15 Important Tips to Help You Look & Feel Younger for Longer
Adesua Iyoyojie
“Wow! Are you really 40 or 50? You look beautiful and younger.” This is what most women love to hear.
We all want to grow older and wiser but no one wants to look old.
Looking young is not as difficult as coming across a unicorn, but it requires a disciplined and healthy lifestyle.
Old age is a natural process for everyone, we are all going to get old someday but some of us actually look old before we get old.
They are many factors that cause this abnormality, it is not a disease and not everyone must look their age.
The wrinkles, age spots, and all the tell tale signs of aging will happen to everyone eventually. One day you look in the mirror and realize that you arenât going to look 25 forever. This is when most people decide that they must start taking care of their skin.
You can look younger, if you avoid some things and embrace a particularly healthy lifestyle.
Here are some tips to help you look younger for longer:
1. Make up
There are times you look older because of the makeup you apply.
Your skin colour permits a colour of foundation but you use the wrong one.
Your lips permits a cool colour but you decide to apply a wild colour.
Always know what compliments your skin and go for it.
Just because other women use it doesn’t mean it will go well with your skin color.
Know what works for you.
Sometimes applying bare make up makes you look younger.
There are also times you should allow your face breathe free of makeup.
2. Fashion sense
Some of us don’t know what suits our bodies.
If you are plus sized, it is best not to wear clothes that makes you look like you robbed a kindergarten store, it makes you look like you are trying too hard to look younger.
For big women aka ‘orobo’, look for clothes that will make you walk and breath freely. You can also wear clothes to accentuate your best bits.
For slim women, wear clothes that fit your body stature.
3. Over exposure to sun
Exposure to the sun is one of the biggest factors that cause premature aging of the skin. This is why hawkers, construction workers, people that work outside struggle with major aging of the face.  Sun exposure accounts for about 70 percent of the skin aging process. The radiation from the sun ruins the collagen fibers in our skin via oxidation. Once the elastic fibers of collagen become hard and brittle, their basic structure is destroyed in a process called solar elastosis, and the skin becomes hard-looking and dried out.
This accelerated oxidation process also damages the genetic material in the cells of our skin and causes an abnormal division of the cells. This means excessive sun exposure can increase the risk of skin cancer as well as leading to tough, hard, rough, wrinkled skin. Although we all need some sun exposure for vitamin D, you donât need to exposure your delicate facial skin to the sun. Wear a hat and sunglasses while you get your early morning sunshine, and avoid sun exposure when radiation levels are at the highest â usually between 10 and 3 p.m.
4. Diet
When your diet lacks the basic nutrients to keep the skin healthy it begins to look pale.
Some people have never eaten a fruit in their lives, they feed on junks instead.
Add more fruits to your diet
The bad side of it is, the effect won’t show in your 20s or 30s, it’s when you clock 40 your skin begins to react to the lack of nutrients.
Vegetables and fruits that are high in vitamin C also help the body make collagen. Berries, such as blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries, are all high in both vitamin C and antioxidants. Eat a diet rich in the foods provided by Mother Nature, for your most beautiful skin ever.
Stay hydrated all the time. Drinking water must be your habit if you want to stay looking young. Some swear by the 8 glasses of water/day rule. Although uncommon, it’s possible to drink too much water. When your kidneys can’t excrete the excess water, the sodium content of your blood is diluted (hyponatremia) â which can be life-threatening.
5. Excessive sugar consumption
When your blood sugar levels spike, it starts a process called glycation. This process can cause permanent damage to the collage of the skin. Once collagen becomes damaged due to glycation, your skin begins to show this damage via fine lines and wrinkles. Skin begins to lose its natural elasticity and firmness and begins to sag.
Limit your sugar consumption and find other ways to sweeten your life, such as fresh fruits.
 6. Smoking
There are two major reasons why smokers look older than their age. The first things to show are the fine lines where the skin is very thin, such as the corners of the eyes and above the upper lip. This is due to the constant use of the muscles to pull a drag off of a cigarette. When you constantly pucker your mouth, those lines begin to make a permanent crease, like folding a piece of paper over and over again. The second reason lies in the lower levels of vitamin C in smokersâ blood, which is more than 60 percent lower on average when compared to non-smokers. Vitamin C is vital for the production of collagen in the skin, which keeps the skin supple and smooth. Once collagen disappears or is damaged, the skin begins to sag. Find a way to quit. Today.
READ ALSO: 50 Year Old Woman Who Looks Twenty Reveals âSecretâ to her Youthful Look
7. Sleep positions
Believe it or not, sleeping with your face pressed against the pillow forms small lines and wrinkles that will eventually become permanently on your face. Sleeping on your side will cause wrinkles to appear on the cheeks and chin area. Ideally, sleeping on your back is the best way to stop wrinkles that form from creases that occur when you sleep in other positions.
8. Lack of proteinÂ
A low-protein diet means that you are basically living on simple carbs, which your body turns into sugar. This can cause the connective tissues of the skin to become rigid and hard. Your body needs protein to make tissues that support the skin and keep it soft. Without protein, your body cannot produce elastin fibers, collagen, and hyaluronic acid, all of which are vital for the appearance of fresh, youthful skin. Eat more protein, especially complete proteins, for younger-looking skin.
 9. Lack of exercise
Your body needs to burn out the unwanted calories and stay fit.
Exercising is not for overweight people alone.
Every one needs exercise.
10. Depression
You might not think that your state of mind has anything to do with the aging of your skin, but it does! Prolonged feelings of depression  have been found in studies to cause a shortening of our telomeres, which are the very ends of our DNA strands. When our telomeres become shorter, this affects the DNA in every cell in the body, stopping the division of cells and premature cell death. This causes an accelerated gain of cells in the tissues of the body where cells divide rapidly and provide new growth – this would be the skin and hair. Depression also interferes with hormone production, increasing stress hormones. Many people with depression also neglect themselves in other ways, such as not eating properly, not getting enough sleep, and neglecting their personal hygiene.
11. Excessive alcohol
Although a moderate amount of alcohol (One drink per day for women and two drinks for men) is good for you and provides your body with health benefits, excessive alcohol causes damage to both the skin color and texture, especially around the eyes and nose. Excessive drinking causes permanent dark circles under the eyes, bulging eyes, a bloated face, and broken capillaries around the nose, giving it a rather red, bulbous appearance. Excessive drinking breaks down the tissues deep in the skin and causes permanent damage. Limit your alcohol intake, and save your skin from further damage.
READ ALSO: Kate Henshaw Reveals Why She Hasnât Taken Ill in Five Years
 12. Stress
Everyone experiences stress on some level, but high level of stress  increase the production of stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, which accelerate the aging process. Stress hormones can inhibit the normal synthesis of connective tissue, cause damage to bone density, and cause other types of changes in the bone structure. Excessive, chronic stress can permanently alter your features! Learn to limit your stress and find ways to manage the stress you cannot avoid, such as RESTING
Give your body a break
13. Lack of sleep
Your body repairs the skin and makes new cells while you sleep. When you are in the deepest stages of sleep, the pituitary gland makes growth hormones, vital for connective tissues and the renewal of skin. In fact, deep sleep is one of the few times your body makes these growth hormones. Although everyone has a sleepless night every now and then, prolonged lack of sleep  leads to accelerated aging, among other health problems. Arrange your schedule so that you get between seven and nine hours of sleep most nights. If you have trouble turn off all screens including computers, cell phones, tablets, and televisions, as these lights interfere with our sleep.
 14. GeneticsÂ
If your parents developed age spots or grey hair while they were in their 20s, chances are you will as well. So although you canât change your genetics, you can find external ways to lessen the damage to your skin, such as by not smoking and getting plenty of rest, as well as by eating your way towards better skin by consuming more foods that have their own antioxidants. Your genes might not be up for repairing your skin the way someone else’s might, but you can eat your own way towards better looking skin. Consume plenty of rich foods such as organic fruits and vegetables every single day.
15. Always smile
Your facial expressions will make wrinkles come out faster or later.
Go ahead and make the necessary lifestyle changes. If you have any more tips to help us stay longer, please share with us in the comment section.
Woa! You said it all, but you forgot to mention water, drinking of warm water first thing in the morning very essential. Thanks MIM for keeping us up-to-date
Thanks MIM.