Older Bolder Life

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The Older Bolder Life

New Coaching Slots Open Today

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To celebrate the 1st day of February we’ve decided to open up at least 2 new coaching slots (perhaps 3); we typically run full with a waiting list and an email went out this morning to those on the waiting list as well.

Here’s a description of coaching options, and as always, I’m happy to offer a free, no-cost, no-obligation call up to 30 minutes in length to answer any questions you might have and give us both a chance to see if an intensive program is the best fit for your needs.

By the way, if you’re coming over from ChiWulff.com, use the link here for your discount offer.

Cheers.

A Break for Moving Week

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We’re taking a break around our camp (and home, and office) this next week to complete a move; we’ll be back on our normal schedule and routine starting the week of the 7th.

My lovely wife and I, and our now adult kids as well, have a fair bit of experience moving; most of our moves in fact have been long distance with several involving a literal traverse of the country. Granted, all but one of those was actually done via professional movers, but the life disruption is pretty much the same whether you’re doing it yourself or not.

This move is a much, much shorter one – across our little town on the outskirts of the DFW metroplex, and we’re in full agreement this morning with those who have proffered over the years that a local move is probably harder than a long-distance move, given the temptation to skimp on packing, yet the demands of safely transporting goods from point A to point B are just about the same as a long distance run.

There’s an interesting story behind our move that I’ll share a few weeks down the road, and very shortly we’ll be producing some cooking videos as well.

Everybody have a kickass week and don’t forget to have some fun.

Finding Tasty and Healthy Food on the Road: The 2020 Montana Edition

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My lovely wife and I are just back from a lovely run to some of our favorite country in the world (Wyoming and Montana), visiting daughter Jess in Missoula and son Jake, his wife Kaitlyn, and grandson Brantley in Livingston.

Our primary trip mission was to spend time playing hard with Brantley; two-year olds have a great handle on the world – they’re for the most part content with life, mobile enough to explore everything, inquisitive as hell, and live most of the day happy as can be, enjoying the simplest things in the room, and scarfing up good food when they have a chance.

Though we cooked most meals in family kitchens, we also hit several of our favorite eateries back home in Montana and Wyoming (and even discovered a new winner in a very unlikely place in Amarillo), including Top Hat in downtown Missoula.

Their ginger pork lettuce wraps, above and to the right, are probably the best I’ve ever had outside our own kitchen, and Jess and I both think their Italian pork sausage sauté over spaghetti squash with a house-made cashew lemon herb ricotta (below) is outrageous.

Somehow I missed grabbing a pic of my wife’s pickled avocado topped house-ground burger, but the rice vinegar pickled, barely ripe avocado sent us scrambling for a recipe that afternoon.

If you’re headed to Montana or Wyoming this year, you’ll find the Rib and Chop House in a number of locales; including a fairly new one in Laramie where I sampled their eponymous pork chop above – what a great meal to ease the day’s road burn.

And finally, due to a quirk in our travel schedule, we happened to be near Amarillo one morning around breakfast time and had a killer meal at Girasol out on the far West side (amazingly on the site of a farm we used to bird hunt decades ago as I grew up about a mile from there). Their New Mexico inspired Benedict over cheddar jalapeño biscuits and topped with candied jalapeño bacon above was incredible, as was my wife’s green chile huevos. That dish isn’t Primal or Paleo, but hot damn, it was great.

With a bit of creativity and a healthy dose of common sense, it’s easy to eat well – and healthy – on the road.

Back to regularly scheduled Friday Feast recipes next week.

To Travel or Not to Travel: July 2020 Update

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Many of the questions that seems to be popping up with consistency from clients, friends, and family these days are related to traveling during these most interesting days, days that some in the media are now labeling as the “summer of COVID-19”.

My lovely wife and I happen to be soon to embark on a trip back home to Montana to see family and tend a couple of business issues, a trip that we actually have now rescheduled twice due to travel restrictions that were in place earlier this year.

Friends and readers that have been following along with us might remember that I had to take an unexpected trip to the Pacific Northwest back in mid-May; I wrote about my somewhat unusual travel experiences on that little jaunt here.

Things (related to travel restrictions) have changed quite a bit since mid-May on the ground in most states, though as always there are a few common sense guiding principles to consider before venturing out of the house for an adventure these days.

Of course it goes without saying if you’ve had a recent exposure to a proven COVID-19 case or are ill with typical symptoms yourself (confirmed per testing or not), you shouldn’t be venturing out of the house until an appropriate interval of time has passed and / or you’ve recovered and are feeling well. (Typically I’d leave this to our collective common sense, though I’ve had two people – one client, one family member – argue this past weekend that they shouldn’t be restricted in public despite test-confirmed, minimally symptomatic infections.)

That said, the evidence available clearly suggests that, with appropriate precautions duly noted, interstate travel doesn’t pose undue risks as of today, with several precautionary points noted below. My lovely wife and I have weighed the data, reviewed the pros and cons, and are soon to be on the road this week.

Once again, it goes without saying that it’s worth considering if your plans might potentially expose you to very high risk areas, such as Florida today, or the Texas counties along the border with Mexico (though that is a hornet’s nest of problems for a host of reasons). Your planned activities in a particular location have a tremendous bearing on your risks; consider the difference between traveling to Miami today for a week on the beach versus caring for an elderly parent in their Miami condo for the week. I’d still go to Miami to care for Mom, not for the nightlife on South Beach this week.

Your lowest risk mode of travel at this point in time remains your private vehicle; once again common sense comes to bear here, given your control of those with whom you’re sequestered in tight spaces for prolonged periods of time. The CDC and mass media have recently raised concerns about air travel in particular; see the most recent CDC commentary on air travel here, and here’s a nice summary from the WSJ on the 4th of July covering travel issues.

We’re comfortable enough with flying to consider flying ourselves on this upcoming trip, though have business related stops in Utah and Wyoming scheduled, and couldn’t make flights work, so we’re driving.

When I traveled back in May there were reports of limited fueling opportunities in some parts of the Northern Rockies, though I didn’t find that to be an issue then, and certainly there are not reports of any consistent issues even now during the traditionally peak summer travel window.

As we’ve shared before, we’re preferentially in nutritional ketosis as much as not, and are very comfortable with intermittent fasting, particularly on the road. We’ll be bringing along our favorite road travel foods (here and here), plenty of cold brewed coffee in the cooler, and do plan to dine out with family and friends at restaurants we know and trust to practice all reasonable precautions along the way, though will also plan to cook at homes we’re visiting a bit more than a typical trip as well.

The other challenge to solve on the road is to do everything possible to minimize your risk in over night lodging; it’s fairly easy to search out whether or not your favorite hotelier is using a comprehensive and current set of precautions these days, and don’t be shy about calling and asking questions. The CDC has a set of guidelines published here which are useful, and we will again disinfect all room surfaces we’re likely to touch repeatedly ourselves when in hotels this next week.

Get out there and have some fun this summer, get some sun and breathe the fresh air, all the while respecting the paradigm we find ourselves in (for a while longer). This too shall pass.

15 Week Course in Fund Raising Auction Today

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Several times a year we donate a course to worthy organizations to auction off in a fund-raising effort; one of those courses (a full 15-Week One one One Coaching Coarse) is being auctioned today by the Madison Gallatin Trout Unlimited team out of Bozeman, Montana. These are great opportunities to help nifty organizations accomplish their mission, and most often save some cash for you as well. You’ll need to log in here to bid, and I’d certainly tailor to fit the needs of a small group as well. Cheers.

Where I’ve Been…

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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.

So When Is It Too Late for Something New?

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This past week I’ve had the same discussion with several family members and friends prompted by a little adventure I’ve been involved with for almost a month now.

That discussion has focused on a simple question – when is it too late in life to invest a meaningful allotment of time and effort to learn something new?

The Quick Backstory with a Cajun Twist

I’ve made it no secret here on the Older Bolder Life that I love to create and cook good food; our entire family appreciates good food, possesses above average skills in the kitchen, and enjoy tastes that range pretty far off the beaten path of the typical American palate.

At various times during my medical career, most often at the urging of friends or family, we came close to venturing down the rabbit hole of opening a food pop-up or even a restaurant, though never really dug into the details.

My son and I even ran a catering operation out of our home at one point, at the same time we ran a large equestrian event center and boarding/training facility, cooking for large groups and serving good (most often simple) food in a ranch or even a rodeo type setting. (Our daughter-in-law is particularly supportive of the two of us teaming up for a food related venture at some point in the future.)

Several months ago I got wind of a new eatery opening in our little town north of the DFW metro; it’s being chartered by one of if not the most creative and innovative restaurant group in the region (which is actually saying something these days), and they’ve found a gifted, formally trained, Louisiana-born and raised chef to lead the team.

So About that Learn Something New Angle…

Taking the opportunity to nose around the new project a bit, I decided to take a bit of a gamble and join the growing team in the kitchen, to work all phases of the kitchen, and even taking a deep immersion on front end management as well. Timing was perfect as I’m more or less between a couple of bigger projects in my other work, and the restaurant is quite literally a a few blocks from our home out here in the sticks.

It can be a bit unsettling to step into a new world where everything is new and different than what you’re used to, but that adventure can also be incredibly stimulating and inspiring.

I’m a bit of an oddity of course given my background and work history, though I have to admit I’ve had more fun over the past month that I’ve had in a long time. There’s an amazing amount of new information to learn, and there have been more ‘aha moments’ that I can recount after peeking behind the curtain at larger scale food preparation and management.

When Is It Too Late in Life to Learn Something New?

I’ll forever fall into the “it’s never too late camp” to learn new things; new learning is good for the human brain and psyche on a number of levels, as is rubbing shoulders with new people soon to be friends along the way. The restaurant labor pool tends (of course) to skew younger; I’ve been amazed at how curious and welcoming they’ve been to someone with a few more ‘rings on the tree’.

We’ll talk a little more about this adventure in two to three months…

A Nifty Counter to Genetic Programming Skeptics Flew Overhead This Morning

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The past few weeks I’ve been overflown on my early morning walks by both small and large flocks of geese headed south. We live in a small community north of the DFW metroplex, surrounded by pasture and farmland, and the flocks are resting overnight before flying out about sunrise. The biggest V formation had already passed when it dawned on me to grab a pic this morning…

Why geese here today?

I have a physician acquaintance from long ago who’s recently resurfaced and taken me to task for aligning with much of the ancestral health world in what I’ve shared here on the Older Bolder Life.

Rounding out the story, he’s a no-nonsense internist who happens to spend over half his time working with a bariatric surgery team managing the oft expansive metabolic dysfunction that can sometimes occur post these procedures. We’ve not interacted in some time, and while I’d not define our past interactions as being those of close friends, we were involved in a community service project together years ago.

He’s particularly offended by those of us in the ancestral health and wellness circle who dare to suggest that consuming the Standard American Diet (SAD) and living what for most is a sedentary lifestyle runs counter to our inborn, encoded genetic programing, leading to development of a host of metabolic disorders and functional impairment (insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, T2DM, fatty liver are just a few that come to mind).

His argument appears to focus upon the fact that, at least from where he sits today, human evolution has been for the most part static for generations now, and that disease and metabolic dysfunction today, despite being damned prevalent, is primarily due to behavioral features that (in his view) most people simply can’t overcome; he goes on to argue that one’s “genetic program is simply the cards you were dealt” to play at your birth, and that the concept of using food and nutritional elements to “manipulate” genes is absurd.

He’s also gone on to suggest that man’s innate higher level cognitive abilities give us the power to override the (faulty) genetic programming we’re born with, at least most anyway, and he’s even suggested that the natural world around us offers very few concrete examples of deeply encoded genetic information that impacts the behaviors of creatures around us.

My acquaintance is dead wrong of course, and on a number of points.

The Canada geese honking their way overhead this morning are a beautiful example of deeply embedded programing that compels them to make their annual fall migration south, often covering thousands of miles, around the same time every year.

And, of course, there’s now decades of hard evidence supporting the fact that our genome appears to be encoded to thrive on a food plan that’s quite different from the SAD; my own experience (now having lost nearly 200 pounds!) is a prime example. The challenge of course is finding the optimal food/nutrition and activity/fitness plans to suit your particular physiology and activity demands, though it can be done, and it’s much simpler than you’d think.

(Postscript: My former colleague reluctantly admitted that he’s 70 pounds above his ideal weight range, is on statins, is insulin resistant and teetering on the edge of a formal diagnosis of T2DM, though he insists he’s “fit but fat”.)