Suzanne Somers: The Art of Aging Well

Suzanne Somers is a role model for us all. At 74, she looks and feels terrific. A well-known and respected authority on health and wellness, Suzanne and her 85-year-old husband, Alan Hamel, are showing us a new way to age. They have sex twice a day. Several days each week the couple hold live Facebook and Instagram sessions from their 92-acre Palm Springs compound, sharing stories on Hollywood, health, family and more.

Suzanne has been ahead of her time consistently throughout her 50-year career. In the late 1970s, she created the now-iconic role of ditzy Chrissy Snow in the sitcom Three’s Company, and then was fired when she dared to ask ABC for pay commensurate with that of the male cast members. She never looked back, forging ahead to build a highly successful career in multiple fields.

A prolific author, Suzanne has written 27 books, 14 of them New

York Times bestsellers, focusing on health and helping readers to find products, education and services to improve their lives. Covering topics such as mental health, weight loss, nutrition, beauty, integrative cancer protocols and more, her books have been translated into many languages throughout the world.

 

A savvy serial entrepreneur, Suzanne was one of the very first celebrity entrepreneurs to understand and apply the power of infomercials and shopping on television. She introduced her weight loss program, beauty items, apparel, jewelry and personal fitness products to consumers on Home Shopping Network in 1992, quickly becoming one of the network’s top-selling brand names. Over the years, she expanded her product offerings to include vitamins and supplements.

Suzanne’s famous 1990s sensation, the ThighMaster®, is still as popular as ever, with over 10 million sold worldwide. She has since developed thousands of products in multiple categories that can be found on her website.

 

Finding opportunity in adversity, Suzanne completely changed her lifestyle after a cancer diagnosis in 2000, and now follows a strictly organic diet. “I eat as though my life depends upon it, because I believe it does,” she says. Her further research revealed that in addition to the food supply, toxins are also present in commercial skin care and hair care products, as well as in cosmetics. So, she developed her own line of organic, toxin-free beauty products for hair, skin and nails.

 

Suzanne introduced mainstream America to bioidentical hormones (BHRT) and continues to educate women and men on the life-saving benefits of this natural alternative to help turn the clock back – from the inside out.  She follows a detailed regime of alternative and integrative medicine, including supplements, enzymes, peptides and more.

After Suzanne was fired from Three’s Company in 1980, her husband Alan declared that they would never work for anyone else again, and ever since the duo has run a lean, efficient company, one of America’s greatest success stories of a female owned-and-operated business. Caroline Somers, their daughter-in-law, has been president of SOMERS Companies for 30 years, overseeing product development, web sales and marketing.

In short, Suzanne Somers was and continues to be a trailblazer, establishing herself as a brand decades before modern-day influencers like the Kardashians latched onto the concept.

 

 

How to age successfully

Aging is an inevitability, and we’ve come to expect that we’re going to get sick as we get old. Suzanne Somers challenges us to entertain the idea that we can age without illness, that we can live out our lives with vitality, keeping our minds and bones in top condition.

 

“I have to say that since I embraced health, I have never enjoyed life more,” she says. “I like the way I look. I like the way I feel. I like my energy. I have wisdom. I have perspective, and I can tell you that aging can be so incredible if you know how to approach it. It takes a little bit of work. It’s about health; about shifting your thinking and understanding what it is that’s making us sick and how we can combat it.”

 

Suzanne strives to view everything in life as an opportunity. When life threw her a curve with a breast cancer diagnosis over 20 years ago, she asked herself how her diet and lifestyle habits led her to play host to this disease.

 

Examining her lifestyle, she realized that she hadn’t been getting enough sleep, kept up a stressful schedule with long hours, partied a lot and wasn’t concerned about the chemicals in the food and beauty products she consumed. She knew nothing about hormones, which play an important role in keeping us healthy as we age. “Now that I’ve put all the pieces together, I realized I was such a likely target,” she says.

 

Sleep, hormonal balance, eating right

Each person’s body is different, but some key factors for aging successfully are eating right, getting a proper amount of sleep, and maintaining hormonal balance. “These are all connected,” Suzanne stresses.

 

“We have to learn the language of our bodies. Itching, bitching, lack of sleep, sweating, bloating, forgetfulness, being dried up; that’s the body talking,” she says. Those symptoms are your body telling you it needs some help.

 

“Listen to your body,” she advises. “You can’t sleep unless you balance your hormones,” she explains. Once your hormones are balanced you can start going to sleep earlier, which reduces cortisol and insulin levels, allowing weight loss.

 

Hormones

“Hormones are not just for menopausal women,” Suzanne declares. “Hormones are for all of us, they’re the juice of youth, governing every aspect of our lives and emotions and health.” If we’re cavalier about our hormones and don’t keep them balanced, it creates chaos, with sickness and emotional upheavals and stress, making it difficult to embrace life.

 

“Perimenopause is actually a great stage of life if you have balanced hormones,” Suzanne says. “If you get your hormones back, your brain thinks you’re reproductive, everything is working nicely, but you don’t have to worry about getting pregnant,” she explains. “You can have all the fun you want.”

 

At this phase of life, hair loses some luster, wrinkles begin to appear, and there are bloating and mood fluctuations. “I threw things!” she says. “I can’t believe I threw things; I’m so even-tempered now. I’m so wonderful to live with now.”

 

However, perimenopause is the phase when many women develop breast cancer; it’s when Suzanne was diagnosed.

 

Now she wishes she’d started on hormones in her thirties. “As we decline, we can now fill the tank with bioidentical hormones; not too much, not too little – exactly; optimal health. It’s the most exciting thing that’s ever happened. It means that we can remain even all the way through, and as you get older you just need a little more.”

 

And balanced hormones help to maintain a normal sex drive. “When you don’t have hormones, you don’t care about sex. I mean, you can do it, but you’d rather have a smoothie.” She knows, she’s been there. “I didn’t like being there. I used to really like it, and I had three miserable years.”

 

Eating right

What we eat is so important, and nature provided us with herbs and spices to make food more flavorful. Thyme, rosemary, tarragon, mint, turmeric, chives, cayenne, cumin, and cinnamon are nature’s antioxidants. “It’s as though nature knew we’d be bombarded with free radicals and chemicals coming into our bodies all the time. Bringing these antioxidants into your food helps eliminate free radicals.”

 

If she goes to a restaurant whose food is not organic, she later takes a course of antioxidants to counterbalance the effects of her meal.

 

A simple change in your diet, taking in omega-3 oils like olive, flax, or coconut oil, helps to keep cell membranes pliable, allowing air and water to flow through and flush chemicals that enter the body from food or the environment. Too many malfunctioning cells can lead to diseases like cancer, from lack of nutrition, hydration, and oxygen, explains Suzanne. “We need air and water in our bodies to be more energetic.”

 

Suzanne also takes fish oil daily, morning and evening. “People say, ‘Fish oil, ugh! It’s something our mothers made us take, cod liver oil.’ Our mothers had wisdom!” she says, laughing. Plus, these days it tastes much better.

 

Making simple dietary changes is easy, she says. For instance, smear an organic chicken with olive oil, rosemary and thyme (or whichever herbs you prefer), add sea salt, and cook in the oven. “When I eat this meal, I think it’s like healthy medicine I’m eating,” Suzanne gushes. “It’s just so delicious.”

 

Wellness can be exciting

You can make wellness exciting, something that you look forward to doing. “My routine is estrogen every day. That’s my happy mood,” Suzanne says. “And I’m telling you it’s nice to live with a woman who’s in a good mood every day because I didn’t used to be. So, now I know the difference.” She also applies progesterone at certain times each month, which helps to eliminate water weight.

 

“That combination of estrogen and progesterone makes you feel really good, and there are days when you get a glint in your eye, and look at your husband and go, ‘Hello, sailor!’” she laughs.

 

“Aging is amazing. Aging is something you should aspire to and look forward to and want.”

 

Suzanne Somers & Alan Hamel aging beautifully

At this stage in her life, Suzanne has something one can only acquire with age – wisdom. Her life’s purpose is sharing her knowledge, teaching others of all ages how to have an active, energetic life filled with energy, vitality, health and wellness. Millions of fans and followers access this information through her books, website and social media platforms.

On her social media platforms, Suzanne and Alan offer an up-close look at their daily lifestyle. Mornings start with organic coffee – in bed – with scenic views of desert mountains and herds of big-horn sheep drinking from shallow springs. They delve into their boxes of supplements to concoct gut-healthy smoothies.

 

Every Tuesday, Suzanne gives Alan a shot in the behind – of testosterone. “We can’t film on Wednesdays because we just might be in bed ALL day!” she quips.

 

You’ll see them take their golf cart to the organic garden. Where they come up with natural solutions for keeping the critters from eating the plants. They dance in the kitchen while Suzanne whips up one of her healthy, delicious meals. Alan often snacks on fruit and nuts, spoiling his appetite – however, you can’t argue with his health! He’s clearly doing something right.

 

Suzanne and Alan dote on one another. They are attached at the hip and haven’t spent a night apart in decades. That might seem odd, but they are happy being always together. They consider themselves “wonderfully co-dependent.” At 5pm every night, they meet at Big Al’s Bar – a special spot on their property, where they share a tequila and chat about their day.