How to live as long as possible (and disease-free)

1. Don't eat animals (meat/eggs/milk/cheese/etc). Don't eat processed foods of any kind (especially plant oils). Eat everything in whole form.
2. Don't eat tons of fat, even if its a whole food (avocado, nuts). Keep the fat low. Eat fatty foods sparingly.
3. Don't be afraid of unprocessed carbs. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, bananas, melons, rice, whole grains, corn are good for you and should make up the majority of your diet. Don't try to survive on salads alone.
4. Keep your body weight at the ideal level. (which should happen naturally on a whole-foods HCLF vegan diet).
5. Don't smoke. Don't do drugs.
6. Don't drink. -- The reason people say alcohol is healthy is because of antioxidants because its made from grapes. You would get the same antioxidants from just eating grapes without the risk of cancer and all the other problems that come from alcohol. Do the research. There is NO safe amount of alcohol when it comes to cancer and disease prevention.
7. Drink plenty of water. (8 glasses a day is the MINIMUM, not the maximum.)
8. Get plenty of sleep. (8 hours is the MINIMUM, not the maximum.)
9. Brush your teeth. (even HCLF vegans get cavities. Ordinary fluoride toothpaste is all you need. Nothing fancy.)
10. Basic Regular Hygiene: wash your body, wash your clothes/sheets, keep your house clean.
11. Have only ONE sexual partner for your entire life. (the more partners you have thru-out your life, the more likely sexual diseases are, even if you use protection.)
12. Get enough sunshine (usually just 15min a day) for your vitamin D, but leave before you start to burn/tan. Try to use clothing, umbrellas, and shade more than sun screen. Only use sun screen when you have to since you are slathering a chemical onto your skin. (Even if you are the type of person who tans instead of burns, tanning is still sun damage. Avoid it. Sun damage also makes you wrinkle faster as you age. The less sun damage (tanning) you have, the longer it will take to wrinkle up like an old prune as you grow older. This is why countries like Japan use umbrellas all the time to protect themselves, despite having darker skin than caucasians. They don't want wrinkles. Keeping your skin young is a matter of eating a vegan diet of whole foods fruits and vegetables, avoiding tanning, and avoiding chemicals as much as possible (makeup, lotions, medicines). Eating a healthy diet, drinking lots of water daily, wiping your face off with a wet cloth every morning, keeping your pillow cases and towels clean is what will keep your skin in good condition. Not the 'miracle' potions advertising wants you to buy.)
13. Get enough fresh air! Sunlight and fresh air are so much better for you physically and psychologically than sitting in a dark room all day staring at a screen! Go outside!
14. Meet as many people as possible and make friends. Relationships of all kinds (family,friends,etc) are what make life worth living. Not material possessions or achievements. (I am an introvert, but I'm saying this.)
15. Keep life interesting. Stay busy. Play hard. Work hard. Try all activities, even ones you think you won't like. The root of all Long-term Depression happens because of poor physical health, or isolation from people, or sheer boredom and meaninglessness.
16. Believe in an omnipotent, all-powerful Creator that loves you and is in full control of the universe. The psychological benefits of having faith that God is in control grants peace. aka STOP WORRYING yourself sick.
17. Anger kills. Anger and other negative emotions are a poison to the body and mind. Always try your best to focus on positive emotions. (easier said than done I know). But focusing on the negative emotions will only make you deeply unhappy, and destroy your physical health as well. Forgiveness, compassion, and empathy are your friends. Anger, bitterness, envy, long-term depression are not.
18. The type of content your mind consumes affects you. This is in relation to anger and depression. If you are easily affected by dark, depressing, or violent movies/games/books, it may be time to find more positive content. If the depressing daily news bothers you, stop watching it for awhile and see if your mood improves. Ignorance is sometimes bliss. Better to be a blissful idiot than a depressed, angry "informed" person.

Smaller issues that may or may not be that important to long-term health:

1. Minimize salt in your diet. No one requires extra salt and it does cause inflammation in the body. All the salt you need is already naturally present in whole foods, so you don't need to add any extra salt on top. Feel free to use other seasonings like pepper, garlic, basil, turmeric, paprika, etc to flavor your food if you want to.
2. Avoid caffeine by not drinking coffee, tea, energy drinks, etc. Green tea and other low-caffeine teas are best if you must drink something other than water. Coffee and energy drinks also contain thousands of other chemicals that are just as bad or worse than caffeine.
3. Avoid hormonal-based birth control (pills, UIDs etc) if possible. I personally use a menstrual cup (diva cup) for my periods and I use diaphragm+spermicide+condom+fertility-tracking to deal with birth control. Pills/UIDs do mess with your body's hormones and the copper UID causes constant low-grade inflammation and damage. Best to use only non-hormonal, non-inflammatory methods of birth control.
4. Avoid chemicals in daily life as much as possible, but don't go crazy. Do what's manageable for you. Chemicals are everywhere. You won't be able to avoid them all, unless you leave civilization to live in a cave. Examples: makeup, shampoo, lotion, sunscreen, household cleaners, bug spray, pesticides, weed killer, etc. Because the majority of illness comes from poor diet, chemical avoidance isn't as important. The longest-living people on the planet in Loma Linda, California all use the same shampoo etc as the rest of us and they're only 15-30 minutes away from the smog-filled air of several major cities. Yet their lifespans are well into their 100s. Clearly, diet is the major player, not chemicals.
5. Avoid doctors, drugs, and surgeries unless you really need it. On a HCLF vegan diet, getting sick beyond the occasional cold or flu (or accidents like dog bites, breaking a bone) should be very rare. Everytime you take a drug, or go in for surgery (aka someone cutting open your body!), you are risking infection, medical accidents/malpractice, adverse drug effects, etc. If you combined all of the issues that arise from medical intervention, it would be the first or second leading cause of death in the USA. So don't do it unless you really need it. Stay healthy, which allows you to avoid the doctor. (In contrast to doctors, I do recommend routine dentist cleanings. There's just too much crap that gets stuck in our oddly-shaped teeth that only a dentist can fully reach.)
6. Avoid excessive piercings or tattoos, for the same reasons as surgeries. No matter how "cool" or popular it is, you are mutilating your body. Your body was never designed to be pierced (risk of infections) or tattooed with chemical inks underneath your skin. Some adverse skin reactions (and possibly contributed to some cancers) have occurred in relation to tattoo inks. Tattoos and piercings are not natural for your body.
7. Hair dye (of any kind or color) - same reasons as tattoo inks and other chemical-laden products like makeup that you wear every day. Hair dye has been connected to cancer. There are certain brands that are considered "safer" than others, but you are still putting a chemical on your scalp that will be there DAILY. How will a lifetime of hair dye affect your body?

My story (aka I do practice what I preach):

I have been whole-foods HCLF vegan for four years now. I was overweight my entire life, but I dropped (80lbs) to a normal weight within one year of going vegan. I eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm not hungry aka Intuitive eating. I don't have any medical conditions and my blood tests are perfect. Things I've noticed after going HCLF vegan:

• my skin is far less oily than it was and my adult acne almost completely vanished (still get one zit occasionally). I don't use any acne medicine anymore, just a wet cloth to wipe away excess oil in the mornings.
• my bowel movement happens daily with zero constipation (I used to be constipated a lot because I consumed cheese all the time)
• I have more energy than ever, thanks to my high carb diet and lower body weight
• I sleep more soundly and more regularly
• I have far less body odor and period blood odor (I used to really stink at the time of the month)
• my period flow has increased and become more regular (a sign of increased fertility)
• I can actually taste the subtle and pleasing flavors of REAL food (fruits and veggies) instead of my tastebuds being overloaded by salt/sugar/fat/oily tastes.
• I don't get cavities anymore. (I used to get them occasionally even tho I brushed my teeth)
• My eyesight has actually improved (thanks eye doctor for checking that!)
• I rarely get colds/flu now. (I used to get 2-3 colds per year guaranteed, now I only get 0-1 per year.)
• I used to occasionally get headaches. Now the headaches are just GONE. I can't remember the last time I had one.
• My nails, hair, and skin just shine with this ridiculous aura of health that they didn't have before. The antioxidants in fruits and veggies will do that for you.
• Mentally, I am more confident about my body image because I am a healthy weight. For the first time in my life, I LOVE shopping for clothes. I used to hate it. Nothing ever looked good on me. Now almost everything looks good.
• Mentally, I feel "secure" and "safe". I know that I'm on the best diet to prevent future diseases. My father died of horrific cancer when I was 12 years old, despite being an athletic, thin, "health-conscious" omnivore. I know with a HCLF vegan diet I don't have to follow in his footsteps and suffer like that.

I've never smoked or used drugs. The last time I ever had a glass of alcohol was on my 21st birthday. Once drinking became "legal" for me, I decided it was completely stupid, a waste of time and money, and haven't done it since. I don't need alcohol to have a good time and act ridiculous. If you are confident in yourself and happy with your life such "crutches" aren't needed.

I'm 26 years old and still 100% virgin. I've never done more than simple kissing. And trust me, there were millions of opportunities. Millions of guys who are willing to sleep with anything with a vagina. As a female, it is not hard to get laid if that's all you care about. But I didn't want a million sexual diseases, a million heartbreaks, a million times of feeling "used" when the guy left. I am surrounded by friends and a society that operates that way. I can see the physical/mental/emotional damage it causes. What I want is a long-term relationship that ends in a life-long, successful marriage. Friendship and getting to know a person first are the basis of a strong, lasting relationship (not lust or infatuation which quickly fades over time).

I currently have a boyfriend. He's smarter than me, taller than me, financially intelligent, and respectful of me (aka he's willing to wait). Everything I hoped for in a man. It took a long time to find him because so many men expect sex immediately. What I wanted most in the world was a man who respected me enough to wait, aka to build a true friendship before diving in further. We are letting things develop naturally. Enjoying the time getting to know each other, rather than rapidly jumping into bed and letting hormones and lust carry away all common sense and reason.

Rushing into physical affection sets off hormones, which means you cannot judge clearly. You cannot judge if this is the person you should really be with long-term. This is why so many women end up in abusive, conflicted, or strained relationships. This is why the divorce rate is 50% and still rising. People end up married to the wrong person because they didn't bother to take the time to assess if it was the right person and if BOTH people had the maturity for marriage. A maturity which requires selflessness, sacrifice, forgiveness, and compromise. Forget the fanciful crap you've seen in movies. Soul mates don't exist and love isn't some easy thing that "just happens" to you at the right moment. Real love is hard, takes commitment and compromise, and grows slowly over time. And if you or your partner don't have the maturity for that yet, you're not ready to be in a relationship.
The question is, how far are you willing to go to protect your body and your self-esteem? Even tho it took me years to find a boyfriend who was willing to wait, it was truly worth it. The point is, I was willing to be a virgin for the rest of my life if that's what it took. I was not going to give my body to anyone unworthy of it. And if a boy cannot wait for you, then he doesn't care about you at all or have any respect for women. He just wants to get laid. I'm a christian, but my boyfriend is an agnostic. He has no rules about waiting, but he's willing to wait for me because he knows it's important to me. That makes me swoon like nothing else can. Don't ever compromise your beliefs or your body just to "keep a man" at your side. He isn't worth it, even if you end up utterly alone (which is unlikely). Marriage isn't the ultimate must-have to happiness. You can be happy single as long as you have plenty of friends/family in your life. So don't ever view it as a desperate "I must have a man or I'll end up alone." View it as "It would be nice to have a man if he respects me, but I know I can still be happy as a single person if I truly never find anyone." Women set the ground rules for how far a man is allowed to get with her physically. Women have that power and if a man is that impatient that he can't wait for awhile (when the prize is a life-time of sex with a committed partner), then that isn't a man you want in your life. It shows an utter lack of intelligence and self-control.
Bonus point: Because I've never been sexually active, I've never been on birth control, which means my hormones have never been chemically altered. After lots of research, I plan to use the diaphragm+spermicide+condom+fertility-tracking method to deal with birth control. My mother actually used a diaphragm too and was never on the pill either. She never got pregnant accidentally.
(Update Nov. 2017): Putting a diaphragm in is even easier than inserting a menstrual cup, which is something I've already been using for years for my period. So far, fertility tracking (daily body temperatre, cervical mucus, cervix position) is working extremely well too. So I only use my diaphragm+spermicide when I know I'm possibly fertile and don't use it when I know there's no chance of me being within the "danger zone". I plan to never have to take anything that messes with my hormones ever. If you're ultra-paranoid and don't trust the fertility-tracking, then just use the diaphragm+spermicide+condom method every time you have sex. The success rate is even higher than the birth control pill! To match the same level of effectiveness of diaphragm+spermicide+condom, you would have to use the pill and a condom at the same time.
See my detailed guide on how I do my birth control: Natural Birth Control

In summary, am I perfect and always follow my own rules? Hell no. Sometimes I don't get enough sleep. Sometimes I stay inside too long watching depressing movies and then wonder why I feel so miserable. Sometimes I'm not as forgiving or as patient with people as I should be. But I never give up. I never abandon my rules utterly just because I failed one day. Because I know what would happen if I did give up. My life would get a whole lot worse than it is.