A Friendly Nudge - How's your account balance?
...because we all could use a little encouragement!
Building a robust strength, movement and resiliency account.
Most of us aren’t going to go through the aging process unscathed. Heart disease and cancer helped me wrap my head around that reality.
Every time I went for a follow up exam with my cancer surgeon and sat in his waiting room, I was reminded of how fortunate I was. My heart disease diagnosis had convinced me to start taking better care of myself and my cancer diagnosis upped the ante even further. I saw so many people sitting in that same room that were having a much tougher time navigating the insults of cancer and its treatment.
I started thinking about health, strength and resiliency like they were account balances that I needed to deliberately build up because I had a new found appreciation for how illness and inactivity could present us with unexpected withdrawals. Overdraft fees on those accounts can be pretty harsh.
Recently I listened to Peter Attia’s conversation with protein synthesis expert, Luc van Loon Ph.D, on Attia’s podcast, The Drive. There were multiple aha moments, not the least of which was when van Loon was describing recent research about how older adults lost muscle mass. Attia has spoken frequently about sarcopenia or muscle loss and how it accelerates in aging adults. Van Loon’s research provided some helpful context.
He said that their research indicated that muscle loss was tied to discrete periods of inactivity and that frequently these periods also coincided with reduced protein intake. Someone goes into the hospital for elective knee surgery and is inactive for a week and they lose 3 pounds of muscle in a week. That impacts your durability, your strength, how much fat you’re able to burn but also your insulin sensitivity. And this is happening in a population that generally doesn't have robust muscle reserves to begin with.
I’m an advocate for resistance training and making sure that we’re getting enough protein in our diets because I think it just makes navigating life more enjoyable, but it also comes with the added benefit of helping us make essential deposits into our health, strength and resiliency accounts.
Now let’s cook some tasty vegetables to go with that protein!
Grilled veggies and white balsamic mayo
I love cooking on the grill. Chicken, burgers, steaks, fish, all kinds of protein, but I also want something tasty to accompany my protein. Grilling veggies are a low hassle and delicious way to accomplish that.
Ingredients:
2 zucchini - quartered lengthwise
2 yellow squash - I cut them in half lengthwise and then cut it’s half in thirds lengthwise
1 bell pepper - I used a red one but any color works great
6-8 mushrooms - Remove any dirt with a paper towel or wash them and cut them in half
Avocado spray
Salt
Dip:
I cup of mayo
2-3 dashes of white balsamic vinegar
½ tsp maple syrup
Start by making the dressing - just quickly blend the mayo, vinegar and maple syrup.
Once you’ve prepped the veggies, lightly spray them with the avocado or olive oil spray and then sprinkle them with salt.
Preheat your grill and clean your grill grates before placing your veggies on the grill. These will be ready in minutes. Just get some good grill marks and turn them over and 2-3 minutes on the other side and they’re ready to come off of the grill.
Serve them with the mayo dip. These pair great with grilled chicken, steak, fish or burgers.
Asparagus, eggplant, broccoli and cauliflower are also excellent on the grill.
Enjoy!
Now let’s build a workout that will help you make some deposits into your strength, movement and resiliency accounts!