Where I’ve Been…

For the past several months I’ve been posting sparingly here on the Older Bolder Life. Late last fall an opportunity arose that I wasn’t counting on – don’t some of the most interesting opportunities in life evolve that way?

It wasn’t my intent to significantly curtail my posting here on the blog, and it’s great to be back in the saddle so to speak now. The story of the last quarter is somewhat interesting from a fitness, health, and performance standpoint, and I’m happy to share at least a quick introduction now.

As it turns out mid-August of last year some new friends were working hard to open a new Cajun-themed restaurant near home; long time readers of the Older Bolder Life know that I’ve shared on a number of occasions my love of cooking. My son and I, encouraged by friends and family over the years, have in fact toyed with the idea of opening our own restaurant from time to time, and now and again I ponder what life would have been like had I pursued a vision (some years back) of training to become a chef.

When an opportunity arose to help my new friends get their operation off the ground, and with the intent of taking a deep dive, behind the scenes, deep immersion into the world of restaurant cooking, I jumped at the chance.

My original intent was to help them out on a part time basis, working 2-3 days per week until they got their operation up and running. I jumped in, trained with the kitchen and fledging front crew for several weeks, and then as construction finished up, we dove headfirst into what became a dizzying kitchen schedule.

Soon my hours accelerated up to 50-60 per week; it was profoundly educational, fun most of the time, and surprisingly physical.

At that point in time, I had been fairly comfortably eating a keto-focused food plan for almost 18 months, typically using a restricted feeding window every day, holding carbs to around 25-30 grams per day, and working out aggressively.

Given the physicality of the new work routine, by late September some interesting challenges arose, induced in part by (in retrospect) at least a tripling of my physical activity output on a daily basis. I’ll address this window of time in more detail in posts down the road, but I began to have genuine trouble completing the rigors of the day without increasing carb and fat consumption (for several reasons I worked hard to keep my protein intake fairly constant) on a consistent basis.

In part related to the physicality of the work, in part to my dietary changes, and no doubt in part due to a bit of increased stress as I fiddled with these unanticipated time demands, generalized inflammation – which had all but resolved for me, both from a symptomatic/clinical and blood chemistry standpoint – flared to the point that inflammatory pain began to consistently impact my ability to comfortably function. My experiment in deep immersion, commercial kitchen education began to yield impacts that limited by function outside the kitchen work space – including curtailing my long-established, and cherished, workout and conditioning routine.

By the end of the fourth quarter it become evident that, despite how much fun on one hand the commercial kitchen was, given the physical and metabolic costs, it was time to get back to my real mission – that being working with folks here at Older Bolder.

As a family we’ve also had an issue that’s demanded an all hands-on deck approach to managing, and while it’s been intense and demanding, the dust has finally settle again.

It’s been fascinating to begin to dial physical over-activity back a bit, focusing on quality in terms of workouts and training, and getting back to the basics in terms of eating optimally, dialing in stretching and conditioning to reach a new set of goals for 2020, resting well, and enjoying all that life has to offer.

More to come.