Why I'm Almost Fit

I’m not super fit like the fitness influencers.  Even in my age bracket, I’m continually amazed by what I see.  I try, but I’ll never be one of those folks.  So I’m almost there, but not quite.   

I pay attention to health and fitness news, and I try pretty hard, but I miss the mark on a lot of things.  I know what I’m supposed to do, but I often choose to do otherwise.  Here is what I (knowingly) do wrong and what I get right. 

Balancing Exercise: What I Get Right and What I get Wrong

Exercise – the number one thing you can do for your health!

1.      What I get wrong:

•   I don’t pay a lot of attention to form.  I’m super annoyed by the particular piece of advice you see all the time in exercise advice to make sure you’re doing things correctly.  Good idea if it’s safety related – I typically do something slowly first or with no weight to make sure I won’t hurt myself.  But otherwise, I just think you should do what you can.  A sloppy pushup is better than no pushup. 

• Taking too much or not enough time off.  I guess everyone who’s not a professional athlete probably does this to some extent – life happens, weather happens.  So I might run 3 days in a row one week and just 2 another week. 

• I hate planking and don’t do it regularly.  Seriously if you’re just going to do 1 thing (in addition to walking!) do this.  I just don’t.

• Get stuck in a strength training rut doing the same things over and over. 

2.      What I get right:

• Running – I run 2 to 4 times nearly every week, typically just 3-4 miles sometimes less sometimes more depending on what I’m getting ready for.  Been a casual runner most of my life with many loooong breaks for kids and life but been very consistent since my youngest kid hit high school and I had some actual time for myself.  Hurt or sick I walk if possible.  I sign myself up for various local races to give me a goal. 

• Walking – I walk as part of my warmup for runs and try to walk places when possible. I walk to restaurants, the hair salon, the nail salon, the dentist, anyplace within a couple of miles as long as I don’t have to carry anything back. 

• Strength training typically twice a week.  Sometimes 3, sometimes just one but I’m pretty consistent doing SOMETHING (see what I get wrong).

• Yoga – actually this belongs in both categories I will start an Apple Fitness program for several weeks and keep it up for a while (3 x week for 20 minutes) then just stop.  IDK if this is something I get ‘right’ per se it’s just another thing I do. 

• Try new things!  Do other things!  Part of the reason for fitness is to be able to do things.  Bought a bike and ride it.  Go hiking.  I recently took up pickleball – my eye hand has never been great but fortunately I’m fit enough to not completely embarrass myself and have fun! 

Nutrition – this is where I really ignore some things

1.      What I get wrong

• I drink orange juice – sorry I refuse to give this one up.  I will do a whole post on orange juice someday.  It’s the Zoe guy in particular who is always throwing shade at orange juice. 

• Alcohol – I love good wine and mix cocktails as a hobby.  I mostly do this only on the weekend but not exclusively!  Not giving this up either.  I do keep an eye on my ‘scope creep’ and rein it in when I start going overboard.  Working on a whole series where I try to justify drinking alcohol.  The most you will get out of any expert is to allow for 1 drink 2-3 times a week.  Even that will get you in trouble with some folks. 

• Baked goods – I love something sweet with my coffee in the morning and I like to bake.  I’ll make cookies, cupcakes, etc. and freeze them so I can have something every day.  Now I do bake from scratch so at least there’s no unpronounceable ingredients.  Still, loads of sugar and fat.    I have had some success cutting back by giving it up for Lent.  If I cut it out altogether for Lent (except Sundays!) after Easter I find for a while at least I can keep it reasonable.  I’ll never go to zero though. 

2.      What I get (almost) right

• Cooking – I prepare most of our meals mostly from scratch.  We do eat out sometimes but not often.  I use very little pre-prepared foods. 

• Mostly whole foods, very few ultra processed foods.  This one’s a little tricky because the whole ultra processed category is kind of wonky in my opinion.  I make nearly all our own bread, typically buy whole grains, fresh or frozen vegetables, meats/fish/poultry and prepare them making my own sauces. 

• Lots of fruits and vegetables – the fruit part is easy for me.  Always been a big fruit eater.  This has been my standard lunch dessert for … ever I think.  Few years ago started adding a salad to my lunch every day adding different veggies there. 

• Fiber – this one I’m really just working on it. I’m not a big fan of beans but I’m learning some new recipes and trying to eat more.  Started adding some high fiber cereal to my morning yogurt. 

Controversial

Experts widely disagree on certain issues. Here are some of the debates and my personal stance on them – I will provide a more detailed post on each topic later.

• Protein – fitness experts who work with athletes recommend a minimum of 1 g/kg of body weight and up to 2 g/kg, US rec is 0.8 g/kg body weight.  You can find a calculator here (https://www.calculator.net/protein-calculator.html) which gave me the very unhelpful range of 66-118 g/day.  Many researchers currently pushing vegan diets say we don’t need to worry as much as we think we do.  My impression is mostly they’re against protein supplements and products labelled ‘high protein’.  In a Zoe podcast with Christopher Gardner,  who is a very highly respected researcher said something like ‘don’t worry about it! You get plenty of protein!’ but then went on to toss off remarks about maybe older people and athletes could consume more.  Two groups I happen to be a member of!  I tracked my protein intake on my ‘usual’ days and in fact I do not get all that much – towards the lower end of that calculated range, so I will worry about it thank you very much.  I do try to track my protein and consciously make an effort to consume more.  I’ve tried protein powders and just don’t like them.  I actually think they’re probably a good idea for some people but I just couldn't warm up to it personally. 

• Dairy – the advice on this one is all over the place.  No dairy, low fat dairy, or high fat dairy?  I’ve heard all 3 advised, for various reasons.  I include plain Icelandic or Greek yogurt and milk with my breakfast.  A major source of protein for me.  I’ve gone back and forth on full fat or low fat.  Right now I’m on a low fat phase trying to reduce my cholesterol. 

• Butter – I make my own bread.  Can’t think of anything tastier than bread fresh out of the oven with the best butter you can afford.  I do sub olive oil in cooking most of the time.  And some bread I tend to dip in olive oil instead but still gotta love the butter.  It is a source of saturated fat.  My personal feeling is that it’s a relatively small amount and I’m OK with it.  Some things are worth the risk.

•   Plant-based diet I'm not sure this really qualifies as controversial - every single study I’ve seen comparing a vegan diet with an omnivore diet the vegan diet ‘wins’ over the short term in measured labs, etc.  Watch the documentary ‘You Are What You Eat’ (Netflix) for a great in depth look at how a high quality study was done on this topic.  However, lots of studies also suggest that some dairy (particularly yogurt) and fish have health benefits of their own. Then a November 2019 several studies (mortality, cancer) were published suggesting that red meat is if not exactly healthy much less problematic than has been suggested. There was huge backlash on that particular set of studies. I personally have no plans to go vegan, but am glad there seem to be lots more plant-based options available in (US) grocery stores and restaurants.