The Okinawa Diet – and Living to 100

Some time ago – April 30, 2018 – I introduced readers to Dr. Michael Greger,  American physician, author, and professional speaker on public health issues. Dr. Greger is a clinical nutritionist.  I’ve been following him for several years by subscribing to his NutritionFacts.org blog.

As a very vocal critic of our food industry and our American eating habits, he provides an incredible amount of helpful information each week.  His insights are always backed by lots of research and documentation.

His video and written blogs are short with lots of punch.  Consider taking advantage of his free information to stay better informed.

This week, I simply wanted to share what I consider to be one of his best video blogs. It’s just one more eye-opener to the destructive nature of the American diet, using Okinawa as the centerpiece for his ongoing argument in favor of a change in our dietary habits.

Click on the video above. I think you will find it very informative – perhaps even inspirational enough to consider an audit of your diet.

Enjoy – and let me know what you think below.

P.S.  SCREW-UP ALERT! You will be receiving last weeks’ blog again this week in addition to this one. I hit the button a couple of seconds past my pre-programmed publish time last week which pushed it out to this week. Unfortunately, with my email carrier, I can’t take it back. Sorry for the email inbox clutter. 

Don’t Let Yourself Become a Senior Citizen. There’s a Better Alternative.

There’s been a rush of questions on Quora.com lately about when someone becomes a “senior citizen.”
Is it when you are 60? 70? 80? 90?
I don’t like the moniker.  Or most monikers tagged to those of us beyond mid-life.  So I fired off an answer to one of the posted questions and decided I’d share it with you.
Here was the question:

Is a senior citizen in their 60s or 70s, and at what point is one considered elderly?

My answer (augmented from the original Quora post):

It’s in the eye of the beholder.

I find “senior citizen” to be outdated, pejorative, ageist, and unnecessary.

I’m 78 (this month) and refuse to put myself in that category. This is not a denial that I am not older than most or that I’m not getting older. I just don’t need another moniker to remind me and to plunk me into a category that has a negative tone to it.

Culturally, we have this need to categorize people by age. It’s a by-product of the creativity of the American Psychology Association and corporate marketers.

For instance, until 1904, we had two age categories – adult and child. Then, in 1904, G. Stanley Hall, President of the APA, invented the term “adolescent.”

Since then, we’ve grown to seven categories: newborn, infancy, childhood, adolescence, young adult, middle age, and old age

Each one is a lucrative market for psychologists and clever corporate marketers.

It’s not surprising that we really don’t know what name to use for folks in that now-extended period between middle age and old age.  We’ve never been here before with 20-40 years ahead of us, most of it in good health. Senior citizen probably made sense when you were automatically there at 65 in the eyes of the government, financial industry, the general public and were facing just a few years before checking out.

It doesn’t fit anymore. And I, and many in my demographic slot, take umbrage with the term.

So, if you don’t mind, I’ll step over the “senior citizen” moniker and just consider myself a fully-functioning septuagenarian with more gas in my tank than I had when I was wandering in the haze of corporate life at age 50.

I don’t much like hanging with those who consider themselves “senior citizens” since conversations tend to become “organ recitals” about the latest surgery, colonoscopy, memory lapse, knee/hip/shoulder replacement, back pain or about someone they know who just went through all of the above.

I love engaging other “kick-ass” sexagenarians/septuagenarians/octogenarians who refuse to participate in the ageism that terms like “senior citizen” represent.

“Kick-ass defined”

How do you know if you are “kick-ass”? You are:

  1. An iconoclast, a revolutionary, a rebel – outspoken against ageist stereotypes, attitudes, and comments; against old, bad ideas, myths, and messages about aging (e.g. traditional retirement, automatic and unchangeable senescence, youth centricity); against conventional wisdom about most things; an “outlier” in several dimensions.
  2. High energy –  driven with a late-life sense of purpose.
  3. The CEO of your health – in control of your body and mind through acquired knowledge of your biology and practicing self-efficacy through sensible, healthful lifestyle habits.
  4. Curious – always learning, exploring, in a constant growth mode.
  5. Creative – demonstrating that creativity doesn’t deteriorate with age.
  6. Selfless producer and not a self-indulgent consumer – giving back, paying forward, lighting a path for those behind by sharing skills, experiences, talents.
  7. Necessary – to someone, all the time.

Equally important, I like to engage “youngers” be they millennials or GenXers because I have so much I can learn from them. And there’s a chance it will help break down the stereotypes they have about older people, a stereotype we have created ourselves by looking and acting like senior citizens or, worst case, geezers.

“Modern Elder” is the right replacement for “senior citizen.”

I like where Chip Conley, successful 50-something entrepreneur and author of a book entitled “Wisdom at Work: The Making of the Modern Elder” has gone with this. He’s coined the term “Modern Elder.”

Conley states that Modern Elders exhibit wisdom in the following ways:

  1. Good judgment
  2. Unvarnished insight
  3. Emotional intelligence
  4. Holistic thinking
  5. Stewardship

I think I’ve got most of these in me to bring out, polish up and do something meaningful with. I’m guessing you do too – unless you choose to be a senior citizen instead – and attend a lot of “organ recitals.”

Conley goes on to say:

“In fact, Modern Elders experience an emancipation from others’ expectations that allows us to transcend needless conventions which means we may appear more youthful and innocent. ‘Neoteny’ is a quality of being that allows certain adults to seem childlike and leads people to remark about how these elders seem so young at heart and timeless.”

See, doesn’t that sound and feel better than carrying a “senior citizen” bullseye on your back.

I can be a Modern Elder as long as I want and make a strong statement against ageism along the way.  There’s really no reason I, or anyone over 50, shouldn’t be a Modern Elder until the universe decides to take the parts back.

We can slow down that inevitability, ditch the monikers and use each day to share the gifts we’ve been given.

And leave the tags for the psychologists and marketers.

I hope this resonates. Let me know below with a comment or drop me an email to gary@makeagingwork.com.

I trust that you are being safe and sensible during these challenging times.  If you haven’t joined our growing list of readers, you can do so  at www.makeagingwork.com.  Sign up for my weekly blog there and receive my free e-book “Achieve Your Full-life Potential:  Five Easy Steps to Living Longer, Healthier, and With More Purpose.”

The Ultimate Act of Ageism is Upon Us. Are You Prepared?

Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay

Covid, shmovid!

It won’t touch me.

You see, I can’t let it touch me because – well, I’m too freaking old!

It’s a birthday month for me – number 78 in a few days.  It’s just a number but it drives me deeper into the “expendable” category that is subtly being hinted at here in the good ‘ol USA.  You know, that ultimate demonstration of ageism they have already put in motion in Italy where “battlefield triage” has people over 65 left alone on hospital gurneys to die from pneumonia.

It’s beginning to sound like there will be “no room at the inn, sir” if I show up with a fever.

Sir, do you prefer white or blue sheets on your hallway gurney?

But ma’am.  I’m in better physical condition than 80% of those 40 and up.

Sorry, sir.  I have my orders.  Please decide – we have others waiting.

Collectively, we’re smart enough to not let it get to that.  We’ll work through the toilet-paper and sanitizer frenzy, start listening to the right voices and hunker through this.

My wife and I, despite being in incredible physical condition, are self-quarantining.  We’re lucky we can.  We have deeply concerned and healthy 40-something children who are starting their role reversal early (with our cooperation) – doing some shopping for us, shielding us from 7-10-year-old grandkids (the most painful part).

As a family, we feel we are all on the same page, with a reasoned understanding of the complexity and danger involved and listening to the right voices. Calm and common sense should serve us well.

These are the cleanest hands EVER at this keyboard today. Believe me when I say that’s a major habit pattern modification.

Ron and I should be OK.

In the midst of all this, I found myself thinking about Ron.

I’ve never met or talked to Ron. I only know three things about Ron.

  1. He’s my age and has a health-building routine very similar, but slightly stronger, than mine.
  2. That he is a subscriber to this weekly newsletter.
  3. That he likes crazy socks.

These are his actual pictures.

Ron commented on the post that I put out on Quora.com on 12/24/19 that went viral and has logged 511,000 views as I write this.  The post was about the “best anti-aging workout.”   Seems I struck quite a nerve with my answer.

Ron and I haven’t shared any thoughts about covid but I’m guessing we’re on the same page with regard to our confidence that our biologies will handle an assault, even if we are relegated to a hallway gurney.

I’m sharing Ron’s comment here.  His story is the type that needs to be told because it validates the impact of a disciplined exercise routine.  His routine closely mirrors mine and goes a bit beyond.

I work to adhere to “Harry’s Rules”, the lifestyle rules written by Dr. Henry Lodge and appearing in the appendix of the life-altering book he co-authored with Chris Crowley entitled: “Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy – Until You’re 80 and Beyond.”

Here’s a refresher in case you are silly enough to not invest in the book:

Harry’s Rules

  1. Exercise six days a week for the rest of your life.
  2. Do serious aerobic exercise four days a week for the rest of your life.
  3. Do serious strength training, with weights, two days a week for the rest of your life.
  4. Spend less than you make.
  5. Quit eating crap!
  6. Care.
  7. Connect and commit.

Ron and I are the same age – and are experiencing very similar results (Note: I don’t have the diabetic thing to worry about).  I don’t know, but it sounds like maybe Ron read the book too.

Here’s his comment:

Great post.

I’m 77. I maintain my weight normal with low carb diet. I go to gym 7 days a week. 30 minutes cardio on bike, rolling hills. 30–40 minutes circuit training with sets of 30 and abs sets of 50.

I work entire body every day. I keep weights moderate for me. Leg press 225–240. Curl 80–100. Abs 60 working front, both sides and rotating 50.

I never get sore.

I do circuit training as fast as I can, no resting between machines.

As a diabetic, I take 1/2 of a pill daily. With my diet and exercise program, I keep my A1C at 5.6 and non-fasting blood sugar at 85–88. My heart rate when I get up is 45–50. Days after lots of coffee it’s around 55–60. Blood pressure 120/60. I used to take 3 pills for blood pressure. Now one small one.

My body fat is 16%. High muscle mass.

It’s vital as we age to really keep muscle mass up so we need to lift enough weights to increase and maintain muscle. Lifting light weights sets of 10–12 with a minute or more between sets is a waste of time. I think one set of 30–50 where you need to press to get the last 5 done is better. Working different muscle groups on different days is too confusing. If I work the entire body every day I never get sore.

I’m in better shape now than when I was 70.

If there is any magic in Ron’s routine it’s in the fact that it is a routine. Good health habits happen when we routinize them.  If we don’t, they don’t happen.  They become haphazard, ineffective, and easy to abandon.

Take a look at the math. His routine comprises 3-4% of his week. Compare that with the 20-30% of the typical week that goes to some form of screen time, like CNN/MSNBC/FOX energy-sapping covid stories we get sucked into while cortisol and cholesterol do their quiet, insidious destruction.

So, is 3% worth it to keep you off a gurney, pandemic or no pandemic? Or alive if you are triaged onto one?

Keep your damn gurney!

My plan is for no gurneys when I return my parts to the universe.  My life novel ends going face-down in a Colorado trout stream still striving to prove that I was smarter and wilier than an animal with a brain the size of a pea.

I suspect Ron may have just as nutty a plan.

Be safe, be sensible, take advantage of your good health inheritance.  If any of this makes sense or appeals, there is more in my article archives, and more to come, at www.makeagingwork.com.  Sign up for my weekly blog there and receive my free e-book “Achieve Your Full-life Potential:  Five Easy Steps to Living Longer, Healthier, and With More Purpose.”

 

 

 

What? You Haven’t Gotten Your Stent Yet?

Over the last 30 months of invading your email with this weekly diatribe, I’ve frequently quoted a fellow named Katz, as in Dr. David Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP, FACLM. (I don’t have the time to look up all those credentials – feel free).

Dr. Katz is very quotable. I first got hooked on Dr. Katz with a quote that I heard him say several years ago in a video recording of him addressing a room full of his peers.  He said:

“We already know all that we need to know to reduce, by 80%, the five major killers in our country.  We don’t need any more fancy drugs or equipment or more Nobel Prizes.  We know all we need to know today.”

He wasn’t admonishing the general public with that.  He was sort of “in the faces” of his peers, saying that physicians need to be more “preventative” in their patient care than “curative.”  At least that’s the way I interpreted his statement.

Health advice vs medical advice

Dr. Katz separates himself from much of his profession by being an advocate of lifestyle as the route to good health versus the “drug it or cut-it-out” methods of our broken, profit-driven health-care/disease-care system.

It’s also safe to say the food industry would like him to disappear because of the truth he speaks about their “health-destroying” practices.

So when I saw the following quote appear in an article he posted on LinkedIn entitled “The Disease Delusion”, he once again gripped me with his spot-on prose about how far off the rails we are in our current culture.

“America runs on coronary artery disease.

 Coronary artery disease is fully embraced in our culture as a veritable rite of passage. If, at a certain age, you don’t have a CABG (coronary artery bypass grafting) scar for show and tell, or at least an anecdote about the particular intracoronary stent you’ve received, you are the odd man (or woman) out, the cultural anomaly. Real Americans, and increasingly real residents of all the world’s developed countries, get stents! One is all but embarrassed not to have one.”

Here’s a link to the full article.

 I admire Dr. Katz for his position on real health and for his creative way of writing about it.  So, I’m keeping this week’s post short to let him do the talking.

You can find additional creative paragraphs in the article, like this one:

“The distal, or root causes, are a lifestyle also subordinate to the dictates of culture- a culture that runs on Dunkin; peddles multicolored marshmallows as part of a complete breakfast; and conflates the Olympics with a trifecta of fast food, junk food, and sugar-sweetened beverages.”

I so wish I’d said that.

Please use this post to read the article and get acquainted with Dr. Katz and his raw style of unveiling the truth about how we’ve lost our way in self-care.

I hope you will follow him.

I publish weekly on Mondays at 5 p.m. Mountain.  If you haven’t, you can subscribe at www.makeagingwork.com and receive a copy of my free ebook entitled “Achieve Your Full-Life Potential: Five Easy Steps to Living Longer, Healthier, and With More Purpose.”

85/15, 8 of 10, and 114 Years

What’s in a number?

Meet Ron Benfield, Vancouver, WA.

Numbers are a big deal for Ron.

He has been swimming in them for over four decades as a finance executive with several prestigious hospitals and health systems.

I met Ron last fall on the phone while doing business development work with an executive healthcare outplacement and career transition firm, Wiederhold and Associates.

Ron is a previous client of W&A.  My call was a courtesy “catch up” call to nurture an important networking relationship.

In my pre-call prep, I sensed this might not be a typical call.  My first hint was the background picture on his LinkedIn profile (shown above). From database records, I knew Ron had just entered his seventh decade (he’s 61).  Reaching the top of Mount Rainier at, or close, to that age hinted that this could be an interesting conversation.

It turned out to go beyond interesting.

A “third-age” poster child.

Ron is now on my “Wall of Fame” for modeling a purposeful, productive, fulfilling post-career third age.

(Newsflash: There is still a lot of room on the wall for anyone interested).

Starting new at 59

Ron’s four-decade W-2 career is quite notable. He had earned a reputation as a stellar turn-around financial specialist while serving in various C-level (COO, CFO) roles. Pulling hospitals back from the brink of insolvency became his calling card.

Despite his mastery over numbers, there was one that was out of his control.  One that forced his most serious life-pivot.

In his last corporate C-level role, he “had begun to feel the presence of an unwillingness to value a 60-year-old who has seen more things over the fresh views of someone in their 40s.”

He harbored no enthusiasm for the uphill battle to get hired at his age.

Despite being financially set to age 114 (I’ll come back to that number), Ron drop-kicked the idea of retirement, booted his W-2 job (with an ageism-based boost from his last employer) and took his deep expertise and reputation forward into his own business at age 59.

Thus Millwood and Associates was born a year and a half ago, leveraging his team-building and financial turn-around skills to form a consulting firm with seven virtual specialists.  Each has unique skill-sets that enable Millwood to do essentially what he did as a W-2 employee – building and directing a team to find and fix the causes of the financial ailments that beset most hospitals and healthcare systems.

Immediate success? No, but close. It took four months to generate customer interest, a time in which Ron discovered what it was like to put on a selling hat.

Meeting expectations at this point? Ron is blown away with their results.  They have all they can handle and soon may have to turn away business.  And they haven’t reached outside of the state yet!

Ron’s goal with his business is straightforward: to provide his customers with solutions they can carry forward without Millwood being entrenched for the long term.  He wants to hand off the knowledge.  It’s a philosophy that has his existing customers returning for more help in other areas and the high-class problem of having his team and resources stretched.

His vision is to build a company that will sustain itself “post-Millwood and post-Ron” providing his clients with problem-solving skills to find and permanently plug the plethora of financial leaks that exist in the hospital environment.

I could stop here and have a pretty good article, don’t you think?

But that feel-good story isn’t what excited me most about my conversation with Ron.

It was the life perspectives that Ron brought to the story that I found most profound and helpful. I’ll share three.

Time: 85/15 versus 15/85

Long ago, Ron realized one of the trade-offs of working in the corporate world meant giving up control of a very large portion of your time – as much as 80-85% by his estimate.  Meetings, recurring monthly activities, lots of low impact stuff.   The 15-20% left over was where one tried to make a difference.

Enough was enough.  As he evaluated “what’s next” at 59, he knew he had to reverse that and that would only happen outside the W-2 world.

He has reversed that with his new business.  Every day is in his control and virtually every hour within it.

8 of 10 

Ron longed for a setting where he looked forward to going to work 8 out of 10 of his workdays, something that happened more rarely in the W-2 world. Starting this business has become a 10 of 10.  He can’t believe he gets to do what he does each day, get paid for it and move a needle that badly needs moving.

I suggested to him that it sounds like he has achieved the Japanese concept of “ikigai” which translates to “a reason to get up in the morning” or a “reason  for being.” Graphically, it looks like this.  He appears to be in that green-shaded sweet spot.

 

114 years

I was surprised when Ron told me he plans to live to 114, exceeding my goal of reaching 112 1/2.  Ron decided, at 57, that he wanted that to be his midpoint so he doubled it for his longevity goal.

He’s quite serious – and confident.  His confidence is buoyed by an Adventist upbringing and lifestyle.  Raised a Seventh-day Adventist, Ron continues to abide by tenants of the faith which includes a number of things that bode well for extended longevity.  For instance.

  1. He is mostly vegetarian.
  2. He’s a committed exerciser with mountain-climbing, hiking, and biking his favorite activities.
  3. He honors the Saturday sabbath which is devoted to restoration through family time, church, no work, no shopping, and a well-deserved nap or two.
  4. Socially connected – through his business, with his family, church, and within his community.

You may recall that Loma Linda, California – predominantly a Seventh-day Adventist community – was one of the five societies in the world with the highest concentration of centenarians featured in the best-selling book “The Blue Zones” by National Geographic explorer, Dan Buettner.

Ron is still part of a decades-long study of the Adventist lifestyle.

I like his chances of hitting that number.

But most of all I like the model that Ron is following: a balanced lifestyle of labor, leisure, and learning as he moves into his third age.

Ron checks the box for purposeful, fulfilling labor with Millwood.

The leisure box is temporarily not fully checked as business momentum builds, but he has an African trip on the books and several countries selected that he and his wife Joyce plan to visit.

The learning box was checked long ago.  Ron is an avid reader, stays on top of changes within healthcare and does sudoku daily.  He also is an accomplished cello player which he admits he needs to spend more time with because of the mental challenge it presents.

The last box that Ron checks is the “generativity” box.  He is devoted to helping others by sharing what he has learned, in business and in life, with those coming up behind him, whether it be his adult children, friends or aspiring healthcare professionals.  Ron is one of the most active and appreciated networkers in the Wiederhold and Associates executive network, never denying an opportunity to share his experience and knowledge with another W&A network member seeking career counsel.

I came away from my conversation with Ron with a greater appreciation for paying attention to the numbers in my life – especially those involving time.  Our casual treatment of time overlooks its irretrievable nature, a fact that really squeezes in as we pass the mid-point.  I don’t get the sense that Ron is feeling squeezed on that front.

I also have appreciated Ron’s humility.  As I do with anyone that I want to feature, I had him review a draft of this article. Although he agrees on the accuracy, he feels it’s a bit too flattering.  I don’t.  His story just has too much of the message I’m advocating for me not to share details, professional and personal. Sixty isn’t a time for a landing but is a great spot for another take off leveraging acquired professional and life skills and experiences to pay forward and leave something that lives on when the parts are sent back to the universe.

Underneath that humility, Ron is making that happen.

With a 17 year difference in our ages, my 112 1/2 won’t have me around to see if he makes the 114.  Would one or more of you out there make a mental note to check on Ron in 2073 to see if he makes it and send me a text?  Who knows – by then, we may have that capability.

Do you know anybody like Ron Benfeld (maybe it’s you)? Let me know by email to gary@makeagingwork.com.  I really want to feature more stories like Ron’s that draw attention to what we “modern elders” can bring to the table.

Also, if you haven’t, subscribe to this weekly newsletter at www.makeagingwork.com and receive a copy of my free ebook entitled “Achieve Your Full-Life Potential: Five Easy Steps to Living Longer, Healthier, and With More Purpose.”