This may be a little uncomfortable…

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post exploring our belief that aging is inevitable.

The post was inspired by a podcast I was listening to.

And that led me to read the book that inspired the podcast.

Dr. David Sinclair was the interviewee of that podcast, and the author of the book, “Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don’t Have To.”

This book is powerful, and full of the latest cutting-edge science in the field of aging.

Shortly after finishing the book, and by beautiful coincidence, I found out the guy – Dr. David Sinclair – was coming to McGill as a guest speaker at their annual science symposium!

Ya, I do kind of geek out on science, especially when it translates into living a longer, healthier life.

So of course, I went to see him.

And I came away even more pumped about the things that we can all do in our daily lives that will keep us feeling younger well into old age.

Dr. David Sinclair, a professor of genetics at Harvard, believes we can live well into our eighties, nineties, and beyond – while staying strong and avoiding long term illness.

And he summed up how to do that in one word: Hormesis.

Hormesis basically means to reap the benefits – in this case health and longevity – from the application small, temporary stresses.

His research has shown that we all have longevity genes, and they get activated when under small amounts of physiological stress.

So, in other words, if you want to live a long, healthy life, you’ve got to be willing to put your body under a little stress, and be a little uncomfortable some of the time.

But what kind of stresses do we need to kick our longevity genes into action?

1. Feel hunger

Believe it or not, the number one way to enable our longevity genes is to eat less and be willing to feel hungry.

This isn’t a new concept in this blog, I’ve talked about hunger and intermittent fasting before.

But I love this further confirmation that it’s one of the most effective things you can do to get healthier, lose weight, and live even longer.

And there are many ways to apply this to your life.

You can restrict your eating to an 8-hour window each day, doing something like skipping breakfast, eating lunch and supper, and then fasting until lunch the next day.

Or you could fast for one entire day each week, or a couple of days a month.

Or, most basically, you can eat only when you’re actually hungry.

I know this is hard for a lot of us.

It’s not comfortable to feel hungry.

But when you actually let yourself get hungry, and choose to see it as a simple reminder that it’s time to eat, you’ll learn to appreciate it.  

When you listen to and respect your physical hunger signals, you’ll begin to transform your relationship with your body.

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2. Exercise with intensity

Going for a walk is great, but if you want to live longer, you’ve got to push yourself a little harder.

So rev up the intensity of your exercise routine.

Introduce jogging on your walks, do HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workouts like Tabata, or dance your booty off.

Sweat is a beautiful thing.

Yes, it’s uncomfortable when your breathing gets faster and you feel hot and you’re dripping sweat…

But if you look at it as a step closer to your long, healthy life, you’ll learn to see the beauty in it.

And you don’t need to do it for hours.

Just 15 minutes a day about 5 times a week will do the trick.

3. Expose yourself to hot and cold

If you live in Canada, you’ve got lots of opportunities to get cold.

And as much as you might not love winter, the cold can help you live longer.

Try standing or walking outside in a T-shirt in winter for a few minutes – not to the point of frostbite, but goose bumps are good.

Or just get out and exercise in the cold air.

Again, the cold adds a little stress to your cells, which kicks them into activating their longevity properties.

Or why not try heat for the same reason?

Saunas are an ideal way to heat up the body and rev up your longevity circuits.

The Finnish know this.

Saunas are part of their culture.

And thanks to them, there are plenty of places around the Montreal area where we can get this benefit too.

Take advantage of the heat more often, and get out of your comfort zone!

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Your body wasn’t meant for living at the same comfortable temperature, never feeling hungry, and sitting around all day long.

But that’s what we tend to do increasingly as we get older.

We stay indoors, eat for pleasure or boredom or avoidance, and spend our leisure time in front of a screen.

But at what cost?

If we’re not willing to get a little uncomfortable from time to time, then we’re kind of throwing in the towel.

Our actions – or in-actions – are screaming, “It’s too hard!”, “I don’t have time!”, “I’m too tired!”

Aging is happening to all of us, but you can affect HOW you age.

What you choose to do today, affects how long you’ll live and how healthy your life will be.

And it’s not too late to start doing things differently.

Living the good life doesn’t need to begin at birth.

Start challenging your body in small ways and notice what happens.

I don’t want to be the only one living into my 3 digits… I want you to be there with me; walking, running, and dancing for our lives.

Keep moving forward my friend,

Debbie