Healthy habits to start can be overwhelming. Especially when you have aging on the line 😂 Aging is inevitable, and while it is going to happen, you can do easy things everyday to help you age gracefully. 

Skincare routine

You know I love skincare and if you don’t have a skincare routine yet, this is a healthy habit to start now! It can be very overwhelming to start a skincare routine. Trust me, I know. It took a while for me to start one and I am still perfecting it. 

Hopefully right now you are at least washing your face. That is a must. Throughout the day, we get dirt, grime, and bacteria on our skin and it’s important to wash it off before going to sleep. Consider also washing your face in the morning, as we could sweat during the night or have product left over on our face that doesn’t need to be on throughout the day. Let’s get into a quick guide to starting skincare.

Face Wash

This is the most known step of skincare and is quite simple. A face wash cleanser cleans your face, getting it ready for the application of your other products. It is best to double cleanse, meaning you wash your face twice. You will want to start with an oil-based cleanser first to get oil-based impurities (makeup, sunscreen, etc.) and excess sebum off of the face. The second cleanser should be water-based so that it can get water-based impurities (sweat and dirt) off of the face. 

Oil-based cleansers:

• The Ordinary Squalane Cleaner

Water-based cleansers:

• The Ordinary Glucoside Foaming Cleanser

Exfoliant

An exfoliant removes dead skin cells and reveals fresh, new ones. This would be step two of your skincare. Exfoliating will help you age gracefully because it stimulates the synthesis of collagen. When you first start exfoliating your face (and neck!) you will want to start with doing it once a week. Once your skin starts to get used to it, you can slowly work your way to doing it everyday or every other day. Try using a chemical exfoliant and wait 10-15 minutes before putting on the next product. 

Good exfoliants:

• The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution
• The Ordinary Lactic Acid 5% + HA
• The Ordinary Salicylic Acid 2% Solution 

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is a serum you can put on your face that will brighten, balance hyperpigmentation, and promote the growth of collagen. This is optional, of course, but has many benefits that will help you age gracefully.

Good vitamin C serums: 

•  The Ordinary Ascorbyl Glucoside Solution 12%
•  Dr. Dennis Gross Vitamin C Lactic 15% Firm & Bright Serum

Moisturizer

Of course, we want to finish off our skincare routine with a facial moisturizer. This hydrates the skin, keeping its elasticity in check. When our skin gets dry, it is more likely to crinkle and wrinkle and we don’t want that. 

Good facial moisturizers:

•  The Ordinary Natural Moisturizing Factors + PhytoCeramides
• The Ordinary Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA

Daily movement

Have you ever heard that strength training is the fountain of youth? If not, instill it in your brain because it is. Not only will strength training keep you looking young, it will also keep your body the healthiest it can be. Try adding some dumbbell exercises to your daily routine.

However, strength training isn’t for everyone and that’s okay. As long as you are getting movement throughout your day, you are in good shape. It will help you age gracefully, it will help you feel good, and it will keep you active for longer. 

Here are some ideas to get daily movement:

• Try walking ten to thirty minutes a day.
• Get outside and garden.
• Push mow your lawn.
• Play outside with your dog.
• Walk to get your mail.
• Take the stairs when accessible.

Limited sun exposure

You know how I feel about the sun. Being one of the main causes of collagen breakdown (which is a major skin protein), excess sun exposure will not help you age gracefully. Limiting your sun exposure will keep your skin looking youthful and fresh. 

I’m not saying that the sun is the worst thing ever. It’s not. It has wonderful benefits, helping plants grow, keeping up warm, and giving us vitamin D. However, the sun also has UV rays which are very damaging to our skin. 

If you love laying out in the sun, that’s great, however, if you can avoid laying out between 10am and 4pm you will be doing yourself a favor years from now. It is actually really good for your skin to get sun in the morning. During sunrise and about 2 hours after, the sun gives off infrared light, which actually helps to stimulate collagen production. This will keep your skin firm and glowing. 

Be picky about when you are out in the sun. If you are out during the day, consider wearing a mineral sunscreen or a sun hat to protect your skin. I am currently loving DRMTLGY’s Universal Tinted Moisturizer SPF 46 because it keeps my skin hydrated while also protecting it from the sun. Check it out if you are interested in a light weight, no white cast spf. 

Get enough quality sleep

While this seems like a no brainer, you would be surprised by the amount of people who don’t get enough quality sleep. Everyone needs to have between 7 and 9 hours of sleep a night. 

I know it can be hard to stop scrolling on the phone, but that can be one of the biggest reasons people don’t get enough sleep. Not only can scrolling go on for hours, the blue light from your phone will also keep you awake. Blue light usually boosts alertness and promotes wakefulness. This is not something we need when we are trying to go to sleep.

Try going to bed earlier. If you are a night owl, this one can be hard. If you go to bed earlier, you will give yourself more time to fall asleep and more time for a deep, quality sleep.

Not getting enough sleep at night can actually make your cells age faster, which is not what we want. We want to get enough sleep and age gracefully. 

Limit stress in your life

You can’t always avoid stressful situations that come into your life. However, you can control how you react to them. It is easy to get worked up and stressed when something goes wrong in your life. It’s hard to remain calm and positive. 

Studies have found that when you chronically have stress in your body, the telomeres in your cells shorten faster, causing your cells to age faster. Aging starts at a cellular level, so we need to take the health of our cells into consideration. 

Follow the 80/20 eating rule

When it comes to eating, it is smart to follow the 80/20 rule. If you are not familiar with this, it stands for 80% of the time eating healthy and 20% of the time eating what you want.This is a good way to balance your eating so that you are never depriving yourself. 

When it comes to eating and aging, there is a big correlation. When you are eating a lot of food that is processed, full of sugar, or fried, you are causing your body to create a ton of oxidative stress. Oxidative stress, or free radicals, break down your existing collagen. This will cause aging more quickly. 

Eating whole, nutritious foods contain the vitamins and minerals we need to keep our cells healthy. Many fruits and vegetables are filled with vitamin C, which promotes collagen production. This will help us age gracefully by keeping our skin youthful and glowing. 

Avoid eating processed and added sugar, as it is a collagen killer. It will break down the collagen that keeps our face tight and firm. 

Avoid smoking and excess alcohol consumption

This should be a given as smoking and alcohol both have negative side effects. When you smoke cigarettes, it will age you faster than if you don’t. This is because when you smoke, your levels of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) increase. When these levels increase, it causes collagen to break down. This will cause wrinkles and fine lines. Smoking also heavily dries out your skin, making it hard for the skin to absorb facial moisturizer. Dry skin reduces the plumpiness of the skin cells and can cause wrinkles and fine lines. 

Excessive alcohol consumption (which can be as little as 3 drinks a day) can cause you to age faster. This is because it dehydrates you, making your skin dry and wrinkly, and more importantly, it can damage the DNA in the telomeres in your cells. These do not help you age gracefully and should be avoided. 

Conclusion

These are 7 simple, healthy habits to start now so that you can age gracefully. Aging is inevitable and not something to dread. There are healthy, holistic ways to slow the effects of aging. Even if you don’t care about wrinkles and fine lines, these are still habits that will make you feel good. 

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