Healthy Living

I realize that people in my age group - that is in their 20s and 30s take youth for granted. We are used to being young and we are used to thinking that things will happen easily in terms of recovery and metabolism.

We complain when this does not happen and when things (i.e. our bodies) start breaking down, we cry age! and continue with our unhealthy lifestyles.

Lately, I've been told that I look a lot younger than I am. A lot of people are shocked to find that I am nearly in my 30s and I've come to realize that the "solution" to looking/feeling young is what everyone says one should do but no one actually believes or follows. (Okay, I'm being extreme but I'm guilty of this type of thinking so bear with me)

Eat healthy, sleep well, and exercise.

It's always the same conclusion, but because so many people find it somewhat disagreeable as one must come to terms with the fact that one must change their lifestyle, they try to find another easier solution. It's like that with many things in life, isn't it?

So before I left Korea, I wasn't all that healthy in that I ate okay (it's easier to eat healthy in Korea so I wasn't eating crap as I would be if I got comfortable with my eating habits in the States), I didn't really work out, and I slept more or less okay. Because I wasn't working in an office (the beauties of freelancing allowed this), I was able to control a lot of things that would normally adversely affect my health.

When I moved back to the States, I started eating really healthy (thank you Trader Joe's for affordable, healthy eating :)), I started to exercise regularly, and as a student with an incredibly flexible schedule, I started to sleep more.

Fast forward about 2 years and I'm back in Korea. Everyone here (so I can't call the "Asians-look-young" card) tells me that I look like I'm in my early 20s or even younger (I've gotten as young as high school graduate, but I attribute that to several other factors). Of course it's a compliment and I feel awesome because that means that I'm doing something right in the way I live.

I showed my students a picture of me from a couple years ago and they said that I looked older in the picture and they were pretty much thinking, "What happened?" Being in Korea, I wouldn't be surprised if they thought that there was plastic surgery in the picture but it really goes back to the basics of survival (again it seems extreme to call it that, but I think there's truth to it):

Eat healthy, sleep well, and exercise.

Eating healthy. I mean if you don't eat healthy, you're slowly poisoning your body. I can't say I'm 100% healthy and good at watching what I eat but when you change your perspective, you come to realize that perhaps eating healthy is a better choice. The counterargument may go along the lines of "but it's so good!" or "I'm decreasing the quality of my life" but that argument only works if you're talking about the present. Smoking (for smokers), impulse buys, and anything that give a person that instant gratification has the same kind of reasoning behind it but the regret that comes with it later just doesn't seem worth it. Eh. I'm still guilty of wanting instant gratification and fulfilling such desires so it's something that I understand more in theory than in practice.

Sleeping well. Seriously, this is so underrated because it feels like a waste of time. When I was trying to use a lot more of my brain for doing things I wasn't used to (i.e. trying to get back into studying after working for 5 years), I got sleepier a lot faster. This wasn't because I was bored of the material I was studying. I actually immensely enjoyed it, but I would find myself dozing every 15 minutes or so because there was a lot to process. A quick nap would allow me to feel refreshed and ready to process the new material. As I continued studying, the time I was able to process such things got longer, which means my brain was getting used to studying again.

There was a new study that came out about sleep (I found two articles on the same study that give an interesting slant on them here and here) that show that we get rid of a lot of cognitive waste when we sleep. Apparently it's too early to say that that is the sole function of sleeping but it is at least a part of why we need to sleep. I mean there are a lot of studies out there than prove that sleep is important but we still downplay it because we need to get more things done in a day than we have time for (though, I start to wonder, why is that the case?).

Exercise. Another obvious one. Duh. I'm not even going to bother getting into this one except that everyone (myself included) needs to get off our collective lazy asses and start exercising.

I feel myself deteriorating because I've been eating less  healthy and exercising less. And as an "older" 20-something, I feel myself deteriorating faster because my metabolism is slower and my body doesn't do the same things it did when I was a teenager. Thankfully though, years that I've spent working out and eating healthy (in my own way since I can't say I really eat healthy) as allowed me some leeway and I don't look or feel as old as some people my age.

There are other factors though - I don't dress, act, or live my age. Most people my age are working and I'm still freelancing (yes, it's a form of work, but it's not the norm, at least for now) and they are forced to dress as adults. I can still get away with hoodies and tshirts. I think because I look younger, I tend to act younger without realizing it.

Anyway, these are some factors that contribute to my looking-young thing, I think.

Perhaps this is just a post about how awesome it is because I look younger than my age but I honestly feel like lifestyle is a huge contributing factor to this. I'm just sayin'.