There are times when even I question whether or not it’s worth all the effort to eat right and exercise. Trudging down to the hot basement garage to work out every day can become tedious. Wondering if a set of weighted pull-ups is a waste of time is not the best way to crank out some inspired reps.
Thankfully, I was able to get confirmation recently that my exercises are not done in futility. My wife was out on our porch early one Saturday and heard a distressed meow coming from the next yard. She discovered a young kitten stuck around forty feet up a large oak tree. It was terrified and not able to get down on its own.
I walked over and saw there was one branch that might be within my jumping range. On the first attempt, I just missed being able to hold on. I gathered myself, thought to myself Maximum effort and leapt with all I had. I was just able to get my right hand high enough for a tenuous grip on the thick branch. I swayed there for a second, and then did a one arm pull up to get my left hand on the branch. With both hands on the branch, I was easily able to do a full power up to swing my body onto it. From there it was a simple climb to the kitten, who was very grateful to see me.
Climbing down one handed was a bit more challenging, but once I was able to hang off of the lowest branch to hand the kitten off, I was able to swing down again and hold myself in the pull-up position to drop safely to the ground. I did not anticipate the kitten wanting to follow every step I took and then coming home with me, but such are the risks of kitten rescue operations.
Ten years ago, there was no way I could have made the jump to that branch or pulled myself up if I somehow had managed to grab it. That’s not the way aging typically works. We have resigned ourselves to the fact that as we get older, we will lose the ability to perform the physical activities of our youth. Unless a person suffers from a neurological disease or other serious illness, it is not fact, it is just a choice.
After the age of thirty, people begin to lose a percentage of muscle mass each year…that is…if they stop using those muscles. Eat enough lean protein each day and do resistance training three days a week, and you will stay strong for as long as you wish to remain that way.
We’ve all seen people that are in their fifties but move like they are seventy. That means when their seventies actually do show up, they will probably need to be in assisted living or a nursing home. I don’t know if you have been inside one of those places lately, but they are the stuff of nightmares. Picture Freddy Kruger, but he only kills by slowly boring you to death.
No thanks. I’d rather lift some weights and do some pull-ups now and avoid that fate later. It’s at most an hour out of the day, and sometimes less than that. It’s a small price to pay to keep your independence as you age, and stuck kittens in trees everywhere will thank you.
The first picture below is my back at age 40 when I ate processed foods and had stopped lifting weights, and then ten years later after eating whole foods and doing weighted exercises every week. One version can climb trees and one could barely climb out of a recliner:
How do you know if you are in danger of going to a nursing home in say…a short twenty years? Try lying flat on the ground and getting to your feet without using your hands. If you can’t do it, start exercising or go ahead and invest in one of those Life Alert necklaces they advertise on daytime television. You will need it soon.
For another test, attempt a set of ten pushups or pullups or climb five flights of stairs without getting winded. If you can’t do those basic things, it’s time to start building some strength now. You have to be able to move your own weight to be a functional and independent human.
Aging gracefully isn’t about looks or getting plastic surgery where you have the facial expression of a confused sea bass. Aging gracefully means placing a priority of health span over life span. Moving your body every day, lifting a few heavy things, and not being afraid to break a sweat is one key component to aging with grace. What you eat is the other half of the equation. On their own, these two actions can improve your life, but together, they can work miracles.
And it doesn’t have to mean eating a plain chicken breast and steamed broccoli for the rest of your life. Too many people make that mistake and revert back to the same old eating habits after a week of boredom. People also crash diet and slash calories so drastically that they end up hungry enough that they binge eat for months. When you crash diet, you actually will lose more lean muscle than you will fat, and after the diet fails and the binge eating starts, you end up with a worse body fat percentage and less muscle than before the diet began. I shouldn’t have to say this…but don’t do that.
No one associates McDonalds with healthy eating unless they are incredibly ill-informed. That doesn’t mean we can’t have the same flavor profiles in our health span focused lifestyle. There’s no denying that people love the taste of their food, even with the questionable quality and weird ingredients. I’ve shared my recipe for making an all grown-up Big Mac before (link below), but now I’ve taken it a step further and turned it into a casserole.
https://www.mysaline.com/shirtless-chef-all-grown-up-big-mac/
I mistakenly believed that this new version meant I would have lunch sorted for at least three days, but I have a son in the house that views half of a 9×13 casserole dish as a single serving. Hopefully, you will get more of this dish to eat than I did.
It gives you the taste and texture of a Big Mac, yet is full of healthy protein, fiber, and vitamins. The key, of course, is to choose your ingredients wisely. Just don’t grab the first jar of pickles you see on the shelf. Read the ingredients and if you can’t pronounce the words, set it down and back away slowly so as to not anger it. Make sure your dairy is grass fed for the omega-3 fats, and that the mayo uses avocado oil.
Follow those steps, and this dish becomes a Big Mac that won’t turn you into a “Big Mac,” and that’s the best of both worlds. Eating healthy can and should be fun and tasty. Also, making this at home means no strange teenager hands will be touching your food, and that is something to be avoided at all costs. Perhaps that is why the kitten was up in that tree, now that I think about it.
Big Mac Casserole:
Ingredients:
1 24 oz package frozen cauliflower rice
2 lbs 93% ground turkey
1 yellow onion, diced
2 pickles, diced
½ cup grass fed heavy cream
8 oz grass fed cheddar or Jack cheese
2 tbsp avocado oil
1 tsp sea salt, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp onion and garlic powder
4 slices cooked no sugar/no nitrate added bacon, crumbled
Sauce:
½ cup Primal Kitchen avocado oil mayo
30 grams (2 tbsp) Primal Kitchen ketchup
2 tsp dijon mustard
2 tsp stevia in the raw granular sweetener
½ tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp pickle juice from jar
Instructions:
Mix all the sauce ingredients and place in the fridge until ready to use:
Heat the avocado oil in a large skillet and then cook the cauliflower rice until it just starts to brown and no moisture is left. You can hit it with a pinch of salt and pepper while it cooks.
While the rice is cooking, spray some non-stick in another skillet and brown the turkey with the sea salt, pepper, onion, and garlic powder:
While the turkey and cauliflower rice is cooking, dice your onion and pickles, and shred your cheese:
Add the heavy cream to the cauliflower rice, reduce heat and simmer unti it is absorbed and thickens. Add ¼ of the shredded cheese and stir in to melt through. Add the diced onion and pickles to the browned turkey and cook until softened. Drain any excess moisture from the meat and return to the pan:
Use a 13×9 glass casserole dish sprayed with non-stick. Add the cauliflower rice first and then top with the browned turkey, mixing with a spatula:
Cover with the remaining cheese and bake at 400 degrees for twenty minutes:
Allow to rest for five minutes, then top with the crumbled bacon and serve to a grateful world. Roasted broccoli makes a great side:
See the list of all the Shirtless Chef recipes at www.mysaline.com/shirtless.