a wealth of benefits, and can be done by anyone of any age.

Walking meditation:

Traditional meditation is done in a quiet play where you can sit or lay down and focus on clearing your mind. Walking meditation on the other hand, is meditation in action. While walking, we keep our mind focused and involved with the experience of walking – we use the physical, mental and emotional experiences of walking as the basis of developing greater awareness. Walking meditation is a highly pleasurable experience that can be fitted into the gaps in our lives quite easily. It’s the perfect way to tune into your own body and listen to what it’s revealing to you. Practice meditation for 10-15 minutes 3-4 times weekly or as often as time allows.

Sufficient intake of Omega-3 Fatty Acids:

Omega-3 fatty acids provide key nutrients that the brain requires in order to function optimally and they are also vital for keeping inflammation levels down. Those consuming adequate omega-3 fatty acids on a regular basis are less likely to develop conditions like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, depression, as well as bipolar disorder. Make sure you are consuming enough omega-3 fatty acids from foods like fish, flax-seed and walnuts. Decrease your intake of omega-6 fatty acids (harmful to psychological health) found in processed food and vegetable oils.

Ready to halt the aging process?

* Everything you need to know to slow down and even reverse the aging clock can be found in my anti-aging library of help: 

“Reclaim Your Longevity.”

For more tools and resources from Carolyn Hansen to assist you in attaining your health and fitness goals and achieving the success you desire in life, please visit:

Carolyn Hansen Fitness

Count Nutrients Not Calories

Every day of our lives our body requires a combination of many nutrients in order to function properly and stay alive.

These nutrients include the main macro-nutrients: proteins, carbohydrates, and dietary fats along with micro-nutrients such as vitamins and minerals.

Most people can get the majority of their nutritional needs by paying attention to their diets.

However, how do those that have adopted a low calorie crash diet (thinking that is the key to get them to their desired weight quickly), expect to fulfill these nutritional requirements?

Truth is, crash diets are a set up for serious nutritional deficiencies. And, while some supplements can help to prevent certain nutritional deficiencies they will never be as effective as those from Mother Nature herself and the foods consumed. In addition, when counting on supplements to fill the void, you will be missing out on other important things that food provides us, such as fiber.

What good is it to get to your desired weight by using extreme measures if in the end they only cause a greater risk of long term health problems that can possibly impact you for years down the road? It’s simply not a good trade-off.

Is dropping 5 pounds within one week really worth risking damage to your health? You know the answer to that. Nothing is worth sacrificing your health over.

Eliminating or avoiding certain healthy foods in order to reach a certain weight quickly or opting for low grade foods is like putting low grade fuel into your car or no fuel at all and expecting it to run at peak performance.

Your car cannot run and work properly without good fuel and neither can your body.

The most detrimental issue you will suffer from when adopting a crash diet is setting yourself up to lose lean muscle mass.

Muscle is highly metabolically active – it’s muscle mass that strokes your metabolic engine. Low calorie diets significantly slow down your metabolic rate because your body is not interested in getting skinny (that’s something that your mind is attached to)…its focus is staying alive and healthy.

Losing muscle mass makes maintaining weight loss harder down the road because the more muscle mass you have the more calories you burn on a day to day basis. If there is one tissue that you absolutely do not want to lose…it’s your lean muscle mass.

The more muscle mass lost, the less firm and fit you’ll look, eventually leading to “skinny fat” syndrome. You may look thin but your body composition is far less than ideal, sporting a higher amount of fat mass but a very low amount of muscle mass.

Hormones and Energy

Your body is smart, give it a little credit. When it senses that there is a shortage of fuel coming, it will immediately begin the process of conserving the fuel that is already there. So, rather than burn 1400 calories in order to maintain basic life functions (just keeping your body running) it slows things down, eliminating what’s not absolutely needed for survival, so that you are now burning only 1100 calories in order to keep you alive.

The problem is, now you have to consume 300 fewer calories each day just to maintain your weight, never mind experiencing any weight loss.

As your body starts slowing your metabolic rate down other processes that are not necessary for survival start to shut down as well.

Reproduction is an energy drain that you don’t need so it suffers. Your libido levels plummet as well. And that’s just the short list. How do you expect to experience optimal health if your natural body functions are shutting down?

Finally, low calorie diets turn into a hormonal nightmares as they impact nearly every hormone in the body from serotonin which is our “feel happy, mood happy” hormone to testosterone which improves our ability to stay lean and keeps our sexual drive where it needs to be.

And serotonin is not the only hormone negatively affected. Insulin, cortisol and ghrelin (among others) are all effected by these crash diet tactics. Since hormones are master controllers of every function in our bodies – they literally effect emotional, mental and physical health. Is it really worth the short term risk to mess with them?

Low calorie crash diets are not only dangerous to your health, they are nearly impossible to stick with. Trying to stay satisfied and fend off hunger is virtually mission impossible when your body screams at you to give in.  No one is determined enough to combat the defenses of their body when it is crying out for food. When it wants to eat badly enough…you will be eating before long.

When you do finally give in, it will likely be the first thing that is within your reach and in most cases, it won’t be something that contributes to your health.

Give up counting calories along with extreme, crash diets. Counting calories is not the answer. Counting nutrients is.

Everything you need to know to slow down and even reverse the aging clock can be found in my anti-aging library of help: “Reclaim Your Longevity.”

For more tools and resources from Carolyn Hansen to assist you in attaining your health and fitness goals and achieving the success you desire in life, please visit:

Carolyn Hansen Fitness

Diet, Exercise and Your Heart

From the time you are born until the moment you pass, there is one muscle that does not stop working. That muscle is your heart muscle.

This incredibly strong, resilient muscle never stop contracting. It pumps blood relentlessly unless we do something damaging to clog up the arterial system that delivers oxygen and nutrients to it. Unfortunately, when this begins we are blissfully unaware that the problem exists and that it is growing more dire by the day.

Heart disease is nothing to fool around with. It is one of the most common causes of early death and shortened lifespans. Often the first indication that there is a problem is when someone experiences a heart attack that seems to come out of nowhere with the potential to kill or put them in the hospital.

The reality is, the damage has been occurring for sometime. It is the result of a narrowing of the arteries due to plaque build up on the artery walls. Plaque itself is a combination of cholesterol deposits and the white blood cells that the body uses to attempt to clean out the cholesterol build up.

Causes of plaque could be many things including:

high blood pressure

high levels of cholesterol

smoking

high levels of sugar in the blood

Assuming diet is a contributing factor, cholesterol levels will need to be reduced in order to give the body a chance to repair the damage. Reducing the consumption of sugary foods is a great place to start. This includes all foods that fall into the category of simple carbohydrates, like breads, cakes, any pastries, pizza, pasta, potatoes and rice.

Next concentrate on reducing your consumption of unhealthy fats. Canola, margarine and other vegetable oils included. Add to your diet the following foods which are high in unsaturated (healthy) fats that help lower bad cholesterol levels: olive oil, avocados, walnuts, oily fish, nuts and seeds all fit the bill.

Further preventive measures:

Quit smoking: That should be obvious. Smoking kills. It is one of the major risk factors for atherosclerosis (artery narrowing). It also raises your blood pressure.

Begin exercising: Just like exercise strengthens other muscles of your body, working out helps your heart muscle become more efficient, stronger and better able to pump blood throughout your body. It improves your overall fitness levels and lowers your blood pressure. It is an important way to lower your risk of heart disease. Regular exercise helps your body’s tissue do a better job of pulling needed oxygen from your blood. This allows your heart to work better under stress and also helps you to avoid being winded during high-intensity activities.

Not only will your heart benefit when you start exercising regularly, but you’ll sleep better, have more energy, enjoy heightened moods all while lowering your risk of osteoporosis and some types of cancer.

Exercising regularly is a win-win for all muscles (including your heart), your bones, your brain and your mood!

Don’t wait for a heart attack to tell you your heart needs attention. Be proactive and give your heart what it needs now. Your body and your lifespan will thank you for it!

If you truly want to stop the aging process and avoid a heart attack down the road, you need to exchange your sedentary lifestyle for one that promotes muscle strength.

Strength training is key.

If you can only do one type of exercise variation, resistance training should be your number one choice. It is the one exercise that will make all your muscles stronger and boost your immune system.

Everything you need to know to slow down and even reverse the aging clock can be found in my anti-aging library of help: “Reclaim Your Longevity.”

For more tools and resources from Carolyn Hansen to assist you in attaining your health and fitness goals and achieving the success you desire in life, please visit:

Carolyn Hansen Fitness

Isn’t it time to throw away all the false statements you’ve accepted about dieting and exercise and learn what it really takes to stay healthy and fit long into your senior years?

Mighty Omega-3 Fatty Acids

On your journey to health, a sufficient intake of Omega-3 fatty acids is mandatory.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids offer incredible benefits for both the body and the brain. In fact, getting an adequate amount of this powerful nutrient both during pregnancy and early life is crucial for early on healthy, normal development of children, while a deficiency of omega-3 early on has been linked to poor eyesight as well as lowered intelligence and an increase in other health issues.

Omega-3 fatty acids provide key nutrients that the brain needs to function optimally and are vital for keeping inflammation levels down. Those who consume adequate omega-3 fatty acids on a regular basis are less likely to develop debilitating conditions like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, depression, and even bipolar disorder.

Although Omega-3’s are a must for psychological health, most people still fall short in consuming enough of them with their day to day diet plan. If you find yourself in this group, focus on increasing your intake by choosing omega-3 rich foods. Salmon, mackerel, flaxseeds, flaxseed oil, leafy veggies and walnuts are all great choices.

While increasing your intake of omega-3 fatty acids, reduce your intake of omega-6 fatty acids. These are harmful to psychological health and can be found in processed foods as well as vegetable oils.

Omega-3 fats are a key family of polyunsaturated fats. There are three types of omega-3 fatty acids: ALA, EPA, and DHA.

  • Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are sometimes called “marine omega-3’s” because they come mainly from fish.
  • The most common omega-3 fatty acid is Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). It is found in vegetable oils and nuts (especially walnuts), flax seeds and flaxseed oil, leafy vegetables, and some animal fats (focus on grass fed). ALA is what the human body generally uses for energy, while conversion into EPA and DHA is limited. EPA appears to be the best at fighting depression.

Omega 3’s Improve Risk Factors For Heart Disease

Heart attacks and strokes are currently the world’s leading causes of death and this is where omega-3’s help because a great deal of the strong evidence presented for the beneficial effects of omega-3 fats has to do with heart disease. It seems these fats keep the heart beating at a steady clip, avoiding a dangerous or potentially fatal erratic rhythm.

Omega-3’s improve and reduce the risk of many diseases and offer a wealth of benefits with heart disease leading the pack. Years ago, scientists observed that fish-eating cultures had lowered rates of heart disease and this was later partially attributed to their omega-3.

These healthy fatty acids continue to reveal numerous benefits for heart health.

These include:

  • Inflammation: Omega-3s reduce some substances released during the inflammatory response
  • Triglycerides: Omega-3s can cause a major reduction in triglycerides
  • Blood pressure: Omega-3s reduces blood pressure levels in those with high blood pressure
  • HDL-cholesterol: Omega-3 raise HDL (the “good”) cholesterol levels
  • Blood clots: Omega-3s help prevent the formation of harmful blood clots by keeping blood platelets from clumping together
  • Plaque: Omega-3s help prevent the plaque that can restrict and harden the arteries by keeping the arteries smooth and free from damage

Although omega-3s have been found to improve numerous heart disease risk factors, omega-3 supplements have not proven to reduce the risk of heart attacks or strokes.

Your body has the potential and the power, to slow down the aging process and restore itself to a level of wellness that it may no longer be experiencing. Superior health. the kind that pays off long-term, involves maintaining healthy body weight throughout life, eating a healthy diet, and having sufficient physical activity in our lives.

The information here, when implemented as suggested, will be life changing and you will enjoy greater health like never before.

“Reclaim Your Longevity” can help you do just that…

For more tools and resources from Carolyn Hansen to assist you in attaining your health and fitness goals and achieving the success you desire in life, please visit:

Carolyn Hansen Fitness

Health Shakes are Health Investments

Health Shakes are more than a trend, they are a long term investment in health and the cornerstone of a nutrient-dense eating plan.

Once you begin enjoying your Health Shake in the morning you’ll notice a difference in how good you feel about yourself and how easily you handle the decisions you are faced with that day.

If you’re on a conscious road towards getting healthier or losing excess weight and fat then adding a Health Shake to your life every single morning will give you magical results.

Nutrient-dense foods are key players and critical to combating weight loss resistance and enjoying optimal health. They supply us with a hefty amount of important nutrients like proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, fats, and water while generally light on calories.

 

There’s no quicker or more effective and efficient way to get on the nutrient-dense eating track, experience better health and quell intense cravings than to make yourself the perfect Health Shake every single morning and enjoy some of it within an hour of waking.

 

This particular kind of shake satisfies quickly and you will not need to worry about getting hungry “pangs” and eating again for hours. They easily maximize your micro-nutrient consumption and are the quickest road to losing weight and feeling fantastic.

They are rich in health-promoting proteins, essential fatty acids, real food carbohydrates, water, vitamins, minerals, fiber and important phytochemicals that include live enzymes used by the body to aide digestion among other things.

 

It’s time to invest your time wisely by allotting 3-4 minutes every morning to making a Health Shake. It is a whole lot less stressful than grabbing and eating “whatever, or whenever” and experiencing the resulting metabolism slow down, weight gain and energy loss as a result.

 

The typical weight loss results that most people experience after adding in a morning Health Shake generally range around losing 10-20 pounds or more of pure fat in just the first three months. It’s easy to see how, for some people, this can truly be a life-changing strategy.

A properly made morning Health Shake provides at least 50 percent of our daily nutritional needs.

 

The perfect morning Health Shake includes:

Protein

Fiber

Fruit

Water and ice blended well

 

Morning Health Shake Recipe:

1 Scoop of protein powder (it can be plant or whey based)

1 serving size frozen fruit (fresh or frozen organic berries are perfect)

Liquid…you can use water, almond or any nut milk as well as unsweetened coconut water.  If you should opt for coconut milk make sure you choose “full fat coconut milk or cream” and not the watered down kind. The idea is to get lots of healthy fats so always reach for the finest quality milk or cream you can find.

Add-ins:

1 tablespoon chia seeds

1 tablespoon nut butter

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed meal (flaxseeds must be ground in order to take advantage of their nutrient value)

1 frozen or fresh green leaf vegetable of your choice. You can choose silver beet (chard), spinach or kale for example or choose to use 1 scoop greens powder.

2 tablespoons – ¼ cup coconut milk (not the watered down kind)

Adding chia seed and flax seeds are essential because they are the magic ingredients to making us feel full and staving off hunger pains for 4 or more hours. Although you can make your shake without them, you will not experience the same kind of results so always try to include these magic seeds in your morning Health Shake.

Note: You can choose to make your own almond milk at home by blending in a high speed blender 2 cups water with 1 cup raw almonds. Strain and keep refrigerated.

Make sure to drink some of your freshly made morning Health Shake within an hour of rising to get the maximum morning benefits. You can easily store the rest in a cooler bag and take it with you.

Infusing your body with a super-nutrient Health Shake first thing in the morning empowers you from within and your daily challenges are much less stressful.

Whatever you do…just get it into your tummy and the rest of the day will be easy.

Consciously, with effort, develop these positive habits, and you’ll strengthen your inner resources, reinforcing all healthy habits and propelling yourself towards real health, real growth and real success.

Everything you need to know to slow down and even reverse the aging clock can be found in my anti-aging library of help: “Reclaim Your Longevity.”

Are You Really Hungry?

Being overweight is an open door to so many diseases that shorten our lifespans and steal away our precious moments. Managing and maintaining healthy body weight is mandatory for living a long, productive life.

If you are struggling to lose weight, you’re not alone. Obesity and overweight conditions have ballooned out of control.

One of the primary reasons why the average person continues to becomes fatter with each passing year – becoming anything from mildly overweight to obese – is that their appetite control system hormones have become out of balance.

The appetite control system is a maze of complex chemical interchanges and interactions between your brain, nervous system, and metabolic hormones that all work together to tell you whether or not you need food. Your internal biological processes communicate whether you are currently hungry or full.

Experiencing hunger is both a mental and physical challenge and you’ll need cast iron strategies for both if you want to experience long-term success with any weight-loss.

 

Two Primary Types of Hunger:

Normal hunger –

When the stomach has been empty for several hours, normal hunger kicks in, starting slow and intensifying until food is taken. Any time you have exhausted your easily accessible energy stores (such as after a workout session) you will experience this type of hunger. It is your body’s way of signaling its need for nutrients and energy to be replaced. You feel immediate relief after eating.

Hormone Driven Hunger –

This type of hunger does not come on slowly like normal hunger does but comes on suddenly and most times has nothing at all to do with meal time. If you’ve ever found yourself “attacked” and compelled to eat a chocolate bar even though you are not experiencing physical hunger pangs (and, you’re trying to stick to a diet), you can be sure it is hormonal driven hunger you are responding to. It causes a gnawing intense hunger and often strikes right after a meal causing wild irrational cravings for specific foods – especially those high in sugar or carbohydrates.

This type of hunger can be merciless in its demands overwhelming the most determined dieter. It leaves in its wake mood swings, anxiety and stress as well as zapping energy levels. Emotional eating is a term often associated with this type of hunger because it is linked to human emotions but science is revealing that it may not be down to human emotions at all but simply an interplay of various “out of balance” hormones in the body.

Hormones all play off each other and are triggered by and become unbalanced by catalysts such as the types of foods we eat or do not eat and when we eat those foods. Destructive habits such as consuming too much sugar or eating too many of the wrong kinds of foods can set off a cascading hormonal imbalance that could last for hours and possible even days leaving you at the mercy of whims that cause you to continue to overeat and binge (fake foods make us feel hungry all the time and also make us malnourished). A very damaging cycle to your system.

Unfortunately, modern day diets are filled with highly refined and processed foods that are laden with chemical additive and toxins. These foods not only fail to provide us high quality nutrients that nourish and sustain our bodies, they actually cause harm by throwing our appetite control mechanism out of balance causing us to lose touch with our natural hunger signals.

Hunger Hormones

The number one hormone that needs to be kept in check is insulin. This hormone relays to your fat cells that they need to mop up excess glucose (blood sugar) in the blood and convert it to fat for storage as future energy.  When insulin levels remain relatively stable as occurs in a natural unprocessed diet that suppresses the occurrence of highly fluctuating levels of blood glucose, the other hormones tend also to be properly regulated and no “out of balance” hormonal profile develops.

Ghrelin is another hunger hormone that needs to be controlled and normalized in order to have a sense of real hunger (so that we are not responding to false signals and eating more than we need to). In fact, much of the blame you have placed on yourself in the past for not having more control over your appetite and eating habits may well have been due in large part to allowing ghrelin to build to uncontrollable levels.

With so many chemicals lodged into the tissues of our body and our diets filled with “dead” foods offering no nutritional value, it’s no wonder that our hormones are confused and messed up causing so many people to struggle with permanent weight loss these days.

We need to fill our diets lean proteins, grass fed meats, free range poultry and eggs, ocean fish, vegetables and fruits and whole grains. We need to eliminate sugars, unhealthy fats, preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, chemicals and unhealthy food preparation as well as heavily processed and other “junk” type foods.

If you are trying to take weight off, adopting a conservative calorie reduction program (including the foods listed above) and embracing a slow steady weight loss effort is the way to get your hunger hormones working with you to achieve lasting success.

When you have these fundamentals firmly in place in your life at least 80 percent of the time you will not have an excess body fat problem. It will be long gone! Your health will improve as well as the quality and longevity of life. 

All my products address a whole body approach that supports both the body and the mind. If you are serious about achieving a truly healthy lifestyle, one of youth and vitality – “Reclaim Your Longevity was created for you.

It will absolutely help you in every area of your life to stay as young, healthy and vibrant as possible, squeezing every ounce of life out of every minute of your life!

Nutrition counts – 4 Anti-Aging Secrets

There are certain issues related to nutrition that when present accelerate the aging process. Learn what these are will help you to avoid them.

Lack of Anti-oxidants

If there’s one thing that your diet needs in order to combat the aging process it’s – plenty of antioxidants.

So, what exactly are antioxidants and why are they important?

Every day we encounter a number of toxic substances either in the air we are breathing or because of the unhealthy and unnatural substances we eat. As these stressors take place, they slowly but surely break the body down and antioxidants are the warriors that help to defy this process.

Antioxidants serve to neutralize free radicals that would otherwise lead to oxidative damage thus helping to improve your health significantly. They help combat disease such as heart disease and cancer, keep our skin, hair and nails looking their best and have us feeling more energized and healthy on a day to day basis.

Where can we get these antioxidants?

The best way to ensure you are getting the antioxidants your body needs is through a steady intake of fresh fruits and vegetables. The more nutrient dense the foods are that you eat, the higher your antioxidant intake will be. Other foods such as nuts and some oils also contain antioxidants but they don’t offer the level of antioxidants that you get from fresh produce.

Anti-aging secret #1 –

Consume as many organic fresh fruits and vegetables as possible. You cannot eat too many of these wonderful foods.

Over consumption of Sugar –

If you intend on stopping the hands of time, you need to reduce your intake of sugar. Although most people are better about not eating table sugar, sugar hides everywhere and excess sugar still finds a way into their diet. Today’s foods are loaded with this sweet tempting substance and taste buds are now so desensitized to the natural taste of food that we sugar to feel satisfied. The problem is, we don’t realize how much sugar is going in until we are struck down with diabetes or we have packed on a whopping 10-20 extra pounds.

In order to avoid taking in too much sugar you must learn to read labels.

So, why is sugar so bad?

Sugar accelerates the aging process by placing great stress and strain on your body. When you take in sugar your blood glucose levels spike. As a result, your body releases a huge hit of insulin from your pancreas. This insulin goes in and sucks the excess glucose up out of the blood stream helping to bring your blood glucose levels back down.

Where does this glucose go?

Straight to your body fat cells most times. Short of finishing an intense workout program (in which case, they’ll be shuttle towards your muscle cells) that excess sugar goes to your body fat stores. This excess body fat now puts you are high risk for a number of age related diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and stroke.

Since sugar contains no nutrients, you won’t be getting any antioxidants. Filling your diet up with sugar causes you to miss out on the nutrition that would otherwise keep you as healthy as possible.

You’re only allowed so many calories daily so make sure those calories count!

Anti-aging secret #2 –

Eliminate as many added sugars from your diet as possible.

High Intake of Trans-Fats – 

Man-made fats are designed to increase the shelf-life of the food products you consume.  Manufacturers do this to add texture and taste to the foods you are consuming. For many consumers, trans-fats can be very addicting and hard to stop eating. Foods like cakes, cookies, pastries, frozen foods, deep fried food and other heavily processed foods that are rick in dietary fat.

Look to fill your diet up with an abundance of fats that contain an abundance of healthy vitamins and minerals and work to prevent disease. Olive oil, avocado oil, macadamia nut oil, avocados, fatty varieties of fresh fish, flax-seed, nuts and nut butter as well as coconut oil based products are all good choices.

Anti-aging secret #3

Avoid trans fats at all costs, instead replace them with unsaturated fats, omega fats and medium chain triglycerides.

Insufficient Quality Protein Intake – 

If you have insufficient intake of quality protein you are accelerating the aging process because protein is the major player when it comes to tissue repair and rebuilding and essential for keeping your body functioning at it s best. Without the proper amount of quality protein in your diet, your body won’t have the necessary raw materials it needs to generate new cells and hormones necessary to keep all systems in your body functioning properly and for generating lean muscle mass that keeps you active and able to excite physically as you should.

For best results, focus on getting at least 1 grams of protein per pound of body weight daily. The best forms of protein are chicken breast, turkey breast , lean red met (in moderation), fish, and seafood, low-fat dairy products as well as whey or nondairy protein powder.

Anti-aging secret #4 –

Focus on getting sufficient quality protein into your day, aim for at least 1 gram per pound of body weight and choose lean sources of both animal and non-animal based protein daily.

When you put the right fuel, raw materials and nutrients into your body, it goes a long way towards ensuring that you are looking and feeling your best.

As you consciously, with effort, develop these positive habits, you strengthen your inner resources, reinforcing all healthy habits and propelling yourself towards real health, real growth and real success.

Everything you need to know to slow down and even reverse the aging clock can be found in my anti-aging library of help: “Reclaim Your Longevity.”

Conscious Eating is Preventive Maintenance

Wonder where your weight is coming from?

Are you paying attention when you eat?

Too many people find themselves eating throughout the day without even realizing they are doing it. By day’s end, their calorie count has gone through the roof, the weight comes on and they wonder “how and why.”

Eating, like any other important task you do throughout your day requires conscious attention.

Conscious eating is habit you need to adopt.

Here’s some daily habits you can adopt that will help you become a “conscious eater.”

Sit Down When You Eat

Seems logical and something we do automatically, but you’d be surprised at how many people “eat on the run”…literally eating while they are moving. When you consume foods while standing or moving, most likely  you won’t be paying attention to how much you are consuming. The calories you’ve consumed won’t be registered or fill you up like they should.

Make a concentrated effort to be seated whenever you eat a meal or snack. This helps you to focus on the foods you are consuming.

Avoid Distractions During Meals

Distractions are well, just that – a distraction from what you should be paying attention to. In regards to meals, too many people engage in unhealthy eating habits like sitting in front of the TV while they eat, or browsing the Internet while at work as they quickly…without conscious attention, down their lunch.

The moment you focus on anything but the food you are eating is the minute that you reduce the psychologically satiety that comes with eating. Get into the habit of focusing on eating when eating!

Sit at the table and consciously enjoy your food…every bite. Put your attention on your food not on a book, cell phone or TV.

Put Your Fork Down Between Bites

Putting your fork down between bites helps to ensure you are not rushing through your meal and potentially consuming more food than you would otherwise. It takes a while before your body registers that you are full, so give yourself a chance to get those signals by slowing down. Putting your fork down between bites helps you to do just that.

Pay Attention to Taste and Texture

Make a conscious effort when you sit to stop and notice the taste and texture of the foods you are consuming. Do this first thing when you begin so that it sets the tone for the entire meal. The idea is to help make you feel satisfied so that you stop eating when you are full. Those that consume foods without noticing the texture and taste, typically end up going back for seconds even if they are not really hungry.

Psychological satisfaction is a very real thing and you must strive to satisfy that along with physical hunger to really see optimal health and weight control.

Rate Your Hunger

Rating your hunger before eating will help you to see if you are in the habit of eating despite not actually being hungry so that you can make adjustments. Only when you hunger levels reach 7 or 8 on a scale of 1-10 should you be reaching for food. If you begin before that, you’ll be consuming too many calories and open the door to weight gain.

Eat Until 80% Full

As you eat, you should be keeping tabs on your hunger. Once you are 80% full, put your fork down and push away from the table. Because it takes time for your brain to register “full,” if you keep eating beyond this point, you’re in danger of reaching 100% full and you’ll end up by the price later in terms of weight gain and how you feel. By stopping at 80% after digestion finishes up, you will be satisfied and saved yourself from becoming over-stuffed with too much caloric intake.

Once you have your nutrition and eating habits in check, the next thing to focus on is building great activity habits that ensure you stay fit, active, and healthy.

All my products support a whole body approach that supports both the body and the mind. If you are serious about achieving a truly healthy lifestyle, one of youth and vitality – “Reclaim Your Longevity was created for you.

It will absolutely help you in every area of your life to stay as young, healthy and vibrant as possible.

Lifestyle Based Anti-Aging…

 

As we evolve, we progressively obtain new answers to age-old questions and much of this new knowledge is positive and exciting – 

Studies Prove –

Over 30 years of research reveals that the more you change your lifestyle (particularly in areas of physical activity and nutrition) the more your health improves because you turn off the bad genes that lead you down the path of poor health and turn on the good genes that protect you by turning on self-healing processes that promote longevity and stellar health.

Adopt the right lifestyle changes and you can alter how you age by lengthening rather than shortening the telomeres located on the ends of DNA thereby slowing or even reversing the aging process from within.

The result is super-health or super-wellness at the cellular level as old worn out cells and tissues get replaced with new younger, healthier, stronger ones, turning back the biological clock in your body, muscles and brain.

 

Super Wellness

Super-wellness is proactive. It’s about building a strong disease resistant body and finding and eliminating the cause of disease – not just managing the symptoms. It’s about staying well when you are healthy, and extending middle age into the far reaches of old age. It’s about increasing the healthy span of aging, and avoiding the worst aspects of old age until the last minute.

There are two strategies that are gaining popularity as new lifestyle-based anti-aging plans that literally change what goes on with the DNA that is involved in disease and the aging process. Not surprisingly, those two strategies are exercise and healthy eating. Lucky for us, both these things are well within our personal control.

 

The Goals of any Anti-aging Lifestyle are, (at any age):

Robust healing and cell renewal – activating the self-healing processes

Healthier – beyond simply “not being sick”

Strength and high energy – regardless of age

Hampering/slowing/reversing the aging process

Improving body composition – muscle to fat ratio

Achieving a health span that equals life span

To be free of and not at risk of disease and to experience wellness through every decade of life. That’s what anti-aging is about. By choosing to be proactive and responsible, you develop a strong sense of personal identity and empowerment for your own health.

The reality is, a decent old age is something that only we are empowered to deliver to ourselves. By adopting an anti-aging diet and lifestyle that includes challenging exercise, you’ll have a real chance of adding decades of additional happy and healthy living to your lifespan.

Those who succeed with anti-aging practices are those who believe in the values of independence, productivity and self-care in later life. For them, anti-aging practices become a way of life – a lifestyle driver. Are those values important to you?

As you consciously, with effort, develop these positive habits, you strengthen your inner resources, reinforcing all healthy habits and propelling yourself towards real health, real growth and real success.

You don’t need to age the way your parents and grandparents did. It’s time to set an example of how hot your 60’s and beyond can really be.

Everything you need to know to slow down and even reverse the aging clock can be found in my anti-aging library of help: “Reclaim Your Longevity.”

 

For more tools and resources from Carolyn Hansen to assist you in attaining your health and fitness goals and achieving the success you desire in life, please visit:

Carolyn Hansen Fitness

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