If you are 40+ or 50's, there is a chance that most of your life you spent either building your career, family, comfortable living, paying the mortgage and maybe raising kids, or partying, going out, having fun and enjoying life.
I definitely was the first type as most of my friends were, but I also know people of the second kind as well, and I can tell you that either path (extreme cases aside) surprisingly has similar consequences for your health. At some point in either your early or late 40s, you start realizing that your life choices of either kind cost you the very precious feeling that you took for granted when you were younger - the feeling of being healthy and strong.
I guess my case was a little on the extreme side - in my early 40s, I was convinced that the famous joke “if you are 40+ and wake up in the morning full of energy, nothing hurts, and your mood is good - it’s time to say no to drugs” is true. Seriously. I was absolutely convinced that the signs of declining health that I observed are totally normal because I’m old - isn’t it obvious? Most people around me felt the same way, besides a couple of lucky genetic freaks that were able to delay this for a little longer. If you are not one of them, you understand what I am talking about. Yes, we all are different, and our symptoms won’t be exactly the same and the extent of our problems too. Regardless, I bet you wish you could feel as good as 10, 20, 30 or more years ago, right? If you think it’s just a dream, that you need to get realistic and embrace the reality of aging, you are wrong! I can assure you that aging (which is inevitable) is not a synonym of lower energy levels, slowly vanishing functional strength, declining mood or decaying endurance. It doesn’t have to be. It’s almost always up to you.
It was a very big surprise to me when I realized that it’s possible to not only slow down the physical aspect of aging and preserve what’s left of your health but to literally reverse the process so much so in your forties and fifties you can be actually in a much better shape than in your early thirties. It’s not a joke or an exaggregation, it’s a fact. I did it myself. When I look back at my early thirties I realize that it was nothing fundamentally wrong about me. I was neither unhealthy nor weak. I wasn’t doing much to stay in shape since college, but my built was average and I still had some muscle. I never complained about my energy levels and had no functional limitations. As I mentioned before, in my early forties I unexpectedly found myself in a significantly worse situation and still declining. Was it the beginning of the end?
Well, these days I’m almost fifty and I never was or felt better. I don’t use any medications. I wake up at 5 am full of energy and stay active until 10 pm. I stay positive all the time. I look younger than I did 10 years ago. My strength is at levels I could never imagine and still increasing. I can lift more weights than most of my young friends in the gym. I feel more alive than ever. So, is it possible? Hell, yeah! And there is no magic involved!
After my jaw-dropping transformation, I was frequently asked what magic pill I found to shed pounds, get buffed and look so young. There is no such pill, folks. It’s called “healthy, balanced and natural lifestyle”, and it’s the only working recipe to achieve and sustain it, and here are the main components of it:
1. Physical activity.
It’s an obvious one, right? Believe it or not, different people mean very different things by that. Walking in the park is great, but it’s not something that will substantially improve your health.
Does it have a positive effect? Absolutely! Is it sufficient? Absolutely not! Even if you do much more rigorous cardio, it affects only so many aspects of your well-being. It doesn’t prevent losing muscle mass much and doesn’t prevent losing bone density, and both are absolutely necessary for healthy aging. It neither makes you stronger nor more functional, while those things are required for happy independent aging. How about strength training? Done right it definitely provides the mentioned above health benefits that cardio is missing, but it also lacks some of the attributes intrinsic for cardio. And neither cardio nor strength training provides you with flexibility and joint mobility that are pretty important too. This is what either rigorous stretching or ideally yoga-style exercise is for. So for optimal health, you will need some mixture of all three. Articles with more specific recommendations and also training plans will follow. I’m also going to launch a goal-oriented fitness guide phone app in 2020.
2. Diet.
This one also sounds pretty simple, so why so few people have it on-point? Because diet is a multi-faceted discipline! Figuring out efficient macros for your situation is only one part of it. Getting in as many vitamins and minerals from real food so they are properly absorbed by your body is another one. Minimizing the amount of processed food, substituting or ideally eliminating it for whole foods is absolutely critical. Even drinking enough water shouldn’t be overlooked. There is not even one aspect of a diet that doesn’t have a tremendous effect on your overall well-being and healthy aging. Internalize it. Articles with more specific recommendations and suggested meal plans will follow.
3. Supplementation.
The basics are pretty simple: if you are vegan and your diet is well balanced whole foods plant-based you will need only a few things to supplement. B12, D3, and Omega-3 will do for most. Most will benefit from both systemic and regular probiotics as well. Many will benefit from certain kinds of digestive enzymes, especially those formulated for foods high in fiber and, in some cases, protein. Some people will benefit from iodine. Anything beyond that will strictly depend on your personal situation that includes your activity level and type (e.g. BCAAs and Creatine), levels of ongoing stress in your life (adaptogenic herbs like Cordyceps). I will have more situation-based advice on this website, but you also encouraged to contact me directly.
4. Natural lifestyle and homeopathy.
Eliminating all harmful environmental factors is virtually impossible, but we still got to control all we can. Chemicals in all of your detergents, in your make-up, skin and hair care products, air fresheners and toilet paper, liners and pads take away years of your life, increase the chance of cancer, significantly weaken your body defense mechanisms (immune system included) and make you older. Medications you take in most cases (extremes aside) do way more harm than good to your body. There are natural ways of taking control over your health that do not include pills. I got rid of all of them, one by one, and I was taking plenty! Most of them by doctors were supposed to be for life. Trust me, once I found natural solutions for my issues, I did not only got much better but also was able to fix things that are absolutely unfixable following conventional medicine and were supposed to stay with me for life. Classic homeopathy (only done by highly reputable homeopathic doctors and unfortunately there are not so many of them) alongside other solutions described in this post (diet, exercise, supplementation, etc.) gave me all the answers I was looking for. There is a good chance that you will find your answers, too.
Regain control over your health, get back your strength, win back your youth! It is possible, and it is up to you.
Good luck with your journey!
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