Make the Effort now, Health to pay later

So, what's the deal? Why am I always going on and on about what you're putting in your cakehole, getting quality sleep, being smart about your training (zone 2, anyone!?!)?

It's so much work.

It takes thought and planning.

Effort.

You know what else takes work, and effort and probably occupies way too much of your thoughts?

Struggling to climb a flight of stairs. Achy joints. Staying on the sidelines. Falling behind. Getting sick. Breaking bones and losing independence. Living your last decade"s" in and out of the hospital, on meds, fighting disease.

What takes effort now, will pay you in Health later.

Get yourself tested. Know your numbers! Be on top of your metabolism NOW so you have room to deteriorate, because no matter what you WILL deteriorate, but you can choose how fast!

V02 Max (how well your body uses oxygen) MATTERS.

Resting Heartrate (your heart rate at total rest) MATTERS.

Metabolic Flexibility (how well your body switches between fats & carbs) MATTERS.

Body Composition (how much lean mass vs. fat mass) MATTERS.

And Bloodwork (cholesterol, insulin, cortisol, etc) MATTERS.

Educate yourself! Give yourself a fighting chance to live out a LONG life of HEALTH, not just live long in an unhealthy state!

Like I said, I never used to have a stellar V02 max, and certainly wasn't a great "fat burner," aka metabolically flexible, struggled with my breathing while exercising, and didn't really eat all that great (I never loved vegetables- meat and potato girl here!).

Ok, so what did I do to improve these biomarkers you see? And why should you care??

Well first, you should care because if you only feel and perform "pretty good" now, you're only gonna feel OK ten years from now. Ten years from now your "pretty good" is going to be knocking on the door of decline, muscle loss, fatigue, and disease.

No, you need to be feeling and performing GREAT now IF you want to feel GOOD ten years from now. Age brings decline, but it doesn't have to be a huge decline or bring disease. THAT is up to you.

I am going to keep this SIMPLE. The biggest thing to remember is no matter what phase I was in, what life was throwing at me, I stayed CONSISTENT.

✅ I SLOWED DOWN. I stopped going out hard every time I "worked out." I practiced nasal breathing until I could do it running slowly, then biking slowly and kept up with it! I did this for 80% of my training.

✅ I started doing "QUALITY" INTERVALS, which means I stopped just pushing for a stupid amount of time with no rest. Instead I started taking longer recovery periods, and was able to go harder during my intervals, equalling much higher quality conditioning (in less time!). I did this less than 20% of my training.

✅ Of course, I LIFTED WEIGHTS and increased my lean muscle mass. But I really started mixing up my efforts with strength days (heavy, low reps), muscle building days (moderate weight with higher volume) and dynamic days (moving fast and athletic). I lifted weights at least 4 days per week.

✅ I STARTED EATING SMARTER. Instead of working out to eat, I started eating to workout. I fueled around my training with more carbohydrates and protein, and pulled the carbs back but increased the healthy fats when I wasn't. I wanted my body to get better at switching between fat and carbs for fuel.

✅ I PRIORITIZED SLEEP. I started going to bed and getting up at the same time 99% of the days, even on the weekends. I got at least 8 hours of sleep per night and started tracking the quality with an oura ring.

I treated my health like a job. Because it is. And no matter what was going on in my life, I stayed flexible and stuck with it in some form.

I did it and you can do it too. 👊 DM if you ever have questions or want to know where to start. Let's kick ass into our 90's!