Liz Earle: 'I think I've discovered how to live to 120'
Liz Earle is buzzing. “I’ve just babysat my grandchild for the first time!” she exclaims. “I said to my daughter, ‘Go out for a pizza. He’ll be fine: I’ve had five of them.’ But I was terrified,” she laughs. “I was worried he wasn’t breathing. I couldn’t relax!”
It’s hard to believe that Liz Earle, the wellbeing guru so many of us have grown up with, is a grandmother. Another hat to add to many others: beauty brand founder, former farmer, MBE, mother of five...
If ever there was a poster girl for living well, Liz is it. Warm, smiley, vivacious, she oozes vitality that belies her years. “At 61, I am healthier, happier, fitter, stronger than I have ever been in my life,” she says. That life is split between the Dorset countryside and London. The former is her sanctuary: “It’s incredibly rural where I live – rolling hills, woodland and working farms. Having been an organic, regenerative farmer, I have huge respect for our food providers.”
She shares her home with her 14-year-old son, who she tries to keep out of the public eye. New mum 33-year-old Lily is down the road, Guy, 31, Brella, 23, and Kit, 22, are dotted around, but are always coming and going.
She’s close to her London-based parents and never visits without taking her latest wonder-discovery. “They say, ‘How many more things can we take?’ and I say, ‘But you’re thriving!’”
Coming back from rock bottom
Liz, too, is thriving, but things were very different a few years ago. She was stressed from selling her business, battling her changing hormones, worrying about Lily, who had been very poorly, and trying to recover from a broken second marriage. With her self-esteem at rock bottom, she needed to make changes.
She immersed herself in the surroundings of her new home: meditating in the early sunlight and taking soul-soothing walks through the woods and fields. “I wish I hadn’t ignored nature for so long,” she reflects. “It’s fundamental.” High-impact workouts were replaced with yoga and strengthening exercises. “I look back at the time I used to jump around in Lycra and leg warmers and think, ‘What was all that about?’” she says. “Now, I’ll just do ten minutes of weightlifting, which is doing far more for me: it’s building muscle and it’s boosting my metabolism.”
After dabbling in veganism, meat (preferably grass-fed) went back on the menu. “I was a teetotal, macrobiotic vegan in my twenties and became quite unwell,” she says. Liz discovered journalling, HRT, restorative vitamins and minerals, the secret to a good night’s sleep – and herself. She’s a woman transformed, with a 44-year-old boyfriend to boot.
Midlife woman's manifesto
It is the distillation of this very personal journey that has inspired her latest book, A Better Second Half. From health-boosting bio-hacks to pro-ageing nutrition, she leaves no stone unturned. “It’s a midlife women’s manifesto on how to live well,” she explains. “I came back into the light – my mission is to bring everyone with me. How can we fix things so that we don’t just survive but thrive?”
While Liz has a varied schedule, how she starts and ends each day is always the same. After getting up at about 6am, she heads outside, feels the sun on her face (“lower-level UV autumn sunshine is so beneficial for mind and body”), stands barefoot on the grass, then walks or runs with a lone rabbit or deer for company. “I love crunching through the leaves,” she says. She ends with a dip in her freshwater pond. Given that she isn’t a morning person, how does she pull off those early starts, including a freezing-cold shower? “The shower is still a challenge!” Liz laughs. “But I just know it’s all worth it.”
A fan of intermittent fasting, Liz eats at around 11am – eggs from the neighbouring farm, unpasteurised local cheeses and homegrown delights from her veg patch, including beetroot “packed with nitric oxide for energy” and autumn-fruiting raspberries. After a day that might include interviewing an expert for her podcast or running her online community, she has a simple home-cooked supper. Her wind-down routine begins at around 9pm. “A good day starts the night before,” she says. Off go the screens and it’s back into nature. “I’ve just put up a yurt at the bottom of the garden – it’s like an enchanted glen!” she laughs. “I love to watch the rosy-pink sunsets cuddled up in a snug rug with my boyfriend.”
Turning back our age
Liz is keen to stress that her slow living approach is underpinned by science, including some fascinating discoveries, which she explores in her book. “Some of the advances in nutrigenomics – using nutrients to hack into our cellular health to turn back our age – are incredible,” she says. “Also, epigenetics – how we dial up or down our gene expression is down to how we live. You can’t just say, ‘I’m destined to be overweight or a night owl’ – you can change it.”
Always an early adopter, Liz has been having her biological markers for age (physical fitness, muscle mass, blood profile) tested for years. “Chronologically, I’m 61, but my biological age is between 39 and 45. I tease my boyfriend that I’m biologically younger than him,” she jokes.
What do friends and family think of it all? “They’re increasingly curious,” she says. “Friends sometimes roll their eyes at the thought of taking a cold shower or standing barefoot on the grass, but when they see how much fitter and better I look for my micro health hacks, that sparks more of an interest!”
Liz is not fazed by ageing: “I’m looking forward to the next 60 years – I think 120 is very doable.” But those years must matter. “We all need purpose in life,” she says. “None of us want to get to the end of our lives and think, ‘What was that all about?’” What’s hers? Liz pauses. “I think my purpose is to share good news,” she says with a smile, “and to leave the world a better place for having been in it.”
A Better Second Half by Liz Earle (Yellow Kite, £22), out now. Listen to The Liz Earle Wellbeing Show podcast.
The Liz Earle Restart:
Try these tips to switch up your midlife routine – and live, like Liz, to 120*:
1. Eat more protein - Liz starts the day with a couple of boiled eggs from a nearby farm.
2. Take cold showers - Wash with warm water, then turn the dial down for the last 60 seconds to feel a surge of endorphins.
3. Life weights - This benefits your brain as well as your body by focusing your mind on performing specific movements.
4. Get grounding - Remove your shoes and socks to connect with the earth, even in the rain.
5. Drink Cocoa - Cacao helps gut health, strengthens the immune system and supports insulin resistance.
*No promises
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