What's my secret?
So I’m sitting in a sauna, enjoying the feeling of heat permeating my body, chatting with my fellow community sauna-goers. And I drop the bomb shell casually mid sentence:
“… coz I’m 44 …”
Heads whip around and responses range from “What? No way!” to “Excuse me??” to “Did you just say you’re 44? I thought you were in your late 20s!”
And the question inevitably gets asked.
“What’s your secret??”
This sort of situation has happened many times now, and I never quite know how to answer this question. So I thought I’d actually sit down and try to formulate a worthy answer.
The easiest answer is of course: genetics. But it’s an incomplete and lazy answer. Yes genetics play a small part, but they aren’t the whole picture. Just like having the APOE4 genetic marker may predispose you to Alzheimers, it’s not a diagnosis by any means. As they say — genetics loads the gun, but your lifestyle pulls the trigger.
TLDR: Lifestyle.
That’s the secret.
The end (lol.. just kidding)!
Before I get into WHAT lifestyle practices I implement, I just wanna say that I don’t think looking young should be anyone’s primary goal (despite what society tells you). It certainly isn’t mine. I don’t pursue youthful appearances — its simply a side benefit in my journey to optimise my overall health.
But looking back at some of the things I’ve adopted over time, I’ve realised that these play a major role.
It’s also not just one thing — it’s a whole way of living.
There’s no magic bullet or secret pill to good health.
It requires consistent prioritisation — to care for your body and listen to what it is telling you.
So, here are all the contributing lifestyle practices I can think of (with the foundations first):
I cleaned up my nutrition. This meant removing inflammatory food sensitivities (gluten and lactose for me), reducing general inflammatory foods like sugar and refined / processed junk and replacing it with mostly whole real foods (organic where possible). I’m not vegan, carnivore or keto. I’m an omnivore and I eat what works with my bio-individuality (fyi: we evolved as omnivores).
I sleep enough. Most nights I get (on average) 7–8 hours of sleep. Though I’m not perfect, I’ve learned to look after my circadian health through useful tools like morning sunlight exposure.
I move my body. I’ve always been quite an active person, I love moving my body whether it be through dance, skating, aerial circus arts, yoga, swimming, resistance training… as they say, movement is medicine.
I hydrate and often. Water is my main beverage of choice, with daily electrolytes as needed. My parents trained me well as a child — whenever I wanted a drink, they gave me water. Not juice, not soft drinks. Water. So I got used to drinking a lot of it and I constantly have a glass or bottle with me at all times to sip on.
I consume alcohol very sparingly and I’ve never been drunk in my life. This is partly due to the fact that I have a genetic variant of ALDH that generates a nonfunctional enzyme (meaning I don’t metabolise alcohol well, resulting in undesirable symptoms when I have more than half a glass of red wine). I also don’t feel any desire to drink/get drunk and can have fun / let my hair down easily without alcohol.
I regularly use the sauna and hot-cold contrast therapy. Sweating is good for your skin and overall health, improving blood circulation and flushing out toxins. Sauna + cold plunge is also great for cardiovascular, immune and metabolic health.
I don’t use makeup (except on rare occasions). And haven’t for the last decade or so. I recently saw a reel mocking girls who don’t use makeup — and I felt both sad and frustrated watching these misguided folks cake their faces in toxic makeup in the pursuit of perfection and “looking better in a selfie”, when they should let their skin breathe and fix their hormone imbalances instead so they don’t have period pain and PMS every month (hint: good skin comes with balanced hormones).
My beauty regime is extremely simple —I just cleanse and moisturise my face before bed. I also use mostly natural moisturisers on my body, some literally from my kitchen cupboard eg organic olive / coconut / jojoba oil. And I check any beauty products I buy using the EWG or Yuka app to ensure they don’t contain nasties like endocrine disrupting compounds (messes with your hormones). The same goes for home cleaning products where possible.
I drink 20–30g collagen bone broth almost every day. This one was a bit of a surprise realisation for me — because I started taking collagen bone broth about 3–4 years ago to improve my gut health and the habit just stuck. Looking back, I’ve realised that over this time my skin health has improved.
Red light therapy — I have a little desk sized red / NIR light panel that I use most mornings when I start work. I’ve seen this sort of technology being sold as wearable face masks to improve skin health, so I guess it improved mine. Again — I didn’t do it for my skin/looks, I did it for my thyroid health, musculoskeletal issues, ATP and circadian health.
Attitude, resilience and priorities. I view my health and my body as a priority that I am very proactive about nourishing. I’m not just reactive when it comes to my health (which is the case for many people — only paying attention when something breaks — because it’s how the conventional western medical model works). I don’t have a victim-mindset — instead I approach things with curiosity, a sense of personal agency and empowerment. Not so that I can look young or slim, but so that I can feel young, healthy, vibrant, full of energy to pursue the things I love for as long as possible.
All of these practices have been adopted for reasons other than youthful looks, but I believe they’ve all had this accumulative side benefit.
If this list feels overwhelming to you, start small.
I didn’t implement all these things at the same time. They were incremental. I started with one thing, experienced some improvements in how I felt, then added another, and so on. Once you experience a small improvement, it motivates you to try more.
Educate yourself with functional medicine based, holistic health tenets. The information is easily accessible through a myriad of podcasts, youtube videos and instagram accounts. And enjoy the learning process. Our bodies are fascinating!
I believe it is just a way of life and that no single thing is going to alter the path of your health. I know people don’t like to hear this — everyone wants a quick win, an easy fix, a magic pill. But good health doesn’t come in pill form. It is your responsibility to nurture the one vehicle you have for life. Your body.