Best and worst diets for Ageless Golfers

It’s important to stay fit throughout our lives.

If you think getting older is a great excuse to let your healthy habits slide? Think again.

As we age, we actually need to work a bit harder to burn calories, maintain optimum bone density and build muscle mass.

It’s also important to remember that, just like when we were younger, fad diets aren’t the answer. Lifestyle changes are.

So, find, create, or experiment with meal plans and workout routines that suit your needs.

If you’d like some tips on how to do this, here are some important reminders and some great resources for folks like us who are getting on in years:

1. Get stronger

Strength training for gaining, improving and maintaining muscle mass is your ultimate key to burning calories when it comes to weight loss and weight maintenance.

It’s less work than a run, and for some, more fun, to do a few dips and planks every morning instead.

Check out some of my workouts video for more ideas on how to get strong both with and without equipment.

2. Eat wisely

Drink lots of water, get lots of nutrients, and eat protein with every meal to help you stay fit and healthy.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the best and worst diets for us older folks:

• Intermittent fasting = good (unless you have diabetes)

• Mediterranean = good

• Volumetrics = good

• Flat belly diet = bad

• Flexitarian = good

• DASH diet = good

• Ornish = good

• KETO = bad

• Paleo = bad

• HMR = good

3. Stay open minded

The world around us is constantly changing, and so are we.

We need to stay curious about new ways of doing things and allow ourselves to continuously learn about the best ways to do things, even from people younger than us, such as our kids and grand-kids.

Let them teach you, so you can lead by shining example as you head into your golden years.

Check out "The Vacation Flex Meal-Plan Guide for Ageless Golfers" for more ideas of how to build your own perfect meal plan without having to count calories.

Why you should choose whole foods more often

Whole foods make a huge difference when eating healthy.

Why? Because they aren’t processed beyond recognition and actually function better in your body!

It’s very important to know how to eat properly, and if you haven’t figured out the special formula? You’re never too old to learn.

The easiest way I’ve found to shed pounds while still enjoying the food I put in my mouth is to make myself the whole food promise: I promise myself to eat as many whole foods as possible.

So what is a whole food?

A potato. A tomato. A piece of chicken. Beans. Rice. Olive Oil...

Easy right?

What’s not a whole food?

Pasta. Bread. Pizza. Buns. Tofu. Cheese.

Sabotaging the process

When looking at the different kinds of foods we eat, white bread and other highly processed foods tends to have the worst reputation.

Why?

It’s because of what they do in the body!

When ingredients like oil, sugar and salt are added to foods when they are packaged, and this is what we call processed foods.

Refined and processed foods often act like glue in your system, slowing down the progress of the other foods that you eat.

“So while you could be eating what appears to be a healthy sandwich containing meat and salad on white bread, the reality is that you are not going to absorb the essential nutrients because the refined grains leech the goodness away,” The Present Day Wise Woman, Jennifer Jeffries explains, "If you did nothing other than replace white grains with brown in your diet, your basic level of health would increase dramatically.”

Wise words.

Breads, cheeses, tofu, and canned tuna or beans are all foods that have been altered, but not in a way that's detrimental to health.

So, when choosing components to add to a meal, choose something that will round out your plate and act as a team player in your body. Something that will work alongside the other foods you’re ingesting.

Working together

A whole or sprouted grain bread will be processed by the body in a much different way than a high processed grain, such as white flour.

Imagine the whole-grains actually work like little scrubby brushes inside your body, washing away all the gunk on the sides of the walls of your guts.

Gross? No! Cool!

Those 'scrubbies' not only help move everything through the passageways, much like a car wash’s big spinning brushes! But once it’s all properly digested, there are a lot more nutrients for the body to absorb, so anything that isn’t expelled will be utilized, unlike the gluey substance created by the refined grains in basically anything made with flour.

Lastly, remember, it’s important to be lenient with yourself. But you need to be aware of the foods that you are putting in your body and how they work together. Check out my article on how heavy and light carbs work together, and scroll down to the last section to read all about The Washing Machine Effect.

Exercise snacking! How to stay in shape when you’re busy

Sometimes it can feel like a heavy burden to find the time to stay fit and be active.

But did you know that it only takes two-and-a-half hours per week to maintain a healthy fitness level?

There's a new fitness trend called exercise snacking, which consists of simply breaking up your day with short bursts of exercise.

Studies have found that even just two minutes of walking every 20 minutes reduces blood sugar!

Great news, right?

They also found that the average Canadian only accumulates 25-minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week!

We can do better!

Dr. Todd Duhamel, the Heart & Stroke researcher and principal investigator at the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg, has spent part of his career studying behavioural changes, focusing primarily on what keeps us from getting the physical activity we need to reduce our risk of heart disease, stroke, and other diseases as we age.

“One of the most common mistakes people make, when they’re first getting active, is thinking of exercise in rigid terms. It has to happen in a gym. A treadmill might be involved. You should break a sweat,” says Dr. Duhamel, “But it’s that rigidity that can set us up for disappointment.”

Studies have found that even just climbing three flights of stairs, three times a day, three days a week for six weeks was enough!

Once you start analyzing your day-to-day routine, you may notice that you're meeting that 20-minute per day goal already by doing what you like! And, if not? Finding ways to squeeze in a few more minutes here and there will get easier for you as you make this your new focus.

In Dr. Duhamel’s study geared towards discovering strategies that would help encourage employees to simply sit less and move more throughout their work days, nearly every participant found a drastic improvement in their physical activity, overall, once they got moving, and 54% of the ENCOURAGE project participants were meeting the 150 minute mark, per week! That’s six times the national average!

I find, for me, the most important thing to remember is that it doesn't have to be a chore to stay active. We can all fit a movement activity into our busy schedules by counting what we're already doing in our day-to-day life. <link to article 001 - How to maintain your fitness level as you age>

Going grocery shopping? That counts! Mowing the lawn? Shovelling your walk? Playing with the grandkids? It all counts, and it all adds up.

You're never too busy to stay active, you just need to see where you're already doing it and then aim to make it to 20 to 30 minutes per day.

A great way to help you do this is to log your progress. <link to article 008 - logging your progress - Twyla to write>

You don't need to strive for intense, strenuous, non-stop activities either.

You'll be amazed by how much more energy you have and how much better you feel by finding ways to incorporate strength training, stretching and cardio into your day-to-day life throughout the week.

Arlene Semeco, MS, RD, says: "exercise is defined as any movement that makes your muscles work and requires your body to burn calories."

Additionally, getting enough exercise has been shown to increase energy levels for both healthy folks and people experiencing serious health troubles such as cancer, while greatly improving their chances of recovery. Check out my article that goes over some of the main benefits that even just a short, 10 minute daily workout, can provide.

This study found that just 6-weeks of regular exercise reduced overall feelings of fatigue for the 36 people involved, that had reported persistent fatigue, prior.

Remember, begin by aiming for what you find manageable at first, such as 2 to 5-minutes of brisk walking, to reach your daily total of 20 to 30 minutes per day, and 2-and-a-half hours per week. For more information, check out my article on exercise snacking and how you can sprinkle in tidbits of physical activity throughout your day!

When you feel ready, and you will! You can aim for longer intervals of 10, 15 and even 20-minutes at a time. Check out my article on how to improve your cardio stamina by alternating walking with jogging here. <Link to Article F007>

Try my simple 15-minute core exercise video to get a better idea of the different parts of the body that you can focus on, and pay attention to how you feel, while activating them as you go. Remember, you don't need to do it in all one go, you can break it up into 2 or 3 parts. Just be sure you have fun, and listen to your body's cues.

You'll be surprised by how, once you get going, you won't want to stop. It's scientifically guaranteed!