Getting older, Not fatter

Getting older gracefully is something many aspire to do.  Some people, however, want more than that.  Flying into our 90s is the dream... right? Look at Olga up there -- she's flying!!  She wants to age with speed, agility, and athletic achievements in age-group competitions.  But getting to the top of "masters" divisions or the "senior games" isn't as easy as it used to be for the Olgas of the world.

Nowdays instead of ever-shrinking 65-70 and 75-80 year old competition brackets, they're growing...  more about that in a future article  But first, the bad news remains:  we lose 10% of our lean muscle every decade.  Only strength training and regular exercise can prevent muscle loss.  Left unchecked, the lost muscle is replaced with fat.  

So for a woman who starts out in her 20s or 30s with a relatively healthy 80% lean, 20% fat body she'll enter her 40s with a 70% lean, 30% fat even IF her weight stays the same.  Her sizes will go up ever so slightly and it may "not matter much" at first, but there are consequences:   

Everything feels pudgy.  Energy levels drop.  Life gets harder.  

People already in their 40s and 50s folks know that losing weight gets harder as we age, and why is that?  It's because the metabolic engine that is our lean muscle mass is getting eaten away.  Like termites gnawing away at wood, fat creeps in to replace our muscle as our own bodies only naturally conserve and build strength in youth but atrophy with age.  

Hormones have a role in this process, no doubt, but rather than hitting the needles and popping pills... why not use the muscle you have to conserve the metabolism you need to age gracefully and healthfully.  

As reported by the NY Times, there is inspiration to be found in the 80-year olds who stay fit with good, old-fashioned work.  Consistency is the key.  And researchers learning more about aging every year:  

Some researchers now see aging itself as a kind of mitochondrial disease. Defective mitochondria appear as we get older, and these researchers say that they rob us of endurance, strength and function. There’s evidence that for young patients with mitochondrial disease, exercise is a potent tool, slowing the symptoms. If that’s true, then exercise could also potentially be a kind of elixir of youth, combating the ravages of aging far more than we thought.

Sunny and SunnyDayFitness training sessions can help you, Olga, or anyone interested in aging gracefully.  Why don't you e-mail Sunny for a complimentary session today?  

Revisiting the Bootcamp Venue - Danehy Track

I missed my running buddies and bootcampers today.  So I decided to run over to the Danehy Park and Track to "run a few loops" for them.  

I used to ride on bootcamp mornings, but today I ran in an extra long-sleeve shirt since it was a little chilly.  Of course, running there warmed me up enough that I left my extra shirt where I normally left my bike.  I started on the hilly green, then made my way to the track itself.  

Just today I saw it was named the "City of Cambridge Track of Champions".  Wow, such a grand name -- and here I thought it was just a regular track for hacks and athletes, young and old alike.  

I took a few loops at a comfortable RPE 7 of 10 pace and then did some warmup moves like leg swings and hip circles, a few hops, some skips, plus a little grapevine shuffle.  The soccer players in all green at mid-field probably found it funny to see a lone runner doing all this.

I realized I should've included half track speed changes and some 1/4 track accelerations.  I start at a 4 and then up it to a 6, and build to an 8 and finally 10.  Those are really fun and make the soccer players think, "Maybe she can sprint after all..."  I really enjoyed the run and miss the bootcamp days already!

Cookie-eating vs. Walking it off

Sunny asked a few friends recently, "Are you Trading Your health for a “Treat”?  The resounding answer was "I don't think so. I can eat dark chocolate every day because it's good for me and I'm so active.

While walking to burn a few extra calories is good, it's even better to limit the incoming cakes, cookies, etc.  Did you know that even a tiny Tootsie Roll has 25 calories?  And who eats only one...usually it's 3-4, so you'd need to do 10 minutes of power walking just to burn off that trip to the candy bowl.

What about a single dark chocolate cookie -- how much damage can that do?  Well, the Nantucket cookie seen here has enough calories to sustain a 20 minute jog to and from the park!  Can you really take that jog every time you hit the bag at the office meeting?

Pepperidge Farm® These cookies are American Classics

Nantucket™ Dark Chocolate Cookies

Nutrition Facts*
Amount per Serving (serving size) = 1 cookie

Calories 130	Sugars 8g
Total Fat 6g	Protein 1g

“It’s not the one cookie; it’s the one cookie you eat everyday” said my training client, Jess Grass.  When I see that she's gaining back the weight she worked so hard to lose, then I know she's giving in to the sweet treats too often.   You don't have to go sugar-free everyday, but she and many others should try it for just a single day or two and see how many calories we save.

I went sugar-free for 5 days in September and it was eye-opening.  There's sugar hidden in so many foods!  Ketchup, salad dressing, and simple breads, not even "sweet" breads.  My boyfriend asked what I was doing and if I was somehow anti-sugar.  “I’m in favor of sugar” he said, and three of his friends quickly agreed.

But if I can do without sugary treats, I will save a lot of the fall and winter excess from ever piling on.  And that will keep me in summer-weight range and happier, longer than any Nantucket cookie can make me.

Inside the September 2010 Bootcamp series

We met on Fridays and Mondays at Danehy Park in Cambridge, pre-dawn and before our "work days" began.  Participants signed up via Facebook on the SunnyDayFitness.com page and got updates by personal e-mails also through Facebook.  

Dave and Sierra were the first two on-board, and then Lisa joined us for the final 3 sessions.  Their dedication and consistent turn-out, even after racing triathlon sprint distance races the day before always impressed me.  Funny notes about wine and wishing for rain would come out the night before, but they always came through to bootcamp in the morning.  Dedication.  

Bootcampers -- Dave, Sierra, and Lisa -- ya'll are awesome.  

Together we decided to brave the early, dark hour of 6am (remember, daylight fade and sunrise is delayed) for most weeks.  However,  by the last session of the month we had to push back to 6:30am to be able to see.  Good thing we did, too, because some (silly, strange) male runners were out running the track *backwards*, clockwise in the pre-dawn hours.  Collision before sunrise would not have been fun!      

So, without further ado, here's what we did during our 

Last Outdoor SDF.com Danehy Park Track Bootcamp 2010

Warmup: 

Easy run (3-4 mins)

Monster Walk, Knee Circles, Hip Swings

Inchworms, Lunge Reaches and Twists

Agility:  Timed Triangle Cone sprints and U-turns

Running:

Form review then 3 laps building speed, 2 laps slowing speed

Easy-Med-Hard-Med-Easy

Strength:  

Pushups, Lunge Switches, Bicycle Crunches – no equip

Plank Marches, Squat Hops, High Reaches to Toes – timed, no equip

All of this in under an hour!  The most fun was our giggle fest during the U-turn drills as we tried our morning "coordination" in quick direction shifts, similar to a hop-step dance move around a soccer cone.  No one was laughing after the hard running laps that followed, or during the Strength portion that ended our session.  But a good time was had by all, start to finish.  What do you think?  Could you enjoy it?  Try it!

6 Tips for Clean Eating

Getting cleaner foods into your body will help you get leaner and healthier.  

Where to begin?  Start with these tips:

Red Fire Farm carrots really do taste amazing!

1. Shop the perimeter of the store – skip the aisles of packaged, canned, and processed foods.  Whole nuts, oats, and brown rice are a few exceptions.  You can only eat what you buy, and if you shop for clean foods from the start, you'll make clean eating possible and easier then saying "no" to other junk.
2. Freezer friendly finds – try new vegetarian burgers, fish/shrimp, steamer bagged veggies, and ripe frozen berries.  Skip the freezer entrees, Haagen-Dazs and fast-food knock-offs like freezer fries.  And try my favorite freezer veggie:  soybeans in the shell, or edamame.
3. Join a CSA or shop the farmers markets – prepare to spend a little more on local organic foods to eat truly clean.  Cook and appreciate kale, spinach, and raw gems like real, earthy-sweet carrots.  A great Boston based CSA is Red Fire Farm and www.localharvest.org will help you find other CSAs.  
4. Clean those fruits and veggies – take 10 minutes after shopping to rinse, chop, and make-ready your veggies.  Drop them into plastic boxes or baggies and leave them on the top shelves of your fridge.  Then in a hurry you can just pop them into your bag for easy snacks.  Or just streamline the evening meal prep by having it all ready to cook or eat raw.
5. Focus on whole grains and short ingredient lists – foods that are best for you will have fewer than 10 ingredients and all they won’t read like a chemistry book.  Even CLIF bars have 20+ ingredients.  Why not try to make your own?  If you can’t pronounce an ingredient, or your grandmother had never heard of it, then you probably shouldn’t be eating it. 
6. Alcohol and sweets really should be treats – and not every day is a “special day”.  Think of your diet as the building block of your healthy life, and ask “what would an athlete eat before competing?” and if they wouldn’t eat it or drink it, then why should you.  After all, you are planning to workout hard tomorrow, right?  Another great post-race meal may be waiting for you...

Lobsterman Triathlon post-race healthy feast