It’s time you live your best life! As you probably guessed I am over 50, so there should be no surprise when I tell you I’ve tried plenty of diets in my day; low-fat, keto, weight watchers, and juicing to name a few. But with age also comes wisdom, and I’ve found that diets don’t work for me. Don’t get me wrong, I may lose a few pounds in the short period of time while I am on it, but as soon as I stop it always seems I am worse off than when I started.
Because of this, once I entered my fifties I stopped being focused on my weight. This doesn’t mean I let myself go and splurged. What it means is I am now more focused on how I feel than the number on the scale.
As we age, we start to realize that what we eat impacts how we feel. When I was younger, I could easily splurge on ice cream or other snacks late at night and it really didn’t seem to have much of an impact. Now, if I would eat the same bowl of ice cream late at night, I would immediately feel sick to my stomach, get a restless night’s sleep, be more likely to have a hot flash, and feel achy when I wake up the next morning. Another words, not good!
Does this sound familiar? If so, read on to hear about some of the lifestyle changes I made to see if they will help you.
You need to eat for real to live your best life
I have heard different debates related to the argument it’s not what you eat, but how much you eat. I will leave this to the experts to figure out, but what I can tell you is my body feels better when I eat real food. The funny thing is I didn’t even realize how bad processed food made me feel until I stopped eating it, and then re-introduced it. When I eat processed food, I am more tired, my joints are achy, my skin feels tighter, I’m moodier, and I never feel satisfied.
Once I introduced more real food into my diet, I quickly started to feel better. So, what is real food? It’s food that has ingredients closest to its original state. Foods like vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, nuts, seeds, dairy, eggs, meat, fish and poultry. A lot of great options to choose from. If you want more of an extensive list, I’d suggest going to this website for more information.
If you are like me, you may not be aware of the impact processed food is having on your body. Do yourself a favor and experiment. Stop eating processed food for a week or two and then reintroduce it back. Take notice to how you feel to see if it makes a difference in helping you live your best life.
I love my carbs, but I need to eat more protein
Do you remember the low or no fat diet days? I loved those days because I loved my carbs, and it was so easy for me to follow this eating plan. They were introducing so many low-fat versions of processed food, and I felt like I was in heaven. Snackwells anyone?
Although I still eat quite a bit of carbs, vegetables and fruit are carbs, I am more focused on getting more consistent protein in my diet throughout the day. Why? Because protein repairs and builds tissues, increases muscle mass, is good for your bones, and it makes you feel more satiated. Since my mother had osteoporosis, which is hereditary, and protein helps strengthen your bones, adding protein is becoming even more critical to me as I am getting older.
One thing I will admit, is I am really not a huge fan of the majority of the protein sources, so this was a little bit of a struggle at first. However, the good part is that once I found the good quality sources that I liked, it was easy to reach my protein goals more consistently. My primary sources for getting protein are, Grass fed meat, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, eggs, beans, and protein shakes.
Looking back, it is pretty scary how little protein I was actually eating. If you want a good gauge on how much protein you should be eating, check out this calculator which will help calculate it for you.
Start doing Resistance Training to live your best life
You might have heard me say it before, but I am a cardio junkie. I have gone through many stages through the years, walking, running, zumba, biking, kickboxing, I loved them all. It didn’t matter how often people tried to sell me on the benefit of Resistance Training, I was sold on my cardio.
That was until I was training for a half marathon and injured my hamstring. I had to stop running for quite a bit of time to let my hamstring heal, and other types of cardio activity seemed to trigger it as well. Since I was used to doing some type of activity most days of the week, this started to drive me crazy.
I decided to check out YouTube to see if I could find some type of upper body or other activity I could do. I stumbled on this trainer who was doing a no repeat strength training session, so I gave it a shot. It wasn’t too bad, so I continued to do some of her other videos.
After doing resistance training for a month or so, I started to actually see the muscle forming in my leg when I flexed it. I loved seeing the fruit of my labor and I also realized my body felt so much better. Instead of my body feeling mushy, everything seemed to be more toned which made me more confident.
Now if you’ve never done resistance training before, I would encourage you to invest in a trainer so you can be sure you are doing it correctly and don’t injure yourself. But once you start, you will be well on your way to live your best life.
Track what you are eating
If you talk to anyone who knows me, they will tell you how much I like my snacks. I would much prefer to eat snacks throughout the day than to eat three meals a day. I am not here to tell which option is better, but what I will say is if you aren’t keeping track of all the snacks you are eating, then there is a good chance you are overeating. I would also be willing to bet the snacks you are eating throughout the day are most likely not fruits and vegetables, which can be problematic as well.
The number of calories you need each day is dependent on a few components, age, gender, height, current weight, and activity level. I can give you the formula to calculate your calorie requirement, but it will be much easier to let this calculator do the work for you.
Once I knew how many calories I should be eating each day, I started using MyFitnessPal to keep track. The reason I love this app is because it’s easy, I can download the app on my phone and track everywhere I go, and it also allows me to track how much protein I am eating each day as well.
If you’ve never tracked your calories before you may be surprised with how much you are eating. When I started tracking, I was quite surprised with how little protein I was eating.
Sugar may taste good, but it certainly isn’t good for you
Does anyone remember the song from Mary Poppins, A Spoonful of Sugar. Sugar made the medicine go down easier and honestly anything else you add sugar to goes down much easier as well. Which is probably why it seems that regardless of what type of packaged food you pick up, when you read the label, you see there is added sugar.
Although sugar may taste good, I have read NUMEROUS articles sharing how sugar is linked to chronic conditions, and based on my own personal experience, my body is not a fan. I’ve also found the more I eat sugar the more I want it. I mean, who can stop at one cookie?
A couple years back, I started looking for low/no sugar recipes that I could make. Let’s face it we all need a little bit of sweet every now and again, so having some backup recipes was my safest bet. Surprisingly, I found quite a bit of low sugar, gluten free recipes which were quite good. Here is one of the websites that I visit quite frequently.
When you initially try to remove or cut back on sugar you may find it to be a little challenging. But I found when I really committed to eating less sugar, and focused more on the benefits of why, it became much easier. Interestingly enough, now when I eat a normal cookie or piece of candy, it seems way too sweet.
Moving daily is critical if you want to live your best life! No excuses
I have been exercising since my late teens. In fact, I really don’t remember a period of time I didn’t exercise, even when I was 9 months pregnant. Even though exercise has been a routine in my life for quite some time, it’s easy to get distracted or lazy and not do it.
Prior to COVID, I used to commute each day into the office, and would often exercise after I finished work. This was often problematic because many times I needed to work late and by the time I was finished it was either too late, I was too tired, or too hungry to work out.
Now, I start my day with a workout so regardless of how late I need to work, I know I already have my workout in. Of course, if a morning workout doesn’t work for you then find another time of day that does. The important part is to schedule it, just like you would anything else important to you.
It’s very easy to prioritize everything else in front of exercise, but the reality is when you do exercise, you feel much better afterwards so schedule it and make it part of your routine.
Get a Good night’s sleep
Two weeks ago, we had family over and I went to bed way past my bedtime. I am also an extravert, which means being around people gives me energy, so it took quite a bit of time to relax after they left. That night I was lucky if I got 4 hours of sleep and I felt awful the next day.
Our body needs sleep to heal itself and therefore it is important to get a good night’s sleep so we can feel good the next day. Plus, when I don’t get enough sleep, I tend to gravitate towards all those sugary snacks I know I shouldn’t be eating. This is why we should try and have a consistent routine each night to ensure we are getting the restful sleep needed.
What I started doing is getting ready for bed around 8:30 most nights. I change, wash my face, and brush my teeth consistently around this time. This helps me to relax and signals my body that it’s time to start shutting down. I also started listening to a podcast, which helps me to relax and gets my mind off the day’s stressors allowing me to fall asleep easier.
Drink water consistently throughout the day
A long time ago I was a huge Diet Coke fan. In fact, in high school I used to drink TAB. Luckily for me, I gave up this addiction and have turned to water for my drink of choice. Of course, that is after my morning coffee, which is a must for me! I try and get at least 64 oz of water in each day. Keep in mind, water needs vary based on your weight, activity level, and other things so your needs may be different.
Now, I periodically drink water throughout the day and before eating my meals, which is allowing me to snack less. I also try and stop drinking before 7:00 PM because I find when I drink after that time, I am more likely to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, which impacts having a good night’s sleep
These are just some of the things I’ve started incorporating regularly in my routine, and my body is thanking me for it. As I am getting older, I find that my body is a lot bolder about telling me what it likes and doesn’t like, and I’ve learned to listen.
We are all still very young, and we have a whole lot of life ahead of us, so use this plan to help you move towards a good, vivacious healthy life. It is up to you to take the steps needed to live your best life. But if you do, I am sure you will feel better in the process.
Thanks for reading! Keep me posted if you’ve used any of the above tips. Please let me know if you have any good tips to share. I am always open for positive change.
All of these things apply in my mid-forties. I am active and always have been, loving cardio but have recently added in more strength training and PROTEIN!
You are making me proud!!! I am so glad you are already focused on these things!