Unlock Your Best Health After 50

You may have realized that Being healthy. Maximize your health. Is the show for you? the research. Experts and learning what we're doing. Your host. and is here to share her best findings with you. Close in.

Hello everyone. This is your host, Susan Rosen, and my guest today is Dr. Anthony Balduzzi. And I think I got that right. Um good. And he has some interesting background and also is a naturopathic doctor. I think I got that right too. Um And I'm gonna let I think I can just call you Anthony, right? We didn't even talk about that. I'm gonna ask Anthony to introduce himself, tell us a little bit more about himself and, you know, what he's doing and

And what he wants to tell all of us about. Welcome. I'm happy to be here and

I, as you said, uh my name is Anthony Balduzzi. I am a board certified naturopathic doctor in the state of Arizona where I live. I'm a father, I have a young daughter, and I'm not yet fifty, but I've truly dedicated my life to helping people, uh particularly busy parents in their forties, fifties, sixties and beyond, get into healthy routines, achieve a body that they love that looks and feels great, have longevity and live a quality life.

And I got started in this basically because in my childhood I watched my own father and my own family suffer suffer tremendously from poor health. Like many men, my dad basically busted his butt to provide for our family and neglected his health. And I saw him slowly deteriorate. He ended up getting a cancer diagnosis and he died when he was forty-two years old.

So that was my childhood, watching the man I love most in my life basically wither and die. And I was nine years old at the time when that happened. And as you can imagine, it's a it's a huge experience to happen as a child to lose a parent if you haven't ex if you haven't experienced that yourself.

It ripped me open to so much pain and and invited in the opportunity for a lot of healing, but it also taught me some fundamental lessons that most people don't learn until later in life. And that's that our health is the foundation of our lives and what we love.

When we don't take care of our health and we neglect it, we lose all these things that we actually are we care about, our our ability to be with our families, to pursue our passions and hobbies, to feel aligned mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

And so my process of healing came through exercise. Um a couple of months after my dad passed, my mom gave me a pair of dumbbells and I started to exercise. And I found that as I started to train and and do these little exercises, I was healing. Uh-huh. And and ch changing my body, my neurochemistry. And And I really, I guess you could say the exercise and fitness bug bit me. I'm like, this is magic. Like I'm getting stronger. My heart doesn't hurt as much. And and I started to build myself up.

Uh and so that was the beginning process of me getting very interested in health. I think my tenth birthday was the last time I had birthday cake because in my young mind that was unhealthy food and I wanted to eat healthy because I wanted to be stronger than cancer. I wanted to become strong.

And and that propelled me through first in through fitness and personal training and then into medicine later on. And I decided to go the naturopathic medical route because I looked at the conventional system and I actually saw what my dad went through with the cancer, the chemotherapy, and a lot of the stuff that was very clearly due to lifestyle that was just not being addressed at the root cause.

I mean, like it's not that we have a problem with people lacking pills. That's not the reason people have heart disease, diabetes, obesity, this huge epidemic of not being well. It's because We don't know how to manage our lifestyles. We don't know how to eat healthy, to move consistently, to do that in the context of a busy family and an aging body. So I set out to help.

fix that and figure that out. And I started the Fit Father project 10 years ago in memory of my dad. And on that side we've had over sixty thousand dads in over a hundred countries go through our programs and transform. So it's been a beautiful journey. And that's why I say, although I'm not 50, I've had a lot of experience helping people in their fifth and sixth and seventh onwards decades of life.

you know, get healthy again. And we also have the Fit Mother project too. We started several years later and we've had similarly tens of thousands of ladies go through that as well. So I'm here to share everything uh that you want to ask and extract about what it takes to live a long, healthy life and make it sustainable.

Okay. I like that. That's a good place to start. That's a good place to start. So talking about starting, what how how do you start people? Is there some sort of where you have them come in and and you do some sort of evaluation on where they are and what they're doing and what they're not doing.

All that kind of stuff. Is that um So the cool thing about our programs um is that they are all on facilitated online experiences. So people join from wherever they want and then they come into our programs and our community. myself and our coaches are in there. So we're not doing actual in person assessment.

Which is beneficial because I wouldn't be able to have impacted as many lives as I could if I was in an office and everyone needed to come in the doors. Right. Right. That being said, where where you start is a great question. Um, I think there are certain pillars

that we need to maintain as we age. We need the proper approach to nutrition, one that's personalized and sustainable. We need to move our bodies in a way that's joint friendly, age appropriate, and helps us build the muscle and improve the hormones that change tremendously in the fifth and sixth and seventh decades of life.

Um but I think more importantly than that, it's not just the information. A lot of us know what to do. It's the deeper levels of the psychology, the motivation, and the mindset that needs to be the base layer. So where we actually start with our clients is. We help them get very, very clear on basically their mission and their why statement of why they're actually undertaking their health journey.

And and we have them write it down. We have them get super clear on what their core values are. We have them connect those core values. How does your health relate to your ability to be a great parent or grandparent? How does your health relate to your ability to experience financial abundance? spiritual alignment to be a good member of your community. And so we help people build new neuro associations and create a written statement for why their health is important.

Because what we'll find, and I know you've definitely experienced this in your life, we're all human, is that your motivations change decade to decade. Oh my god, yeah. And you need to always be in touch with the w the right reason to be motivated. It's typically not as motivating for us when we get older and have families to like have a six pack of abs, but it is motivating to not have

pain and be able to move and bend down and to have energy and sharp cognitive function. So if we can really start to create those neuro associations and why our health is so important. It gives us more power to to to enter into these healthy habits and sustain them long term. If you miss that psychological component,

You're just kind of following a logical set out plan without the emotion behind it. And humans do best when we have a clear plan backed with emotion with an environment that's supportive for that change. Oh yeah. No, I I I would agree. I think the emotional Connection is probably the most important. Me too. Because if you don't do that, you know, people will just move on. They'll do it for a little while and then they'll

Move on to whatever's next. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So do you do these things over Zoom or Something similar or Well a mix of a mix of over Zoom. We do live calls over Zoom. Uh we also have everything inside of like a uh you can call it an app, but it's on the web and mobile where all of our coaches and our team are inside the app and

There's a lot of pre-recorded videos and a full process you go through, like step one, two, three, four. You just go through the mission statement. Step two is getting into the meal plan. Step three is starting to do the daily walking and the exercise program. And then step four is getting into the deeper layer of the accountability and the ongoing support. And we have a we we start off people with a with a focused thirty day plan because we believe that

There's power in having a short term focus period to get up and going, get the gears turning. It's obviously it's geared towards long-term sustainability, but just like how a rocket ship needs to store up all that fuel and blast off. to get through the gravitation, like so is our lives when we're making a health change. We need that stored up energy and a focus period.

And um yeah, that's that's it's more or less like a high level of our approach. And I'd love to in any way you want to take this, get into philosophies on nutrition, what works after fifty, exercise after fifty, uh, longevity, general stuff. Wherever you want to go, I'm I'm happy to go there. All of that all of that sounds good.

Um I would i in in well, I'm kinda I'm actually kinda torn between the the eating part and the exercise part because I think that a lot of people don't realize that they need to change their eating habits as they get older. both what they're eating and how much they're eating. Um but I also think that exercise as you get older is so important. But a lot of us did a lot of exercise when we were younger. Maybe we're still doing that. Maybe that's too much now.

You know? Um, I think those two things to to me are kind of like red flags for people when they're when they're moving from their forties into their fifties and into their sixties. Mm-hmm.

Well maybe we start with nutrition and we'll get to exercise two. Okay. What what I think is so powerful is is like nutrition after fifty is more important than exercise. Because you can't out exercise poor nutrition. And nutrition is the kind of thing that either truly gives you health. through the right kinds of nutrients, through reducing inflammation, or it can literally be poisonous for your body. When you're eating the wrong kinds of foods, a lot of processed foods, too much sugar.

The root of most chronic disease that we've had, and this is a this is a buzzword sentence, but I'll say it'cause it's true. is based in blood sugar dysregulation, meaning your blood sugars are all over the place, and you have uh a lot of inflammation as a result of just eating foods that are inflammatory. Cancer is related to that. Dementia and cognitive decline is related to that. Diabetes, higher blood pressure, plaque that's laid down in our arteries, hormonal disturbances.

Okay. So I think the the primacy of nutrition is massive and it's also something that we're gonna eat every day anyways. We're not necessarily gonna exercise. Right. I mean, unless you're doing some fasting, which I think there is benefits to that from a longevity standpoint. But like that's a whole different issue. It is a whole different issue. But if we can just upgrade that baseline routine a little bit, that's something that will continue to add into your routine every day. And so

My nutrition philosophy um is is more or less that I'm not a fan of overly restrictive diets at all. Like there's a lot of people who go on super low carbohydrate diets or super high carbohydrate diets. Our our approach is more balanced and generalized. Um we we believe after fifty, you do not need as many carbohydrates as you once needed. So we are a lower carbohydrate approach to nutrition, but this still means that you can have Healthy fruits that work for your body. Quinoa.

Sweet potatoes, oats if that works for you, some organic sprouted bread. I mean, we do need to find the foods that are unique for us, but having carbohydrates in your diet, despite what the popular influencers on keto have to say.

are fine and appropriate in the right quantities at the right times. Now, if you still do feel like you enjoy a very, very low carbohydrate plan, I think that's fine. It just typically is not as sustainable over the long haul as having something that is like a little more balanced.

Um what I would suggest what a day might look like in the life of nutrition on our programs and our approach is wake up in the morning. First thing you do is you rehydrate twenty to thirty-two ounces of water, ideally some kind of great filtered water, not your city tap water, um, and adding in some trace minerals back into the water. That morning hydration is so important.

Because aging is kind of a process of dehydration. Like our skin loses fluid and in elasticity and we see that as wrinkles. Our spine and the discs in our spine lose hydration and we shrink a little bit and there's more nerve compression issues. And so we need to really prioritize fluid dynamics and hydration. And every morning that's exactly what your body needs. And so that's a good kind of like affirmation. You can drink your water. It's an affirmation that today I'm choosing health.

I'm getting that good water in. And then for your first meal, whenever you have that, whether it's an early breakfast and that works for you, or you wait a little bit and you f do a little morning fasting is fine. Um, we like to have simple standardized, pretty consistent breakfasts. I don't think it's the kind of meal where you should be doing

crazy stuff, always variety, always different, because it's a kind of the time of the morning where it's all about being consistent. The sun rises all the time, the birds chirp in the same kind of way, have the same damn breakfast. Right. But I mean, the kinds of foods that are good, um, I believe.

fruits, smoothies if you want. Not like too high in the sugar, but you can throw a lot of good superfoods kind of stuff in here. Um you can have some overnight oatmeal if you like to be plant based and and kind of things. But just like Dial in what your first go-to breakfast is. And I'll ask you as a little pause here, Susan, do you have a go-to breakfast that you really enjoy? Oh yeah, I eat the same thing every morning. There you go. Okay. What is what is it? Lay it on us. Oh okay. Let's see.

Um, I make um a uh instead of like a tuna salad, I make a salmon salad, canned salmon. Um and and then it lasts me for like a week or more.'Cause I only take about I don't know about that much. Um and it has um avocado mayonnaise. Yes. And it has Egg, um some hard boiled egg. Nice. One one hard boiled egg, one can of salmon and And um oh and there's some something it's called Hashay. Mm-hmm. Which I buy. And and we do everything organic.

Perfect. So um but then so that I have that. I have um usually somewhere between about a quarter of an avocado. Yes. And then I have um a scoop. Of guacamole. Yep. All organic. Um, and then I have a piece of um Gluten free buckwheat. bread okay that's what I'm talking about. With with butter, um it's it's the ghee kind of butter and um honey, local honey that I buy at the farmer's market. And um excuse me, uh usually um almond butter on top.

That sounds delicious. And I I think in my in my perspective. One cup one bigger cup than this is my second cup of coffee. And usually a cup of coffee. Nice. I mean what what works about that in my opinion, like from a nutritional standpoint, is you're getting proteins, healthy fat. A little bit of carbohydrate, but it's balanced out with all these great healthy fats. It's delicious. I mean, I know you get the sweet flavor from the almonds and the honey on the buckwheat toast.

T the the savory from the salmon mix, you're getting a lot of vitamins. Vitamin D, A, D, E, K, like all of these are in there with some minerals and you probably feel fantastic. And and so Awesome. I think people can do similar. Like get a high quality piece of some sprouted organic bread. It could be gluten free, or if you if you can tolerate wheat fine, maybe an organic sourdough or organic eincorn bread. Um but

Something like that with some eggs and some avocado. Uh, you know, I love the salmon salad. But like get a simple breakfast because I think the power of that is like that's like one third of your meals potentially are now standardized and healthy. Like that's massive. That's like just getting that in in the mix is is great. Yeah. And it's enough to last me. Mm-hmm. You know, until uh till usually Early or mid afternoon.

Yeah. And do you do do you have a yeah? So you can do the and then I think comes down to like you can do the breakfast, lunch, dinner thing, which is wonderful. You can do a breakfast, lighter afternoon snack and dinner. One thing that I have found is is I think it is better for people as we get older. to eat a little bit earlier.

at at night. And I think there's a lot of benefits to this is like From a circadian rhythm perspective, we have a little more digestive fire, uh, when when the sun is not down. When we can process our foods and we sleep a little better at night without um having all that food in our in our in our system. So I like the earlier dinner and that might be like a five o'clock, maybe even four o'clock, and then begin a fasting period because when it comes to nutrition High quality food is great, but

One of the things we know is really helpful for longevity is allowing the body, as long as you're getting enough protein and nutrients throughout the day, is to get into a fasted period. This is this breaks down a lot of those old damaged immune cells.

Helps us regenerate and repair and that same metabolism doesn't happen when we're a constantly fed state. So I am a fan of people having a fasted period during the day and and that might be like twelve hours. It could you know, fourteen hours, whatever that is. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. No and and I know that's um I mean we don't typically eat breakfast until Ten thirty, eleven? Yeah. Um when's your last meal? When's dinner? Usually I usually try and and eat.

by nine o'clock. Finish eating by nine o'clock. Yeah. Um but yeah, yeah. But a lot of the um but most of the time it's it's a little early earlier. You know, I usually typically what we do is we get up Um, sometimes I record a podcast. Right, while my husband's still sleeping. And um and usually there are off days like today was an off day, um where We'll go for a walk. Yes. And then we come back and eat brev eat breakfast. Mm-hmm. So so in that case we're actually eating eleven.

Eleven thirty. Yeah. That's a wonderful routine. That the morning exercise before having the the food. And I guess I'll I'll say that is like to kind of now we're parsing out this routine and we'll get certainly get to exercise. A big part of living well and and having a long, happy, healthy life.

Nutrition's a part of it, but your overall circadian rhythm is is massive. And that doesn't just mean sleep. It it means morning sunshine too. Um, it's so cool how our systems are are designed. Our eyes, being the literal extension of our brain, um, respond to the morning sunlight. And and they do so in such a way that when we get sunshine on our skin and our eyes in the morning between the hours of sunrise and around ten AM.

It causes our brains to release serotonin, which is that neurotransmitter that makes us feel great. It smooths out that morning cortisol spike and cortisol is a stress hormone that naturally spikes in the morning. And that serotonin later in the day is converted to melatonin. And melatonin we've all heard of. um through the forms of like sleep supplements and stuff like that. But there is new research showing that melatonin may be like the number one longevity hormone like that we know of.

It is the it is the cellular trigger. Every night when the sun goes down, our eyes perceive the lower light, we pr we produce melatonin. Pretty much all of our white blood cells have melatonin receptors. Melatonin triggers the brain to clean itself through this whole lymphatic system where the brain cleans out the metabolic debris from the day that keeps our cognition sharp.

Um, it actually works in the digestive tract to uh improve gut health and reduce inflammation and helps with the probiotics in the GI tract. And our immune cells that become senescent as we get older and become aged and damaged, melatonin helps reset them. And so it's it's not surprising that this is a very good thing.

This is this is like the yin cycle of the yin and the yang, yang being the active, yin being the recover. Uhhuh. As we get older, if if we're not really managing that nighttime restoration cycle, uh, we're taxing our life. And it's a huge part of of of not being well. Wow. That's pretty neat. So is there I mean, I know a lot of people and I I think I used to even take melatonin tablets or something, whatever.

Um but what kinds of food have have more melatonin or is it just from the sun being out there? Th there are foods, like believe it or not, like dark cherries have melatonin in them, you know. Okay. But the but the purpose is not actually to get it. You make plenty from the the natural darkness at night, your your brain and your digestive tract makes plenty. The key thing is When the sun goes down and it's dark outside, you keep your house and your ambient environment darker too.

This means less overhead blasting kitchen lights at night, less bathroom blasting lights at night. It means using lamps, uh lighter some of those warmer tones, you know, those more orange and warmer tones. Replace your bedroom with all those warmer lights because those are the natural light frequencies that are that are more synonymous with that evening time and they don't disrupt the melatonin production as much.

And then and the truth is if you want to get to the next level, like wearing any of those glasses or protectors that that block blue light. Yes. I used to have some of those. Yeah. I I would I would I would urge you to make that like a non negotiable truly. If if like if you understand the primacy and the importance of melatonin.

And you do watch T V or screens or anything late at night or you're working on your computer. But not not TV. Yeah. So you're blasting your eyes with that non native uh light. Yeah. And it's and it's it's like That the light is a primary input into the body. And for longevity, it's it's I put it up there with equal importance to food and exercise. So that's perhaps a in a a revelation for some people listening to this.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, interesting. Well yeah, we have some of those. I don't have it handy, I know in the bathroom that we stick in.

The the orange. Yeah. And then the other thing with light is is like so light itself, um, and the influence of melatonin, it's also the sunshine and its impact on vitamin D. We also know that your immune cells, all those white blood cells that you want to keep healthy as you age, um, they have vitamin D D receptors as well. That is not by accident. Vitamin D is is one thing that people should optimize and check on their yearly blood work as much as anything else.

Um it is it is a hormone of longevity, vitamin D is it keeps your immune system strong, keeps your bones sharp. Um and we knew from the COVID and all this stuff, the people who fared the worst. had low vitamin D status, they were overweight and typically had higher baseline inflammation levels. And so everything you can do to optimize vitamin D is great. And guess where? We we make it from the sun.

And what's interesting is you only make vitamin D from the UV radiation that we've been told is super bad for us. Yeah. And that we're blocking with all of our creams. Sunscreens and creams. Yes. Your body only makes vitamin D from the UV.

Um and we pretty much only get the UV when the sun is overhead and and high in the sky. In the morning and the evening time we don't get as much UV penetration. So there's a seasonal aspect to this depending on where you live. If you're in the wintertime, I do recommend vitamin D supplementation. It's been shown to be very safe, even at doses substantially higher.

than than like the government currently recommend recommends. And I think their guidelines are just like old and outdated in terms of like what they should. So they said like if you need they say eight hundred IUs, you can safely take two thousand to five thousand IUs every single day long term.

And and and be of great health. So I say the light and the vitamin D and the melatonin, it's a constellation of things that are very important signals for longevity. Okay. Well that's good. Yeah. Well we get sun when we go out for our walks. That's wonderful. Um, and we take vitamin D as well. So That's good. And I would say whole body sun exposure, seasonally permitting, you want that sun to hit like your shoulders, your arms.

Not just covered up. But if you can get it in your eyes, it's also good too to kind of glance up and allow that input to come into your system. It's like a more more sun is Good for the the human system. Mm-hmm. Oh. Wow. Interesting. And there's a couple of times to walk. Morning walk is great. And also walking after dinner is great too, because it helps walking after any meal really. It stabilizes your blood sugar. Yes. Yeah.

Interesting. Huh. Yeah, we've been getting a little bit of rain lately, so it's it's interrupted our schedule a little bit. Yeah. And that's why there's a season to everything, right? You have to have a health routine that can adapt to the weather and adapt to the seasons. So maybe what you do in the summertime is not the same routine in the wintertime. And I think the people that struggle

don't have the adaptability or don't create a new plan that works. It's just like, oh, I can't go out and walk. It's too cold or it's too dark. So they go ahead and do nothing. And that's a that's a big mistake, right? Adapting and creating a new plan that works. So maybe in the wintertime you get one of those seasonal lights that you can buy online and you get that in the morning and maybe you do a little indoor exercise like

you'll have to be able to flow with that because that's what our lives are. A seek a series of of years with seasons and and longevity is the act of of doing that well with every successive progression in your turn. And so you need to have a plan that works in all instances.

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And I know um my husband still goes to the gym. But I dropped out a little bit'cause I had some arm problems. So, um But uh yeah, I mean'cause that that's always that's always good too. Mm-hmm. For sure. And maybe that's a segue into exercise. Yeah, I was gonna suggest. If there's if there's one thing that we know is is a fountain of youth in terms of activating your body's longevity genes, producing the hormones of youth. It is exercise.

And it is particularly strength training. Which I would posit is more important for people over fifty. than it even is for people in their twenties. I mean, sure, people in their twenties want to be athletic and look good to, you know, attract a partner and all that. But when you're over fifty, this is when you need to protect your bones.

This is when the amount of the amount of muscle mass that you carry into old age is gonna be br basically determine how good your metabolism is, how well your metabolism functions, because the muscles soak up so many carbohydrates and keep your blood sugar stable. So strength training is key. But before we get there, I think I like to draw the distinction conceptually for people that there's a difference between daily activity and formal exercise. Yeah. They're different things.

And the human body needs daily activity. Exercise is good for longevity, but we need daily activity. If you look at the pockets of longevity around the world, the centenarian pockets where people live to a hundred plus consistently in communities. They're not doing P ninety X or step aerobic. But they are gardening, they're outside, they're moving, they're bending down, they're in communities, they have more active lives.

And so I think especially when we get busy and we're over fifty, a lot of people say, Oh, I just don't have the time for exercise. So they do nothing. But we all have the time for daily activity, walking more, moving more, parking the car farther away, taking the stairs instead of the escalator. You know what I mean? Like all of these things add up. And it's so, so important. And and I want people to understand it's all about checking that movement box in some way every day. 嗯嗯嗯嗯

Yeah, no absolutely. Absolutely. I totally agree. Um, yeah, that's what we always try and at least go for a walk or you know, we've got stairs in the in the house and going up and down those quite quite quite often during the day. That's awesome. Um yeah. Yeah. You know, and like I said, we go go to the gym and At the moment I have my little two pound weights. I've been trying to build my my uh my arms back up. That's good. And that's the thing I think of over fifty two is like

Injuries happen, right? Our connective tissue is not as durable. Like, you know, I know I'm like as I said mentioned, I'm I'm not I'm not quite there age wise yet, but I've had a tremendous amount of injuries, you know, through my own causing, but I've had

six surgeries to reconstruct my light right leg. I've broken my arm five times. I've had stem cell procedures. For sure. Well maybe. I mean I'm I'm glad. I'm grateful to know that you haven't gone through that amount of pain. But I guess it is it is a part of a life and oh I call

I fall. I don't pick up my feet. That that's what I've been working on during exercises to pick up my feet. Well, that's good. Maybe we'll we'll chat about that. I think I want to talk about strength training and then I want to talk about balance and coordination as we get older because both are important aspects. Yep. And it's basically how it works with our muscles.

If we don't work our muscles as we age, we lose them and it impacts us tremendously with your heart health, with your brain health, with your metabolism. And the good news is you don't need to be strength training every single day. Like once or twice a week is sufficient. of a stimulus to tell your body, oh, we gotta like work on preserving and building some muscle.

You pair that with that good higher protein diet and a couple strength training sessions per week that don't need to take more than thirty minutes, but they can go longer if you enjoy it. That's enough to get your body going. And I I really couldn't think of a better investment in longevity than spending two thirty minute sessions per week.

of doing some strength training. And if we really understood how important it was for all of these facets, it would become a non negotiable. Now figuring out what to do. That's can be a little confusing, right? I mean and that's where getting help is is good so you don't have to like figure it out on your own.

This is what I do professionally and why we've had so many men and women come to our programs to get help and exact clarity on this is what you do step by step because otherwise that's where a lot of people get hung up. Oh, I think I I know I should exercise, but

Do I just go to the gym and use the machines or I don't want to go to the gym? What do I do if I only have some weights at home? So having a clear plan is important. And the exercises that you do can be modified in a way that they feel good on joints, shoulders, knees, back and Things that they there's safer ways to exercise.

Um, as we get older. But strength training itself conceptually, if it's not in your routine right now, and that's the one change you make in this upcoming year, your health will benefit. phenomenally. So I I want to urge that for sure. Oh yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think it's better now for for younger women, but women were never, at least when I was growing up.

women were never w not pushed, I don't mean Yeah, for sure. It wasn't culturally a thing. No, no, no. I mean I used to go to the gym. Even my my mom used to go to the gym. I w You know. Um But uh but I you know, not not to the same degree. Women, girls, girls didn't play in very many sports, and so there wasn't that outlet. Yeah, I'm glad that's changed.

Yeah. Especially I I would say of every combination of age and women men, uh population that should be strength training, it's women over fifty. is probably the ones that could use it the most, especially when estrogen levels are are declining so tremendously and you wanna try to balance your hormones and then you lose the protective effect of that estrogen on your bones and your heart. Your metabolism gets wacky, your sleep gets dysregulated like

Strength training helps fix that. It taps into your body's hormone and vitality capacity and it builds your strength back up. So that's it's really cool. And it doesn't need to be super intense. It can be things like holding some weights and doing some squats. Doing some curls, doing some shoulder presses, some rows. Just like we have these bodies, they move in these different planes in space. We just need to be able to do those things with some resistance. And uh that's the cool thing.

And I'll also say the balance too. The balance is as you've noticed, you have this tendency to kind of drag your feet. I think a lot of people can probably relate to that. Um, that's gonna be really tied to our mental health and well-being as we ate. Um because what's that well that's just an expression of of something, a function of the body that is called proprioception.

We're basically in our awareness we know where our limbs are in space. And so really good athletes have the best proprioception. That's how like they can catch a football like with one hand by reaching up and they don't even need to look at it. Like it's a phenomenal proprioception. As we age, we start to lose that. So we need to work on it. And this is why exercises that train balance are very, very good.

Uh, doing things where you're doing single leg exercises. Uh I think even taking your shoes off too more and getting your feet on the ground to actually reconnect proprioceptively with your feet. uh is gonna be really good uh for building up your feet muscles and and your glutes and just

being in space because a lot of us wear these super padded disconnected shoes and it actually makes our brains a little bit weaker because we're not getting that proprioceptive feedback as we get older. So just some things to think about balance and the way we do it is we incorporate the balance into the strength training. Um, so it all you just it's all one thing and it's nice. Thirty minute workout, you get all of this a couple times a week.

Okay. And is it something that people can do at home? Or do they need to yeah? Pair all you need is a pair of dumbbells. Um we even have body weight versions and band versions, but yes. Um

So yes, all like we always give uh versions of our workouts that are completely done at home. We also have some gym versions as well with more equipment. But the key thing is to find what what works for you and what you can stick to. Um and then I'll say too, it's just The more time you can spend outside seasonally permitting is very good for longevity.

Um, because we're tend to be more relaxed when we're outside. Blood pressure levels go down, stress levels go down, obviously the sunshine, the fresh air, the light and all of that. But to beat to beat the the the animals and the humans that live the longest. They maintain a relaxed, parasympathetic tone. The stressed, sympathetic tone of the nervous system.

Is actually what shortens our life. It's what raises our blood pressure. It's what raises our cortisol, raises our blood sugar levels. We're responding to stress. And when we're responding to stress, our body actually suppresses our immune strength because it's not thinking about long term immune protection and repair. It's thinking about I have a short term issue to deal with.

And if we have this chronic stress scenario, you're basically taxing your lifeline. And I think getting back and reconnected to the outside in nature and to our families, anything that reconnects us is going to be a key to longevity. No, it makes that makes a lot of sense. That definitely makes a lot of sense because otherwise one off things never work for anything, not for diet, not for exercise. Yeah.

Yes. And what you just said is so true. Not the way we were built. So my premise is this, and I and I think you've discovered this in your own life too, is we are healthy when we live in accordance to the way we were built. Which I will call natural law. Which means we're meant to drink a lot of water. Our bodies are 70% water. Very poetically, this planet is around 70% water. We're meant to eat natural, non-processed foods. We're meant to have sunshine and great social connections.

We're meant to move our bodies daily and intermittently move our bodies very hard with activity. Uh, you know, we're meant to have great connections with one another and not be glued to technology, but to use it, use technologies as tools for us, right? And so that's that's like the high level. And then the art of it is how we each individually apply this.

into our families. And and that's where the rubber meets the road and and making it sustainable. So part of that is mindset and understanding why this is important and the motivational aspect. Part of this is just having a really good daily routine that you can stick to long term. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. No, and that and that makes sense. And um

The other thing that came to m to mind when you were just saying that is is to change things up a little bit every once in a while though, because otherwise it does become too routine. Yeah. For sure. Right. And people are like, Uh, do I have to do that again? Oh no, you know. I agree with you Change up your meals every once in a while. Leverage the seasons of where you live. It's warmer outside. Go use those hiking trails that are around there or

Get outside or it's colder outside. Okay. Maybe you do exercise on an indoor bike or you do some strength training workouts you found from Fit Father or Fit Mother Project. Right. So it's it's good. There's always uh variety, as they say, is the spice of life and We have the opportunity to kind of continuously do that.

And then I guess the the other aspect is I I think there are certain supplements that are legitimately good after fifty to improve health. And they're not fancy supplements, they're the basic. It is good if it is.

to get omega threes into your diet. And obviously your breakfast is phenomenal. You don't even need to supplement with omega threes'cause you get that I do anyway. Okay. It's good. But yes, so the you want the omega threes. They're they're so good for your heart health and your brain health.

Um, but it is the research does show, you know, even getting two to three servings of that cold water fatty fish, the salmon or the sardines, is enough to give you great benefits. But supplement omega threes are very good. The vitamin D, I think, is is massively important. I think that there is a

a good benefit to taking uh a natural anti-inflammatory compound. Uh like omega-3s are, but I think some turmeric or curcumin uh is a is a very good natural compound. Turmeric is the spice that we all see that we cook with in a lot of Indian foods. It has active compounds in them called curcuminoids. And these are amazing.

They reduce inflammation. They help with brain health. They help with gut health. They they're just like they're they help with joint pain. So like getting these uh one at least one good natural anti-inflammatory into your life is good because after 50, a lot of people turn to

advil or prescri or or or any kind of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to manage pain and achiness. And that will long term deteriorate your health. And um and it's not what you want to do. There are more natural solutions for that. Start to eat more ginger, cook with more ginger. It is a wonderful anti-inflammatory compound. Um Yeah. And I mean, and and then I guess like everything you can do to improve your digestive health and function is going to be very beneficial as you age.

Uh this this means uh getting some kind of probiotics into your diet, and this may be through fermented foods. Uh sauerkraut is one that I tend to eat quite a bit. Um but you can also you can also um get prebiotic fiber from your fruits and vegetables. It feeds your good gut bacteria. So that's that's wonderful.

And probiotic supplements could be helpful. I I don't think there's something you need to take long term. There's something you can take uh to be very corrective and get your if you know you have some digestive issues, they can be very corrective. And once you establish a good routine.

you know, your your your ecosystem can can survive with good healthy foods. But if you're someone who is eating non-organic wheat, um, or you know you have any sensitivity to wheat and dairy, corn, or soy, and you're eating those on a regular basis, it's gonna be hurting your your digestive health and and ultimately that's a big factor in your overall health. Mm. Absolutely. Absolutely. Um And I'll just throw out there that from my own personal experience, but

that um typically, especially if you're not eating organic wheat, um most people can't digest it very well. For sure. So find something else or mix it together. You know, if you're gonna have wheat, you know Mix it with some oats or some whatever, corn, whatever it happens to be, and don't eat so much of the wheat.

And I'll speak to that. I mean, maybe some of the specifics of that. Like wheat is a food that many of us grew up on, but like wheat today, the modern wheat, is not the same thing and it's unfortunately can be quite unhealthy. It's been hybridized and genetically modified in the sense that we're trying to make a a stronger, shorter, faster growing plant with higher yields. And in the process we changed the genetics of the wheat and it got a lot more complicated. There is so much more

genetic information chromosomes in the modern wheat and that actually changes how the gluten and the gluten in proteins are. They're just not nearly as digestible. So the the most ancient wheat that we know of is called Einkorn, E I N K O R N and it's it's So different from the modern wheat that people who are literally have a severe allergy to wheat like a celiac disease can all can often eat eincorn wheat. It is that different. I'll have to try it.

It's it's like it's it's not as readily available, but it's it's there. And and I mean there's also like you said, buckwheat is something that you've had and there's other ancient grains and ancient wheats that could be beneficial. The other problem with non organic wheat, right, is this whole idea of the the pesticide glyphosate.

Which is sprayed on that wheat. Um, and it's it's also sprayed on a lot of other foods, even even oats, because it is a it's a drying agent that is used for basically drying out crop yolks. Um but the problem with that is it literally destroys your health on multiple levels. It it really harms your gut microbiome. Um it can cause leakiness in your digestive tract, which leads to inflammation. It can harm your blood vessels and in those precious

uh arteries which your body lays down plaques to help repair. So glyphosate is some nasty stuff and it is pretty much ubiquitous with modern wheat. So the genetics are a problem as well as the pesticides. So uh organic ancient wheat can be a part. And this is why I really think a lot of people find freedom inside of our fit father and fit mother approach is because we tell them to buy something like

Um organic Ezekiel bread, which is a commercially available, much healthier bread. My hus my husband needs that. Yes, right. Okay. So you toast that thing up, you can make a sandwich on that and it's it's a thousand times better. Um, I I think there's another level, eincorn and something like that would be even better in my opinion. But Ezekiel bread's commercially available. It's probably in your local store. Upgrade your bread. You're gonna feel so much better.

Yes, yes, absolutely, absolutely. And you can still have a sandwich. You can still have an egg on a sandwich. to salmon on a sandwich. Like you still can have all these things. Ham sandwich. Whatever kind of sandwich floats your boat. Even a organic peanut butter sandwich, you know? So it's that's very freeing once you know you have these upgraded staples in your life. Oh my god, yeah. It's so much easier. I mean, I know when I had to when I had to go off of all this stuff, you know.

None of these things were available. Yeah, you we have a lot of resources now versus when, you know, you experience your intolerances. I just I had to go to the Asian part of town and go to the the Japanese and Chinese stores. Mm-hmm. They get rice noodles and Yeah. Yeah. Um oh yeah. No, absolutely. You couldn't find it. Well Whole Foods wasn't even in existence.

Yeah. Another nutritional thing that could be helpful is getting more um broths and stews into your life as you get older. Collagen proteins. are what make up our connective tissue and there's many different types in

And like what we basically lose collagen as we age. Um and and that can be resulting that can result in wrinkles and joint pain and feeling stiffness and dehydrated. And collagen is one of these main proteins that works with water to create the proper fluid dynamics and mobility in our bodies and gives us the the function and appearance of more youth.

And so we can get these through supplements, but you can also get these through bone broth. So if you can make some beef bone broths or get some chicken feet and make a bone broth. And I don't know if anyone's interested in that, but I'm telling you, this is like some deeply good nutrition for you. and very longevity focused nutrition. Bioavailable, you put a put a pot on the st on big, big like pot, stew pot on the stove.

throw in a bunch of chicken feet, throw in some kind of broth or water. If you wanna throw any kind of veggies in there too, and just let that sucker simmer and you do that, you know, y you're gonna be getting this this wonderful nutrition that you wouldn't get anywhere else but through the connective tissue and the collagen proteins. And it will it will help your life for sure.

Yeah, interesting. And it's very interesting. Hmm. Okay. Well I'll I will ask you more about that after we get done. Sounds good. So I think we're almost at the hour over. Uh not over, but at the hour. Yeah. Um, so um Why don't you tell everybody and I will also put it in the show notes, not that that many people look at show notes these days, but um tell everybody where they can find your your um products isn't the right word, but programs. Sure.

So first off, I enjoyed our time today. And I hope if someone's still listening, they found this valuable. Um, we have everything that I discussed. to still down into like the most simple to follow way, like here's the meal plan, here's the exercise, step by step, walk you through. Um and that's what we have inside of our Fit Father project and Fit Mother programs.

The websites where you can learn more about those programs and sign up and become a member is fitfatherproject.com or fitmotherproject.com. So all those exactly as they sound. And if you're someone also, so I recommend you go to the websites and at the very least we have some free meal plans and free workouts. If you join our email list, we'll send those to you. So that's a good place to get started. But our our programs are world class.

Um and I'm happy to say and I can legitimately say this we have the most important. success stories of any program for people over fifty online. So we we know we have a good a good program that works. And then our YouTube channels too are good resources. Um if you like watching videos we have a bunch of really great videos and you can search Fit Father Project or Fit Mother Project on YouTube. Ah, okay. So it's it's um uh uh

Project. Okay. Dot com. Oh, but it wouldn't be dot com. Is it? Yeah, fit f fitfather project dot com or fitmother project dot com. And if you're on YouTube you can just type in. Fitfather Project, Fit Mother Project. Okay. Okay. Okay. Sounds good. Well, I can always listen to this again and write it down. So okay, well Lami, thank you so much for for being on. It's been it's been great. Lots of um Lots of good information for me, lots of good validation.

And with that I will say that neither of us are doctors, even though you are a doctor, but this is I we're not allowed to give out advice on the on Zoom. So um But if you're interested, definitely go and see the Fit Father and Fit Mother. sites and YouTube. And with that, I will say that I will see everybody next week. Thank you, Susan. with a comment or like on iTunes. This episode show notes, more resources and free offers.