Reading time: approx: 6 minutes

LenDentonThrive Letter #27

My Daily ThriveLife Practices

Welcome to the LenDentonThrive Letter! My mission is to help Over-50 Guys lose weight, get fit, and build their own version of the ThriveLife!

The Big Idea - My ThriveLife Daily Practices

Almost ten years ago, I started the journey toward my own ThriveLife. At age 55, I was 70 pounds overweight and a candidate for a heart attack or stroke. Today, at 65, I’m lighter, leaner, and stronger than I was at 45!

Think of your ThriveLife as the healthiest version of you! It’s custom-tailored to your specific needs and preferences. That means that every Over-50 Guy will have a slightly different version of their own. And, not only is that okay, it’s actually the main idea. 

The key to achieving your ThriveLife is easier than you think. It comes down to knowing your goals and having a set of daily healthy practices that will enable you to reach those goals. 

I began my ThriveLife journey on January 1st, 2014. I was at my heaviest weight ever, an obese 248 pounds. I also had a bum knee and a torn calf muscle. I could walk without pain, but running was out of the question!

A few months later, on July 4th, I weighed a healthy 172 pounds. 

Surprisingly, at the moment, it didn’t seem difficult for me to do! I didn’t follow any crazy diets. There weren’t any killer workouts. And there weren’t any magic pills or supplements. I didn’t starve myself. In fact, I actually ate more food and still lost weight.

But, best of all, the things that I did to initially lose the weight, are the same things that I do today to maintain my weight loss. 

Today, I want to share with you how my daily practices helped me to achieve my goals and to stay on track for nearly 10 years. And, hopefully, you’ll see that you can do it too!

My Daily Practices

Here are my eight daily practices:

Practice #1 - Wake up at 6 AM: Getting up early was my way of building workout time into my already packed daily schedule. This worked for me because I’m an early riser. And, my dogs are apparently early risers, too!

Practice #2 - Morning walks: Because of my leg injury, the only type of exercise that I could do without pain was walking, so walking became my primary form of exercise. I later learned that walking is the best way to burn fat, and I had lots of fat to burn! Today, I still do 30-minute fasted walks (before breakfast) every day to help me stay lean. To learn more about the fat-burning power of fasted-walking, read this.

Practice #3 - Weigh-in Ritual: Daily weigh-ins have been a critical part of my success. And, it’s important to be consistent in how you measure your weight because it varies throughout the day. Here’s my weigh-in ritual:

• Every day

• Same general time

• Before food or drink

• Same scale

• Underwear only

Practice #4 - Eating Smarter: Like most Over-50 Guys, I grew up eating the Standard American Diet (SAD), which is the main culprit behind the obesity epidemic in America today. Once I corrected my diet, I started to lose weight quickly. I’ve written extensively about the SAD here. I call this Eating Smarter. Here are the key points of my Eating Smarter daily practice:

• Eliminate Red Zone foods from my diet: sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, corn, white flour, white rice, and white potatoes.

• Eat lots of lean meats (beef, poultry, fish) and fresh vegetables

• Little to no alcohol

• Eat more slowly (allows the brain to sense when you’re full)

• Eat between 8 AM and 4 PM (This is a recent addition to my practice. I don’t do it for weight loss, but rather for longevity benefits. I’ll write more on this in a future edition of the newsletter.)

Practice #5 - Getting 12,000 steps: Getting my daily steps is the central part of my fitness routine. While my current daily step goal is 12,000 steps, I didn’t start there. When this all began back in 2014, my target was 5,000 steps. Now, 12,000 is the cumulative amount of steps I get in a day. My daily step count is built primarily on 3 activities:

• Morning walks (fasting state at approximately 60-70% max heart rate for 30 mins)

• Hourly mini-walks to force myself to get up from my desk and move (250-350 steps per hour). This is the best way to avoid the health risks of prolonged sitting.

• Walking my dogs at a brisk pace. (They are health nuts, too!)

Practice #6 - Strength training: As my various injuries healed, I started adding strength training to my daily practice. Strength training is really important for longevity. Today, I train with dumbells and bodyweight exercises 6 days a week:

• Monday-Wednesday-Friday: arm, chest, shoulders

• Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday: core, legs

Practice #7 - Lights Out at 9:30 PM: Over the years, there has been a lot of new research pointing to the importance of sleep for brain health. Today, getting better sleep is my #1 health goal, and is also my #1 ongoing challenge. To improve my sleep, here’s what I’m doing:

• No caffeine after 2 PM.

• Follow a 3-2-1 nightly practice:

  • No food or drink 3 hours before bedtime.

  • Dim the house lighting 2 hours before bedtime

  • No screens TV, computer, phones, etc.) 1 hour before bedtime

• Track my nightly sleep results (Fitbit)

Practice #8 - Track your progress: If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it. That is especially true when you are trying to improve your health and fitness. Modern technology makes this a lot easier than it used to be. I use a fitness tracker (Fitbit Sense) to keep up with all of my important statistics. Here’s what I measure:

• Weight (Fitbit)

• Daily step count, including mini-walks (Fitbit + calendar reminders)

• Sleep (Fitbit)

• Strength exercises (Google Keep) Note: there are better apps for tracking exercises.

• Food - I originally used my Fitbit app to track calorie consumption in the early stages of my journey. However, in my maintenance stage, I don’t count calories. Instead, I focus on maintaining my diet using the Green/Yellow/Red strategy :

  • Green Zone foods: 80% of my diet

  • Yellow Zone foods: 20% of my diet

  • Red Zone foods: 0% of my diet

  (Note: you can read more on the Green/Yellow/Red strategy here.)

Bonus Tips

Finally, here are two tips I’ve learned that will make your adoption of daily practices easier and more effective:

1. Focus on activities that you enjoy! Because the more you enjoy it, the more likely you’ll be to keep doing it.

2. Think long-term! Choose to do activities that fit your life today, but also will fit your life in 5 or 10 years into the future. Doing this will help you to stay fit and healthy by doing the same things that helped you to become healthy in the first place.

In Closing

Daily practices are the key to building and maintaining your ThriveLife. You don’t need crazy diets or killer workouts to become fit and healthy. Depending on the needs and goals, every guy’s set of daily practices will be different. These practices are built and fine-tuned over time. Keep what works, toss what doesn’t.

I hope to see you on the road to the ThriveLife!

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

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

Thanks for your time and attention. Have a great weekend. See you next Saturday!

Thrive & Prosper,

Len