It used to be that aging gracefully meant looking younger than your age. Beauty treatments focused on hiding wrinkles and gray hair. These days, health experts are touting the power of feeling younger. Being 60 years old—or 70 or 80—isn’t much of a problem if your body still thinks it’s 40. More and more medical treatments, spa treatments, and exercise regimens are preaching the gospel of prolonged youth. As Todd Whitthorne, executive director of Cooper Aerobics Center’s wellness program in Dallas, puts it, "If you make the right decisions now, you can increase your life span by six to nine years. More important, you can push back the onset of disability by 13 to 20 years."

Here are eight ways to help you hold back the hands of time.

1. Set Realistic Goals
Face it: You won’t lose 10 pounds in the next two weeks; you won’t run five miles tomorrow—or even one—without some preliminary training. The reason people quit a new diet and exercise plan after the first two weeks of the New Year is that they’ve pushed themselves too hard and too fast. You can’t force results, and you can’t get past the reality that a new diet and exercise regimen is going to be uncomfortable and inconvenient. Cooper’s Whitthorne says the best exercise plans and diet plans allow you to ramp up slowly and become accustomed to the changes, and he emphasizes how long it takes to experience real results—usually six to eight weeks.

2. Moisturize
Skin-care experts will tell you that moisturizing keeps wrinkles at bay. While this might involve drinking plenty of water, it also means dousing the skin regularly, especially in wintertime, with a product such as Calendula Rose Crème from Simply Botanicals. The cream contains rose oil, which is said to moisturize and regenerate cells, and calendula oil, which is supposed to soothe and strengthen the skin. This versatile cream is not the least bit oily, and it can be used as a cleanser and a moisturizer. And it smells good.

3. Use Food as Medicine
You may think of meals as indulgences and celebrations, but people who live the longest view food as a fuel that can promote health and strength while combating illness. The Brazilian spa Kurotel has perfected what it calls the Longevity Kur Diet, which it culled from studies of the world’s longest-lived people. This diet, which you can experience firsthand in a weeklong stay at the spa, encourages multiple servings of fresh fruits and vegetables every day while restricting meat and grain intake and eliminating both glutens and dairy products. The diet ramps up your intake of what the spa calls “magic ingredients” that promote youth and vigor. These include omega-3s, quinoa (sometimes called a supergrain), olives, Brazil nuts, grapes, green tea, soy, and saffron. The bad news is that you can’t eat any refined sugars or drink coffee or alcohol.

4. Hire an Expert
If you’re serious about maintaining your wealth, you hire a financial consultant; when you want to stay ahead of legal issues, you hire a lawyer. As options for medical treatments become more varied and as the testing for possible genetic health risks becomes more prevalent, it is suitably prudent to consider retaining a medical consultant if you’re determined to maintain your health after middle age.

PinnacleCare, a Baltimore-based health care service, is among the companies that provide medical consulting. Its services include collecting and consolidating a wide range of medical information about its members, offering advice on medical testing, and finding the highest quality of medical care. Advisers also help you meet your goals for weight loss and cholesterol management, and they help you proactively battle the onset of debilitating illness. “Most people feel perfectly healthy until they get sick and discover that they are chronically ill. We help people get a realistic picture of their health and options so they can be proactive while they are still healthy,” says Dr. Miles Varn, chief medical officer of PinnacleCare.

5. Boost Your Vitamin D
At an ordinary physical exam, your doctor might test your blood sugar levels, your cholesterol numbers, your liver enzymes, and a few other indicators. The latest medical technology can go much further and give you a much more detailed picture of how your body is aging and what you can do to stay strong and vibrant. At Cooper Aerobics’ Wellness Program in Dallas, for example, the comprehensive physical exam will include a screening for Vitamin D levels, among many other tests. Why? According to Whitthorne, having the right level of Vitamin D in your system will stave off a range of cardiovascular problems, macular degeneration, and some types of cancer. Cooper Wellness recommends 2,000 IUs per day, more than four times the usual amount found in a multivitamin.

6. Get Some Fresh Air
As your body ages, it becomes less efficient at taking in oxygen. Doctors the world over will tell you to keep exercising as a way to fend off this decline for as long as possible. Exercise, even in old age, flushes the body with oxygen and makes it feel younger. Some people have found an alternative in hyberbaric oxygen chambers, including the portable Vitaeris units made by OxyHealth of Santa Fe Springs, Calif. Devotees include a few pro football players, who insist that regular one-hour stints in a hyperbaric chamber improve their health and their on-field stats. Nonprofessional athletes insist that this treatment gives them energy and the feeling of endless youth.

7. Stretch and Relax
Giving in to stress and worry are two short routes to old age. Both tax your heart, increase your risk of disease, and sabotage good lifestyle choices. Most people can’t escape stress, but you can combat anxious thoughts with a single yoga class. The gentle stretches will help you to stay limber and to let go of the little things. International Orange, an upscale spa and yoga studio in San Francisco, is one facility that has married the two worlds of yoga and pampering. Here, you are encouraged to take a steam bath before and after each yoga class and to stay on afterward for one of many spa treatments. If you sign up for two spa treatments in one day, you can stay for a free yoga class. Thus in one day, you can nourish your mind, muscles, and skin cells.

8. Get a Quick and Painless Face-lift
If you can’t stand the idea of Botox or harsh chemical treatments, you still can experience the benefits of lifting and plumping your face with an intensive Organic Detox Facelift from International Orange, which uses only natural ingredients in its treatments. The procedure begins with a deep cleansing and then enzyme treatments to peel away dead skin. Next, a masseuse works on your facial muscles—focusing on the lymph nodes and pressure points—to reinvigorate them. The treatment concludes with two facial masks to infuse your skin with healing moisture.