4 Keys To A Healthy Lifestyle

Reading Time: 8 Minutes

Welcome to the LenDentonThrive Letter!

I write this newsletter to help busy 50+ Guys create lasting health and fitness transformations without crazy diets or grueling workouts. I call this approach the ThriveLife. 

This week, we’re talking about building healthy, sustainable lifestyles. 

Make Sustainability Your Goal

In a recent edition of the LDT Letter, I wrote the following:

“One of the biggest challenges we face in our fitness journey is sustainability. How can we keep it going? The truth is that most fitness programs end before they can deliver the results we need. Failure remains the #1 outcome of most fitness programs!  

True transformation requires sustainability.”

Who ever said: “I need a good short-term fitness strategy”?

Nobody!

But, the reality is that there are far too many short-lived fitness strategies. As I noted in the link above, 90% of most fitness programs end in 3 months or less! It's safe to assume that those programs failed to deliver any lasting results. 

There are lots of effective ways to improve health and fitness. This includes walking, jogging, weight-lifting, High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), CrossFit, etc. But, regardless of the approach you choose, there is one thing that remains true:

The benefits end when the program stops!

If you want to get healthy and stay healthy, you need to keep doing it. That’s why sustainability is as important as effectiveness:

Effectiveness + Sustainability = Transformation

Sustainability Killers

Here are four common ways we destroy sustainability in our fitness programs:

Injury

One of the most common ways that guys prematurely end their programs is due to injury. We live in a ‘hustle culture’ that tells us to “Go BIG or Go Home.” We all know guys who started a new program too hard, often due to inexperience or an over-enthusiastic trainer, and ended up injuring themselves. (Note: I have some personal experience on this one!) 

Burnout

Guys lose focus on the program over time. This might be due to a lack of willpower or motivation, boredom, a lack of enjoyment or results, etc. 

Time or Location Conflicts

Conflicts occur when the workout isn’t designed to fit properly into our existing life. We don’t have time or we’re traveling too much, etc. We often overestimate our ability to accommodate new workout strategies.

Exercise/Nutrition Mismatches

We often place too much reliance on exercise alone to deliver the results we seek. However exercise alone typically fails to deliver the desired results, leading to frustration and burnout. (I might have some personal experience with this one, too!)

4 Keys For Sustainable Lifestyles

For any health and fitness program to be effective over time, it should be designed to avoid the common program killers like those we discussed above. Most important, it needs to fit your personal lifestyle.  

Here are four things that I’ve incorporated into my ThriveLife that have made it sustainable over the past 10 years:

Eat with Intent 

Food, not exercise, is your most powerful tool to shape your health and fitness.

But, America has a food problem! The average American guy gets approximately 60% of their total calorie intake from highly processed foods UPFs). These foods contain elevated levels of sugars and industrialized sweeteners that are driving up obesity rates across every age group, including 50+ men. 

Eating with Intent means that I choose to eat foods that work to help me fuel my metabolism while reducing excess fat. Eating with intent helped me lose 70 pounds in less than 7 months when I began my ThriveLife journey in 2014. I call this healthy eating approach Eating Smarter. You can read more about it here.

Choose Habits over Hustle 

We’re living in an exercise-centric fitness culture. We emphasize the effort. We’re told the proper way to get fit is to work to exhaustion, and then do it again. 

We glorify the hustle!

However, there are two problems with hustle. First, too much hustle can impact sustainability through burnout or injury (two of the program killers I noted above). This is especially true for guys who are just getting started in new programs. 

The second problem with hustle is our physiology. Our bodies burn calories in four ways:

• Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) - our primary functions like breathing, digestion, cell replacement, etc. This accounts for 60% of our daily calorie burn.

• Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) - our routine non-exercise physical actions like walking, balancing, etc. This accounts for 15-30% of our calorie burn.

• Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) - is the calories required to digest our food. This accounts for around 10% of calorie burn. 

• Exercise Energy Thermogenesis (EET) - our purposeful exercise (like at the gym). This accounts for only 5-15% of our daily calorie burn.

Exercise (EET) accounts for only up to 15% of our total calorie burn in an average day. 

The takeaway here is that exercise is important, but it’s not the most important aspect of a well-designed fitness program.  An effective, sustainable program should balance exercise with other smart daily practices (habits) that work as a system to increase calorie burn while also reducing the consumption of excess calories through good nutrition practices. 

Over the past 10 years, I’ve developed a set of daily fitness habits that have helped me maintain my original weight loss while becoming stronger and leaner (more fit). These daily habits are described in my free ebook  6 Smart Moves To Your ThriveLife. You can download your free copy below. 

To achieve sustainability, choose consistency over intensity. Choose habits over hustle!

Choose Enjoyable Exercise

What’s the best exercise for a 50+ Guy who wants to get fit and stay fit?

The answer is: Whatever exercise you’ll do the most. And, that depends on how much you enjoy doing it!

I tell guys to choose an exercise that you enjoy because that is the exercise you’re most likely to continue doing over time.  My favorite exercise is brisk walking. Yours might be bicycling, weightlifting, swimming or whatever. You get to choose. I created an exercise strategy called 4PM (4 Ps and an M) to help guys decide on their best exercise. 

Personal - an exercise you will enjoy doing, and therefore, do often.

Practical - fits your lifestyle.

Portable - moves around with you as you move. Example: Do you travel a lot? Can it move with you?)

Permanent - is it something you can keep doing?  (Example: Will you be doing CrossFit at age 75?)

Measurable - Can you measure your exercise and track your progress. Remember, if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it!

You can read more about 4PM here.

Think Long-Term 

Finally, think about the long-term implications of staying fit. Will your current activities keep you fit for 10, 15, or 20 years? If you can’t see yourself doing your current activities as you age, I suggest that you consider redesigning your plan.

My solution is only to do activities that I can do for the rest of my life. For example, I’m confident I can continue doing my daily brisk walks far into the future. I’ll continue to eat intentionally and lift weights in my home gym. These are my low-risk, future-proofed fitness activities. 

What got me fit today, will keep me fit tomorrow!

A Sustainable Lifestyle For The Win

Nobody wants short-term fitness results.

The key to long-term health and fitness is a consistent, sustainable lifestyle. Use these four principles to build your own ThriveLife to lose weight and get fit now, and stay fit for life:

1. Eat with Intent

2. Choose Habits Over Hustle

3. Choose Enjoyable Exercise

4. Think Long-Term

Thanks for stopping by.

Smarter, not harder.

When you’re ready to begin your transformation, here are three ways I can help…

#1 - Sign up for this newsletter. Every week, you’ll receive tested, actionable tips and strategies to help you build your own customized version of the ThriveLife that fits your needs, preferences, and personal style. And, it’s free!

#2 - For the Do-It-Yourself approach to the ThriveLife, you can download your free copy of my new ebook: 6 Smart Moves To Your ThriveLife click the button below.

#3 - When you’re ready to join a community of other busy 50+ Guys building their ThriveLives together, check out my new ThriveLife Transformation course. The ThriveLife Transformation guides you through a 30-day transformation process that includes online video training and daily support and assistance through our online community. Join alone or bring your friends. To learn more about the ThriveLife Transformation, click the button below.

Do You Know Somebody?

Do you know a 50+ Guy who’s struggling with their weight and fitness? Please consider sharing this information with them. Just forward your copy of this email to them. It might change their life!

(Or…give them a copy of my new ebook!!!)

Thanks for reading this week.

I write this newsletter to make a positive impact on the lives of 50+ Guys and their families. If you found this information useful, please consider subscribing to receive new editions each week.

If you’d like to share a thought, a question or comment with me, you can simply reply to this email. I’d love to hear from you!

Follow me on the socials for daily tips and strategies for living your ThriveLife:

Here’s a recent post from my X (Twitter) account.