The body in its 50's

Percy looks at it this way. Since he's stuck in Hades for the foreseeable future, he might as well embark on a program of wellness. Being well in hell is the best revenge? Something like that. 

Experimenting with high protein low carb artificial food for the past while with mixed results. There's some palatable or even tasty options out there-- One bars are the best so far-- and Muscle Milk protein drink is the best in liquid form. Even though "Muscle Milk" is a sort of unpleasant name. 

A few things I've learned: It doesn't take very many calories for morning or lunch time hunger to be assuaged. 200-300, usually. But I do find that I have voracious cravings around dinner time or late at night. I've been overcompensating some nights by having high calorie, high carb dinners. I bet managing body fat would be easier if I had high calorie, high carb breakfasts and low calorie high protein food the rest of the day. But my daily metabolic cycle is still ruled by morning caffeine, so, until that changes, which realistically may never happen, big breakfasts are less likely. 

Women and salad, the great icon of healthy eating in our time

The other thing I've noticed is that there are a great many products on the market that are labeled as high protein but that have an enormous amount of sugar. I used to think Cliff Bars were good for me, for example, but even their Builder protein bars have 21 or more grams of sugar. So I have started reading labels. My goal is 3 g of sugar or fewer per serving, zero if possible. There's a discount line of protein bars that are actually pretty good called Think Thin, and many of their high protein options have zero sugar, so that's interesting. 

Check out this eye opening list from Buzzfeed of 16 items marketed as "healthy" that are similar to just eating a Snickers bar and getting it over with. It's also noticeable from this list how very popular many of these items are in comparison with lower sugar choices of the same kind of product. We instinctively go for high sugar even when we don't realize it. 

Anyway, the goal is to lose weight and reduce percent body fat. I discovered to my horror after I quit smoking nine years ago that I had a slow metabolism all of a sudden, in my 40s. I am roughly 5'8" and my weight went up to 176 pounds at one point about a year after I quit. The way my body works, all of the extra body fat goes around my middle-- abdominal and mid to lower back. Some pectoral. What was the real wake up call was once when I had to hustle across the street to beat a changing red light and I felt like there was far, far more of me moving up and down than was moving forward, a sensation I had never had in my life up to that moment. I was inspired by that uncomfortable feeling to start working out, and I have maintained regular exercise ever since. I guess that was about 6 years ago.

My journey through getting exercise back into my life after a couple decades of a largely sedentary existence was long and painful. I started by walking one mile nearly every day, doing about 10 push ups and some crunches (not many) and stretching. That was all I could do. I also noticed that there were no gains whatsoever, as opposed to how my body worked when I was younger. I used to be able to do a very low amount of exercise and build muscle mass. In my 40's, this was absolutely not the case. Over time, I slowly and painfully worked my way up to where I am now. The exercise routine now is about 2 hours, including 100 situps on a 30 degree elevated situp board, 50 pushups, weight work with a 15 pound free weight, a short series of yoga poses and a 3.2 mile run. I do this about three to four times a week. And in my 50's, I have found that it still can barely offset high carb, high calorie eating, so I have had to be mindful. But even after more than 20 years of heavy smoking and alcoholism, my numbers now are all great. Low resting heart rate of about 55, low cholesterol, low blood pressure, relatively quick cardiac recovery time, etc. I am glad I have been able to recover physically as well as in all the other ways. 

But as anyone involved in fitness knows, exercise can't offset high carb, high calorie eating, realistically. For example, a single Haagen-dazs Vanilla Milk Chocolate Almond ice cream bar has 290 calories, with 21 g. of carbs. (Note by the way that a Cliff Builder's protein bar is 270 calories and has 29 g. of carbs and is a hell of a lot less fun). My 3.2 mile run that I do a few times a week burns approximately 380 calories, according to my FitBit. So even with fairly strenuous cardio built into my weekly routine, there's a strong chance that I'll be behind the carb and calorie curve without dietary changes. In fact, the latest recommendations are that, if your only goal is to lose body fat and lose weight, you should avoid strenuous exercise, walk a few miles every day, and just completely change your diet, reducing calories and carbs, until you hit your target weight, and *then* start a plan of increased exercise. This strategy supposedly resets everything so that heavy carb cravings that can result from strenuous exercise do not kick in. 

I'm interested in a few things around all of this. The first is that I want to feel well. I'd say that is my main goal. I want to offset reduced testosterone as I age by maintaining muscle strength if not mass, and by developing stamina, preserving mobility and feeling like I have energy. My second goal is to continue to be able to fit in a size 32 waist, haha. My third goal is to look okay as I age and not be a walking advertisement for an American way of eating and living that I am fundamentally morally opposed to. 

Mostly though, mobility is key. I see so many older people out in the world who have limited range of motion, use walkers or wheelchairs, are obese, are obviously in pain, have shortness of breath, etc. If I have anything to say about it, I refuse to age this way. I want to be one of those spry old men who can still hike 20 miles when I'm 85. That's the goal. Of course, the universe sometimes doesn't cooperate. So we'll see. 

I have found that if my motives for dietary changes and exercise are to feel well and if I enjoy the exercise itself, I am far more likely to stay on target. If my motives are ego-driven or shame and guilt based, things don't go as well and I am less consistent. I have also found that when I sink into self loathing and despair or boredom or loneliness and then use eating as a way of mollifying those feelings, I gain weight, body fat and a feeling of illness very, very quickly. Now that I don't drink or smoke, I feel all of those changes more acutely, also. So it's been very interesting for this addict to learn how to relax, not struggle, but stay on course, in a self loving and compassionate way. On a spiritual level, these are the lessons that any program of change asks us to learn.