1. Eat a peach – when you eat fresh fruit, you get an instant surge of well-being and energy. Any type of fruit has this effect. Enjoy a fruit salad-chop 3 or more types of fruit for a delicious blend. Try banana, orange and strawberry for example. If you’d rather drink your fruit, make a quick smoothey from any fresh fruit, plain non-fat yogurt and honey. Or mix fruit with fat free vanilla ice cream. Guaranteed this treat is every bit as yummy as cookies or fattening baked goods.
2. Dump your past – with the past weighting you down, you feel depressed, disinterested in new things. The baggage of your past is a bit like a terrible roommate you can’t get rid of. Make a commitment, and focus all of your attention on this commitment, which is: Demand that the intrusive roommate find another place to live. Then you begin to realize that your only moment is right now. Only when you live in the present can you feel the exuberance of life coursing through your veins. Today is everything you have-It is all you need. Anything you need to learn from the past is already in your storehouse of wisdom, so there is nothing to fear by kicking out the past.
3. Move it – your body must move, if not it will freeze up. Moving the body keeps it young. If nothing else, get in the habit of parking as far away as possible when you go to shop or visit, etc. Then enjoy a brief “power walk” to your final destination. Power walking is nothing more than walking as fast as you can, using good posture as you walk. To do this, avoid shoes that are hard to walk in. If you need to wear dress shoes, carry them with you and change shoes after your walk. If you enjoy a sport or other activity requiring movement, all the better.
4. Eat less – the oldest man in the world, age 113, said the one thing he did that kept him young was to eat very little. Or simply skip one meal a day – forget about the old idea that you need 3 meals a day.
5. Make a decision and stick with it – ruminating about each decision, or everything you do, makes you old, sad, and tired. If you buy something, be happy with it, avoid second-guessing yourself. If you marry someone or make love with someone, appreciate them, instead of thinking it might have been better with somebody else or someplace different.
6. Sleep well – be aware of sleep hygiene, which involves certain rituals you do each night before bed. It may be brushing your teeth, wearing certain comfortable pajamas, making sure you have clean sheets, the right pillow and mattress for your body… Also, keep a rhythm, so your body has the same pattern of sleep and awake time. Avoid having things in the bedroom that interfere, such as a TV playing ’til all hours.
7. Be yourself – it is very draining to have to pretend to be that which you are not. Find people who are like you-and people who like you, rather than changing yourself to get on in a milieu where you don’t truly belong.
