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#141 - 3 Health Metrics You Should Care About To Live Longer
15 Plays2 days ago
Learn how to add years to your life, plus add some life to those years by understanding these 3 numbers.
In this episode, we break down the 3 metrics that predict not just how long you live but how strong, fit, and confident you feel along the way.
- Why understanding your VO2 max is important and how to improve it
- Clear strength targets so you feel strong and fit today and in the future
- What a healthy body fat range actually looks like and how to start moving toward it
- How to turn all of this into a realistic weekly plan for training and nutrition you can actually stick to
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Transcript
Welcome and Introduction
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fit-ish Project with your host, Latham Bass, where we make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. We have the weekly episode coming at you. Before I get into that, if you can, continue to leave reviews if you have not done so. Continue to share this with other people. Get this info out to the people who can use it the most. I greatly appreciate that.
Aesthetic Goals in Fitness
00:00:24
Speaker
The topic for this week's episode... I often talk about weight loss and specifically like aesthetics with weight loss, because I know that that is something that a lot of people get into exercise or get into like dieting for. They want to look better. So they want to lose more body fat. They want to build more muscle. They want to look more lean, more toned, look a little bit more athletic, that sort of thing. That is a very, very common
Longevity through Diet and Exercise
00:00:49
Speaker
goal. And there's nothing wrong with that goal.
00:00:51
Speaker
Another side of exercise and dieting and prioritizing your health that I think doesn't get talked about quite as much, or maybe something that we don't pay attention to as much, especially when we are younger, is the longevity part of health. So being able to not only live a long life, so be able to extend your lifespan by prioritizing things like diet and exercise, but also being able to have a high quality of
Key Metrics for a Long Life
00:01:15
Speaker
life. So having more life within those years. And there's a ton of research about why Diet, exercise, those sorts of things are super important for living a longer life and having a better quality of life.
00:01:27
Speaker
And I wanted to actually get into three things that you can start to measure and start to track in order to put you on that path to living that long, full life and being able to do all the things you want to do, being able to get out and play with your kids, being able to go on hikes, being able to do outdoor things, play sports, all the things that we love to do and want to physically be able to do for a very long time.
00:01:49
Speaker
there's certain metrics that you can track to make sure that you are doing the right things and making sure that you are setting yourself up, not just for today, so you can enjoy life today, but for years to come. So I wanted to do an episode on that because there is a lot of good evidence on some certain things that if you prioritize those things, you are going to be in pretty good shape as far as being able to live that long life and be able to enjoy the most out
Understanding VO2 Max
00:02:12
Speaker
of each and every day. And so diving right into this number one on the list of things to pay attention to if you do want to live a long life if you want to make sure that you are able to stay fit and stay healthy and avoid disease and chronic issues and all that kind of stuff. VO2 max, which is basically just a fancy way to say you need to be in good cardio shape. VO2 max is basically your ability to work hard for a long period of time. And so when you think about people with high VO2 max, these would be people that have like really, really good endurance. So you would think of like water top level endurance athletes. So like a marathon runner would be a perfect example of somebody who has a very high level VO2 max, somebody that's like an elite style marathon runner, people who are running like around two hours, 210, 215, those people who can run for something miles or five minute flat miles for 26 miles, or they can bike 50 miles at a time and do it at a very high clip. These people have extremely high VO2 maxes. So they're able to use that oxygen super efficiently and they're able to work their body at a very high intensity for a long period of time.
Cardio Levels for Health
00:03:21
Speaker
When you think about a low VO2 max, this would be like just people who are out of shape. So certain people, they might get tired or winded going up a set of stairs or they might get out of breath just doing something as simple as like yard work or some chores or things like that. Those are people who would be on that lower end of the VO2 max. And having a high VO2 max is one of the best predictors for how long you will live. And so to understand where you're at, a lot of wearables will tell you or give you a rough estimate of your VO2 max. the way to get it done and like know the best numbers is to do it in the lab, but I'm not going to do that. And I know you guys are not going to do that. So if you have a wearable that tells you your VO2 max, you can get a good idea.
00:04:00
Speaker
There's also a certain test that you can do. So the 12 minute test is a pretty common one where you basically just run as far as you can for a 12 minute clip and see how far you can get within that. And then by looking at the scale and seeing how far you travel in that 12 minutes, it can give you a rough estimate of where you're at with your VO2 max. But Above all, i don't think the number specifically is all that important. I think the take home message is, is that you need to be focusing on your cardio and making sure that you are strengthening your heart and strengthening your lungs and all those different things that you get from regular cardio. And so making that a priority. And so when you're thinking about improving your VO2 max or just improving your cardio in general, there's three different buckets that we have. So we have the lower level stuff.
00:04:44
Speaker
This would be like your low intensity cardio where it's more of like an easy pace or maybe like a conversational pace. So like you're jogging, but you're jogging at a very slow rate to where you can like talk in full sentences or even something like walking on a treadmill or hiking or biking things that are very low where your heart rate is probably somewhere between like 120 ish to 140 ish, or even lower than that, that would be like your low intensity type of stuff. And a lot of the cardio that you do to get a lot of benefit is going to fall in this category. And so when you think about cardio, think about it in terms of like a pyramid. So at the very bottom of this pyramid, you want to have a really, really big base.
00:05:20
Speaker
And you can get this big base by doing a lot of this low level cardio. So you'll hear a lot of people in the fitness space talk about zone two stuff. And this is what they're talking about. This is how you build that really good foundation. You get your body good and efficient at doing low level cardio. And the more and more that you do these things, the stronger your heart gets, the more efficient you get at breathing and different things like that and you're able to do things for a long period of time. And so, for example, like I've gotten into running more recently and a lot of the running that I do is at a very lower intensity because it helps to build that big foundation. And on top of that, you can do a lot of this style cardio without it absolutely crushing you. Because when you're doing the higher level stuff, when you're doing stuff that's maybe
00:06:01
Speaker
more kind of that mid tier where it's your heart rate's more elevated, you're breathing heavier, or you're doing something towards the top of that pyramid where like it's very high intensity. You can't do that all the time. Otherwise you're just going to feel beat down. You're not going to recover real well. You're not going to see good adaptations and you might even start to feel like burnt out. You might start to run into injuries and just not feeling great. And so a lot of the cardio that you do can be in this lower level, which I think for a lot of people is a good thing because going out and like really pushing yourself like really hard in cardio is tough. it's hard to do that all the time, but when you realize you can get a lot of good benefits from something as simple as like slow jogging, something like cycling at easy paces, something like walking with a vest on or just walking in general or like getting on a treadmill and turning the up the incline and walking on that. Like you can get tons of really good benefits from a lot of this lower level cardio just by including that in your routine.
00:06:53
Speaker
On that mid tier there, you have something where you're focused on getting your heart rate a little bit more elevated, but it's still not like at the very top. So you're not like redlining yourself. So an example of this would be something like a four by four. It's called the Norwegian four by four. So basically you're going to go hard at a very high clip for, let's say you're running around a track for four minutes, then you're going to rest for three minutes, either walk or slow jog recovery. And then you're going to repeat that four times. So this is called the Norwegian four by four. it's a really well-known workout and a lot of people do it to increase their VO2 max.
00:07:26
Speaker
But in this mid tier here, this could be things like intervals. This could be something where you're pushing yourself maybe on a bike or a jog and you're at a faster clip where your heart rate is maybe in like that 150-ish, 160-ish type of range. So this is a pace that you can hold for a good amount of time, not like hours at a time, but you can hold this pace pretty well for a good amount of time doing certain activities and things like that, where this could This would be where a lot of sports fall into. So if you're doing something like playing basketball, or if you're doing something like volleyball, or like racket sports or things like that, your heart rate is probably going to be somewhere like in this middle tier. And so including some of that is also beneficial. And then like I said, at the very top, of trying to improve your vo2 max you have hit stuff you have interval something maybe like a tabata where like it's very very hard and intense and then you take a break and you recover and you repeat that multiple times because at this very top level you can't stay at that level for very long but they can be helpful in improving that vo2 max and getting some of those benefits from doing things that are really hard every once in a while so When you're putting this into the real world, like what does this actually look like for you? If you're trying to like get a good idea of like, okay, I do want to improve my VO2 max. I want to improve my cardio. I understand this is important. What does this actually look like real world? So I think for a good place to start for most people, like I tell people find cardio that doesn't really feel like cardio and just do that a couple times a week. So maybe that's getting out and going for a hike. Maybe that's getting out and going for a bike ride or playing some sort of sports with people like basketball or you're in a rec league or something like that. Find some sort of cardio, some sort of activity that gets your heart rate elevated for a long period of time.
00:09:06
Speaker
That's going to get you out of breath a little bit and that's going to get you sweating a little bit. And that is essentially cardio. Like if your heart rate is staying elevated and you're moving and you're working, like you're getting a lot of those good benefits. If you're wanting to get a little bit more specific about it, and let's say maybe you want to do something that's a little bit more regimented, and you're able to get in, let's say, three cardio sessions per week, like I would structure it where I'm doing one longer endurance type of thing. So like I said, that lower level cardio, because we want a lot of our stuff to be in that category is like this longer, lower intensity type of stuff. Then you're going to do something that's kind of that medium tier. So something that's maybe like 15, 20, 30 minutes, but it's like
00:09:45
Speaker
fairly challenging, but not crazy. And then you're going to something once a week that's like high level. So maybe it's like a sprint or it's like a Tabata on a rower or where it's like some sort of intervals on an air bike, something like that.
00:09:57
Speaker
Practically, this could be, let's say one time a week, you go on a run for 45 minutes, easy jog, keep the heart rate down, conversational pace. Then one time per week, maybe you play in a rec league, basketball league, that's your medium tier. And then one time per week after one of your strength sessions, you do five rounds on the air bike for 10 seconds, 15 seconds, and then you rest for a minute and you repeat that five times to get that high intensity cardio. It doesn't have to be anything crazy, but just starting to implement these things on a regular basis is going to help you with all those cardio benefits that we want to get. And over time, you're going to start to improve your VO2 max, improve your cardio, improve how strong your heart is and how efficiently your body works. And From that, you are getting tons of benefits.
Muscular Strength and Aging
00:10:41
Speaker
I was never the cardio guy. i hated cardio. And for, in fact, for a very long time, I used to say like, you didn't need to do cardio. And that was purely from an aesthetic perspective. Like you don't need to do cardio to lose fat or lose weight. But from like a fitness perspective, from a health perspective, from a longevity perspective, it's pretty clear that cardio is important and something that you want to include in your routine if you are focused on really maximizing your health benefits and being able to live for a lot of years and being able to just be functional for a very long time.
00:11:12
Speaker
So that is number one on the list. Number two on the list of things that you want to focus on to live a long and high quality life is muscular strength, which probably doesn't come as a surprise to many people. Most people think of like muscle and building strength as something that you want to do for aesthetic reasons, but it is so much more than that. And there's a lot of really good reasons to build muscle outside of just looking good.
00:11:37
Speaker
Some of the things that just having more muscle does for you it reduces your risk of dying for any reason it reduces your risk of getting things like cancer type 2 diabetes heart disease which are all very common things that people deal with later in life and let's say for some reason you do end up getting sick, you have some really unfortunate health diagnosis, you're much more likely to survive that if you have a good amount of muscle mass. With that, being able to recover quicker, same thing with injuries. If you go through some sort of injury, like maybe it's a pretty big injury, you're much more likely to recover quickly when you have more muscle mass, when you have more strength.
00:12:17
Speaker
it helps with things like improving your joint health improving your bone health like all the things that you have to do to attain a good amount of strength are also going to help with things like joint health bone health that sort of thing from a mental health perspective people who are stronger typically have less issues with depression and mental health and things like that because you get a lot of really good benefits from strength training and exercise that you have to do to get there and so muscular strength is a really good proxy for living a good life and living a high quality of life one of the ways that they measure this in studies is they look at people's grip strength and so maybe that's something you heard of people who have higher grip strength typically live longer lives and it's not necessarily that like people's grip strength is the determining factor like you need to go out and like do a bunch of stuff that's going to improve your grip but grip strength is a good proxy to know if somebody has a good amount of total strength and decent muscle mass and so If you're stronger, you're typically going to have a pretty solid grip as you get stronger and as you add more muscle to your frame. When you're thinking about strength training,
00:13:22
Speaker
It's not just about looks, like there's tons more to it than that. When you think about people as they age, ah one of the reasons that people struggle and people have to have help and they're not able to be independent as they get older is because they're not strong enough to do all the things by themselves. And so you see people having to get put into homes or they need a caretaker or they need to live with somebody or They fall because they can't hold themselves up or they can't get out of a chair or these certain things. A lot of this comes down to strength. They just don't have the strength or muscle mass to do those things. And the earlier that you can start to do these things, it's much easier to build strength and build muscle when you're younger. As you age, that process gets a little bit harder.
00:14:01
Speaker
You can continue to add strength and even add muscle way into your upper ages, but it's much easier and it's much better to start that investment when you are younger, which is why you hear myself and so many people talking about the benefits and just the importance of strength training and making sure that you get strong, but then stay strong as you start to age because it it really just is that important.
00:14:23
Speaker
When you're thinking about like strength in general, like some good strength standards, when I think about it and I'm like, okay, what are the things that I need to do to stay strong and be able to like stay really independent and like get all these benefits? The first thing I think about is being able to just handle my body weight and and control my body. So like if I can do certain body weight exercises and I can do a good amount of those things, I know that I'm in pretty good shape. So something like being able to do a solid set of pushups.
00:14:50
Speaker
being able to do at least a couple pull-ups, being able to do like some deep full range body weight squats and do quite a few of those. Like if I can do those things, I know that I'm going to be in pretty good shape. And then when you think about like getting in the gym and really starting to maximize that strength and being able to like hit some of these top end strength levels, I think being able to do things like bench press your body weight for reps, squat your body weight for reps,
00:15:13
Speaker
deadlift your body weight for reps, like those are all really good goals to shoot for. Because if you find a person who can do those things, like they can do some pushups, they can do some pull ups, they can squat their own body weight for multiple reps, they can bench press their body weight for multiple reps, they can deadlift their body weight for multiple reps, like that is going to be a pretty fit and strong individual, they're going to have some muscle mass, they're going to be pretty functional, they're going to be able to do a lot of things. So like if you have if you look at your own fitness, and you have like gaps in these areas where like you're really far off in some of these, like maybe you can't do any pushups, or you struggle with pull ups, or you can't squat your body weight, or you can't deadlift very well, like starting to hone in on those things and at least get to that certain level where you're checking these things off. I think that's a really good place to focus your attention if longevity is something that you are really trying to maximize and really trying to think about and really trying to improve on. When it comes to like increasing your strength, like there's tons of people who are way stronger than those things that I just listed. And there's a lot of benefit to just getting stronger. And maybe you have a goal of benching 315 or squatting 405 or deadlifting two times your body weight or all that stuff. And all that stuff is great. Like there's tons of reasons why you can continue to chase those goals and why that's going to help you with your health and things like that. But I think just getting that foundation of getting to a spot where you can do a lot of those bodyweight exercises and you can
00:16:31
Speaker
control your own body and those sorts of things is going to have a huge bang for your buck. And then when you get to that area, when you can confidently say like, okay, I can do all these things. Then if you want to branch out and do different things, there's so many different ways that you can get strong and do different things. And maybe you want to do certain styles of training that aren't just specifically around like lifting free weights, like all that stuff is great. But I think the foundation of it And the best way to get strong and the most effective and efficient way to do that is through strength training and weightlifting. And so making sure that that is at least a part of your routine, especially until you get to this certain level is really important and probably going to be one of the best routes that you can take if this is something that you are focused on improving for the long term.
00:17:16
Speaker
When you think about like, okay, like what are like some practical recommendations or what could this look like? I think for a very large majority of people, they're going to fall onto into the camp of getting in the gym anywhere between like two to four times per week is going to be the sweet spot just from like a time perspective and just from like being able to hit the goals and hit the targets that you want to hit. Like you can get a ton of work done in two, three, four sessions per week if you're doing that consistently. And even like one time per week, that's not the best, but like if you're new to the gym, even one time per week, you're still gonna see some gains if you're doing that every single week and really training hard. Or if you're just trying to maintain, you can maintain on a single workout per week if you were training pretty hard. And there's studies that back that up as well. And so any kind of time that you can get in the gym is going to be beneficial, but I think trying to get in there somewhere between two to four times per week is very realistic and is going to be able to give you a lot of those benefits that you wanna get. and if you're getting in there two to three times per week, you're getting in some full body lifts, you're hitting all the big muscle groups, you're doing all the human movement patterns that we want to hit, like squatting, like hinging, like pushing, like pulling, like carrying, all the things that you do in everyday life. If you're doing exercises that check all those boxes, you're going to be in pretty good shape. And then obviously wanting to focus on building
Body Composition and Health
00:18:32
Speaker
some muscles. So you're doing two to three sets per exercise.
00:18:36
Speaker
anywhere between like five to 15 reps is typically a good range to shoot for and then making sure that you're just upping the weight over time you're pushing the intensity and you're just getting stronger like if you are lifting more weight for more reps with better technique over time that's a great sign you are building strength and you are building muscle and you are heading in the right direction and so muscular strength is number two on that list and then the third thing that we would put up there if longevity is something that you are really focused on is just improving your body composition. And when I say body composition, I just mean
00:19:07
Speaker
the amount of body fat you have relative to the rest of your body sometimes people get very caught up on body weight like just their total body weight or they get caught up on things like bmi but those things don't tell you nearly as much as something like body fat does and the reason we want to think about body fat obviously there's the aesthetic reasons like the higher your body fat you're going to look a certain way and then as you start to lower that body fat you're going to look a certain way which people are typically after looking more lean, looking more toned as people say, that happens when you lower your body fat and you have muscle mass. lowering that body fat, it's going to help from how you look.
00:19:45
Speaker
But there's also a lot of good reasons to keep that body fat lower because it's going to give you a lot of good benefits with your health in general. And when you have a healthy body fat, you have less risk for things like heart disease, less risk for type two diabetes, less risk for certain type of cancers, your risk of dying for any reason goes down, you have better heart health, You have better metabolic health, better insulin sensitivity, better sleep because people who have a lot of excess body fat who are very heavy, they struggle with things like sleep apnea. And we know how important sleep is. Better hormonal health, better fertility health. You'll oftentimes see people who are overweight or obese will have trouble with having children. And that is because that excess body fat plays a role in hormone health. You have less wear and tear on your joints over time. so
00:20:35
Speaker
you know things like back pain and knee pain and hip pain, all those things start to increase the heavier that you get and just better quality of life, both from a mental standpoint and a physical standpoint. and I've talked about that tons of different times in many of different ways. And so I'm not going to hit on that one too much, but there's a lot of reasons why losing body fat is an important thing to focus on, not just from the aesthetic side, but also from a health perspective as well. And focusing on that is a good thing.
00:21:03
Speaker
When you think about body fat, it's not like lower is always better because if you get too low, that's also not good either. Like if you see people who are like bodybuilders, stage lean all the time, that's not good either because then your hormones start to get affected. You start to have other issues that are going on. So there's a sweet spot for this. And so for men, typically under 25% then for women under considered in that healthy range.
00:21:28
Speaker
you want to look a little bit leaner, a little bit more tone than getting closer to that 20% for men and then 25% for women, you're going to have a little bit more muscle definition. You're going to look a little bit more toned. You're going to see maybe a little bit more vascularity. You might maybe see like that upper row of abs or just like some more definition in your legs and things like that. But if you're in that healthy range, you're not going to look absolutely chiseled or absolutely ripped, which I think is a common misconception that people think they see somebody who's like super ripped and they think the only way to be healthy is to be like that, like to look like that. But you can be healthy. And not be super ripped. And in fact, like if you're in that sweet spot is probably going to not only just be healthy from a physical standpoint, but like from a social aspect where you're still able to go out and have a social life, you're able to go out to eat sometimes, you're able to enjoy different get togethers and outings and things like that. And all that stuff that you're able to do with other people that include food and include maybe indulging. Sometimes you're able to do those things that are more healthy, moderate body fat versus like, if you're trying to get really low and you only eat certain things and you really just like cut yourself off to the world because you're trying to stay lean and you don't want to ever eat anything outside of your meal prep or anything like that, like that's also could be a form of not being super healthy if it's affecting your social relationships and different things like that. And so finding that happy medium of where you look great, you feel great, and your health is just in a good spot is important. and I think that looks a little bit different for different people.
00:22:58
Speaker
So like, for example, I was at a higher body fat for quite a while. And even when I got into like a healthier range, like I still didn't really necessarily look how I wanted to look. By the definition of like the chart and everything, like my body fat was in a decent percentage, but I wanted to look a little bit leaner and just feel a little bit more lighter, like be a little bit lighter for running and my joints and different things like that. So I had to tighten up my diet a little bit. And I got a little bit leaner and it felt like something that could be sustainable. I felt good. I looked the way that I wanted. My health was good. And so like I found a good sweet spot for myself. And I think everybody has to kind of figure that out.
00:23:35
Speaker
Like as you start to lose weight, as losing fat is a goal that you have. It's not just a matter of like just getting smaller and smaller and smaller and losing more weight and more weight because you have to think about the longevity of being able to sustain those goals. And if you get to a certain body fat percentage where like you no longer feel great you're not able to sustain it it affects your social life and that's probably not a very healthy range for you either so that's going to look a little bit different for different people but if you're in that range that i mentioned that under 25 for men under 30 for women or getting a little bit close to that 20 and 25 i think that's a really good place to be and if you can get like a body fat test that's one way to figure it out There's different calculators online where you can take measurements and things like that. There's also something that's called the waistline test that will give you a pretty good proxy as well. So if you take your waistline, basically measure in inches around your belly button, and then if that is over half of your height, then you probably want to focus on losing some body fat. And so let's say, for example, somebody is, we take a dude who's He is 70 inches tall.
00:24:40
Speaker
he is seventy inches tall If his waistline is over 35 inches, it's probably a good sign that he wants to try to lose some body fat because he probably got a little excess body fat around the stomach a little bit too much. And so that's a pretty easy proxy that you can do literally right right now with some quick mental math. figure out like where you're at but I think in general most of us know like if we need to lose a couple pounds we know that our health is going to be better we're going to feel better we're to look better at all those certain things and so you probably don't need a test to tell you that and then when it comes to like figuring out your exact body percentage I'm a bigger fan of just like seeing what you look like in the mirror and like if you're liking what you look like and you also feel great and your health is just good like you just your health markers are solid your blood pressure solid like
00:25:25
Speaker
decent resting heart rate, like you're not having
Diet and Sustainable Weight Loss
00:25:27
Speaker
any issues. Like that is what I think is more important than focusing on like a body weight on the scale or even a body fat percentage because again it has to be something where it feels like it's sustainable otherwise it's just not going to last and getting to a more practical sense of like okay we know body composition is important i want to lose fat all those things this one is going to come mostly down to diet of course exercise not being sedentary getting your steps and all that kind of stuff is important but for majority it just comes down to dieting and starting to eat in a better way Eating in a calorie deficit so you can lose some body fat. Obviously, that is priority number one.
00:26:01
Speaker
You then want to prioritize some protein, prioritize fiber, and lots of whole foods. That's always going to be a good bet for you if you're trying to really do this in a sustainable way. And then for activity, walking 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day, getting those three to four workouts in per day, those things are going to get you a majority of the way. And if you're able to do that for an extended period of time, you're going to see some good results. You're going to able to lose some body fat. You're going to be able to just have that better health and also look closer to what you want to look like.
00:26:29
Speaker
and And one thing that I'll say too is like, I know people who have a lot of weight to lose. Maybe you're somebody who was like me who had to lose 100 pounds or maybe even more than that. Sometimes people get discouraged because they have so much weight to lose and they think like, oh, losing 20 pounds and I need to actually lose 100, like that 20 pounds isn't going to do a whole lot for me, but it does.
00:26:49
Speaker
Even if you have a lot of weight to lose, like let's say you have 100 pounds to lose, losing 25 of that 100 pounds is going to improve your health. And so just because it's taking a while to get that 100 pounds off, don't think that even losing something like 20 pounds is going to have a significant difference in improving your health markers and having some really solid benefits.
00:27:10
Speaker
So don't get discouraged about having to lose a lot of weight or think that it's not worth it or anything like that, because that's something that I see people fall into a trap to as well. Like they have so much weight to lose and they're just like discouraged about ever starting or wondering like, if it's even worth it or different things like that. And it absolutely is worth
Summary and Health Goals
00:27:27
Speaker
it. So those are three things there, VO2 max, muscular strength, and then body composition. So like putting this all together, if you want to just have a simple plan, something to start thinking about from a VO2 max perspective, cardio regularly. If you can get that in one, two, three times per week, that's awesome. Building muscle, lifting weights at least two times per week. If you can get in three or four times per week, taking most of your sets close to that muscular failure and just focusing on progressive overload, basically getting stronger over time.
00:27:58
Speaker
Awesome. And then thirdly, improving your body composition. Most of that just comes down to eating in a calorie deficit, prioritizing protein, fiber, lots of whole foods, and losing some body fat over time. It's really not that complicated, but doing these things consistently, that's where all the magic happens. Like everything else in health, like it all comes down to consistently and being able to do these things. So even if you can't do all these things or if you can't get cardio in three times a week or you can't get in four lifts per week, Anything that you can start to do consistently on a weekly basis or a daily basis where you're getting some more
00:28:30
Speaker
cardio or you're getting in some more lifting or you're getting in like better food habits, like you're getting more fiber, you're getting more protein, you're eating a little bit less, like all those things are important. So don't focus on being 100% perfect with all these things. Just start to get that 1% better that I always like to talk about. And doing these things for a long period of time, those are the things that i start to add up. And the earlier that you can start to do these things, the better it's going to be because it's not only an investment now for you and going to help you now, but it's going to help you in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, four years, like the things that you do now matter so much.
Quality of Life and Independence
00:29:05
Speaker
And I'll close it out with this. I saw this clip on Instagram recently. And one of the things that this health professional was talking about was the fact that people when they're younger, they say they're not really worried about prioritizing their health. They don't really care if they live in extra life. five or 10 years, that's not really a big deal. But I think the thing that people really don't think about is like the quality of life within those years. And so now with science and technology and things like that, getting so much better and just our body's ability to adapt,
00:29:36
Speaker
you're not necessarily worried about living that five to 10 extra years. But if you can't live the way that you want to live for the last 30 years of your life, like you're not independent, you need help, you're on a bunch of medications, you can't go and do all the things that you want to do. And you're basically just you're surviving, but you're not really living, which is what a lot of people end up doing when they get into their 40s and 50s and 60s. And they start having these really big health scares or these really big things going on with cancer or type 2 diabetes or they're not physically able to do the things they want to do. So it's not necessarily about being scared of like dying earlier. It's like being alive but not being able to actually live. That's the real scary thing. So you want to make sure that you're investing in these things and really putting some effort into figuring some of these things out and building some of these habits now because that's going to pay off.
00:30:24
Speaker
in the long run, not just for you, but all the people around you and allowing you to do all the things that you want to do for the rest of your life, which is important. If you don't have your health, you don't really have a ton, right? So making sure that we prioritize some of these things is important. And now you have a couple of metrics, a couple of ah targets that you can start shooting towards and really start aiming for, because if you can nail some of these things down now, it's going to pay off a ton in the long run.
Conclusion and Coaching Offer
00:30:50
Speaker
Hopefully this was helpful. You got a nugget or two. You got some things that you can start focusing on The one-on-one coaching link is in the show notes. As always, if this is stuff that you need some help with, whether it's nutrition, whether it's training, whether it's the mindset stuff, accountability, that is what I help people do with one-on-one coaching. Not taking on a ton of people, but I have a handful of people that I'm helping. So if that is you that you want to start to focus on some of those things and you want some guidance with that stuff, you can always check out the link and see if we're a good fit.
00:31:19
Speaker
Other than that, I appreciate you listening and we will see you next week.