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?

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.
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.
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.
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.
Lori Miller said…
Thanks, Horf! It would have been nice to discover LC in my 20s, though!
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.
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
Lori Miller said…
Thanks, Jan! Sometimes a health scare is a blessing in disguise.
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" :-)
Lori Miller said…
Thanks, Tess!
Anonymous 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
Lori Miller said…
Thanks for the kind words, George. But I'm a homebody and I'd have more fun sprucing up the house.

Popular posts from this blog

HHS Doctor on Hidden Camera: "The Vaccine is Full of Sh!t"

Jodi O'Malley, a registered nurse at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center (part of the Department of Health and Human Services), teamed up with Project Veritas to expose severe COVID vaccine reactions occurring but not being reported to VAERS, the vaccine adverse event reporting system, even though medical professionals are legally required to report such injuries. During the filming, a man in his thirties with congestive heart failure was being treated; the doctor believed the cause was his COVID vaccination. O'Malley says she's seen dozens of adverse reactions. "The vaccine is full of shit" and the government wants to "sweep it under the mat," the doctor says on hidden camera. We finally know what's in the vaccine. Screen grab from Project Veritas video . The video also shows a pharmacist stating that off-label medications such as ivermectin were forbidden to be prescribed on pain of termination.  Project Veritas is a nonprofit organization that does ...

COVID Test Result is In

I don't have COVID.  On the one hand, it would have been a relief to have finally caught COVID and gotten natural antibodies, especially from having a mild case of it. On the other hand, I was concerned about my dog catching it from me (he's healthy, but nine years old) and it might have interfered with Thanksgiving plans.  Until I'm well, I'll stay home.

Gaining Strength, But...

I had a pleasant surprise when I got out the sawzall today to finish repairs on the front door. Not the way it cut the new door sweep--I probably should have used the jigsaw. It was how easy it was to put the blade in. You have to turn a part on the saw, which I could barely do two months ago when I had nails to cut off . Today--probably thanks to spending my spare time since August working saws, sanders and paintbrushes--it was no harder than turning a knob on the stove.  So I've built up some strength in my hands and probably elsewhere, but my adrenals aren't keeping up with cortisol production. After a day's work (well, three or four hours, to be honest), my neck, back, jaws, and sinuses all hurt and they don't feel better until use a dab of hydrocortisone. Other pain relievers don't help much. This isn't normal muscle stiffness--the kind you get from working out--it feels like I'm inflamed. Last weekend in particular, after a flu shot and a few days of p...

The Under-the-Radar Ointment for Hard-to-Heal Wounds

Imagine looking in the mirror one morning and finding the side of your head black and your ear twice its normal size. That's what happened to Brad Burnam, who caught a deadly superbug at the hospital where he worked. Sometime after having emergency surgery--one of 21 surgeries over the next five years--he set out to cure himself.  The result he created was a fusion of PHMB, an antibiotic common in Europe but little known in the US, in a petroleum jelly base (like Vaseline), held together with a stabilizer/emulsifier. It sticks to wounds, keeps them moist, and provides a barrier. It cured his antibiotic resistant superbug. After getting FDA clearance, he formed Turn Therapeutics, and Hexagen is now available by prescription.  Screen shot from https://turntherapeutics.com/about/ Millions of Americans suffer from open wounds--chronic issues like diabetic foot ulcers. Readers probably have their blood sugar under control and avoid this condition, but might have parents, partners o...

1972: Carole King, M*A*S*H and...Food for 2014?

I feel well enough to try Atkins induction again. The palpitations are gone, even without taking potassium. My energy level is back to normal--no more trucking on the treadmill early in the morning  to burn off nervous energy or emergency meat, cheese and mineral water stops after yoga. It's back to lounging around to Chopin and Debussy in the morning and stopping at the wine bar for pleasure. I'm using the original Atkins book: Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution from 1972. While looking in the book for a way to make gelatin (which is allowed on induction, but Jello(TM) and products like it have questionable ingredients), I felt the earth move under my feet : those recipes from 42 years ago look delicious and they're mostly real food. It makes sense, though: the cooks who wrote the recipes probably didn't have had a palette used to low-fat food full of added sugar or a bag of tricks to make low-fat food edible. Anyone who writes a recipe called "Cottage Cheese and...