Five

Five.  Five-oh.  Fifty.

It's staring me in the face. Truth is, I turn 48 this summer, but 50 looms.  Right there, in the background.  The fifth decade.  The one whose landscape is colored with of hot flashes, bifocals, cardigan sweaters, and health ailments.  The beginning of the end.

Or maybe it's just the beginning...

Before we continue on, let me tell what this blog post is NOT.  It's NOT a post about vanity.  It's NOT a post about weight loss or an effort to "look better."  It's NOT a post about starvation or denying nutrition.  It's NOT about defying gravity or resisting the most natural part of life, something that happens to us all:  aging.

Life is meant to be lived, and I want to be here to experience it all.  My children are still young.  And I want to be around -and healthy- for a long time to come.  So, this IS a post about an effort to increase my own longevity.  It IS a post about trying something new.    And it IS one of five posts to come this week that will hopefully help to hold me accountable in the process.  Also, so many people have asked what this is, why I'm doing it, and what it entails.  This is an easy way to explain it.

My friend introduced me to what's called a "fasting mimicking diet," a few weeks ago.   She shared of the health benefits, and she encouraged me to try it. It was invented by researchers at the University of Southern California Longevity Institute. A journalist and curious personality by nature, I need research before I try anything.  And by all accounts, the studies show it works.  For five days, you eat the small packaged items you purchase from Prolon and basically trick your body into thinking it's in a fast.  There is evidence fasting cleans up aging and damaged cells and creates new cell growth.  Some studies show it helps reduce inflammation, slows aging, burns fat, even thwarts cancer. Worth a try.

I've never felt I could make it through a simple fast on my own (only water), but I've always wanted the health benefits.  So I'm partially doing this as an experiment -but also to see if I feel less tired, more energized, less hungry (all the things that begin to happen at this age).  In this way, I'm able to have small bites, so that my body believes it's getting something.  And here I am on Day One (of five).

Breakfast, was a small, but tasty, plant based bar and a small cup of coffee.  For lunch, tomato soup (a plant based powder mixed with water), kale crackers, and some olives.  Snack was another bar and some tea.  Dinner is minestrone soup and a small chocolate crisp type of bar.  No alcohol (which will be hardest for me, to be totally honest) and light exercise (which will also be tricky).  Everything tasted OK (not my favorite, but definitely not bad).

I feel like today is just preparation for the week ahead.  I feel pretty good right now.  My mood is content.  I am worried, though, that tonight before bed, my (not-so-healthy) habit of wine will creep into my head, and temptation will set in. I have a plan to have tea nearby and a good book.

I know I can do this.  After all, five days isn't too long considering I'm nearly five decades on this earth, right?

For me, this is just the beginning.