Older Bolder Fitness (and our Older Bolder Life blog) is a health and wellness coaching program designed and run principally by me, Mark McGlothlin, a physician who chose to retire early from active medical practice (over a decade ago) to pursue other business interests.
The genesis for Older Bolder Fitness was simple – a little over two years ago I embarked on a life-changing journey to recapture my personal health, dropping (as of February 2019) just shy of 170 pounds, rebuilding lean muscle mass, resolving my metabolic syndrome, healing a damaged gut, and vastly improving my overall function and outlook on life.
As my body, mindset, and general approach to life began to change, friends and family took note and began to poke and prod, asking what in the world I was doing to reclaim my health. They also asked what “hacks or cheats” I was using, how was I rebuilding muscle at 58, and why in the world was my mood so much better?
Along the way I found rekindled a deeply rooted desire to help people live better lives; it was that very (yep, I know it sounds corny) desire that sparked my interest in medicine in the first place – now nearly thirty-five years ago. And quite candidly, after chewing through the options, approaching this new mission via a health and wellness coaching platform was much more attractive than returning to a conventional medical practice.
My lovely wife and I live in a small town just north of the sprawling Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, with a long history in the Northern Rockies (mainly Montana), and have children (and a grandchild!) living in Montana today, though we interact with clients and readers around the world on very nearly a daily basis.
Why “Older Bolder”?
There’s a great deal of health and fitness world attention focused on the lycra-clad, impressively-sculpted, less than 10% body fat women and men populating gyms and Instagram these days. However, for most of us, often starting somewhere around our thirtieth birthday, the tyranny of the urgent in our busy daily lives, coupled with eating too much of the wrong foods at the wrong times, causes us to pack on the pounds, atrophy muscle, and generally decondition. (Quite honestly, a fair number of folks under thirty are heavier, weaker, slower, and sadder than ever before in American history.)
I wanted to start a coaching program that embraced those of us who aren’t professional athletes and who are unlikely to grace the cover of the latest fitness magazines or attract 20,000 social media followers clamoring after our latest health and fitness secret sauce.
I have a particular interest in those who have lost hope in being able to regain their fitness and function; I had lost hope myself at one point, and I know how crushing, sad, and frustrating that can be.
Bottom line – your functional and metabolic fitness have very little if anything to do with your chronologic age; it’s NEVER too late to get started.
What Do We Do at Older Bolder Fitness?
The heart of our approach is our coaching program; we offer one-on-one and group coaching with our standard intensive program being 15 weeks. I truly love doing face to face coaching (limited to the DFW metro area currently), though with today’s digital communication tools it’s just as easy to speak to someone across the country or the globe.
We also take on special coaching projects (for example, covering the ins and outs of nutritional ketosis), conduct weekend or several day teaching packages/retreats for groups, have a 30-day quick start program, and offer one time consultations to help you brainstorm your way around a stall or a particularly challenging issue you’re wrestling with. Additionally I do a fair number of cooking demonstrations at various venues, including in homes for families and groups.
Here’s more information about Mark in a question and answer format.
We also believe it’s vitally important to give back – here’s more information about our 3% for 3 program, donating the first three percent of our company’s gross income to three organizations every year.
