3 Natural Lifestyle Changes to Get You Looking Younger

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We all want to stay looking young forever, and although that may be a stretch too far as dreams go, it’s definitely possible to take certain proactive steps to ward off the advance of time, and keep ourselves looking and feeling younger, for longer.

Many of the techniques that people turn to in order to keep themselves looking young are questionable, ranging from sometimes-intrusive surgery, to alternative health remedies that may have a whole range of detrimental consequences to health, down the line, if not immediately. Raw food veganism, for example, may not be the best way to go.

Luckily, there are some largely uncontroversial lifestyle changes you can make today to help you keep those frown lines to a minimum, and keep yourself looking and feeling younger than your years.

Quit caffeine

Caffeine is a shockingly prevalent drug, with various estimates suggesting that around 80% of adults routinely consume caffeine. Out of those who consume caffeine, a large number — likely the vast majority — consume it on a daily basis, and find themselves unable even to get the day started without a hot cup of coffee to set them on their stride.

But caffeine really is a drug, and an addictive one too, and it’s even lethal in high enough doses. It’s not unheard of for people to die from binging on energy drinks.

The fact that caffeine doesn’t have the same social consequences and mortality rate as drugs like heroin or alcohol, seems to have put everyone into a complacent state when it comes to considering the possible health implications of getting hooked on caffeine. But just as there are widely reported studies on caffeine’s benefits, so too are there extremely under-reported studies on its health risks and side effects.

Among other things, caffeine leads to chronically elevated stress hormones, which not only increase feelings of stress and anxiety, but which also cause wear and tear, and overall premature ageing to the various tissues of the body.

Caffeine also causes dehydration and may rob the skin of its elasticity, increasing wrinkles, dark rings around the eyes, and more.

Caffeine also chronically interrupts the body’s ability to get restful sleep — and not just if you have a coffee in the afternoon, either. Regular coffee consumption changes the hormonal balance of the body in such a way that you’ll never rest as deeply as you would without it.

Lack of sleep, of course, further compounds the issue.

Quitting caffeine isn’t easy, and the withdrawals can be shockingly severe, for such a globally-accepted mainstream beverage. Nonetheless, after a few weeks, or months without caffeine, you’ll look and feel younger by years.

Get more sleep

Too often today sleep is seen as some kind of decadent luxury, rather than as something absolutely essential to life, health, and yes, even good looks.

When you sleep, your body undergoes a series of deep and powerful recovery processes. Memories are consolidated, damaged tissue is repaired, hormones are balanced, and much more.

One of the things that happens when we sleep sufficiently is that our bodies release an enormous dose of growth hormone, to aid in the recovery process. Growth hormone is widely known to be a “youthful” hormone, so much so that many celebrities and wealthy businessmen are, today, buying it under the table and injecting it into themselves in the hope of maintaining a youthful appearance.

Sleeping more will also reduce the amount of stress you experience on a daily basis, which will, in turn, have its own anti-ageing benefits.

On top of all that, sleeping more will just make you a happier person, better able to enjoy the sweet moments in life as they arise, and will also make you mentally sharper and better at your job and chosen pastimes.

In other words, don’t buy into this modern trend of taking pride in your chronic insomnia. Fix your routine, and be sure to get your beauty sleep.

Walk around more often

Walking doesn’t get a whole lot of respect, as physical exercise goes. To many, it seems like something lazy and half-hearted. If you’re walking for exercise, the idea goes, you must either be totally out of shape, or totally lazy. Obviously, going for a long job would be much better.

Not so fast.

Firstly, long bouts of endurance exercise — such as jogging — lead to a severe spike in stress hormone production. As mentioned above, the higher your stress hormone levels, the less good you’re going to look and feel, and the less healthy, as well.

Secondly, research has suggested that sitting down all day may be absolutely deadly as far as health is concerned, and can lead to conditions such as chronic inflammation, which will naturally have a serious impact on how you look.

According to this research, just getting down to the gym after work for a bout of intense exercise isn’t enough to reverse the damage done by sitting. If you want to do that, you’re going to need to find more excuses throughout the day to get up and pace around periodically.

Ideally, you’ll want to walk around for at least five minutes, each hour of the day.

Getting a Fitbit or a similar wearable step tracker can be a great way of reminding yourself to get up and move, as these devices will typically have features that you can activate which will give you regular reminders to move, and step targets, throughout the day.

Another option, if you work in an office and your job is open to such an arrangement — would be to use a standing or treadmill desk. A standing desk is typically a desk with adjustable height, so that you can perform part of your work day standing up, and then lower it to sit down for the rest. When standing, it’s much easier to hop from foot to foot or pace around.

Treadmill desks take the standard standing desk idea to the next level, featuring a built-in treadmill so that you can “stroll” while you work, assuming your concentration holds up.