10
Life Guide
STEPS TO STAYING YOUNG!
Dr Sophie Cassidy is a research associate and clinical exercise physiologist at Newcastle Medical School. She was heavily involved in the recent BBC series, How to Stay Young which revealed dramatic health benefits from a change in diet and exercise. “We are living longer than ever before, but we aren’t ageing well. More and more people are facing health challenges such as Type 2 diabetes and heart disease”, says Sophie. “As shown on How to Stay Young, many people are living unhealthy lifestyles and making their ‘body age’ up to 30 years older than their ‘birth age’. Making simple lifestyle changes like these can have huge impacts upon your health.”
Here’s how
ONE
GET ACTIVE!
Try and increase your everyday activity so that you reach 10,000 steps per day. Research shows that 10,000 steps is related to a number of health benefits. Buy an activity tracker to help you monitor your steps. Some ideas to help; • Ditch the bus or car and walk/cycle to work. • If you can’t do this, then park your car further away from your destination or get off the bus one stop earlier. • Take a lunch time walk. • Reduce your time spent sitting at work. Get up every 30 minutes and walk about. Or try a standing desk.
2.
MAKE SURE YOU INCORPORATE SOME SHORT PERIODS OF HIGHER INTENSITY EXERCISE INTO YOUR WEEK. Research shows that even just three 20-30 seconds of high intensity exercise, 3 x per week can improve heart health. A good indication that you are doing higher intensity exercise is that you should feel breathless and shouldn’t be able to talk easily. Stair and hill climbs are a good way of challenging your heart.
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3.
TRY AND DO SOME RESISTANCE EXERCISES,
at least twice a week. You lose muscle as you age, and this accelerates once you hit 40. This doesn’t have to be in a gym, but body weight exercises at home such as lunges, step ups, press ups and burpees can be very effective.
FOUR
FOLLOWING A MEDITERRANEAN STYLE DIET has proven health benefits. Fill up on vegetables, wholegrains, dairy, seafood, pulses and nuts. If you are struggling to maintain a healthy weight, cut back on carbohydrates. As you age, the amount of calories you need declines therefore you probably don’t need to eat as much as you did when you were younger.