The Essentials
I made the following response to a question posted in a diet/health-related discussion group on TeeBeeDee. The gist of this person’s question dealt with how to go about getting fit at an advanced age. The person in question happens to be 50 years old, which — and maybe I’m somewhat biased here, being that I’m 43 myself — in my opinion is in no way an “advanced” age. Cases-in-point: Art DeVaney, Jack LaLanne; the list is long, both male and female. An aside: “advanced” age females might want to checkout Art DeVaney’s wife. He calls her Wonder Woman (or, WW for short). She has a fabulous weight-loss/fitness story, chronicled (somewhat) on Art’s site.
Anyway, back to my response to this discussion-group question. Here’s what I said:
“It’s a simple as this: (1) Forget what you ever thought you knew about diet & exercise. (2) follow a “paleo” diet as much as practicable. (3) make exercise intense, brief and sporadic. (4) strive toward, but do not insist upon perfection.”
Really, that single statement encompasses the entirety of diet and fitness universe. Obviously, each one of these points can be (and most certainly have been) expanded, ad nauseam. In every interaction I’ve ever had with someone who is trying to begin (or renew) a diet/fitness regimen, however, adherence to step #1 above has proven to be the deal-maker or the deal-breaker. If you want to make this a lifestyle change — which it must surely be if the results are going to “stick” — you’ve got to relinquish old thoughts and be open to a new paradigm.
