Live Longer, Train for Immortality

It’s 2012 and the world is moving faster and faster every day. These days people have access to more products and information than they know what to do with.

Here’s my suggestion: Live longer.

Sounds like a good plan, doesn’t it? People are already doing this without even reading Athleticka; crazy right? Within my life time (so far) the life expectancy in the United States have gone up 6 years. It’s gone up another 1-1.5yrs in Europe and Canada as well, and it’s going to continue to climb.

Great for us, bad for anyone banking on social security. Start your own retirement fund, don’t trust SS to ‘make it rain’ for you when you’re no longer working.

So who’s with me?! If you are, read below for my plan to live for ever.

Eating Healthy

Yes, this is the most obvious. Eating fast food and binge drinking is no way to live a long, healthy life. We all know people that do this, sadly too many of us do. This is one change that can make a massive impact on the less informed. So if you know someone who fits this model, please pass this link/info along to them and you could be adding 5+yrs to their lives then you can sit back and reminisce on it over a nice cold glass of Ensure.

Giving your body the best foods, at the right times, will ensure proper function. Simple right? Yes, it is. Easy to do? Yes, it is. Though, for people who don’t do this right now, it can be a tough transitional situation, and I understand that. In today’s society there are so many options for quick, fast and easy-to-obtain foods that make life much easier. It makes life easier in that you don’t have to stop, think and prepare. So going from the all-too-normal “wake up, leave, stop at a drive thru for breakfast and coffee” to “wake up, cook breakfast” can be a bit jarring. Though, 90% of these foods are not nearly optimal for good health and some are down right bad for you.

There are a few ways you can deal with this switch in life. You can plan ahead (set the alarm for 10-15min earlier and give yourself that one hour on the weekend to plan/prep), Create quick healthy meals (this one hour prep-time comes in handy here, or some fast shakes-to-go) or you can just “nut up” and deal with it. To each their own. I personally take that weekend time to get the majority of my foods prepped but also opt for a breakfast shake almost every day.

My Fast Morning Shake

Whey Protein, Fruit (banana or blueberries), Flax Powder and Almond Milk. Blend with ice, done. Protein, Healthy Fats and Fruit. Prep Time: 2min.

Immortal Eating Habits and Tips:

• Eat Breakfast. Waking up from 6+hrs of sleep (not eating) and missing a meal can be detrimental to your body and this adds up over time.

• Eat a ‘colorful’ diet. This means lots of fruits and veggies.

• Strive to drink mainly 0 calories liquids. Water, tea and the occasional ‘diet’ beverage are the key drinks here. With coffee, limit the creamer and use a 0-calories sweetener.

• Eat plenty of healthy fats and don’t gravitate towards “Fat Free and Low Fat” items.

• Fat Free and Low Fat items typically are processed more and have more additives.

• Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated are the ones you want.

• Limit grain-source carbohydrates. Adopting a low-gluten or even a gluten-free diet would only benefit the populace. (The biggest thing I noticed when I made the switch was a boost in energy that I felt all day.)

• Plan your “cheat” meals. Immortal eating isn’t a diet, it isn’t something that’s going to limit you do meat and veggies. However, having a planned cheat meal isn’t the ‘go-ahead’ to ruin your progress. Having this meal should keep you focused all week so you can really enjoy it.

• Eat enough or often enough to keep your body happy. If you can, eat every 2-3hrs. If you can’t, make sure your meals are calorically dense enough to keep your body happy until you can eat again.

• Be consistent. Doing this for a week or so is a great start; but ditching it for your “old ways” is no good. Consistency is the key for all Immortals-in-Training.

Putting all this together should yield you a great leg-up on the rest of the world in the long run. Eating healthy will keep you from getting sick as much, it will allow you to perform (at work and at the gym) better, make your body look the way you will feel and give you a better outlook on life. Got questions? Let me know.

Strength and Overall Fitness.

This is yet another no-brainer. Getting to the gym (be it at an actual gym, or your living room) is one of the keystones of living longer. Getting bigger, faster and stronger through weight-training will ensure that you outlast the competition, hands down. Who is this ‘competition’ you speak of? It could be anyone, the game here is to get your body to last as long as you can, while remaining healthy.

Being healthy and fit will make your world a better one to live in. Having the strength to lift 3x your body weight is great, but holding onto this mentality and training throughout your life will keep you running at full capacity. Weight training keeps your bone density at better levels as you get older as well.

Sure, it takes time out of your day like everything else does. It comes down to what type of quality of life you want to have. When you and your body are in sync and you feel amazing, the quality of life you have increases tenfold.

Getting into a strength and fitness routine is only good if you can stick with it. So make it work for you and your lift and as always; be consistent. I won’t beat a dead horse here. Being strong and fit is an essential thing for anyone who want’s to have a long and healthy life. So get up and do something about it. Today.

Medicine and Medical Technology

Now, this isn’t anything I have boat loads of knowledge on. However, being that my whole life my mother was in the medical field and now my wife is; I have been privy to see and hear how far along things are moving.

Nowadays there is a pill for everything. That is good and bad. I’m one of those who thinks that eating healthy (see above) and keeping fit can help people steer clear of needing the majority of the ‘pills’ that your doctor can prescribe. But, it’s also great that there are some out there that can help people’s cholesterol (among other problems) in addition to a healthy diet and other medicine of that nature.

Not to forget, we have robots doing and assisting in surgeries these days! How cool is that?

Look Ma, no hands!

Being healthy and keeping in shape can keep you out of your Doctors office for a good amount of time, I am a testament of that. Though it’s good to know that while I’m not there, they are moving along and coming up with a myriad of ways to keep us alive and healthy when the time comes.

Mental Health

Keeping your noodle in shape is even more important than your body and diet. After all, if you have a hard time remembering things and using proper reasoning; what’s the point of getting to the gym and eating a salad?

Sure, when you are in your 20′s and 30′s and you say “I can’t remember, I must be having a Senior Citizen Moment LOL” may be laugh-worthy. I can only assume (being that I’m sub-30yrs old) that as the years go, those moments become less and less funny.

The control center needs regular upkeep too.

There are so many ways we can put our brain on cruise control and forget just how freakin’ smart we are and how amazing the brain is, thanks TV/Internet; that we have to break free and use our brains more so in order to keep it healthy.

“If you don’t use it, you lose it.” Comes to mind. I don’t plan on losing mine.

Since I’ve already covered ways to keep the brain happy and healthy I won’t go too much further, just click that link and you’ll see what you can do to keep the control center of your body in proper standings.

This goes much further than being mentally healthy for the sake of knowing how many times you deadlifted 315 the week prior. If your memory keeps slipping, you’ll have a harder time remembering people; even people you see quite often (family) so if you don’t want to do it for yourself, do it for your family. Doing puzzles and playing card games are fun and is also a great way to break the TV/Computer cycle.

Supplementation

This is a topic that I touch on with most any topic these days. This goes right along with the medical information above. As time goes by there are more and more trials and testing being done on chemical compounds and herbal remedies. These are coming back with results that allow us to use or discard certain products.

While a healthy diet can provide your body with the basis of nutrition, it can be very challenging to get everything you need from whole food sources. That’s where some of this can come into play. It’s also not as easy as grabbing a multi-vitamin and assuming you’re golden.

Nope, the proper way is to have a blood test and see just what your body is not getting enough of. Again, thanks to the testing that’s been done over and over throughout the recent years; there is a pretty common list of deficiencies the typical person has.

• Vitamin D: Getting enough D is very important for bone health, assistance in inflammation and certain cancer prevention.The list goes on and on.

• Vitamin B: Deficiency in this Vitamin commonly shows up as a lack of energy. Tired, maybe you don’t have enough B vitamins in you.

• Vitamin C: If you get sick too easily or often you might be deficient in this.

• Zinc: The typical diet does not provide enough zinc these days, even eating healthy. Zinc deficiencies can be read up on here.

• Bacon: Mmm, it’s bacon …. let’s not kid ourselves here. It’s a requirement for all cheat meals.

This list can go on and on, but let’s just stay on topic here. Get a blood test, figure what your body needs and go from there.

There are a handful of other things that can help your body achieve better sleep, recover from workouts better/faster and even increase mental focus. These are great to use on occasion, but only if your diet and sleep routines are finely tuned.

Summing it up.

It’s an amazing world out there, be here for it.

So if you have hung in there and made it to the end, I appreciate it. I thought about breaking this up into a few weeks-worth of content but, wanted to share it all at once so you can get a complete plan in the works to help start your Training for Immortality.

So the basics you should pull from this are or the tl;dr version:

• Eat healthy

• Strength and Fitness is key

• Medical Technology is improving to aide us in times of need

• Mental health and function is paramount

• Vitamins and Minerals can fill out a well-rounded life plan

If you can strive to bring yourself up in only a few of these categories this year you will be in a much better position come this time next year; if there is a next year.

Jack Lalanne @ 71yrs old. He lived to 96. Not bad footsteps to follow.

Want to proudly display your new “Living Strong, Training for Immortality” mantra to the rest of the world today? Check out the new Living Strong Merchandise page.

Related posts:

1. Beginner’s Guide to Protein – Part 1: What is it and what does it do?
2. Do This, Not That: Easy, Everyday Tips For Living a Stronger, Healthier Life (Even at the Workplace)
3. Preparing Your Body for Battle
4. Keeping a Full Tank: A Recovery and Overtraining Primer
5. Supplements Guide for Dummies

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