Healthier at 41 than 21; it's possible!

I’ve just turned 41 years old. It’s hard to believe because in my head, I’m still that 28-year-old woman sporting second-skin leather, but with more life experience and a heck of a lot more financial freedom. Truth be told, I hardly give age any thought at all, and that’s probably because I fully understand that time passes and therefore, chronological ageing is inevitable and impossible to prevent.

To me, ageing is such a privilege and it should be embraced with grace. Getting older in years doesn’t have to mean inheriting aches, pains, a muffin top, nor a haggard and gaunt appearance as if you’ve had the life sucked right out of you. Ageing is a natural process which doesn’t have to be obsessively fought with toxic chemicals, injectables, and invasive procedures. No, I have made peace with my imperfections and I’m loving my silver-grey streaks, which I refuse to dye, even though they’re pretty unruly with a mind of their own. I refuse to have my lips be the first thing that comes around the corner, and I absolutely will not willingly use botox, a bacterium-derived toxin to paralyse natural facial expression. These simply stupid and costly stuff do more harm than good in the long run.

In my mind, my self-image is young. I think young thoughts, thin thoughts, and almost never use the word “old” in the context of personal ageing. I believe in taking care of my body, a limited edition temple that the Almighty has blessed each of us with to experience a human existence on Planet Earth, and since I’d much rather spend my days to the fullest than inside doctors’ rooms, I am super-fussy about what passes my lips, because what you put into your body is a form of self-respect (or disrespect) and ultimately–post metabolism–becomes your outside makeup.

Somewhat of a sentimental person, often browsing through my Facebook albums and going far back through Instagram posts to reminisce, one thing is really apparent (and it’s not my opinion alone): I look way healthier now than I did 10 and even 20 years ago. Getting to this point wasn’t a straight road though. I’ve had my fair share of health challenges, which doctors were unable to get to the bottom of. The symptoms I had suffered were so severe that eventually, I quit paying my meagre wages over to medical professionals, who sought only to treat symptoms with drugs, and vowed to get to the root cause myself.

For example, in my early twenties, a doctor prescribed the contraceptive pill to mask my embarrassing adult acne, while another prescribed steroid ointment for chronic eye inflammation, which through my own investigation, was linked directly to Leaky Gut. I had to eventually take matters into my own hands over the years to resolve all sorts of issues from hormonal imbalances to IBS and male-pattern balding, and become completely medication-free. In hindsight, I’m so very thankful for these debilitating dis-eases which plagued my twenties because there was a shiny silver lining; I began learning about the crucial role of nutrition and went on to study nutrition as an investment in myself and my future.

Now, in my forties, I can confidently say that I have tried it all along my journey; veganism, carnivore diet, non-dairy, low-carb, etc. and have settled into a regime that’s helped me achieve a lean, pain-free, inflammation-free body and the clearest skin reflective of inner wellbeing – I like to think that I’m literally lengthening my telomeres, the caps at the end of chromosomes that are needed for healthy, youthful cell division.

Over the years, I’ve been my own test subject countless times, continually researching and adjusting my diet, exercise, and skincare regimes to figure out what works best through every season of life, and while I do seize every opportunity to dish out dietary and nutritional advice to friends and family, I felt the need to capture and share all my learnings more widely in digestible bits, so that more people can rediscover wellness and benefit from solutions that actually work to age in reverse and live the kind of existence that makes you wonder why you’re paying health insurance at all 🙂 

Through my newsletter, I’ll detail my experiences, promote tried and tested products, and share tips and the latest research, so please subscribe here and help spread this information because sharing is indeed caring. Remember, there’s no such thing as a quick fix. To solve any problem, you must first acknowledge and understand it, and then take dedicated action, which is exactly what this newsletter seeks to help you with.

Yours in wellness,

Umayya