There’s tremendous value in getting outside, pushing yourself to see, touch, and learn new things, stretching your legs, hiking and sweating, and taking time to soak up the world around us. You don’t have to head to Alaska to do it, but perhaps a trip to Kodiak is one for the bucket list.
The Older Bolder Life
Keeping Track: The Power of Charting Your Progress
At the risk of sounding perhaps a little too obsessive, and before you ridicule my analogue handwritten tracking forms, hear me out.
For friends, family, and clients who have a long path to travel to restore their health and fitness, just as I personally have done, I consistently suggest they keep a fitness journal of some sort to track their progress along the way.
There are host of great digital tools available today, and being somewhat of a techie myself, I’ve played with a bunch of them, though I still track my weekly overall fitness plan by hand, as well as almost all of my resistance workouts in a fairly detailed manner. Personally, I hate jumping on and off my phone in the gym when lifting – it’s damned distracting – and I like seeing the readily-tangible record of week to week and month to month progress laid out before me when heading into my next resistance session.
For what it’s worth, I set out one year and nine months ago to seriously rebuild my overall muscle mass and strength; back then a purely wild-assed guess was that it would take two years of consistent, diligent resistance work to rebuild a meaningful strength base. The first few cycles (basically 13 weeks or a quarter year each) didn’t seem to yield much in terms of body composition results, though my written record documents consistent and notable progress in my training routine.
The last three cycles have yielded consistent, and notable, results, and I’m genuinely looking forward to starting my eighth and final 13-week cycle of this particular routine next week before moving on to something else mid-fall.
Of course it’s not an absolute essential you track your fitness routine (digitally or in whatever manner floats your boat), though it can be a wonderful source of encouragement, reinforcement, and guide you as you get stronger, faster, leaner, and sharper along the way.
Three Reasons You Need to Camp this Summer
We’ve spent the past week and change with our daughter in Missoula (Montana) and son, daughter-in-law, and new grandson Brantley in Livingston (Montana); any time away from the routine is restorative, and it’s even better when you’re having fun every day.
As was the case during their childhood and early adult years, both of our offspring and their families are avid outdoorsmen and women, spending extensive time outdoors year round (that’s saying something given the winter that Montana has experienced this year), fly fishing, hiking, camping, river running, hunting, skiing, backpacking and more.
Given the fact they have an 11-month old in tow these days (watching the tent pitching with interest to the right), outings in Livingston have been fairly close to home this winter and early spring, though they’re gearing up to begin a new cycle of toddler-friendly car camping and establishing backcountry basecamps, including purchase of a new Big Agnes Flying Diamond 8 tent, seen above during its test pitch in the backyard this weekend.
As a family both of our children made their first multiday camping trips before their second birthday, as well as floating their first longer float trips in a drift boat on the Snake River in Wyoming. Getting kids outside takes some deeper planning, creative adjustments in their routine, and perhaps some specialized gear to keep them comfortable and safe, but it’s unquestionably worth the additional effort.
I’m a huge proponent of everybody spending time outdoors regardless of their age and would encourage you to spend a few days camping this year too; here are three simple reasons we’ve found multiday camping excursions so useful as a family.
Multiday Camping Excursions are Immersive
Day hikes and picnics are great, but there’s truly nothing like spending a few days camped in the great outdoors. So few children (and adults for that matter) spend a night outdoors these days, under a big, dark sky showing off the astounding brightness and colors of the Milky Way, hearing the night sounds, and rising with the sun as the summer songbirds greet the sunrise in full song.
Everybody should spend a few nights every season sitting around a blazing campfire and watching the mystery of fire turn forest logs into glowing coals; even better cooking a meal over fire is an experience few enjoy these days.
Lives most lead today are too routine, too insulated, too groomed, and too climate-controlled; deep immersion in the natural world awakens your senses and reconnects your physiology to more primal, natural rhythms. Getting your hands dirty, preparing and eating foods around a campfire, hiking, fishing, and throwing rocks in the creek are good for you – and just damned fun.
Multiday Camping Excursions Build Relationships
Some of the most formative relational time we ever spent with our kids was (and still is) when we were away from the routine of normal life and spending time outdoors camping, hiking, or on the rivers of the West. Even travel to and from treasured destinations, anticipating upcoming adventure or remembering great times spent on the trip, provided ample opportunities to spend undistracted time together, and sort through the occasional challenge along the way.
Multiday Camping Excursions Drive a Deeper Digital Disconnect
Without again overstating an obvious bias of mine, multiday camping/outdoor excursions are a wonderful way to digitally disconnect. We always made a point of heading out to places that were off the grid, much easier to do in Montana and Wyoming than many regions of the country, and relished time away from computers and off phones, with my ever-present pager left on the desk at home.
Conversation can truly be an art form and needs cultivation and practice; as does the ability to think deeply and with focus; the digital world we all spend so much time distracted by discourages both. Exercising those cognitive muscles makes them strong, supple, and responsive.
Get out there this summer.
Pardon the Brief Interruption This Week
Pardon the brief interruption in our posting this week; my principle computer failed without warning first thing Monday and it’s been a bit of a scramble to replace and restore all the functionality it contained. Back to regular programming shortly.
Telling My Own Story Here at Older Bolder
Finishing a final bit of digital housekeeping on our sites, I’ve finally posted today a page of answers to the most common questions that come in about me, my personal health transformation, and my work as a physician (and later in the private sector).
While some might argue a bit lengthy for the web, I’ve taken the opportunity to share a little about my education, medical training, and work history, but probably more importantly about my own (fairly dramatic) health and life changes over the past three years, why healthy and wellness coaching is so critical to my family and I right now, and a few things in the health and wellness arena we value and appreciate.
For many of us, our hopes of becoming an Olympic sprinter, professional athlete, or highly-paid supermodel have past, though I’d argue to my last day that every one on the planet can pursue thoughtful, practical, and attainable steps to improve their health, and live happier, more active, and more functional lives today.
The challenge, of course, is customizing your approach to reclaiming your life to best fit your physiology (or metabolism if you’d prefer) and lifestyle as it is today, recognizing that as your health improves and your metabolism changes, your approach to nutrition, fitness, management of sleep and stress, and many other things will change over time.
Git ‘er done, and back to regular programming tomorrow.
Giving Back: Our 3% for 3 Pledge
One more bit of ‘housekeeping’ before we get back to regularly scheduled programming here on the blog -please indulge me a moment to share about our 3% for 3 pledge.
To regularly partake of any form of news these days, even if briefly, will expose you to an avalanche of voices working very hard to convince you the world is going to hell in a hand-basket. To be fair, in many respects it probably is, and we all need to be very intentional and thoughtful about how we consume the news of the day, and more importantly, how we let it impact our daily lives.
Virtually absent from the news feeds of the day are stories of people and organizations quietly going about their missions of helping their fellow man, often at great sacrifice and with profound impact. And when’s the last time you heard or read a story from one of the big ‘news brokers’ about the powerful influences and even health benefits that gratitude, service, and thankfulness can have on your life?
Our Older Bolder 3% for 3 Pledge
We decided from the very beginning to donate 3% of our gross (pre-tax) business income here at Older Bolder Fitness to three different organizations a year who are working to do great things for people.
There are dozens and dozens of wonderful organizations working often in relative obscurity out there today, though I must admit our three organizations this year all have to do with something we’re crazy about – fly fishing.
Reel Recovery and Casting for Recovery help men and women battling cancer reconnect with the natural world through the healing power of fly fishing and the natural world, offering no-cost, immersive experiences with volunteers who teach, guide, and encourage along the way. Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing has a similar mission, though serves men and women veterans of all ages.
We’d encourage you to give a bit of yourself, and your resources, to a group (or groups) you’re inspired by. Gratitude is good for you.
So What Do You Mean “Older Bolder”?
When talking to curious strangers about what we’re doing here at Older Bolder Fitness, often one of the first questions they ask has to do with our name, and what do we mean by the “Older” in particular?
They’re often surprised by my answer in two parts…
One, It’s Not Chronology, It’s Physiology
Just as you can’t judge a book by it’s cover (or you shouldn’t anyway), you can’t assume a person’s health and metabolic status simply by their calendar age. I was astounded all through my years in practice by this very principle, and am even more so today.
Year after year I’d run into both men and women in their sixth, seventh, eighth, and later decades who were fit, trim, astoundingly active, functionally engaged with their families, often still working, with bright eyes, engaging personalities, sharp wits, and curious about the world around them.
Granted, you might argue they’re winners in life’s genetic lottery, which indeed might have played a role, but invariably they had varied interests, wider social circles, ate wisely, and were quite active. Most the circle of folks that I’m referencing from my own experience were also avid skiers, hikers, cyclists, runners, fly fishers, or hunters (we lived and worked in mountain and recreation towns for years in the Northern Rockies).
Conversely, there were also impressive numbers of patients in their late 20s and early 30s, morbidly obese, metabolically impaired, often depressed, discouraged, and disconnected. Physiologically, many looked as if they were in their late 60s, and they suffered from pathologies you’d expect to see in patients decades older (spine and joint degenerative changes, dermal aging, true metabolic syndrome issues, and much more).
It’s not chronology, it’s physiology.
And Two, There’s No Age Limit on Improving Your Life
Our second intent with using the name Older Bolder Fitness was to encourage people that there is absolutely no age limit on improving your life via healthy, thoughtful nutrition, age-appropriate and targeted exercise, moving more, sleeping better, and challenging your mind. Habits may be harder to break, and your response curve may be slower than you’d like, but it’s never too late.
I’m personally looking at my 60th birthday on the calendar this year, and will likely have dropped somewhere between 180 and 200 pounds from my peak by then, and have reconditioned to the point I was somewhere back in my high school and college athlete years. Actually, I’m in better physical shape today.
Our goal is to help you be stronger, leaner, sharper, and live longer.
It can be done.
An Official Welcome to Older Bolder Fitness
I just wanted to take a moment to post an official welcome to our newly-launched Older Bolder Fitness site and of course our blog here at Older Bolder Life.
We’ve been building content here on the blog for several months now, as we’ve been developing our client base along the way, and are ready to up our game and broaden our reach to serve more people.
Welcome if you’re a new reader, and please let me know what questions you have that we might help with.
It’s time to get stronger, leaner, and sharper, and gear up to live longer and prosper.
See you at the gym and on the trails…
