It was just a small incident. Keerthana just turned back pages of her marriage album. Two days in full depression. “My eyes were shining that time. I was so beautiful. My skin was so fresh, soft and well polished. My cheeks resembled strawberries a lot. I was the centre of attraction that day. But what happened to me now? Am I stepping towards those dark corridors of aging?” She couldn’t control her tears. Then she went near her dressing table and looking at the deep eyes in mirror, asked herself, “How many days have passed since I stood before you? I was so busy with my household work that I couldn’t spare a little time for myself. When these dark spots fell on my face? That darkness around my eyes! When it happened? Oh, a few grey hairs here and there! I haven’t noticed. Am I aging?” Without giving proper care to the body, worrying at last gives nothing. If a little care is given at early ages itself, it’s sure, we can say with courage, “Oh age, keep distance from me”.

It can’t be identified the exact point when age begins its mischiefs by drawing lines on our face. It’s somewhat related to our hereditary traits too. In some people, age shows its early sign at 20’s itself while in others, at 30’s or 40’s. Yet, through our good life styles and proper caring of ourselves, it’s possible to keep it away from a long time than usual. 

What are its early signs?

Cross lines at edges of eyes are the first signs of aging. For some persons, it may be dark spots on cheeks and nose. It’s also common that some are attacked suddenly in the form of grey hair. Reasons what may be, yet it’s possible to increase our distance from that dark territory through our food habits and proper maintenance of body.

After 25+ never neglect your body

Let us begin at early stages itself. You may be a food addictive in your childhood or youth. Yet, when you reach 25 put some restrictions to your diet. Also, give a little more time to care your body. It’s normal, it’s a working age with a lot of office tensions. Also, it’s the time of marriage, delivery etc which can cause sudden swift of characteristics of hormones. So, care should be started at this age itself, the time needed to tone both mind and body. Then only you can ask aging to stay away from you as it’s told, it’s of no use if you give manure to rice plants when it’s time for seedling. Instead, give it what’s necessary at right time with correct proportion to get the expected result.

Young skin always

• If you have not started the habit of applying moisturizer to the body after your morning bath, don’t make it late. Start today itself. If you choose sun protection moisturizers you can protect your body from ultraviolet rays.
• Before choosing a moisturizing cream it’s better to consult a beautician to know which type of skin you has. Some moisturizers retain moisture while some others give extra moisture to skin. Oil content and oil free moisturizers are also available in the market. So, it’s most important to find which type suits your skin most.
• Use ex-foliated scrub twice in a week. It can remove dead cells and give a glow to your skin.
• People may have dry or oily skin. Though oily skin gives more pimples it is least attacked with ageing agents. Dry skinned people may appear more aged. So, such people should try to retain moisture of their skin most. Also, if they have to sit in an AC room for a long time daily, their skin needs special protection as air conditions may dry your skin more.
• Liquid soap is best to clean face, also use it only once or twice a day. It’s better to apply body oil after bath than before. If we bath by applying oil, oil forms a coat over the skin and body won’t be soaked too much in water. It’s better to apply cream or oil as soon as you bath, when your skin has a little moisture content. Also, never use soap more than once a day. It may reduce natural oils on your skin making it dry.
• Same care should be given to your hands too, because wrinkles on hands appear more easily. So, while going out massage it using some skin moisturizing cream.
• Continuous facials are more harmful than advantageous. Facials and face massages give a shining glow to your face. Yet never do it more than once in a month. Continuous bleaching is also harmful to your skin. It may cause the loss of melanin of your body skin resulting in dark spots.
• Some people use curd to clean the face. Yet, people with oily skin should avoid it.
• Before sleep, clean your legs and apply some body lotion or petroleum jelly. If you wear a pair of socks too, it will keep your legs soft. To retain lip colour, gently massage your lips with milk membrane.
• Use cosmetic products with caption, “Dermatologically tested”. When you buy anti-aging creams, use products with contents glycolic acid and salicylic acid. If you are using light makeup for any function, makeup remover is enough to clean your makeup. If you are using heavy makeup you may use cleansers, toners, moisturizers etc.
• To hide your age you can colour your hair. Use foil paper for colouring your hair to avoid skin contact. It’s better to dye whole hair once in 6 months and hair roots, once in every month.
• If your eyes are tired, place two sliced cucumbers one each on your eyes for 20-30 minutes. After 10 minutes, flip them once. This treatment is effective to reduce darkness around eyes too. Cooled tea bags can also be used. Coolness acts as a shock treatment which removes the blocks of eye blood vessels increasing its blood circulation and thus giving it more freshness and energy.
• Aloe vera juice is powerful to reduce wrinkles. But for some persons, it may cause allergy. Yes, a lot of remedies are available from nature itself. Yet we have to test if they suit our skin or not. 
• To make your skin more attractive, different peels are available in beauty parlours. Peels are enough to cover roughness, small scares and pores of skin. They can even hide stretch marks and scares up to 80%.

As time pass by, due to gravitational force, skin under your chins gradually slide downwards giving footprints of aging. Soft muscles connected to your chin and cheeks may lower their strength gradually. Another reason is fat deposits around neck. Through facial massages, giving upward strokes can reduce the loss of elasticity considerably. Thus it protects the chin muscles and prevents the appearance of aging. Also, through laser treatments, filler injections and hormone treatments one can cover defects of face. Through laser treatment it’s possible to strengthen the chin muscles. Botox injections can reduce wrinkles below eyes and edges of mouth. But such procedures should be done only with the help of a cosmetologist.

Youthful and rainbow food

Even if we are aware of the consequences of many food items we intake, only a few give importance to them. Many of us think ‘Let those diseases affect me, I will start controlling that moment onwards. Till then let me eat.’ It you are not willing to give attention to your diet, more chances are that you get old much more easily. So, give importance to natural foods like fruits and vegetables to avoid problems in future. Also make salads, a part of your life and your family’s.

• Reduce calorie intake. Instead increase intake of proteins and anti-oxidants if you want to stay young. Increase the quantity of fruits and vegetables which will automatically decrease calorie intake. They are good contents of fiber too. If you feel fruits are a bit expensive, then opt for fruits available in your courtyard. Such fruits contain less pesticide and we can use them more freshly.
• Soya beans are rich in proteins. You can use soya chunks too, that can reduce your age.
• Prepare a juice by mixing anti-oxidant rich carrot, beetroot and tomato. Add a small piece of ginger too and drink it daily in empty stomach.
• Give more importance to vitamins. Include vitamin E rich almonds and sesame and vitamin C rich goose berry and lemon in your daily diet. Grains with outer coat are abundant in vitamin E. Eat leafy vegetables to supply vitamin A to your body.
• Omega-3 fatty acids are capable of retaining skin’s moisture. Sea fish especially sardine and mackerel are rich in these fatty acids.
• If you don’t have cholesterol problems, you can include two eggs per week in your diet. Dark chocolate is good for both skin and heart. You can have a chocolate drink by adding a little milk.
• Keep away from junk food. Bakery items contain maida and dalda most, which makes your journey to old age easier. Sugar also, keep it minimum.
• Drink at least 10 glasses of water daily. It makes your skin more fresh, clean and young. Fat deposits will be washed off from skin pores if you intake more water.
• Start good habits of kids from early ages itself. Make salads and fruits a part of their daily diet. Otherwise it may be difficult for them to adopt such food habits later.
• Reduce salt. Pickles and dried fish are enemies to man’s skin, as they contain salt a lot.
• Yogurt is good for digestion problems. It kills germs inside your intestine thus cleaning your digestion system.
• As age pass by, body losses its power to absorb calcium which results in loss of strength of bones. So, calcium tablets can be provided as supplements after breakfast.
• Alcohol increases the age of skin. Anti-aging factors are found in red wine and white wine only.
• Always leave some space in stomach empty. Ayurveda says, keep stomach half empty. Provide 1/4th of it with water and the remaining 1/4th portion for its free digestion. Main diet should include grains, proteins, salads, fruits and vegetables. Always keep this combination in mind.
• Rainbow food - To repair our damaged cells, antioxidants are most essential for our body. Since colourful vegetables and fruits are the carriers of antioxidants experts recommend rainbow food. All the colours of rainbow are included in daily intake of fruits and vegetables – it keeps aging at the extreme.
• Include at least three types of fruits in your diet. For example, a banana in the morning, a guava at noon and a piece of papaya for night. But, experts say we should never take fruits along with our meals. If so, its nutrients won’t be completely absorbed by our body. Yet, they are good catalysts for digestion.
• Green tea is most effective to keep our antioxidant level. You can have 3-4 cups daily if you fear aging. 

One hour exercise daily

A body without exercise is defeated by age and diseases more easily. When we exercise, endorphin hormones produced in our body are enough to give freshness and activeness to your body the whole day. That’s why it’s told it’s easy to differentiate a person who has done morning exercise from others. It’s not needed to go to any fitness centre to do so. Instead you can choose any exercise most enjoyable to you and do it at home regularly.

• Do exercise from half to one hour daily. Once in a week, give it rest. You can choose brisk walk, shuttle, yoga, swimming or anything else. You can continue it only if it’s your favourite and enjoyable. So stress should be given to body exercise than the item selected.
• Aerobics is best for both - body and mind, if you want to refresh both. Since it’s similar to dancing, it won’t make you feel bored.
• If you have no previous exercise experiences, just consult a doctor before starting it. He will surely suggest best exercise for you. Also do a medical check up before starting.
• Most important step is to begin something. Just start with half hour regular exercise and gradually increase it to one hour. Also, never exercise for more than one hour as it may adversely affect your muscles.
• It’s best to exercise at morning with empty stomach as it burns more fat to utilize calories to exercise.  But make sure, your body won’t be dehydrated. If you can’t find time in the morning, you can choose evening also. Avoid heavy exercise during periods and if you have already done some heavy work.
• As age travel forward, pumping power of heart gradually decreases and heart may beat more. Cardiovascular diseases increase overall blood circulation of your body thus increasing the efficiency of both lungs and heart. Brisk walk, cycling, swimming etc are some examples of cardiovascular exercises. Also such exercises increase free flow of oxygen flow to skin, making it more healthy and glowing.
• You should rest for a while after exercise giving rest to your muscles. Drink plenty of water too, to avoid dehydration of your body.
• You can do a little bit stretching exercises in between your breaks at office or home. Just moving your body parts while you are sitting before the computer for hours itself is very good for your body. Also, at least once in an hour just walk around for 2 minutes. It gives a small rest to your eyes too. Moving your shoulders in clock wise and anti-clock wise is
• also a good exercise, while you are at office. 

Mind always at 18

It’s said that we become old the moment when we feel it in our mind. Just watch ladies around you. You can find at least one who looks younger than her real age. Closely examine her. You can find that she owns some passion in some activity which keeps her involved always. Also, she finds happiness while she is doing so. She may be a business lady. Yet she finds time for yoga, music, dance or any other activity which gives her pleasure and enjoyment. She may be a working woman, but she finds happiness in gardening. That means they are finding their own means to feel younger. Also such hobbies make them forget their worries. More worries means easy approach towards aging. So, keeping those worries at bay, she is enjoying her youthfulness. Try to find some alternatives for happiness at early ages itself. Otherwise, you find time only to say, “My life is so bored with fixed timetable, no fun, no excitement and am working hard for the family. No one cares me too!”

• When you are working as a super fast express for husband, kids and other members of the family why can’t you choose some hobby which brings you some freshness and happiness to mind? Otherwise bored life soon or later gives you a feeling that ‘I lost many things in my life’. That thought itself can pave an easy way to old age soon, both mentally and physically.
• To keep age inside your closed hands, why can’t you reserve a little time for being yourself? You can chat with a friend, visit her or even try a new recipe in your leisure time. A shopping or get-together with friends can be arranged. Also, if husband calls you for something, just feel courage inside you to tell, “Just wait for a minute. I will come in two minutes. Let me complete this one first”.
• You can share your embroidery or craft works and new dishes with friends you like. Keep at least one close friend in your life with whom you can share everything, both happiness and sorrows. That feeling can give you a positive energy. Perhaps a friends group can start a new project together. Also, it helps your mind to relieve many pressures and tensions by sharing.
• If you feel restless and can’t do anything just relax and take deep breaths. Just imagine that while you breathe out, many worries are also pushed along with that impure air. You will be ok in 5 minutes.
• Good sleep makes you younger. So, give rest to your body so that it can attain more strength to move forward. A person should sleep 6-8 hours daily. If you can’t sleep well find its reasons and solve it as early as possible.
• If you feel so much bored with your daily routine, prepare your travel kit. You can visit any tourist center or pilgrim places. Such journeys will make you feel younger for sure.
• Small laziness happens to everyone. Yet, if that laziness begins to defeat you never hesitate to find its reasons and solutions as early as possible. Just pick a paper and write five activities of your interest. If shopping comes first in the list, just pick your two- wheeler and shopping kit. When you return you will be really surprised to say, “Laziness! Where have you gone?” 

Meditations give you something

• Meditations make you young for sure. Spare at least 10 minutes everyday to keep you away from all tensions and pressures. It’s better to do meditations in the mornings as soon as you wake up. Just sit somewhere comfortably and close your eyes. Those 5 or 10 minutes can supply you a lot of positive energy to work for the whole day. 
• You can think about any good thing which is pleasing while meditation. You can think about your favourite deity and chant some mantras too. It’s not at all easy to attain that state in the beginning.
• Train your mind and body till you achieve a peaceful mind. Thus make your mind empty first and then fill it with peace and happiness. Meditation is a medicine to tensions and aging. Start practicing today itself to attain a little more mind control and patience too. 

Yes, we know time is not in our hands and it shows some mischeives with every passing moment and every fading season. Yet our time and our body, both are in our hands and decisions depend on us only. If we are able to fix a target that we will stay young and happy and try to achieve it, no doubt, time will bend its knee in front of us. At that moment, just say to it with a shining smile in your eyes, “Hey age, stay away from me!”