As much as we yearn to stay young, we are all aging. Certainly, you know you are getting older when a decade seems to fly by.
The problem is that we are suffering as we get older, and we think it is just a part of life. I am here to tell you that suffering is optional. When you put your health first, then you can age with grace, feel energetic, and stay strong and healthy. I believe that disease is optional. Most certainly, we must get smarter as we get older to age with Grace.
This article is here to make you smarter, younger, and full of vitality.
Getting Old Doesn’t Have to Suck
You have a Choice:
Do you ever hear yourself or others say, “Getting old sucks.”? I call b.s. on that. Truthfully, the more we say it, the more we live into it.
For sure, a lot of what people are experiencing sucks. However, the reason why we experience pain, a lack of energy, teeth that are rotting, disease, illness, weight gain, bone density loss, anxiety, depression, and not being able to do what we love, is because of our choices.
Admittedly, sometimes we do not know what are the best choices on foods, sleep, or toxins to avoid. Of course, we are exposed to more toxins now than ever before in our air, water, and food, and soil. Learning how to be smart, and make the best choices is key to aging with vitality. Fortunately, now we have access to learning how to do it better. Once you know, then you get to make the better choice.
Everyday Choices Matter:
- What we eat, when we eat, how much we eat
- Toxins we expose ourselves to
- Whether we exercise
- To stretch or not to stretch – move it or lose it.
- The thoughts we choose
- The beliefs we feed
- The energy we cultivate
- Developing Good Sleep Habits
- Hydrating well
- Performing a cleanse for the body
- Our daily routines
- Who we surround ourselves with
Start with Changing the Story
To launch yourself into a path of wellness and vitality as you age, start with changing your story. Here are some better feeling stories. Add yours and email them to me so I can bask in your brilliance.
- Every year gets better
- My body is a powerful healing machine
- I am beautiful
- I am strong
- I am wise
- I make a bigger impact every year
- I age with grace
- I am active
- I love giving my body the best
- I will leave a legacy in this world
- I am powerful
I monitor my mind, and I choose the thoughts that serve me the best. So the above thoughts take the stage and the ones that don’t serve me get the boot.
You Can Heal Your Body
Your body is a powerful healing machine. Undoubtedly, it works hard for you and tries its best to keep you young and vibrant. However, we abuse our bodies, day after day, and then with overload, things fall apart.
Every bite you eat is an important choice toward either helping your body or hurting your body.
As is Every thought you have.
It’s all about the Liver
Your liver fights for you day after day. It grabs onto toxins and stores them deeply away so they don’t harm you. In addition, the liver soaks up all your adrenaline from stress, worry, and caffeine you consume and pulls it out of the blood to protect your organs and nervous system.
Furthermore, it produces bile to help deal with fat in your bloodstream.
Finally, it manages nutrients in your body and can deliver them to you when needed. These are just a few of the amazing powers of the liver.
The Liver has Limited Storage Space
All of us come into the world with a certain number of toxins like heavy metals that are passed down from our parents, some with a small amount, and some with a lot.
Your entire life, the liver is grabbing and storing toxins and trouble-makers for you, until it just can’t anymore. Then you will suffer. This can happen when you are a teenager or when you are 30, 40, 50, or 60.
When it happens, you will think that aging sucks! It may show up as acne, a low immune system, weight gain, auto-immune disease, etc.
Learn more about what the Liver does for you and how to support it in this Blog from Anthony Williams, the Medical Medium.
5 Tips to Take Care of your Liver for Youth, Vitality, & Energy
- Drink Lemon Water: Do this first thing in the morning when you wake up. It will give your body electrolytes, a bioavailable form of Calcium, nutrients, vitamins, and it will help flush out the liver. I drink 1 liter a day with a whole lemon.
- Drink Celery Juice: Celery juice is a powerful healing herbal medicine. It will help you live a long happy life as it flushes out toxins from your liver to your brain. You get to clear light and clear. Do it on an empty stomach 30 minutes after your lemon water.
- Drink a Liver Rescue Smoothie or Heavy Metal Detox Smoothie half an hour after your celery juice.
- Avoid fat before noon. Then the rest of the morning eat fruits, veggies, oatmeal, or potatoes with no fat. This will give your liver a chance to do its work.
- Do a cleanse: Have you ever done a cleanse? The Liver Rescue 3-6-9 cleanse is a very effective and safe one. Many cleanses are too harsh and release toxins into your body. Most people have never done one in their whole lives. You can give your liver a big boost.
- Eat a plant-based nutrient-rich diet. Honestly, it will change your life. You can heal anything you are suffering from. Not only that, but it is the best thing you can do to heal the planet. You will be reducing your carbon footprint by 50%. Here is a Ted talk by Dr. Joel Furman with some amazing recovery stories of weight loss and healing chronic conditions.
Which Desire is More Important?
- Health, Vitality, Energy, Fitness, Freedom
- A moment of satisfaction from additive foods with caffeine, sugar, fat, and salt.
When you ask it this way, you may decide that you would rather have sugar snap peas or an apple over the coffee, diet coke, donut, or cookie. You can make that choice, and your body will thank you.
Unhealthy Foods are Addictive
Undoubtedly, you will have desires that will trash your body. Unhealthy foods are highly addictive. Caffeine, fat, salt and sugar have a grasp on us like a python who is not about to let go. The good news is that you can kick these addictions if you steer clear for 30-60 days. Then you will be free from the clutches they have on you.
Excitingly, your taste buds will wake up and fruits, veggies, and herbs take on deep rich flavors. With most of the food we eat, all we taste is salt, fat, and sugar.
Which Desire will Win?
You likely have a desire to be or all of these.
TO BE:
- Healthy
- Disease-free
- Pain-free
- Vibrant
- Energetic
- Flexible
- Alive!
- Sexy
- Extraordinary
- Fit
- Strong
- Calm
You also likely have desires for such things as:
- Caffeine to boost your energy – caffeine wears out your adrenals and stresses your liver
- Donuts, candy, cookies, ice cream, etc.
- Wine, beer, pot, or other substances
- Soda
- Kombucha, Apple Cider Vinegar – Vinegar dehydrates your organs and drives toxins deeper
- Chocolate
- Or whatever your vices are.
These foods serve us in some way. They help us avoid uncomfortable emotions. In addition, they help us get a boost of energy as the body releases adrenaline. The adrenaline is toxic in high amounts and causes the adrenals to wear out over time.
So when these vices arise, ask yourself which is more important to you overall.
Is it more important to have long-term health and vitality, energy, and wellness, or to have the temporary satisfaction of addictive foods?
There is a Native American story where the elder explains to the grandson that we each have two wolves inside us, the good and the bad. The grandson asks, “Which one will win.” He responds, “Whichever you feed.”
Do these steps to make a good choice:
- Take a step back and see the big picture. What is it you really want?
- Make a commitment in alignment with what you want. Like, I choose to eat healthy foods because I want to be Young and Vibrant.
- Make Health a Habit. Declare to yourself morning, noon, and night that you are choosing to put your health first, and create habits that align with that. Then imagine that you are placing a flag in the ground with a commitment to yourself that is so strong and unwavering.
- Congratulate yourself every time you make a good choice. Say to yourself, “Nice job!”. This makes the habit repeatable in your mind.
- If you make a choice that you don’t like, say you ate the donut, then ask yourself why? What were you avoiding? What did it give you? Was it just a moment of satisfaction? Visualize how you would have liked it to have gone. See how you could have done it better. Run the good choice through your mind several times.
- Bring pain to pleasure and pleasure to pain. See this great Ted Talk from Marissa Peer. Make eating veggies, smoothies, and fruit so pleasurable to your mind by saying things like, I love eating healthy foods and giving my body the best. Sing as you choose these foods. Make eating unhealthy food painful in your mind by saying, I hate how I feel after I make a bad choice. It hurts my body to choose that.
- Surround yourself with the goods. Toss out all the crap – processed and fatty foods. Load up with the good stuff. Then when you have a sweet craving you have no choice but to go for the apple sauce, orange, mango, or banana ice cream. Take out the willpower you only have so much.
- Get support. Do this with your family or a group if possible. It will make it fun and easy. Watch Forks over Knives with your family and get someone on board.
- Take it one step at a time and keep going!
Healthy Habits for Aging Gracefully:
- Exercise daily – find something you love, walk daily, find a workout program or studio with regular classes you commit to, hire a trainer, walk in nature. Do something every day.
- Eat well – mostly fruits, veggies, and potatoes (They are loaded with micro and macronutrients. Just don’t put cheese, bacon, sour cream, or butter on them. I use lemon and herbs.).
- Eat Nutrient-Rich Foods. Your health and youth depend on how many nutrient-rich foods you consume. Every bite matters. Eat tons of greens and fruits each day.
- Eat often – every 2-3 hours as your brain, muscles, and liver all feed off of glucose. If you don’t then the body will have to release adrenaline to get you by.
- Go low fat to help your heart, blood, brain, and organs. Fat slows the absorption of nutrients and decreases the oxygen in your blood. It also makes your heart work harder as your blood is thick and sluggish with fat.
- Reduce or better yet eliminate dairy and eggs as they are troublemakers that are also high in fat and cholesterol. Did you know Canada no longer recommends milk? It is out of the food pyramid. Here is a great Ted Talk for you on Plant-Strong foods.
- Eliminate meat or reduce the meat to once a day, or every other day. All meat is high in fat. Processed meats and red meat are labeled as a group 1 carcinogen by the American Cancer Society. This is the same category as asbestos and tobacco. Chicken and fish are both high in fat and cholesterol too. Most of our fish is high in toxic heavy metals like mercury.
- If you want to eat seafood, know that wild-caught salmon and sardines are the least toxic. Limit fish to once a week.
- Eat nuts, seeds, oils, and avocados sparingly. Use these healthy fats in very small amounts like olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, seeds, tahini, and avocado. Fat is fat no matter if it is a healthy one. Too much will bog your system down.
- Avoid trouble makers foods like canola oil, corn, msg, natural flavors, citric acid, and vinegar
- Create a powerful morning routine
- Design a lovely evening routine
- Get to sleep by 10 pm, this is truly a magic number. Check out my master sleep blog here.
- Sleep for 7.5-8.5 hours a day or more if you need it.
- Avoid chemicals and fragrances (My ‘synthetic fragrances are killing you’ blog is here) in the products you put on your skin and use in your home. Go for the all-natural essential oil cleaning products, cosmetics, and shampoos.
- I like Vitamin C serum for my face.
- Get rid of scented candles, they are killing you. You are breathing in heavy metals.
- Don’t stand by the gas pump while it is pumping, get back into your car. Avoid gas fumes.
- Stretch daily, move all your joints in every direction every day. Move it or lose it.
Suffering is Optional
Behind every complaint is a request. So listen to your complaints and find out what you really want.
Because if you want to feel great, then you can.
You are not powerless, you are powerful.
Now you have an expanded perspective of what is possible and how to get there. I am here to support you. Reach out!
Choose Life-giving foods!
