Look Young - 5 key ways to strip years off your face

Keeping on a healthy weight and even carrying a little extra as we grow older can help our faces look younger. An extra 5-7 pounds (2 - 3 kilograms) may be all that needed. Women start losing weight on face as they grow older, and by mid 40's can look quite thin. Extra weight carried on the body will result in extra padding on the face face which can help fill out wrinkles and keep the skin looking taught rather than slack. Excessive muscle and lack of fat can make an older face look gaunt and washed out. Compare the women around you and in the media. Take a look at the extra slim older women and compare them with their weightier counter parts. Plump healthy looking faces will always look younger than strained gaunt ones.

Healthy eating is a great means of preservation and help our bodies and faces look younger. It's not just the foods that we eat but how we eat them. Foods such as protein helps our body build the collagen needed to keep healthier skin. Vegetables are a great source of antioxidants. Berries are filled with collagen protecting properties. Water is a must as it keeps hydration levels up so that our cells can metabolise correctly and keep their shape. When it comes to eating these foods try not to over indulge. Eat smaller meals more often, and try never to eat on the run. Chew your food thoroughly so that our bodies spend less time digesting and more time extracting the goodness from them.

Limit exposure to the sun to keep sun damage to a minimum. Age spots and sun damage will go against any attempt to look younger. Sun exposure is important, and our skin does need a little daily exposure to maintain healthy skin function however excessive exposure will lead to detrimental effects on the skin, and result in premature fine lines, wrinkles and age spots.

Proper sleeping habits will not only result in you looking younger but also feeling better. Each person will need different amounts of sleep, but generally speaking the average adult needs around eight hours of sleep a night. The body uses sleep time to replenish resources, recover from stress and repair itself. Another thing to remember is regular sleeping habits. Try and go to sleep at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning. This makes it much easier to go to sleep and to wake up. Our body becomes "trained" for sleep and awake. Try and sleep before 12am. Our body does most of it's repair work before 12am, so the more hours you get in before 12am the more time you allow it to repair itself.

Regular exercise helps our bodies feel and look younger by keeping metabolic function healthy, keeping muscles and skin taught and increase resistance to diseases and illnesses that can be age related. This does not mean you need to hit the gym every night and work up a hard sweat (see point 1 about excessive muscle and gauntness), but a regular walk in a park can do just as much good. The aim is to elevate the heart rate and maybe work up a slight sweat. Exercise is also very good means of de-stressing. Stress is high on the list for premature ageing.