Who wants to live forever? (Immortality and longevity thoughts and techniques)

Christmas is gone and my birthday is approaching rapidly, in January next year. I'll be 45, which could mean that half of my life is gone. Optimistically speaking, also means that half of my life is still open to whatever surprises may come if I live up to 90. I am planning to reach 120, but some wild cards are still in there.

The only thing is, I am much more aware of the long-term impact of my decisions, seeing how my ability to heal and regenerate is slowing down a bit. I mean, fighting the flu and some tired legs and all my extra energy is used, taking up to a few days to start to improve? This is ridiculous. In my twenties, I could solve this overnight. This makes me plan my approach to different experiments and training more carefully, and be happy with just going 2-3 times a week at the gym, as muscle recovery is also a struggle, even with some shortcuts and life hacks (sauna and stuff, for example, to make it happen faster).

I presume aging makes you consider all your views about life. Still, what I noticed, there is always a disparity between how you see yourself and how you really are (the mental image of yourself is much better and full of hope than the reality). I notice this looking at some elderly clients, which physically cannot walk, for example. However, they are always trying to do it, as in their inner image, walking is still something normal to do, and they are not accepting the new reality.

I would be really interested to know what a person that is 70-80 years old thinks, as your body starts to be so frail, while your mind is still working 100%. I am looking at my grandma, for example, she is 94, still walking, still remembering her pre-war memories, and able to have a discussion about whatever subject. But her muscle mass is almost gone, even if her body is still working, and most of her internal organs are functioning at an average rate. Probably the whole key action is to accept that this is happening to you and find happiness in the small gestures, in the slowing down of everyday activity. But I do not think it will be easy. And now, while I am still at the height of my activity, physically speaking, I am still wasting time on so much nonsense. Maybe there is some wisdom in slowing down, think about the turtle, just by slowing down the metabolism, can live centuries. Maybe all those scientists working on the countdown theory are wrong (most probably they are not, and our body has indeed some program made to last for a definite number of days, years whatever).

The key to going through all this and emerging victorious, at least on some level, is to regenerate and heal faster, as this is in the end a game of numbers, and as long as you heal faster than your cells decay, you are still young. Not many tools to use, or I rather say not many decent tools to use.

Back to basics is a technique that I always liked, based on its simplicity. Sleep 7-9 hours, drink enough water to not be dehydrated, eat sensibly adding various sources of carbs, proteins, and healthy fats, with a healthy dose of fruits and vegs, and break a sweat a few days a week.

Using extremes to combat inflammation, and by this, I mean sauna and cold showers, is a proven method to improve the immune response and the mitochondrial activity at the cellular level.

Other than that, probably Tai Chi and Yoga are some good options to maintain your body flexible and strong until another theory is proven, thinking about a healthy and flexible spine as a key to keeping looking young ( we lose flexibility because we are getting old or we are getting old because we are losing flexibility?).

Adding random vitamins and minerals to your diet is a bit of hokum, a hit-and-miss, or as one of my teachers use to see, taking multivitamins to solve our problems has the grace of hunting some flies using a cannon. Just some expensive pxss. Yes, if you are missing something important, it is different, but taking all those vitamins just in case, even if it is not killing you, maybe a mistake. Just looking from the point of view of the intestinal flora, another key element is living a long and healthy life, and this should convince you to not do it. And, if you need some, a natural source will make them much easier to assimilate that an artificial one, unless you are in a hurry. Plants boosting health and tea are probably fine, as long as you are moderate. What can I say, I love my turmeric (anti-inflammatory and all the good shxx, good stuff, I mean) and I used it as a spice to add some color to most of my meals (rice and soup in particular). And I love mint and rooibos tea, for its taste, mostly.

What are the habits that you adopted or want to adopt in order to live longer and healthier?