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LenDentonThrive Letter #36

Welcome to the LenDentonThrive Letter!

My mission is to help guys over 50 to build their ThriveLives!

The ThriveLife is a lifestyle designed for guys over 50 that maximizes health, fitness, and longevity...all while working smarter, not harder.

The two main components of the ThriveLife are Eat Smarter and Move Smarter.

When we Eat Smarter, we put food to work for us instead of against us. By replacing bad calories with good calories, we maximize fat avoidance in the foods we eat, while fueling our bodies without feeling hungry or deprived.

When we Move Smarter, we exercise in ways that maximize our bodies' fat burning capabilities.

Through Eating Smarter and Moving Smarter, the ThriveLife helps guys to get lighter, fitter, and healthier faster!

In today’s edition, I’m going to share 4 simple tips to help you Eat Smarter.

So, if you’re ready…let’s go!

4 Simple Tips to Eat Smarter

Eating Smarter isn’t about dieting!

It’s about eating well while making better food choices. Instead of restrictive diets, we target the bad calories in our diets that result in fat accumulation and weight gain. Then, we replace those bad calories with good calories that help us to feel satisfied while fueling our bodies and increasing our metabolic calorie burn.

The first step to Eating Smarter is to Exit the Red Zone! There are 6 Red Zone foods that are the source of most of our weight and fat gain problems. So, we target and eliminate these foods from our diets. These foods are:

1. Sugar

2. White Flour

3. White Rice

4. White Potatoes

5. Corn

6. High Fructose Corn Syrup

I’ve written a lot about the principles of Eating Smarter. To learn more, check out this article.

Now, here are 4 simple tips that help me to Eat Smarter every day:

Tip #1 - Slow Down at Meal Time - most of us guys have spent our whole lives in a hurry. It’s partly due to our American hustle culture, and partly because we just have a lot to do. So, most of us hurry through meal-time - grabbing a quick bite, or slamming down a big meal…in a hurry.

But, eating fast causes us to overeat!

That’s because it takes a while for our bodies to detect when we are full, and then signal the brain that we’ve eaten enough. This process can take up to 20 minutes. Therefore, to avoid over-eating we need to slow our meals down a bit to allow our brains to catch up with our stomachs!

Tip #2 - Eat to 80% - the guys in Okinawa, Japan are some of the healthiest, longest-living people on Earth. One of their smart daily practices is that they follow an 80% rule. They call it hari hachi bu and it means that they eat until they feel about 80% full. This helps them allow their brains to catch up with their stomachs (Tip #1), and makes them some of the healthiest dudes on the planet!

Tip #3 - Portion Control - We live in the age where everything is Super-Sized!

“Food portions in America’s restaurants have doubled or tripled over the last 20 years, a key factor that is contributing to a potentially devasting increase in obesity among children and adults…” Note 1

These super-sized restaurant portions have distorted what Americans consider to be normal portion sizes and affect how we eat at home. And, larger portions also result in more calories being consumed.

To be healthy, we need portion control. But, it can be tricky!

Any time our brains sense that we are being overly restrictive with our food, our deprivation defenses will kick in to counteract the perceived restrictions! (More on how our brains actively work to sabotage our weight loss plans in a future edition…)

Here’s a handy trick that I’ve found useful over the last 10 years for managing portion sizes. I switched to a smaller plate size. 

Instead of using the normal 11-inch dinner plate, I use a smaller 8-inch plate. This smaller size typically holds 4 normal (not super-sized) portions of food. And, the plate looks full, telling my brain that there’s no need to sound the deprivation alarms!

Try this for yourself!

Tip #4 - Don’t Drink Your Calories - The easiest way for extra calories to sneak into our daily diets is through the beverages we drink every day. Sugary sodas are the obvious culprits, but we need to be aware of less obvious offenders, too.

For many of us, our morning coffee rituals are a good starting point. A cup of black coffee isn’t a problem. But, adding a couple of sugar packets turns it into a 200-calorie drink…per cup. Our favorite craft beers contain 200-350 calories per serving. Our regular favorite vente drink at Starbucks can top 500 calories.

Keep this in mind as you order your favorite beverages.

Eating Smarter is about making better food choices to put food to work for you, instead of against you. These four simple tips can help you become more successful at Eating Smarter every day.

That’s it! Smarter, not harder!

In Closing

The ThriveLife is the smarter not harder way to become lighter, fitter, and healthier.

If you need to lose 20, 30, or more pounds in 2024, you will need more than a goal or New Year’s resolution. You need a goal attainment system that will deliver the lasting results you need and deserve.

The ThriveLife can be that system. It worked for me 10 years ago. It works for me now. It will work for you, too.

I hope you’ll give the ThriveLife a try.

Thrive and prosper,

Len

Notes

1. Serving size growth in America https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/news-events/matte1.htm#:~:text=Larger%20Portion%20Sizes%20Contribute%20to,obesity%20among%20children%20and%20adults.

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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