100 Ways to Live to 100 - Part 1

I was thinking about age lately - I guess because August is around the corner, and it happens to be the month in which I once celebrated birthdays.

The really, really wonderful thing is that there is pure truth in the words “Today’s 30 is yesterday’s 40…. today’s 40 is yesterday’s 50, etc….”  Not only are we learning how to add quality to our years, we’re learning how to add quanity as well.

In honor of the upcoming month in which I once partied hearty and will now hardly party, I’ll be posting a series of posts about living longer and better. Each post will list things that can help us to one day sit in front of a cake with 100 candles and (maybe with a little help) blow them out. 

1. Have a pet or pets.  Having dogs and/or cats lowers blood pressure, reduces stress and even increases your chances for recovering from a serious illness. 
2. Forget about retirement!  Staying active mentally and physically well beyond the age of 65 will lead to better health and wealth.  If you’re “pushed out” of one door, keep looking until you find another door swinging open.
3. Don’t roll your eyes when told to drink more water.  We should all drink at least 8 glasses a day.  This is something that I, personally, need to really work on. Tea, coffee and Diet Dr. Pepper are just SO much more alluring.
4. Get into the soy habit.  Soy” target=”_blank”>Soy lowers blood pressure AND cholesterol.  As if that’s not enough reason to give it a go (and it is), Soy” target=”_blank”>soy also reduces the risk of blood clots.
5. Control stress.  This one’s so obvious it hardly needs mentioning, right?  Hardly. This is usually the area most people fail miserably in.  I’m not sure if we just accept stress as a part of life or if we get so used to it that we don’t even recognize the symptoms anymore.  The abnormal begins to feel normal.  TMFC has some great articles and lists a lot of helpful resources for dealing with stress.
6. Walk more!  I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on about longevity and health - preparing for these posts as well as a series of articles on TMFC, and everything (I mean everything!) agrees - walking and good health go hand in hand.  There are added benefits if you walk outdoors in the fresh air and enjoy God’s beautiful world with each step
7. Exercise your mind.  With each Sudoku and crossword puzzles you work, you ward off mental decline. 
8. Read more QUALITY books.  Don’t let paperback romance books, gossip magazines (I know, I know - I love them, too.), the sports page, and comic strips be the only things you ever read.  Read biographies, historical novels, National Geographic, Psychology Today, and the like.  The others are fine, as long as they aren’t your only literary diet. 
9. Marry well - and once you’re married, work on making it a happy marriage. A happy marriage lengthens your life-expectancy whereas an unhappy one shortens it.    
10. Floss your teeth.  This one still kind of surprises me.  Apparently flossing isn’t just good for your gums and teeth - it actually reduces your risk of heart disease and stroke.  Amazing.

11-20 will be waiting here for you tomorrow…..and if you like chocolate (okay, who doesn’t), you’ll have reason to rejoice.

BTW, of course I’m kidding about not celebrating my birthday anymore.  Every year is a gift and one that I’m overjoyed to open.  It’s just a female luxury - we willfully forget how to count after 39, and would dearly love it if you guys would do the same.  You know how the alphabet ends with Z? —- Well, 39 is a female’s Z. 

Joi