June 29, 2023
Self-Care | Why How You Look Actually Matters
Writen by Naomi Whittel |
Published on: June 29, 2023
As women, I think it’s safe to say that we’ve all experienced a challenging time in either our childhood or adult years where we’ve felt judged for something we feel is completely out of our control – such as how we look. There is nothing that robs a woman of her beauty and accelerates aging as feeling disempowered. While we have heard the message our entire life that “It’s what’s in your heart that matters,” I would like to share an alternative perspective.
I believe how we look matters – but not for the superficial reasons you might be imagining. How we look is connected to everything – from first impressions to the stuff that drives our self-confidence and self-esteem. When’s the last time you’ve felt heightened self-consciousness and shame for your body yet simultaneously felt you were taking the best care of your body – with glowing lab markers of health and a radiant charismatic glow about you? You probably have never felt these two at the same time – they oppose each other. Any negative emotions tied to your appearance can lead to genuine physical issues. For example, being unhappy about how you look can make you anxious. That anxiety can lead to high blood pressure, a terrible sleep, increased cravings, decreased immune system, extreme fatigue, headaches, mood issues or digestive complaints.
Quite simply: Your outer beauty reflects your inner health.
To activate autophagy, I want you to start to think about giving your body and mind the respect that it deserves.
Examining your outer appearance and reflecting on it without emotional judgment is probably one of the most underrated topics of conversation among women. If we dare discuss how we look, we either have to do it in a self-deprecating way for fear we come across as arrogant or whiny. Or, we may clam up and feel it inappropriate to discuss this sort of thing publicly as it’s not “ladylike.” Yet, addressing our outer appearance can not only help you live better, but it could also save your life!
Bottom line, talk about skin is not skin deep.
While self-care and beauty can certainly be about attraction and self-confidence, beauty is about health. The health of our skin is not only about how attractive we are, but it’s also a reflection of how healthy we are. The processes that lead to aged skin, for example, have started deep within your body, so your skin is merely a reflection of the degree of inflammation lurking inside. How you look on the outside affects every cell of every organ. Your skin, your largest organ, reflects cellular damage in the form of wrinkles, dryness, dullness, and discoloration.
These are visible signs of aging, reflecting poor health in need of repair. Damage can also happen in the organs you can’t see. Invisible signs of aging can affect your heart, your lungs, your brain with no outward manifestation.
In my book, Glow15, I harness the science of autophagy to show you how to use your biology to not only repair the visible signs of aging but protect against the invisible ones too. Activating this process of autophagy is like a modern cleanse – except this type of cleanse is internal and requires no expensive trips to the spa or weird juice concoctions and bland cardboard food! In fact, it puts the old adage “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” into practice since autophagy helps to prevent diseases like cancer and neurological conditions, plus it also promotes longevity. The fact is that outer health and inner health are beautifully connected and dependent upon each other. The healthier you are on the inside, the healthier you are on the outside. And the healthier you are on the outside, the healthier you are on the inside. So, when you boost autophagy — it allows every cell to perform at its best, every organ to function at its best so that you look and feel your best.
To activate autophagy, I want you to start to think about giving your body and mind the respect that it deserves. I want you to treat yourself with integrity. Instead of going on a calorie-restricted diet or counting every gram of carbohydrate in your food, I want you to see the forest for the trees. I don’t want you to justify the means to an end. What I mean is I don’t want you chasing happiness in some mythical notion that achieving a size zero will fulfill you. Furthermore, I don’t want you to do crazy things to achieve that goal. I have always wanted radiant skin since I was a little girl. I would have done anything to heal my eczema and fit in with the other girls.
At one point I went on traditional Western medication as well as dabbled in alternative treatments. While both helped me with my symptoms, they didn’t get to the root cause of why I had eczema in the first place. So, while those treatments helped me achieve a goal to have clear skin, it did so at a price. And it took me years to unravel the impact of those treatments on my health. It wasn’t until years later that I learned to achieve the end by focusing on the means.
That’s when I discovered autophagy. By learning how to use a practice called intermittent fasting protein cycling in conjunction with specific exercises for autophagy along with autophagy-activating skin-care, and unique types of polyphenol plant compounds that are so powerful in their ability to stimulate autophagy that I call them “Powerphenols” – did I really unearth the healing strategy my body yearned for all these years. The science of autophagy might be new to you, but it’s something that has been occurring within you (and everyone) since your birth. It’s a sophisticated process that takes place deep within your cells yet stimulating it is not complicated at all.
In Glow15, I share in just fifteen days how simple (and delicious!) it is to activate your autophagy and improve how you look and of course, how you feel. Because it’s how you feel that you want to focus on. Your looks are merely an indicator of how well your diet and lifestyle are working for your body.
A picture is worth a thousand words, right?
Instead of chasing the end goal of better blood sugar, better energy, fitting in your skinny jeans or having glowing skin at any cost, I want you to focus on how achieving that will make you feel. Because it’s from this perspective, you’ll find the right healing strategies to help you achieve those goals.
After all, “glow” isn’t just about dewy skin and looking beautiful. It’s about feeling beautiful. It’s about a radiant life — no matter from what angle you see it. Inside and out.
