Older Bolder Life

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

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Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Recipes, and More 5 February 2020

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This week I’ve been working on a project (to be shared a few weeks down the road) involving accumulating data documenting the benefits of exercise and maintaining a durable, active level of personal fitness as we age; here’s a smattering of interesting articles that I’ve come across lately…

Training for a marathon promotes vascular health.
Related, turn back (physiologic) time with a marathon.

Fasting promotes exercise? (Hello ghrelin)

Over 60 50 40 30? Fitness matters.

Cardio preserves gray matter?

Exercise as medicine in chronic disease.

Exercise and targeted weight loss.
Here’s one of the studies referenced above.

Strategies for successful weight loss maintenance.

Podcast Worth Your Time

Better time management from NBT and Simon Marshall PhD

Food, Glorious Food

A few interesting insights about coffee you might appreciate.

Old Bay’s new hot sauce release has sure been popular.

Grilled Greek marinated flank steak (and you’ll want to make this tzatziki sauce too).

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Recipes, and More 23 November 2019

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My lovely wife and I have been on the road in New Mexico for the past few days; here’s a somewhat abbreviated list of a few things that caught my eye and ear earlier this week…

Three Interesting Nutritional Ketosis Reads

Rethinking fiber requirements and colon health in NK.
Keto improved cognitive function in older HIV+ adults.
Good news for you coffee + keto fans.

Other Older Bolder Reads of Interest This Week

At first glance, this study looks bad for low carb/high fat advocates as the team reported higher HA1C with higher fat intake. But wait just a dog-gone minute – check the carb intake on what they’re (erroneously) identifying as a “low carb” food plan. Impressive on a number of levels that probably deserve further comment at some point.

Inflammation as a contributor to depression is becoming more mainstream.
Speaking of depression – exercise helps.

An incomplete but interesting look at rest and longevity.
From the told ‘ya so files – food questionnaires are lousy research tools.

Stunning story of elite coaching (running) gone bad, via the NYT and also this piece at SI.
Speaking of high level athletes, here’s an impressive list of high level vegan athletes and their injuries.

Food, Glorious Food

The ultimate adobo turkey
A nifty curry vinaigrette

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.

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.

Coffee and Intermittent Fasting: An Interesting N=2 Experiment

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One of the most commonly asked questions we hear over over and over again has to do with intermittent fasting (IF) and morning coffee (or tea) – specifically what will or won’t break a fasting state.

There’s been a fair amount of discussion as to what nutritional ketosis enthusiasts might add to their morning coffee to enhance their ‘get-the-day-started’ beverage and NOT break their fast, with opinions as you might guess ranging all over the place.

Becky Gillaspy, DC and her husband Keith ran an interesting N=2 experiment, testing three typical morning coffee ‘enhancers’ including cream, MCT oil, and butter, and followed their own blood glucose and ketone levels q30 minutes for the following two hours post a baseline measurement.

Read their results here on her blog (Coffee Experiment! What Can I Put In My Coffee When Intermittent Fasting – We Ran The Test); for the record, none of the three additives disrupted their nutritional ketosis state.

Granted, N=2 clinical trials are much more anecdotal than hard science, particularly when the metabolic and general health of the participants is not disclosed, though these types of investigations are nevertheless quite interesting and instructive. Their effort earns a hearty “attaboy” from us…

Inquiring Minds Want to Know (Links and Stuff) 21 July 2018

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We’ve been on the road soaking up the goodness of a new grandson in Montana the past week or so; here’s a few quick links that caught our attention on the road…

Digital Media Consumption Still Isn’t Good for Teens

Your Morning Coffee Just Might Make You Live Longer

Leisure Reading is On the Decline

A Low-Carb Drumbeat in the Mainstream Press? Say It Ain’t So…

Have You Been Abducted by Aliens? (Added after a conversation overhead at the next table in a Wyoming diner).

Recipes We’ve Posted Over the Past Few Weeks

1015 Tomato Salad
Grill-Charred Green Beans w Homemade Harissa
Columbian Marinated Flank Steaks
Smashed Cucumber Salad
Grilled Leeks
Lemony Spiced Salmon Kabobs
Libby’s Creamy Avocado
Quick Chinese Cucumber Salad
Ancho Grilled Leg of Lamb