Part 2 of this 4 Part Series. This video talks about the importance of Diet as it pertains to your physical and mental health.
I’m asking you to share this series with anybody, over the age of 40, that has become physically and mentally complacent.
Part 1 focused on the significance of Hormones and why nothing else will matter until you bring your body back into balance.
And when I say “Nothing”, I mean nothing. I’m saying you might as well not even try. You’re merely setting yourself up for frustration and disappointment.
Because after you reach the age of 40, definitely by 45, the chances your body is producing enough testosterone to keep your metabolism optimized, your cognitive abilities sharpened, your sexual function operating efficiently, and everything else Testosterone does.
Is slim to none.
So in my previous video I explained how to fix that problem by supplementing your body’s own natural production with a bio-identical hormone. A Hormone your body doesn’t even know it didn’t produce on its own.
In fact all your body knows is it now has the resources to perform optimally.
And once we’ve done that, or even in conjunction with that, the next thing we want to do is focus on our diet.
Because the only thing your body has to use for fuel is what you stick in your head; plain and simple. So if you consistently feed your body crap, your body has no choice, but to perform miserably.
And we’re not just talking about body composition here. Your diet affects your skin, your immune system, the strength of your bones, ligaments, and tendons, and especially your mental function.
Injuries won’t heal nearly as quickly, you’ll get sick often, you’ll get fat, you’ll be far more susceptible to diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, strokes, heart attacks, etc.
But I’m not telling you something you don’t already know.
So I don’t want to make this video about the obvious. Instead, let’s talk about things you may not associate with proper nutrition. Important things that definitely deserve your attention.
A study from the Mayo Clinic showed you can slow brain aging by 7.5 years with diet alone. And on top of that, you lessen the chances of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Because let’s be real. When you hit your 50’s; especially your 60’s, that’s when you start noticing people slowing down intellectually. It’s when you start hearing about diseases that affect your brain. People forgetting who they are, who other people are, what they had for breakfast.
So if by modifying your diet alone, you can get almost 8 more years with all of your mental faculties in tact; I think that’s probably worth making a couple of small lifestyle changes.
Because the whole “My Body, My Choice” mentality, when it pertains to nutrition, is pretty irresponsible.
And to illustrate my point, let me tell you a little story.
My Mom was an educated and intelligent woman. In fact, she was only a couple of credit hours shy of getting her doctorate.
She was the one that organized all of the family events. Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas… always at her house.
She was a Junior High school teacher, specializing in math. And her students always won the regional math competitions, even winning at the State level.
She changed lives. She made a difference.
And she ate like shit.
So she gained weight as she got older, which caused diabetes, which eventually required weekly treatments of dialysis, which then led to a stroke, which ultimately caused her to pass away in her 50’s.
So this incredibly intelligent woman went from changing lives to not even being able to put a coherent sentence together.
And I’m convinced it was all due to lifestyle choices.
And from the day she died, in September of 2001, there has never been another family function. Now I’m not claiming that’s her fault, but when she was alive, all you had to do was show up at her house. She made it easy.
My father, all of a sudden In his 50’s, couldn’t tell you what he did yesterday, but he could vividly remember things that happened 20 years ago. He’d get violent at times for no apparent reason. He couldn’t drive, handle money, or be left alone. He was basically a full grown toddler.
Was that diet related too? A result of Lifestyle choices? Maybe, maybe not. But why wouldn’t you want to eliminate that as a variable altogether?
My point here is if you think for one second your choices only affect you, you are sadly mistaken.
Because the ripple effect, from the choices you make today, that turn into the consequences of tomorrow, reach further than most of us realize.
And that brings us to the point where we talk about how to fix it. How to undo years of nutritional neglect. How to get healthy again.
First, this has to be something you want to do. It has to become a lifestyle choice. And it has to begin with a “Why?”.
Your Why is the reason you make one decision over another one. And it has to be bigger than the temptation itself in order for it to be effective.
As an example, why don’t you walk into a bank and start stuffing money into your pockets? Because you’d go to jail. See, your Why is bigger than the temptation itself.
So maybe you want to be around for your children. Maybe for your grandchildren. Maybe you want to stay healthy so you and your spouse can enjoy life to its fullest.
Whatever your reason, you have to find your Why. And nobody else can find it for you.
Next, make sure your nutrition is balanced. You need a mixture of proteins, carbohydrates, fats and vitamins and minerals that don’t come from processed foods. A good rule of thumb is if you can’t pronounce the ingredients, it’s probably not good for you.
But it’s not like you can’t have a Pop Tart or bowl of Lucky Charms ever again. Try to eat well about 80% of the time and do whatever the hell you want with the other 20.
Now admittedly most people are probably interested in losing weight. So how do you go about doing that with the best chance of success?
And the answer is not the latest fad diet. It’s not dropping 20 pounds in a month, only to gain it all back with interest.
First, you have to find out how many calories you need on a daily basis. You do this by using a Maintenance Calorie Calculator. Fortunately you can find these for free all over the Internet.
This allows you to roughly determine how many calories your body needs each day to stay at the weight you’re currently at.
Until we know that value, we have no idea how many calories you need, which means we can’t calculate your caloric deficit.
Because in order to lose weight you have to take in fewer calories than you use.
It’s not rocket science.
And our final step is to track those calories. Most of us have absolutely no idea how many calories we consume on a daily basis. And I can almost guarantee you, it’s probably a lot more than you think.
So how do you track calories?
One of the best apps out there is My Fitness Pal. Not only is it free, but it also has almost every food you can think of already in its database. You can even scan product labels and it’ll fill in the nutritional values for you; automatically.
So if we put all of this together, fix your hormones, find your reason for wanting to be healthy, eat foods you can pronounce, determine your Maintenance Calories, and adjust your caloric intake accordingly.
If you’re trying to lose weight, remove about 500 calories from your maintenance number. The more fat you have to lose, the more calories you can subtract. But don’t try to lose more than a couple to a few pounds each week.
It’s not that any of this is confusing, but it’s far easier to make bad choices over good ones because processed foods are readily available.
And remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint. You didn’t get fat overnight and you won’t get skinny overnight either. Consistency is the key to losing weight.
So how can you make sure you stay on track?
The cheapest way to do this is to Meal Prep. That’s when you cook a lot of food at one time and put it into individual containers to be eaten later. You can purchase the containers right off of Amazon.
But admittedly that requires a considerable amount of time and planning.
So the easiest way to stay on track is to use a food delivery service. I’ve used Trifecta, Pete’s Paleo, and Fresh N Lean. All three of them have well balanced meals that are both good and convenient. Two minutes in the microwave and you have the perfect combination of nutritional components.
Most of their food is organic and they deliver right to your doorstep every week. It really takes the guess work out of eating healthy.
But if you really want to be successful, hire a diet coach. They’ll tell you exactly what to eat, how much of it to eat, and they’ll monitor your progress along the way, making modifications, based on your results.
You don’t need to do this forever; maybe for a few months at most. Because once you’ve been taught how to eat, you can continue to do it on your own.
We have one of the best diet coaches in the industry at Viking Alternative and his services are about half price what you’d pay if you weren’t a Viking patient. I’ll put Shelby Starnes’ information in the description section below.
So the purpose of this video was to show how eating isn’t only important for your body composition, but your mental health as well. And I don’t know about you, but if I lose the ability to take care of myself, if I start forgetting who people are, I’m ready to check out.
Now obviously eating a proper diet is no guarantee you’ll live till you’re 100, but not eating properly all but ensures you won’t even come close.
Pay attention to your diet. It’s really that important.
Next week is Part 3 of this 4 part series where we’re going to talk about the importance of sleep and how it plays a vital role in the overall health equation.
But until then, always remember, You Are Never Too Old to Live Like a Viking.
