If you’re waking up tired and wondering if it will only get worse as you age — this article is for you.
Creating a life with energy and vitality is possible, but not necessarily the way you think. You don’t have to overhaul your life and start getting up at 5 am to chug lemon-cayenne water.
Long-term health comes through finding energizing habits and foods that you love. When you start focusing on what feels good for your body and mind, you’ll naturally move towards them. It takes time, of course, but as long as you get some ideas to make healthy eating simple (and more importantly: enjoyable) it will happen.
Over time, you’ll have more energy and reduce your risk of chronic disease as you move towards foods that make you smile inside and out.
One of the most famous diets is based on foods traditionally eaten in the Mediterranean region — countries like Spain, Italy, and Greece. The reason why it became so famous is because of the area’s bountiful produce, promoting eating habits that focus on fresh and seasonal food year-round. A variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and healthy fats like olive oil are eaten almost daily. Proteins include legumes, fish, poultry, and red meat sparingly.
Studies support this diet as one of the healthiest diets possible, especially because of its anti-inflammatory benefits. Here, it’s not about calories — instead, the focus is on nutrients and antioxidants. You could have plenty of olive oil, for example, and rather than worry about what the fat intake could do to your arteries or waistline, the results would actually lower blood pressure, cholesterol, inflammation, and risk of chronic illnesses like diabetes. It’s particularly helpful for improving brain function and reducing visceral fat (the risky “hidden” type around your organs). Put together, those are the results you want for a life full of vitality and health, even past your retirement years.
To learn more about fat loss and muscle strength in particular, you can check out exactly how to create the right diet for losing weight and gaining muscle.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what a day eating Mediterranean style could look like:
As with any new habit, starting slow is best. Completely changing your diet overnight is what leads to short-term results (and frustration). Instead, look up one Mediterranean recipe to try this week. As you get more comfortable cooking and keeping these foods in stock at home, you can add another snack and recipe.
The plant-based diet is similar to the Mediterranean in that it focuses on whole, unprocessed foods. This one goes a step further, however, and minimizes animal products. You don’t have to completely eliminate animal products and become vegan to eat more plant-based. The goal is to eat more veggies, but you can find your own balance.
Plenty of research backs up plant-based eating, showing it can reduce the risk of cancer, help with weight management, and improve heart health. The American Heart Association fully promotes plant-based diets since they’re especially shown to reduce cardiovascular diseases, which is a major risk for health and aging issues.
Here’s an idea of different plant-based recipes to try (not that you need to do them all at once — feel free to spread these ideas out over different days).
Cutting out animal products can feel overwhelming when they’re a staple in your diet. Instead, start with small changes and experiment with different products to see how it suits you. For example, try different plant-based yogurts or a tasty meal with tofu, like pad-thai. You can plan to try a new plant-based recipe each week, or just swap beans or chickpeas in place of your meat for lunch or dinner. The goal is to make it tasty and practical, otherwise — changing the way you eat just won’t work.
Also note, that if you fully remove animal products from your diet, you’ll want to make sure you are getting enough vitamin B-12 — either through a supplement or in fortified food.
Dive into our top 5 tips for starting a plant-based diet you will absolutely love to make plant additions as easy (and delicious) as possible.
Eating anti-inflammatory foods is key to longevity. Why? Because inflammation is something that naturally happens in our bodies, but it can increase as we age — and most especially when we eat inflammatory foods or have to manage chronic stress.
Inflammation happens when your body works too hard defending itself, where in the end, it ends up hurting itself. When you get sick with the flu, for example, your immune system kicks in and starts fighting the virus. You feel exhausted, feverish, and achy — but that’s just inflammation at work. The high temperature is to help burn off the virus, the aches come from extra blood flowing to affected areas, and the fatigue is your body telling you to rest so it can focus all its energy on healing you. In the short term, it works. Long-term, however, your body needs rest from all this extra work.
Stress, for example, releases hormones that tell your system a threat is present, even if there’s no real injury or infection. But your body still responds in attack mode — only there’s nothing to attack but itself. This can lead to health problems as you age, like heart disease, arthritis, dementia, diabetes, and cancer.
With your body in constant alert, anti-inflammatory foods are key to help calm things down. Research fully backs this up, with countless studies showing that this diet can promote healthy aging by significantly reducing the inflammation that leads to disease and cognitive decline (including dementia and Alzheimer’s).
Here’s a list of anti-inflammatory foods you can start adding to your meals and snacks:
While it doesn’t have to happen overnight, some foods to swap for more anti-inflammatory options include:
Think about simple ways to add more color (which equals nutrients) to your day, such as:
If you want more specific tips, check out the 10 Best fruits and vegetables to lower high blood pressure and reduce inflammation.
All the diets listed above are relatively similar, with a big focus on whole foods. Here’s what all three diets have in common:
As with any healthy habit, don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to incorporate all these groups of food at once. Choose one thing you’d like to add just this week, for example. Maybe it’s keeping a stock of raw nuts and seeds at home or buying a package of frozen berries, spinach, and bananas for smoothie snacks. Keep it simple and practical for what works for your lifestyle.
Giant water bottles are becoming all the rage for a reason — we’re all very well aware that we’re probably not drinking enough water. It’s so easy to lose track of time and glasses, so a massive water bottle on your work desk that tells you exactly how much you’re drinking might not be such a bad idea. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/water/art-20044256
We often forget that, along with food, water is the key to long life. It helps us digest, feel energized, think clearly, and fight illnesses. Even a 1% loss in body water can make us lethargic and cause brain fog — something that easily happens on a hot day. Plus, little by little dehydration can add up to inflammation, kidney issues, heart problems, and overall disease progression.
Aim for around 8 cups a day, but remember that this number changes depending on factors like your environment’s temperature, body weight, activity level, age, and stress levels. Some men could need 4 liters of water a day, for example.
If you’re not a big fan of drinking water, there are plenty of options nowadays, like flavored all-natural water pellets, sparkling waters with fruit, or even water-heavy foods like cucumbers, watermelon, or celery.
Eating for longevity isn’t about striving for an unattainable “perfectly” healthy diet. It’s about slowly and consistently adding more anti-inflammatory foods — which include Mediterranean and plant-based options. That means whole foods with the color of the rainbow, like fruits, veggies, healthy fats, and lean proteins. If you focus on that, you’ll get all the nutrition you need to give your body energy to thrive and fight disease. Just don’t forget about hydration to fend off both exhaustion and inflammation.
To start, choose something easy and make it interesting or fun. Think about how you can experiment with new recipes and foods to make healthy habits that last. For example, trying a new ethnic recipe every week, keeping colorful fruit on the counter in sight, a giant bottle of water on your desk, or a freezer full of veggies so there’s always a serving to add to your dinner.
What matters is how the food you eat makes you feel long-term. Focus on that, and you’ll naturally move towards more whole-food options as you notice the energy they bring.
Changing habits isn’t easy (if it were, we’d all be eating anti-inflammatory diets already and working out consistently). We improve through guidance, collaboration, fresh ideas, and regular encouragement. That’s where trainwell can help out — we let you choose a trainer that suits your personality, needs, and lifestyle to lift you up. They’re trained to spot simple ways to boost your energy, both food and fitness-wise. Try trainwell today risk-free with a 14-day trial, and find out for yourself the difference someone on your side can make.
Written by Jennifer Olejarz.
