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Introduction
‘Age is just a number.’ ‘You are only as old as you think you are.’ We’ve all heard the clichés. Maybe we even said them ourselves when we were younger. We knew everything when we were twenty, after all.
When you get a little older, you know better. Advancing age changes your body composition, your energy level, and the rate at which you bounce back from life’s curve balls. You might have been able to dance till the break of dawn and get up ready to do it again when you were 23. Try that now and you can put yourself out of commission for days.
Your changing body composition doesn’t mean you’re sentenced to a long, decrepit old age. New research has shown that anyone at any age can enjoy health and vitality. Even if you are currently out of shape it is never too late to start healthy living that could extend your life and help you enjoy the years you have left.
It’s Never too Late
The biggest question older adults ask about health and fitness is: Is it too late for me? I am middle-aged and I haven’t done anything. Can I still get fit and turn my health around?
Absolutely. No pill in the world can turn you back into the 25 year old you once were. But, even if you had been living a healthy lifestyle since your 20’s you would still be the age you are now – there is no pill to help do that for anyone!
However, a healthy diet and a high-intensity exercise program are the next best things. Used together you can slow down the cellular aging process by 50%. A study by Dr. Ralph Paffenbarger of Stanford followed more than 17,000 Harvard graduates for more than 25 years. He found that burning at least 2,000 calories a week through exercise adds a year or more to your life. (1)
Retirement – the New Puberty
Old wisdom advised older adults to ‘take it easy’ and not push themselves. Now we know that ‘taking it easy’ is the perfect prescription for a short and miserable ride through the ‘golden years.’
If you want to be independent, active, and feel good through the second half of your life you have to exercise and eat right. The body is designed to stay active. If you aren’t active you will begin to degenerate. The diseases that doctors used to assume came with old age have turned out to be the diseases of an inactive lifestyle. You don’t have to spend twenty years of your life feeling bad and going senile. There is a better way.
Everybody knows that you have to exercise and eat right. But knowing it and doing it are two different things; especially if you have a bad back, bad joints, or poor balance. That is the basis for this book. This is your definitive guide to looking and feeling great no matter how old you are. Those of you who are fit will learn how to keep active safely and sanely. If you’re currently sedentary, this guide will show you how to safely change your lifestyle choices and get active.
How to Use this Book
The book is broken up into four age groups: the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. Each section will discuss the health and fitness concerns relevant for each age group. It will also give you practical ways to incorporate healthy habits into your everyday life. This is real-world advice for real people.
Each section of the guide builds on the section before it. Feel free to flip right to the section that applies to you. But you might want to go back and read the other sections as well to acquire a good understanding of how your body works. Good health and vitality are within your grasp. No matter where you are right now, you can get in the best shape of your life. The tools are right here for you. Are you ready for it? Read on.
Chapter 1 40: Real Life in the ‘Third Age’
If statistics are correct, you have either been married for a while or are recently divorced. You may be reentering the dating scene after a long break away from it. You have kids at home and a mortgage payment to worry about. Work is stressful. You eat out a lot. Your parents are getting old and, if they don’t require care now, are heading in that direction. You are operating on too little sleep and not enough time.
Does this sound familiar? This is generally the decade where life gets the most complex. You have a lot of outside commitments and a lot of debt. Add to that a lower energy level and it’s no wonder over 50% of people in their 40s don’t exercise.
Unfortunately, this is also the decade where everything starts catching up with you. If you are part of that sedentary 50% you’ve probably noticed that your old habits have made you put on some extra pounds. Starting around your mid thirties you start to lose muscle. This slows down your metabolism.
Translation? The diet that allowed you to maintain a steady weight in your twenties and early thirties will put an average of 3-5 pounds per year on your body. By the time you hit your 40’s you are looking at a 10-40 pound weight gain.
Most of this weight has probably settled around your middle and on the backs of your arms. Gravity has given you a more ‘droopy’ appearance. And muscle loss is giving you an aching back. Even if you’ve kept pretty active you’re probably noticing that the same amount of effort isn’t giving you the same sort of results.
This information isn’t meant to depress you. If you want to look good and feel good you have to know where you are starting. Anyone who has ever had to navigate through a strange place knows that the only way to get to where you want to go is to first know where you are. The same is true about your weight loss. Once you know what you’re up against, you can do something about it.
Every fitness manual and personal trainer advises you to ‘consult your doctor before beginning this or any other workout.’ It is a good idea in general and for a person in his or her 40’s it is now mandatory. Go in and get a comprehensive, ‘30,000 mile’ inspection. Everyone should get their blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked, along with the physical appropriate for your gender. Get weighed and ask your doctor for a healthy weight goal. Find out if there is any exercise that you need to stay away from based on any underlying medical conditions or past injuries.
Again, don’t get depressed by what you find out. Your 40’s are a pivotal time period. This is when most people decide (consciously or not) if they are going to age well or fade into a fragile senility. You’re not old. Those aches and pains you’re starting to feel are not natural. New research has shown that all the symptoms we associate with getting older are really only diseases of inactivity. This means you really are only as old as you let yourself become. (2,3)
No matter what abuse you’ve put your body through; it isn’t too late to change. Your body is designed to move. It functions best when you are active. If you start exercising and eating right, your body will reward you with a higher energy level, a sense of well-being, and a sleek physique. You will lower your chances of developing cancer. Adult-onset diabetes won’t be an issue. And you will reduce your chances of having a heart attack.
If you don’t exercise, your body will make negative changes. You will gain more weight. Your clothes won’t fit and you will have an even harder time moving around. Excess body fat is linked to cancer. Your unhealthy diet will probably lead to heart disease. You’ll look like a melted marshmallow and feel horrible.
I’m being blunt for a reason. You need to understand what’s at stake. You don’t have to settle for a dumpy figure and a low energy level. You don’t have to slow down. You can reverse your cellular age until you run circles around most 20 year olds. But you have to be willing to put in the effort.
You aren’t going to let Father Time win, are you? I didn’t think so. You’ve put yourself on the road to health. Let’s take the first step.
Fitness at 40
Exercise is the critical ingredient to a long and healthy life. A 20 year old can live on diet alone because he or she has youth on their side. That is no longer an option for you. But I can already hear the objections piling up. You already have so much to do. How are you supposed to fit in exercise? Good question. Fortunately, you already have the answer. Don’t believe me? Let’s prove it.
How to Find the Time
Pull out your calendar and a piece of paper. Write down, hour by hour, a couple of your typical days. Most people have two or even three different versions of them. You have the days you have to pick up Jr. from soccer, the days you have to work late, and who knows what else. That sort of thing. Write down from when you wake up to when you go to sleep. Fill in the time you spend watching television. Don’t forget to add in the time you need to commute between your various activities. Pencil in the time it takes you to shower, dress, etc.
No matter how crazy your life is I bet you’re watching a couple of hours of T.V. a night. Am I right? Or maybe you spend time on other ‘filler’ activities. Do you surf the web after work? Well knock it off. THAT is an order. Your life is complicated enough without adding more challenges. Easier said than done, I know. But you are going to have to shed some of your filler activities if you want to shed some pounds. It is as simple as that.
Highlight those filler activities. Note: If you have an activity you do regularly to decompress—and it isn’t eating, drinking, watching T.V. or checking email—don’t highlight it. Maybe you talk to your best friend on the phone every night. Or perhaps you read a magazine or work on a craft. It is the activity that consistently leaves you in a better mood than you when you started. If you are lucky enough to have something like that, then keep doing it. It is a necessary activity.
You will need an hour to an hour and a half’s worth of time out of each day. In the beginning you’re only going to be working out for 20-30 minutes. The rest of that time is for getting to where you’re going to exercise, and for showering and changing afterward. As you get into your routine you will spend more time exercising and less time getting ready for it.
Right about now someone out there is panicking—if only inside your mind. ‘I can’t find an hour and a half for exercise! Impossible! I have to do x,y,z. I’m too tired. I don’t have the money for a gym membership. My local gym sucks. My neighborhood isn’t a safe place to walk at night. It’s snowing outside. I don’t have enough room to exercise inside, etc. etc.’ Let yourself think of all the reasons why this program won’t work. You might want to write your reasons down.
Now treat those excuses the same way you treat your kids when they start whining. Nod your head and then make yourself do it anyway. Crumple up that paper and throw it away. Those objections are just suggestions that you are free to ignore. Every time they surface, give them a mental ‘Uh huh, uh huh, you’re right’ as you put on your workout clothes and go exercise. Don’t beat yourself up for not wanting to exercise. Just get in the habit of ignoring your inner whiner. That little voice may never completely go away, but if you start ignoring it, it will lose its power over you.
At this point you have found a free hour or two. Now you have a decision to make. Will you exercise during that time slot, or shift other things into it so you can exercise at a different time during the day? For example, if you have the hours of 8pm-10pm free, is it better for you to exercise then, or to move some of the things you do in the morning into that slot so you can exercise first thing?
The answer is really up to you. Are you a morning person or a night person? Some people find that they won’t exercise right after work. They’re tired, hungry, and unmotivated. Others just can’t get up at 5 in the morning. It messes them up for the entire day. All things being equal, pick the time that works for your body rhythm.
Having said that, I have to put in a plug for exercising in the morning. . . stuff happens. You know that. If you get your exercise out of the way before you start your day, then life can’t get in the way of your health. But either way, choose a time slot you will actually use, and stick with it on a consistent basis.
How to Get Started
…If you’re sedentary.
If your idea of a workout is a round of golf on the weekends or playing with your kids, then you are sedentary. Under no circumstances are you to put on your sneakers and try to go running for an hour or do hard-core aerobics. You are not twenty anymore. You could put yourself out of commission for a month or more. We’ll get you to the point where you can pass for early thirties but you are not there yet.
You need a minimum of three exercise days. You will be working on these three areas: Cardio health, Strength, and Balance. Add days as you progress, until you’re working out 6 days a week. Don’t panic. You are a few months away from that right now. Do one set of the following exercises the first 2-4 weeks. As they get less difficult to do, add a second set. Progress slowly. You aren’t in a race.
…If you’re active.
If you work out at least three days a week for thirty minutes you qualify as active. Those of you in this camp can be divided into two groups: Those that do just cardio work and those of you who do both cardio and strength training. You will eventually work on cardio, strength training, and balance, but you will want to focus on raising the intensity of your weight training workout.
Muscles equal youth. The more lean muscle you have, the younger you will look and feel. Start with two sets of the strength exercises the first week and add a second set in somewhere around week two or three. At week four, put in a third set.
…For everyone.
The balance exercises will focus on your core muscles. If you have back pain, these are the exercises that are going to make that feel better. A strong core improves your posture, protects you against pulled muscles, and will help your balance. You will be more coordinated, which translates into fewer fitness and “lifestyle” injuries. You know what I’m talking about. Have you ever sneezed or reached down for something and pulled a muscle? A weak core is the culprit. Start with one set the first two weeks. This is an area that most people ignore except for the occasional sit-up. Go slowly. Add in a second set only after you can do one set correctly. Add a third set after you can do two sets correctly.
What to Do
Heart monitor
HeartRateMonitorUSA.com usually has great deals on heart monitors. This little tool will help you calculate if you are working hard enough or too hard. You don’t have to buy one right away, but make it a priority after you get in your exercise routine. Buy a heart monitor that calculates your optimal beats per minute range.
You’re now ready to go.
Cardio
…For the sedentary:
This will take up one day out of the three minimum days you will devote to exercise. At this point you want to perform an activity that raises your heart rate and makes you sweat for 20-30 minutes. For some of you walking around your yard or up and down your street will do the trick. For others it will take a power walk around the neighborhood, a stint pedaling on a stationary bike, or walking laps in a pool. Beginner aerobic videos also count. Pick two or three activities you can do regularly.
…For the active:
You will want to perform your cardio workout three days out of six. Do it every other day. The stair stepper machine at the gym is a great option because you can get an intense workout without jolting your joints or back muscles. If you have access to a gym, try the other cardio machines or consider an aerobics class for variety. Your body adapts to exercise quite quickly—you will want to change things up so you continue to see an improvement.
A Master’s Swim club is a great way to keep the intensity up and make new friends. You will have access to a swim coach, who will design a workout based on your fitness and swimming ability. The United States Masters Swimming organization at USMS.org can help you locate a swim club in your area.
…For Everyone.
Once you start exercising regularly you will quickly see improvement. Remember to assess how you feel after each workout. It is normal to feel a little sore, but if you feel can’t get out of bed for days, then back off. You need to progress, but do so slowly. Add an extra minute to your exercise each week. Or raise the intensity of the workout by swimming faster, or raising the incline on the treadmill for a short amount of time. As long as you are working hard, small changes will produce big results.
Strength
This is your key to losing weight and looking young. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn even when you’re sleeping. Beginners, you will be doing your strength training on one of your three days. Those of you who are active should pick two out of your six days to work on strength.
Everyone thinks of weights when they think of strength training. Weights can work, but they aren’t the only way to build lean muscle. The truth is, you don’t need any equipment to get strong. Bodyweight exercises are super effective no matter what shape you are in. If you buy a yoga mat, a couple of resistance bands, and a weight ball, you can have a complete home gym that you can store under your bed or on a shelf in the closet. Better yet, you can buy all of this equipment for less than $50 total.
…For the sedentary:
Start slowly. Do one set each for the first week or two before adding a second set.
…For the active:
Start with two sets, adding a third after the second week.
Squats (Lower back, butt, hamstrings) Stand with your back to a chair. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Pull your belly button towards the spine. Lower yourself down as if you are about to sit in the chair. If you’re advanced you may want to touch the chair with your rear, but don’t rest on it. Lower only to the point you feel comfortable and hold for a count of 2. Come up slowly, squeezing your rear. Keep that stomach tight and your knees behind your toes to reduce stress on your knees while gaining muscles in your thigh. Beginners do 3, Advanced do 8. This is one set.
Lunges (Lower abs, hamstrings, quads, butt)
Stand up straight, belly button pulled toward your spine. If you haven’t done these before you will want to use a chair for balance, but don’t hang on it. Take a comfortable step forward. Keep your back straight and keep sucking in that belly button. Bend your knees. Hold for a count of 2, then come back up, squeezing all the way. Do the other leg. This counts as one. Beginners do 3 sets, Advanced do 6.
Push-ups (Chest, lats, upper back, stomach) There are three main variations of this exercise: For the absolute beginner (or for someone who has difficulty getting on the floor) stand one or two feet away from a wall. Put your hands on the wall and do your pushups there. For the intermediate exerciser get down on the floor and do your pushups on hands and knees. For the advanced exerciser do full pushups on your hands and toes.
For everyone: Keep your stomach in tight and your back flat. Do your pushups in front of a mirror if you aren’t sure you’re doing it right. Lower down as far as you comfortably can. Push up until just before you lock your elbows. Don’t forget to breathe. Beginners do 1-3, Advanced do 3-10. This is one set.
Curls (Biceps)
Use either a weight or a resistance band. If using a resistance band, put the band under your foot, making sure the band is even on both sides. Stand up straight, suck in your belly button, and curl the weight up as you count to 2. Extend back down as you count to 3. Beginners: 5 reps, light weight or easy resistance band. Advanced: 8-10 reps with appropriate weight or resistance band. This is one set.
Curls (Triceps)
Use either a weight or a resistance band. Bend your knees and lean forward with a flat back. Pull your elbows up toward the ceiling, hands by your hips. In this position push your hands back toward the ceiling on a count of two. Come back to the start position while counting to three. Beginners: 5 reps. Advanced: 8-10.
Balance
These exercises may be really hard in the beginning. But fortunately for you, these are the muscles that are already used to working out. All of your movement begins in your core (the muscles of your pelvis and trunk). These muscles will respond quickly to a consistent workout. Both beginners and advanced should do this work-out a minimum of once a week. As you progress you will want to add one or two of these exercises to your other exercise days.
Bridge (Back, stomach, butt, thighs)
Lay on the floor with the bottoms of your feet on the ground and your knees bent. Pull your belly button into your spine and raise your hips off the floor. Your arms should be flat on the ground. Hold this position for 10 seconds. Beginners repeat this 2 more times, Advanced – 4 more times.
For anyone who is advanced and looking for a challenge, get into the bridge position, then try extending one leg (so that you are balanced on one foot while still in the bridge). Hold for 10 seconds. Alternately, you can put the weight ball between your knees and perform a regular bridge.
Quadriped (This works everything)
Get down on the floor onto your hands and knees. Pull your belly button into your spine and keep your back flat. Squeeze those butt muscles. Beginners: Raise one hand as if you are pointing at something in front of you. Hold for 2 counts and lower. Do the other side. Do 2 more on each side. Intermediate/Advanced: Assume the same position. Raise one arm and the opposite leg. Hold for a count of 2. Do 4-6 more on each side.
Plank (This works everything)
Lie on your stomach. Come up onto your elbows. Beginners: You will be on your elbows and knees. Keep your back flat and pull your belly button in. You want to get to the point where you can hold this for 20 seconds. Just concentrate on holding it as long as you can in the correct position. If that is 3 seconds at first, so be it. This is one set. Advanced: You will be on your elbows and toes. Hold for twenty seconds.
This is not a wimpy workout. Exercise doesn’t have to be fancy to be effective. Do this workout consistently and you will see results.
Exercise will help make you fit and strong. But if you want to show off those muscles to the best advantage you need to eat a diet that leaves you glowing with health. The next section will show you what to eat, and how to incorporate healthy habits into your crazy busy lifestyle.
40: How to Eat
I put the exercise portion of your total body overhaul first on the list because it is the one area that most people fight the hardest. Nutrition, on the other hand, has the opposite problem. Everyone nods along when we hear that we should be eating better. Most people will even admit that they don’t eat the way they know they should—but then they don’t do anything about it. Everyone has excuses. ‘I don’t have enough time. I don’t know what to eat. All of those diet plans are so confusing. I don’t know where to start. It’s impossible to lose weight when you don’t have time to cook.’
I hate to say it, but some of those excuses have a kernel of truth in them. The best ones always do. Consider this section your get-real guide to eating right. We will cut through all of the fad diets and talk about a sane, healthy, and effective way to lose weight and gain health. Once we establish those guidelines the next section will show you how to eat right when you don’t really have time to cook. We’ll follow that up with a few recipes to get you started on the road to a slimmer you. Throughout the chapter I will list resources that I have personally found helpful during this whole process.
Eating right is really all about common sense. The fad diet pushers would like you to believe that they and only they can give you the body you so desire. They act as if losing weight is a secret that you have to learn from them. Then again, they want your money, don’t they? If you believe that some weight-loss guru has the holy grail of thinness, then you will probably pay whatever they ask to get into the thin and fit club.
You know what? They are lying to you. Losing weight isn’t a big secret. It isn’t complicated. And you already know what it is. Don’t believe me? Let’s review it and tell me if I’m telling you something you don’t already know.
Eat Fewer Calories than You Burn
Calories count. Always. Anyone who tells you any differently is lying. If you want to lose weight you have to take in fewer calories than you burn. It’s as simple as that. But you already knew that deep down. All of those diets that claim that you can eat unlimited quantities of your favorite foods and still lose weight look good for a reason. They sound like a way to cheat to get what you want. You’re right. You are cheating. But unlike school, you can not fool your body for long. It will all catch up to you.
The one part of weight loss that can be complicated is figuring out how many calories you should cut to permanently lose weight. This section is going to explain it to you so you can figure it out for yourself.
One pound of weight is made up of 3,500 calories. If you want to lose that pound, you have to burn 3,500 more calories than you take in. If you want to lose that pound in seven days, you need to cut 500 calories out of each day. Some people (and you know who you are) are already thinking that if they can cut 500 calories out of their day and lose a pound, then cutting 1500 calories out of your day is three times better because you can lose 3 pounds.
This sounds very logical. If this were a math problem in class it would make perfect sense. ‘If Johnny has $3,500 and he gives away $1,500 a day, how many days will it take for him to go completely broke?’ But this doesn’t work in real life (at least where your weight is concerned) and I’ll tell you why.
Introducing the Starvation Mode
Let’s look at an example. If you were to try and drive across the country without refilling your gas tank what would happen? Your car would drive until you ran out of gas. Then you would be stranded.
Your body is a lot smarter than your car. When it detects that you are eating too few calories it enters starvation mode. Your metabolism slows down. Your energy level plummets. It starts eating in to your muscle tissue. Any extra calories you do consume are going to be turned right into fat. When your body thinks its starving, it does everything to keep you alive. This means, besides turning your body systems down it is going to turn your hunger level way up. You will crave the high-calorie, high-fat foods that your body knows will keep you safe through whatever famine you are obviously going through.
When you eat too few calories, in other words, you have no energy, you crave “bad” foods, and you turn everything you eat into fat. I don’t have to tell you that this is a recipe for weight gain, not weight loss, do I? Nobody can operate under these conditions. Eventually you will slip up and eat everything in sight. Even stuff you don’t really like. Then you will get discouraged at your lack of will-power and give up. This is what not to do. But we aren’t here to talk about how to fail. We’re here to talk about how to win.
What to Do if You Want to Lose Weight
Figure out how many calories you need to eat to survive. There is a mathematical formula that will help you figure out how much you need to eat to live. If you dip below this number you will enter starvation mode. Never, ever go below this number. Here is how to figure it out:
Calculate your BMR
BMR stands for Basal Metabolic Rate. It means the amount of calories you expend to run your body systems and lay in your bed breathing. Use the following equations to figure out your BMR:
Men: 66 + (13.7 x Weight in Kg) + (5 x height in cm) – (6.8 x age in years)
Women: 665 + (9.6 x wt in Kg) + (1.8 x ht in cm) – (4.7 x age in years)
Multiply your height in inches by 2.54 to get centimeters
Divide your weight in pounds by 2.2 to get Kg
An example:
Woman
43 years
5’6 (167.64 cm)
168 pounds (76.36 Kg)
665 + (9.6 x 76.36) + (1.8 x 167.64) – (4.7 x 43)
665 + 733.56 + 301.752 – 202.1 = 1498 calories just to stay alive.
Now we add in your activity level. Take your BMR number and multiply it by one of the following numbers:
If you are:
Sedentary (little or no exercise) BMR x 1.2
Light activity (exercise 1-3 days per week) BMR x 1.375
Moderate activity (3-5 days per week) BMR x 1.55
High activity (Daily, high intensity) BMR x 1.725
Let’s continue with our previous example:
Woman
BMR = 1498
Sedentary = 1498 x 1.2
1797.6 Calories to maintain weight
Of course, you want to lose weight, not stay the same. To lose a pound or two a week, cut somewhere between 500-1000 calories out of your weekly diet. When choosing the amount of calories to cut, don’t let your calories for the day go any lower than 1200 for a woman or 1800 for a man. This is the safest minimum number of calories you should eat. If we look at the woman in our above example, she could safely cut 500 calories out of her life (ending up with 1297) but not 1000. Her lowest calorie count for the day should be a minimum of 1200 unless she wants to go into starvation mode.
For long-term, pain free weight loss, start with a 500 calorie reduction. You will be able to keep this up almost indefinitely. Once you get used to this amount, consider reducing your calories further, if you won’t go any lower than 1200 or 1800 calories.
Of course, you can’t do any of this if you don’t keep track of how many calories you take in. Keep a food journal. Write down what you eat and how much. Just doing this may help you to lower how much you eat, but we aren’t going to rely on that. Buy a set of measuring spoons and measuring cups and use those to serve up your food. Write everything down. Don’t go back to change it later. This isn’t school. The only person who loses when you lie about how much you eat is you.
After you write things down you have two options. You can either try to figure out your calories manually or you can let your computer do it for you. Personally I think I have enough on my plate already. I’d rather let someone else work all the calculations. There are online sites that will calculate your calories and keep track of what you eat day by day. MyFoodDiary.com or MyFitnessPal.com are good sites for that. There are also many computer programs you can buy to do the same thing—just make sure it comes with a large food database that you can update online.
Some Good News
The more you exercise, the more you can eat. A word of warning: Some people think that exercise will allow them to eat anything and everything they want. Not true. But you can eat more than the guy who lies on his couch all night and still lose weight. Let’s say we take our 43 year old woman from the previous example. Let’s say she decides to exercise at high intensity six days out of seven. Let’s see how that changes what she should eat.
BMR: 1498
High Activity: BMR x 1.725
2584 Calories to maintain weight
If this woman cuts out 500 calories a day, she has 2084 calories she can eat and still lose a pound a week. This is a lot of calories, especially when you use the good food guidelines in the next section. Once you figure out how many calories you ought to eat to lose weight, 25% of the battle is over. You will conquer another 25% when you write everything down and keep track of your calories. Actually restricting your calories to your optimal range is another 25%. In other words, just following these simple guidelines is 75% of what you need to do to maintain permanent weight loss. The last 25% is what you choose to put in your mouth.
Clearing Up the Nutrient Confusion
You may have noticed that I have a little problem with all of those fad diet pushers. It’s because they have messed with a very straightforward subject so they can fool us into giving them our money. Before we bust some of their myths let’s cover what you should be eating.
Fruit: Eat a minimum of two pieces a day. Three or four is even better.
Vegetables: Eat a minimum of 3 ½-1 cup servings per day. The more the merrier.
Whole Grains: Eat a minimum of 6 servings a day. This includes brown rice, whole wheat flour, whole wheat couscous, etc.
Lean Protein: Eat a minimum of 2 servings a day. This food group includes beans, nuts, tofu, chicken breast, turkey.
Fat-free Dairy or Calcium-fortified Soy Products: Eat two to three servings a day. This group includes fat-free milk, soy milk, fat-free cheese, regular and soy yogurt, etc.
Healthy fats: 1-2 tsp. per day. This group includes olive oil, soy, and corn oil.
If you go to the store and use the above list as your shopping list and combine it with the calorie counting you will lose weight and feel great. End of story. If you want to make your weight loss even easier, you will use these proportions:
• 45-65% calories from Carbohydrates (the majority from whole grains)
• 10-35% calories from lean Protein
• 20-35% calories from Fat (the majority from healthy fats)
The rest of your calories should be spread evenly between fruits, vegetables, and dairy, emphasizing the fruits and vegetables a little more than the dairy. MyFoodDiary.com will track this information for you automatically and rate how well you are doing.
This is not sexy information. And it sounds an awful lot like hard work. That is why the fad diets are so popular. They tell you that you can change your body without changing any of your habits. Sad to say, most people would rather waste their money on a dream than actually put in the effort to look and feel great. But that isn’t you. You’re smarter than that.
I do understand that sometimes those stories sound good. So let’s talk about the two types of food most people get confused about.
Making Peace with Carbs
Complex carbohydrates are wonderful. You know them best as whole grain and whole wheat products, with a sprinkling of fruits and vegetables. These boost your energy level for exercise and provide a lot of heart healthy fiber. They make you feel full right away. It’s the refined carbohydrates that are making people fat.
Don’t believe me? When was the last time you found someone who was compulsively overeating plain brown rice? I didn’t think so. Let’s get real here. It’s the Danishes, the double chocolate muffins, the cakes, the cookies, and the fried stuff that makes us fat. That banana or carrot stick had very little to do with it.
Refined carbohydrates (or carbs) raise your blood sugar very quickly. Your body goes into panic mode and dumps a bunch of insulin on it to restore balance. Unfortunately, your sugar level then drops very quickly. You start craving sugary, fatty foods (which is what got you into trouble in the first place). Unless you break the cycle, this will go on forever. Cut out the refined stuff and it will be easier to eat less.
The Place for Protein
You need protein. But not as much protein as you are probably already eating. If you eat more protein than you need, then your body is forced to get rid of the excess. It does this by pulling the calcium out of your bones and using that to flush out the protein. This is fine if you like the hunch-back, osteoporotic look later in life.
No? Then keep your protein to no more than 35% of your calories. This translates into a few ounces a day.
People forget that for most of human history meat was rare and used the same way we use parsley—it was there for flavor and to dress the food up a bit. We don’t need much protein. This is good, seeing how hard it is to get. Have you ever tried out-running an antelope?
Putting it all Together
So how do you make all the health guidelines work for you? How do you add whole grains, fruits and vegetables to your life when you don’t cook much? Here is a list of meal ideas you can use:
Breakfast Guidelines:
Look for 3g of fiber or more in your cereal and less than 8g of sugar. Cereals that qualify are:
Shredded wheat
All Bran
Kashi Go Lean
And use soymilk or fat-free milk
Other Breakfast Foods:
Egg whites
Canadian bacon or soy patties
Old fashioned oatmeal made with milk
Eat one piece of fruit at breakfast
Lunch Guideline:
Eat two vegetables, 1 protein and 2 carbohydrates. The exact amount depends on your daily caloric needs. I am assuming you eat out for lunch because I know how life is. These options can also be made at home.
Chinese Food
Get brown rice, steamed vegetables, and either tofu or chicken.
American
-Baked potato with vegetarian chili (get the vegetarian chili because it has less fat)
-Salad. Keep the dressing on the side. Put beans and lean protein on the salad so keeps you full longer.
-Sandwich. Use whole grain bread, low or non-fat cheese, lean meat or soy substitute, and plenty of vegetables. Hold the mayo.
Dinner Guidelines:
Try to keep this meal light. Eat enough so you won’t get hungry half an hour later, but go light. Try to eat a bit more protein than carbohydrates at this meal. Eat 2 vegetables, 2 servings of protein, and 1 carbohydrate. Here are some examples of things you should keep in your fridge. That way, when you come home you can grab something from each category, warm it up and serve.
Vegetables Protein Carbohydrates
Salad Grilled chicken Whole wheat couscous
Steamed broccoli Beans Brown rice
Bell Pepper Strips Tofu Whole wheat pasta
You can cook even if you have no time. Go to your local grocery store and buy a couple rotisserie chickens. Get a bag or two of salad like Romaine and a bottle of low fat dressing. Buy either whole wheat couscous or red potatoes. If you have a microwave you can have dinner for 4 in 10 minutes. Add some ketchup and you are there.
The Bottom Line
Good nutrition isn’t hard. It all comes down to keeping the right foods in your house, in your car, and at work. You can have a healthy eating plan even if you eat out a lot. Most of your breakfast, lunch, and dinner choices can be found in a restaurant near you. Give it a try for three weeks. Your body will thank you for it.
40: How to Stay Healthy
Once you begin exercising and eating right you will notice a difference. You will have more energy, feel more optimistic, and fit into smaller clothes. You will also lower your chances of having a heart attack or dying of cancer.
40 is a special age. It’s a time when you reexamine your life and take stock of the person you have become. It is also the time to start getting your cholesterol, blood pressure, and body fat percentage checked. If you are a woman you will have your first mammogram. If you take my advice you will do all of this before you start exercising. You may want to go in after three months of exercise and healthy eating just to see how much you have improved. That is purely optional, however.
Now that you’re all grown up there is something we need to talk about.
Stress
You need a hobby. It doesn’t actually matter what it is so long as you enjoy it and it helps you relax. You’re dealing with a lot of stress in your life. This wears at you, which speeds up the aging process. It lowers your ability to fight off cancer and is a contributing factor in hypertension and cardio-vascular disease. Doing something you enjoy helps protect you against these things.
Learn to fish. Take a cooking class. Learn to make beer from a kit. Take up a craft like crochet or build models. Join a book group. Take dancing lessons. Go for walks in the park. Garden. Restart that hobby you were crazy about but gave up when life grew too complicated.
Hobbies make you happy. When you are happy you’re easier to deal with. You eat less garbage foods. You buy less useless stuff. You are better able to deal with the yahoos in your life. You connect with great people who become great friends.
Don’t skip this step. It’s vital for your well-being and your life.
Of course, your forties don’t last forever. As they draw to a close you may be wondering what is ahead during the big 5-0.
Chapter 2 50: The New Majority
Did you ever think you would make it this far? Back when you were 18, 50 looked old. Now that you’re here you probably do feel old sometimes. The rest of the time you are probably thinking that 50 really isn’t that old after all.
Women and men approach 50 differently. The kids are (hopefully) out of the house and you are probably thinking of putting something away for retirement. Men most often worry themselves sick about retirement. What are you and who are you when you have to stop defining yourself by your job? For men (and I’m generalizing here, there are exceptions) this is the decade of denial. We might start planning for it financially, but the rest of our mind is denying that anything will change.
The opposite seems to hold true for women. The kids leave the house, and the ladies have more time to focus on themselves. They come into their own power. Many of the women I have talked to said they feel far more powerful, confident, and independent in their 50’s and 60’s than they ever have before. Maybe it’s because women are used to switching back and forth between so many roles. While men start to panic about their loss of identity, women look forward to using their time the way they choose.
Body Changes, Body Complications
If you’ve been reading this guide right through you know about the changes that hit you at 40. Your muscles start breaking down and your metabolism slows. If you do nothing, these changes keep coming and you add new ones to the list. You start losing bone density. Women and men have this problem. It just seems to affect women more because they live longer than men. Your eyesight starts changing. And you need a little more time in the morning to get the juices flowing.
In other words, you start the long process of decay that eventually ends in death. But that is only if you don’t do anything about it.
You don’t have to get flabby and frail. If you are out of shape now you can get lean and strong again. The body is a wonderful thing. It will always adapt itself to whatever lifestyle you choose to lead. When you sit around and eat garbage you get the overweight, tired body that goes with that lifestyle. When you exercise and eat right you get the sleek body adapted to that environment.
It’s your choice. If you choose to decay you can close this book right now. The rest of you will learn how to stay active and happy into your eighties and beyond.
Fitness at 50
Let’s get one thing straight. You’re body thrives on exercise. If you’ve never exercised before your body is still yearning for that thing it never did. When you stop moving you start rotting. That doesn’t sound too pleasant, I know. It isn’t too great for your body either. Unfortunately, it’s the truth.
If you want to feel good and look young, you need to exercise. If you want to beat back osteoporosis, you need to exercise. If you want to prevent or reverse heart disease, you need to exercise. Are you sensing a pattern here? The aches and pains that you’re feeling, the general tiredness, all of those things recedes into the background when you exercise. If you continue to exercise, they stay in the background where they can’t bother you much.
There are other benefits to exercise. For some of you, this is the decade of a fading sex drive. The hormones for lust and physical performance circulate throughout your bloodstream. (I am hugely simplifying this so we can make the point and move on. There are whole books devoted to this subject.)
When you get old and inactive your circulation suffers. All members of your body that depend on circulation suffer. When you exercise you improve your circulation. If you have been distressed by a lack of interest (or just a lack of performance) in sex, exercise can help.
For the other half of the population, this is the time of the hot flash. Menopause has entered the scene and she will make herself known. We all know people who have a hard time with menopause. Either they are hot and cold or they suffer from mood swings and illness. Sometimes the extra-lucky have all three types of symptoms. Women who are in shape seem to have an easier time enduring menopause.
If you aren’t in shape, start exercising now and you will still have relief from some of the menopausal symptoms. Researchers aren’t sure yet why this is, but who cares? It may be because women who are in shape have less body fat, or it may be something else entirely. As long as you will find some relief that should be enough incentive for you.
A Fitness Reality Check
You aren’t going to experience all of these benefits from a couple of regular rounds of golf or from puttering in your garden. Those activities may be fun, but they aren’t exercise. I have no idea who started the rumor that walking a golf course once in a while could make up for actual exercise. It’s an idea that a lot of people believe is Truth, with a capital ‘T.’
If you want to feel good and look good you need to be exercising at something that makes you hot and sweaty—and stop snickering. You know what I mean. Your heart rate has to be elevated, and you need to feel slightly out of breath at the very least. You need to do this type of workout six days a week. Stop screaming. When you were 20, you could get away with a couple of days at the gym and a strict diet that you followed most of the time. You had the muscle mass to burn off the slack. You had youth on your side.
At 50 you no longer have the ‘youth boost.’ You get what you pay for. If you don’t exercise, what you’re paying for is a flabby, tired body that doesn’t want to work the way it should. It’s just like that old saying—garbage in, garbage out. But if you do exercise, those 20 year olds will be eating your dust.
Don’t believe me? Look at the celebrities you see in the movies and on the news. These are people who live by their looks. They eat right and exercise every day. As a result they look years younger than the rest of the population.
How to Exercise Safely and Effectively
Get a heart monitor. This is the number one piece of equipment you need to invest in after a good pair of sneakers. Why? For two reasons:
1) Your minimum working heart rate range drops 10 beats per minute (BMP) from what it was when you were 40. You need to keep track of where you are in your range to keep yourself safe.
2) Most people think they’re working out harder than they really are. The heart rate monitor keeps you honest. Hey, there’s no reason to work out unless it’s doing something for you, right?
Everyone who is serious about fitness buys a heart monitor. Since you are going to make fitness an important part of your life you need to have the proper tools. You can get a simple heart monitor for about $60. If you want something that will automatically calculate your optimal health range for your age, weight, and gender, and keep track of how many calories you’re burning, that will run you about $100. You can shop for a heart monitor at HeartRateMonitorUSA.com. Just don’t go crazy with all of the bells and whistles. You don’t need those to get the job done.
Pay Attention to Your Body
This is the key to exercising without pain. If you’ve never exercised before (or it has been a really long time) you are going to be sore the next day for the first week or so. Just expect it. Your body will take a little time believing that you actually mean to give it what it needs. It will take a little time for it to adapt to what you’re doing. Follow the guidelines below, but keep an eye on how you feel throughout the program.
…If you’re active.
Those of you who have kept in shape can still perform your favorite fitness activities. There is no reason for you to give up running if you still feel good while doing it. The one thing you will notice is that you don’t recover nearly as fast as you used to. If you challenge yourself fitness-wise (and you should, occasionally) with a high intensity activity, remember to give yourself time to recover. You don’t have to take the next day off, just go light.
…If you’re sedentary.
It’s a good idea for the active folk to stay active. For you, getting active is a necessity. But you have to start slowly. You’ve lost a significant amount of muscle mass. Even worse, your joint, tendon, and ligament flexibility has gone into the toilet.
Focus on high intensity exercises that don’t jolt your joints. If you like the treadmill for instance, move the incline up and walk briskly uphill. This is better than keeping the incline flat and running. You will get a good workout without damaging your joints.
…For everybody.
Assess how you feel after each workout. Your body is in a constant state of change. An activity that is too hard for you to do when you’re first starting out will be doable just a few months later. Don’t let yourself fall into a rut. Once an activity feels good, change things up a bit. Add more intensity or try something completely new. This will keep your body from adapting to the exercise.
Adapting sounds good, but it isn’t, in this case. When you adapt to an exercise you will no longer progress in your fitness goals. Changing your activity here and there forces the body to keep improving because it can’t predict what you will ask it to do next. You will be sending the signal that your body needs to improve as fast as possible to keep up with the changing circumstances.
On the other hand, if you feel like you’ve been hit by a truck, back off a little and progress more slowly. You don’t want to kill yourself. If you can’t get out of bed for three days afterward, you pushed it too hard. This doesn’t do anything for your body. And the key is to feel better not worse, right? Tone it down a little.
Everybody should be exercising six days a week. When you were in your 40’s you had the option to start with three days of exercise a week and gradually work your way up.
You don’t have that option at 50. The forces of decay are working too fast. You don’t have that kind of time. Black out an hour and a half of time.
You will exercise for 45 minutes and use the other 45 minutes to get to the gym and change. Let’s discuss what you will do when you get there.
What to Do
Cardio
Work on cardiovascular activities four days out of six. It can be any activity you want—swimming, biking, aerobics, the elliptical trainer—so long as you work out for 45 minutes in your aerobic zone. Don’t forget to warm up, cool down, and stretch during that time.
Your warm up can be a slow 2-3 minute walk. The same goes for the cool down. After your warm up, stretch the muscles you are about to work. This will cut down on your chance of injury.
Strength Training
This becomes even more important now than it was ten years ago. Weight train a minimum of two days out of six. If you want to cut back on one cardio day to work out with weights, go ahead. Strength training will help prevent osteoporosis. If you already have osteoporosis or have lost bone density, strength training can help your body reverse the effects.
If you’ve never weight trained you will want to either hire a personal trainer to help you learn the proper forms or talk a knowledgeable friend or relative into doing it for free. If you are very weak, I advise you to spend the money on a professional who has worked with mature adults just entering weight training. He or she will know how to help you in a safe, effective manner. Besides, that young relative may inadvertently hurt you—or treat you like a fragile flower when you aren’t! Once you know what you’re doing, try out the body weight moves listed in the ‘fitness at 40’ section of this book.
Balance and Core Moves
The folks in their 40’s were told to work on balance exercises once a week. You will work on balance and core exercises 2-3 three times a week, on the same days you do your weight training. This is going to protect you from all of those nasty falls that break bones and put you out of commission. Start with the balance exercises you will find on page 12. Add in a set of crunches and cobras (see below).
Crunches
Lie on your back. Put your hands behind your head and look up at the ceiling. Continue looking up at the ceiling as you pull your shoulder blades up off the floor. Carefully lower yourself back down. Do as many as you can comfortably fit into 15 seconds. Do not compromise your form. This is one set. Beginners: Start with 1 set. Advanced: Start with 2 sets and work up to three.
Cobras
Lie on your stomach. Your hands should be flat on the floor by your ears. The idea is to lift your upper body up off the ground and hold it for a count of two without using your hands. If you can’t do this yet, then use your hands to help you a little bit. Try to do five, but stop before your head pops off. Remember to breathe. Gradually work your way up to 10. This is one set. Beginners: Start with 1 set. Advanced: Do two sets to start and work your way up to three. When in doubt, start slower and easier than you think you need to. It’s far better to be bored the first week than hurt yourself and never come back. Gradually make the workouts harder. The key is to be consistent.
The next section will show you how to eat to keep yourself healthy as you age.
50: How to Eat
Healthy eating is healthy eating no matter how old you are. If you have to lose some weight, refer back to the nutrition section back in the chapter for forty year-olds. These guidelines apply to you too. You will want to make all of your food choices using these healthy guidelines:
Daily Amount of Food From Each Group
Calorie Level1 1,000 1,200 1,400 1,600 1,800 2,000
Fruits2 1 cup 1 cup 1.5 cups 1.5 cups 1.5 cups 2 cups
Vegetables3 1 cup 1.5 cups 1.5 cups 2 cups 2.5 cups 2.5 cups
Grains4 3 oz 4 oz 5 oz 5 oz 6 oz 6 oz
Meat and Beans5 2 oz 3 oz 4 oz 5 oz 5 oz 5.5 oz
Milk6 2 cups 2 cups 2 cups 3 cups 3 cups 3 cups
Oils7 3 tsp 4 tsp 4 tsp 5 tsp 5 tsp 6 tsp
1= Calorie levels are set across a wide range to accommodate the needs of different individuals.
2= Get the majority of these nutrients from fresh sources. In general 1 cup of fruit or 100% juice, or 1/2 cup of dried fruit can be considered as 1 cup from the fruit group.
3= includes all fresh, frozen, canned, and dried vegetables and vegetable juices. In general, 1 cup of raw or cooked vegetables or vegetable juice, or 2 cups of raw leafy greens can be considered as 1 cup from the vegetable group.
4= includes all foods made from wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, and barley, such as bread, pasta, oatmeal, breakfast cereals, tortillas, and grits. In general, 1 slice of bread, 1 cup of ready-to-eat cereal, or 1/2 cup of cooked rice, pasta, or cooked cereal can be considered as 1 ounce equivalent from the grains group.
5= in general, 1 ounce of lean meat, poultry, or fish, 1 egg, 1 Tbsp peanut butter, 1/4 cup cooked dry beans, or 1/2 ounce of nuts or seeds can be considered as 1 ounce equivalent from the meat and beans group.
6= includes all fluid milk products and food made from milk that retain their calcium content, such as yogurt and cheese. Foods made from milk that have little to no calcium, such as cream cheese, cream and butter, are not part of the group. In general, 1 cup of milk or yogurt, 1 1/2 ounces of natural cheese, or 2 ounces of processed cheese can be considered as 1 cup from the milk group.
7= include fats from many different plants and from fish that are liquid at room temperature, such as canola, corn, olive, soybean, and sunflower oil. Foods that are mainly oil include mayonnaise, certain salad dressings, and soft margarine.
Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
This is just a general guide. To use it, you need to figure out your specific calorie needs based on your weight, age, and current activity level. Again, see the 40’s nutrition section for how to calculate your personal calorie requirements.
As you get older the amount of calories you need to survive starts to decline. This is because you are losing muscle and gaining more fat as the years roll by. You can change that by exercising and building muscle.
Of course you can’t exercise very well if you put terrible food into that amazing body of yours.
At 50 you need to really focus on the quality of the food you eat. This is how:
1) Eat a low-salt, low-fat diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and fiber.
2) Eat smaller meals more often to prop up your sagging metabolism.
3) Stay away from simple or refined carbohydrates. We’re talking about anything made from white flour—muffins, cookies, white bread, and white sugar. Move those daily treats to one treat per week.
4) Get the majority of your fats from the ‘healthy’ fat list: olive oil, avocados, nuts, nut oils, and organic corn and soybean oil. Get organic because the majority of non-organic corn and soybeans have been genetically altered. We don’t yet know what the long-term effects are of these products. Do you really want to be a Guinea pig?
5) Eat lean protein. Try to get 50% of your protein requirements from vegetarian sources like beans and legumes. Soy and dairy products also contain a lot of protein.
6) Get more calcium. If you only pick two guidelines to follow, they should be this one and number 7. You need strong bones if you want to live. Hip replacement surgery is invasive, painful, and (sometimes) can shorten your lifespan by 2-4 years. Ouch. Now is the time to protect yourself.
7) Focus on fiber. Fiber comes from the plant kingdom. Eat your beans—those fiber powerhouses—and plenty of fruits and vegetables. This will keep you regular and clear out dangerous, cancer causing agents from your body. And beans are high in plant protein – it’s a two –for-one deal!
How to Incorporate these Guidelines into Your Diet
It’s all very well to know what you should be doing. To put those guidelines to use you need to know how to use them. Here are ways to increase the fiber and calcium in your life:
How to Increase Your Calcium Intake
1) Eat more broccoli, spinach, and Swiss chard.
2) Buy a box of fat-free milk powder and throw a few tablespoons into almost every recipe you make. You won’t even taste it in your baked goods, or anything else that is already creamy.
3) Have a glass of fat-free milk or calcium fortified soy milk with lunch.
4) Have a glass of calcium fortified orange juice with breakfast.
If you eat; Replace it with
White rice; Brown rice, whole wheat couscous,
Quinoa; wild rice, barley
White bread 100%; Whole Wheat bread
Breakfast bars; Bars made with 100% whole wheat or unprocessed grains
Muffins; Air Popped or 97% Fat Free microwave popcorn
Regular pasta; whole wheat pasta
Sugary cereals/Cereals Shredded wheat, Kashi brand, Fiber with less than 3 grams of fiber One, Cereals with 3+ grams of fiber
Fat Free desserts; Fruit
Recipes for Keeping Healthy
Breakfast:
Oatmeal made with milk
Power Calcium Blueberry Pancakes*
Calcium fortified cereal with fat-free milk or soy milk
Lunch:
Chili beans and a Spinach salad*
Quick Chicken Fajitas in a whole wheat tortilla*
Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce
Dinner:
Mashed potatoes
Chicken cutlet
Steamed broccoli
Power Calcium Blueberry Pancakes Directions
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 Cup White Flour
½ cup Fat-Free Milk Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp. Baking Powder
½ cup Egg Beaters
1-1 ½ cups 2% Buttermilk
1 cup Blueberries
1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together.
2. Add in the buttermilk and egg whites and mix until combined.
3. Add the blueberries and cook on a heated pan.
Makes 12
Spinach Salad Directions
½ Bag Baby Spinach
1/3 cube of Athens Fat Free Feta Cheese
Cherry tomatoes to taste, halved
6 Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
Dressing of choice
1. Mix everything together
2. If you are using full fat dressing limit yourself to 1 Tbsp.
Serves 2
Quick Chicken Fajitas Directions
1 pound cooked chicken breast from the deli
1 bag stir fry vegetables
1 jar salsa of choice 1. Cut the chicken into strips
2. Either steam the vegetables on the stove or in the microwave in a small plastic container full of water until soft. Drain.
3. Combine with chicken.
4. Pour the salsa over everything and reheat in the microwave.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different foods. You may not feel like cooking now that the kids are gone. That’s understandable if a little wrong-headed. You are what you eat. If you eat garbage, you will look and feel like garbage.
You don’t need to cook every day. All of the recipes I’ve included will feed one or two people for at least two days. If you cook twice as much as you need you can eat a varied, nutritious diet every day of the week and only cook two days a week. When it comes right down to it, you are trading one to two hours of time per week to guarantee that you feel good the other 166 hours that make up that week. That’s what I call a good investment.
It’s vital that you get a handle on your eating and exercise habits. Once you do these two things you are virtually guaranteeing that you’ll spend the next thirty years (give or take a few) enjoying your life. The next section will discuss other ways you can raise those odds even higher.
50: How to Stay Healthy
The key to staying healthy is preventing problems before they occur. That is what you are doing when you eat right, exercise, and control your weight. The second way to stay healthy is to nip any problems that do come up in the bud. You need to go get a physical before you start exercising. It only makes sense. At 50, there are other tests that you also will need to add to your list of things to do:
Colon Cancer: Get a colon and rectal exam. Color cancer is nasty. Fortunately, doctors have a few ways to find it before it becomes fatal. Make sure there isn’t anything growing in there that shouldn’t be.
Osteoporosis: This is for the ladies in the audience. This is the time when osteoporosis starts rearing its ugly head. If your bone density is down, you will want to focus on strength training and balance exercises.
Prostate Screening: Fellas, it’s time to think about your prostate health. Don’t put this off. The sooner you start dealing with any problems that show up, the better your chances are of dodging the fatal forms of the cancer bullet.
Diabetes: Welcome to the age of adult-onset diabetes. This problem is perfectly manageable—and reversible—with proper diet and exercise modifications. In other words, if you stop eating garbage and go work out you will often get better.
Take Care of Your Emotional Health
The longest lived people all have a few things in common. They all eat right and exercise. But they also remain connected to a group of friends and engage in activities that matter to them.
What does this mean to you, you ask?
Stay connected
The kids are gone. You may or may not be living alone. In any case, if you have a spouse, he or she isn’t enough, if only because one person shouldn’t have to support all of your companionship requirements. Unfortunately, most people in their 50’s enter this decade with fewer personal connections that they should have.
Does this sound like you? You can do something about it. One of the easiest (and healthiest) ways to make friends is to join a group fitness activity. This can be an aerobics class you go to every day, a master’s swim club, or a biking group that meets once a week or once a month. Pick a sport you like or can stand to do regularly, and then go look for a club for it.
This does two things for you. First of all, if you get together regularly with the same people you will automatically build connections. Secondly, with those connections comes responsibility. You are more likely to go exercise regularly if you know people will miss you. It’s a win/win situation.
Do something meaningful
You need to do something you care about. This can be anything from volunteering your time at a charitable organization to raising rare breeds of tomatoes. Pick a subject, get involved, read up on it, and be active in it. Or maybe you could go back to college and get that degree you never had time for. You may have to keep this activity on the sidelines until retirement, but it’s important that you start something right now. Your health depends on it.
This may seem illogical. You’ve worked all of your life. You may be looking forward to not doing anything like that anymore. By all means, take a vacation. But make it a short one. The human body is designed to move. The human mind is designed to solve problems. If you don’t exercise your body, it rots. If you don’t solve problems, your mind rots. Or you start wondering if anything matters any more.
We like vacations because they are surrounded by work. A good vacation refreshes you so you are ready to go out and solve problems again. When you retire, give yourself a new job. Make it something you love to do and can be passionate about. It will give you a reason to look forward to getting up in the morning.
Chapter 3 60: Who are You Calling a Senior Citizen?
Back before the baby boomer generation, 60 meant old. It meant hobbling around on a walker with a hump on your back or your head permanently pointed downward. It meant a forgetful mind and wandering thoughts. This is old age, the health community said. It isn’t pleasant but it is reality.
Fortunately for you, there were doctors and nutritionists who refused to take this problem lying down. There is a wealth of research out there that can help you live a longer, better, and happier life.
That doesn’t mean you are going to feel like you are in your thirties. Problems like bad knees, arthritis, and spinal stenosis (pressure on the spine) can significantly slow you down. Even if you somehow escape arthritis and osteoporosis, you often have more aches and pains than you did 10 years ago. You’re sleeping less and need longer to get going in the morning. Your sense of taste may be changing and you’re probably on a few prescription medications.
No, you aren’t thirty anymore and you never will be. But that doesn’t mean that you have to lose your mobility and go senile. Old no longer means fragile and useless. Not if you don’t want it to. When you’re sedentary and hit your sixties, the last thing you want to do is start exercising and changing the way you eat. You may think it’s too late for you to change your ways. You worked hard all of your life and now you’re going to rest.
The Problem with ‘Taking it Easy’
Unfortunately, if you don’t move you are going to have a miserable ride to your final rest. This is the theme you are going to hear over and over in this book. Print it permanently in your brain. Your body is happiest when you get up and move. The majority of those ‘old age’ problems are really sedentary diseases in disguise.
If you’ve lost your health, or if you’re sixty and sick, this section of the book will help you find your health again. The diseases that come with a sedentary lifestyle can be reversed by an active lifestyle. If you are in shape, then this chapter will help you to stay in good shape. You don’t have to grow frail and forgetful. If you are already frail, you don’t have to stay that way.
There is no pill that you can pop that will take you back to 30 again. No matter how many of us wish that we could turn back the clock and live our lives then with the knowledge we have now, it isn’t going to happen. All you can change is the life you have right now. The health you have right now can change as well. If you want to be more youthful, you have to work for it. If you want to be sharper mentally, you have to work for it. If you want to be slimmer and more energetic, you have to work for it. It will take some effort. The effects will be well worth anything you do to attain that vibrant health.
Are you ready to take control of your life? You can begin again at 60. Let’s take that first step.
Fitness at 60
The sixties are often known as the golden years. They could also be known as the decade of the joint. Why? These parts of your body tend to start talking to you the loudest at this age. Arthritis, bad knees, and the like all really boil down to joint issues. Your joints have been moving since the day you were born. It makes sense that they are also the parts of you that wear out the most noticeably.
When you come into your sixties you still need to work out hard—hard for you, that is. That probably won’t be at the same level as that 20-something ‘gym rat’ on the treadmill next to you. Don’t feel bad about that. Your maximum aerobic heart rate range has just dropped another 10 beats per minute from what it was 10 years ago.
You can find your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. So if you just turned 60…
220-60
160 = Your maximum heart rate.
220-20
200= Gym rat’s maximum heart rate.
As you can see, if that kid isn’t working harder than you, he needs to get moving!
If you want to work in the low aerobic mode to burn the most fat you will work at 60-65% of your maximum rate. For our sixty year old that means 96. If you want to work on your cardiovascular conditioning you will want to work at 75% of your maximum capacity. For the average 60 years old that is 120 beats per minute.
If you’ve read through this book, you know what I’m about to tell you. Get a heart monitor. There is nothing as painful as trying to work out and keep track of your heart rate without one of these wonderful little toys. Get the heart rate monitor or you are going to waste a good percentage of your workouts either working too hard or not working hard enough. You can get one at HeartRateMonitorUSA.com. Just do it.
How to Begin Exercising Safely and Effectively
When you’re just beginning, you will want to concentrate on long and slow exercise sessions. Keep yourself in the 60-65% range until you become conditioned. Make sure you talk to your doctor before beginning or increasing any exercise program. Remember, it is far better to exercise lightly and adjust it up gradually day by day than to over-do it and never come back. One hard exercise session will not turn the tide of a sedentary lifestyle.
Your aging joints can change the emphasis of your workouts. You will still be exercising 6 days a week. In fact, now that you are retired this will be your new job. Your job is the thing you went to every day, rain or shine, whether you wanted to or not. Exercise is also non-negotiable. Age isn’t trying to creep up on you anymore. That old lion has you in its jaws and is trying to drag you away to devour you. Exercise is the stick you use to beat him back.
What to Do
There are three types of exercise that you will be doing to beat back the lion: cardiovascular work, strength training, and balance/core work. Here is what you need to know to make these exercises work for you:
Cardiovascular work
Listen to your joints. You may have to avoid exercises that jar or stress your joints. If you’ve never exercised at all (or are getting back after a long absence) stick with brisk walking, low-impact aerobics, water jogging, water aerobics, and the stationary bike and treadmill.
If you’ve kept yourself active, do a little experimenting to see what works for you. If you are used to long runs, exchange them for shorter runs or jogging. Don’t engage in a high-impact activity every day. Switch between high impact activities and a low impact activity like a spin class. Your major cardiovascular advantage is in endurance activities. An in-shape senior may not be as fast as a twenty-something gym rat, but you can keep going long after they give up and go home. And let me tell you, there is nothing sweeter than outlasting one of those obnoxious hard-bodies!
You will want to perform some form of intense cardiovascular activity three days out of six. On the other days, incorporate more non-exercise related activities into your day. Here is where the gardening can come in. Go for a long stroll. Take a dancing class. Take a leisurely bike ride.
Strength training
Anyone can lift weights. Anyone. Dr. Fiatorone proved this when he took the frail elderly at a nursing home (his patients were between the ages of 86-93) and put them on a weight training plan. Many of these ladies and gentlemen were so weak they couldn’t walk without a walker. Some needed help just to get out of a chair. In just eight weeks these volunteers increased their strength by an average of 175%. Their walking speed and balance improved by 48%. Two of the participants threw out their canes.
If an 86 year old woman can benefit from a strength training program, so can you. You are twenty-some years younger. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never lifted a weight in your life. Obviously, if you’ve never lifted weights you will want to hire an expert to show you the ropes—and get medical clearance from your doctor. In general, they will both tell you to start using very light weights and then gradually work your way up in intensity.
Let me say this again—go slowly. Your tendons and ligaments will take longer to get strong and flexible than your muscles will take to get strong. Yes, you heard me. Your muscles and tendons improve at different rates. I’ll even tell you why.
Your circulatory system is in charge of bringing the cells that make your body stronger everywhere they are needed. Think of this as the roadway of your body. Your muscles have a lot of roadways—they are like cities. You can get anything in a large city. Your joints don’t get as much blood running through them. They are like the country. The roads are smaller and it takes longer to get what you want. Therefore your joints take longer to adapt to change. This is a vast oversimplification of a complex system, but you get the idea.
Strength train two days out of six. Use a weight that allows you to perform 8-10 repetitions. You should feel tired after the 10th rep. If you feel any pain, stop immediately. You will feel a little sore the next day. If you feel like you were run over by a truck, slow down.
Balance and Core work
You will be concentrating most of your effort on your balance and core exercises. The weight training will help you with your balance as well, but you need to do more than that. If you don’t do specific exercises to lengthen your ligaments, you will be doddering around in that short stride people in their 80’s usually develop. These exercises also improve your posture. This makes you look younger, and puts less stress on your joints.
Good activities that will help you with this include yoga, tai chi, Pilates, and workouts with the Bosu ball (a soft half-dome used for sitting and standing exercises).
For more exercises that develop strength in your core and flexibility everywhere else, see the balance sections in the chapters for 40 and 50 year olds. Here are a few more that will help with balance and strength:
Torso Mobilizer
1) Sit on the floor (if you don’t have osteoporosis). Put your legs out in front of you with your feet flexed. Hold your arms out in front of you like Frankenstein. Keep your back straight and lean your arms forward. Hold for 20 seconds, then move back to your start position.
2) Raise your arms above your head while your legs are still out in front of you. Pull your bellybutton into your spine. Your arms should be by your ears. Lean back very slightly—this is a small move. Hold for 20 seconds (or as long as you can, whichever is shorter). Beginners: Do 2 sets. Advanced: Do 4-6.
Sitting Bike
1) If you are still on the floor from the last exercise you can do this there. Otherwise, you can choose to do this in a chair. Either put your hands on the floor behind you and lean your weight on them, or hold the back of the chair.
2) Pull your knee up toward your chest just until your heel is off the ground. Hold for two and put it down. Do the other side. This is one rep. Beginners: Work up to 4 on each side. Advanced: Do 8. Beginners should add another set only when they are ready. Advanced people can start out at 2 sets and add on a third when they are ready.
The Tip Toe
Beginners, do this exercise near something you can grab hold of if you lose your balance. Use a handy wall or chair. Whatever it is, make sure it can hold your weight.
1) Stand with your feet touching. Now slowly rise on your tip toes for a count of 20. If this is easy, add the second part.
2) Raise your hands over your head while you are on tip toe. Put your palms together like you’re about to dive. Hold for 20 seconds reaching as far up as you can. If this is easy, do the third part.
3) Hold your hands as in part 2, but only for 10 seconds. Lower your arms to shoulder height. You should look like the letter ‘t.’ Hold this for 10 seconds. Change position every five seconds after this, up and down like you’re flying.
Yes, sixty means you have more aches and pains to deal with, but it doesn’t mean you have to get frail. Do some sort of exercise every day and you will enjoy your golden years in good health.
60: What to Eat
Is your appetite lower than it used to be? Do foods taste less appealing than they used to? There is a reason for that. Your metabolism is slowing down. It will slow down a little even if you are exercising. If you don’t exercise your metabolism will take a nose dive into the gutter. This means you can eat very little and still gain weight. How unfair is that?
Your taste buds are also getting a little less sharp that they used to be. Senior taste buds. Who would have known? Your sense of smell is declining a bit as well. These both affect how much you enjoy your food. If you’re on medication, that can also alter the way foods taste.
Your biggest concern in the eating department should be to make sure you get enough nutrients. If you eat low quality food—or the same foods every day—you can be in danger of developing a nutritional deficit.
So how do you get around these problems? Here are some guidelines to help you out:
How to Eat Well When You Don’t Want to Eat
1) If food doesn’t taste right, experiment with different spices. Go to the baking section of your grocery store and look at all of the different spice blends. Make sure you check the sodium content. Take a few home with you. Sauté different spices in a teaspoon of olive oil to pull out the flavors ,before cooking as normal.
2) Try food from different cultures. This exposes you to a wide variety of food and broadens your mind. Take an ethnic cooking class or a vegetarian cooking class so you can get an idea of what the food should taste like.
3) Concentrate on the quality of your food ingredients. Buy fresh fruits and vegetables whenever possible. If there is a farmer’s market in your area, go take a look at what they offer. You often can get fresher food for less money than what you would pay in the supermarket.
Investigate CSAs (community assisted agriculture) programs in your area. A CSA is basically an agreement between you and a farmer. You pay him ahead of time for part of his harvest. He in turn picks the fruits and vegetables and delivers them to your door. You get fresh produce and he gets a living wage. It’s a win/win situation.
4) Eat smaller meals more often. Breaking up those three big meals into five or six smaller ones can take the stress off of eating. It’s a lot easier to eat what you should if there is less food on your plate at any one time.
5) Turn eating into a social occasion. Regularly get together with friends or family at a restaurant that serves healthy food. Better yet, take turns cooking in each other’s kitchen and sit down to some homemade meals. Make it healthy and take home leftovers.
6) Exercise vigorously. This will improve your appetite because it builds muscle and burns more calories. Your metabolism will speed up in self defense.
These are the coping skills you will use to eat right. Now you may be wondering what ‘eat right’ means for a person in their sixties. We will cover that next.
What to Eat
Your guidelines are very simple. If you follow these you will put yourself on the road to good health:
1) Eat whole grains. As you age, the old plumbing doesn’t always work the way it used to. When you stick to whole grains like brown rice, barley, and Quinoa, you are giving your various systems a boost in the right direction.
Experiment with grains your have never tried before. Go to your local health food store or a chain like Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods or Wegman’s, and look at the many different types of grains waiting for you. Take something new home once a month.
2) Eat fat-free dairy or calcium and Vitamin D fortified soy products. Those bones need all of the help they can get. Have a glass of milk at breakfast and lunch.
3) Focus on eating fruits and vegetables high in antioxidants. There are three primary reasons why you want to do this:
a. The more antioxidants you have in your system, the more ‘weapons’ your body has to use against cancer.
b. Most of us suffer from failing eyesight during this time. Foods like blueberries can help maintain the eyesight you have.
c. Vitamin C and E, which are present in many fruits and vegetables, have been linked to a lower risk for Alzheimer’s. This is not a cure—but personally I’ll take any help I can get.
4) Get at least 60% of your protein calories from vegetarian sources. Why?
a. Vegetarian (plant based) protein contains fiber. The more fiber you have in your diet, the fewer toxins you will have in your body.
b. There is no cholesterol in plant based protein. When you eat beans and soy you are giving the old heart a break.
c. Plant-based proteins are easier to digest that meat. You want to give your body a workout, not your stomach.
How to Put these Guidelines into Practice
Your doctor may be telling you some of the same things. Eat less garbage… Cut back on the red meat… Eat more whole grains… How many people bother to sit down and actually put together a meal plan that is doable, tastes good, and is good for you?
Not your doctor, I’m guessing. Maybe your doctor is one of those rare people who tries to go the extra mile. Unfortunately, most of those doctors are overworked and just don’t have the time to outline what to eat.
Below you will find some recipes that are healthy and easy to prepare. I’ve used convenience products (like washed salad lettuce leaves, etc.) wherever possible to speed up the cooking time. Feel free to buy your vegetables out of a bag and prepare them yourself. There is nothing more calming than leisurely chopping vegetables and mixing ingredients while listening to music and sipping some wine. Your food will taste all the better for it.
Vegetable Omelet:
Directions
½ cup Egg Beaters
¼ cup salsa
1 Tbsp grated fat-free cheddar cheese 1. Spray a pan with butter spray and put on medium heat.
2. Combine all ingredients, cook until eggs are set.
Serve on toast if desired.
Irish Oatmeal:
Directions
¼ cup Irish Oats
1 cup Soy milk
1 Tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp Maple syrup 1. Spray pan with butter spray and put on medium heat. Toast the oats until they smell nutty and brown slightly.
2. Meanwhile heat the milk in a saucepan. When it begins to boil add the oats and all remaining ingredients.
3. Lower the heat to simmer and cook 30 minutes.
Mediterranean Couscous:
Directions
1 cup Whole wheat couscous
1 cup cooked chicken or soy strips
¼ bag mixed vegetables
1 Tsp Mrs. Dash original blend
½ can low sodium diced tomatoes 1. Heat 1 ½ cups of water in a tea kettle or in the microwave. When the water boils pour it over the couscous and cover.
2. Put the vegetables in a shallow pan with the tomatoes and a little butter spray. Cover and cook on high until vegetables are tender (approx. 5 minutes).
3. Add the chicken or soy and heat through. Serve over the couscous.
Fiesta Salad:
Directions
¼ cup Fat Free refried beans
¼ cup cooked brown rice
½ cup red bell pepper, chopped
6-8 baked tortilla chips
¼ cup fat free cheddar cheese 1. Put all of the chips on a microwavable safe plate.
2. Layer on the beans.
3. Add a layer of brown rice.
4. Sprinkle on the cheese and bell peppers.
5. Microwave until heated through, about 2 minutes.
Humus Among us:
Directions
1 Whole wheat pita cut into 4 wedges
¼ – ½ cup hummus (flavor of your choice) Scoop up the hummus with the pita. Enjoy.
Egg Sandwich:
Directions
1 Hard boiled egg
1 piece whole grain toast
1 Tbsp fat free mayonnaise
1 Tsp dill relish
1 slice tomato
1 lettuce leaf 1. Mix all of the ingredients together except the toast and vegetables.
2. Layer the vegetables on the bread, and put the egg mixture on top.
Easy Chicken Pot Pie:
Directions
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
2 cooked chicken breasts from the deli
1 can low fat, low sodium cream of mushroom sauce
1 cup fat free milk
1 Tbsp Mrs. Dash garden blend
Filo dough, thawed 1. Combine the cream of mushroom and milk in a bowl and mix well.
2. Put half of the filo dough on the bottom of a small casserole dish. Put the vegetables, chicken, and sauce on top.
3. Cover with the other half of the filo dough. Sprinkle the top with a little water and give it a spritz of butter spray.
4. Cook until the filo is brown and the pie is heated through, about 25 minutes.
Minestrone Soup:
Directions
4 cups low sodium broth of your choice
1 cup frozen vegetables
1 cup small shell pasta
1 can low sodium diced tomatoes 1. Put the pasta and broth in a pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat to simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and heat through.
All of these recipes can be doubled or halved according to your needs. If you make enough to last you for a few days you won’t have to cook more than twice a week if you don’t want to. I find it easier to enjoy cooking when I don’t have to do it every day. That’s probably why so many men become celebrity cooks.
The more you cook at home and the less you eat out, the healthier you will be. We all go out to eat from time to time. But it is far too easy to make bad choices when we can have anything on the menu. Those portion sizes are way too big as well. Even if you decide to take home half of the food instead of eating it, you are still eating a fair amount of fats and refined products.
You might want to think of making healthy cooking into a personal hobby. Perhaps you are sick of cooking and don’t want to do it anymore. But cooking for yourself (and perhaps a spouse) is different when you are retired. You don’t have to rush. If the other person doesn’t like what you make, they can go cook their own food. Cooking can be your personal pleasure. If done right, it can be a meditative, stress-reducing activity.
Hey, you have to eat. You might as well learn to like the process.
60: How to Stay Healthy
Your sixties can be a time of vibrant health or a miserable acceleration of the aging process. The choice is up to you. You may have more trouble turning back the tide of decay if you’re just starting to get in shape now, but it is definitely doable. Remember this if you remember nothing else: It is only too late to change when you are dead. Everything else is negotiable.
Tests You Need to Take in Your Sixties
Blood pressure: Every two years after age 50.
Cholesterol: Every five years unless you have high cholesterol. Then monitor this regularly.
Colon and Rectal Screening: This screening checks for cancerous growths and benign growths (polyps) that may become cancerous.
Dental Check-up: Once a year. Tooth decay, believe it or not, can lead to heart disease. Don’t put this off.
Diabetes: Get a blood sugar test if you’re at increased risk. You know that you are at increased risk if you have such factors as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or triglycerides, obesity, or a family history of diabetes.
Eye Exam: Every 2 years.
Prostate: Check this starting at age 50, and recheck every 2 years or so unless your doctor recommends otherwise.
Mammogram: Check as often as your doctor recommends.
Body Mass Index (BMI): This basically checks whether you are overweight or obese based on your gender, height, and weight.
This looks like a pretty long list, but look at it this way: everyone knows sports cars require more maintenance to keep up their sleek looks. You are a sports car. Anyway, these are the same tests you should have been taking since the age of 50. The frequency has probably picked up a bit, but that’s about it. If your biggest concern in life is a little annoyance because you have to keep taking these tests that all come back negative, then you are very lucky indeed.
Depression
Nobody likes to talk about it. When you were a child, depression was seen as a self-indulgent funk you could throw off if you just snapped out of it. Science has come a long way in the last 55 years, but many seniors are still reluctant to talk about it.
Depression can be seasonal. It can be hormonal. It is also a somewhat natural reaction in someone who knows their body is falling apart around them. This is yet another reason why you need to exercise. Exercise slows down body decay. This may not cure every form of depression, but it can at least take one reason for depression off of your mind. Every little bit helps.
When you work out your body releases endorphins that will make you feel euphoric for hours afterward. Watching your body rebuild itself can give you a sense of well-being and self-confidence that you can carry with you all the time.
Going to a gym to work out also connects you to other activity-minded seniors. This can help offset feelings of loneliness and isolation that can lead to depression. If you suffer from depression, see your doctor. This is not something you should try to fight through alone. While you are doing that, go exercise.
Companionship
This is the age when the funerals start. Friends you’ve known for a long time begin to pass on. That is why it is absolutely essential that you connect yourself to as wide a support network as possible. New friends will never replace old friends, but you should not be alone. Humans are pack animals. We need to do things with other people if we want to thrive.
Don’t spend all of your time sitting at home. Fill your time with meaningful activities that involve a group. Join a choir. Take a history class and then join a historical society. Research your family tree and join a genealogical society. Grow prize Dahlias and become a flower judge. Get on a committee to bring better education/health services/etc. into your community.
This is another theme you should remember from this book. Humans need meaningful activities. Your job was meaningful in that it paid the mortgage. Now you can work on something that is meaningful because you think it is. This is a luxury young working stiffs don’t have. Indulge it.
As your sixties draw to a close, how will you remember them? As a time of meaningful activity, freedom from care, and good health? Or as yet another ten years of worsening health and isolation? The power to chart your course is there in your hands. Use it.
Chapter 4 70: Vigorous and Loving It
By this time, you should understand that there are two completely different ‘health tracks’ to aging. On the traditional track, you would be slow, flabby, achy and forgetful. Unless Alzheimer’s has taken your mind completely you would have enough brain power to know you’re slipping. You would be scared about the next few years, scared about the next big accident, scared about life in general.
On the alternate track, you are lean, active, and happy. Your mind is sharp due to good health, good nutrition, and intellectual activities. You have a warm circle of friends who do fun things together. You are independent and loving the freedom that comes from retirement and maturity. You finally know better and are still young enough to use the knowledge wisely.
The great thing about the second track is that it has dozens of on-ramps. You can choose to leave the ‘traditional’ aging process behind no matter how old you are. That great lion of age may have you in his jaws. He may be dragging you off into his cave to have his way with you, but you don’t have to go quietly. You don’t even have to go quickly. All of us age—but you can choose how quickly it happens.
Beat Back the Lion
Your body is an amazing thing. It may have suffered through sixty-plus years of abuse, but given half a chance it will shake off atrophy and disease and become strong and healthy. Have you ever heard of the bird called the phoenix? It bursts into flames in its old age, and then emerges from the flames, born anew.
Now, you won’t burst into flame. But if you fuel the fires of exercise and good eating habits, you can rise out of a weak, frail, old age. You can become strong, healthy, and happy. All you have to do is follow the guidelines in this book. Use it as a jumping off point. Don’t be afraid to experiment. If you want to be more youthful, you must change both your body and your mind.
What are the two things that set young people apart from everyone else? They have a lot of energy, and they are curious about the world.
Cultivate curiosity. Besides getting in shape, it is the number one way to keep yourself young. Studies have shown that a higher level of education can lower your risk for developing Alzheimer’s. Even if you never finished college (or barely scraped by in high school) it isn’t too late to take college classes.
‘Use it or lose it’ has special meaning for you. Just as your muscles waste away if you don’t use them, your brain synapses start fading if you don’t use them. This is not a cure for Alzheimer’s but it will help your brain cells to continue to function in a healthy and effective manner.
Before beginning this, or any other exercise program, consult with your doctor. Get a physical exam to see where you are in relation to where you want to be. Check to see if there are any exercises you shouldn’t be doing. If it has been a long time since you exercised (or you have serious health problems or a special physical condition) consult with a physical therapist about the best regimen for you.
Then go out there and exercise and eat your way to a better future.
Fitness at 70
Exercising at 70 can literally be a life saver. Cardiovascular exercise, when used with a healthy diet, can prevent cardiovascular disease. Strength training can improve your balance. This means you will be less likely to fall. It also strengthens your bones. This means that if you do fall you are less likely to break something.
Even though exercise does so much to lengthen your life span and improve the quality of that life, most Americans don’t do it. A study in 2009 presented to the American Psychological Association, researchers reported that as many as 50 million Americans are sedentary which puts them at increased risk of health problems and an early death. (4)
Why People Don’t Exercise
People have all kinds of excuses for not exercising. For people over 60 they usually include ‘I’m tired,’ ‘I’m too old,’ ‘It’s too late for me to start that kind of thing.’ Some of them may even blame a specific medical condition for their lack of exercise. This is despite the fact that most health conditions would actually improve with regular exercise.
Most people do not like exercise. This may have something to do with the way we are hard-wired. Way back in history we had to work hard to find enough food to eat. It may be that our bodies are wired to rest whenever possible to conserve the calories from the food we did find. It isn’t hard to find food these days. You don’t even have to leave your house to get a hot meal delivered right to your door.
In this age of home delivery and fast food, we have to work hard against our natural inclinations. Granted, it is hard to exercise if you are in pain from a recent knee surgery or something similar. This doesn’t change the fact that most doctors recommend you get moving right away—even if you have a medical condition. In the next section, we will discuss a problem that often plagues mature adults.
Exercise and Arthritis
If you don’t have arthritis it is hard to understand the pain it puts people through. When you’re hurting, it takes everything you can do just to move normally. If you have arthritis in your hands, turning doorknobs can be a trial. If you have arthritis in your knees, one cold wind can leave you aching and limping. After a few flare-ups, the last thing you want to do is irritate your joints again.
Exercise looks like one of those things that can cause a flare up. After all, you can have a flare up if you overdo it somehow. You may be surprised to learn that exercise is an excellent way to prevent and treat arthritis. Exercise isn’t a cure-all. It is, however, a significant part of any arthritis treatment plan.
Check with your doctor before you start exercising. He or she may send you to a physical therapist who can help you to develop an exercise regimen that is appropriate to you. Ask your doctor or your physical therapist for guidelines on which types of exercises are safe and which need to be avoided.
Exercises Appropriate Arthritis Sufferers
This is meant as a general guideline. Consult your doctor, a physical therapist, or a personal trainer with experience training mature adults, for pointers on what to do and how to do it. If you have arthritis this goes double for you.
Range of motion exercises: Range of motion exercises help you to maintain normal joint movements and relieve stiffness. These exercises also increase your flexibility so you can use those joints properly.
Strengthening exercises: Strengthening exercises help you to maintain or restore your muscle strength. Strong muscles protect and support joints affected by arthritis. Strong muscles keep your body in alignment so that you don’t twist or tear the ligaments and tendons that hold your joints together.
Aerobic exercises: Aerobic exercise also helps in an indirect way. When you exercise and eat right, you lose weight. When you lose weight, you take excess pressure off of the effected joints. Some studies have even shown that aerobic exercise can reduce the inflammation in some joints.
How to Get Started
Take it easy. Exercise works best when you are consistent. You can’t be consistent if you over-do it. Exercise at an intensity level that’s challenging for you, but easy enough to maintain for 20 minutes. Eventually, you will work your way up to 45 minutes of exercise, but for now start with what you can do regularly. You will be coming back to the gym almost every day from now on. Pace yourself. You want to work hard, but not too hard.
Buy a heart monitor. Get a grandchild to find one on the internet for you if necessary. Don’t fight me on this one. It is vital that you work out at a level that is safe and appropriate for you. The best way to keep track of that is with a heart monitor. One glance at your heart rate will tell you if you need to back off or turn up your effort.
You want to be working out at 60-75% of your total capacity. This isn’t something you can check out while you are huffing and puffing on the stationary bike. The process goes something like this:
Before you can find your appropriate aerobic range you need to find your total capacity. To do that, subtract your age from 220. If I were 70, for example, that would be
220
-70
150 = my maximum capacity.
This is the number you would hit if you were trying to work out at 100% of your capacity. But you don’t want to work out at 100% of your capacity. It doesn’t do anything for you.
You want to work out at somewhere between 60-75% of your total capacity. You learned how to calculate percentages in high school. Since that was a little while ago for some of you let’s review how to do it:
To find 60% of 150: 150
x .6
90 = beats per minute
To find 75% of 150: 150
x .75
112.5 = beats per minute
So you would want to stay in a heart rate range between 90-113 beats per minute. Now that you have the formula, you can calculate your range no matter what you age is. Remember that the example above is for someone who is 70 years old. If you are older or younger you will have to redo the math to get an accurate number.
With this information you can strap on a heart monitor and give it a quick glance here and there to make sure your heart rate is where it is supposed to be.
Warning: When you go shopping for a heart monitor the salesman will try to sell you an expensive model that does all kinds of things you don’t need it to do. All you really need is a basic monitor that displays your heart rate.
I have a heart rate monitor that calculates my optimal aerobic range for me, and keeps track of how many calories I burn. Then again, I am a little more obsessive about exercise than most. You can buy a basic heart monitor for about $60, and buy one like mine for about $100.
You can find heart rate monitors at sporting goods stores, from fitness centers, at your gym, through mail order catalogues, and on the internet. A good discount website you might want to look at is HeartRateMonitorUSA.com.
Your New Exercise Schedule
The human body is meant to move. Therefore you will move yours six days a week from now on. Remember, if you don’t use it you lose it. And the older you get, the faster you lose it.
If you flip through the other ‘age’ chapters of this book you will notice that everyone one is doing some form of flexibility, strength training, and aerobic work. This is because these are key areas that will improve your health and keep you feeling good no matter what age you are.
There are only a few things that change as you age. The first is the relative importance of each category. The second is what your body will tolerate in terms of the amount of impact you can withstand, and your recovery time.
What to do if you are just starting out:
Focus first on building up your cardiovascular conditioning. Swim, do aqua aerobics, do low-impact aerobics, walk briskly, or take a spin class. If all you can do is walk to your mailbox and back a few times, so be it. The point is to get moving.
Stretch out before and after your workout. This is the age where your joints stiffen up if you don’t watch them. Stiff joints shorted your range of movement and can contribute to falls. You want to avoid anything that might cause you to lose your balance.
Get into a routine. Try to do your exercise at the same time every day. Once you get into a habit exercise is easier to do. Eventually you want to be working out for 45 minutes of cardiovascular work a day along with 5 minutes of stretching. This is your first goal.
Once you’ve reached your first goal you are ready to take on balance and strength training. Cut your cardiovascular work down to three days a week. Strength train (either with weights, resistance bands, or your body weight) two days a week. Work on your balance exercises every day.
If you want to occasionally throw in an extra-long day once a week, add in some cardio on a non-cardio day. If you are short on time you can trim your cardio down to 30 minutes and do your balance exercises for 15 minutes to keep your total exercise time down to 45 minutes. Try not to do this too often. You’re retired now. Make the time to exercise. It’s your job. Your boss at your old job wouldn’t have put up with you cutting out of work 15 minutes early every day—or even once or twice a week. Don’t let yourself off the hook.
You may have noticed that this adds up to only five days of exercise. That is because you are going to devote one day just to balance and flexibility exercises. I would recommend making this the last exercise day of your week.
If you are already active:
Note: You do not qualify as active if you count golf, gardening, or housework as “exercise.” This work may or may not get your circulation going, but either way it isn’t meaningful exercise.
There are a lot of people who are going to fight me on this. ‘I have a big garden,’ they say, ‘I really work hard when I clean my house.’ Let’s get real here. Look at your body. Are you lean, strong, and at your optimal weight? No? Then your golf or gardening ‘workout’ isn’t doing anything for you. Go back to the ‘just starting out’ section of this chapter and start there. Come back when you’re sweating regularly for six days a week.
If you want to keep your health you need to keep your workouts effective. ‘Effective’ means you’re sweating, your heart rate is elevated, and your breath is coming a little faster. Get that heart monitor! Make sure you are really working out where you are supposed to be.
Pick a cardiovascular activity you like and will do regularly for 45 minutes three days a week. Follow that up with stretching and 10 minutes of balance work.
Strength train three days a week for 30 minutes. Get some pointers from a personal trainer who has worked with mature people before. If you already know how to handle weights safely, but it has been a while since you last worked with a trainer, you may want to hire one for a session or two. We all have a tendency to fall into bad habits. Bad habits have a way of injuring you when you allow them to creep into your weight workout. Be safe.
Follow your strength training sessions with 15 minutes of balance and core work. Concentrate on proper form and control throughout.
On the last day focus on balance and core exercises exclusively. Take a Pilates, yoga, or tai chi class. You can do this work on your own if you are familiar with the moves. I would suggest that beginners, and even more experienced Pilates or yoga people will get more out of the workout if you do it in a group.
You can perform this one day of balance/core work any day of the week. I suggest doing it at the end of your week as a reward to your body for working hard. These activities will make you feel great. They will also relax you, putting you in a better frame of mind to enjoy your day off.
For Everyone
Pay attention to how your body reacts to each exercise session. Even in your seventies, you are a work in progress. If you continue to exercise every day you will gradually have to make your workout more challenging.
Most people pay attention to their bodies when something is going wrong. Try to notice when things are going right. Perhaps that weight you are using is a little to light now. Maybe you need to increase the incline on the treadmill. Whatever you do, don’t fall into a rut. That way leads to decay.
How to Relive Minor Pains
As you work out, your body will talk to you. Sometimes it will be saying ‘I’m sore.’ Other times you may have pains unrelated to exercise, like from arthritis. There are things you can do before and after your workouts to help you lessen the pain and keep moving. We’re talking about minor pains here. Do not attempt to exercise through extreme pain or self medicate. Go to a doctor if the pain persists for more than an hour, is sharp and/or sudden, or increases in intensity.
Moist heat: This is good for when you are feeling stiff. A warm towel, hot bath, heat pack, or hot shower applied 15-20 minutes up to three times a day can relieve some symptoms and improve flexibility.
Cold: This works for inflammation. Wrap a bag of ice or even a bag of frozen vegetables in a towel. This can reduce the swelling of inflamed joints. Don’t leave the ice on your body for more than 15 minutes of every hour. Don’t use this method if you have Raynaud’s phenomenon.
Again, these tricks are useful for minor aches and pains. They are not meant to take the place of a doctor’s care. If you are in pain for more than an hour, go see your doctor.
The next section will cover how to eat right in your seventies. Do you think you already know how to do this? Are you following the government’s food guide pyramid? Well, when you turn seventy you may be in for a surprise…
70: What to Eat
The older you get, the fewer calories you need to eat. Your body composition is changing and you tend to be less active. You can hold some of those changes off if you exercise, but your body will generally need less fuel no matter what you do.
To further complicate matters, your nutrition needs stay the same—and in some cases increase. It kind of makes you wonder how you are supposed to eat good food without gaining weight.
Fortunately for you, the folks at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University were one step ahead of you. They have taken all of the knowledge that has been gleaned over the last 20 years and used it to come up with a modified Food Pyramid Guide for people aged 70 and older.
There are four big differences between the old Food Pyramid and the Tufts’ version. These have to do with water, fiber, antioxidants, and supplements.
The Tufts’ Food Guide Pyramid Explained
Water
The Tufts’ Food Pyramid had eight 8-ounce glasses of water at its base. As people age they often lose some of their thirst sensation. This is right at the time when you are at increased risk of developing constipation and dehydration. In addition to drinking water, you will want to include more fluids into your life in general. Some foods and drinks that will help are soups, vegetable juice, broths, and fat free milk.
Antioxidants
The researchers recommend that mature adults consume dark, leafy greens like spinach and chard. They also recommend you eat orange and yellow vegetables like sweet potatoes and squash. Pick a variety of colorful fruits (strawberries, mangos, and blueberries, for example) that are high in vitamins A and C and folic acid.
Fiber
This is the time when fiber is extremely important. Stick to whole wheat and whole grain products that are high in fiber and nutritionally dense. White potatoes aren’t included in this list because they are filling but less nutritious than their sweet potato relatives. Remember that you get fiber from whole fruits and vegetables as well. Don’t just drink fruit juice. You are missing out on a lot of fiber that way.
Supplements
The new 70+ pyramid also has something else that the regular pyramid doesn’t have. There is a flag at the top to remind mature adults that they might not absorb enough vitamins through food intake. In English, this means you might not get all of the vitamins you need out of your food. You might need a supplement.
The key word in that sentence is the word ‘might.’ Do not automatically reach for the pills. Talk to your doctor. He can tell by examining you whether or not a supplement is a good idea. Some of the vitamins you might need include calcium, Vitamin D, and B12.
This pyramid was designed with the healthy, mobile 70+ person in mind. If you have chronic or serious health problems you should consult your doctor about how your condition (and the medication you are taking for it) affects your nutrition requirements. You may need to take in more of one nutrient or avoid certain foods like the plague.
If you’re smart you will consult your doctor or a registered dietician or nutritionist anyway. This is your health we are talking about. Take it seriously.
You can get a copy of the new Food Guide Pyramid for Older Adults at www.nutrition.tufts.edu.
How to Survive Healthy Eating
If you’ve been a white rice, white bread kind of person for most of your life, whole wheat products might be something of a trial. Brown rice doesn’t taste like white rice. Whole grain, Omega 3 flax seed bread doesn’t taste like your good ol’ Wonder bread. If you go into it thinking it will you are going to have problems.
Most white to whole wheat converts (like me) spent time choking it all down until we got used to the taste. Many people try this method but few stick with it long enough to get used to the whole wheat stuff. Having gained a few years since then I know that there is an easy way and a hard way for everything. The hard way is to go cold turkey and choke it all down until you get used to it. The easy way involves making your whole grain choices more palatable.
White flour, white bread, and white rice are all essentially bland foods. The natural, “nutty” taste has been taken out of them by the refining process. You have to get your taste buds accustomed to tasting actual flavor from these products.
I know that this sounds like garbage to a lot of you. You may be thinking that white bread isn’t bland. It has a taste and you like it. I am going to suggest that you are merely used to the way it tastes. When you eat bread you expect it to taste a certain way. If it doesn’t, the bread then qualifies as “bad.” The key to switching over from white to brown is to make your taste buds expect the brown rice, whole wheat taste.
You do this by intensifying the taste, not toning it down. Here are some guidelines that will help you do just that. Please note that some of these products contain sodium. If you are on a sodium-restricted diet, check with your doctor before trying these techniques.
How to Spice up Brown Rice
Cook the brown rice in the low sodium broth of your choice. You can make your own broth (which will lower the total sodium content further) by boiling all the tag ends of a chicken carcass (heart, neck, giblets, bones, scrap meat) in 6-8 cups of water.
You can make vegetable broth by boiling 6-8 cups of water and adding 2 cups of whatever vegetables you have lying around your refrigerator. Boil either concoction for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Allow to cool, then strain out the solids and throw them away.
Add a small amount of a strong tasting cheese. Add two tablespoons of Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese to the rice after it’s done cooking. A little goes a long way to creating a tasty dish. If you cook your rice in broth and use the cheese you will taste a little bit of heaven.
Add in flavorful vegetables. When the rice is almost done, chop up 1 cup of your favorite vegetables into very small pieces. You can use a food processor for this if you have one. Sauté them in a little olive oil, garlic, and 1 Tbsp. of the Mrs. Dash no-salt blend of your choice. When the rice is done, either stir the vegetables in or serve on top.
Of course, you may do all three of these things to your rice at once, but that may be overkill. Play with different combinations to see which you like the most. If you regularly cook your brown rice with flavorful ingredients you will soon come to like the taste of brown rice by itself. It is strange, but true.
How to Enjoy Whole Wheat
This is where having your own bread machine really comes in handy. You can usually pick one up at a garage sale for $20 or less. You can make the transition to whole wheat bread less traumatic by gradually adding in more whole wheat flour to your mix.
Let’s say your recipe calls for two cups of white flour. Make that 1 ¾ cups of white flour and ¼ whole wheat flour. Eat that for a while. You may taste a slight difference, but it won’t be too noticeable. After you become accustomed to that, make your bread with 1 ½ cups of white flour and ½ cup of whole wheat flour. Eat that for a while.
Keep increasing the whole wheat flour until you have the mix at 1 cup of white flour and 1 cup of whole wheat. Once you can eat this you are ready to go to 100% whole wheat. You will want to get special directions for making 100% whole wheat bread because the methods are a little different. Note: Use whole wheat pastry flour when making bread so the bread will rise like it’s supposed to.
Use this same method to change your regular pancake, muffin, and pie crust recipes into healthy, whole wheat versions. You will be eating the majority of your grains from whole wheat in no time—and you will actually like the taste.
These are the two hardest transitions for most people. If you work at it slowly and consistently, you will soon find that your old favorites taste a little like bland cotton candy—there is no substance to them. It takes your body about three weeks to get used to something new. Be patient. After less time than you think, you will enjoy your new eating habits.
An old dog can learn new tricks. Don’t let anyone tell you any different. That old dog is just smart enough to question why he should do it. You know why eating this way is worthwhile.
You will adapt.
70: How to Stay Healthy
If you’ve made it to seventy in good health, congratulations! You have just out-performed the generation that came before you. One of the reasons you can look forward to a long and healthy maturity is because you are active. You are active, aren’t you?
The other reason you will live longer than most people born in the generation before yours is because medical science has improved. The techniques for identifying disease before it is a run-away problem have improved.
But none of these improvements will do you any good if you don’t get screened for various diseases on a regular basis. One you hit seventy, you aren’t required to take as many screenings. Still, ‘an ounce of prevention’ is still worth ‘a pound of cure,’ as they say. If the type of screening isn’t harmful to your body—or the benefits outweigh the potential harm—then you should obviously keep having them.
Different Screenings to Consider in Your Seventies
Blood pressure: Checking your blood pressure is one of those non-invasive screenings that you should have regularly. It doesn’t harm you, and the benefits are clear.
Osteoporosis: This screening makes sense for all women over the age of 65. If you engage in weight bearing exercise your doctor may allow you to get screened less often. Ask.
Prostate Cancer: This screening isn’t as clear cut in your seventies as it is earlier in your life. The US Preventative Task Force previously found evidence that screening for prostate cancer significantly improved one’s chances of detecting prostate cancer in its early stages. However, testing may lead to false positives, so discuss this with your physician.
Unfortunately, it is unclear whether early detection improves your health outcome once you are over the age of 70. Add to that the frequent false positives that lead to unnecessary biopsies, and the picture becomes even murkier. Ultimately, you have to weigh the benefits verses the risks and make your own decision.
Colon Cancer Screening: This screening is unclear for a different reason. Early detection significantly improves your chances of survival, so you should definitely get screened. There are so many different ways to get screened, however, that it can be hard to decide which is the right one for you. Discuss the pros and cons of each test with your doctor.
Eye Exam: Get your eyes checked annually from now on.
Body Fat: Check your body fat percentage and weight. A longer, healthier life span is directly connected to how healthy you are. Keep your weight under control.
Cholesterol: If your heart goes out, so do you. Keep tabs on your cholesterol level and do everything you can to keep the bad cholesterol number low and the good cholesterol number moderate.
Mental Health: New nerve connections continue to form in your brain throughout your life. You will want to encourage that growth and maintain the ones you already have. Your doctor can check up on how successful you are in this category with a few very simple tests. He or she has probably been performing these tests at your last couple of checkups. Your doctor may ask you about current events, have you count backwards, and test your general mobility. If you are exercising regularly you should pass these tests with flying colors.
At this time in your life your health care will (in general) shift a little away from disease prevention and more toward disability prevention. Exercise regularly, eat right, and keep your mind engaged in stimulating activities. Then relax, knowing that you are doing everything you can do to prolong your lifespan and quality of life.
Conclusion
Getting older can be scary and disheartening. Your body is changing, and you aren’t as energetic as you used to be. Thirty years ago, you would have reason to feel anxious. Medical science assumed that old age was something that could be observed but not changed.
Things are so different these days. We now know that it is possible to prevent, and in many cases reverse, the diseases we used to associate with old age. Everyone has heard the old cliché ‘forty is the new thirty.’ Admittedly, it is pretty silly. It does, however, have a kernel of truth. If you look at the average forty year old person these days—and we’re talking here about a healthy, active person who takes care of him or herself—he or she looks ten years younger than the average forty year old a generation ago.
The same is true for every age group we have covered in this book. It is possible to look, act, and feel 10 years younger than you actually are. The techniques to do so aren’t hard to perform, and they don’t cost a lot of money. Anybody can use them and see an improvement.
The sad thing is that many people will not. Many people will buy this book and learn the principals for feeling younger and fitter every day. They will read the recipes and take note of the different exercises. And then they will finish the book and never open it again. They will get older and weaker, and complain about how hard things are as they get older. In the end, they would rather get old, weak, and senile rather than go to the gym for a short time every day.
But that isn’t what you are going to do, is it? You are much smarter than that. You know that the benefits you will receive from a little bit of consistent work far outweigh the effort. You have all the tools you need to age brilliantly right in your hands. Use them, and live your best life right now.
Here’s to your health!
Resources
The more you educate yourself on health and fitness, the better off you will be. Here are some books and websites that will help you on your path to health.
Books
Younger Next Year—A Guide to Living Like 50 Until You’re 80 and Beyond by Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge, M.D.
Younger Next Year For Women—A Guide to Living Like 50 Until You’re 80 and Beyond by Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge, M.D.
Dare to Be 100: 99 Steps to a Long and Healthy Life by Walter M. Bortzii
Strong Women Stay Young by Miriam E. Nelson, and Sarah Wernick
Websites
MyFoodDiary
http://www.myfooddiary.com
National Council on Aging
http://www.ncoa.org
The Healthy Aging Campaign
Third Age
http://www.thirdage.com
References
(1) The Journal of the American Medical Association: Physical Fitness and All – Cause Mortality a Prospective Study of Healthy Men and Women
www.jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=379243
(2) Medibank: The Cost of Physical Inactivity
www.medibank.com.au/Client/Documents/Pdfs/The_Cost_Of_Physical_Inactivity_08.pdf
(3) Bulletin of World Health Organization: Physical Inactivity as a Risk Factor for Coronary Heart Disease
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2486506
(4) American Psychological Association: Sedentary Lives can be Deadly; Physical Inactivity Poses Greatest Health Risk to Americans
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090810024825.htm