I’m feeling a bit reflective, and also very grateful, because I have a birthday this week. And no, it’s not “the big one”, or any of “the big ones”, but it’s getting pretty close to a big one. Basically, I’m not a kid any more (understatement). I’m now WAY over 40, almost 48 to be exact. But I don’t always feel as grown up as I think I should at age 48. I thought I would feel older.

Older and wiser, right? And I do feel wiser. I know a lot of stuff now! But I also still don’t know a lot of stuff, thankfully, because life would be pretty uninteresting if we had it all figured out at this point in the journey. But one thing I’ve been fortunate to learn over the past several years is that if I want to live through these 40-something, then 50-something years and beyond with health and vitality, there’s no messing around. The choices I make every day about how I live my life are crucial. They will make or break my health and have a huge impact on the next half of my life.

I may not be able to hold onto my youth age-wise, but I can FEEL young and make my best attempt to stay healthy as long as possible. And while some of the obvious signs of getting older are there, like the “fine lines”, and the grey hair I hide with highlights, and the fact that my body simply rejects any type of fitness class that has the word “boot camp” in it, in most ways I truly do feel better at 48 than I did at 28, and maybe even 18. I have much more sustained energy. All systems are working as they should. I eat better, I drink better, I sleep better, I exercise better.

I make adjustments to manage stress, like including time every morning to just BE for a bit and get some soul nourishment.

I don’t try to kill myself with exercise, I do what feels good on that particular day, but I absolutely do move my body every single day. It’s a priority.

I drink less caffeine and more raw apple cider vinegar 🙂

I eat WAY more green food.

What we eat and drink matters. How much sleep and movement we get matter. It’s all crucial and we can’t choose between. We can’t do one, without the others. It just doesn’t work that way. I’ve been into fitness and health for most of my life, but I didn’t always place a high enough value on the way these things all work together. And for so many years I had very low energy and often felt overwhelmed. And then developed an autoimmune disease.

That diagnosis, while nothing serious at the time, lit a fire under me to research everything I could on eating for vitality and fighting disease, and to pursue my passion for nutrition on a deeper level. I simply never wanted the disease to progress, if there was anything I could possibly do about it. So I enrolled in nutrition school. I got certified in Pilates and began teaching. I tried different things, like juicing and smoothies to get high doses of veggies. I cleansed my body to get off sugar and processed foods and caffeine addiction. I ate less meat. The bottom line is, I began to look at food as a way to nourish and heal my body, not just a means to satisfy my hunger or cravings. And I noticed a big difference. My auto immune symptoms disappeared completely without medication. So did my low energy. My sleep improved, my digestion improved, my skin improved.

And I haven’t looked back. I spend a good portion of every day continuing to learn and research, thankful that I can use this information in some small way to help others too.

Do I have a perfect diet and lifestyle? Am I an expert on these things? Uh…NO. I just discovered a lifestyle that works for me and that makes me feel pretty great every day.

I choose what’s best most of the time (but definitely not ALL the time) I flood my body with nutrients consistently, with a big dose in the morning to get a good start. And honestly, these choices are NO sacrifice. (Just look through my Instagram feed!)

So we’re all getting older. But the good news is, only one day at a time! And every day is full of opportunities to either slow down or speed up the process. We do have a certain amount of control. We can’t control all of the factors that threaten our health, living in this highly toxic and stressful world, but we can control MANY of them. I no longer underestimate the value of these things, because it has made such a difference for me personally. Remember, we’re only “aging” one day at a time. Each day is a new opportunity. So happy birthday to me and to you, whenever that may be, with hopes for many more years of healthy inspiration to come!

XO,

Heather

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