Twin Enemies of Good Health - Fat Accumulation and Age

Have you noticed how different you look the older you get? Just look at your teen photos and then look at yourself in the mirror. What are the main differences?

Well, for one thing, you don't look as thin and as lithe. That's because of the amount of fat you've accumulated over the years.

If, however, you look thinner, then it's because you're not getting the right kind of fats for your skin (I'll talk about this in a bit).

For another, the older you get, the slower your metabolism becomes.

These two factors alone are enough to make your state of health go downhill the older you get.

I admit, I'm no nutritionist or physician. But I have been battling weight gain since my late twenties.

And in my over a decade's worth of experiential learning, I've made some startling observations.

Firstly, fat is like a beast that consumes you in the end. No, I'm not talking about the fat that you eat, but rather, I'm referring to the fat that you retain under your skin (which are not necessarily the same things).

My family line is not genetically predisposed to looking young for a very long time. In fact, my genetic predisposition appears to be one of obesity.

But by expelling fats from my body and controlling the amount that I retain, I find that I cause most people to guess my age wrong. They think that I'm a lot younger than my true age.

From this, I can deduce that fats draw upon bodily nutrients heavily in order to continue existing in our bodies. These are living cells that 'cry out' to be fed in order to thrive - 'Feed Me Now!'

But the more fats thrive, the more they constrict blood flow to themselves, until such a time that they can no longer expel waste matter efficiently, thus causing premature aging.

When coupled with decreasing metabolism as a result of aging, you find your health dwindling before your time.

So, for people like me, the key to staying young starts with fat expulsion and control. While that may seem pretty obvious, what isn't obvious is how.

Most people think that by dieting (loosely translated to mean calorie control), you are able to expel and/or control fats. This isn't really true.

Others think that they can exercise their fats away or control the amount retained. This is not really true either.

God knows, I've been dieting since I was 27. Although I gained some measure of success, more often than not, I failed - the pinnacle of my failure was when I had a waist size of 35 inches.

Of course, I've had my share of dieting success, having successfully reduced by waist size to 29 from 35.

But guess what? I couldn't keep to that size.

Fortunately, I've found an equilibrium of sorts, resulting in my waist size holding steady at between 31 and 32.

How have I achieved this? The simple answer is that I eat the right things and exercise quite a bit.

So, what's the difference then? Well, the difference is that I can eat as much as I want most of the time and exercise only when I can.

This is how it used to be before I turned 27, when I didn't have to exercise to stay trim and ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.

What's my secret? No secret really. It's a combination of tea and supplements, as well as weight training and yoga.

Let's start with tea, specifically slimming tea. Traditionally used in Chinese and other eastern cultures, tea is consumed to keep the body healthy by expelling toxins and keeping cancer in check. Slimming tea goes the extra mile, in that it also removes fats.

A lot of people have problems coping with slimming tea because of their active lifestyle. Well, if you're one of these people, you can afford to take as little slimming tea as possible because you compensate by being active.

People with sedentary jobs are the ones who need slimming tea the most. Just go when you need to. What's the problem?

The reward is well worth it - slim midriff, healthy skin and youthful appearance, as opposed to looking bloated in the midriff (perut buncit), bloated (boyak) and looking aged before your time (tua sebelum waktunya).

It can be painful at first because the slimming tea can cause bowel muscle cramps and stomach cramps. But after a while, you get used to it, such that it doesn't hurt (much).

For that matter, I believe the reason it really hurts when you first start taking slimming tea is that the fats in your intestines and the skin of your tummy (the highest fat concentration in your body) have never been expelled in such droves before that, when they do get expelled, well, it hurts.

Anyway, with fat control underway, you need to get your metabolism back up. Exercise is one way, but it's simply not enough.

You need to consume a different kind of tea - misai kuching (Orthosiphon Stamineus) tea. While it doesn't cause your metabolism to go up directly, it has a lot of healing and rejuvenation properties that make you feel energetic enough to stay active.

For men, a good addition would be tongkat ali. No, it doesn't make you want to hump the first pretty thing that comes along, but like misai kuching, it does make you feel more energetic.

Other supplements that promote increase in metabolism are whey protein with amino acids, creatine, liquid L carnitine, vitamin E, garlic oil, air gamat, fish oil and milk thistle (for your liver).

Note that L carnitine can make you anxious or cause your heart to palpitate. So, be sure that you take it only if your health checks out.

But just because you take all these supplements doesn't mean you can neglect exercise completely. Exercise keeps your muscles in good shape and can be a good confidence booster (if you look good, you're bound to feel good about yourself).

So, don't make excuses for not wanting to exercise, especially since exercise directly promotes the production of growth hormones that help you to stay young.

There are also two kinds of exercise - strengthening mobilising muscles and strengthening stabilising muscles. Weight training gives form to your mobilising muscles, whereas yoga type exercises gives form to your stabilising muscles.

Last but not least, stay away from liquor. This taxes your liver and other internal organs.

There's no sense in staying fit if your internal organs are all screwy.

Yes, alcohol does have some health benefits, but on the balance, it does more harm than good, causing you to age before your time.

Note that if fats and exercise are not your main problems, in that you look more gaunt the older you get, then what you need is a combination of oil supplements like Udo's Oil. Your body is probably too efficient in getting rid of fats. So, you need to take more good fats in order to stay young and lithe.

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Addendum: Oh! I forgot to add that I also take noni juice as a powerful antioxidant with healing properties as well as apple cider vinegar to keep the germs in my tummy in check (these germs contribute to the production of fats in your intestines).