A Friendly Nudge - Doing Challenging Things Carefully
...because we all could use a little encouragement!
If you want to get a perspective refresh, spend a couple of weeks hanging out with a 3-year-old. The world is an ocean of endless possibilities for my 3-year-old granddaughter. Her imagination and her energy levels are boundless and she can be relentless and disarmingly charming simultaneously. I have no doubt that she will run the world one of these days but in the meantime she has Grandpa and Nana wrapped around her little finger.
She’s not reckless but instead embodies a measured fearlessness. I like to think of it as doing dangerous things carefully. She would terrify a number of folks that comment on some of my social media posts.
Fear is an interesting emotion. From an evolutionary standpoint it helps keep us alive, but if it gets overly amplified it can be crippling. There’s a big difference between the risks associated with skydiving and looking over the railing of a tall building but both of those can spark panic attacks.
Capacity, technique, and physics matter. If you haven’t lifted a weight in decades, trying to deadlift 200 pounds with bad form is inviting injury. If you lift weights regularly, your form is solid and you routinely deadlift 300 pounds, 200 pounds might be a warm up weight.
With the recent work being done on our home, I’ve spent some time up on a ladder taping up plastic sheeting trying to contain some of the dust. In hindsight it’s sort of like trying to empty the ocean with a tablespoon but at the time it seemed like a reasonable thing to do. Climbing up a ladder is a perfect example of doing dangerous or challenging things carefully. Falling off a ladder, even a step stool, but especially falling from 5 or 6 feet up could have disastrous consequences. It’s important that we’re honest with ourselves about what’s safe for us to tackle, what’s a little challenging and what falls into “what were you thinking” territory.
I’ve known 4 people that have had nasty falls off ladders and all of them either had the ladder slip because the footing was unstable or they were trying to reach just a little further instead of moving the ladder.
A lot of people’s reaction to that is that older adults don’t have any business being up on a ladder but I’m not sure if that’s the right approach – at least for me. My physical therapist has done a great job of helping think differently about risk. I take a little extra time working my way up to my heavier lifts and I always stop with at least a rep or two in reserve. I took that same reps in reserve approach when I was climbing the ladder and taping up the plastic. I knew that I could stretch and reach something but I had John’s voice in my head telling me not to be a hero and so I’d climb down and move the ladder.
Aging more on our terms feels like an ongoing series of negotiations. There’s the part of us that remembers what we used to do without a second thought and hopefully there’s that self preservation aspect that points out the potential pitfalls. The important thing is to be honest with ourselves about our current capacity and capability level and avoid the temptation to be a hero. Equally important is to keep doing the work to build our strength and resiliency.
Building strength and resiliency is a little more doable if you’ve got your protein dialed in. Salmon is one of my favorite protein sources and this is a perfect meal after overdoing it a little over the holidays.
Tamari, Miso, Maple Glazed Salmon with Asparagus
This comes together quickly and it’s delicious. Don’t scold me for using farmed salmon, the wild caught didn’t look as good and I opted for antibiotic free farmed salmon. I try not to let perfect be the enemy of good.
Ingredients:
1-2 pound piece of salmon - bones removed
1 tbsp light miso
1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 bunch of asparagus - tough ends removed
Zest from 1 lemon
Avocado or olive oil
Salt to taste
Preheat the oven to 400℉
Line 2 sheet trays with parchment paper.
Combine the miso, soy or tamari, maple syrup and rice vinegar in a jar or container and combine. Spread this mixture over the salmon.
Toss the asparagus with salt and avocado or olive oil and top with lemon zest from 1 lemon.
Put both sheet trays in the oven and check temp in 8-10 minutes. I was cooking a large piece of salmon and it took 14 minutes to hit 130℉.
I didn’t add any extra salt since miso and tamari are salty but taste the salmon to see if you need to add any salt.
Enjoy!