Skip to main content

I'm 45 and Grateful

It might be hokey to count your blessings, but counting your blessings got to be a cliche because it helps make you happy. I just turned 45 and instead of mourning the loss of my youth, I have much to be grateful for.

I have better judgment than I did even a few years ago. Yes, I have more life experience, but mostly I credit hanging around critical-thinking low-carbers who inspired thinking and self-study. Simply remaining alive and calling it experience is like dumping puzzle pieces out of a box without putting them together.

I feel better than I did in my 20s. Carbs weren't a good fuel for me; I was nutritionally deficient as well. On low-carb plus supplements, I reversed a boat load of health problems: weight gain, wonky blood sugar, fatigue, dental problems, GERD, acne, allergies, constant sinus congestion, and others.

I'm better looking than I was at 26. Without wheat or dairy proteins, my acne finally cleared up after over 30 years. And I finally lost my baby fat.

Age 26.
Age 44.
Financial security! I'm grateful to my younger self for all the hard work, good decisions and fiscal restraint. (Friends who lived like the idle rich when they were young and broke--traveling, getting high, following their bliss--ended up middle-aged and broke.) I never took a vacation where I had to stay at a hotel (by myself) until last year--and then I stayed at a YMCA. I've never set foot in a spa. If you look and feel good and have a pleasant home to relax in, why bother?
Labels:

Comments

Galina L. said…
Happy birthday, Lori! You have many reasons to celebrate! How many people look better at 45 than at 20? Not many is a confident guess. Having a facial would be a total waste of money for you! For you it is a harvest time to have fruits of your labor.
Many people my age I know are scared of negative changes in life and health adding up quickly. They observe it as something unavoidable, like the seasonal change of weather.
I am an odd person (from the point of view of the most of them) who follows a ridiculous diet, gives a strange health advice when asked, does some age-inappropriate exercise routines. However, there are some people(a minority) who finally started to follow my odd recommendations out of disrepair and got better.
February 10, 2014
Lori Miller said…
Thanks, Galina! It's usually men (like Michael Anthony Hall) who end up better looking as they get older.

I hope more and more people catch on to the benefits of LCHF.
February 10, 2014
horfilmania said…
Happy Birthday and congratulations on finding low-carb so early in life! Enough to make a difference in how and when you age.
February 10, 2014
Galina L. said…
I wish I found LC at least at 45 years old, I was gaining weight uncontrollably between 45 and 46, ten hours of cardio a week and "healthy"diet din't work at all, and it took me 3 years to loose the gained in one year 26 lb on a LC diet which I started at 46 yo.
February 10, 2014
Lori Miller said…
Thanks, Horf! It would have been nice to discover LC in my 20s, though!
February 10, 2014
Lori Miller said…
My mom didn't start LC until she was 80 and had had diabetes for many years. Better late than never, though.
February 10, 2014
Lowcarb team member said…
Happy Birthday Wishes ...... you were fortunate in finding LC earlier in life than I did, although my health has always been good, but I'm so much happier with my present LCHF lifestyle. The sad fact was that it took Eddie becoming a Type 2 diabetic before we both became so much more aware of how we could live a far healthier lifestyle. It's never too late to improve your health, fitness and outlook on life.

Have a good day

All the best Jan
February 10, 2014
Lori Miller said…
Thanks, Jan! Sometimes a health scare is a blessing in disguise.
February 10, 2014
tess said…
hope your birthday has been great! many happy returns! I believe that counting one's blessings IS enriching, and you seem to have found your "riches" :-)
February 11, 2014
Lori Miller said…
Thanks, Tess!
February 11, 2014
Unknown said…
Forty-five and grateful – That’s good to hear. At this age, it’s really fascinating to reminisce about all the things that happened in our life, even the health problems. Weight gain, wonky blood sugar, fatigue, dental problems, GERD, acne, and more – I guess at one point in everyone’s life, they experienced some, if not all of these things. But everything all of that is in the past, and what matters now is you are in great shape! Anyway, with all your hard work and achievements, you really deserve a vacation, and I hope you’ll get to go on one soon. Enjoy!

George
February 25, 2014
Lori Miller said…
Thanks for the kind words, George. But I'm a homebody and I'd have more fun sprucing up the house.
February 25, 2014
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Objective Book about Other Childhood Vaccines

Today's decision by the CDC to add COVID shots to the schedule of childhood vaccines has some people concerned about the rest of the vaccines on the schedule. Contrary to fact-checker claims, adding COVID shots to the schedule means children will be required in about a dozen states to get a COVID shot to attend public school. Indiana isn't one of them--our childhood vaccination law doesn't mention the CDC and such a requirement could run afoul of our ban on COVID vaccine passports. But even freewheeling Indiana has some vaccine requirements and this kerfuffle has people wondering how safe those vaccines are.  There's a book called Vaccines: Truth, Lies and Controversy  by Peter C. Gotzsche, DrMedSci and co-founder of the Cochrane Collaboration, about the safety and efficacy of all those vaccines, including COVID and others. Cochrane was founded to "to organise medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving healt
Post a Comment
Read more

Diabetes Down, COVID Curiosities, New Glasses after Accident

Diabetes Down Despite Dietitians' Directions Last Sunday when I wrote about the grifters over at EatThis.com, which calls itself "Eat This, Not That," I was worked up enough to tweet to their medical expert board members if they stood by the site's article flogging sugary drinks and fast food for St. Patrick's Day. The site has over 1,300 articles, mostly puff pieces, on McDonald's and a news feed full of "the most important breaking news" on Doritos, burger joints and Chips Ahoy! I asked a dietitian who responded to me what exactly the "not that" part was in "Eat This, Not That." Important news about what you should eat! I was worked up until I remembered the saying, "You can't cheat an honest man." Meaning that this con, like a lot of others, requires some dishonesty on the part of the mark. Every Joe Six-Pack knows that cookies, chips and coffee-flavored milkshakes from Starbucks aren't health food. It takes s
1 comment
Read more

Blog Lineup Change

Bye-bye, Fathead. I've enjoyed the blog, but can't endorse the high-fat, high-carb Perfect Health Diet that somehow makes so much sense to some otherwise bright people. An astrophysicist makes some rookie mistakes on a LC diet, misdiagnoses them, makes up "glucose deficiency," and creates a diet that's been shown in intervention studies to increase small LDL, which can lead to heart disease. A computer programmer believes in the diet and doesn't seem eager to refute it because, perhaps, scientists are freakin' liars and while he's good at spotting logical inconsistencies, lacks some intermediate knowledge of human biology. To Tom's credit, he says it's not the right diet for everyone, but given the truckload of food that has to be prepared and eaten, impracticality of following it while traveling (or even not traveling), and unsuitability for FODMAPs sufferers, diabetics and anyone prone to heart disease (i.e., much of the population), I'm
24 comments
Read more

Battered Cod and my Eclipse Pictures of my Colander

If you miss battered cod on a low-carb, grain-free diet, here's a recipe that'll satisfy your craving. It's based on a Dr. Davis recipe. Battered cod and cole slaw Ingredients 1 pound cod fillets 2 eggs 2 tablespoons butter, melted 1/2 cup ground golden flaxseeds 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese 1/2 teaspoon onion powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 teaspoon garlic powder Instructions Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice the cod into 1-1/2 to 2 inch pieces. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and butter. Beat continuously--don't let the butter cook the eggs. In a shallow bowl, combine the flaxseeds, cheese, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Coat each piece of cod in the egg mixture and then roll in the in the flaxseed mixture. Place on the baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes, turning once. Eclipse Crescent Shadows Today was the total solar eclipse, and my house was in the "path of totality."
1 comment
Read more

What the Top Nutrition Site Recommends

Happy St. Patrick's Day! For me, it's the day to plant snow peas, but for the site Eat This, Not That, it's the day to recommend Irish food . If you're thinking that the " world's #1 nutrition website and one of the top five food outlets in the U.S. " whose "brand [is] comprised of an award-winning team of journalists and board-certified experts, doctors, nutritionists, chefs, personal trainers, and dietitians" might recommend healthy Irish food like corned beef and cabbage or Irish stew and suggest going easy on the Guinness, guess again.  Their #1 St. Patrick's Day deal is a sugary drink from Starbucks topped with whipped cream and caramel. The rest of their 26 suggestions are just as bad: more liquid sugar, fast food sandwiches, doughnuts, cheesecake, and even cocktails. Yes, cocktails. How does a nutrition site recommend something without nutrients? This isn't a one-off article written for a holiday. I was originally looking for their
Post a Comment
Read more