Joyful Body 🌷 16: Secret to youthfulness (part 1)
Joyful Body 🌷 16: Secret to youthfulness (part 1)
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What practices do you do to retain youthfulness?
In this convenient modern society, we have plenty of choices in making this happen, including applying makeup / skincare, dressing up, working out, cosmetic surgeries, or taking supplements.
For the 30+ years of my life, those are the some of the only methods I thought to have existed.
After giving birth to my last baby in 2019, I was curious about what I can do with my body, now that I've reclaimed it.
I used to take gymnastic classes when I was little, doing moves like splits, bow postures, and cartwheels. Just became I became a mom didn't I should let my body retire, in fact, I thought this was a grand opportunity to take on a whole new adventure, to building a youthful body!
In order to achieve a youthful body at age 60 or 70, which is 3 - 4 decades from now, I had to start now, so having a long term goal will give me the kind of motivation that lasts pretty much for the rest of my life.
I did some researches, and found that these 2 routines will best help me achieve my journey to youthfulness:
1) 16/8 intermittent fasting, with Paleo (stone-age) diet = reduce unneeded carbs/sugar/salt/oil intake, and eat according to my body's true needs. Fasting for a long period of time will cause the release of autophagy, which to my understanding, is a natural element from the body that converts/gets rid of damaged/bad cells and regenerate new ones, which kind of leads to rejuvenation of the body.
2) Exercises (weight and flexibility). Not only does being physically active build an agile body, it also is essentially the "exhaling" process where as eating is the "inhaling" part. Without exercises or using our physical strength on a routine basis, our bodies are actually always at rest, therefore it makes burning energy/calories and losing weight extra harder even if we try to eat less.
I've been doing 16/8 IF daily, and workout every 2 days for about 2 years now, and I can confirm that these 2 routines combined together, works like an anti-aging magic potion.
Weight loss wasn't my main goal but it naturally happened because I was merely taking in the correct amount of energy my body needs (I basically tested out variety of foods in different amounts in the first few months, to find the good balance where I don't have to eat more than needed while ensuring I'd still have sustainable energy until my next day's eating window).
I personally don't count calories because that's just more work trying to jot down everything and take measurements, so I simply follow my "gut" feeling, lol.
See this post for my paleo meals: Body 🌷 15: My paleo meals (part 2)
See this post for my workout moves: Body 🌷 11: Shaping moves (part 1)
Another noticeable change was that my skin was less dry. My skin and lips were always extremely dry each winter season, and I had to apply lotion/chapstick frequently, but after I adopted IF, my skin felt softer and retained moisture even in the winter, which was a surprise.
Let me share a comparison picture of 2019 vs 2020. I'm not labeling as "before & after", because I don't consider the 2020 version as my "final" image, as I'll be continuing with IF and workout as my lifetime routines.
2019 is an ordinary body, and 2020, you can see it's more fit and shaped up.
When you're able to see results like this, it becomes your motivation and confidence.
So that was today's secret to youthfulness, and it's nothing easy, but when you make it happen, there is a great reward, and it is worth all the effort.
Stay tuned for more tips!
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