Crossing over into my 40s was my first real encounter with the reality of aging. My body doesn’t quite work the way it used to. My knees creak a little more and it isn’t quite so easy to squat down to the floor. My hips are stiff in the morning and sometimes it takes a second to get moving when I stand up out of my chair. My brain has been going through some changes too. I forget the craziest things. I walk into rooms without a clue as to why I’m there. I lose my train of thought in the middle of the sentence ALL THE TIME. My skin is starting to wrinkle and sag and I’m regularly getting Botox now trying to fight back the signs of aging. But what else should I be doing now to keep the declines associated with aging away. Are there habits now I could do to improve my odds of staying out of hospitals, off of medications and active and mobile well into my 90s?
What can you do now… while you still have your health and youth is on your side, to optimize your health and quality of life as you age through the decades? We only get one chance at this life thing, and I know I want to make it as fun and exciting and as full of good health as possible. So here are some things you can do now to optimize your health for the future!
- Prioritize your nutrition! What you are putting into your body matters!!!
Your body is incredibly resilient but over time constantly consuming food that is working against you is going to take a toll. That toll starts chiming really loud as you approach 50. It’s time to get serious. You do not need to do prolonged fasts, eat 500 calories a day, run 2 hrs a day, eliminate carbs, etc. You just need to eat real food. It sounds so incredibly easy and obvious, but it really is that simple. Avoid eating foods that have ingredient lists that you can’t pronounce. Load up on vegetables, fruits, grains, beans, lean meats, chicken, and seafood, healthy oils, nuts and seeds. Those foods are going to fuel a healthy gut biome which will supercharge your metabolism. Your cravings will subside, you will feel satisfied, your mood, skin, and general health will improve, and results can be rapid with consistency. Eliminating processed foods and simple sugars out of your nutrition can overhaul your gut biome in days and weeks and completely change the way that you feel. Check out the Mediterranean diet. Incorporate principles from that into your nutrition and make this a priority!
- Move more! Let’s get walking, and maybe pick up a weight or two!
Our lives have gotten way too comfortable. With all that comfort we aren’t moving enough to keep ourselves healthy. I highly recommend walking every day to maintain good cardiovascular health but also to burn calories, improve mobility, improve your mood, reduce stress, improve the quality of your sleep, improve your brain health, and keep your bones strong. I highly recommend that you track your steps with a watch or pedometer and aim for a minimum of 10k steps a day. Or if that is too much for you then prioritizing a 30-minute walk after your biggest meal of the day, which for most is dinner time. This will help improve your digestion and blood sugar control as well.
As we are moving through our 40s, we are already losing bone density and muscle mass if you are not actively working to build it. 1 in 2 women will have an osteoporotic fracture in their lifetime. Fracture when you are old often results in loss of mobility and some fractures can be deadly! Building up bone density and muscle mass in your 40s is like putting a coat of armor on your body for the years ahead! Lift weights a minimum of 3 days a week. I typically do 1 upper body day and 1 lower body day and another day where I mix the two. If you have no idea where to get started with this, I can help. I have weightlifting programs that can be accessed through an app on your phone that are tailored to you with demo videos and a place to track your progress.
- Stress management/Recovery.
I feel like our generation just lives on stress. We are so busy working, taking care of our families, our partners, and our parents. We frequently feel like we never have time to rest, and sleep has been becoming a bigger challenge. Focusing on stress reduction and high-quality sleep is critical to improving your health as you age. All the recovery your body needs to function at its best happens while you are sleeping. Become obsessed with taking care of yourself. Set a bedtime and create bedtime rituals to do every night before you sleep. Rituals such as stretching, meditating, skin care, reading, etc. Avoid TV and phone screens 1 hour prior to bed. Also trying to keep a similar bedtime and wake up time 7 days a week will help train your body to sleep consistently. If there is something interfering with your sleep like hot flashes, anxiety, or restlessness this should be discussed with your menopause provider.
Find ways to manage your stress. Spending time with friends and family, getting outside and being in nature, writing in a journal, meditating, or talking to a therapist. Living in a constant state of busy, anxious, worried, is keeping your cortisol level high and it is not doing you any favors when it comes to aging.
Perimenopause has caused me to relook at all my habits to really optimize how my body functions. A lot of what I have learned has been through trial and error. There is no need to overhaul your whole life in one day. Make some small tweaks to your habits, assess how it made you feel, and then tweak and adjust as you learn what works for you with the goal of getting 1% better every day!
