An Encouraging Message to Post-Menopausal Women - Lose Weight and Re-Gain Your Health

Post menopause can be a frustrating time of life. It's dfficult to lose weight and every time you see a doctor, you get bad news about blood pressure, sugar levels, and elevated cholesterol. And one of the most discouraging phrases that can come out of your doctor's mouth - "These issues are related to aging."

It's almost a death sentence. You're aging, showing signs of disease, and here's a pill to mitigate another sign of aging.

Crap! Who wants to hear that?

At 64, I am fortunate to have recently walked out of a positive health checkup. Perfect weight, BP normal, cholesterol under control, and sugar levels within reasonable limits.

It was a 2-year struggle to get to this point - but there are several activities I rely on to keep these wellness indicators under control:

1. Keep sugar intake to a minimum - less than 25 grams per day. No rice, pasa, or potatoes after 5 pm. No processed foods.

2. Keep moving. I do strength training, gardening, dog walking, and execise DVD's. The DVD's are my newest activity - typical in-the-gym weight lifting gets tedious after 2 years, even if you change routines regularly. So now I mix in Jillian Michaels' short training sessions.

3. Manage stress with meditation, slow breathing, and in-the-moment thinking.

The message to post-menopaual women is positive and encouraging - you can lose weight and regain your health. If you need a little nudging in this area - check out these books:

5 Outstanding Books to Defy Aging and Improve Your Health and Fitness
If you raised your hand, this article is for you! In fact, if you really care about defying age and becoming fit, this article is a must-read! I've read man...

Also, if you want to get into strength training, here's an excellent resource:

Weight Training for Women Over 50
Bear with this short story - you may see yourself in it. I had a definite fitness goal - gain both upper, lower, and core body strength, reduce my weight b...

Basketball is 90 percent mental - the other half is physical

The title statement is a takeoff on the yogiism (Yogi Berra quote):
"Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical."

It pretty much applies to any sport, given the correct 90-10 percentages. But in the case of the Louisville vs. Baylor Women's Basketball game on Easter Sunday night, it especially applies to basketball.

Louisville 82, Baylor 81. Unbelievable.

David beat Goliath in the biggest upset in the history of the women's game. Did I mention the 6' 8" Baylor Goliath Brittney Griner who is THE top shot blocker and 2nd scorer in NCAA history? And that no one on Louisville is taller than 6' 2"? 

And Louisville did it with a positive mental attitude, confidence, and pure drive. This team was ranked 16 against Bayor's number 1 rank. Louisville has competent players, but not a top ten player. We witnessed UConn beating them easily during the regular season.

So what happened? Their genius coach persuaded them to think so positively that they outplayed the number one team in women's basketball. Of course there was a game plan. But it could not work without a strong belief in beating Baylor.

Now, you might be asking what this has to do with age defiance. Everything.

LIFE is 90% mental - thoughts generate feelings about aging and suddenly you look and feel old. And useless.

But with a positive age defiance attitude, you can change how you feel about aging.

Start today.

Brittney Griner's NOT a Good Role Model!

Two years ago I wrote a post entitled Youngevity And The Championship Attitude Of Maya Moore.

Yesterday I watched Baylor's Brittney Griner destroy the concept of championship in the UConn/Baylor women's basketball ball.

In short, the Baylor "star" decked UConn's center twice. The penalty - one flagrant foul.

If you follow women's basketball, you may know that Brittney is very athletic, talented, and sets scoring and blocking records.

But she plays dirty. And this is not the first time. In her freshman year, she punched and hurt another player on the court.

She may be talented and make a WNBA team a lot of money BUT she is NOT a champion and never will be a champion, no matter how many titles she wins.

Would you want your daughter or granddaughter emulating a dirty player?

Is Brittany qualified to be a Role Model?

Should she be allowed to continue to represent Baylor?

Weight Training for Women Over 50 - How to Start

I've written several blog posts and articles about weight training for women over 50 (see the reference list below). I especially like the New Rules of Lifting series by Lou Schuler.

But recently I'm thinking these workouts may be too taxing for women starting out in stength training. First, some women are intimidated in the fitness club environment. And there is a definite learning curve associated with weight training to ensure good form.

So, I started investigating other alternatives like bodyweight training and came up with DVDs that focus on at-home cardio and strength using (mostly) body weight. The two most popular are Insanity and P90X. Both are brutally intense. P90X is more strength training than cardio.

An Alternative DVD Set

I took one more step back to the program BEFORE P90X called Power 90 In-Home Boot Camp. It's the pre P90X program that's scaled back for beginners.

Check out the online reviews and the testimonials - people have dropped serious weight and trimmed up nicely.

Buy Power 90 directly from Beachbody.com. People who have purchased from Amazon seem to have problems with the DVDs.

I'm going to use Power 90 as adjunct training to the NROL Supercharged workouts I'm doing now. But if you are just starting out, don't want to work out in the gym, and are committed to being a fit female over 50, the Power 90 In-Home Boot Camp is an alternative.

References:

Weight Training for Women Over 50

http://agedefiance.blogspot.com/2013/01/mid-life-body-makeover-for-women-over-50.html

http://www.squidoo.com/5-outstanding-books-to-defy-aging-and-improve-your-health-and-fitness

It's Life-Changing to Be a Fit Female Over 50

Blizzard Nemo dumped 3 feet of snow on southern CT. That's at least two days of shoveling for 4 hours a day. At 63, almost 64, I found the shoveling tiresome but doable. Why?

Shoveling is a strength workout - something I've been doing regularly for the last two years. The workouts, along with the nutritional changes and the stress management techniques, have increased my fitness levels and well-being. I plan to live well past the average female life span of 86 and to able to do the things I want to do.

What about you?

References:

Weight Training for Women Over 50

http://agedefiance.blogspot.com/2013/01/mid-life-body-makeover-for-women-over-50.html

http://www.squidoo.com/5-outstanding-books-to-defy-aging-and-improve-your-health-and-fitness