Extend your life with these New Year’s resolutions

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN

Looking for New Year’s resolutions that can extend your life? Master these three science-based healthy habits during 2023, and you’ll reduce stress, improve your sleep, raise your immunity, lower inflammation, increase muscle strength and mobility, boost your brain power and mood, battle disease and more — all keys to a long, happy life.

1. Exercise regularly

Years ago a doctor told me, “If there’s one thing in life you can do to live a longer, healthier life, it’s exercise.” The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agrees and has statistics to prove it.

“People who are physically active for about 150 minutes a week have a 33% lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who are physically inactive,” our nation’s top health organization says.

Let’s break that down: If you get up and move for 21.43 minutes each day of the week, you cut your risk of dying from anything by one-third. Just walking at a moderate pace has been shown to improve cognitive function, control weight, reduce the risk for disease and strengthen bones and muscles. There are exercise options for people with disabilities as well.

Some benefits of exercise are immediate: After finishing 30 minutes of physical activity, you’ll have less anxiety, lower blood pressure and more sensitivity to insulin, and you’ll sleep better that night.

Accomplish the recommended 150 to 300 minutes a week for adults of moderate-intensity exercise — such as brisk walking, dancing, bicycling, doubles tennis and water aerobics — and the benefits go up.

Within a few months, you’ll see improvement in your blood pressure, heart and lung functions as well as a lowering of risk for depression, anxiety, type 2 diabetes and bladder, breast, colon, kidney, lung and stomach cancers, according to the CDC. Not to mention exercise can offer the benefits of stress reduction, better sleep and a more robust sex life.

If you need some ideas on how to get started, sign up for CNN’s Fitness, But Better newsletter series. The seven-part guide will help you ease into a healthy, expert-backed workout routine.

2. Eat a plant-based diet

You could add up to 13 years to your life if you eat few red and processed meats and more fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grains and nuts, according to research published in 2022.

The largest gains in longevity were found from eating more legumes, which include beans, peas and lentils; whole grains, which are the entire seed of a plant; and nuts such as walnuts, almonds, pecans and pistachios, according to the study.

If you need help with recipes and food choices, there are several excellent plant-based diets you can follow. The DASH diet, or Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, has been shown to reduce high blood pressure, and it gets top reviews. So does the MIND diet, or Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, which focuses on food to slow cognitive decline, and the flexitarian diet, a vegetarian diet flexible enough to allow some meat.

Not sure which one to choose? Year after year, nutritional experts give the gold medal to the Mediterranean diet.

Science has shown meals from the sunny Mediterranean can reduce the risk for diabetes, high cholesterol, stroke, dementia, memory loss, depression and breast cancer. The plan has also been linked to stronger bones, a healthier heart and microbiome, and longer life. Oh, and weight loss, too.

The Mediterranean way of eating is plant-based, so you’ll eat a lot of fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds. Use all kinds and colors of veggies to get the broadest range of nutrients, phytochemicals and fiber. Cook, roast or garnish them with herbs and a bit of extra-virgin olive oil.

You’ll eat less red meat, sugar and saturated fat and more omega-3-rich fish (twice a week) and olive oil. Think of chicken, beef and pork as a “seasoning” to a dish instead of the main course. (It’s better for the planet, too. To learn more on how to lessen your impact on the planet, sign up for CNN’s seven-part Life, But Greener newsletter.)

Add whole grains and fruit to every meal, but use nuts and seeds as a garnish or small snack due to their high-calorie and fat content.

And here’s the real secret to the success of the Mediterranean diet — it’s not a diet at all. It’s a lifestyle, with the greatest emphasis placed on exercising, mindfully eating with friends and family, and socializing over meals.

As for exercise, it doesn’t have to be in a gym.

“The Mediterranean lifestyle is walking with friends and family,” registered dietitian Kelly Toups said in an earlier interview. “Instead of thinking of exercise as something that you have to do, just walk or dance or move in joyful ways.”

Want to learn more? You’ll find amazing recipes, shopping guides and tips on starting to eat the Mediterranean way in our eight-part Eat, But Better: Mediterranean Style newsletter.

3. Get good-quality sleep

You may choose to do more exercise or eat healthier, but your body is going to demand sleep. The quantity and quality of it, however, is under your control.

Depending on your age, you are supposed to get between seven and 10 hours of sleep each night. Getting less has been linked in studies to high blood pressure, a weakened immune system, weight gain, a lack of libido, mood swings, paranoia, depression and a higher risk of diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular disease, dementia and some cancers.

Not convinced? Sleeping less than the recommended amount each night on a regular basis may double your risk of dying. In a longitudinal study of 10,308 British civil servants, researchers found that those who reduced their sleep from seven to five hours or fewer a night were almost twice as likely to die from all causes, especially cardiovascular disease.

Oh, and your chances of developing a major disease or medical condition skyrocket if you don’t get enough sleep. That’s because during sleep, your body is literally repairing and restoring itself on a cellular level.

You can train your brain (and your willpower) to get more restful sleep — it’s all in CNN’s seven-part Sleep, But Better newsletter series. You can find additional tips on how to harness and reduce stress by signing up for CNN’s Stress, But Less newsletter.

4. What’s next?

It just takes one small step to get started. Then congratulations are in order! You’re well on your way to a happier, healthier life. These actions will also help reduce stress, improve your mood and invigorate your sex life. (For more hints on the latter, check out this gallery.)

And remember that you don’t have to make all these changes at once. Choose one thing — exercise, sleep or diet — to tackle first. And allow yourself some time to establish these habits — here’s how.

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