A woman gave up sugar 30 years ago and revealed the secret of eternal youth (9 photos)

Australia's Carolyn Hartz, who boasts an enviable bikini body and hasn't eaten sugar for 28 years, reveals the secrets to her flawless physique... but can you guess her age?

Grandmother of 4 Carolyn Hartz doesn't spend hours in the gym or drink liters of vegetable smoothies to get her enviable body.

Unlike the careful adherence to healthy trends that younger generations are into, Hartz, who turns 70 in July, says the formula for a lean body is simple.

“You have to watch what you put in your mouth—that's number one—and two, you have to move your legs,” she states.

Hartz has never used age as an excuse to slow down her pace of life. Even this year, as the cookbook author of Sugar Free Baking enters her 8th decade, she decided to start playing tennis again.

Ironically, the woman hired the same coach who, at the age of 30, told her that she was too old to play tennis and would never be able to reach class A.

“Then I thought, ‘Yeah? Look at me". I like a challenge,” she says of achieving her Goal A at 35. “My coach is over 80 and we still laugh about it.”

“When I called my coach, who is now retired, he laughed. He said, “You can play tennis, but I tell you that your first lesson will last 30 minutes. Don't think that you will play anymore because I know your abilities!

Hartz's efforts support the results of a recent study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Scientists have found that physical activity not only reduces mortality, but playing sports with a racket in hand led to a 47% lower risk of mortality compared to those who did not exercise. By comparison, aerobic exercisers had a 27% reduction in mortality risk.

And while Hartz now has a balanced approach to health, that doesn't mean she hasn't gone to extremes in the past.

Nearly 30 years before Carolyn gave up sugar for good, a prediabetes diagnosis forced then-40-year-old Hartz to give up her daily cheesecake for breakfast, a bag of cookies for dinner and all other sweets for an entire year—to begin to control her blood sugar.

“At the end of that year I looked the picture of health and my blood sugar levels were perfect. I didn’t have any more problems, but at that stage I didn’t like living this way because I was depriving myself of everything I loved,” the woman says.

So instead of continuing the torment and deprivation, she focused on eating healthy and mindfully enjoying pleasures without overeating.

“We never talked about mindfulness in those days, but I was very aware of what I was eating. And so I had sweets, and I definitely tried them.”

Her search for delicious food that she could eat guilt-free eventually led her to become an entrepreneur at age 55 when she opened SweetLife, which distributes a sugar substitute called xylitol.

“I went back to all my favorite recipes, like lemon butter cake, jams, sauces, meringues, everything I love, and changed them to be sugar-free,” Carolyn says.

When a woman makes brownies at home, she cuts them into pieces and freezes portions.

“I don’t leave them because the temptation is too great to eat it all.”

In addition to staying active and eating consciously, Hartz has meditated and walked every day with her husband for 40 years.

At the same time, Carolyn admits that she went to a cosmetologist, but this is not her secret to her beautiful appearance. “Yes, I do some supportive things, but surgery is not the reason I feel good,” she says.

She sleeps 7 to 8 hours a night and does charity work for the Brain Cancer Foundation. But Hartz says the real secret to her health is optimism.

At the same time, the woman notes that her life does not go without obstacles.

“I have always told my three children that life is not perfect. Things won't go the way you want, but that's okay. If you face a challenge or setback, stand up. Go again. Because often it is the universe pushing you in a different direction. I really believe that when one door closes, another one opens.”

“I'm not saying I'm always like this. No, I have hard times too, but the secret is that the glass is half full. Get up and walk again."