Forever Young: How To Turn Back The Clock
I co-authored a book in 2012 about a guy with a special power: when he has sex with women they stop aging. It is a great tale involving adventure, mystery, morality, love…Check it out here if you are interested!
At the time I was not making healthy choices. I weighed nearly 200 lbs (vs. around 170 today), put low quality nutrition into my body, slept poorly, neglected my spirituality…I was aging quickly.
One day I said enough is enough. My standards in other areas of life (athletics, business, etc.) were much higher, why should I tolerate such mediocrity for the one thing over which I had the most control and which is of paramount importance: my health? The answer was simple – I shouldn’t, and nor should you.
When I started making healthy choices, the proverbial aging clock not only stopped, it literally turned back 10 years (or so I was told, but far more importantly, I felt 10 or more years younger). I soon had the energy of a 20 something. And when my great friend Cesar with whom I trained for a year made similar positive changes to his lifestyle, he shed years of age along with his weight. He tells me how friends he hasn’t seen for a year literally walk by him on the street, completely failing to recognize his new healthy body and youthful look. And that is just the very beginning of the positive benefits of living a healthy lifestyle….
Here are some basic things that, if you do consistently, will ‘turn the clock’ back for you in myriad ways – physically, mentally, spiritually, attitudinally:
Drink lots of water. Drink less or none of anything else (soda, fruit juices, alcohol, etc. – with the exception of coffee/tea/green juices/post workout protein smoothie). This is the single most effective, least expensive, easiest change you can make to your lifestyle that will have the biggest impact (especially if you drink alcohol). You will save money, have a clearer mind, shed fat, sleep better…the benefits are numerous.
Be active 4 -5 days a week. It almost doesn’t matter what you do, but just do something you enjoy that gets your heart rate up. I’ve written extensively on great ways to exercise while having a good time, so see previous blogs on this.
Turn off your phone/put it away and meditate. This takes discipline at first since we are programmed – if not addicted – to look at our phones constantly. Just like the body needs rest, so too does the mind.
Eat more veggies and less pasta/empty calorie carbs. What we put in our bodies has a huge impact on how we feel and look.
Do more things that make you happy. Write down a list of things that tend to make you truly happy (not temporarily ‘happy’ like getting drunk, rather truly deep down content) – e.g. connecting with a friend, going for a walk, donating some of your time. Then do a little more of that. When we are happy we tend to smile, when we smile we look and feel younger. Angry people look older, and in holding onto anger it has a real negative impact on your internal health. So simply substitute something positive/that makes you happy. It sounds simple, it is! It is about execution, not theoretical analysis.
That’s it. It’s not complicated. So many people get into analysis paralysis, reading endless books about what the ‘perfect’ diet or workout plan is. They spend all their time reading or talking, and little to no time actually doing. As Bruce Lee said, it is not enough to know, you must act. The time for endless planning is over; just pick one or 2 things on the list above and do them. Soon it will become a habit, then a way of life, and you will no longer even have to think about it. It won’t take any discipline at all as you feel the benefits and seek more of that positive, healthy feeling. The only thing you will have to think about is how you will respond when your friends tell you how much younger you look.
Stay Disciplined My Friends!
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