Note: These articles are excerpts from Getting Fit & Staying Fit In Your 40s, 50s and Beyond. To learn more about the book, click here.
Why you shouldn’t feel guilty about that excess weight
By Jim Laabs, author of Getting Fit & Staying Fit In Your 40s, 50s and Beyond
Many people are burdened not only with all those extra pounds, but also with the guilt of being overweight. That guilt in turn makes a person more likely to turn to food for solace, leading to even more guilt, which in turn leads to more eating, which increases guilt yet again which causes more eating…and the vicious circle goes on and on.
Guilt is unwarranted, because becoming overweight is a perfectly natural response to living in today’s modern world.
The story begins a long time ago, when cavemen lurched around the earth. As you can imagine, being a caveman was no picnic. Oh sure, there were good times when a lost wooly mammoth happened by and the caveman-of-the-house got lucky with his slingshot. Then it was good eating for a few days. But much of the time, our cavemen ancestors resorted to foraging for berries and grains, usually finding just enough food to get by.
Even back then, the human body was highly adaptable. How the body adapted to the “feast or famine” lifestyle of the cavemen was by becoming very efficient at converting the excess wooly mammoth calories into fat, then storing that fat away to be used by the body during lean times, when roots and berries were the main items on the menu.
In today’s society, most people don’t live a feast or famine lifestyle. In fact most people’s lifestyles are best described as “feast or feast more.” Not only do we have plenty of food, but usually within easy reach is an endless supply of calorie-dense, delicious food that our ancestor cavemen never even dreamed about.
Unfortunately for us, our human bodies still think we live in a “feast or famine” world, so we merrily store away as fat every extra calorie that we take in. And since we seldom (if ever) find ourselves in famine situations in modern society, that extra fat just keeps building up.
There are some additional factors at work as well. Many foods today have some powerful fat-builders that even our parents didn’t have working against them. The two biggest culprits are high fructose corn sweetener and trans fats.
High fructose corn sweetener is sort of a supercharged sugar. It is a liquid that is highly processed and refined so it is much more concentrated than the granulated sugar our parents used. That makes it easier and cheaper to ship and store, which the big food processing companies really like. However, some scientists are convinced that even when calories are equal, high fructose corn sweetener is more fattening than regular sugar because of the way our bodies process it. To be fair, not everyone agrees about this but there is one other compelling fact that is undeniable – if you look at the relationship of the consumption of high fructose corn sweetener (which has only been widely used since the 1990s) versus the average weight of Americans, the two are so similar that it’s frightening.
Another dietary landmine that your mom and pop didn’t worry about is trans fats (also known as hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats). Like corn sweetener, food processors use trans fats primarily for economic reasons – they are easier to store and have a longer shelf life than other types of fats. Trans fats are more insidious than high fructose corn sweetener because they not only contribute to weight gain, but in some studies have also been found to cause more damage to the body than other types of fat.
So if you’re overweight and feeling guilty about it, get with the American way and blame somebody else for your problems! Feel free to spread the blame among your ancestors, those big food processing corporations and while we’re at it, we may as well blame life in general.
Seriously, if you’re overweight, a lot of it has to do not with you, but it’s a result of the natural order of evolution combined with some flaws in today’s nutritional marketplace. So stop feeling guilty and start thinking of how you’re going to overcome these obstacles.
Some foods for a healthier heart
By Jim Laabs, author of Getting Fit & Staying Fit In Your 40s, 50s and Beyond
Grape juice: Red wine gets all the publicity, but the heart-healthiness of wine comes
from red or purple grapes, so drinking grape juice provides similar benefits without having to get plowed every night.
Salmon: Bears eat a lot of salmon. Have you ever seen a bear have a heart attack? Neither have I, but that’s beside the point. Salmon has a lot of omega-3 fatty acids, which have been found to reduce heart attack risk.
Apples: You know that old saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away?” There’s some truth to that, because the pectin in apples has been found to help reduce blood cholesterol. Apples are also rich in fiber, which you can’t have too much of.
Spinach: Spinach is one of the better things you can yank out of the ground, wash the sand off of, and eat. Lots better than worms, for one. Spinach has folate, which has been shown to reduce some nasty stuff in your blood called homocysteine, which in turn reduces the chances of a heart attack.
Berries: Blueberries, raspberries and strawberries all have antioxidants, which in some studies have been shown to promote better cardiovascular health. There have been some differing opinions about the value antioxidants lately, but what the heck, berries taste good and they won’t hurt you (unless you suffer from diverticulitis, in which case you should avoid berries with seeds).
Sweet potatoes: Although I must admit to not being a fan, these orange monstrosities qualify as one of our heart-healthy foods because of their fiber, antioxidant levels, and vitamin content.
Monounsaturated fats: These are good fats, and great sources for this good fat are olive oil (I suggest that you get rid of all other oils for cooking) and many kinds of nuts. Remember, all fatty foods, including nuts, are calorie-dense, so don’t get carried away.
Two “diet busters” to watch out for
By Jim Laabs, author of Getting Fit & Staying Fit In Your 40s, 50s and Beyond
In my experience of observing eating habits, there are a couple of foods that tend to be “diet busters.” There is nothing inherently wrong with either of them, but the big reason they ruin weight loss efforts is that they tend to have lots more calories than people think they do.
One of the worst diet-busters is the bagel. The biggest trap with bagels is portion size. If you look up “bagel” in most published calorie lists, you’ll find that about 250 to 300 calories is commonly listed per bagel. The problem is that many bagels sold today are overgrown, humungous descendents of original old-fashioned bagels. So instead of 300 calories or so, your monster-sized bagel you pick up on the way to work may be 500 calories or more. Add some cream cheese or butter and you’re having yourself a 700-calorie snack there, tubby.
Another innocent looking diet-buster is the muffin. I think I actually hear a reader protesting, “But, it’s a BRAN muffin!!” Sorry, ace, but like bagels, most muffins have grown into nutritional monstrosities that contain not only mucho calories but in many cases, a whole lot of fat. A 3-1/2 inch diameter (an average coffee shop-style) muffin has as many as 560 calories. Even a Dunkin Donuts “low fat” blueberry muffin weighs in at 400 calories.
If you are watching your weight and can’t live without bagels and/or muffins, here are a few suggestions:
- Make muffins at home from mixes, using standard size muffin cups. Betty Crocker corn muffins have 160 calories per muffin, and their Apple Streusel muffins contain 160 calories each.
- Buy bagels from the grocery store. They tend to be standard size and have nutritional labeling so you can see what calorie count you’re up against.
- There are several brands of “mini-muffins” and “mini bagels” that have fewer than 50 calories per mini. If you can stop at one or two, this may be a good option for you.
- Take care in what you spread on your muffin or bagel, as that can easily cause the calorie count to get out of control. Try a low-fat spread instead of regular butter, margarine or cream cheese, and use no-added-sugar fruit preserves instead of regular jelly.
Better yet, look for another way to satisfy the urge – it may help to simply look at the calorie content if you need some incentive to pass up that next bagel or muffin.
Why People Over 50 Should Do Strength Training
By Jim Laabs, author of Getting Fit & Staying Fit In Your 40s, 50s and Beyond
When I talk to folks over the age of 50 about strength training, the first question 
generally is, “It seems like a lot of work. Why should I go through the time and trouble to do strength training?” If you’re looking to turn back the clock (and aren’t we all?) one of the very best things you can do is strength training.
Keep more muscle, keep more strength
The saying, “use it or lose it,” is especially true when it comes to losing muscle as we age. A typical person starts losing muscle mass starting around age 40, and that loss speeds up as time passes. A proven way to put the brakes on muscle loss, according to several medical studies, is to do strength training.
What’s wrong with muscle loss? Plenty! Less muscle means you tire more easily and are more susceptible to injury. Strength training will give you the strength you need so can stand longer, walk further, and maintain more energy throughout the day.
More strength reduces your odds of taking a spill that will result in broken bones or other serious injury. Your body has dozens of unappreciated muscles that help your limbs react quickly when your brain tells them to. Getting these muscles into shape will increase how effectively these little muscles react, giving you better balance and faster reflexes.
One of the main reasons we get tired and have aches and pains is dwindling “core strength.” Most people look at strength as having big bulging biceps. But there are all kinds of important muscles between your shoulders and hips that help you move around throughout the day. Strength training builds those muscles. After you develop more core strength you’ll find that you have better balance, more stamina, improved coordination, and generally feel more physically centered.
Stronger bones
Speaking of falling and breaking a bone, why does this happen more as people age? Like muscle, bones tend to lose their mass as we get older. The bones of a 70-year-old weigh considerably less than they did when that person was a young adult. That loss of mass makes older bones more brittle and susceptible to breaking.
The good news is that strength training not only slows muscle loss, it slows bone loss as well. The stress that strength training puts on the skeletal system is like a wake-up call, telling your body to keep those bones strong because there’s still hard work to be done. Besides working out, it’s also important to include the right amount of calcium in your diet; since that’s the building material your body needs to answer strength training’s wake-up call.
Easier weight control
One of the pleasant surprises of strength training is the jump-start that it gives your body’s metabolism. When it comes to burning energy, muscle is like a powerful blast furnace while fat is like a little tiny match. After you replace some of your body’s fat with muscle, you’ll be surprised at how you can eat more and not put on weight.
(Assuming you eat the right kinds of foods – I can tell you from personal experience that not even the strength training is a free pass to eating unlimited Twinkies!)
Lose lots of inches, not just pounds
I’m a dieting expert (having done it so many times), and there’s a good chance that you are too. If you’re looking to lose weight, you won’t believe the awesome loss of size that can be accomplished with the combination of diet and strength training.
The secret is that, pound for pound, muscle takes up a lot less space than fat. Also, toned-up muscles are more compact than out-of-condition muscles. The combined effect of fat loss, muscle toning and muscle gain can be extraordinary, and it can happen quite quickly. When I first discovered the strength training-diet combo, I went from a 40-inch waistline to a 33-inch waistline in just ten weeks.
Wait a minute, you say! Doesn’t strength training make you big and bulky? Not at all! That’s one of the big misconceptions about using weights to exercise. The truth is there are many different kinds of strength training. Some people use weight lifting to bulk up, but the weight training techniques I talk about in Getting Fit & Staying Fit In Your 40s, 50s and Beyond are designed to build leaner and more compact, yet stronger muscles.
It’s easy to get started
If you want to give strength training a try, one option is to join a fitness center. Many offer a trial membership of a week or two to determine if you like it. Another option is to buy some dumbbells to use at home and read a good “how to” book about strength training. Either way, give strength training a chance to help you feel and look younger.