For many of us, life gets better—easier, even—as we get older. We get more comfortable and confident in our own skin. But we may still be facing the same weight loss, yo-yo dieting struggle we’ve dealt with our entire life.
All those years we wasted taking a pass on life because we didn’t want others to see us in a swimsuit or trying to swing a bat at the company picnic.
I would think I can’t go dancing because my thighs jiggle and I sweat.
In hindsight?
I wish I had gone dancing every night of my life.
So you’ve slid past 55 – maybe you’re over 60 now and thinking weight loss is impossible? While it can be tempting to throw in the towel, thinking you’re fighting an uphill battle at 60-something, compared with your 20- and 30-something counterparts, don’t toss that towel in. We are actually in a position to do this as sanely as possible, because we are in a space where we don’t give a hoot about getting “beach body ready” in a hurry. We can finally do this RIGHT.
Maybe your hormones are out of whack from dieting or just improper eating over the years. Maybe you’re struggling with physical set backs? So how do you deal with the issues of taking off pounds to ensure your HEALTH after your metabolism heads south? All of this is why it becomes very critical to reign in the fast food, processed food, and “easy and or quick foods.” Additives mess with your hormones – upping estrogen, suppressing testosterone, and blowing out your leptin receptors. It is also a tricky time to not drop down the throttle on your metabolism any farther than you already have with life-long repeated dieting.
So what do you do after 55 and 60? Eat as CLEAN as possible. At the same time, this is no time of life to totally deny yourself. We have to have a cheat day without even thinking of it as “cheating.” Occasionally you just have to have the damn piece of cake. Do it. But with the understanding that it is part of your new life and not something that has just “blown” all the clean eating you’ve been doing. You STILL eat clean. You just, on very rare occasion, indulge.
Muscle mass starts to go south as we age. You’ve probably heard that or read about it. You can offset this and even REVERSE this in a big way by lifting weights. No, you do not have to do the whole spandex, sports bra, spray tan and ripped muscles gym rat thing (though it can be fun to play at). Strength training can be as simple as the girly circuit at the local gym – a set of 10 or so machines. Or light weights at home. Do not try to be a superstar – I say this because I fall prey to this EVERY TIME. I’m finally learning not to do that to myself. My wrist tendons just get real unhappy when I reach for macho weights. Light hand weights are FINE. Especially for exercises for shoulders and triceps. For your biceps, you want to go a little heavier – but you still have NO reason to pick up a 15 pound weight initially.
Protein, protein, protein. We don’t eat enough of it. Especially CLEAN protein. Yes, organic is expensive. Many grocers now offer meats that are not organic, but marked as hormone-free. At least step up your purchases to these. If you eat dairy (I love
Hydrate like mad. Forget that “drink 8 to 10 glasses of water a day” or “it flushes out the fat” BS. Dehydration is a real danger to older folks. But even more important – you look more whithered and wrinkly if you are not “T-totally” hydrated. After my last knee surgery, I snapped a selfie to post and show my family across the country I made it and I was fine. I was accused of getting a face lift, not knee surgery. Seriously – all the IV fluids during surgery took about 15 years off my face. No, you probably cannot drink THAT much fluid. But don’t let that stop you from trying.
Go listen to my rap about the hunger scale and learn it!!!! Because your metabolism is already slow, if you’re starving yourself, it just gets slower,” So eat about every 3 hours – teeny tiny little meals/snacks. I’m writing the book on this and I STILL struggle to make myself stick to this sometimes. I get wrapped up in things and just don’t eat in time. Then I realize I just slipped right past -2 on the hunger scale and need to *really* monitor myself to not eat up to +4.
All this is not so much different than what should be done to drop weight at 30; but you want to take it back a notch. Instead of crazy running marathons, gentle daily walks are more appropriate.
To encourage you to tackle the PROCESS, I’m on a mission to do 100 FREE transformations in mini-sessions in 60 days. At the end of each month, I will jump on my podcast and draw a name from that month’s sign ups to give away a $100 Amazon gift card. Whaaatttt? That’s right – I’m not only giving away free transformation, I’m giving away not one, but two $100 Amazon gift cards during those 60 days. Why am I doing this? Because I know not many people even know what a life coach does. I want to get it out there, what I do as a weight coach and what I do as a life coach. (this offer has ended)
