Exercise for the (ahem) middle age

So I'm not yet ready to admit that I have reached my middle age, even though if you double my current age you get an age that would have satisfied even the Queen Mother.

But I have noticed that as I get ... ahem ... older  my attitude towards exercise has changed. I'll admit that I exercised through my 20s 30s and half of my 40s for looks. I really wanted to wear those skinny jeans, or to get a bikini body, or whatever.

Then I started to work as a PT and started seeing a plethora of clients who, in their 60s, want to play with their grandchildren, but don't have the energy. They feel terrible when they get up in the morning, and they struggle to go from sitting to standing (and don't even mention getting up from the ground).  But ... and this is important to remember ... they are not always (or even usually) hugely overweight. They've just not been consistent with exercise through their 30s 40s and 50s. Many (but not all) are women who have devoted their lives to their families and never taken anything for themselves.

So now when I exercise I do it because I know that, even now, on the wrong side of 45, I feel better and can do more than most women my age. And when I eventually get to be a grandparent I will be fit and well enough to give them the energy they deserve. If I look okay as a result that's great  if not, I'm going to take advice from the cartoon below and wear that bikini anyway.

Top tips (or how not to waste 6000 hours of your life

I've been going to the gym for years, in fact I've been a member of my current gym for at least 20 years. I added it up the other day and realised I've probably spent in excess of 6000 hours in that gym. I've sweated through classes, weights, HIIT training. I've had personal trainers, boot camp, boxing and I've done my own thing. I've gone for the social, the peace of mind and of course the physical.

I've also tried almost every diet program ever conceived.

And on the way I've learned some things.

For those of you who don't have 20 years (or 6000 hours) to spare. Here is the total of what I've learned.

1. Weight loss is not just calories in vs calories out.
Don't get me wrong, you have to create a calorie deficit to lose weight, but the type of food you eat is crucial. Yes (for those of you who do weight watchers) crumpets are low in points (red calories). But two crumpets with weight watchers jam (let's call it 'spread') will not only put chemicals into your body that were never supposed to be there, they'll have you hungry one hour later. Not to mention the impact they had on my metabolism. I've been there, done that, and the results were like being on a merry go round. I'd go on a strict eating program, loose weight for the first month, stop losing weight and pile it back on again. Repeat process annually.
Tip number 1: It's important to keep an eye on calories, but don't let them rule you

2. Protein not carbs
How many years did I base my diet on processed, low fat, carbs. Too many! And I was ALWAYS hungry. Since I started balancing my meals with protein I've felt less hungry, built some muscle and had a more stable weight. Tip number two: think first about basing your meal around protein and green stuff, and then add in the carbs, you'll be fuller for longer.

3. Get off the treadmill.
And I don't just mean the figurative diet treadmill, I mean the actual treadmill. Sure, you want some cardio, aerobic endurance programs but  cardio programs (like aerobics) alone are a recipe for skinny fat (believe me, I was 52kg and 28% body fat). If you are going to use the treadmill use it with intensity for short sharp bursts. You'll be in and out of the gym more quickly and have an enormous endorphin high that will last to your next session. Tip 3: Hour long cardio based programs (like running distance on the treadmill, step or aerobics classes) have their place, but don't make them your only training.

4. Bring in the weights.
Think you're too old and saggy for a bikini? Try working intensely with weights. I was skeptical at first but weights are really what got me into shape. They also helped bring my metabolism back in order and my weight stopped fluctuating. Don't want to look like Mr Olympia? Don't worry. Women don't have the muscle building capacity of men, and also we start to lose muscle as we get older. To put it in perspective after 3 months of intense weights based training I built less than 3kg of muscle. No way was I about to challenge Arnie for Mr Olympia but I looked smokin' in a bikini... Tip 4 - weight training will bring results.

5. Have respect.
My body is amazing. it has carried me through triathlons and half marathons. It's allowed me to lift weights, but I've been really hard on it. I've punished it for not going fast enough or carrying me far enough. I haven't listened or given it enough respect. Tip five. Take some time to appreciate just how much your body has given you, and give it something back.

6. It's a mental game.
It took cross fit to make me realise how much I was capable of, and how my mind can easily turn against me. Through Cross fit I built the mental resilience that helped me to swim, run and cycle for three hours straight. It was mental toughness that got me through the Nowra Jellyfish disaster of 2013. **Your body can do almost anything, if your mind will let it. Tip 6: Work with intensity to practice mental toughness

7. Rest up.
Last triathlon season I pushed my body hard. I wanted to get better, and go faster, but all I got was slower and more tired. Then, I had two months climbing cliffs. My triathlon training took a back seat. Now, returning for the next season of training, I'm busting out run times I only could of dreamed of by the end of last season. The change in training, and the rest have achieved what all that pavement-pounding couldn't. Tip 7: take rests. Weekly rests, but look at your seasonal calendar and see if you can't get a good, seasonal break from your regular activities too.

8. You've got to have friends
I have some online friends who have been there to encourage me. I seen them grow, change, develop. Together we've seen some good times and many bad. We've learned from each other. We were brought together by a love of fitness now we're held together by unconditional support. Every triathlon I've run, I know they've been online, waiting for results. They were the ones who encouraged me to pursue a career in personal training and I know they'll be there to listen to me no matter how it goes. Tip 8: Find some like-minded friends and stick to them.

For those of you just starting on your fitness journey, I hope this has helped. For everyone else, sorry!

** I Just realised I never blogged about The Great Jellyfish Disaster of 2013. But let me just say that large, leggy, gelatinous, stingy jelly fish combined with a drastic change of tide and triathlons don't mix. I endured a 50 minute swim while others were plucked from the river around me. Stung all across my body and nauseous from the stings and swallowing two much water, I came in from the 40km bike ride a wreck and in last place. I kept going, crossed the finish line to get my worst triathlon time, and one of my proudest moments ever.

If I couldn’t fail

I saw a post on Facebook the other day that asked  ‘What would you do if you know you couldn’t fail’ and instantly I started thinking- start my own business, finish all those books I’ve been writing, run an ironman triathlon. The statement made me think about how fear of failure might be holding me back, how it holds most of us back.

But then I thought, if I knew I couldn’t fail, would I relish the victory quite so much?

 Imagine starting an ironman triathlon knowing you were going to complete it, and with a personal best. Would the victory be so sweet? Would the pain you had to go through feel worth it? You certainly wouldn’t feel as nervous before, but would you feel as proud afterwards.

I watched a friend complete a long course triathlon the other day (2km swim, 90km cycle and 20km run). He’d been training for the event for months. He hardly slept the night before the race. He began his swim at 6.30am. Just over seven hours later we watched him cross the finish line to a thunderous roar. Sure, he might have happily given up the pre-race nerves, but would the victory have been as sweet if he always knew he was going to complete it?

Believing the marketing hype

I’m a sucker to good marketing, and I don’t mean a good advertisement. I mean clever marketing that works its magic by changing a product to make it seem ‘healthy’.

In the 90’s I was fooled by anything that said ‘low-fat’. I never thought to check any other nutritional information, like calories or sugar.

I was never fooled by vitamin water (soft drink by another name) but I have been fooled by anything with the words ‘organic’ ‘goji’ or ‘acai’ in it. Like the addition of these ingredients to  salty and sugary treats makes them healthy.

More recently, I’ve been fooled by those low –carb bars.

Have you seen those ads on the back of busses, you know, the ones with the incredibly-flat- stomached-woman in the bikini who supposedly eats these bars?   Those ads must have really sunk into my head because when I’d reach for one (or two, or three –because let’s face it, they’re only a mouthful) of these during my 3pm slump, I actually thought it was good for me (“well if it helped incredibly-flat-stomached-woman …” etc)

The truth is, eat more than one and you may just as well have eaten that kit kat you really wanted to eat.  These little low-carb terrors that a friend  once described to me as a ‘chemical shit storm’ are now one of the best selling snack foods for women.

So from now on I’m committing to reading more labels and ignoring the marketing hype … or at least until the next one comes along.

The snot rocket

I've trained over the winter before. And let me tell you, it's not fun.

It's not the dark morning starts or the frozen extremities that bother me as much as the constantly running nose. Especially on the bike.

Honestly, some cold mornings it's like sucking back on a snot milkshake. I'm told that the pressure on the nose to warm the air before it goes to the lungs makes the blood vessels dialate, which means more blood to the nose, which means more mucus. Gross.

The solution is to learn the art of the snot rocket - plugging one nostril while you blow the other in any direction that is away from your body (and prefereably also other people's bodies but that is optional).
But this is a highly risky strategy and the consequences of making an error are not nice and potentially highly embarrassing, particularly in company.

Still, if it's the only option, I may ask my coach to write snot rocket training into my program ...

Down time

Life is full on. Isn't it?

How often do any of us have do-nothing time. Time to reflect, or to think. So little time do we need to meditate to get space.

I remember my 90 year old grandmother telling me that she loved getting on a plane (she regularly took the 24 hour flight between London and Sydney to visit us). She said it was because while she was in that seat there was absolutely nothing to do. She just had to sit there. She was 90 years old with no job. Her children and grand children were grown up. She owned her house and got enough from her pension to live on. Still, the only time she could find where she had absolutely nothing to do, no pressure was when she sat on a plane.  Even the bad food and appalling sleeping postures weren't  enough to spoil that time for her.

Why do we always have to do stuff (and I'm just as guilty as, if not more guilty than, anyone). Even doing nothing we have to do something. Read a book, do the crossword, eat. We all do so much that I think we've lost the skill of doing nothing.

I'd love to re-discover it, but I'm afraid I just don't have time.

Always worth it

Today my training program specified a long cycle. But we had a few things on and only had time to cycle to the house of the my LSPIL (Long Suffering Parents in Law) and back.

It's funny how the hills you so often drive up seem much smaller when taken at 70km an hour, than they do when approached on a push bike at 20km an hour* and the primary energy source is your legs.

Oh ... those hills were steep, and long, and... did I mention steep and long. The cycle on the way there was bad enough, but then my LSFIL pointed out to me over lunch that our destination was in fact some distance above us and the journey back was going to be worse. And it was.

Luckily, my friend leant me a mantra**  for such times. 'Never easy/ always worth it'.

And so I kept my pedals going. Up-down-up-down. Never-easy-always-worth-it. Until I made it to the top.

Take that hills. 

* Speed greatly exaggerated 

** Actually I may have stolen it