Aging is inevitable, but quickly losing your health and attractiveness isn't. Why can some people maintain a lean physique and active lifestyle into their 60's, while younger people suffer a ballooning waistline and deteriorating energy levels?

The most important factor is taking care of yourself. This means eating healthy, exercising productively, and minimizing vice. Not all routines are created equal. To maximize results, it's important to behave in ways that counteract or minimize the effects of aging.

Healthy Eating

Without the right fuel your body will sputter out like a Ford Pinto. It's great being young and eating whatever you want but the fast metabolism doesn't last. As you get older, your metabolism slows and eating like a teenager leads to a sagging gut. To keep the youthful body, switch to a mature way of eating. Here are some basic guidelines for an age-proof diet:

1. Cut the Junk Food - Cut it out of your diet completely. It serves no purpose. Junk food is merely salt, sugar, empty calories, and an assortment of artificial chemicals. Once you break the addiction and become accustomed to healthy snacks you won't miss the junk.

2. Minimize Highly Processed Carbs - Sugars, pasta, and white breads are all examples of highly processed carbs. These foods give you a quick burst of energy that quickly wears off and leaves you burned out. They also have the highest calorie count of any food group. Staying lean is all about burning more calories than you consume. By substituting slow carbs like beans and whole grains you can immediately decrease the amount of exercise you need to stay lean.

3. Eat Lightly - Most people spend the day working at a desk. We don't move around much, so we don't burn many calories. As a consequence, you don't need to eat that much. Think of your body as a car engine. The more fuel gets processed, the more wear and tear inflicted on the engine. Thus, the more you eat, the more wear on your body. Try to get avoid eating for indulgence. As Socrates said, "Thou shouldst eat to live, not live to eat."

Exercise

1. Weight Training - Not just for bodybuilders, weight training should be an important part of everyone's exercise routine. Even if you don't want to add muscle, it's essential for maintaining and toning the muscle you have. More muscle will burn more fat and keep you lean and toned as you age.

2. Work the Entire Body - Many people mistakenly focus on the most visible body parts. This means weight training workouts that consist of only chest and arms. To get the best results for your effort, you need to work the entire body. Devote just as much time to the back and leg muscles as you do to the beach muscles. This is important because the body functions as a whole. You wouldn't soup up your car's engine but let the axles rust away would you? By working the whole body, you boost the results of all the major muscle groups.

3. Work the Core - Nothing gets harder with age than maintaining your youthful figure. To keep the stomach flat, it's essential to work the core. Beyond the usual ab exercises, there are many different core exercises that can be done in a few minutes without any special equipment. Doing these exercises regularly for just a few weeks will produce improved posture and a noticeably firmer abdomen.

Avoiding Vice

The final piece of the anti-aging puzzle is minimizing the damage you inflict on yourself. All your healthy eating and exercise will go to waste if you trash your body with drugs, alcohol, and junk food. Just look at the groups of people that age the worst: smokers, alcoholics, over-eaters, and (in the most destructive case) drug addicts. The images aren't pretty.

Not to say that it's bad to cut loose occasionally, but it's important to understand the implicit cost of these actions. Practice moderation and discipline and your body will thank you.

If you liked this article, check out more PeopleJam posts on eating healthy and fitness.