Alright – we’ve had some time to get clear and specific on our reason to live (cherishing our close relationships and doing what we love). Now, it’s time to get even more specific about how to keep your body in a state of peak physical performance (read “younger” and vibrant).

One of the easiest-to-implement tips out there – that’ll actually make a dramatic difference worth taking action on – is to make bright, colorful fruits and vegetables a regular part of your diet. Again, it’s simple and many people have heard it mentioned at least several times in their lives…but are you actually doing it? Are you actively purchasing a healthy variety of colorful fruits and vegetables every week when you go grocery shopping, and working them into your meals religiously? If not, there’s a divide between the knowledge you have and the actions you’re taking. Get to it!

The reasons are far and many, but among the top that resonates with people is the ability of the flavonoids found in these foods to help keep your skin young, elastic and radiant – never a bad thing! In fact, the condition of your skin – a vitally important organ and line of biological defense – is paramount to your health and longevity. The nutrients found within these colorful fruits and vegetables not only keep your skin healthy and glowing on the outside, but work from the inside-out. This is the difference between trying to “save yourself” and cover up from the outside-in with lotions and oils, and taking the time to eat the right things that work from the inside-out to deliver incredible internal health that works its way all the way back to the skin!

These same foods are also loaded with carotenoids and antioxidants, which will help keep you healthier and more energetic for years to come – as well as far less likely to suffer from many types of diseases. These foods not only give you exactly what you want in terms of quality of life and longevity, but in fact help to keep at bay the things you don’t want in your life! Not everything in life is a win-win combination, but this is one of those things.

So this week, load up your cart with colorful, vibrant fruits and vegetables and start enjoying the kind of life you deserve to live…for years longer than you thought you could!

Unleash Your Vitality,

John Brackett

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I couldn’t be more excited to be bringing you this special 3-part series on longevity and anti-aging! Longevity is one of the top, if not the top, interests and areas of research of mine that absolutely captivates me whenever I really start digging in.

We’re going to unearth several fascinating discoveries about longevity and living a long, healthy lifestyle – full of quality of life, just not years of aging. Parts 2 and 3 will come soon enough, so let’s take a look at Part 1 now:

What’s your reason to live?

That’s it. That huge piece of the longevity puzzle is now staring you right in the face. I see it over and over again when those vibrant, radiant 80 and 90 year olds get interviewed about how they’ve stayed so young. They’ll usually mention diet, but it’s never what they’re excited to share with everyone. What they’ll tell people, without hesitation, is that it’s all about having a reason to live – if you’ve got a powerful enough drive to stick around for awhile and make a difference, you’ll find a way to do it.

Interestingly enough, it’s this reason to live, this charge of the love of life, that actually keeps you healthy and vibrant now – as well as years down the road. It’s that huge factor that really determines your overall quality of life, affecting your body, mind, spirit, and emotional balance in every possible way. What is this reason to live? Can it be captured?

As I talk about in a chapter of my book “Why Is Weight Control So Difficult?” , intangible emotional comfort cannot be truly achieved through tangible means. You can’t take a yearning for love and connection to others and fill it with emotional comfort foods, no matter how much it seems to work in that moment. In the same way, your reason to live isn’t tangible – it’s an intangible feeling or experience.

For this reason, it comes down to relationships. It’s that relationship with your partner, with your family, with your friends…and with yourself. Your spiritual life, which many credit healthily to their longevity, really is about your relationship with yourself. From there, you’re able to truly enjoy your relationships with others.

But it’s also about doing what you love. Even with the best relationships, being stuck in a job you hate doing every day can take such a dramatic toll on your mind and body through unnecessary stress levels and so much more. It not only damages your own mind and body, but carries into all of your relationships. The best call for extreme longevity and anti-aging? Combining both for a driving, purposeful reason to live: cherishing your close relationships and doing what you love.

Check back next week for Part 2, where we’ll dive into more specifics on how to keep your mind and body in a state of peak performance…and stay years ahead of your peers!

Unleash Your Vitality,

John Brackett

Leave a comment below and share your thoughts, ideas and opinions on this post!

Unleash Your Vitality,

John Brackett