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

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

Collagen-filled Low Carb Burritos

Low-carb, grain-free Mexican food is hard to find, but it's easy to make your own at home. This recipe has an authentic ingredient: carne de lengua, or beef tongue. Don't be put off: beef tongue is tender, delicious, and full of collagen. Look for it directly from farmers in your area. To cook it, cut it in 1" to 1-1/2" slices and pressure cook for one hour. Enjoy the delicious broth as a bonus. Ingredients 1 slice cooked beef tongue, peeled and cut into small cubes 1 egg wrap (I use these  from Egglife) 1/4 cup cooked black or pinto beans Chili pepper Oregano Garlic (powdered or minced) Cumin Guacamole (with no emulsifiers) Salsa Shredded cheddar cheese Sour cream or homemade cream cheese  with no emulsifiers  Put the egg wrap on a plate and put the beef and beans down the middle of it. Sprinkle with the herbs and spices. Wrap, turn over and microwave for 1-2 minutes. Spoon salsa over the burrito and sprinkle with cheese. Add guacamole and sour cream or homemade crea...
Post a Comment
Read more

Not Only Cheaper, But Easier

A while back, I wrote about saving money on break time coffee and snacks. I haven't done very well putting it into practice. But a post by James Clear today got me thinking about it again: Warren Buffett uses a two-list system to prioritize things. Check it out --and follow the instructions. Using Buffett's two-list system, two of the goals I ended up with were taking care of myself and saving $400 more per month than I already am. As I said, I've been wanting to save money, and the system made me really focus on this. I came up with 11 money-saving ideas, six of which had to do with food. Buying hamburger in bulk. Ranch Foods Direct sells one-pound packages of 80% lean pastured ground beef in bundles of 20 for a lot less than Whole Foods. Sprouts only carries super-lean beef that's grass-fed, and it's more expensive, too.  Not driving to Whole Foods. Whole Foods is out of my way, and saving a weekly trip saves gas. Coffee at home, tea at work. Tea is fr...
24 comments
Read more

Palpitations Gone with Iron

Thanks to my internet friend Larcana, who alerted me to the connection between iron deficiency and palpitations, I doubled down on my iron supplements and, for good measure, washed them down with Emergen-C. It's a cold medicine with a mega-dose of vitamin C, plus B vitamins and minerals. I don't think vitamin C does anything for a cold (a friend bought the stuff and left it at my house the last time she visited), but vitamin C does help iron absorption. After doubling up on iron in the last three days, I feel back to normal. (I'd already been taking quite a bit of magnesium and potassium, so I probably had sufficient levels of those.) How did I get so low on iron? Maybe it was too many Quest bars instead of red meat when I had odd cravings during my dental infection recently. Maybe because it's too hard to find liver at the grocery store and I haven't eaten much of it lately. Maybe the antibiotics damaged my intestines . And apparently, I'm a heavy bleeder . ...
18 comments
Read more

In Defense of Fast Food

Another modern trend - healthy food should be expensive, not nutrients-dense and preferably exotic, or you would be eating like plebs who live on a dollar McD menu. --Galina L. I don't try to jump over seven-foot hurdles, I look for one-foot hurdles I can step over. --Warren Buffett, pleb who eats at McDonald's Despite all the talk about wild-caught v. farmed, grass-fed v. CAFO and the vilification of fast food, a lot of us plebs benefit simply from carbohydrate restriction. But even though diabetes and obesity are rampant, and carb restriction alone would help millions of people, the impression is out there that you need to eat in a very specific way, far beyond just watching the carbs. Following a low-carb diet is already a high hurdle for many people. If some people want or need to raise the bar for themselves, that's fine with me, but there's no need to turn low-carb into a hurdle that a lot of people can't jump over. Organic produce and grass-fed or p...
17 comments
Read more