A Friendly Nudge - Aging Better Than Wine
...because we all could use a little encouragement!
It probably comes as no secret that I like wine. Our wine racks show up in a lot of the videos that I’ve posted over the years and I’ve fielded more than a few comments from folks wondering if any of my balance challenges were a result of that fondness.
I’ll still have a glass on occasion but the days of Jude and I finishing a bottle between us in one setting are long past. Between trying to drop a few pounds and wearing a fitness tracker that shows me how much alcohol impacts my sleep, my consumption is a lot more measured these days. Moderation just seems to age better than reckless abandon.
I’m not a wine connoisseur. Most of the wines that I buy are in the $12-15 range and they’re not really intended for prolonged aging. But over the years I’ve picked up a few bottles that, under the right conditions, would probably age reasonably well. But since my wines aren’t cellared and the Texas heat and air conditioning are the enemies of corks, any time I open an older bottle it’s anybody’s guess as to what we’ll find. The last time I opened one of those where I had to pour it through a coffee filter because the cork had disintegrated I realized that it might have something to teach me about aging.
If you have a wine that’s a light summer sipper and have cellared it under ideal conditions for 20 years you’d just have an old, undrinkable wine. And as I’ve found out the hard way, you can have a wine that starts off with plenty of promise and structural integrity and if you abuse it by leaving it uncellared for 20 years you can still have an old undrinkable wine.
We want to make sure that we’re doing the work to be sturdy and full of structural integrity and promise. That’s why it’s so essential that we develop the capacity over time to lift heavy weights. In the beginning our own body weight may be our 1 rep max or the most weight that we can move 1 time. A well executed push up is the perfect example. Most of us don’t need a 45 pound plate on our backs for a set of push ups to be challenging enough to build strength. But as the study that I posted last week points out, heavy, to very heavy, resistance training (especially lower extremity training like squats and deadlifts) offers enough anti-frailty and fall prevention benefits that we need to rethink our aversion to lifting heavy. Of course it’s something that we have to do safely and build up our capacity over time.
Aging well takes intentionality and luckily for us we have some huge advantages over wine. If you’ve neglected and mistreated a bottle of wine for years by leaving it uncellared and hanging out in your hallway for 10 years you can’t magically revive it with a few years of TLC. But I’m living proof that you can make poor health decisions for years and still turn things around if you get serious. It’s not easy, but it’s so much more doable than most people think.
Over 20 years ago, I bought a handful of the same vintage of wine to see how it would fare over the years. I remembered drinking one when I first bought them, and then I waited another 5 years to see how its sibling aged. They had both been pretty spectacular so I went into the conclusion of that experiment 20 years later with some pretty lofty expectations. Before I even opened the bottle I was worried because I could see that some of the wine had seeped through the cork and when I put the corkscrew in the cork it disintegrated. The wine was so oxidized that it wasn’t even drinkable. Pouring that wine down the sink was a punch in the gut. But fortunately humans are a lot more resilient than wine. We can screw up quite a bit and still turn things around.
We don’t have to get everything perfect to start moving in the right direction, but we do have to start. Start where you are. Maybe that’s 5 pushups against the wall, the kitchen counter or against a stair or low platform. Or maybe it’s just walking to the mail box and back. The main thing is to start and find a way to work movement into every day and to do something mildly challenging 2-3 days a week. You can increase the level of challenge as you get stronger and more confident. Early on we’re teaching our nervous system and muscles how to work better together. That’s one of the reasons why people new to exercise see such significant gains early on. Be patient and consistent and before long you’ll start surprising yourself.
This week’s dessert gives us an incredibly tasty way to add some muscle building protein to our diets.
Caramelized Dates on Protein Boosted Yogurt
I’ve talked before about my decision to collaborate with Legion because I love their products and their approach and I know that so many older adults struggle to eat enough protein. This week’s dessert is north of 40 grams of protein and it’s absolutely delicious. If you use the discount code ABalancedYou it’s gets you buy one get one at 50% off and you’ll get 10% cash back on subsequent orders.
Ingredients:
5 Dates, halved with pits removed
1 Cup plain non-fat greek yogurt
1 scoop Legion French Vanilla Whey Protein or your choice of vanilla protein powder
1 handful pistachios, toasted
Orange zest
1 tbsp olive oil for caramelizing dates and a drizzle of olive oil for serving
1 pinch of flaky sea salt for serving
Combine the protein powder and the yogurt so it’s ready and then caramelize the dates, cut side down in a skillet on medium high heat with a tbsp of olive oil. Don’t burn the dates but you want them to have a little color and texture. Gently toast the pistachios in a dry skillet and avoid burning them.
Top the yogurt with the dates and pistachios and then add a drizzle of olive oil, a pinch of flaky sea salt and a sprinkling of orange zest.
Enjoy!
Now let’s shift our focus to building a stronger and more resilient you.
When I started exercising again several years ago, exercise snacks were my pathway back. Prior to that it was too easy for me to come up with 9 reasons why I didn’t have time to drive to the gym. It’s a lot harder to convince yourself that you don’t have 30 seconds for some pushups. I’d just sprinkle some sets of various body weight exercises throughout the day and before I knew it I’d rebuilt my exercise habit.
As you get stronger and you’re doing multiple sets of an exercise it’s a good idea to give yourself at least a day to recover before you do that same exercise. If you’re doing particularly heavy sessions, your recovery time may be more like 2 or 3 days. Recovery is a critical part of building strength.
And as I mentioned last week, rep ranges are irrelevant if you’re struggling and your form is deteriorating. If the speed of your reps is dropping that’s a sign that the set is over. We’re using two reps in reserve to avoid trying to grind out one more rep.
And as always, skip any exercises that feel like they’re in the “not yet” category.