Older Bolder Life

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Question of the Week: The Most Important Health Imperatives After 40 (or even 35)

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This past week I’ve had a fascinating back-and-forth discussion with an acquaintance who’s recently become a coaching client about the most critical health and wellness imperatives for someone over 40.

Admittedly the over 40 is a purely arbitrary line in the sand; he happened to frame the discussion that way as we both happen to be (quite happily I might add) north of 40, though you could just as easily argue that, given the health status of most North Americans these days, the discussion equally applies to those over thirty-five, or perhaps even thirty.

To expand the backstory a bit here, this gentleman sought help initially with “dropping a few pounds that I just can’t lose”. As we dug a bit deeper into his issues, he was carrying at least 80 more pounds that he probably should, but much more critically he was a metabolic mess, with several markers of glucose intolerance and lipid derangement that were frankly alarming.

He was an admitted “carb-junky”, needed an infusion of quickly-metabolized carbs every two hours or so during his waking hours, and recounted the litany of complaints we’ve all experienced at some point: poor sleep, heartburn, fatigue, mental cloudiness, joint soreness, myalgia (muscle pain), lousy endurance, decreased sexual arousal and performance, and at times a sense of aimlessness and even depression.

To his credit, and that of his very supportive physician wife, he finally came to the point that he knew deep in his gut (perhaps even literally) that something (actually a lot of things) needed to change.

Part of our process has of course been defining several key health restoration objectives for him to strive toward, and that in particular is how we arrived at the (now somewhat lengthy) discussion of what indeed are the most important health imperatives after 40.

This has been such a fascinating discussion I’m going to open a series here on the Older Bolder Life laying out some of these critical health imperatives after 40 over the next few weeks. Most of us will find most if not all of the key points applicable in our own lives, though of course their order of importance will vary pending your own unique physiologic and metabolic issues.

Critical Health Imperatives After 40: Taking an Honest Appraisal of Where You Are Now

My key point in sharing this quick story as a matter of introduction is a simple one – to get started on any journey to reclaim or improve your health, at some point you will have to do what my acquaintance / now client did – you’ll have to sit back, roll up your metaphorical sleeves, and take an honest, insightful, and hopefully damned objective measure of where you are now.

For some of us, that’s a pretty tall order. It’s not necessarily the easiest thing to admit we’re not where we’d like to be in life, and sometimes we need the thoughtful input of someone close to us or with compassionate expertise to help us take stock of the issues at hand.

And thinking specifically of the “fat but fit” mantra that seems so pervasive in today’s culture, even among classically trained health care professionals, part of taking an honest appraisal of where you are will likely involve objective measures of your metabolic health, including a thoughtfully targeted lab panel.

Only by understanding where you are today can you put together a plan to get to where you want to be.

More to come.

Quote of the Day: Amelia Earhart on Tenacity

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The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity.

– Amelia Earhart

Over the past several days I’ve had the opportunity to interact with an individual (from Scotland actually, ain’t digital communication today grand) who’s been internally debating with the decision to take charge of their health and nutrition after having several “warning sign” events transpire since the year began.

We happen to share several common experiences in our pasts, and they’ve committed today to start their life “do-over” (via a health coaching program) and to dive in and fully engage after I shared the quote above.

Amelia was right; finally, and truly, deciding to act is a huge step. And tenacity can be nurtured, exercised, and developed along the way.

Picking the Low Hanging Fruit: Dial Back the Carbs

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It’s been several days since I wrote about picking the low hanging fruit (the simpler, foundational principles) along one’s journey to restore (or improve) your overall health and wellness. Last week I offered up some simple principles related to protein and incorporating more movement into your daily routine.

Of note, my thoughts today are aimed at those who are following an approach to nutrition and food much more aligned with the Standard American Diet (the infamous SAD approach), not necessarily those thoughtful folks who have already begun to take a hard and discerning look at the healthy – and the unhealthy – aspects of their nutrition plan.

So How Many Grams of Carbohydrate Does “the Average American” Eat Per Day?

Good question, and when you get right down to it, defining the “average carb intake” of any group or population is devilishly difficult to do with genuine scientific accuracy, though there are plenty of ways to ballpark the numbers fairly closely.

For example, let’s look at carbohydrate intake suggestions from the venerable Mayo Clinic, written in February of 2017 –

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that carbohydrates make up 45 to 65 percent of your total daily calories.

So, if you get 2,000 calories a day, between 900 and 1,300 calories should be from carbohydrates. That translates to between 225 and 325 grams of carbohydrates a day.

Impressive, particularly in light of two things: first, there are impressive numbers of individuals who consume a far more than 60 percent of their daily calories from carbohydrates. And secondly, there’s been an explosion of very credible information over the past couple of decades, more so in the last decade, frankly destroying the concept that carbohydrates are our bodies preferred, principle fuel.

That said, where does one start when looking to manage carbohydrate intelligently?

Starting Your Approach to Dialing Back Your Carbohydrate Intake

Coming from the perspective of eating the Standard American Diet (SAD), once you’ve settled on a rational approach to protein intake, for most of us, it’s time to dial back the carbs.

How far? It really doesn’t have to be that complicated, and for all the chatter about carbohydrate intake floating about these days, I still find Mark Sisson’s diagram below – his carbohydrate curve – to be one of the must useful illustrations of the concept.

If you’re eating 300 grams of carbohydrate a day, dropping down to 150 or 100 grams/day isn’t necessarily going to happen overnight. You can drop quickly, we did years ago, though we’re sorta “rip the bandage off in one quick pull” kinda people, and our process wasn’t without some cravings and missteps along the way.

Part of the mechanism of dialing back your carbohydrate intake is based upon improving the quality of the carbohydrates you consume – eating fresh, whole foods and not highly refined, overly process, carb-dense preparations is a huge part of the game here.

For a little more detail, take a look at Carbs: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (Part 1 is the Bad and Ugly, Part 2 The Good).

And Finally, Remember the Carb Game is Won By Finding Your Carb Tolerance Point

A critical reminder from a prior post – your optimal carb zone and macronutrient partitioning needs depend on a host of factors THAT ARE UNIQUE TO YOU; potentially including (a short list, just for example):

Your current objective(s): be it weight loss, athletic performance, cognitive improvement, general well being, longevity, etc.
Your current body composition: Are you overweight, underweight, lacking appropriate muscle mass?
Your overall metabolic health: Are you in full-blown metabolic syndrome with insulin resistance, on the edge, or “fairly healthy”?
Your overall level of activity: Are you a cubical-bound couch potato whose idea of a workout is the walk to and from the car in the parking lot, an occasional, casual walker, perhaps working a physically demanding job, or a gym rat?
Your overall general health: Do you have conditions that impact your body’s functions in a material way, such as joint problems (degenerative arthritis), heart disease or hypertension, poor sleep, or stress you can’t manage?
Your age: For example, protein requirements increase in the elderly, and the elderly’s protein requirements may be more impacted by higher activity levels.
Your current progress in your recovery journey: Your best macronutrient partitioning will change over time, pending where you are in your health and wellness journey, and as you purposefully get leaner, more fit, and thoughtful about how you fuel your mind and body.

There will be some trial and error, and some N=1 experimenting to find your sweet spot. Get started today, and we’re here to help guide you through the process if it seems a bit overwhelming. Git ‘er done.

Picking the Low Hanging Fruit: Put Protein In Its Place

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Continuing our look at picking the low hanging fruit (the simpler, foundational principles) along your health and wellness journey, let’s tackle one – consuming the optimal amount of good protein – that’s fairly straight forward, yet often overlooked when moving away from the standard American diet (SAD) to a more intentional, and healthy, food plan.

So Just How Much Protein Do I Really Need?

For most of us, those of us living fairly normal lives and not training to become championship level body builders or Olympians, and not dealing with some major medical condition, there are several useful rule of thumb methods to ballpark your protein needs.

Please note that I abhor “one size fits all” nutrition plans; the type and amount of food you consume every day should be carefully customized to fit your very own physiology, metabolism, and activity demands, and will of course change over time throughout your life. Run from anyone who tells you they have a magic plan handed down from on high that you must follow.

That said, I most often suggest that people who are reasonably active start with the simple guideline of aiming to consume 0.6 to 0.8 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass per day, and adjust from there.

There’s a bit more detail about typical adjustments made to protein intake in this post from a few months back, and critically you’ll probably end up doing some experimentation to see what works best for you.

Protein Quality Matters

Sourcing great proteins for your food plan doesn’t need to be overly complicated, and like most things we eat, for most of us there are a variety of options and choices available.

Several months ago I spent a fair amount of time detailing some general principles in sourcing proteins, looking at game, beef, pork, and lamb here, seafood here, and fowl here.

I encourage folks to make the absolute best selections of your protein choices within budgetary and availability constraints, though it’s possible now to have just about any variety of amazing proteins shipped to your front door with a few clicks or a quick call.

The Thinking About Protein is Evolving, Particularly in the Longevity Arena

As you’re working through your protein plan, I’d encourage you at some point to read some of what Dr. Gundry has written about protein (The Plant Paradox; his new book The Longevity Paradox is just out, though I’ve not picked up a copy as of this morning!).

Guidry (among many) opines that most of us eat far more protein than we need, and probably more than is optimal for our metabolism.

We’ll come back and visit this issue in more detail in another post, my intent is to stir your curiosity a bit and have you keep an eye out for changes in how the best minds are conceptualizing our optimal relationship with proteins.

Picking the Low Hanging Fruit: Move, Move, Move

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As the first post in our picking the low hanging fruit to get started series, let’s actually tackle one right off the bat that isn’t food and nutrition related – the simple principle of choosing to move more during the day.

For those starting from a more or less sedentary lifestyle, there are a host of simple actions to take to integrate more movement into your lifestyle. (Even if you’re well along the way to optimizing your fitness and functional capacity, there’s likely even useful movement you could be doing.) Let’s talk about three easy examples that anyone could start with today.

Unchain Yourself from Your Desk (or Couch)

Without belaboring the devastating consequences of sitting all day, whether collecting dust on the couch, or chained to a desk at work, let’s agree to stipulate to the fact that prolonged, for the most part uninterrupted sitting opens the door to a host of issues, and has the potential to negatively impact just about every system in the human body. (Another topic perhaps for another day, and trivially easy to research in detail yourself).

I advise friends, family, and clients to get up at least every thirty minutes (some would argue twenty might even be better) and move around for two to three minutes, even if just a walk down the hall or around the house. Years ago I had a medical practice partner who would run to his office and do pushups or an uber-quick kettle ball routine for two minutes, then jump right back into his day.

Every two hours, take a longer break for 5-15 minutes; this is a perfect time for a quick walk outside if access, weather, and your schedule allows.

Park and Walk

We all have errands to run; some of us with busy families and friends seemingly have a never-ending list of errands to run just about every day.

One of the simplest ways to add more movement to your routine is quit playing the ‘search for the closest parking spot’ game and instead choose to park on the outermost reaches of the parking lot and walk.

Recently a data-nerd client sent me a tally of walking time she’d added to her week parking in the North Forty parking lots as she calls them – it added up to nearly two and half hours during a busy shopping week.

Add in Two Short Walks a Day

I’m a huge fan of walking. Walking offers an extraordinary array of benefits physiologically and even psychologically, is accessible to just about every one on the planet, is an extremely economical way to add useful exercise to your routine, and can be done anywhere.

As most of the country moves into the spring season, I’ve been challenging clients to try a quick walk in the morning to start the day (personally I’m not sure what I’d do without my 45-90 minute early morning walks), and another quick walk after dinner in the evening. These don’t need to be a trek worthy of Lawrence of Arabia; if just starting out 10-15 minutes at a time will get you on the road to recovery. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your conditioning, and enjoyment of the process, develops.

More on picking the low hanging fruit on your health journey to come.

Starting a New Series This Week: Pick the Low Hanging Fruit First

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We’re going to start a new series of posts this week on the blog, using the tried and true analogy of picking the easy to reach, low hanging fruit first.

My goal here is to outline a plan of attack for someone wanting to jump into the “improve my health” game, yet is overwhelmed by the number of self-proclaimed experts promising astounding results if one just follows their magical meal plan (available for three easy payments of $49.99 each), reads their book, attends their seminar, takes this array of supplements, drinks these teas or coffees, follows a complex workout routine, eats only meat – oh wait, or is it eats no meat?

Should I eat paleo? Or primal? What about the Whole 30 Plan? Vegan? Pegan? Carnivore? Vegetarian? The grapefruit diet? I’ve overheard a pitch in a local grocery this week for the gummy bear diet plan…

There’s a genuine risk of newcomers to the game being overwhelmed by all the chatter, and all the choices to be made.

So let’s take a walk on the simple side of things over the next couple of weeks looking at implementing some very attainable changes – picking the low hanging fruit – toward a healthier lifestyle, particularly when it comes to your approach to a rational, practical, and enjoyable food plan.

Begin Your Health and Wellness Journey with the End in Mind

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A Very Short ‘Begin with the End in Mind’ Backstory

Several years ago, a physician friend, business partner, and mentor who possessed the gift of speaking very directly and candidly without crushing one’s spirit, began to challenge me about longer term goal setting.

The immediate context at the time happened to be non-health related (it was multifamily real estate in fact) though the principle translates beautifully to the health and wellness world.

My friend’s challenge was simple: never begin any journey in life (whether a literal journey or adventure, a major lifestyle or health adjustment, business project, etc.) without carefully considering what your goals might be, what the endpoint is, and what happens next (real estate guys call that your exit strategy).

Beginning Your Health and Wellness Journey with the End in Mind

By far and away the most common reason people have approached me in the past several years is a desire to shed excess pounds. Losing weight is one of the most commonly tagged New Year’s resolutions of the past 30 years, and perhaps the least successfully accomplished.

Getting started with a major lifestyle change to improve your health is pretty danged daunting, particularly if you’re truly engaged and serious about it. Fascinatingly, when I chat with folks about why they want to use a health coach to facilitate this transition, most often, they reply with very non-specific answers, almost always including “I just need to lose some weight”.

Hells bells, that was my own somewhat mis-focused intent over three years ago when starting my own recovery; I had no idea what my goals really were, what it would take to actually get there, or even if I could possibly drop enough pounds to make a real difference. No way could I have imagined dropping 170 pounds thus far, with more to go…

Simple Suggestions for Beginning with the End in Mind

First, think (or dream) big, respecting that for those of us over 40 (or perhaps even 30), charting big goals most often demands a longer time line. That’s ok, most of us can do more to improve our health than one might guess at first blush, and time becomes much less critical when you’re making steady gains along the way.

Make today’s decisions today; right now you only have to choose to eat the next meal on plan, take your next walk, or jump into that next workout. Other challenges down the road will come in due time, just make the decision to engage in the moment presently.

Craft a set of meaningful goals. At the start of the new year, I reminded readers about using SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Even better, set short, intermediate, and longer-term goals, and be prepared to adjust them along the way.

Dive in and get started. Now and again people I interact with, especially those who have a long road ahead to restore their health, get devastatingly discouraged looking at how far they have to go, and quit, or even worse, decide it’s not even worth trying.

And don’t forget to mind your focus. At least for now, we have this quote on the landing page of our main Older Bolder Fitness site –

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. – Socrates

Hone in with laser-like sharpness on the good changes you’re building into your routine – better food, more movement, targeted strengthening, less exposure to toxins and harmful behaviors, better sleep, better sex, and more.

Begin your journey with the end in mind; we’re here to help you along the way any time you have a question or need additional insight, encouragement, or a push.