4 Ways to Fight the Signs of Aging Naturally

It happens to all of us eventually.  Time shows itself visibly on our face and body. While I don't want to be vain, I do want to look my best. Today I talk about 4 things I use to help reduce the signs of aging that are more natural, simple and don't cost a fortune. 

Transcript

Hello, my name is Tiffany, and welcome to the podcast Working on Amazing. This is a podcast where we talk about the work that it takes to rebuild an amazing life.

Now, on today's episode, we're gonna be talking about four different things, and I know there's way more than four, but four natural anti-aging things to do.

As we get older and we see the signs of aging, what's some natural ways to combat some of the visible signs of aging? So, that's what we're gonna be talking about today.

If you're new here, I just want to tell you, this podcast is designed for women who feel like they're starting over in the middle of their life. And as an example, what does starting over mean?

Well, for me, that looked like divorce after a 20-year marriage. But for my sister, starting over looked like the sudden, very unexpected death of her spouse. And for you, it could be something completely different.

The common denominator is when all your hopes, all your dreams, all your plans for the future have completely gone up in smoke, your day-to-day life looks totally different, and it does, it feels like you're starting over. That's you.

First of all, from the bottom of my heart, I want to say I'm sorry. I know how overwhelming and itchy that feels.

I truly do.

But I'm here to offer hope. I'm here to offer encouragement. I'm here to tell you that it gets better.

I'm here to remind you that countless women have gone through this midlife restart and come out on the other side better for it. You are not alone. You're actually in the right place.

So welcome, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. Now, if you'll remember in the very beginning, I said I focused on five areas when I rebuilt my life.

I focused on my spiritual health, my mental health, my physical health, my financial health, and growth and goals. So today's episode is going to fall under that physical health category.

And sometimes, yes, physical health is diet and exercise, and those are really, really important. But sometimes physical health is our appearance in the way we physically look. And I think it's important.

It's not the most important, but it matters, because we draw confidence from the way we look, the way we, our appearance. When we feel good about how we look, we get, we feel confident, and that matters.

And if you want to rebuild your life, and have a good outlook, and project well to the world, and be positive, you've got to feel good about how you look. It's not because we're trying to hit some unrealistic beauty standard.

I just want you to feel good about you.

Not to compare this to that, or anything like that, but when you feel good about who you are, and the way you look, your outlook on life changes, your ability to conquer tasks and problems, it somehow is elevated, because you feel confident just in

the way you look, and who you are, you feel good about yourself. That's why this matters. So let's not get it out of context. It's not that being beautiful or fighting the signs of aging is the most important thing.

I just want to talk about these things, because I do feel like it's so important that you feel good about who you are and the way you look. Does that make sense? It matters.

It's not that everybody has to look the same, or there's a certain standard that we're shooting for. It just matters that you feel confident with how you look. Okay?

So, as we get down to today's episode, I have noticed, I am in my 40s, I'm getting really, really right next door to 50. So, I have noticed signs of aging, mostly, you notice them in your face, but you notice them in your body as far as skin goes.

And your skin loses elasticity, collagen, right? And you start to see wrinkles, and maybe a little bit of sagging. And so, how do I combat these particular things that I don't love, right?

How do I do that but naturally? And I do know there's the option of botox, and fillers, and stuff like that. And just for me personally, I really do prefer more natural, holistic approaches.

Now, the approaches and things that I'm going to talk about today are not going to give you the dramatic results that botox would or a facelift would. They're going to be much more subtle because they are natural.

And in the march of time is going to go on. We cannot reverse it or stop it, but we can reduce some of those effects that the march of time leaves on our face, right? And so that's my approach here.

And I know there are a lot of other things. These are just four things that I'm doing right now that I have found cool or interesting, or I've noticed some results from.

And I'm talking about them because sometimes you hear about different things and you're like, I wish I knew somebody who had done that. I wish I knew somebody who had tried that. I would like to hear an honest review about whether that works or not.

So let's just talk about some of these things. And then I would really like to hear what you do and what you feel like has worked. Because like I said, these are four things, but I know there's a list of way, way, way more.

But these are four things that I'm trying. So the first one that I really, really like is red light therapy. Red light therapy, there's a lot of science behind it.

If you Google it and read about it, I mean, they're still doing studies and they can't say definitively everything. But when you read the studies that have been done, it's very encouraging.

So red light penetrates your skin, different UV rays are harmful, and they can cause skin cancer and things like that. But there are a spectrum of different types of rays of light.

And red light, actually, when it penetrates your skin, it goes down to the cellular level and stimulates the cell. It actually stimulates the mitochondria, which is the powerhouse of your cell. Like, if we go back to high school biology, right?

So it stimulates that to start moving and doing again, because as we age, our cell regeneration rate gets slower. So red light comes in, and it does that, so your cells produce more collagen, right?

And we said that's what we lose as we age, we lose some collagen, that's why you see maybe a little bit of sagging or wrinkles, that's loss of collagen.

Children don't have that, is as you lose that collagen and the cells regenerate more slowly, that that's the effects, that's what you see.

That's the thing that red light does, it helps stimulate your cells to produce more collagen, to turn over more quickly. That's the whole point of it, right? So it's a cellular level.

So you see a reduction in some things on your skin. Now, this is what I'll tell you. My gym has a red light therapy bed, and it is like a tanning bed.

You lay in it, and you close the lid, but the bulbs are red light, not UV rays, okay? So it's not a tanning bed, it's red light therapy. And you lay in it for 15 minutes at a time, you know, simple.

So I said, well, if it's part of my gym membership, I need to start trying it. Like, I'm already paying for the gym membership, might as well just see if this works, right? Because I'd read about it.

I had one red light therapy, little handheld device that I had gotten in a box of beauty supplies at one point. And so I kind of knew about red light, so I started it. This is what I will tell you.

My hands have had a significant amount of damage done to them. I've had a lot of surgeries. If you're a listener of this podcast, you heard me explain how I lost my thumb and index finger.

So my left hand, I'm missing it, that thumb and index finger. I have skin graft. I had a bone graft on that hand.

My right hand, I lost the knuckle on my pointer finger. I severed the tendon on the back of my hand. So my hands have had a significant amount of surgeries.

And I say that because when you go through surgery, the stuff they rub on your hands to kill bacteria, iodine, things like that, is very drying to your skin. So my hands were showing signs of aging more than anything else on my body.

I felt like I had granny hands, you know, like you looked at my hands, and it's like if you just saw my hands, you would think I was significantly older. Like my hands were showing signs of aging significantly.

And I was starting to get self-conscious about it. I was surprised when I started laying in the red light therapy bed. That's where I noticed the biggest difference was in my hands.

And as I started reading more and more about this and looking into it, that is where they started noticing red light therapy. The first was in people's hands. So I was like, okay, that tracks, that actually is true.

But my hands did start, I did see a firming and a reduction. And I guess the skin on your hands is just really thin. And maybe that's why it shows more quickly the difference.

But I did notice my hands not feeling as old as they looked. You know, to me, it just felt like, what? And I really noticed a difference on my hands.

I will also say I have a scar. And the other thing they say about red light therapy is it helps speed up healing, and it can work as a healing device or tool with wounds.

Now, this scar I've had for, I had several years, but it's about five inches on my leg. And I am amazed at how light that scar looks now. Like, you almost have to look for it.

It's like a white, really faint white line. So I have a lot of scars on my body, but most of them have been, like, 30 years or more. So this one was more recent in the fact that it was, like, five or six, seven years old, something like that.

But it significantly reduced the visible appearance of that scar. Now, they say red light therapy could help with, you know, lots of skin things, like stretch marks, things like that. I've noticed a difference, but please manage expectations.

They did tell me when I started using the red light therapy bed that you needed to do that for, like, three, four times every week for several months before you started really noticing the difference.

And then to maintain, you do it, you know, maybe a couple of times a week. So understand that the results are slow, you're not going to lay down in the bed and then come out looking like a new person. It's consistency, and it just, it does take time.

But if you are a member of a gym that offers that, like I was, check it out, like, just see.

If you have a friend or family member who has one of the red light therapy devices they use on their face, maybe they'll let you borrow it, maybe you could try it. See if it works for you.

I know the devices they advertise to me on social media for your face. I don't know, like, how strong they are, how powerful they are. I don't know, but I do know that science backs this red light therapy thing.

They're still doing research on it. It's not definitive the degree, but I also know it's very safe. You're not going to burn your skin, you're not going to hurt yourself.

So even if it does nothing, at least you've not really lost anything. There's no risk involved in red light therapy. So I like it.

I like laying in the bed and just sown it out for 15 minutes. That feels really, really good to me. So I really like it.

I'm a big fig in of it. So I just think that it's a good, simple, natural way to possibly fight the signs and visible effects of aging. All right, the next thing that I've gotten into that I think is really great is called Gua Sha.

Okay, so if you've never heard of Gua Sha, let me spell it for you because you will want to Google it, I promise.

G-U-A-S-H-A.

Two words, Gua Sha.

Okay, G-U-A-S-H-A.

Gua Sha is an Asian technique, and it's a stone, and when you see it, you'll be like, I've seen that before. Okay, it's a flat stone. Generally, it's made out of jade, so it's that green color, but they're metal ones.

There's all kinds of different ones. And it's flat, and it has a really odd shape, and the best way to describe it possibly is like an asymmetrical heart.

So there are two humps on the top, but one is longer than the other or comes out taller, and then it curves around, and it comes not to a point, but a rounded point, maybe.

So it's an odd shape, but like I said, you've probably seen it along with health and beauty stuff before. You can pay more money for them. I got mine on Amazon for $4.99.

You could probably go to TJ Maxx Marshall, somewhere like that, look in the beauty section, and find one really cheap, okay? The shape of the tool matters, because what you do is you put like face oil on your face, right?

Or maybe like a good moisturizer. You want your skin to be well, well moisturized, because what you do is you take this tool, and you scrape it along your face. And it helps over time, doing it repeatedly, consistency matters, right?

It helps sculpt and reshape your face. So the reason why I spelled it, G-U-A-S-H-A, is so you can Google it and look up videos, because it's very difficult with just audio for me to tell you how to use it.

And I am not an expert on it, but there are people who are. And like the two humps, I take it, I start on my chin and I go along my jawline to my ear.

And I put the longer side of the heart hump on, you know, my jawline, and the shorter side on my cheek side. And you just go back and forth, and you make that stroke from your chin to your ear, from your chin to your ear.

And then I do like that like ten times, and then I do the other side. And that helps sculpt your face, because as we age, sometimes our jawline gets softer, right? And that's part of that sag and that loss of collagen.

So doing Gua Sha definitely can help sculpt your face. You do need to know how to do it correctly, like the right way to glide this stone across your face to get the results you want. That matters.

So it's helping, you know, sculpt your face. It means you have to do it every day. Like I try to do, at least, at the very least, I do my jawline, ten strokes on each side every night.

Sometimes, if I have more time and I just want to do some self-care, I do the whole face routine. What's really cool about Gua Sha that I like as well is that we have lymph nodes in our face, and this can help with that lymphatic drainage.

So your lymph nodes, you know, filter your body, and it takes everything. You know, your lymph system is a very important and powerful system in the way our body functions in helping, you know, clear out and clean out toxins and move them away.

So getting that lymphatic drainage, that's something that I've been looking into and very interested in recently.

So the fact that Gua Sha not only helps shape and sculpt my face, but also does that lymphatic drainage, because, you know, like around your sinuses, you have puffy eyes, sometimes doing Gua Sha and running that tool in those areas can help remove

some of that excess fluid. And you pull it kind of towards your ear, and then you take the tool behind your ear and go down your neck. Like I said, you've got to watch some videos about it. There are tons of them.

There is no lack of Gua Sha videos.

And I would tell you to look at videos geared for your age range, you know, maturing skin, 40 plus, 50 plus Gua Sha techniques, because it's going to really show you how to move the tool across your face to help with what are problem areas for your

age group. So the 20 year olds using Gua Sha is great, but they don't have sagging skin.

So I would definitely, you know, narrow down my search, not just Gua Sha techniques, but Gua Sha techniques for maturing skin, or Gua Sha techniques for 40 plus, 50 plus, something like that. I would definitely go that route.

So you really have those techniques of how to sculpt your jawline or, you know, raise, you know, the skin around your eyes, different things like that. It's a really, really neat technique. It's not a big investment.

The main investment with Gua Sha is time. You've got to do it consistently every day. If you do it every day for a year, you will have a much more sculpted face.

But it's not going to be dramatic because it's not going to happen overnight. It's going to happen over the course of a year. So it's definitely consistency and consistency.

But if you do that, you could get the results that are, that you're looking for. You could get good results. You could reduce signs of aging.

You could have a more sculpted face without the cost of Botox or a facelift. Once again, not as dramatic, but definitely noticeable. It just takes time.

All right? So, guasha is one I really, really like. I love the fact that it helps with the lymphatic drainage.

I love the fact that it can help sculpt my face. And I love that it's very cost effective. It just takes time.

So that's a great natural anti-aging technique that I really like. Next one on the list is a supplement. And I have told you before how much I love supplements.

But I did have to back off of the supplements because I just was taking a lot and I'm like, it's hard to tell what's working and what's not. And the only supplement that I'm taking right now is NAD. What is NAD?

Well, I'm probably not qualified to talk about all that it is. What I do know is there are scientific studies about it. It's still being researched and we need more studies.

But what they learned in lab rats is that as they age, this is what they lose. They lose NAD.

So then they took these older rats and lab mice or whatever, and they injected them with NAD because they start losing it as they age, so they gave them more like, okay, well, what would happen here?

And it helped, I mean, significantly reduce those age markers and the signs of aging in these lab rats. Okay, it made like they were surprised at the difference it made. Now, we are humans, we are not lab rats.

So our results definitely are different, but this is something we definitely lose as we age NAD. And this one, I feel like helps from the inside out. So it definitely does help with skin and cellular regeneration.

So it can help with those skin issues that we see as we start to lose collagen and stuff like that. This one also helps with a little bit of energy and like the brain fog situation, you know, that can happen as we age.

I like this one for so many reasons, but it's not a magic pill. So what I think this one does, you don't take this and then wake up looking ten years younger. I just feel like this one helps put the breaks on the signs of aging.

So it slows down some of those things that happen as we age. It slows them down. It's not going to stop it.

I don't know, I think the scientists gave those lab rats a lot of NAD, and I don't think we can take it on that level. I don't know, like I said once again, I'm not a researcher or a scientist.

I do know that a lot of med spas and health places will offer NAD as an injection or intravenously. So you could go and you could pay like 500 bucks and get NAD dripped into you. Sometimes celebrities or athletes will do that.

I don't want to pay for that. So I buy a supplement, and the supplement that I take, I take one a day. The bottle I bought had 90 pills, and I believe it was $15 or $16 on Amazon.

So $15 or $16 for a three month supply felt reasonable to me. Like that didn't seem out of the ballpark, but you look it up on Amazon, and you're going to find things across the gamut. You're going to find expensive ones.

You're going to find more reasonable ones. But this is part of my daily routine. I feel like as I age, this is something that I wanted to add.

So like I said, I no longer take a whole bunch of supplements. I think now I'm going to add fish oil, but NAD is what I take right now. And I think that anybody who is trying to offset some of the signs of aging, this is something you should add.

It definitely helps from the inside out. So if you're doing red light therapy or Gua Sha, that's helping from the outside in, right? To stimulate collagen and cell renewal and all that.

And this is going to help from the inside out with definitely the cell regeneration on a cellular level. And it's going to help even with those mental things like energy and brain fog.

So I really like this one as we talk about more natural remedies for fighting the effects and signs of aging. This is definitely one to have in your arsenal. That's pretty reasonable, right?

Okay, the last one. Okay, I've just started this and I haven't even fully started it, but I love the idea of it. And I have noticed like results, so I have to talk about it.

I see it on my newsfeed a lot. People advertising like these containers or things to do cold water plunge. So I have not gotten a separate tub for cold water plunge.

But what I have done, because I've read that it could be extremely helpful for your body to do this. When I am in the shower, I take my shower, and then I turn at the end, the nozzle all the way to cold, and I stand under the cold water.

And that sounds like the stupidest thing to do. I get it. But it really does, I feel like make a difference.

So the reaction in your body from going from the hot to the cold, like your body definitely is like, oh my gosh, that's so cold. And your body kind of like tenses up, and you feel it, right? That reaction in your body is actually really healthy.

It helps stimulate circulation, things like that. Now, when you get out of the shower, after you've turned it cold like that, and you get out, you're like trying to warm up, you definitely notice your skin is tighter.

Like that effect definitely tightens up. So if you notice like cellulite on your legs or thighs, this will definitely, you will notice a difference in the appearance of that right after you get out of the shower. Sadly, that is temporary.

It's not long term, later in the day, it will go back to normal. But over time, this technique of going to the really cold water in your body, adjusting to that cold, is very, very healthy for your body and your skin.

And over time, you're training your body in that reaction of heating itself back up when it's really cold. That is really, really, really good, evidently, for your circulation. As we age, that's something that we need.

It will, over time, I think that the tightening of your skin lasts longer instead of just a short period of time. Now, the whole sitting in a tub of cold water probably has a much bigger effect.

But why not just turn your shower to cold and try it out? I told myself I would try it for a month, and I am so surprised at the difference. The first couple of times you do it, you just almost jump, it's so cold, right?

But slowly, you realize your body adapts to it. And by time five or six, you're like, okay. And you could feel the way your body adapts to it differently.

And you could stand under the cold water longer than you could the first time you did it. And it definitely is invigorating. It's definitely rejuvenating.

And I could see why people sit in these ice baths. Like it kind of makes sense. So I just do it at home because it cost zero dollars.

It's something like, okay, if all these people are talking about it and think it's that great, why not just try it at home in my shower? It's not going to cost me anything. And I can just kind of try it a little bit and see what I think.

So I find it very, very beneficial. I really like it. I recommend it.

So it doesn't cost anything. Why not just give it a try? See what works, right?

So those are the four things that I have found and that I am using in my daily routine that I feel like are natural, kind of more holistic ways to fight the signs of aging. Now, I would love to hear from you. Please tell me, what do you do?

What do you feel like works the best as you're kind of thinking, you know, I saw wrinkles, I didn't like them. I tried X. You know, what did you do?

What have you noticed the biggest result from? I would love, love, love to hear it, because I love to try all the things. So, you can find me online www.workingonamazing.com.

There, you can leave me a message, you know, things like that. You can also find me on social media. I'm on almost all the social media platforms, probably not all of them, but a lot of them.

But I do hang out on Facebook the most. So, it's just a page, Working on Amazing. You can find me there and shoot me a message there.

I would love to hear from you. How do you fight the signs of aging naturally? Please tell me.

So, thank you for joining me today. I look forward to talking to you next time. Bye.