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LenDentonThrive Letter #30

Welcome to the LenDentonThrive Letter! My mission is to help Over-50 Guys Get Lighter and Leaner, Get Stronger, and Live Longer. We do that by building our ThriveLife!

This edition is part of my 6-step process to help you build your own custom-tuned ThriveLife in 2024.

You Need A ThriveLife

I’m writing this newsletter on the day after Thanksgiving 2023. That means that 2024 is only 6 weeks away.

Wow! Time has flown by this year.

As I wrote in last week’s edition, the new year is always a time of thinking good thoughts and making plans for the new year to be better than the old year that just passed. That’s why we make New Year’s resolutions.

It’s a human thing. Everybody seems to be an optimist on New Year’s Eve.

And, most of our resolutions are disappointing memories by the end of February. That’s because simply setting good goals is not enough. As James Clear notes in his book, Atomic Habits, winners and losers often have the same goals. The winners have better goal attainment systems. (Note 1)

Good systems outperform good goals every time!

And, that’s why you need a ThriveLife in 2024. That’s because the ThriveLife is a better system for attaining your health and fitness goals.

What, Exactly, Is The ThriveLife?

The ThriveLife is a sustainable lifestyle specifically designed to help Over-50 Guys (like me) maximize their health, fitness, and longevity. The goals of the ThriveLife (in order) are:

1. Get lighter and leaner

2. Get stronger

3. Live longer

You may be wondering: how does the systems over goals conversation apply to the ThriveLife? Good question!

Let’s begin with - what is a lifestyle?

I define a lifestyle as an everyday system for accomplishing something you want or need in your life. Your lifestyle is also a system of daily practices - things you do consistently every day.

If your daily practices are mostly healthy, you have a predominately healthy lifestyle. And, if your daily practices are mostly unhealthy, your lifestyle is an unhealthy one.

So, the ThriveLife is a sustainable lifestyle (everyday system) made up of daily practices that promote health, fitness, and longevity for Over-50 Guys! This is shown in Figure 1.

When building your ThriveLife, it’s best to ensure that your daily practices are based on solid ThriveLife principles. Each of these ten principles is supported by proven science. We’ll delve into each of these principles in greater detail over the coming weeks. But for now, a quick summary is shown in Figure 2.

How To Build A ThriveLife

When I first started building my ThriveLife in early 2014, I had a very specific intention. I needed to lose weight and get my cholesterol under control quickly. My initial focus on weight and fat loss turned out to be an effective approach. I was able to lose 70 pounds and dramatically improve my blood chemistry. Later on, I began to add strength training and longevity-related elements to my routine.

Today, I recommend building your ThriveLife using a similar 3-phased approach:

• Phase 1 - Get Lighter and Leaner (focus on weight loss and fat-burning)

• Phase 2 -Get Stronger (Resistance training for building strength and muscle mass)

• Phase 3 - Live Longer (Add longevity-related elements to extend your healthspan)

This 3-phased approach allows Over-50 Guys to first concentrate on the critical factors that often contribute to early death, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancers. This is the goal of Phase 1. Phases 2 and 3 then help build longer and healthier lives, based on the foundation created in Phase 1.

In this ThriveLife 2024 series, I’ll be focusing on Phase 1 where we’ll implement ThriveLife Principles 1 through 4 with the intent of helping over-50 Guys to lose weight and burn fat as quickly as possible. Then, in a future series, I’ll discuss adding the remaining principles across Phases 2 and 3.

This phased approach worked very well for me in 2014. If your initial goal is losing 20 or more pounds and becoming leaner, it should help you, too.

In Closing

The ThriveLife is a better system for attaining your health and fitness goals. If you’re an Over-50 Guy who is looking to lose 20 or more pounds, then developing better daily practices based on the ThriveLife Principles will help you to build your sustainable, healthy lifestyle that I call the ThriveLife.

Next week, we’ll discuss how to build successful daily practices based on ThriveLife Principles 1 and 2.

Thanks for your time and attention. Happy holidays! See you next Saturday.

Thrive & Prosper,

Len

Notes

1. Atomic Habits, page 23.

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.

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