Healthy Lifestyle Changes: A Conversation with Dr. Stephen Schimpff One thing I'm pretty sure of is every one of us want to live a longer and better life. That means having a healthy life free of illness and diseases. Today our guest is Dr. Steven Schimpff who is a senior health and longevity expert and has also written a book about it. Dr. Schimpff is going to tell us about the secrets to living a long and healthy life. He is 76 years old and moved to a retirement community with his wife. Healthy Lifestyle Changes at a Retirement Community Dr. Schimpff thinks that it is easier to have healthy lifestyle changes in retirement or senior community. His wife has been his lifetime coach and cooks healthy for both of them. The people in the community requested Dr. Schimpff to give a talk on living better and slowly he picked on the subject. He attended many seminars, lectures and carried out his own research all of which have been consolidated in his book. Living in a senior community has enabled them to adopt some healthy habits. They have signed up for 20 meals in a month, and her wife cooks the rest. The community has a fitness center and an Olympic size swimming pool coupled with lanes for walking. Both of them find it easier to exercise or maybe go for a walk to stay fit. They can also interact with other seniors over their meal and satisfy the need for social engagement. There is also no need to worry about small things such as leaky gutters as everything is taken care of. Dr. Schimpff has some useful insights which can help you have healthy lifestyle changes. How can the Senior Community Lead a Better and Healthy Life According to Dr. Schimpff, you have to choose between the healthy and non-healthy in every aspect of life. You can either have a salad or eat a sugar-laden cookie- the choice is in your hands. Dr. Schimpff tells us that there are seven crucial aspects of living a healthy life- * eating healthy * managing stress * adequate exercise * getting enough sleep * quitting smoking * intellectual stimulation * social engagement Healthy eating is a MUST! Be really careful about what you eat. Try to include as many green leafy vegetables as possible in your meals and also eat a lot of wide variety of colorful vegetables. You can choose the ones you like and make a salad, boil them or cook them with meat. A vegetable-based diet will give you all required nutrients while being low on calorie. Your plate should have 2/3 vegetables, and the rest can be meat or fish. You should also try to cut white flour and sugar from your diet. We have talked about it many times in our show how sugar can lead to inflammation and other chronic diseases. You should also look to eat grass-fed meat which has Omega 3 which is also present in fish. Cows who are fed soybeans and corns have Omega 6 which is not good for our body. Our guts contain around 100 trillion beneficial bacteria which digest fiber and give us energy. It's necessary to feed the good bacteria while starving the bad ones. Fermented food like yogurt and Sauerkraut come with live organisms and a good source of probiotics. You should also consume enough fiber present in fruits and vegetables to feed the good bacteria to keep you healthy. The label of the yogurt should read “contains live cultures” which means it has the good bacteria which our guts need. A few tips to have a healthy brain We also have to learn to deal without stress which can be done through meditation, taking walks in nature and spending time with people we like. You should also cut out tobacco use which we all know is not good for our health. You also have to keep your brain up to date by providing it stimulation or challenges. As humans,