Did you know that once you hit 40 years of age, whether you’re a man or woman, your body starts aging much faster than normal?

Studies have shown that without the proper nutrition and exercise, your body will age about six months extra for every year that passes.

Think about that!

If you are 40, that means by the time you hit 44 you will look and feel 46, and by the time you reach 60, you will look and feel 70!

There are specific ways to move, eat, and think that tell your brain to stop this rapid aging process, and even slow it down to the point where you’re aging less than a year for every year.

That means you can look younger at 40 than you do at 35! This works for anyone, male or female, and works at any age.

Here are five key principles you must apply in order to stop the rapid aging that’s going on right now. You can actually reverse it, and begin “aging backwards,” by restoring your body’s natural youth hormones.

1. You need to exercise and sleep six to eight hours daily.

The production of human growth hormones occurs during sleeping and during exercising. An increase in human growth hormones reduce fat mass, increase bone density, reduce cardiovascular risk factors, and improve psycho-social well-being.

2. Concentrate on building muscle.
After age 35, people begin losing muscle every year. Instead, you gain more fat every year, even if your calories stay the same. The loss of muscle, as you age, means loss of energy, a tendency to gain excess weight, and vulnerability to disease.

Building muscle protects you against metabolic and hormonal decline, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. It also enhances your cognitive function and keeps your body young.

So weight training is crucial if you want to slow the aging process, reclaim your health, and achieve your ideal body.

3. Avoid anything that is labeled “low fat.”

Natural fats are good for you. They’re to be embraced.They do not make you fat; rather, they help your body regenerate your power hormones.

Also, when manufacturers remove fat from a product, they often add flavor using sugar, which turns into carbohydrates. Excess carbohydrates not burned for energy get stored as fat, resulting in weight gain.

4. Stop running long distance.

Many times, long-duration, endurance runs accelerate the aging process by increasing free radicals. These free radicals are scavengers that prey on your body’s essential nutrients and tissues. In time, it will also make your skin flabby if you don’t weight train.

5. Stop blaming everything on how old you are.

Studies have shown that men and women in their 90’s were able to gain muscle tone in just a matter of weeks of simple weight training.

Don’t surround yourself with naysayers who are constantly talking about growing old, all their aches and pains, and how life is just downhill after 40.

A challenge is what keeps you young, and the best challenge there is happens to be taking control of your health and body.

You can slow the aging process down and totally reshape your body to the point to where you look a decade younger than you are right now.

Make it simple, yet make it challenging!

Dr. Josefina Monasterio is a certified life coach,  fitness expert, and nutritional counselor based in Vero Beach, Florida. She holds a PhD in Adult Personal Development from Nova University and a Master’s Degree in Education from Boston University. Dr. Josefina is also a certified Yoga Therapist from the World Yoga Society of Calcutta, India, and host of Healthy Power TV’s “The Dr. Josefina Way.”