Leve Så Vel: The Story Behind Live So Well

What does it actually mean to live well?

I’ve been thinking about that question a lot lately. Maybe because I’m getting older. Maybe because I have grandchildren now. Or maybe because after nearly three decades as a nurse, I’ve seen enough to know that simply adding more years to our lives isn’t really the whole goal.

I want those years to be lived — with energy, purpose, people I love, and enough health to participate fully in my own life.

And the funny thing is, this idea didn’t start with my nursing career, functional medicine, or even my own health journey.

It started with my grandmother.

One Little Norwegian Phrase

My grandmother was Norwegian, and she would often say, “Leve så vel.”

It means “live so well.”

She lived to be 98 years old, which is remarkable in itself. But when I think about Grandma, the number 98 isn’t really what stands out to me. I remember how she lived those years.

I remember her laugh. It was one of those laughs that seemed to reach all the way down to her soul. She was funny and positive, and she had a deep trust that God would take care of things even when life wasn’t easy.

And she prayed.

Oh, did she pray.

If something was going on in my life, I wanted it on Grandma’s prayer list! She was a true prayer warrior, passionate about Jesus and about sharing Him with others. Her faith wasn’t simply something she talked about. It was woven into the way she lived.

So were family, food, and laughter.

Around Grandma’s Table

Grandma loved sharing a meal and laughing around the table. And during the holidays, that table was filled with Norwegian baking and traditions — lefse, sandbakkels, fattigmann, rosettes, sweet soup, and more.

She was the best lefse roller I knew.

She could roll that dough impossibly thin and round like it was nothing. The rest of us might produce something that looked less like lefse and more like an unidentified country on a map, but Grandma knew what she was doing. 😄

What I appreciate even more now is that she didn’t just make those foods for us. She made sure the traditions would continue through us.

Once we were married, Grandma gave each of us grandchildren our own lefse griddle and rolling pin. At the time, it was a gift. Looking back, I see it as something much more.

She was passing down a piece of herself.

Today, when I pull out that griddle and rolling pin, I’m not simply making lefse. I’m continuing something she started. There’s family history mixed into that flour and potatoes. There are memories of holidays, laughter, faith, and people gathered around a table.

That’s part of living well, too.

A Life Fully Lived

Grandma wasn’t one to sit around waiting for life to happen, either. She walked more than 45 minutes a day well into her 80s. She just kept moving.

Looking back, though, what strikes me isn’t simply that she exercised. It’s that she stayed engaged in her life.

She moved. She laughed. She prayed. She gathered people around the table. She served. She loved people. She trusted God.

And she kept doing those things for a very long time.

That is the picture I carry with me when I think about what it means to live so well. It isn’t a picture of perfection or a flawless health routine. It’s a picture of a life fully lived.

Interestingly, research is beginning to put numbers around something Grandma seemed to understand intuitively. A recent study of older adults found that those with healthier lifestyle habits weren’t just more likely to live longer — they experienced more years of life free from disability and dementia. Researchers call this healthspan: the years we get to live with our health and independence intact.

I love that idea because longevity isn’t only about adding years to our lives. It’s about supporting our bodies so we can keep living well within those years.

And that distinction matters to me more and more.

Health Is Not the Finish Line

I think sometimes we accidentally make health the destination.

We chase the number on the scale, the A1c, the perfect diet, the exercise streak, the supplement routine, or the sleep score. Those things can give us useful information, and as a functional medicine nurse, I certainly care about them.

But I don’t want to spend the rest of my life thinking about my blood sugars.

I want healthy blood sugars to help give me the energy and health to live my life.

I want to play with my grandchildren, work in my garden, travel with my husband, keep learning, and keep doing work that matters to me. I want to laugh around the table, make memories, be present, and continue showing up for the people and purpose God has placed in my life.

Health isn’t the life. It’s one of the things that helps us participate in it.

That changes the way I think about taking care of myself.

Instead of health being something else to achieve, perfect, track, or check off the list, it becomes a way of caring for the life I’ve been given.

What Does Living Well Look Like for You?

A lot of health conversations begin with questions like: What should I eat? How much should I exercise? What should my numbers be?

Those can be important questions. But I think there’s another one worth asking first:

What does living well look like for me?

Because the answer gives all those other choices some meaning.

Maybe living well means having the energy to get on the floor with your grandkids — and get back up again. 😄 Maybe it’s traveling, working in your garden, volunteering, hiking, cooking for people you love, or continuing work that gives you purpose.

Maybe it’s having enough energy to say yes when someone you love asks you to do something. Maybe it’s being clear-headed enough to be present in a conversation instead of fighting brain fog and exhaustion. Or maybe, right now, living well simply means waking up and feeling like yourself again.

That’s the part I don’t want us to lose.

We aren’t taking care of ourselves just to collect good numbers. We’re taking care of ourselves so we can keep living.

And living well for me may not look exactly like living well for you. Your body is different. Your life is different. Your responsibilities are different. The people you love and the things that give your life meaning are different.

Your health doesn’t need to look like somebody else’s highlight reel. You don’t have to eat exactly what they eat, exercise exactly the way they exercise, follow their morning routine, or buy the 27 supplements currently sitting on their kitchen counter. 😄

The goal isn’t to become really good at somebody else’s version of healthy.

It’s to learn how to care for your health in a way that supports the life you’re actually living.

The Legacy of Living Well

I’m not sure there’s one perfect definition of what it means to live well. But I know it’s bigger than living a long time, and it’s bigger than avoiding disease.

For me, it means caring for the life God has given me. It means having the health and energy to love people well, use my gifts, notice the good things, keep growing, laugh deeply, pray faithfully, gather around the table, and be present for ordinary Tuesday afternoons — not just the big milestones.

And hopefully, someday, it means leaving something good behind in the people who knew me.

Just like my grandmother did for me.

She couldn’t have known that one little Norwegian phrase would eventually become the name of her granddaughter’s business. She probably didn’t imagine that I’d still be pulling out that lefse griddle and rolling pin alongside my parents, my children and their spouses and thinking about her all these years later.

But that’s the beautiful thing about a life lived well.

It has a way of reaching farther than we realize.

A laugh. A prayer. A recipe. A rolling pin. A deep faith. A way of living life.

All these years later, Grandma is still teaching me.

And maybe that’s the kind of longevity worth pursuing — not simply more years, but more life in those years.

So I’ll leave you with the question I’ve been asking myself:

What does it mean for you to live so well?

Not according to Instagram. Not according to a number on the scale. Not according to what everyone else is doing.

For you. In this season. With the people you love and the life God has given you.

Maybe that’s where taking care of our health should begin.

Leve så vel. 💛

Live so well.

Erin Palmer, RN, MS, BCFMNS
Functional Medicine Nurse & Founder of Live So Well

Research referenced

Association of Combined Lifestyle Behaviors With Healthspan in Older Adults. The study found that a favorable lifestyle was associated with longer disability- and dementia-free survival and approximately a 10% gain in years of healthspan.

Robb C, Carr PR, Ball J, Polekhina G, Clayton-Chubb D, George ES, Fitzpatrick J, Beilin LJ, Newman AB, Owen A, Orchard SG, Tran C, Ryan J, McNeil JJ. Association of Combined Lifestyle Behaviors With Healthspan in Older Adults. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2026 Jun;74(6):1614-1625. doi: 10.1111/jgs.70426. Epub 2026 May 7. PMID: 42095703; PMCID: PMC13266429.