Building Lifelong Longevity with Advice from Her Ancestors, Plus One Simple Daily Habit

Super Age Games Founding Athlete Maya Ayed wants to combine the wisdom of her elders with modern science to extend healthspan[helth-span]nounThe number of years you live in good health, free from chronic illness or disability.Learn MoreClose.

“What is the thing that you do every single day?” asks Maya Ayed. “Because that’s going to be, when you add it into an equation, the answer to how you’re going to feel when you’re 80 years old.”

It’s sage aging advice. But Ayed isn’t 80 — or 70 or 60, for that matter. The founder of Alya, an olive oil shot startup, is just 25 years old. But she’s already begun thinking about her longevity[lon-jev-i-tee]nounLiving a long life; influenced by genetics, environment, and lifestyle.Learn MoreClose.

“It all starts now,” she says. “If I build the muscles now, I know that when I’m 55, I’ll have less risk of developing osteoporosis, or any of these other issues.”

Ayed’s commitment to a headstart extends beyond her entrepreneurial pursuits: She’s devoted to morning meditation, and is committed to daily fitness practices. That includes lifts one day, sprints the next, with yoga and spirit-boosting dance classes sprinkled in — all of which she hopes will add up to a longer, stronger life.

The young founder will see how those small steps are helping her progress this November at the Super Age Games, where Ayed will be a Founding Athlete.

Combining the Wisdom of Her Elders with Up-to-Date Science

Ayed’s inspiration for her healthy aging practices didn’t start in her current, optimization-obsessed world of Silicon Valley, but from her childhood home in Tunisia, where her grandfather owned an olive farm.

“He’s 80 years old, and he’s still working and traveling the world. He has not stopped living life,” she says. 

The lesson she’s learned from him is that quick fixes won’t lead to long-lasting results. “To reach that healthspan, you have to do things that compound over time. And it is truly about the consistency of it,” she tells Super Age.

Ayed says she’s choosing activities that compound specifically to counteract the damaging factors that could add up and impact her health — like chronic stress, which is associated with cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, and other diseases. 

“Running a business and being an entrepreneur causes a lot of stress. And that stress is aging you,” she explains. “My non-negotiable is that I sit down as soon as I wake up, and I do 30 minutes of meditation. And then I journal for 5 minutes, and then I go into my day.”

In addition to her daily practices, Ayed’s ancestors also inspired the business at the heart of some of that stress. Her grandfather had decided to sell his olive oil farm, where a young Ayed had watched him take spoonfuls of olive oil each morning. At the time, she was experiencing gastrointestinal distress while working at startups in California.

“I was feeling horrible,” she says. “I think it was a mixture between my digestive system getting used to the food here and the chronic stress.”

She found relief from both — and from the stress of losing her family legacy — by founding Alya. The single-pressed, single-source olive oil shots are high in polyphenols[pol-ee-fee-nawlz]nounPlant compounds that act as antioxidants.Learn MoreClose, plant compounds that have been associated with improvements on biological aging tests. Ayed credits them with calming her digestive issues, one olive oil shot at a time.

The product, Ayed says, is about backing up traditional cultural practices, like a daily spoonful of olive oil, with science: Population studies, like this one from 2023, have found that people who consume more olive oil are 19 percent less likely to die of cardiovascular disease, and 17 percent less likely to die of cancer, when compared to those who got more of their fats from butter or margarine.

The company’s name is also inspired by Ayed’s roots: Alya is her mother’s name.

“The principle of health that she has passed down to me and my brother has truly made a difference in how we approach life,” the younger Ayed says of her 52-year-old yoga teacher mother. “Earlier this year, we went to Peru together and climbed Macchu Picchu… and it was so amazing seeing her at her age just accomplishing things. It not only inspires me to continue improving my health, but it also inspires me to go even beyond, and say, ‘how far can I go?’”

Contributing to Women’s Aging Science at the Super Age Games

Part of seeing how far she can go includes challenging herself with the eight trials at November’s Super Age Games. One aspect of being a Founding Athlete that excites her, she says, is adding to health and aging science by participating.

“We need more women, because we don’t [have the same number of studies],” she says. Only about 6 percent of sports science studies are conducted on women alone. “So we don’t know what’s healthy or not for women.”

The Games are not the only challenge she’s currently chasing: As part of her daily workouts, Ayed is trying to complete her first unassisted pullup, which she hopes will help improve her grip strength[grip strength]nounA key marker of strength and predictor of longevity.Learn MoreClose for the Super Age trial. And she’s training to build towards a Hyrox race next year, too.

To do so, she’s keeping things simple — compounding little wins, and heeding lessons she’s learned from her past that she hopes to take into future impacts on her healthspan.

“That’s what my grandpa was, and is, living… you don’t have to add tons of protocols and be complex,” she says. “You don’t have to overcomplicate things.”

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