Older Bolder Life

Stronger | Leaner | Sharper | Longer - From Older Bolder Fitness

Enjoy the 4th Today

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To all of our friends following along on the Older Bolder Life, we wish you and yours a happy, safe, fun, and thoughtful 4th of July this year.

Growing up in Texas and raising our own family in Montana and the West, the 4th of July very often meant rodeos (often as a spectator and occasionally as a participant), barbecues, and beautiful fireworks displays under big skies.

The image above was taken by our own horsewoman and professional photojournalist daughter Jess (of Jess McGlothlin Media) at a Montana rodeo a few years back… (see more of her work at the link above).

Keeping Track: The Power of Charting Your Progress

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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.

the Older Bolder Life Salsa Monday: Grilled Jalapeño, Onion, and Pepita Salsa

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Here’s a nifty salsa that will fit right into your summer grilling routine – a Grilled Jalapeño, Onion, and Pepita Salsa.

Grilled onions are a favorite side around our kitchen, they’re crazy simple to do – just quarter a medium to large sized red, white, or yellow onion through the root end (it keeps the onion layers together), slather with your favorite oil (olive or avocado for us), douse with a generous sprinkle of good salt and fresh ground pepper, and throw em on the grill.

This salsa highlights the onion’s grilled sweetness, and along with the spice of the jalapeños, the crunch of the pepitas, and the tart burst from the lime juice, this salsa is a wonderful accompaniment to any protein hot off the grill.

It’ll hold for a day in the fridge, though we think it’s best eaten soon after stirring it together (the pepitas are still crunchy).

2 quarters of medium white onion, cut through the root end
1 quarter of medium red onion, cut through the root end
3-4 jalapeños
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1/3 cup roasted pepitas, chopped
1/4 cup good olive or avocado oil
3 to 4 tbsp fresh lime juice
Good salt to taste

Grill the onions and jalapeños until blistered, let cool. (If you’re not firing the grill for another reason, you can also blister in cast iron skillet over medium high heat, or directly over the flame of a gas burner).

Finely chopped the onion and stemmed and seeded jalapeños, then combine with the cilantro, pepitas, oil of choice, lime juice, and salt in a small serving bowl.

This will hold in the fridge for up to a day, but as it sits the pepitas soften and their flavor begins to dampen a bit. Serve at room temp.

Enjoy.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Recipes, and More 29 June 2019

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Longevity and Aging News From the Week

Heart disease making a comeback in the United States – how’s that Standard American Diet working out for the masses these days?
Anticholinergic drugs and dementia risk.
Missing link in Alzheimer’s identified?

Still working at 99 – tips on aging well.
A brutal takedown on the Wash Post’s elderly “rational suicide”.
Divorce rates increasing for those over 45.

Supplement and Medication News From the Week

Vitamin D supplements and heart disease: no decrease in risk with use?
New drug to boost women’s sex drive approved.
Newer generation antidepressants and suicide risk. The data doesn’t bode well…

New Twist on the Gut Biome: Can Gut Bugs You a Better Runner?

The article from the lay literature suggesting a tie between gut bugs and running success.
The study the above article is based on.

Food, Glorious Food

Might want to rethink that salmon order at your favorite restaurant.

Ancho Lemongrass Chile Oil
Smokey Coffee Chipotle Rub

The Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Smokey Chipotle Coffee Rub

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As I’ve shared in many of our recipes over the past year, we’re enthusiastic fans of big flavors around our camp, and have rarely come across a spice rub we didn’t enjoy.

For years now we’ve played with a variety of rubs (and sauces & marinades) featuring coffee in one form or another, and this Smokey Chipotle Coffee Rub has come to be our very favorite coffee based rub for most proteins – it’s absolutely wonderful on beef and pork.

As with most spice mixtures, using the freshest spices you can get your hands on yields the best results, as does grinding the coffee beans just before use (if you’re geared to do so). Chipotle peppers bring such a nifty smokey flavor to the flavor game here and it plays incredibly well with the coffee notes; using a good smoked paprika adds another layer of flavor as well.

As we’ve become Primal/Paleo aligned in 99% of our cooking, I’ve taken to leaving the brown sugar out or cutting it down, though both my wife and can taste the difference, and frankly you can count us among the crowd that considers a whisp of sugar in a marinade or rub a reasonable indulgence now and again.

Try this one using the core five spices at least once, and experiment with the optional flavors listed as well, or throw your favorites into the mix next time around. I used this on a couple of grass-fed New York strips last weekend….

2 parts dark roast or espresso coffee, finely ground
2 parts fresh chipotle chile powder
2 parts kosher salt
1 part ground coriander
1 part good paprika (try a smoked paprika here too)

Optional
1 part brown sugar
1/2 part freshly ground black pepper
1/2 part garlic power/granulated garlic
1/2 part powdered ginger

Combine the 5 core ingredients (the first in the list) along with whatever optional ingredients you’d like to throw in the mix. Stir to mix well.

Rub your protein generously with the rub and let rest for at least an hour (in the fridge if longer).

Grill/roast/smoke per your routine; the NY strips I did this past weekend were some of the best steaks we’ve done in a long time – one hour at 129 in the sous vide followed by a quick sear over hardwood charcoal. Hot damn.

Enjoy.

Five Thoughts on Thirty-Eight Years of Marriage

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Today my lovely wife and I have been married for thirty-eight years; while it’s not in any way a record setting accomplishment, long lasting marriages can at times seem to be something of an anomaly these days.

We still look back (most days, anyway) at our wedding day with smiles as big as they were walking down the aisle, and that’s a near vintage photograph below of us sailing on a family member’s boat in Texas the day after we were engaged.

Marriage rates overall in the country have remained fairly stable over the past couple of decades, with roughly half of the population married, though that’s down almost 8% since 1990. As you’d expect, marriage (and divorce) rates vary somewhat impressively by state, and divorces are occurring less for those under 45, but rates are increasing for those older.

We’d never try to sell ourselves as the perfect marriage model to follow, though we count ourselves among the fortunate who’ve had a fulfilling and, for the overwhelmingly large part of the run, fun journey together. Thinking about our upcoming anniversary a few days ago, these five points came to mind.

Marriage is A Long Game. Once the honeymoon is over, and it does eventually come to an end, building a life together is a venture measured in months and years, not days and weeks. Particularly in this day where people seem to have expectations that hard work isn’t needed and we all deserve instant success – no matter what you’re doing – when some of the inevitable bumps in the marriage road pop up, there’s panic in the air.

I get that not all marriages are meant to be, but those marriages that have inspired us the most over the years have weathered some storms, suffered their share of growing and maturing pains, and eventually brought results that were and are far greater than the sum of the parts at their beginning.

Time, patience, and plenty of relational elbow grease can often combine to form a magical outcome; marriage, for most, is a long game.

Make Plans, But Be Ready for New Opportunities. My wife and I met midway through our college years, and as well fell in love envisioned living seventy years behind a white picket fence somewhere, raising a family, and building a life with old friends over time.

Turns out, we found we really enjoyed new communities, living and learning about different parts of the country, meeting new people and developing new circles of relationships as we moved a few times during my medical career. New opportunities can be rejuvenating, and there are always new lessons to be learned. Some of our best times have come when we accepted a new challenge when opportunity called.

Adopt the “Hey, We Can Do This” Approach. One of the most profound adventures we undertook as a couple started one day leaving a venue, stopping at the end of the drive, seeing a for sale sign blown down in a ditch, and saying “hey, we can do this”. That led to purchasing and repositioning a small horse farm and equestrian event center in Kalispell, Montana (yep, it sounds crazy, but ended up being one of the very best real-life business lab experiences for our entire family).

It has become something of a family mantra over the years, has seen us through a number of ventures, not all home runs in terms of worldly success and contribution to the family bottom-line, but working side by side toward common goals can be extraordinarily rewarding, and strengthen relationships in ways you never imagined possible.

Learn to Ignore Three Things. During our years growing up in Texas people used to talk about the pressures to “keep up with the Jones’”, referring of course to being envious of things your “neighbors” had – possessions, position, etc. and feeling angst (or worse) about your perceived inferiority.

One of the best things we learned early on was to absolutely ignore what the Jones’ were driving, wearing, or the new house they were building. Contentment and quality of life don’t have much at all to do with outward trappings; chasing material things almost always disappoints, as there’s always someone with a more expensive trinket coming into view.

And speaking of ignoring, one of the most valuable things a mentor taught us was to ignore what the masses were chasing and what’s popular (the context was investing, but the lesson is almost universal); the leaders are typically so far out in front, the rest of the herd can’t even see their dust as they chase them across the plain. Hanging out with the leaders and innovators is much more interesting (and fun) and you eat much less dust that way.

Finally, we learned the hard way to ignore most people who seem to be hell bent on telling us how to live our lives, and yet can’t manage their own very well. You know the type I’m talking about, and I’ll venture you have one or two in your own family to contend with.

Cultivate Gratitude and a Spiritual Practice. Medical as well as the health and wellness literature presents study after study suggesting that those who successfully cultivate a spiritual practice as well as a genuine sense of gratitude are, to perhaps state it over-simply, healthier and happier.

Finding a spiritual practice that resonates with you and yours is the challenge, if you’re so inclined, though for us, it has been an essential, and we cannot imagine life without it.

The health and wellness benefits of perceiving and expressing gratitude have also been well documented, and we’ll be delving deeper into the science and practice of gratitude here on OBL in the next few weeks.

Cheers to all you long-married folks out there, and may your next decade be your best.

Kitchen Gear Favorites: Our Peugeot Bresil Manual Coffee Mill

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I’ve shared many times before here on the Older Bolder Life that we really enjoy good coffee, particularly good cold brew coffee that we make at home. During the warm-weather seasons here in North Texas (roughly 9 months of the year plus) we go through a gallon of cold brew concentrate a week (give or take a day or two) pretty consistently.

I start my daily routine with a pre-workout cold brew with quality cream and a half scoop of collagen powder, before jumping right into my first otherwise fasted workout of the day (either a 45-60 minute walk at 4 mph pace, or a shorter walk + sprints). The day just doesn’t seem primed for action without that coffee…

We’ve used a host of different tools to grind fresh beans for hot and cold brewed coffee over the years, but starting last December we’ve been using the Peugeot Bresil Manual Coffee Mill shown above. French-made, it’s a delight to use, slow-grinding fresh beans to present their optimal flavors – the mill adjusts easily with a shaft mounted adjustment wheel. Using the mill is a step back in time, and frankly a pretty good workout when grinding a pound of beans for a cold brew run (about twenty minutes if you’re asking).

Kitchen gear should of course be efficient, well-designed, and durable; this mill is all those things and a work of art to boot. I’ve had a hoard of questions roll through lately about our favorite kitchen gear we use every day, and will be sharing now and again what works well for us; as it’s cold coffee season, this mill was a great place to start.

And as a point of disclosure – this isn’t a paid, cloaked advertising post; we reviewed coffee mills and paid hard-earned cash for this piece of kitchen gear back in December of last year.

A Thoughtful Reminder About Using Weight As a (Primary) Measure of Health

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Family physician Yoni Freedhoff, MD (Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine, University of Ottawa; Medical Director, Bariatric Medical Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) recently penned a worthy read over on MedScape – Scaling Back on Weight as a Measure of Patient Health. (Note – free account required to read the full article).

From the article –

…When I was a medical student in the 1990s, I wasn’t taught how to use a scale, and I’m betting that the same is true for most medical students today. Don’t get me wrong; it’s not that I think scales are complicated pieces of equipment, but after exclusively practicing obesity medicine for the past 15 years, I do think that their proper use is worth discussing.

Scales do measure the gravitational pull of Earth at a given moment in time. Scales don’t measure the presence or absence of health, nor do they measure lifestyle or effort. And for patients, it’s useful to note that scales don’t measure happiness, success, or self-worth, either…

He goes on to remind that while weight is without question a significant risk factor for a plethora of medical conditions, particularly at the extremes of the body weight curve, weight alone is not a guarantee that any or all of these conditions will occur. He also reminds that inferring health status from body weight alone is often a fool’s errand, and that scales don’t measure lifestyle.

My specific intent in mentioning the article is two-fold. One, to remind us all that the principle objective of improving our nutrition and fitness is to optimize our health and ability to function in life, not necessarily attaining some (often arbitrarily derived) number on a scale that conforms to our (real or not) body image.

And two, it’s always interesting to read responses to opinion articles that are targeted toward a physician audience and “peek behind the curtain” if you will at their responses. I for one think it’s a good thing conventional medicine is beginning to talk in earnest (at least part of the time) about lifestyle influences on health…