100 Rules of Success: Be Younger by Tomorrow

What follows is the continuation of success habits that will become part of a book I’m writing, “100 Rules of Success”. 

SUCCESS IN HEALTH

 “A man with good health is a man of 1,000 dreams; A man with poor health is a man with but one dream”.

Success is not all about money.  Think back to a time when you were ill, even something as simple as a bad case of the flu.  The only thing that mattered was getting well again!  Michael Brooks is an elite personal trainer and friend who recently launched his new web site YoungerByTomorrow.com.  His whole premise is that you can significantly enhance your own longevity by doing a few simple things right.  Think about this: If you did everything right today, tomorrow you’d actually be a little bit healthier…and, in fact, could extend your life expectancy by a few minutes.  Maybe a few minutes doesn’t sound like much, but if you did this every day over a period of a few months or years, the results would be a significant extension of your life expectancy.

Why is this true?  You have literally trillions of cells in your body.  These living organisms are what make you who you are and each one has a specific purpose or life goal and mission.  Each has its own life span and as they die off, they are replaced by new cells.  Skin cells, for example, have an average life span of about two to three weeks; colon cells live only about four days; red blood cells live about four months while white blood cells live longer than one year.  The point is that our cells are constantly dying and new cells are replacing them in an ongoing evolution.  All of these cells get their nutrition from what we eat and how we run our lifestyles (Any couch potatoes out there?  Think ‘Fat Cells!”).  How we live our lives can have a huge impact on our health and well-being and longevity.

So, what are a few of the things you’d need to do?

RULE:  Eat Right 90% of the Time

If I said you have to eat right 100% of the time, virtually no one would even try because for most of us average mortals, it’s just not going to happen.  But ninety-percent…now that’s something that is definitely doable.  Let’s do some quick math.  If you eat three meals a day times seven days-a-week, that’s twenty-one meals.  If you ate very healthy meals ninety percent of the time, that means you could have about two ‘cheat’ meals…meals where you eat your favorite foods like pizza, cheese burger and fries, or oatmeal cookies (yep, some of my favorites).

What does ‘eating healthy’ look like?  There are so many ways to eat healthy, it might be easier to describe what not to eat.  Except for your cheat meals, stay away from any processed foods, sugary anything, fried anything, any soft drinks (diet or sugar based).  Also, you’ll want to minimize starchy foods such as white potatoes, and rice; limit amounts of fruits; and limit alcohol consumption.  You want to move towards all things natural or what I call “1-step” foods (straight from the ground, tree or off the hoof).

Start by throwing away all the ‘bad’ foods from your refrigerator and pantry, then make a list of high quality foods you like and let this serve as your shopping list.  If you can afford organic, it’s your best choice.  The key to success is planning ahead.  I’ve found that most people only eat about a dozen or so ‘favorite’ foods or meals.  Here’s a sample of what my perfect day might look like:

Breakfast: EAS Myoplex Original Protein Shake (one-half of 17 ozs); or 1-2 hard boiled eggs + 5oz. Low Sodium V8 drink; or 1-2 eggs + small bowl organic oatmeal.

Lunch:  1 (blackened) chicken breast + 4oz. mustard-based slaw; or salad (1 tbsp. vinaigrette dressing) + 4oz. high quality protein (chicken/fish/meat).

Dinner:  Large salad (1 tbsp. vinaigrette dressing) + 4-6oz. high quality protein (chicken/fish/meat).

Best choice of drink: Water!  And lots of it.  Shoot for 8-10 glasses per day minimum.

From personal trainer and fitness coach, Michael Brooks, At the end of each day ask yourself, “Did the way I ATE, LIVED & MOVED accelerate or slow down my aging process?”

Next week, I’ll discuss resistance and cardio training for maximizing health benefits.