Boomer Exercise and Fitness Part 2

The previous Great NEWS blog post, Boomer Exercise and Fitness Part 1 shared simple strategies to help you become mentally prepared for a lifetime of exercise and fitness and this post is dedicated to Boomer Exercise and Fitness Part 2 with great energy, fuel, and nutrition. Part 1 was dedicated to help you be mentally conditioned and focused for exercise and fitness so now the next key step is to ensure your body has the essential ingredients and fuels to perform. This blog post will provide a quick summary of basic suggestions for providing the energy, fuel, and nutrition requirements needed to implement your Boomer Exercise and Fitness programs as you create perfect health

Have you taken action and created a Vision Board with the dreams, travel, trips, and to-do lists that get you excited and motivated from Part 1? For those that have created one congratulations. For those that have not yet finished it invest the time to do this today since this is a key factor to empower, energize and excite you with passion.

Creating a Vision Board and Mastery Action Plan is great for maintaining your focus for exercise and fitness each day.

As you know exercise and fitness are key components of a healthy lifestyle and depend on you providing the energy and fuel necessary. Unfortunately, most people are very confused about nutrition due to the numerous articles, books, shows, and websites offering many different opinions. The outcome of this article is to offer you profound knowledge and proven principles learned over five decades to help you create a nutrient-dense whole foods mastery action plan that works.

Listening to the experts, reading the top books, and trying many different suggestions has allowed me to sort out the 80% BS that is least effective and focus on the 20% Great NEWS that is most effective. Remembering Pareto’s Principle regarding the 80/20 Rule which states 80% of the results come from 20% of the input.

This post will save you a lot of wasted energy, money, and time by helping you avoid the misleading hype and focus on the Holy Grail for consuming great nutrition. You will soon discover the best of the best strategies and suggestions regarding the energy, fuel, and nutrition for health and longevity that five decades of trial and error have identified.

A wide variety of fruits and vegetables providing a bounty of antioxidants and a rainbow of colors is best.

You Are What You Eat

This post on boomer exercise and fitness will outline the 20% proven principles and super strategies for the boomer focused on passion, purpose, peak performance, and perfect health. It really is as simple as “you are what you eat” to manifest perfect health. Providing your body and mind with the essential and healthy ingredients and avoiding harmful and unhealthy compounds is the second key step towards boomer fitness, health, and longevity.

Research on the health factors of boomers has uncovered many contributing causes and factors for disease, disability, and death. Some of the greatest risks are from overconsumption of alcohol, artificial sweeteners, fake foods, fast foods, fried foods, high fructose corn syrup, highly processed foods, refined carbohydrates, sodas, sugar, table salt, and trans fats. Other factors include the underconsumption of essential components such as healthy fruits, green leafy plants, nuts, roots, vegetables, seeds, and whole foods rich in antioxidants, enzymes, fiber, minerals, phytonutrients, trace elements, and vitamins.

BTW how the food is grown, stored, and prepared is also an essential factor to understand. At this point, many of you reading this may be asking what should a person be, do, and eat for emotional, mental, and physical fitness, health, and well-being. Glad you asked.

Providing the Energy Fuel and Nutrition

The answers are so simple it may seem like a kindergarten lesson at first because your brain is very likely clogged with chemicals, heavy metals, OTC and prescription drugs, toxins, and trans fats.

Unfortunately, most people are unaware of many health risks that come from being around chemicals, eating unhealthy foods, and using unhealthy body care products. Many of my posts have been devoted to the importance of a healthy lifestyle and holistic nutrition from eating nutrient-dense organic whole foods. Now you will have a better understanding of how to stop eating unhealthy foods (minimizing the  80%) and significantly increase eating healthy foods (maximizing the 20%) to capitalize on the full potential of boomer exercise and fitness.

Most people do not understand how their energy, fuel, and nutrition tie into exercise, fitness, and optimal weight. These are the key factors that form the foundation of health and well-being. Since “you are what you eat” (digest, absorb, assimilate, utilize, release, and eliminate) we will outline the basics of the perfect plan for you to promptly put into action.

The Problems:  Animals from commercial feed lots and crops sprayed with pesticides are obviously loaded with harmful synthetic chemicals and should be avoided.  Excess heat, processing, refining and synthetic ingredients in the preparation of food are also harmful to your health and should be eliminated.  Fast, fried, grilled, junk and microwaved foods often contain harmful compounds created during the preparation and cooking process which can damage your health.  Genetically Engineered (GE) and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) may be the most dangerous, deceptive, and destructive fake foods (Frankenfoods) on the planet and should be diligently avoided.

The Solutions:  Serving mostly nutrient-dense organic whole foods either raw or slightly heated by sautéing, slow cooking (crock pot), simmering, soups, steaming (lowest setting) and solar cooking are your best choices.  At this point, many of you reading this may be asking what a person should be, do and eat for emotional, mental and physical fitness, health, and well-being.  Glad you asked and get ready to learn some new valuable suggestions

Planks and push-ups are great exercises for upper body strength.

Boomer Exercise and Fitness for Extra Endurance, Energy, and Enjoyment

We all know that energy, fuel, and nutrition are essential for long-term health, longevity, and vitality. Many articles and websites discuss their importance, yet often go in many different directions on how to best achieve this. Most of them fail to help you create a safe, simple, and sustainable program to maintain your ability and desire to maintain the process. Today you will be educated, empowered, and energized when you learn how to truly feed and fuel the body the way it was designed to be fed and maintained.

Let’s begin with the basics and cover the essential components that provide the energy, fuel, and nutrition to heal, maintain and power your emotional, mental, and physical well-being. These are the keys to unlocking the mystery of why you feel great or feel gross any day of your life.

What Do Your Cells Need?

Oxygen is one of the pure fuel ingredients needed for energy and life. Most people are running low on this element due to poor posture, shallow breathing and weak diaphragm muscles which contract and expand the lungs. The solution is deep diaphragm breathing and exercise to strengthen your diaphragm and lungs. It is essential to focus on enhancing your ability to breathe in and out more effectively as you improve the lung capacity (volume) and lung air exchange efficiency (Carbon Dioxide CO2 out and Oxygen O2 in).

Water is the single largest portion of our total body weight. We are approximately 75% water so it is obvious how important water is for enjoying exercise, fitness and health. Yet the majority of people are dehydrated most of the time. When you are dehydrated many of your bodily functions begin to slow down and even shut down to protect you from potential harm and even death.

Antioxidants (good guys) are important to deal with the free radicals (bad guys) that damage our cells. There are many sources of free radicals including chemicals, digestion, exercise, foods, pollution, radiation, sun, and many more. Therefore it is essential to constantly replenish your supply of antioxidants to prevent free radical damage to your cells and DNA.  Nutrient-dense organic whole foods such as berries, fruits, green leafy plants, herbs, nuts, roots, seaweeds, seeds, spices, sprouts, and vegetables are great sources of super beneficial antioxidants.

Colorful fruits and vegetables provide a wide variety of antioxidants.

Enzymes are special-purpose proteins that are essential for different functions that occur in your body. There are three basic types of enzymes that are key for us to maintain and understand for optimal health. These are digestive, food, and metabolic enzymes. When any of these enzymes are lacking or less than optimal our body must work harder and compensate. In other words, your body ends up robbing Peter to pay Paul and ultimately this negatively impacts your long-term health.

Digestive enzymes are needed to break food down into usable nutrients.

Food enzymes are naturally in the foods we eat and help us digest that particular type of food.  The heat from cooking causes enzymes to break down and not be available for digestion.

Metabolic enzymes run the numerous functions necessary for our energy, growth, hormones, immune system, maintenance, and every aspect of our well-being.

Coenzymes and cofactors are small organic molecules such as vitamins that act as a catalyst to help enzymes perform their function.

Fiber is the cellulose, cells of plants and roughage. There are two main types of fiber insoluble and soluble fiber. Insoluble fiber like cellulose, grass, leaves and stems are not digested and passes through your intestines and are eliminated. Soluble fiber like fruit pulp contains the water and nutrients your pro-biotics break down in order for your body to absorb them. Fiber helps fill you up, clean out the colon, and feeds your probiotics so it is important for health.

Hormones are chemical messengers sent out by cells or glands (such as the endocrine system) to activate, communicate and stimulate other parts of your body. Some common hormones are adrenalin, cortisol, estrogen, human growth hormone, insulin, steroids, testosterone, and thyroid. Everything that happens in your body is the direct or indirect result of hormones and a delicate balance is essential for perfect health.

It is common knowledge that too little or too much of a hormone can cause major health challenges and issues. Therefore it is essential to provide the necessary building blocks and exact environment to maintain the proper balance and function of your hormones with natural nutrition and nutrient-dense organic whole foods for optimal health. Synthetic chemical compounds that mimic your hormones and disrupt this delicate balance are major health issues facing people around the world. The more you have been exposed to these hormone disruptors the greater your risk so boomers are especially susceptible due to longer lifetime exposure.

Minerals (major minerals) such as calcium, chlorine, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and sulfur are key to health.

Phyto-nutrients (phytochemicals) are nutrients from plants that result from photosynthesis occurring in the mitochondria of a plant to fuel plant growth. The energy from the sun is transferred by the chlorophyll into the tissues of the plants. Plants make minerals and nutrients bioavailable for us to absorb and utilize in our bodies.

Probiotics are the bacteria that live in our intestines and break down and digest the foods we eat into small particles. This allows us to be able to absorb and assimilate them as nutrients

Trace Elements (minor minerals) such as cobalt, copper, iodine, iron, molybdenum, selenium, and zinc are just as key only in lesser amounts than major minerals.

Vitamins are organic compounds required by an organism in specific amounts that cannot be manufactured by the organism and must come from some external source. Common Vitamins are A, B (many), C, D, E, and K.

Providing Energy Fuel and Nutrition for Boomer Exercise and Fitness

Carbohydrates are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen molecules divided into four chemical groupings: monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. The first two are commonly referred to as simple sugars and the other saccharides are usually referred to as complex carbohydrates and starches. Too many simple sugars are harmful for your health and even too many complex carbohydrates are harmful due to the excess calories they contain. Excess calories consumed are turned into fat and stored.

Essential Fatty Acids (EFA), Fats & Oils: EFA’s [alpha-linolenic acid (ALA – omega 3) and linoleic acid (LA omega 6)] are needed for biological health and cannot be synthesized. Fats (fatty acids or lipids) are liquid or solid compounds generally insoluble in water and soluble in organic solvents that are highly concentrated sources of energy. Fats are solid at room temperatures and oils are liquid at room temperatures.

Good fats include wild-caught fish (anchovy, herring, mackerel, salmon, and sardines), organic and free-range chicken, grass-fed beef, organic non-pasteurized dairy and butter, and wild game. Good oils include avocado, cold-pressed coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, grape seed oil, palm oil, and raw nuts and seeds. Animal products, fish, coconut and palm oil are saturated fats. Most oils from plants are unsaturated. You need a balance of both saturated fats and unsaturated fats for optimal health.

Coconuts are one of the best foods on the planet and best values for your food purchase.

Avoiding unhealthy oils from canola, corn, cottonseed, and soy minimizes the risk of eating GMO seeds. Also, avoid them as well as peanut and vegetable oils because of the oil processing and refining which uses chemicals and high temperatures that destroy the good qualities of the seed and turn the oil into a substance that is more like a plastic compound rather than a healthy oil. Also avoid margarine, peanut butter or other products with hydrogenated oils also referred to as trans fats because they are very unhealthy.

Proteins consist of amino acids and are biochemical compounds consisting of polypeptides. Different amino acids have different peptide sequences which determine what type it is. There are nine essential amino acids which cannot be synthesized by the body so they must come directly from food sources. The other twelve are non essential meaning the body can synthesize them from the nutrient sources when available. It is essential to have a well balanced nutrition program that insures you consume adequate amounts of all the amino acids and components needed.

Protein can come from both animal and plant sources. While animal sources such as egg, fish, meat and milk contain complete protein amino acids you can also receive complete protein from plants by consuming various food combinations for a higher biological value. (beans and rice, corn and rice, rye and beans, chick peas and rice, lentils and rice, broccoli, green plants, maize, nuts, peanuts, peas, seeds and sprouts are some of the common combinations). Too much protein from animal sources has been linked to numerous health issues.

Unfortunately too many food producers and nutrition sources are recommending too much animal protein consumption daily and most people are eating more animal protein than their body can easily process. The USDA recommends .66 grams per kilogram of body weight per day for adequate intake of protein. (165 pound person would need 50 grams of protein per day). Since most men and women have very different activity levels, metabolism and physical demands it is easy to see why many people are consuming way too much animal protein for their body to metabolize.

Now you have a great working knowledge of the key elements, compounds and food sources to feed, fix and fuel your body. Choosing the best carbohydrates, fats and proteins will meet your needs for energy, endurance and enjoyment as you protect your health.

Remember to be healthy it is important to focus on “You are what you eat” and “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man/ woman healthy, wealthy and wise”. Avoiding the beverages and foods that you now know are unhealthy and eating those you know are healthy are simple steps on the path to perfect health. Begin implementing these ideas as baby steps with the goal of replacing one unhealthy item with one healthy food listed above each day.

After reading Boomer Exercise and Fitness Part 2 and understanding the essential fundamentals of providing the energy, fuel and nutrition you are ready to supercharge your health and lifestyle. Your emotional, mental and physical well being depend on great nutrition to provide the endurance, energy and enjoyment to deliver peak performance and perfect health. This Great NEWS blog post on Boomer Exercise and Fitness Part 2 provides a wealth of helpful information to help you stop eating fake foods, fast foods and junk foods and start eating nutrient dense organic whole foods and super foods for perfect health.

What is your current Gap?

What unhealthy foods are you consuming regularly?
What healthy foods are you not consuming regularly and should be?

Mastery Action Plan (MAP)

Create a Vision Board with the foods providing the antioxidants, enzymes, minerals, phyto-nutrients, trace elements and vitamins that will help keep you beautiful, energized, healthy, vibrant and youthful.

Call to Action

What comments, commitments or questions do you have regarding boomer exercise, fitness and nutrition?

Next week the Great NEWS blog will share: Boomer Exercise and Fitness Part 3