How to Look Years Younger Without Surgery

By Jo Ann LeQuang

For men and women of a certain age, looking more youthful no longer means a trip to the plastic surgeon. Cosmetic surgery may have its place, but there are seven important things you can do starting today that will make you look years younger in a relatively short period of time. I learned these things from an amazing 50-plus woman who looked like a college student. Now before you go too much farther, I have to caution you. These things are incredible, they work, and they are not impossible … but they are difficult. If you want the easy way out, call your plastic surgeon. But if you want to take the natural route to the fountain of youth, here we go.

Exercise

You may think you carry your age in your face, but people “guess” your age by how you move. The youthful figure is thin, muscular, flexible, and strong. Your exercise program should include lots of cardio (this allows you to move around without huffing and puffing—a definitely “fogey” give-away), training with free weights, and some flexibility exercises. I can recommend exercise programs from The Firm but you can use lots of others. Your minimum schedule is two hours of weight training a week plus four hours of cardio with some stretching thrown in. The best way to break this up is to work out—vigorously but sensibly—five days a week and make one of those days a “long” workout of two hours. Try jogging, endurance walking, cycling, Zumba, swimming laps, weight training, and so on, but do not go wimpy. Mixing it up is not only a boredom buster, it will enhance your workout strategy. Build up slowly. But remember this: the kind of exercise that makes you look 20 years younger is the tough stuff.