Health and Well-Being
Here’s What Made Me Healthier and Younger After 50.
Combining seven lifestyle modifications gradually transformed my body and mind into a better state by lowering stress and anxiety.
This story has nothing to do with cosmetic surgery, using steroids, or expensive supplements. I haven’t done any of those things and have no intention of doing them either. However, I respect those who do them. I don’t see any legal or ethical issues. It is a personal choice and decision.
Let me explain why I wrote this piece. Previously I posted an article titled Six Reasons I Feel Younger and Healthier as I Get Older. Many readers enjoyed it. They provided valuable feedback showing their appreciation for sharing my experiences publicly.
However, some readers found the content too technical with abstract concepts such as cellular, mitochondrial, or metabolic health. These loyal readers requested I simplify it further and give some practical examples.
Honoring their request, I decided to make this article as simple as possible using only practical terms. So far, this is one of my most simplified articles hoping anyone can understand and gain insights from it.
So I summarize the critical points of my protocol under seven headings without going into theoretical details. They reflect on my holistic health perspectives.
The key theme of this story is oxidative stress and anxiety, as they are the root causes of physical and mental health conditions.
I believe some readers can customize the principles behind my protocols to suit their needs and goals.
I highlight the principles rather than specifics that align with my body, as we are all unique. I don’t know how your body and mind work. Something that works for one person might not work for another.
Here are the key points that improved my physical and mental health and made me feel younger as I got older.
1 — Changing my mindset
I start with mindset, as we manifest our outcomes with thoughts. Mindset refers to our thinking patterns and attitudes toward life. It reflects our beliefs and values.
For example, if we believe we can achieve a goal, we can. Likewise, we can’t if we think we cannot reach the goal. This notion has been well-proven throughout history, so it does not require scientific details. It is how the human mind works.
However, one point from the literature is the reality of the placebo effect. It is a scientifically proven fact.
Placebo effects even cured deadly diseases of people, as reported in the medical literature. You can learn more about this from Stanford professor, athlete, and psychologist Alia Crum in a TEDMED talk.
My fundamental shift was moving from a fixed to a growth mindset. In simple terms, I focussed on opportunities rather than obstacles. This modification also increased my cognitive flexibility and emotional regulation.
Priming my mind that I could achieve anything that I wanted within realistic boundaries was the critical success factor.
2 — Fasting and gaining a fat-adapted body
Even though people fasted throughout history and even before prehistoric periods, possibly due to famines, the concept is still frowned upon by some as it looks too risky or even dangerous without understanding the metabolic processes during the fasting process.
Yes, fasting creates stress for the body as it needs to create alternative energy to support billions of cells and energy-hungry organs.
In addition, it spends extra energy to clear the garbage as the body uses the damaged cells, faulty proteins, and pathogens as an energy source in the absence of food.
However, this temporary stressful situation can bring numerous health and longevity benefits.
Fasting helped to rejuvenate my cells, tissues, and organs. It led to a remarkable physical transformation, making my body fat-adapted.
For example, in addition to intermittent fasting via one meal a day, after each long-term fasting, my muscles enhanced, and my visceral fat shrank.
But fasting also helped me improve my mental health and performance as ketosis increased brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). I explained ketosis and BDNF in previous articles.
The key concepts to improve the health of cells and mitochondria were the natural cleansing process known as autophagy and mitophagy processes clearing accumulated garbage from my body. So fasting catalyzes the cleansing of our cells.
3 — Consuming enough macronutrients and micronutrients
Too little or too many macronutrients and micronutrients can be problematic. They lead to different health conditions. If deficiencies persist, people might face diseases that can shorten their life span.
For example, I used to fear dietary fat, thinking it would make me fat and cause heart attacks. Therefore, I consumed too little, which gave me nightmares that almost caused premature aging.
I also did not consume bioavailable proteins, falsely believing protein from dense foods like meat, fish, seafood, dairy, or eggs would cause cancer.
Even worse, my old diet caused essential micronutrient deficiencies such as Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, magnesium, zinc, and choline, leading to undesirable health conditions such as anemia and immunity issues.
When I started consuming adequate healthy fats, enough bioavailable proteins, and balanced micronutrients, my body felt excellent, and I gained mental clarity.
My previous health conditions, such as brain fog and metabolic syndrome, disappeared.
So I concluded that nutritional deficiencies in macronutrients and micronutrients are a severe problem for healthspan and lifespan.
4 — Doing exercise as a hobby, recovering timely, and having fun
Exercise plays a critical role in our health and longevity. Sedentary life is the root cause of numerous health conditions, including metabolic and mental health disorders.
Like fasting, exercise also adds stress to the body. It is blood stress if we do it properly and recovers timely. However, if we overdo it and don’t recover quickly, oxidative stress can cause chronic inflammation.
My solution was to see exercise as a hobby. For example, instead of running long distances, which caused joint pain and inflammation, I started walking barefoot on the beach or grass, giving me joy.
I also replaced excessive cardio with high-intensity training and more resistance training in the form of calisthenics and moderate weightlifting.
Resistance training and short burst cardio workouts became my joyful exercises as a ritual. Consequently, they defined my body.
My favorite daily exercise was jumping on a trampoline to do my cardio which had minimal impact on my joints while activating the lymphatic system that removed toxins from the body.
5 — Meditating regularly and acting mindfully
The body and mind are tightly connected. An overactive amygdala can lead to excessive stress and anxiety. If these conditions are not treated in time, they might lead to depression and neurodegenerative disorders.
Frankly, we have known how to deal with stress and anxiety for years. However, some of us, including myself, ignored or neglected those viable solutions. I explained how to move from an anxious to a calm mind before.
The viable solution to lower my stress and anxiety was to meditate daily. I also learned several mindfulness techniques and cognitive behavioral self-therapies. My new mindset helped me achieve these.
Meditating regularly after a year, I felt noticeable changes in my physical and mental health. From the biological perspective, I quickly lost visceral fat, especially from the abdominal area, and maintained lean muscles with a denser bone structure.
From a mental health perspective, my stress and anxiety lowered, as evident by optimized cortisol. The body can tap into fat stores much easier when cortisol gets lowered.
In addition, excessive cortisol might be toxic to the body, affecting multiple organs’ health.
When I meditated regularly and constantly acted mindfully, I slept better.
Unfortunately, sleep deprivation was the root cause of elevated cortisol, insulin resistance, and leptin resistance, which put me in a metabolically disadvantaged position. Restorative sleep was a critical success factor.
6 — Working in a flow state
Since I spent one-third of my day at work- or work-related issues, these activities were the primary source of physical and mental stress.
Before knowing about the flow state, I quickly got annoyed, frustrated, stressed, and became anxious.
These psychological effects lowered my productivity. When I produced less with more effort and time, I got even more stressed and anxious. It was like a catch-22 situation causing unnecessary stress.
When I learned how to enter a flow state and maintain it as long as I wanted, a massive shift happened.
I started enjoying my work with less effort, time, and stress but with more joy and fun. Productivity was a bonus of adapting the flow state.
Defeating work stress contributed to both physical and mental health and made me feel younger. So nowadays, I don’t see work as work but as a hobby or challenge.
7 — Improving relationships and social connections
Improvement in the previous sections, such as in lowering stress and anxiety, helped me enhance my relationships and create new and more meaningful social connections.
You may wonder how relationships and social connections relate to health and longevity. The answer is, again, the adverse effects of stress and anxiety.
The emotional part of the brain, known as the limbic system, craves relationships, acceptance, and appreciation. These are natural feelings.
In simple terms, when we are rejected, not valued, or not appreciated by our loved ones, friends, colleagues, or community members, our stress levels increase.
And the primitive part of the brain (amygdala) senses the situation and creates more anxiety signals. I explained amygdala hijacks.
When I had better relationships and met many new supportive people in my circles, my stress and anxiety lowered, and my motivation, creativity, and productivity increased.
This improvement simply gave a new meaning to my life. Therefore I value and cherish my relationships with others.
This might sound like a selfish reason, but it is natural for everyone. No one wants to be hated and rejected by their loved ones and others.
Conclusions and Takeaways
Unless we have underlying health conditions or genetic defects, staying healthy and young is possible with healthy lifestyle choices.
Healthy lifestyle choices helped me improve my well-being and reverse my metabolic conditions.
In this story, I touched on the critical points under seven headings covering decades of experience and hardships. Combining the key points had a ripple effect on my health and well-being.
For example, successfully implementing these principles helped me optimize and balance my hormones and neurotransmitters, which are critical for the communication of cells and the balance of the body.
If you read the key points touched on in this story with an open mind, this article might save you time in designing lifestyle choices as a physical and mental model.
You don’t need to copy my protocol, but by understanding the principles behind my protocol, you might even design better protocols for yourself.
I gave examples from my diet, exercise, sleep, work, and relationships. But all these items are individual matters. For example, there is no size fit all diet, exercise, sleep, or work regimen.
But we all need nutritious food, restorative sleep, productive work, and functional relationships. How you achieve them is up to you.
You might get ideas from the experiences of successful or like-minded people and customize the choices and design them as they serve you. Our choices and decisions determine our success or failure.
Chronological aging is inevitable, but we can slow down biological aging with healthy lifestyle choices. The best we can do at this stage is to achieve healthy aging, as anti-aging seems to be a false premise.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
As a new reader, please check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and decades of experiments optimizing my hormones and neurotransmitters. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.
ALS, Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, Thyroid Disorders, Anemia, Dysautonomia, cardiac output, and urinary track disorders.
I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Phosphatidylserine, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients.
Disclaimer: My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness.
As part of my creative non-fiction writing goals, I’d like to share a few stories that might warm our hearts with a bit of humor into weighty topics.
Sample Humorous Stories
Finally, After Burning Her House, Georgia Found Enlightenment
Hilarious Tips to Prevent Brain Atrophy and Keep the Gray Matter Giggling
8 Psychological Points I Had to Unlearn and Relearn the Opposite
Based on my writing experience and observations, I documented findings and strategies that might help you amplify your voice, engage your audience, and achieve your desired outcomes in your writing journey.
I publish my lifestyle, health, and well-being stories on EUPHORIA. My focus is on cellular, mitochondrial, metabolic, and mental health. Here is my collection of Insightful Life Lessons from Personal Stories.
You might join my six publications on Medium as a writer by sending a request via this link. 25K writers contribute to my publications. You might find more information about my professional background.
I also write about technology from another profile.
