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LenDentonThrive Letter #40

Welcome to the LenDentonThrive Letter!

My mission is to help Guys over 50 to build thriving, healthy lifestyles. I call it the ThriveLife!

Ten Years Already?

I’m writing this on the last day of January 2024. It’s now been 10 years since I began my ThriveLife journey on January 1, 2014.

On that day, I weighed 248 pounds. It was the heaviest I had ever been. My new pants had a 38-inch waist. As you can see from the picture below, I had become a very big boy!

My doctor told me that I was at a major risk of becoming a cardiac statistic. Fatal heart attacks had claimed my brother and my dad while they were both in their 30s.

My doctor’s warning changed my life. Here’s a picture of me 7 months later.

This version of me is 70 pounds lighter… and a lot healthier. My energy levels were through the roof! Friends and colleagues were asking me what the heck had happened to me! It was a great feeling.

And now, it’s 10 years later. Today, I’m a bit lighter than I was in July 2014. And, I feel healthier at age 65 than I did when I was 55…or even 45! As you can see from this last picture, my hair’s a little grayer. But, I’m feeling great and looking forward to an active, healthy future.

I’m not telling you this to flex. I sharing this to show you what’s possible!

I was able to accomplish this without diet pills, or spending hours in the gym, or starving myself with fad diets.

Instead, I found a way to lose weight and get fit by making a few changes to my diet. I ate plenty of healthy foods, so I was never hungry. And, I did exercises that I actually enjoyed.

It was those simple changes that helped me to lose 70 pounds in 7 months. The same approach has helped me to maintain my healthy weight and fitness levels for the past 10 years!

And, I believe that this same approach can enable me to stay healthy indefinitely into the future.

This is the ThriveLife, a sustainable, healthy lifestyle for Over-50 guys like me. It can work for you, too.

Lessons Learned

I’ve learned a lot about health and fitness over the last 10 years as I’ve pursued my personal ThriveLife. Here are three of the most important lessons I’ve learned that I’d like to share with you today:

1. The Power of Systems - Systems beat goals every time. Goals are important, but systems are essential if you want to make progress. A goal without a system to make it happen is a wish!

   We’ve probably all made New Year’s resolutions that fizzled out by February, despite our best intentions. That’s because willpower is not enough.

   To truly succeed, you need a system of habits or practices that require little to no willpower. And, small habits performed consistently lead to big changes over time!

   James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, says: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

   My ThriveLife is that system for me.

2. Food First - The single most important determinant of your health and fitness is your diet. There seems to be an eternal debate regarding whether diet or exercise is more important. I found that the answer to that question is my daily food intake (my diet) and it’s not even close!

   Food is the 80% component, and exercise is the remaining 20%. That’s why it’s so hard to lose weight without getting your diet under control. Exercise alone is not the answer. No matter how much effort you put into your workout, you simply can’t outwork a bad diet!

   To lose weight, I didn’t go on a diet. I changed my diet to eliminate the foods that were causing my weight gain in the first place. When I did that, the pounds started coming off fast without starving or depriving myself. I was amazed at the results. It’s still working for me today! You can learn more about my Eat Smarter strategy here.

3. Fitness Doesn’t Have To Hurt - I grew up in the “No Pain - No Gain” generation. As a result, I always thought that to become fit and healthy, I needed to punish my body. That warrior ethos is still prevalent today in many popular workout strategies.

   But, this is simply not true! You can lose weight and get fit without pushing your body to the point of collapse or injury. Persistent performance of the right kinds of exercise is the key to getting healthy. And, injury is the enemy of any workout program.

   The secret exercise weapon I used to lose 70 pounds in 7 months was walking! Yup, that’s all. Nothing more.

   It turns out that Zone 2 cardio exercise (where your heart rate is in the 60-70% of your maximum heart range) is one of the best ways to lose body fat!

   The key to building a successful ThriveLife is to choose exercises that are enjoyable and effective. For me, that’s walking. It might be different for you.

   Just remember, the key is consistency, not intensity!

In Closing

Ten years into this ThriveLife journey, I’m excited about the future and what lies ahead. My ThriveLife is a sustainable, healthy lifestyle that I’ve built upon a set of healthy daily practices.

I’m excited to share the ThriveLife with other Over-50 Guys because it has the potential to help them add years of health and fitness into their own lives.

To get a good idea of what the ThriveLife might look like for you, you can check out the links here and here.

Smarter, not harder!

Thanks for your time and attention.

Thrive and prosper,

Len

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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