Getting skin deep – how to age GRACEFULLY.

Smooth, healthy, glowy, radiant, and crispy (if chicken). This is how we want our skin to look like. But skin can also be irritated, uneven, dry, itchy or filled with spots and acne. The amounts of dollar dollar bills y’all we spend on expensive skin care products and treatments with the hope to cure our skin problems overnight is crazy, (and might actually be a big waste of money). What we tend to overlook is that there’s more to the skin than the surface, and we need to go skin deep to really get that Instagram filter glow. So let’s uncover the basics to get healthy skin from the inside out.

What is skin?

Besides being the entire thing that holds this meat bag of a body together, our skin is also the largest organ of our body. I mean, imagine if we didn’t have skin. Meat markets running wild! The skin’s job is to regulate body temperature, protect us from bacteria, vitamin D absorption, and give us the sensation of cold and hot. Let’s say you’re chilling with your hand on a hot stove top, because I mean who doesn’t do that? Without the skin and the sensation of touch you would literally burn off those hands of yours. Saucy.

Healthy skin

How your diet affects your skin

When we talk about skin health we refer to clean, elastic, nutrient, and hydrated skin. A lack of these will result in premature aging which shows up as wrinkles, dryness, hanging, and brittle skin. Besides the shallow results of skin aging, we are more prone to diseases or skin tears as the skin ages which obviously isn’t so great. By keeping a healthy lifestyle and especially making sure you get all the good stuff through a healthy diet you can significantly push back the aging clock. Baby face forever, baby!

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is the skin’s love child. Our skin loves it and needs it. Vitamin E is an antioxidant which protects our skin against the UV damage from the sun and increase collagen production. Get your daily dose from almonds, leafy greens, avocados, bell peppers, and mangoes. Make sure you eat your vitamin E together with a fat source (avocados is a great choice since it contains both vitamin E and fat) since the vitamin is fat soluble – meaning the body absorbs it better together with fat. 

Vitamin A

If you’re a skin fanatic you have probably stumbled across the holy grail of skin care – retinol. Retinol is essentially just vitamin A. Just more concentrated and processed into an oil or cream, packaged into a fancy packaging, and extremely overpriced.

Lycopene, this amazing antioxidant found in red and orange foods such as tomatoes,carrots, sweet potatoes, watermelon, red bell peppers, mangoes, and grapefruits turns into vitamin A as it enters our body. Vitamin A promotes a healthy glow to the skin as well as protects and prevents damages and sunburns from UV rays. Almost like a self protectant sunscreen (even though you should ALWAYS slap on that SPF daily!!). Just like vitamin E, vitamin A is also a fat soluble vitamin. Make a pasta sauce with tomatoes and olive oil, roast some sweet potatoes or have some watermelon with almonds as a snack – to look like a snack.

Vitamin C

We are all familiar with vitamin C. From oranges to multivitamins, we’ve been exposed to this guy since we were children. So, does vitamin C deserve the hype? Of course it does. Vitamin C is a vitamin our body can’t store which means that we need to get it through our diet every single day. We need this vitamin to strengthen our immune system, repair bones and skin tissue, and protect us against free radicals. Good thing about Vitamin C is that it’s water soluble which means your body absorbs it just fine by itself. Finding a good source of vitamin C isn’t that hard either. Basically every fruit and vegetable contains some amounts of Vitamin C, but keep an extra eye on red bell peppers, kiwis, leafy greens, berries, broccoli, I’m honestly not kidding when I say most fruits and veggies contains the sweet C.

Omega 3

If it ain’t thick we don’t want it. Thick in this instance means fat, the healthy kind. That cute fat from fatty fish, avocados, and nuts that also packs all that good omega 3 which makes our skin radiate brighter than a radiator. Omega 3s are the moisturizer that does the job form the inside out. 

Healthy skin

Protein

Bob the builder, legos, and proteins all have one thing in common. Building blocks, baby! From our DNA to our collagen levels and muscle growth, protein plays a huge part in our body and skin. Collagen is found in animal protein and gives structure to skin, bones, and joints and essential for keeping our skin smooth an youthful. I know that eating animals is a controversial topic, but the best quality collagen can only be found in animal products. Bone broth, chicken,fish, and eggs provides the highest collagen production in our body. But you can also get that good stuff by filling up on berries and dark leafy greens.

Antioxidants

Antioxidants, meaning anti oxidation is a set of different vitamins that our skin needs to reduce inflammation and repair itself. Foods rich in phytochemicals (a type of antioxidant) makes our skin more resistant to environmental damage such as free radicals, pollution, and UV rays. A great rule of thumb when looking for antioxidant rich foods is to go for foods with dark pigments. All kinds of berries, especially blueberries and blackberries. Dark leafy greens, purple cabbage, beets (not the ones by Dre), pomegranate seeds, green tea, dark chocolate. Just think dark reds, greens, blues, and purples. Like Kendrick Lamar would say, the blacker the berry the sweeter the juice.

A diet rich in antioxidants protects your skin from cell and collagen damage and makes this vitamin one of the most affective anti aging foods. Don’t sleep on your antioxidants!

Healthy skin

H2O

Hydration is cool and I can’t trust people who say they don’t like water. Seriously, what the hell?! Water is essential for us to literally live, and besides the keeping us alive factor it also works miracles on our skin. When we don’t drink enough water our body will prioritize keeping our inner and most vital organs hydrated such as our liver and kidneys. This means that our skin takes a big L which results in dry, lifeless skin.

Exercise

Working up a sweat isn’t only good for your heart and your biceps but also for your skin. Exercising stimulates blood and oxygen flow to nourish the skin cells to give you a more elastic, glowy, and youthful face. Your daily sweat feast also helps to remove toxins and waste products from the body. Look at that, yet another good reason to start exercising! Just make sure to get a good shower after your workout and not let the sweat soak into your skin to clog your pores…

Aging. It’s a beautiful yet terrifying thing. We don’t hate the idea of growing older but we’re not that fond of looking the part. Unfortunately we can’t escape the aging process, yet. Who knows what Elon Musk cooks up in the near future… But in the time being, we can do our best to age gracefully and keeping our baby face as long as we possibly can.

https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/picture-of-the-skin

https://medcraveonline.com/JDC/the-role-of-diet-in-maintaining-healthy-skin.html

https://www.aad.org/public/everyday-care/skin-care-secrets/anti-aging/reduce-premature-aging-skin

Everyday habits that make us age faster

When we’re young and alert we don’t often dedicate a thought towards aging. We are out here living our bests life, and then all of a sudden we discover a wrinkle or a grey hair and we go bananas. Not that I’ve experienced my first grey hair yet, so I’m actually not the one to talk, but this is how I imagine I’d react. I’ll just start throwing a tantrum with bananas. Everything we do, from the day we are born until our first grey hair (well, actually until we die) determines how fast and how gracefully we age. That smoking and keeping an unhealthy lifestyle speed up the aging process most of us know, but what about the every day habits we do that makes us age faster?

Don’t worry, be happy

By singing Bobby McFerrin’s catchy song phrase “don’t worry, be happy” you’ll slow down your aging process tremendously! Wishful thinking, I know, but to smile, being optimistic, and looking at the bright side of life will press the pause button on aging. The power of the mind is more effective than we think and by giggling and sharing laughs you’ll both feel and look amazing.

aging

Tame your sweet tooth

Sugar is something hard to resist. Being a major sweet tooth back in the days myself, I can confirm this. Unfortunately you won’t look sweeter the more sweets you eat, especially not when it’s in the form of processed white sugar. Sugar spikes our insulin, and when this happens to often it puts our body under stress which results in premature aging. Not only does it increase our insulin dramatically, but sugar also has the sneaky habit of attacking our protein fibers within our cells leading to wrinkles. Because of this sugar is one of the worst things for our skin. It’s sad, but unfortunately true.

Of course there’s a difference between sugars and sugars. Natural fruit sugars from real unprocessed fruit provide us with vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Candy, cookies, and sweet drinks are the kind of bad sugar you want to cut down on. Remember that sugar is sneaky, and we can find it in unexpected places such as bread, yogurt, and cereal. Always read the ingredient labels.

Low fat diets

Now you might be thinking, “hell yes, bring on the french fries and nuggets!”, but no. That’s not the fat I’m talking about. It’s important to separate the different fat categories. We have healthy fats and we have unhealthy fats. Healthy fats like avocado, nuts, seeds, and olive oil contains omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin E and proteins which all work together to make our skin moisturized and smooth from the inside out. Healthy fats are also important because they make our bodies absorb other vitamins such as vitamin A and K, which both support a lot crucial functions in our body, not to mention keeping us looking young.

Binge watching Netflix

Well, it’s not actually the Netflix itself which makes us age, but more that we sit down. The more you sit, the more does your mortality rate go up. We know that movement is important for a healthy and long life, but the sitting itself can also increase the risk for blood clots and heart disease. But don’t go out and get scared of sitting down, there’s a lot of small things we can do to fit in movement in our daily habits.

Get yourself a standing desk at work, take brakes and walk around, stretch the first 10 minutes of watching TV, fill up your water bottle at the water cooler on another floor, etc. Get creative! We all know how we could improve our movements, we’re just lazy. It’s also important to have a steady exercise routine. By working out you add a lot of years, youth, and a healthier mind to your life.

aging

Sun bathing like your life depends on it

Suns out, buns out. We go all crazy as soon as summer sneaks up around the corner and the first sun rays hits our pale, winter derived skin. Do have in mind that every time you work on your tan you are speeding up the aging process tremendously. The strong UV rays from the sun are our skins worst enemy! I mean sure, the sun provides us with healthy vitamin D, but too much of the D will turn against us. Okay, it’s not the D vitamin to worry about, I just had to make a corny joke. It’s the UV rays we need to be careful of, and too much of their direct exposure to our skin is very dangerous.

Make sure to always use sun screen! Even in winter, especially on your face. Think about it, the sun is always shining no matter if there’s clouds blocking it. And because these rays are so strong, they still hit your face causing UV damage. Love your face! Use sun screen.

Exercising too much

Yes, exercising is one of the most important things we can do for our health and longevity, but as with everything, too much of a good thing can actually have the opposite effect. When we exercise too much we increase our cortisol levels, our bodies natural stress hormone. By putting to much stress on our body over a long period of time will speed up the aging process by causing insomnia, increase the chance for depression, and memory loss. Increased levels of cortisol might also be the culprit to why you’re not loosing that stubborn belly fat. When our body is stressed if holds on to fat as a survival instinct. So no, training too hard without the proper nutrition and recovery is deadly to us.

aging

Not getting your daily veggies in

We’ve been taught since we were young little shits that fruit and vegetables are extremely healthy and that we should eat more of them. Not only are they healthy, but they are crucial to aging gracefully and knocking away disease. Fruit and vegetables contains phytogens, a powerful antioxidant only found in plants which attacks free radicals and fights against cell damage. THey might not look much for the world, but plants are the most nutritious and disease fighting medicine we can eat. And we can eat them on a daily basis! It’s kind of mind blowing to think that every time we eat we have the power to fight or feed disease.

Now some of you might be thinking that it’s not as yummy as McDonald’s, but it’s all about what your taste buds are used to. Vegetables are easy to sneak into your meals. Add grated carrots to your bolognese sauce, sprinkle some berries on top of your cereal in the morning, and always add a salad to your meals. Eating more fruit and vegetables doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice anything else. It’s all about adding more nutrients, not taking anything away.

aging faster

Nourish your inner child

On paper we’re supposed to be and act a certain way depending on our age. This is pure stupidity! A number on a paper doesn’t determine when you should loose your imagination, stop playing, or take on crazy ideas with your friends. Never ever loose your inner child. Stay young and crazy, just in a more, responsible way depending on your environment.

By keeping your playfulness you’ll actually become more creative and more keen to solve problems in your career. Why? Because you won’t have a fixed mind. Children are bold, they try things, and they learn from it. Keep this mentality as long as you possibly can! Societies worst weapon is to silent our inner children. Don’t fall for the bullshit.

Don’t stress it

Last, but definitely not least I want to tell you to stop worry. Stop stress over the fact that we are getting older. As long as you’re focusing on staying healthy, feeling happy, and nourishing your soul with social relationships you will be fine. Aging is a part of life, and the more we try to deny it or cover it up the more it will show. Simple as that.

So get our in the world, grab it by the balls, live your best life while making better choices for yourself. Let’s become sexy old farts together!

https://bestlifeonline.com/faster-aging-habits/

https://www.nia.nih.gov/about/advances-aging-research

https://brightside.me/inspiration-health/10-everyday-habits-that-make-you-age-faster-239010/

https://www.journals.elsevier.com/ageing-research-reviews/recent-articles