When it comes to celebrities who redefine aging in Hollywood, Jennifer Aniston is definitely one of those, especially because she would rather focus on her health and wellness, and less on how the world perceives actresses as they get older. However, if you caught the Friends Reunion special last month, then you’ll know that instead of getting older, all Jennifer Aniston is doing is simply “continuing to thrive.”
Jennifer Aniston’s Self-Care and Wellness Journey
While the Emmy-award winner is known for her wellness philosophies, in the beginning, it was no effort of hers. In fact, she was essentially born into it,
“My mom was a real health fanatic. I just thought she was nuts. It was no fun to be at my house for dinner because I’d had no Cap’n Crunch or even a Cheerio. Not even Raisin Bran” she explained to Forbes,“It was like wheat germ and oatmeal with brown sugar and honey, spelt bread. Everything was sprouted. And she put nuts into my sandwich. It was weird. So, it was something that was just a part of my life.”
That said, in typical hormonal fashion, Aniston rebelled as a teenager and began eating Fruity Pebbles, Wonder Bread, and other processed foods that ended up “making me feel like shit.”
Eventually, she realized that her mum was onto something when it came to her lifestyle, and so Aniston decided to adopt her own version of a healthy lifestyle, and now she’s focused on living a high-quality life, regardless of her age,
“Universally, we’re all going to grow up and get old. You can’t deny that, that is a guarantee,” she explained to E! News, “But we can be vital, and we can be thriving in our older years. Our society loves to say, ‘Oh, you’re this age, now you go downhill. And now you go off to pasture and that’s it, buh-bye. You’re no longer valuable or useful to society.’ And that’s just so wrong. I just think that’s just wrong.
Jennifer Aniston’s Wellness Secrets
Use the right products
Jennifer Aniston with Vital Proteins Collagen Water in Strawberry Lemon
While some celebrities endorse whichever brand comes with the biggest check, Jennifer Aniston prefers to align herself with brands that she not only believes in but ones whose products that she actually uses. As such, it wasn’t a hard decision for her to sign on as the Chief Creative Officer of Vital Proteins, a collagen supplement brand.
“It was organic and authentic to me and my lifestyle. I’ve been using it for seven years now. My doctor told me to incorporate this into my diet and I did and in a few months, I could not believe how it changed my workouts, my endurance, my mood, my hair, my joints.” she explained to Forbes, “When [Vital Proteins] approached me about a year ago, it felt like anything else that I team up with—I was sold.”
Have a self-care routine
A self-care routine is incredibly important as it can help you better align your health and in doing so, improve it. So, how can you practice self-care?
“I also journal and if I don’t get to do that, it’s a bummer,” The Morning Show star told E! News. “And then also, my coffee. That’s sort of the ritual: Coffee, mediation, meditation comma coffee, depending on the order.”
In fact, Aniston is a huge coffee lover and that may be why she’s aging so well. After all, a 2018 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that coffee drinkers, those who drink two to three cups of coffee per day, have a 12% lower risk of early death than non-coffee drinkers.
“My coffee is very important to me: I put my Vital Proteins Original Peptides Powder in, then I top that with cinnamon, then I top that with a Stevia packet because I have a sweet tooth for certain things,” the Golden Globe winner told VOGUE, adding that she steams almond milk while this is all happening (every once in a while she uses real milk), “My guilty, guilty pleasure is Coffee-Mate. Hazelnut Coffee-Mate. If the world ever ended and everything disappeared, my Coffee-Mate would not. It would still survive. That, and cockroaches.”
Get a collagen boost
Collagen is a protein in our bodies that helps to keep our skin supple and healthy. It also plays a role in tissue development as well as strengthening blood vessels.
Jennifer Aniston/Vital Proteins
Unfortunately, as we age, the levels of collagen in our bodies begin to decline, giving way to the formation of wrinkles and weaker hair.
However, judging by Jennifer Aniston’s appearance, it’s easy to deduce that she incorporates collagen into her diet.
“I have it in my coffee every morning, the Vital Proteins Original Collagen Peptides. I just had a shake with the new Vital Proteins Chocolate Collagen Peptides, which I’m obsessed with. And I have it in my water; the Vital Proteins Collagen Water in Strawberry Lemon usually goes with me in my car. The collagen creamer I love.” she told Forbes, “There are many ways now to incorporate this into your body. It doesn’t just have to be in your coffee.”
Do a digital detox
It can be hard to stay away from our phones, especially when we have an incessant need to keep up with everything that’s going wrong with the world (global pandemic and environmental catastrophes). Nonetheless, despite how glued some of us are to our phones, Aniston makes sure to set digital boundaries.
“I don’t look at my phone for at least the first hour after waking up. The mental difference this makes impacts the whole day.” the We’re The Millers actress told VOGUE, adding that she places her chargers in a drawer six feet away from her bed, “I also have a little iPod or iPhone from 1912 that I swiped clean and strictly use for my alarms and my sleep apps.”
“My phone is for text messages and email and god knows what else is on there—ugh, the Pattern app…Sometimes I go more than an hour without checking my phone. It’s so interesting because you start getting these text messages that are like, ‘Hello? Where are you??’ Where am I? I’m taking my time! I’m waking up with my dogs!”
Meditation over social media
As necessary as it is to stay up with local news and current events, sometimes it can get to be too much. Speaking to VOGUE, Aniston revealed that during the height of the pandemic, she needed to take a break from the news and social media as it just became so toxic.
“I understand the innocence of how it was birthed, and the intention was to bring people together and create a social community. And that’s lovely, but you have to take the good with the bad—that people just sit there and throw emotional knives at other people on these platforms. This skin is really not hard enough to take any of that.” she said.
As such, instead of scrolling through Instagram, she now opts to make time for meditation and journaling,
“I do my meditation for 20 minutes. I use InsightTimer which I have downloaded on my wiped-clean phone…During the pandemic, that has been really helpful for me. They had one on “lowering anxiety,” or “how to create abundance and gratitude.” After I do my 20-minute meditations, I take out my journal. Some days it’s just stream-of-consciousness for, like, 10-12 minutes; some days I make gratitude lists”
Photo by Ava Sol on Unsplash
Keep learning
There’s no point in prioritizing your physical health if you’re not going to focus on your brain health. In an effort to educate herself, Aniston once hosted salons on Sundays where she picked the minds of different people,
“I did these salons on Sundays and I had different people come in and speak, like Jessica Yellin on politics; Jay Shetty was one of those guys, he talked about earthing, and David Sinclair about science and living this vital life and growing old”
She added that she was an avid fan of Dr. Sinclair and his theory that aging is a disease, and we can cure diseases.
“I’m at the age where I’m more interested than ever in my health, and my life is thriving, but according to society, this is when I should be going out to pasture. No, no, no. Youth is wasted on the young, I get it. But I want to keep putting information in my head that’s going to inspire me.”
Wellness goals for the future
“My goal is to continue to be committed to myself and to my body because this is the only one we get.” the Horrible Bosses star told Forbes. That said, she does believe in indulging yourself,
“ The 80-20 I think is a good rule. Allow yourself some fun, allow yourself things that you love, and take away any kind of negative thoughts around it. Enjoy it. Remove shame from your vocabulary or feelings if you are capable.”
Bottom Line
When it comes to aging and longevity, Aniston adopts the philosophy that her mom passed down to her, which was;
“This is about longevity. It’s a privilege to grow old, but we don’t have to grow sick.”
“It’s just sort of been a theme in my life: to enjoy the age I am and not look at aging as a negative, but as the privilege that it is.” she said to VOGUE, “We all age! My doctor… She’s a functional medicine doctor, so she’s just really progressive: peptides, supplements. She’s not shoving medicine down your throat. It’s more like, ‘how can we solve health problems with vitamins and diet?'”
Vital Proteins Jennifer Aniston/Vital Proteins
References
Loftfield, E., Cornelis, M. C., Caporaso, N., Yu, K., Sinha, R., & Freedman, N. (2018). Association of Coffee Drinking With Mortality by Genetic Variation in Caffeine Metabolism: Findings From the UK Biobank. JAMA internal medicine, 178(8), 1086–1097. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.2425
