A Friendly Nudge - Updating My List
...because we all could use a little encouragement!
I have a new event in my Centenarian Decathlon. For those of you not familiar with the CD, it’s a hypothetical event Peter Attia popularized to help people proactively prepare for aging. Attia is a doc whose practice is focused on helping patients live and age well. He gets his patients to come up with a list of 10 activities that they want to be able to do in their 90s.
Mine includes things like mowing my own yard, putting my carry-on bag in the overhead of the plane, going for a hike in the mountains with my kids, getting up and down off the ground without needing help, carrying my own groceries to the car, etc.
These last few weeks helped me identify another event for my decathlon. This realization came to me while carrying a bundle of 6, 1-gallon jugs of water up to the 3rd floor walk up apartment where Jude and I have been staying while they’re finishing up some work on our house. I’ve heard people describe something as a walkup before but there’s nothing like 48 pounds of water to help me gain a new level of appreciation for what a walkup entails. Everything you bring into it or take out of it involves stairs. In this case with our apartment, 3 flights of stairs. I can do farmer’s carries with 50 pounds on flat ground without a lot of problems, even doing a few with 120 pounds for a few sets. These were 6, 1-gallon jugs shrink wrapped together so they were more awkward to carry than kettlebells and water added enough instability to dial up the difficulty just a bit. But the real issue was the stairs. By the time I set that bundle down I was gassed.
The beauty of Attia’s decathlon is that it helps us reframe things we take for granted. Something that’s easy now won’t feel nearly as doable in 10 or 20 years unless we’ve been real deliberate about preserving and building strength and even with that we’re only going to influence but not completely blunt the physiology of aging. And something that is challenging now will quickly become impossible in a few years without some serious work.
Carrying 50 pounds up a few flights of stairs isn’t something that I usually do. But my reaction to it quickly let me know that I have some work to do if I’m serious about wanting to be able to hike with my kids in the mountains now, much less when I’m 80 or 90. I need to continue building my strength but also significantly improve my cardiovascular fitness.
We’ll be getting back into the house pretty soon so I won’t have easy access to stairs but I plan to keep responsibly bumping up the amount of weight that I’m using for farmer’s carries and I’m still working on my deadlifts. Trying to manage dumbbells or kettlebells on the stairmaster feels a little dicey, so I’ll look for something that won’t get me featured on a “why women live longer than men” meme but will help me dial up my fitness another notch. I haven’t tried it, but rucking might be a way to do that.
What are some things that you’d have on your Centenarian Decathlon and what are you doing to better prepare yourself for them?
If we want to influence how aging feels we have to be deliberate about building strength but we also have to be intentional about finding ways to make food tasty and to satisfy our nutritional needs. Prior to this year, I was pretty good about checking the protein box but I was negligent when it came to fiber.
This week’s savory oatmeal brings both protein and fiber to the party.
I thought I’d ease you in and use ground beef and eggs for the protein this week but I frequently use leftover salmon or even sardines and eggs to nail down the protein duties.
Ingredients:
Cooked Steel Cut Oatmeal (I used 1 cup oats to 4 cups water for 30 minutes) per their instructions
Cooked Ground Beef (I did a video on this January 4th)
Arugula or Baby Kale
2-3 eggs
Butter
Cook the oatmeal per the instructions. Regular steel cut oats will take about 30 minutes, there’s also a coarsely cut version that has a 5 minute cooking time.
I add the arugula or kale to the bowl and top it with ground beef and microwave it.
Add the oatmeal and then top with 2 or 3 fried eggs.
Season with your choice of toppings.
Enjoy!
Now let’s give you some exercise options for the week.
With any exercise, but especially with those like side shuffles and slam ball throws, you have to avoid biting off more than you can chew. Take time to warm up first. Wiith a movement like side shuffles or skipping I’ll do some almost in slow motion to make sure I’m comfortable with the movement. Exercises like slam ball throws are meant to help us develop explosive power but you’ll have to determine if you feel ready for them. I used a duffle bag for the overhead press because it’s easy to handle and to adjust the amount of weight that you use, but you could also do it with anything that you can safely raise over your head.
The heel raises, tandem balance and potentially the wall sits lend themselves to “while the coffee is brewing” opportunities.