Fun Fitness After 50

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Perspectives on Nutritional Supplements to Stay Healthy at Any Age

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Putting malnutrition in perspective

Do you know the story about Captain Cook making his crew eat sauerkraut on voyages to prevent scurvy?  It turns out the commonly told story might not be quite right. First, there was the ever present trouble of how illness was reported. Second, Captain Cook was apparently very good at advocating his opinion. Thirdly, the ship stopped to get other food a lot. And fourthly, the Captain may very well have died as a result of other malnutrition.

In the case of ship related malnutrition, even though no one knew the exact cause, people who ate a variety of fresh foods on land rarely had these issues. Such is still the case with malnutrition. A variety of fresh food usually provides very adequate nutrition.

Just as importantly in the story is that once foods that helped keep scurvy at bay were discovered, it wasn’t because someone had isolated vitamin C. It was because they ate whole citrus fruits or real juice. Part of the challenge was that it was not well understood how preservation or storage affects the nutritional value of food. And the ship’s doctor who seems to have made the original discovery wasn’t completely clear on what he had found.

A little panic goes a long way

We live in a time where we have access to a huge variety of foods grown all over the world. This means we are much less likely to have malnutrition due to limitations of our local soil. However, it is still pretty easy to get people panicked about their diet. Plus, supposed quick and easy fixes are more alluring than the harder work of exercise and good eating habits.

While it is true that additional isolated nutritional supplements have been shown to help people with certain health issues, it is not so clear that everyone needs to take extra vitamins. There is some evidence that a body adjusts to greater amounts of a nutrient and stops absorbing it as efficiently.

There are reasons that taking dietary supplements could be not only wasted money, but detrimental to your health. How can it be detrimental to your health? Here is a summary that you can feel free to investigate further:

  • excess of one nutrient can inhibit the absorption of another
  • excess nutrients, particularly in non-food form may be bad for your body
  • by taking a nutrient artificially you may not be eating enough of the food that also provides other important nutrients
  • many supplements are processed and preserved in ways that affect how ingredients affect the body
  • shelf life of packaged supplements may lead to rancid or contaminated products
  • it is very hard to identify what is actually in an encapsulated or dried supplement
  • molecules produced in laboratories are sometimes not the same as those produced in natural processes.

How do you know it is an apple?

You may be surprised to hear that the FDA does not monitory dietary supplements. Not that they really keep anyone safe, but that is another story that you can check out here – Death by Regulation, by Mary Ruwart. I’m not a fan of most medication anyway, but the FDA does more to inhibit drugs getting on the market and keeping prices high than anything else.

Regarding supplements, here is a private organization that has done a lot of work to help people evaluate supplements. You can listen to an interview of Neil Thanedar, the CEO of Labdoor.com on the Tom Woods Podcast episode 1196, A Market Alternative to the FDA.

I’m not saying we need to eat everything raw. Some processing can be useful for digestion or short term storage, which I cover in Simple Nutrition for the Barefoot Runner. Still there comes a point at which you can’t recognize or identify what you are being asked to believe is food. Plus, if you are not eating the nutrient in its natural food form, you may not be getting other nutrients that are necessary for it to work.

The best supplements to your diet are real food

Sometimes the body needs extra support in the way of specific nutrition or in energy needed to perform. I know when I am running more, I crave more protein. It is weird how I just know what sounds good. It doesn’t have to be expensive protein. And since sometimes different proteins sound better, I have to suppose that there may also be something else in them that makes a difference, too.

When I’ve been low on vegetable or fruit intake, my body begins to crave those things. When I give in to eating too much nutritionally deficient food, my body doesn’t feel good. It can take some practice and honesty to figure out what your body is craving versus what your bad habits are craving, but it can be done.

Alternatives to supplements

If you really feel you need to make sure you are getting more of a certain nutrient, stock up on foods that will provide that. Think about what you are craving and ask yourself why that might be? Sometimes I find myself craving salt due to having perspired a lot. There are good and less good ways to get my salt!

Have easy snacks that satisfy cravings in a healthy way. No, your diet doesn’t have to be picture perfect, but a little planning will leave you with good options at crucial times. Then you will find yourself feeling better from overall good nutrition.

Be aware that diet fads often suggest avoiding healthy foods that may be just what your body needs at a given moment. Not everyone needs the same proportions of nutrients as everyone else or even themselves across time. It can depend on things such as age, type of physical activities, personal digestive needs, and other stresses in your life. Don’t let the latest hype keep you from eating basic healthy foods as part of an overall varied diet.

Monitoring the affect of your diet or supplements

We constantly have a lot of variables in our lives. It can be difficult to narrow it down to what is helping and what is not. Sometimes we just feel better if we know we are doing something!

But if you want to do a better job of evaluating how your diet or supplements are affecting you, try to keep a journal about it. To be thorough, such a journal would really need to include all of these variables:

  • sleep, when, where, how long, other factors that may affect it
  • how much change is going on in your life
  • events and relationships that might affect your emotional and mental attitudes
  • your diet, including proportions, how prepared, time of day
  • physical activity
  • illness
  • variations in digestion and elimination

If you do this, you have to be careful of two things. First, do not obsess about your choices. Maybe tweak things here and there based on observations, but don’t change a lot at once and don’t stress yourself out over them. Just observe yourself for long term patterns.

Secondly, be aware of being consistent in how and when you record things. There is a tendency in all of us to selectively notice and record things to fit our own biases or preferences.

The supplement of happiness

Sometimes people are looking for a drug or supplement to make them feel better when an attitude adjustment would probably do just as well, if not better. It is pretty well established that attitude affects our body. Our bodies physically responds to mental messages about stress by preparing it physically for stress. This is harmful if it is constant.

Its like trying to live our lives at a sprint. Not even the best sprinters can sprint all the time. In fact, they can only sprint a short way once in a while. The human body just isn’t designed to be functioning at peak stress for very much of the time.

Oddly, this means that just eating something fun can be a good *supplement*. If it makes you happy, it may be what you need at the moment. Give yourself permission to be happy!

When supplements are okay

Supplements are probably okay if:

  • you are not neglecting the rest of your nutrition
  • you verify there actually contain what they say they do
  • they have been stored in a way that retains their intended value
  • you can afford them
  • you have a particular disease or illness that inhibits getting nutrition through normal digestion

This is not an all or none list. These are just suggestions about how to wisely decide whether or not to take supplements, as well as how to decide which ones you might take. Don’t be pressured by advertising or the latest *scientific* study. But remember, no matter what, food is more enjoyable than any supplement could be.

 

 

 

What Kind of Shape Will You End Up With While Getting In Shape ?

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What is your perfect shape?

Picture yourself in perfect shape. What do you look like? Wait. Think carefully. Is it really you? This is a mistake that is made too often. We form an ideal in our head that has no basis in reality. And we allow that imaginary ideal to rob us of enjoying both our progress and our temporary peaks of perfection.

What is your shape? Don’t tell me it is fat or something like that. We can discuss ideal weight later. Right now, just think about what your basic shape is. Or what would it be if it didn’t have some extra padding.

Everyone’s basic shape is made up of a combination of factors. Nearly everyone complains about their shape at one time or another and wishes they had someone else’s shape. There is a pervasive illusion that someone else’s shape would magically make staying in shape effort free.

Why do cartoons have extra large eyes?

Part of the problem is the way two dimensional images look. It is very difficult to capture the vitality of someone in photos, drawing, and even cartoons. All kinds of tricks are used to make up for this flatness. What often happens as a result is that we forget what normal bodies look like.

For instance, I remember the first time I realized that the drawings on sewing patterns always had extraordinarily long, thin legs. I have never seen anyone in real life with legs that long, not even when aided with high heels. This was a technique to sell the styles because that is how people want to look.

I also learned that how a real, photographed model stood might be hiding something about the pattern or at least giving a false impression of how the garment would usually look. She was probably also standing in a way that was almost cartoonish, meaning people just don’t stand like that a lot in real life. I learned to ask myself how often I would be in that actual pose.

Speaking of cartoons, have you ever noticed how abnormally huge certain features are made? This usually looks nice on the cartoon, but would look hideous on a real person. We need to be careful what we compare ourselves to.

What about our perception of real people?

There are two main pitfalls when it comes to comparing ourselves to other people’s “shapes.” First, we often concentrate on their desirable features and don’t notice their problem areas (or what they think their problem areas are). Secondly, we tend to see them at a particular optimum moment. If they are good at picking styles that work for their shape or just have good posture, we may misinterpret the effect.

Once when I was working out at the gym, one of the trainers came up to share something encouraging with me. She had just had an appointment with a newcomer. When asked what her goals were, the new woman had looked around and pointed at me saying, “I want to look like her.”

Obviously, I appreciated the compliment, but I was not who I would have picked to look like. Also, as I glanced at her, it was unlikely she would ever look like me. It is ironic that some of the features in myself that I think are “less than feminine” are often what give some women the impression of something they want to be. I say “impression” because I get a pretty good idea of what they think they are seeing. They don’t understand the whole package.

Like an amoeba

I’m getting better about not complaining about my shape. I try to spend my energy on working with it. One thing that has helped me is being realistic about how bodies change with things like position, use, time.

We move and our bodies change shape as we move. That is normal. Sometimes, some parts of us scrunch up, like when we bend forward in the middle. If there is no bunching of flesh when we do that, we are probably ghastly thin.

Our shapes, being a large part water, also change if we hang one way or another. My cheeks are notorious for this. I KNOW I use my mouth enough for my cheeks to “be in shape,” so it is not fair that they go with gravity at the slightest opportunity!

Because our shapes change as we move, clothes that are not designed to accommodate this will be too tight in some positions or too baggy in others. This does not mean that we are the wrong shape or that we are too fat (again, a subject for another time). This is why yoga pants are so popular. Even an amoeba might be able to wear a pair of yoga pants!

Life experiences may alter our shape potential. For women, the most obvious example of this is child birth. An abdomen that has been stretched to that degree will rarely get back to pre-birth shape.

As we age, all of us have to face decreasing skin turgor and comparative loss of muscle capacity. We can recognize this and still make amazing progress toward both a healthy and visually pleasing shape.

Before you whip yourself into shape…

If you want to make progress toward your optimum shape, there are realities you need to be aware of.

  • Good health is not limited to a certain shape.
  • Not everyone is attracted to the same shapes.
  • People tend to gain weight in different places.
  • Use of devices to obtain a certain shape will restrict and weaken the body.
  • How you feel may be at odds with your idea of the perfect shape.
  • Zero body fat is not very shapely.

We each may have to experiment with what weight and muscle tone combination results in a shape we can be happy with. We also need to choose to be happy along the way to our occasional personal peaks of perfection. We need to give ourselves permission to be satisfied with our bodies in general. It is not selfish or vain to be content with the body that you were given. You can do that at the same time as working on keeping it in good shape, for both aesthetic and functional reasons!

 

 

12 Steps to Staying Fit Through the Holiday Season

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Week 0 of 12 Weeks to a Healthy New Year

Awareness is half the battle. Not just awareness that there is a problem, but also awareness of what is causing the problem. This time of year in the northern hemisphere, we face the triple threat:

  • inclement weather
  • lack of daylight hours
  • feasting

Not only that, but as we age, we tend to get colder more easily, need more sleep, and don’t burn calories as efficiently. What to do?

This is definitely a situation where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, if you will pardon the pun. For instance, putting on extra pounds makes us feel lethargic. Instead of feeling like holiday weight gain is inevitable or even possibly fun for the moment, we need to think how much more fun we will have and how much better we will feel if we don’t binge eat during this season.

Here are 12 steps to help stay fit during this time of year. I will explore each of them in the coming weeks.

  1. Have a few different activity options for staying active.
  2.  Invest in gear that will make activity possible in spite of the weather.
  3.  Monitor the weather ahead of time for activity opportunities.
  4.  Have a plan for balanced eating on a daily basis.
  5.  Have specific long term activity goals.
  6.  Be creative about mixing social events and activities.
  7.  Plan for good things to listen to or companionship while exercising.
  8.  Have a specific plan for each activity/workout.
  9.  Keep routines fresh and creative.
  10. Have at least a semi-dedicated workout area.
  11. Have a reasonably consistent sleep and rest schedule.
  12. Focus on the positive.

Our bodies are designed to be active. We feel better if we can move, plus we are less prone to injury if we move regularly. All of our body systems benefit if we move.

  • we breathe more deeply, clearing out our lungs
  • we strengthen muscles that support our joints
  • we circulate our blood more, providing what our cells need and moving away waste products
  • we apply force to our skeletal system, stimulating it to be more dense
  • we get stronger overall, enabling us to respond better to unexpected physical demands
  • we feel less stress because physical activity helps dissipate tension
  • we sleep better, because a physically used body rests better

It is not just vanity to want to stay fit, although there is nothing wrong with using the motivation of wanting to look as nice as you can. As pointed out in the examples above, it is deeply practical to stay fit.

Besides that, you will have a choice of whether or not you want to sit on the sidelines while other people are having active fun. You will be better able to keep up with any children in your life. You will be better able to help those in need.

Join me as we delve into each of these areas more thoroughly in the coming weeks. Even if you know all of these basics, you will be encouraged and you can offer encouragement in the comments.

Drop me a line if there is another step you would suggest or have a preference about which order we address this steps.

 

 

 

 

 

26 Attitudes and Actions to Help You Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

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If you want to avoid weight gain over the holidays, you need three things:

  • a philosophy
  • a goal
  • a plan

It might sound highfalutin, as an old cowboy might say, to speak of a philosophy about holiday weight gain, but it really just means thinking about what is important to you and why. If you’ve read my past posts on weight, you know I’m not talking about an exact weight on the scale or a magazine image. However, most of us know not only what a healthy weight is for ourselves and that it would be good to fit into the same clothes, but also can see the advantage of not setting ourselves up for undoing past progress.

Just having a goal can be the start of a trajectory for good decisions related to eating and activity during the holidays. Start with a broad goal, then break it down into smaller goals until it all begins to suggest a plan. Be honest about what is important, both long and short term; then, admit that it is within your power to move in that direction. Much like a relationship with a friend, you can watch opportunity pass you by or you can act to build something worthwhile.

In the case of weight, we are building health. We are working toward an overall, balanced sense of satisfaction. I’m not saying “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” because part of the plan has to also be satisfaction with eating. Eating is part of life, as sustenance, as personal enjoyment, and as fun social interaction. Still, it can be kept in balance with other areas we want to be satisfied with. Even with eating, we don’t just indulge in one favorite food. For one thing, it would get boring. For another, we would start to feel icky after a while.

We can use this perspective of balanced satisfaction to guide our thinking about eating at any given time. Framing goals and plans in more positive terms will tend to be more motivating and more rewarding. Here are 26 attitudes and actions to help you form a plan that will work for you:

26-attitudes-and-actions-to-help-you-avoid-holiday-weight-gain

  1. Make food priorities. If you take just a moment to think before indulging, you may very well realize you don’t really want that particular food very much.
  2. Review what calorie and nutritional values foods have. Not all fun foods are junk and not all are high calorie.
  3. Don’t avoid high fat all the time, because it might be the most satisfying and even the most nutritious. Just have an idea of what you are eating.
  4. Avoid eating until you feel stuffed. Most of us will eat again tomorrow. There is no need to eat everything today.
  5. Consider that you will enjoy a meal more and longer afterward if you are not suffering from the bodily discomfort of excess.
  6. Similarly, remember to look forward to leftovers.
  7. Don’t make excuses, especially based on what you think everyone else is eating.
  8. Remember that special beverages can be deceptively calorie-full.
  9. Don’t feel pressure to finish what you have taken or what others have served you. There is not some child starving in Africa because you don’t finish your chips and dip.
  10. Eat good food regularly to avoid binging.
  11. Have a healthy snack before a party.
  12. When you really feel hungry, go ahead and have a healthy snack.
  13. Anticipate changes in the eating schedule. If you know you are having a special meal for dinner, you can be more motivated to skip a treat during the day.
  14. Make regular sleep a priority. We are weakest about goals when we are tired, plus being over-tired makes it harder to get the activity that we need.
  15. Take your own water and snacks with you when out and about, like when shopping.
  16. Plan on continuing a moderate exercise routine. Don’t stress yourself out trying to do more than is really possible, but don’t give up either.
  17. Choose social events that keep you active. Dancing is always good, but sometimes just keeping hands and mind busy can make it less likely that you will mindlessly eat.
  18. Don’t snack out of containers; rather, serve portions. It will remind you of how much you are eating.
  19. Don’t stringently deprive yourself. If you feel like you are always missing out, it will be harder to be moderate throughout the holiday season.
  20. Don’t tell yourself you *deserve* something. No one deserves special food. Talk to yourself in the honest vocabulary of what you want and don’t want.
  21. Don’t just wear loose clothing. Wear what you want to fit later.
  22. Wear clothing that makes you feel like you look good. If you feel like you look good, you are more inspired to keep working on how you look and feel.
  23. Remember that it is easier to not eat calories in the first place, when you don’t actually feel hungry, than to cut back on consumption and really feel hungry later.
  24. Don’t chide yourself for enjoying a treat. If you chose to eat it, enjoy it without guilt. Then, move on to your next choice in keeping with your priorities and goals.
  25. Find someone for mutual encouragement in keeping eating in perspective and under control.
  26. Know that you may very well be encouraging others as they see you making good eating and activity choices without making excuses and not being ruled by social pressure.

In summary, the holidays are not some unstoppable force. You are still you and food is still food. If you can make it to the New Year without feeling bloated and sluggish, you will feel happy. Make yourself happy.

Dealing with Illness as an Aging Athlete

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dealing-with-illness-as-an-aging-athleteWhat are the facts and what is the fiction when it comes to recovering from illness when you are over 50? And how should it affect the goals and motivation of the aging athlete? It all comes down to which generalizations are based on reality, which can be overcome by changes in lifestyle, and what is just an excuse.

Some generalizations are demonstrably evident. At some point in aging, the skin wrinkles and bones take longer to heal. But even things like this vary across time with different individuals in ways that no one has been able to definitively explain. One person’s hair turns gray by 45, while another has barely a strand of silver into their 60’s.

Then there are things like memory. While it is true that memory loss is associated with the extremes of aging, it is also true that people of all ages blame memory loss on their current phase of life. Lack of mental training in the young, too much going on in college, the stressful demands of caring for young children. Everyone has their excuse or their life variables. It is similar with how our bodies respond to illness.

It can be easy to feel more discouraged about illness when we are older. It can seem like it hits us harder or we don’t recover as well. In reality, it is probably much less a factor of that and more a factor of our individual immune systems and our environment. Yes, there is a point at which our bodies are so old that illness is going to be harder on us, but that is probably much later in life than we think it is, especially if we are doing basic things like moving about even a small amount and breathing fresh air regularly.

The truth of the matter is that whatever illness we might have a a given time is the one most vivid in our mind. It can be very hard to remember just how uncomfortable even a common cold was just last year. It is what we have now that reigns uppermost in our minds. And it typically feels bad.

Much like physical strength in our later years depends a lot on how much we stimulate our muscles, recovery from illness depends a lot on how well we take care of ourselves both before and during. Actually, the older we are the more likely we will have the option to get adequate rest when we are sick.  Also, we should know about techniques for making ourselves comfortable and supporting our immune system. Any disadvantage we have from being “older” can be outweighed by other factors.

For anyone who has been working on physical fitness, there is concern about loss of fitness while ill. The first thing to remember is that trying to push through with training while sick is counterproductive. Much like the body benefits from rest between hard workouts, it needs its rest when under the stress of being sick.

The next thing to consider is when to start back into training. I have always used the rule of thumb that I should be able to go through a moderately active day of chores without feeling exhausted before adding more rigorous activities, like running or swimming. This usually takes me 1- 2 days after the symptoms of an illness are gone. It typically takes less time for my husband, who is rarely sick for as long as I am and recovers more quickly. He just seems to have a stronger immune system. I try not to take it personally, or wrongly judge my situation based on his. My body needs what it needs and wishing it to be different doesn’t change it.

When it comes to getting back into the swing of a workout routine, I treat the first few days like a testing warm-up. Since I have been sitting around a fair amount, I want to gently reactivate musculoskeletal systems. This will avoid straining body parts that aren’t ready to go full out yet.

It is also good to use this time to patiently test how much fitness may have been lost. Of course, that will depend on a lot of individual factors, including what my level of fitness was before getting sick. For instance, having recently spent months solidifying my running endurance base to handle 10-15 mile run once a week, it is unlikely that it will be too hard to work back up to that after a week long flu episode, whether I am 55 years old or not.

It is a fact of life that people get sick. Even those who don’t get sick often get sick sometimes. Everyone has to deal with comebacks sooner or later. There is no reason to view illness as a time to give up on physical activity just because we are over 50 or beyond. Each of us should remind ourselves of all the other times we have made a comeback and how good it feels to be physically active. Physical energy does not need to be something only the young have; we can actually manufacture our own energy by remaining active.

All pictures and content including the name and logo “Fun Fitness After 50” are Copyright (c) 2019 by Laura Blodgett, unless otherwise noted. Please contact the author with any questions or comments.

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