Energy Bite 24. A Beach Body at Age 93? Yes Indeed!

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Bob McMillan

by, Bob McMillan

I thought I was doing pretty well with my exercise program. You know, like “Wow! I’m seventy-three years old and look at what I can do.” Nothing spectacular but far better than most at my age. But that was before I heard of Charles Eugster. I first found out about Charles Eugster when I watched a TEDx Zurich video on You Tube. I try and watch one TED talk per day. If you’re not familiar with TED, go to www.TED.com and learn. The speaker, in this case, was an elderly gentleman who rowed racing shells (just like me), and lifted weights (just like me), and speaks out about work, exercise and nutrition for seniors (just like me). But Charles Eugster is not just like me. He is ninety-three years old and looks and acts like a thirty year old (at least he acts like one). He had let his body deteriorate as he aged and decided while he was in his eighties, that he had better start exercising again to get fit. He learned to wakeboard at age eighty-seven and he is now a competitive Masters athlete in rowing, and an avid weight lifter at ninety-three.

Watch Charles Eugster tell his own story and talk about health and fitness for seniors as he gives his TEDx Zurich talk here. Set aside 17 minutes to watch the entire video. It is well worth the 17 minutes. Then go to www.charleseugster.com and read all about what this active senior is up to. You will truly be amazed, and I hope, inspired to take action yourself.

Yes. His story is amazing. But it doesn’t have to be unique. There is no valid reason that most seniors can’t start a similar health and fitness program. There is no valid reason that most seniors can’t start over again at any age. Eugster stresses, “Exercise and eat right, meet new people, do new and different things.” That’s just plain good advice!

This is a short post. But it should inspire you more than anything I could write here. Enjoy!

Bob McMillan
bob@thecomealiveproject.com

Energy Bite 23: Losing Weight? How to Weigh Yourself.

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Bob McMillan

Have you ever been on a weight loss program and discovered a not so pleasant surprise when you stepped on the scales at the end of the week? Here’s why not to panic if you see a slight regression.

A young woman recently told me that she was quite distressed because she got on the scales that morning and discovered that she had gained five pounds overnight. She told me about how hard she had worked and how difficult it had been to lose the weight she had already lost. She told me that she had dramatically changed her eating habits and had been eating all the right things. The fact is that she had already lost a significant amount of weight and looked good. Nevertheless, she was quite despondent over the apparently sudden and substantial gain.

I tried to reassure her that she had not put on five pounds of fat overnight. In fact, unless there was a problem with the scales, there may be an accumulation of “something” but that it wasn’t fat and it would most likely be gone in a day or so. It would be tragic if she gave up after all the effort she had put in, just because she got an unusual reading from her scales on just one day.

Notwithstanding what Oprah, Dr. Oz and all the tabloids say about weighing yourself only once a week, I believe that if you are making a serious effort to lose weight, you must weigh yourself every single day. Here’s my take on why.

If you are weighing yourself only once a week and discover a five pound weight gain after a full week of making an honest effort to follow your program, it would be a normal reaction to be upset and depressed. ”A whole week and I’ve gained five pounds!” What a disappointment that would be. I would be discouraged too and might even go off the program. But a one day weight gain of five pounds is much easier to explain when you consider what follows.

First, typical bathroom scales are often affected by changes in temperature and barometric pressure, not necessarily five pounds worth, but quite possibly as a contributing factor. In addition bathroom scales, when placed on a hard surface like a tile bathroom floor will read slightly differently when placed on a carpet or rug in the same bathroom.

Second, water retention is often the main culprit in an erratic series of daily weight changes. A gallon of water weighs approximately eight pounds. A standard sixteen ounce glass of water immediately after you get up in the morning, could account for as much as a pound of immediate weight before you even head in to greet the porcelain throne. And seriously, there can be a significant difference in weight, up to as much as two or three pounds, depending on whether you hit the scales before or after your encounter with the porcelain throne. And if you happened to absorb a lot of salt the day before, it may have caused some overnight water retention.

Finally, you will find you weigh more in the afternoon than in the morning for no particular reason other than that you are alive and functioning the way a human being normally functions.

If several of these factors come together at any one time, you could experience a significant difference in weight from one day to the next. But if you are aware of the factors involved, and track yourself on a daily basis, it could keep the discouragement at a slightly less depressing level when you notice a normal daily variation.

So here is the recommendation. It’s simple. Weigh yourself every day. Weigh yourself at the same time each day, preferably in the morning when you first get up, before you drink any water or coffee, and after your visit to the porcelain throne if possible. Make sure you don’t move your scales around to a different surface.just because the bathroom floor is cold. And this is key: keep a daily log of your weight and make sure you are brutally honest about what you write down. I personally keep a 4 x 6 card with my weight entered each day. That’s not anal, that’s so I can write an article like this. Plus I’ve enjoyed tracking my own nearly twenty pound weight loss over the last couple of years.

If you are truly honest with what you write down, you should notice an overall downward trend in your weight if you are following your program, with changes of as much as two pounds, up and down over a week’s time, when you weigh yourself daily. If you understand what I have written here, you will not be as discouraged when you find that your weight really does vary slightly every day. You will be able to judge for yourself whether your program is working and whether you need to make any adjustments.

As for the young woman I mentioned at the start of this article, keep up the good work, you’re doing great.

May I talk to your group?

I like speaking to groups about Health! Exercise! Lifestyle! and promoting a “why not” attitude. I’d like to tell your group that “The old concept of ‘seniorhood’ is dead! Long live the new senior lifestyle of fitness, health and vibrant personal energy!” Send an email with your request to bob@thecomealiveproject.com and put “speak to us” in the subject line.

Energy Bite 22, Blog Post No. 1

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Bob McMillan

This is a new blog. It replaces the old Energy Bites™ publication that I published, usually twice a month, as a .pdf attachment to an ever growing group of subscribers. I decided to change the format to a blog for several reasons.

I can write more in the first and second person (if you remember Elementary School English). I wrote a lot in the first and second person anyway and while it could easily be annoying in a newsletter; not so in a blog. In fact most blogs are written in the first person.
More flexibility. I still plan to publish twice monthly as a minimum and quite possibly more. I tend to write about a thousand to fifteen hundred raw words a day. Over a two week period, there will be a lot of material for a good blog.
Feedback and comments. I get a modest amount of feedback from the .pdf publication and most of it is positive. A blog, however, offers the opportunity for comments. Normally, the comments to a blog are mixed. There are Professional “blog spammers” but now there is software to eliminate much of that.
Video. It is much easier to include a video in a blog. I like video and there are a lot of people in the blog community using it successfully.

The Come Alive Project, LLC was conceived primarily as a “physical fitness and Personal Energy Management” vehicle for active men and women over sixty. But there was so much more to personal energy and lifestyle management than just physical fitness. Yes, physical fitness is a major part of personal energy management. But personal attitude and motivation are the other side of the equation and are every bit as important as the physical side. When a reasonable and intelligent adult understands the “reason why” they must exercise and eat well as they age, they suddenly start doing something about their steadily deteriorating condition. These Energy Bites™ are intended to inspire, motivate, educate and activate those active and independent seniors over 60 who want to build, maintain and manage their own personal energy through their attitude, exercise and eating habits.

Interviews

Future blogs will include interviews with, and profiles of, active seniors whose activities should be an inspiration to others. There is, for example, the 100 year old woman in North Carolina who still drives and still actively enjoys line danceing with her friends. She was profiled recently in the local Wilmington, NC newspaper. I came across the article while Edie (my wife) and I were visiting old friends in Southport, NC.

Or perhaps you’d like to be inspired by the 102 man from the Washington, DC area who was recently profiled in the Washington Post. He was 98 years old when he started working out with a personal trainer. The personal trainer is 70.

Or maybe you’d rather read about a man who started building a dream community outside Washington, DC in the early 1960′s and who, at age 99 (next month) has seen his dream fulfilled. He still takes daily walks around his beloved lakes, and is still active in the community he built.

Did you happen to notice that exercise and movement are an essential part of the lifestyle of all the people I mentioned above.

And by the way, I’m looking for stories similar to these that I can include in future blogs, people I can interview and include in a documentary about exceptional seniors that is currently in development (as some of you may remember from a previous Energy Bite™, “in development” is Hollywood talk for “working on it”.)

So, if you know of people who fit the lifestyle of the people I just described, please let me know at bob@thecomealiveproject.com.

I’m looking forward to producing this ongoing blog and hope those who read it will get the benefit I intend.

Speaking

I enjoy speaking to groups with an interest in senior health, fitness and lifestyle management. If you or someone you know belongs to a group who would benefit from a talk about that topic, please let me know at bob@thecomealiveproject.com and put “speak” in the subject line. Include as much contact information as you can.