Older Bolder Life

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Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Recipes and More 25 January 2020

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Top of the Fold Links for the Week

Should we even talk about a PSA? (Free MedScape account required.)
Glucose and Alzheimer’s– Don’t miss this one.

Elevated LDL-C levels didn’t correlate with ASCVD risk for those over 75.
Hip and knee steroid injections may speed joint damage in some patients.

Other Links that Caught Our Eye…

An aspirin a day + DOAC may cause more harm than good.
Speaking of OTC compounds, here’s an interesting perspective on melatonin. (Free MedScape account required.)

Save the planet by avoiding obesity.
Dr. Oz thinks we should cancel breakfast for 2020.
A mathematician weighs in on thinking and new ideas.

Fitness Corner

Walking makes you more productive.
Addicted to exercise.

Food, Glorious Food

Will alcohol kick you out of keto?
Speaking of keto, here’s either a brief history of keto or a hit piece…

Reverse Seared Cowboy Ribeye Steak
Shrimp in Garlic Sauce
Texas Coast Boiled Shrimp

Older Bolder Fitness Routines: Mark Sisson

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This represents a change from my regularly planned posts today, but yesterday Mark Sisson posted a nifty video covering a few details of how his fitness routine has changed over the years. We all have to customize, customize, customize – but this is damned interesting, and hopefully will invoke a deeper, thoughtful look at your own routine.

Five Signs You’re at An Awesome Farmers Market

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This week a client peppered me with questions about farmers markets; questions like how to find a good one, how to pick through the bins, how to haggle, how to best manage shopping logistics, and more. Here are a few of the tips I shared on finding a great market…

The Produce is Sorta Funky, with Irregular Shapes and Sizes

Real small farms produce “real” produce; in fact, those accustomed to shopping the in the world of mass produced foods where all the cucumbers and carrots look exactly the same might not even realize massive farms yield produce that’s picked (and often otherwise manipulated) to look exactly the same every time (uniform size, shape, ripening window, etc.).

Shop the markets that have vendors selling irregular – even ugly – produce, think curvy cucumbers and forked, stubby carrots for example. Vegetables picked at the peak of freshness don’t all look the same.

The vendor selling perfectly symmetrical, same-sized veg may have actually bought a load at wholesale from another vendor, maybe not even locally, and be passing it off as small farm treasure.

The Produce is in Season and Fits Your Locale

Just for example, we live in North Texas, in a region that has definite seasons; it’s pretty easy to follow what should be coming in from local farms, give or take a few weeks pending the specific weather.

A local vendor was trying to pass off avocados as being a local crop at a market nearby the other day – ain’t no way avocados are being harvested in North Texas in August. The boxes stacked behind the stand we’re even labelled as being from Mexico, yet she stuck to her story and even sold a few as I quizzed her. (She asked us to move along…).

The Vendor is Happy to Talk About Their Farm

We’ve yet to meet a genuine small farm producer who doesn’t love to talk about their farm, their farming practices, their favorite crops, what work they’re doing now, and how the weather’s been.

Any time a vendor doesn’t want to answer questions about their produce or operation in detail, move on down the aisle. Local producers want to teach you, and hear how much you enjoyed their food; everyone is allowed a bad down now and then, but the vendor who doesn’t want to talk about their produce is waving a warning flag…

The Produce Might Just Seem a Bit Pricy Compared to Your Favorite Grocer

My friend Chef Libby scolded me one day in Austin after I haggled with a vendor over something in her stand (I can’t even recall what it was); I’ve tended to be a be a value shopper over the years, and I thought the farm stand pricing was too high.

Libby’s two points have stuck in my head since: one, it’s damned hard to make a living as a small farmer, and most are simply neither able nor inclined to sell the fruits of their hard-earned labor at the cheapest possible price. And two, you’re going to pay a premium, albeit a small one hopefully, for the very best, freshest ingredients, often grown with extraordinary care. The overwhelming majority of the time – it’s worth every penny.

If you run across a bin of goods at the market that appears oddly inexpensive, take note; you may be looking at a reseller or otherwise sub-optimal goods.

The Bins are Full of Fresh Produce and Meats, and Not Much Else

The best farmers markets sell fresh produce and meats – that’s was what drove their creation and very existence in the first place. Beware markets packed with prepared food vendors, arts and crafts, and stall after stall of unrelated goods.

Don’t get me wrong, they all can be damned interesting, but when you’re after the very best, and freshest, foods to put on your table, you want the market’s objective to be the same as yours – to present to you and your family the best options your local farms have on hand that very day (or weekend) in a format that makes shopping fun and interesting. And a little friendly competition is good for everybody in the game, and your budget as well.

Healthy and fun farmers market shopping this week.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Recipes, and More 3 August 2019

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Food, Glorious Food: Nutrition News This Week

From the “How Can This Be News?” file: Packaged food is ultra-processed.
The Wall Street Journal weighs in on the “fasting fad” (really, you’re going to call it a fad?)

Foraging foodie and chef: Sarah Glover. (Our photojournalist daughter has been invited to Australia for a series of stories and hopefully will have time scheduled with Ms. Glover…)

The Southern Foodways Alliance fall symposium.
Tart cherry juice for improved cognition? The lay report and the study it’s based on.

Turning the tables on the fake meat game, here’s a radical process for turning vegetable matter into meat protein.

Food, Glorious Food: Our Recipes from the Week

Spicy Thai-Inspired Shrimp Stir-Fry
Chile Peanut Cauliflower Rice
Garam Masala and Cucumber Dip

Older Bolder Health News Roundup That Caught My Eye This Week

Resistance training improves neural plasticity in a rat dementia model.

Speaking of resistance training, here’s an interesting interview with Charles Polquin – Aerobic Exercise May Be Destroying Your Body, But Weightlifting Can Save It.

Should the Alzheimer’s amyloid theory be put to rest? (Free MedScape account required).

Walking makes us happier, healthier, and brainier. You have to appreciate their tagging walking as a superpower.

How to think about your own mortality – at least one view on the issue. The author’s bio is fascinating…

Question of the Day 4 June: Target Heart Rates

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From Cyndie in Kentucky this week –

…A friend working with a trainer has been telling me that walking isn’t enough of a workout to help me drop some weight. Her trainer says that you have to get your heart rate up really high to make fat burn, and told her to take my age (42) from 220 to get my target heart rate. That sounds really high and is hard for me to do walking, this doesn’t sound right to me…

Cyndie, appreciate the opportunity today to answer your question, and you’re right, the information passed on from your friend’s trainer is actually not correct.

The rule of thumb the trainer appears to have suggested you use, the 220 – your age calculation, is a commonly used rule of thumb (for example, used here by the Mayo Clinic) to estimate an individual’s Maximum Heart Rate target. There are of course potential flaws in using a rule of thumb calculation here, as there are of course other issue that may modify the results, such as medications you’re taking (i.e. beta blockers), your overall health, your overall fitness level, your fitness history (how long have you been working out and what types of exercise have you done), your injury history, and more.

Using the rule of thumb above, your target maximal heart rate would be 178. But that’s not really the number you need to be thinking about…

You Really Want to Your Use Your Heart Rate Guides to Work Aerobically to Burn Fat

When you go through your day completing most of your routine tasks (clinically called activities of daily living), you’re not exercising anywhere near your maximal heart rate; your body is working aerobically to burn fuels efficiently using oxygen. In the right setting metabolically, that includes burning fat as fuel, which from your question is what you’re trying to do.

If you significantly up the intensity of your effort (exercise or really aggressive ADLs), there is a point at which your body is forced to change over to another fuel processing system – anaerobic work – think of this like the maximal effort you might make when doing repetitive sprints as part of a training program. That’s stressful, inducing the production of stress hormones (which among other things slows down fat burning), and can lead to overtraining, excessive inflammation, and injury.

So you really want to know your maximal aerobic training heart rate.

Thankfully, a host of smart men and women have done the hard work and derived some fairly easy calculations to discover that number. My favorite is Dr. Maffetone’s 180 Formula.

Simply put, you subtract your age from 180, and modify that number using the four criteria he’s listed at the link above. From what you’ve shared, it appears your calculations would be 180 – 42 = 138, with another 5 subtracted as you’re just getting back into training (Dr. Maffetone’s modifier [b]), making your maximal aerobic training target a heart rate of 133.

Note that’s the maximal suggested target rate, and brisk walking, or walking hills should readily get you in the range of 85% to 90% of your maximal aerobic target, and will very likely aid in burning fat, which you’ve stated is your primary goal.

These numbers are of course rule of thumb guidelines, and must be modified specifically to match your own unique and specific health and fitness. Keep up the good work and get out there walking – I’m a huuuuuge fan of walking as a fitness and weight loss tool.

Picking the Low Hanging Fruit: Walk, and Walk Some More

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Continuing our series on picking the low hanging fruit (the simpler, foundational principles) along one’s path to restoring (or improving) your overall wellness and health, today’s installment focuses on an activity that is accessible to just about everyone on the planet and can bring immense health benefits – the simple act of walking.

As noted in prior Low Hanging Fruit posts, what follows is again primarily aimed at those who are following an approach to fitness and nutrition much more aligned with the Standard American Diet (the infamous SAD approach) and largely sedentary modern lifestyle, 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 activity and nutrition plans.

And once again, of critical note, your best fitness and conditioning plan will be one that is UNIQUE TO YOU, given, for simple example (out of many possible factors), your current body composition, your overall metabolic health, your daily activity package, your current health, wellness, and fitness objectives, your overall general health, and where you happen to be in your “recovery” journey.

The Benefits of Walking Have Been Known for Years

I’ve been writing about the benefits of walking here on the Older Bolder Life for months now, for example looking at walking and longevity here, walking as a foundational part of basic fitness here, studies looking at walking versus jogging (including specific cardiac benefit and injury rate comparisons) here, and ten ways that walking boosts brain health and function here.

There’s a host of good literature and research that’s been penned over the years covering walking; I’m working on an extensive review to post a few weeks down the road.

So How Much Do I Need to Walk to Derive Genuine Benefit?

Of course the best answer depends on your personal health and fitness specifics as they stand today, though there are some ballpark recommendations you’ll see noted again and again.

For example, the venerable American Heart Association (drawing from the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd Edition published by the Dept. of Health and Human Services) recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week (or at least 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity). Using those guidelines, if one were to simply walk six days per week, that’s only 25 minutes per day.

For clients I’m coaching who are faced with the duel challenge of dropping weight AND reconditioning from a very low fitness level, I encourage an initial goal of at least 30 minutes of walking a day, 6 or 7 days per week, with an hour (or more) bringing additional benefits to the table.

Amazing, I’ve had people who have been so astoundingly sedentary they can only tolerate 15 to 20 minutes of walking a day; one is now walking 90 to 120 minutes per day, six days per week, and got there in a matter of months with consistent effort, and has become an entirely new person in the process. It can be done.

I’m a huge walking fan myself, starting off just about every day with a 45-60 minute walk on trails in a nearby park, and taking another 30-60 minute walk later in the day as well, six or seven days per week.

Lace up those walking shoes and git ‘er done.

The Tuesday Ten: Walking Boosts Brain Health and Function

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Today we’re starting a new feature here on the blog, a list post that will feature ten different items of interest focused (more or less) on a particular topic. It’ll cover a host of different topics, everything from science and health oriented topics like today’s post, to food and recipes, equipment and gear, books, and more.

Today let’s look at some examples of the expansive literature that supports how walking, and other low-intensity, aerobic exercise boosts brain health and function.

Brisk walking for 30 to 50 minutes three or four times per week improved blood flow to the brain by as much as 15 percent.

Walking improves cognitive function across all adult age groups.

Even in bursts as short as 10 minutes, walking and other exercise can work to quickly elevate a depressed mood and relieve anxiety.

Even light to moderate activity (walking) leads to noted improvements in psychological well-being.

Consistent exercise, such as walking, boosts self-esteem and a sense of accomplishment.

Creative thinking improves while walking and for a time thereafter.

Walking (and other forms of low level aerobic exercise) increase energy levels and the sense of mental and physical fatigue.

Walking and other exercise can make your sex life better.

Walking and other exercise improves the quality and quantity of sleep.

Walking and other exercise increases productivity over your lifespan.

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.