Another sure way to improve your chances for a longer, healthier life is to shed excess weight. “Being obese—with a body mass index (BMI) higher than 30—is a risk factor for early death, and it shortens your active life expectancy,” Ferrucci says. BMI is an estimate of your body fat based on your weight and height. Use NIH’s BMI calculator to determine your BMI. Talk with a doctor about reaching a healthy weight.
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Stress Hack: Create a Circle of Friends
“There are many different ways to cope with stress. We know from a lot of different studies that having close personal relationships—people with whom you can talk, with whom you can share your feelings—can be helpful,” says Kiecolt-Glaser. “So spending time with family and friends in order to maintain those relationships is perhaps one of the most crucial things you can do as a stress reducer.”
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Nutrition Hack: Prepping for a Trip
Bring healthy snacks. There are some great portable snack options, including fruit, vegetables, and nuts. Be sure to include a balance of protein, fat, and carbohydrate to give you the nutrition and energy you need.
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Longevity Hack: Increase Brain Size
Sharpen memory. Although brain size decreases as you age, research has shown that exercise can actually help reverse that — at any age. One study found that physical activity helped participants build measurable increases in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that enables you to create and store memories.
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Health Hack: Ditch the Processed Food
Processed foods can cause inflammation in the lining of our GI tract, the exact place where food is absorbed. Your gut may not recognize what you’ve eaten as digestible food and instead interprets the presence of foods like high-fructose corn syrup or artificial ingredients as an “attacker.” This sets off an inflammatory response in which our bodies are literally fighting these foods as if they were an infection. Sticking to whole foods such as whole fruits, veggies, and unprocessed meats, can lower the stress this creates on your body.
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Vinnie’s Returns August 1 & He’s Up to Something
Vinnie Returns on August 1st – He’s on summer recess and his poor mom doesn’t catch a break. LOL
Writer’s Wisdom: Practice Your Craft
“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it. ” Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Worth While ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Worth While
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
It is easy enough to be pleasant
When life flows by like a song,
But the man worth while is the one who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble,
And it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth the praises of earth
Is the smile that shines through tears.
It is easy enough to be prudent
When nothing tempts you to stray,
When without or within no voice of sin
Is luring your soul away;
But it’s only a negative virtue
Until it is tried by fire,
And the life that is worth the honour on earth
Is the one that resists desire.
p. 2By the cynic, the sad, the fallen,
Who had no strength for the strife,
The world’s highway is cumbered to-day—
They make up the sum of life;
But the virtue that conquers passion,
And the sorrow that hides in a smile—
It is these that are worth the homage on earth,
For we find them but once in a while.
