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Life expectancy can increase by up to 10 years following sustained shifts towards healthier diets (Study)

“It was estimated that switching from an unhealthy diet to a longevity diet [less crap, more of the healthy stuff] would increase life expectancy by 8 years in 40-year-olds and by 4 years in 70-year-olds.

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Adverse childhood experience is associated with an increased risk of reporting chronic pain in adulthood (Study)

“any direct adverse childhood experience, i.e. childhood sexual, physical, emotional abuse, or neglect alone or combined, increased the risk of reporting chronic pain and pain-related disability in adulthood.”

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No easy way to communicate the impacts of climate change (Article)

These folks were testing VR to simulate climate change events, trying to get participants to become more aware of the consequences of climate change. Interestingly, it had the opposite effect on climate change sceptics. But it might have been because the tech used was rudimentary. There goes my virtual reality idea for improving habits.

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Omega-3s for fewer post-COVID mental health conditions? 

“In 16,962 patients who received omega-3 PUFAs supplements and 2,248,803 who did not, omega-3 supplementation significantly reduced the risk of developing psychiatric sequelae post-COVID-19 diagnosis”

Obviously, the whole mental health situation is more nuanced and goes beyond just COVID for most people. But omega-3 is still worth looking into.

-J

1. Think how much stronger your new self feels vs your past self. Think about the concrete changes you’re seeing. And how much you don’t want to go back to feeling like you did.

2. Social carrot. How can you tie strength training with social benefits? We can do almost anything if we can do it with people we like. Whether in-person or in an online community.

3. Dopamine. Revel in the aftermath of a good workout.

-J

Your long-term goal requires an annoying level of perseverance and constant motivation. The downside is that perseverance and constant motivation are limited to anyone whose name doesn’t include ‘Batman’ or ‘Margaret Thatcher’.

To reach your long-term goal, you need to lean into instant gratification to help maintain momentum and enthusiasm along the way.

And yes, this gratification can be both short-lived and superficial. As long as you’re smart about it:

Complete a workout -> Eat a piece of chocolate, have a hot shower, or buy a delicious lunch without any tuna.

Finish a long walk -> Get into the bath, heat the sauna or watch an episode of Fleabag.

You get the idea. It doesn’t matter what your instant gratification is as long as it’s something that you’re genuinely looking forward to.

But ideally, it should be something that doesn’t turn into a problem or hinder your progress.

A glass of pinot after a workout every now and then might be okay. But you obviously don’t want to blend frozen margaritas after each time you do kettlebell swings.

-J

The person who reaches her goal?

Or the person who does the things that take her to the goal?

And no, they’re not the same thing.

The person who’s only focused on the goal will take almost any action to get there. All of which aren’t going to work long-term. At the end of the goal, there’s a cliff.

Once she achieves her goal, she might be in a situation she didn’t anticipate.

But the person who does the things that take her to her goal will keep going. She has a system, a process.

By focusing on the process, she develops skills, habits, and insights that will be valuable beyond reaching her initial goal.

Yes, there are scenarios where an obsessive focus on the goal will be the right approach.

But for long-term success, a process-focused approach is the way to go.

-J

To understand why my fitness efforts turned into a big bowl of death jelly last month, we need to look at what went down in those four weeks.

Let’s see.

– Round two of COVID for all except our son. (Who had no symptoms and felt rather jovial about it.)
– Cyclone Jasper. (The cyclone wasn’t much, but the prepping and unprepping took time.)
– The 1000mm+ of rain following the cyclone. (Thankfully, besides the roads being cut off, our family was fine.)
– Christmas and everything that comes with it. (All of which is positive. Except for one’s fitness.)

Overall, I think the kids went to daycare about four or five days in December.

Usually, I’d get 12+ strength workouts in a typical four-week month. In December? I don’t even know, maybe four.

Was it frustrating? You bet. But we can only control so much. And getting all Hank about it loses its shine real fast.

When we sign up for fitness for life, months like that are part of the deal. (And that’s mild compared to what others go through.)

When we sign up for fitness for life, we measure success in years. Not in days, weeks or months.

A month of fitness death jelly makes no difference to our long-term progress.

-J

 

Lift weights and eat a healthy diet. That’s your ticket to improving:

• Cholesterol
• Mood
• Weight
• Bone density
• Strength

And reducing the risk of injuries.

Sure, there’s a chance that kettlebells and carrots might not eliminate or even reduce all the symptoms. And you might need hormone therapy no matter how fit you are.

But even if lifting and food have a little improvement on how you feel, those actions serve you well once the menopause symptoms subside.

And the earlier you start, the better off you’ll be.

-J

New year new you? I call bullshit. The old you is just fine. You’re doing great. High five!

But how about a new year, stronger you? Now we’re talking. You could be like these two:

Conveniently enough, I am taking on 5 new online coaching clients this week. Are you a woman over 40 who:

✅ Juggles work, parenthood and about a gazillion other roles and responsibilities
✅ Gives zero f*cks about having abs and doesn’t want to focus on weight loss
✅ Wants to feel strong, confident and full of energy in the outdoor activities you love doing
✅ Is willing to carve out 60-90 minutes a week for the next 12 weeks to build up your strength and reduce the risk of injury

If that resonates and makes your neck more sore than a two-hour Slayer gig, I’d love to help you.

Reply with “Baltic herring”, and we’ll have a chat to see if my coaching program would be a good fit.

It was the right fit for all these women (and some men too, because whatever).

-J

Coffee is about the best thing in the world when it’s either hot or ice-cold. But when coffee is lukewarm, it’s as enjoyable as a secondhand bathwater. 

Cardio is no different.

To get the most benefits with your cardio training, you either want to 

1. a) Go easy (Zone 2)
   b) Go hard (HIIT: high-intensity interval training, or SIT: sprint interval training)

When you go lukewarm, aka kind of hard or kind of easy, you miss out on the benefits of:

– Zone 2 (active recovery, aerobic base building). 

– HIIT (better blood sugar control, metabolic benefits to help with belly fat, anti-inflammatory effect, aerobic capacity, cognition, and working memory).

– SIT (improved insulin sensitivity, increase in lean muscle, increase in fat-burning).

This gets even more important from perimenopause onward.

Estrogen and progesterone affect every system in your body, including the way you respond to training. These hormone levels gradually decrease in perimenopause, affecting the body’s ability to handle inflammation, insulin sensitivity, and fat-burning capabilities.

For the most health benefits, focus on high intensity on most cardio days. And pepper it with slow Zone 2 cardio. 

And say no to secondhand bathwater. 

-J

Now that you know how many calories you need, you might wonder how much protein, carbs and fat you need.

Right? Good.

A super simple version goes like this. As an active woman over 40, divide your daily plate as follows:

1/2 Vegetables (both starchy and non-starchy)
1/3 Protein
1/3 Wholegrains
Top it up with fats
Drink water

But since that’s annoyingly vague, here are some ballpark numbers for you:

Protein

1.8-2.3g/kg per day (e.g. 70kg x 1.8g = 126g).

Space that protein evenly throughout the day. The internet is full of protein source lists, so I won’t list them here.

Remember that most things you need will have at least a little protein. It all adds up. But if you’re eating a mostly plant-based diet, you probably need to supplement to hit your protein targets. Yay.

Aim to eat 30 grams of protein within 30-45 minutes after your workout.

Carbohydrates

At least 3g/kg per day (e.g. 70kg x 3 = 210g).

Besides low calories, I’ve noticed that active women tend to skimp on carbohydrates. And this amplifies the downsides of the low-calorie diet I wrote about yesterday. Especially all things hormones.

That 3g really is the low end for the days when your activity levels are lower. If you’re doing long hikes and other endurance stuff, you want to increase your daily carbos.

On that note, if you’re hiking, cycling or doing cartwheels for >90 minutes, eat 0.8g-1g/kg carbs within 30-45 minutes of finishing.

If you’re in your menopausal years, your insulin sensitivity isn’t going to be what it used to be. So favour whole grains, fruits and starchy vegetables as your carbohydrate sources.

It’s a good rule for anyone really, but especially important as you get older.

Fats

20-30% of your total daily calories. Mostly from plant-based sources.

Alright. You’re set.

-J

 

I’ve worked primarily with women for the past 13 years. A lot of things have changed since I first started, but two things have stayed the same:

1. Working with women is awesome.

2. Women tend to undereat. Both the total calories and carbohydrates. This is true across the board, but especially noticeable with active women.

Undereating for a day here and there doesn’t make a difference. I mean, that’s life, right? Some days we all get kicked in the teeth and feel about as excited about eating as Varys feels about an invitation to an orgy.

It’s the chronic undereating that fucks up the hunger signals, immune system, hormones, strength, fitness and mood. While also increasing the risk of injury and bone fractures.

And because all these downsides sort of sneak up, you often don’t realise that you’re not functioning as well as you could.

So, how much do you need to eat? 

Head over here to calculate your daily kilojoule needs for maintaining your weight. Divide it by four to get the daily calories.

Once you have your number, aim for that calorie amount daily for the next two to four weeks to set your baseline. Even if your goal is to lose fat.

Then adjust either up or down (or don’t), depending on your goals and how your body responds.

-J