Over the last two weeks together, we’ve explored two of the most critical aspects of longevity and anti-aging: having a reason to live (with your close relationships, purpose and passion in life) and eating a healthy, balanced diet full of bright, colorful fruits and vegetables (with all kinds of nutrients that help keep you and your skin looking young and vibrant). One of the most well-known success principles is the 80/20 principle – the principle being that 80% of your results stem from just 20% of your actions – clearly making those actions the most effective ones available to you. When you take this to heart and start looking for those 20% of activities that lead to 80%+ of your results, you start seeing results…period.

What single practice do you think could lead to massive results in health, fitness and energy levels – with very little time commitment?

…Exercise! Specifically, weight lifting and resistance training.

Here’s one of the key longevity tie-ins: bone mass and development. One of the key concerns that comes with aging is the breakdown of bone strength and durability, leading to potential fractures and injuries. Weight training is one of the most effective ways to keep your bone strength and development up in a healthy, active range – for life. Besides that, you’ll be working on muscle strength and development at the same time. The combination of muscle and bone strength and development is what allows us to remain active and youthful. It could be moving heavy rocks while gardening, taking a nature hike, or fueling a vigorous 7-day kayaking adventure. Whatever you’re up to in life, you want to focus on the small number of effective actions that can give you the results you’re looking for.

If  you’ve been reading for some time, you may remember our discussion on HGH and cortisol levels in the body. What this really came down to was that a vigorous, 20-something-minute workout was enough to dramatically increase the body’s production of Human Growth Hormone, often dubbed the “master hormone” of the human body – responsible for growth, maintenance and a host of other responsibilities. This means more muscle strength and development, less bodyfat, more balanced hormones, stronger libido and even a higher outlook on life (Landmark Study by L. Cass Terry, M.D., Ph.D. and Edmund Chein, M.D.).

Here’s one more key question: What story are you telling yourself about why you can’t be weight training every week?

For some, the story may be “I’m too overweight or out of shape”, “I’m too old”, “I don’t know how”, or even “I’d be too embarrassed going to the gym”. Others might claim the story of “I can’t afford it”. Truth be told, I’m not currently holding a gym membership myself. I workout with dumbbells and barbells in the exercise corner of the basement – or go old-school with pullups and pushups, tried-and-true classics. But you know what? It works. Whatever story you think is valid, really start to question what comes up in your mind. You’ll know if it’s a temporary, legitimate reason you shouldn’t be weight training or whether it’s an excuse – or chain of excuses. I’m just here to break that story apart for you and get you working out, so you can live the longevity lifestyle by my side; may we all be laughing about life together in our 120’s ;)

Unleash Your Vitality,

John Brackett

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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

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You guessed it: it’s that time of year again (for those of us here in the US). December, when things start getting a little colder outside and we find ourselves spending more and more of our time inside. There’s no problem with this in and of itself, but it does mean that we need to find more ways to start getting active, keeping up both our personal energy levels and our immune systems. The best way? Get moving! Here are 3 quick reasons to start getting in motion with a new personal fitness ritual or routine:

3) Longevity & Vitality

Multiple long-term studies have shown that those who exercise and enjoy an active lifestyle can expect to live a few more healthier years than their less-active peers (one study averages at about 3.5 extra years). How much would you treasure those few extra years of life? The ability to enjoy quality time with your grandchildren and pursue your passions? It’s absolutely worth it, but that may only motivate the long-term thinkers out there. Here are the other 2 reasons, with much more tangible effects:

2) Never Getting Sick

What I mean here is that exercise is the “pump” for our lymph system. Vigorous exercise and deep breathing stimulates lymph flow, which moves out all the toxins, viruses, etc; challenging workouts literally pump out the garbage from our bodies! Note that it comes out in many different ways, including your sweat – which is the #1 reason on the list of why to shower after a workout ;) Regular exercise dramatically enhances your immune system and gets your lymph system up and running, so you’ll definitely want to stay active this winter!

1) Mental Clarity & Energy

My personal #1 reason to exercise is the extraordinary mental clarity that comes immediately with any vigorous, stimulating workout. A 30-45 minute workout at the gym will do it for sure, but you can get the “mental clarity” effect dramatically in 2 minutes or less. Here’s how: jumping rope and jumping jacks. The movement of these 2 exercises gets you active, increases your heart rate, stimulates lymph flow and clears your “mental fog” right out of your head in no time. If you’re ever in one of those situations where you wake up in a fog and need some clarity quick, just try these two together (maybe 1 minute of one and 1 minute of the other). You’ll be blown away by the simplicity, but mostly by the effects.

I’ll personally do just these two exercises before sitting down to work at the computer in the morning, and then have an all-out, scheduled workout later in the afternoon. I find that the combination gives me extreme mental clarity and boundless energy all day to get done what I’m really after. For these reasons, mental clarity & energy constitute my #1 reason to exercise today, and sum up the true value of personal fitness.

I hope this will get the gears turning for you and that you’ll consider committing to a regular workout schedule for the wintertime here in the US. It’s a great time of year, and staying healthy, clear and full of energy will only help you to enjoy it more!

Unleash Your Vitality,

John Brackett

Unleash Your Vitality,

John Brackett

Nerve vitality is simply the health of our nerves- their ability to carry the impulses that allow us to “feel” and experience the world around us. What most people don’t know is that increasing your nerve vitality is one of the most powerful ways to secure a strong life of longevity! Think about it. When you increase your ability to “feel” with your senses, you feel more alive! Have you ever jumped into an ice-cold waterfall or a freezing pool or river? How alive did that make you feel? In that moment, did you feel all your worries and troubles wash away and leave feeling refreshed and renewed? When you subject yourself to cold or hot temperatures beyond your comfort zone, you’re actively increasing your nerve vitality, or again what I like to think of as your ability to feel.

So what’s this simple longevity trick that leaves you feeling more alive instantly? It’s to turn that comfortable, warm shower over to a revitalizing ice-cold blast for just a few seconds! That’s it! You just let the cold, invigorating water flow over your body and wake up every last cell that may have been a little sluggish and tired. Before your mind tells you that this is too quick and easy to be effective, consider this: with that one simple action, you’re sending a powerful rush of blood through your body, challenging it to adapt to a new environment, increasing your nerve vitality, and taking one more step toward living a long, healthy life! The strong blood flow encouraged by this habit is also one of the reasons for increasing longevity- we all know that poor blood flow isn’t the answer to unlimited energy in our daily lives!

Alright, we can all see the long-term effects laid out above (and they’re impressive)…but what’s the immediate effect of these few seconds? Feeling more alive! In fact, feeling dramatically more alive. I invite you to challenge yourself to try this technique just once the next time you’re in the shower (or if you happen to have access to a refreshing waterfall, lake, river or pool). I promise that you’ll instantly feel more alive and exhilarated, and that it’s also a powerful step in taking charge of your own personal energy, longevity, and ability to feel good all the time!

Unleash Your Vitality,

John Brackett

P.S. Leave a quick comment below and let me know if this tip left you feeling more alive! I’d love to hear from you