The Key to Ageless Living

This weekend, while celebrating my birthday with friends and family, I (of course) started thinking about age and aging. What precipitated this train of thought was a few moments during the celebration when I was lucky enough to have been paid the compliment that we all love to hear: “you don’t look your age.”

I tried to take this compliment humbly and graciously, but inside I was bursting! I felt so good to be told that! Now, it’s not because I’m ashamed or afraid of my age. I’m 44 and I love it and I own it. So why was it so important to me to hear that I seemed younger? Well, upon reflection, I realized that, in my mind, I always equate seeming younger with seeming healthier. And the reason seeming healthier matters to me so much was because, in my 30s, I was not so healthy… And I definitely looked “older”.

A few weeks ago, an employee and dear friend of mine, told me that her great aunt had passed away at the ripe old age of 89. I asked what she was like, and she answered with a single word: young. As we talked, I knew what she meant. Her aunt would start every morning with a swim. Even in her 80s. She moved gracefully, fluidly, and people frequently mistook her for being 20 years younger than she was. She was French, which means she took her food and wine seriously, but she never dieted. She ate well, drank lots of water, ate as much fresh fruit and berries as she could, and made sure she took in lots of veggies. She was a voracious reader, devouring books especially in her retirement years. And the topics she read on were so incredibly varied because she was so excited to learn new things.

When asked how she stayed so young, she would say that she treats her body like a baby: she gives it everything it needs to thrive (she didn’t say thrive, she said “prospérer”, which I like better!). What good advice!

After learning about her, I felt so sad to have never had the chance to meet this wonderful woman. But I also knew that I wanted to be just like her. And what was she? Young? Well, she was 89, so not exactly. But she was young… because she was healthy. She had the health that comes with youth.

There was a particular birthday week in my 30s, I remember because I was swapping out my closet from winter clothes to summer, when I had a breakdown. I had just turned 34, I was supposed to be in the prime of my life, but as I was looking through my summer clothes, it just hit me. I was standing in front of my closet in my “uniform” - the clothes I was starting to wear almost every day because of their magical ability to hide: Lulu Lemons and a baggy sweater. And as I was pulling out all these cute summer outfits, I was struck with fear and terror. I could never wear that in public! It would show my arms! This one would show my legs! This one, my tummy! I wasn’t worried because of some intense modesty, but because I was so, so unhappy in my body, that I couldn’t imagine ever showing it to the world.

Seeing those cute outfits I was terrified to wear is what made me break down. I actually fell to my knees crying, like in the movies. It wasn’t because of the outfits, it was because, at 34, I felt so incredibly old. And I know now that when I said “old”, I really meant unhealthy. And I wasn’t the only one who noticed it. At my birthday that year, friends didn’t say I looked younger than my age. They said plenty of wonderful and nice things, but no one mentioned my age. In fact, it seemed like people avoided it. And that made sense, because I certainly didn’t look it. 

A while later, I remember going through some photos from that time and I noticed something interesting: in every single photo of me, I was somehow blocking my body. I’d have my daughter standing in front of me; I’d be behind a table or a countertop; I’d be in the back of the group; things like that. And I knew I had done those things subconsciously, but also intentionally.

After that breakdown, I started changing my lifestyle. Adopting the habits that I still have today. Interestingly, habits which are strikingly similar to my friend’s great aunt’s! I started moving my body again, every morning. Every. Single. Morning. I started focusing on my meals, and my water and fiber, just like my friend’s great aunt. I created my own nutrition regime to make sure I was nourishing my body and supporting its ability to remove all the gunk and junk I’d been putting into it for years (that regime lives on today in Phase Two of the Total Body Transformation program!). I wanted to give my body everything it needed to “prospérer”. As a certified nutritionist, I knew how to do this, but up until that point I had been too, frankly, depressed to put all my knowledge into practice for myself.

And, of course, it worked! My skin alone changed so dramatically it was like I was a different person! Instead of the sallow, gray, sickly colour it had been, it quickly became pink and glowing! Someone once told me I was “shining” (mind you, I had just been in a sauna, so I might have literally been shining with sweat! Still, I take it as a win!). And this weekend, almost 10 years later, I saw someone I hadn’t seen since just around the time of my breakdown. And they could not shut up about how “youthful” I was looking! I, for my part, did not try to get them to shut up… I just drank it all in!

And here’s the thing: this story isn’t a surprise - we all know that eating well, and moving well, keeps us young. My friend’s great aunt didn’t hold some magical secret. It isn’t some “here’s how the French do it!” We know this. Intuitively. We need to eat properly. We need to get movement in. We need to keep our brains busy. But we like to take the easy way out: eat pre-packaged junk that’s engineered to taste soooo good, medicate ourselves with too much alcohol, and turn our brains off with sitcoms and netflix shows that aren’t really that good. Ponce de León went searching for the Fountain of Youth, but you don’t need to: it’s right there in your hands already!

I hate to turn this story into a sales pitch, but I gotta say: all those things I did? That nutrition regime, the daily morning exercise, the healthy meals, water and fiber? I turned that into the Total Body Transformation program. And hundreds of people have re-found their “youth” with it!

In fact, that’s some of the most common feedback I get from my TBT clients: I feel so young!

So, if you’re not feeling young, take some time to take stock. Are you giving your body what it needs to thrive? To prosper? If not, maybe it’s time you did! 

xo,

Simone

Hey! If you enjoyed that, head over to our homepage and learn more about Simone’s Total Body Transformation program!! Click HERE to go there now! And if you’re ready to join the TBT Community, get on The Waitlist so you’ll be ready when Early Bird Registration opens up THIS Thursday, June 13th!