Reading time: approx: 8 minutes

LenDentonThrive Letter #1 - Welcome!

Welcome to the first edition of the LenDentonThrive Letter!

I’m Len Denton, and I’m glad you’re here!

In this week’s edition, I’ll introduce you to my new LenDentonThrive Letter, a weekly guide for busy, Over-50 Guys. Each week, I’ll bring you a short, focused topic on health, fitness and longevity, specifically tuned to the needs of busy Over-50 guys.

And, in this inaugural edition, I’ll introduce you to ThriveAge, my unique, food-first fitness approach. I call it the fitness approach for food lovers. Following this approach, I lost more than 70 pounds, and have kept it off for nearly ten years.

If that sounds interesting to you, I hope you’ll subscribe to get useful, actionable info every week.

Let’s get started!

Are you a busy, Over-50 Guy who’s struggling to lose weight and get fit - all while juggling the endless demands of family life, work, and a hundred other things? And, on top of that are the seemingly endless demands, priorities, and notifications on your phone. Right?

How’s that working for you?

Are you making progress? Are you healthier now than you were a year ago?

Not really?

I know the struggle is real because I’m a busy, Over-50 guy myself! It’s not easy to find the time to focus on your health and fitness while covering all of your other bases.

And, it's not getting any easier. For starters, we aren’t getting younger!

And, we’re living through some of the most stressful times in human history. American men are more unhealthy today than ever before. The CDC says that about 42% of all American men are either overweight or obese (based on their BMI scores). That’s the highest it's ever been, and it continues to grow year after year. It’s even higher for guys over 50. (Like you and me!)

Not good!

As obesity increases, so do the risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Heart attack and stroke are the #1 killers of American men!

Even worse, these diseases often kill without warning. Approximately 70% of all heart attacks occur without previous symptoms. As the old saying goes, “The most common symptom of heart disease is sudden death!”

Ouch!

If you’re over 50 and overweight, and you want to change that, then this might be your newsletter!

I write this newsletter to help Over-50 Guys to lose weight, get fit and stay fit for life.

Ten years ago, I was that busy Over-50 Guy who was working hard to become a cardiac statistic! I was 70 pounds overweight with cholesterol readings through the roof!

My doctor changed my life when he told me I was a poster child for a heart attack or stroke. That got my attention!

Seven months later, I was 70 pounds lighter and in the best health I had seen in 25 years. And now, almost ten years later, I’ve maintained my weight and further improved my fitness levels.

I’ve been able to do this without crazy diets or killer workouts. Instead, I eat real food and follow exercise strategies that fit my busy life and that I actually enjoy!

Through lots of trial and error, I found a long-term health and fitness strategy that is built on four key principles. (I’ll touch on those principles in a moment; then delve deeper into each one in upcoming editions of the newsletter.)

Today, I call this simple, science-backed approach ThriveAge. And, I’ve created this newsletter to share what I’ve learned with as many Over-50 Guys as possible.

To accomplish this, I’ll focus on three key areas: health, fitness, and longevity. Every Saturday, I’ll bring you proven strategies, tactics and tips; along with news and research you can use in your own life…all in 10 minutes or less. (Hey, I know you’re busy!)

In every newsletter, I’ll bring you the following:

• The Big Idea - the topic of the week designed to quickly inform you of key health, fitness and longevity strategies that you can put to work in your own life.

• Tip of the Week - an actionable idea you can put to work right away

• News and Media Bits for Later - a few quick and useful links to explore later in the week.

• What I’m reading - a quick excerpt from my enormous and ever-growing reading stack.

I’m super glad that you’re here! I hope you find this material interesting, useful, and maybe just a little entertaining. In this week’s issue, I’ll do a quick intro to the ThriveAge philosophy for health and fitness. I hope you find it useful.

We have a lot to cover, so let’s dive in!

1. The Big Idea - An Intro to ThriveAge

In December 2013, my life changed in my doctor’s office when he told me I was a poster child for a heart attack or stroke! I was 70 pounds overweight and my cholesterol was 272. He prescribed Lipitor and told me to lose 40 pounds and come back in four months.

When I returned four months later, I’d lost 40 pounds and my cholesterol was 232. Three months after that, I’d lost a total of 72 pounds, and my cholesterol was 211! (Note: this is the short version of the story. For the full story, read Chapter 1 of my new book, The ThriveAge Way.)

What happened?

ThriveAge is what happened!

I found a way to lose weight and get fit that didn’t involve any crazy diets, and there were no killer workouts.

I ate lots of real food.

My exercise program was simply brisk walking. (I couldn’t run due to a previous leg injury.)

But, the process was backed by real science…it fit my lifestyle to a tee…and it just worked!

Now, flash forward nine years. I weigh less today than I did in 2014. And my fitness levels are better as well. I follow the same four principles today that I found to be so useful when I began.

Those four principles make up one powerful health and fitness system that I call ThriveAge. ThriveAge is a food-first system that puts food to work for you to lose weight and get fit. I call it “the fitness approach for food lovers.”

Food-first means that ThriveAge puts a lot of emphasis on your food choices. That’s because research has shown that 80-85% of a person’s weight loss potential is found in their diet (the types and amounts of food they choose to eat), as opposed to exercise. Hence, the popular sayings:

Get fit in the gym, lose weight in the kitchen…Labno4

You can’t out-exercise a bad diet… Dr. Mark Hyman MD

But, here’s the key point. With ThriveAge, it's not about eating less. It’s about eating better…eating smarter! It's about boosting your food IQ.

It’s about putting food to work for you to help you lose weight! And, that’s why the ThriveAge nutritional approach is called FoodIQ - to constantly remind us to eat smarter.

When it comes to health and fitness, exercise still matters. But when you’re focused on weight loss, food matters more. I learned this important point early in my journey, and it had a major impact on my results.

ThriveAge is a system built upon four principles that work together to deliver the kinds of results that I noted earlier. I call these principles the Four Simple Rules. I’ll briefly summarize each of them below. Then, I’ll address each of them in greater detail as the Big Idea in upcoming editions of this newsletter.

Here are the Four Simple Rules:

Simple Rule #1: Take Charge - Take charge of your health and fitness. We (meaning you and me) are the owners of our health and fitness. It's not our doctors or insurance companies. It comes down to us.

As owners, we need to take charge of our decisions and point them toward health and wellness. If we don’t decide to take ownership, improvement will not happen. Instead, a slow and steady decline will be what happens!

So, own your health and fitness!

Simple Rule #2: Boost Your FoodIQ - We need to be a lot smarter about our food choices and how we eat. Too many men in America are obese, and it is slowly killing us. The renowned longevity doctor, Peter Attia MD, calls this slow death. The average American man is being slowly poisoned by the Standard American Diet (SAD).

ThriveAge tackles the food issue head-on in two specific ways through the ThriveAge FoodIQ system. First, all foods are categorized into one of three FoodIQ Zones (Green, Yellow, and Red) based on the following criteria:

Note: TEF stands for thermic effect of food, and refers to the proportion of calories that is required to digest the food. The higher the TEF, the more energy that is needed to digest the food. More on this in an upcoming edition.

The FoodIQ guidelines can then be applied to practically any food we consume, creating the Green, Yellow and Red food zones. An abbreviated version of the food zones is shown in Table-2 below.

We can put food to work for us in our weight loss efforts when we do the following:

1. Choose foods from the Green Zone for the bulk of our diets (80% or more)

2. Carefully examine and limit foods from the Yellow Zone (no more than 20%)

3. Eliminate foods from the Red Zone from our diets.

The ThriveAge FoodIQ system also outlines four Action Levels to guide users’ actions through the process of reconfiguring their diets to create effective and sustainable weight loss plans. These are shown in Table-3 below.

The Food Zones and Action Levels work together to help Over-50 Guys to develop a sustainable, systematic approach to weight loss. I will discuss the FoodIQ System in more detail in an upcoming edition of the newsletter and my new book, The ThriveAge Way! (Coming soon. Subscribe to the LenDentonThrive Letter so you don’t miss out!).

Want to Go Deeper?

Do you want to dive deeper into ThriveAge and what it can do in your life? If that sounds like a smart move for you, then consider subscribing to the LenDentonThrive Letter for free!

As a bonus, new subscribers will receive a free .pdf version of Chapter 1 of my upcoming new book, The ThriveAge Way (The Over-50 Way To Lose Weight Get Fit & Stay Fit For Life).

ThriveAge is the roadmap to your custom-built ThriveLife!

Simple Rule #3: Remain-in-Motion - Exercise is an important part of any health and fitness program. And, while ThriveAge emphasizes your diet early in the weight loss phase of the journey, exercise is an important aspect of improving and maintaining overall health and fitness. This is especially true when considering longevity-related issues, where strength training plays a major role in lifespan and healthspan extension. ThriveAge recommends that followers adopt exercise programs that meet their needs and fit their unique interests through its unique 4PM Framework, which stands for:

 Personal - Practical - Portable - Permanent - Measurable. 

Motion is medicine. So, remain in motion!

Simple Rule #4: Measure What Matters - Peter Drucker, the famous management guru, is known for saying:

“What gets measured, improves.”

And, conversely, I can confirm from personal experience, what doesn’t get measured, usually doesn’t improve.

Simple Rule #4 calls on us to measure our activities to make sure that they are delivering the results that we need. Better still, are what I call fitness feedback loops. These feedback loops help us to measure, assess and make corrections to our health and fitness actions in order to hit our intended targets. Without such measures, we are flying blind.

One such feedback loop that I implemented early in my ThriveAge journey was my Weigh-In Ritual. I weighed myself daily, in the same way, first thing every morning. Then, I compared my weight to the food consumption data I had collected for the previous day. In this way, I was able to correlate yesterday’s action (my food consumption) to today’s result (my weight). This simple, but effective process was a key aspect of keeping my weight loss plans on track.

Hey…did your enthusiasm level drop slightly when I mentioned tracking?

Perhaps you’re thinking: Tracking is complicated, and it’s too much work.

Don’t worry!

Effective tracking can be really simple when you use the right approach and the right tools. For example, I never spend more than five minutes a day completing my food planning and tracking. You can achieve ThriveAge results using an app, a spreadsheet, or even a pencil and paper (with the optional FoodIQ Journal).

So, don’t let tracking stop you from making progress!

We’ll cover measuring what matters in greater detail in a future edition of the newsletter.

Four Simple Rules - One Powerful System

Combining these four simple rules creates a powerful system for health and fitness. The rules act to support each other and compound the effects of each other. For example, tracking the types of food you eat can help you to identify bad foods that are impeding a calorie deficit and blocking efficient weight loss.

Summary

ThriveAge is a science-based, food-first way to lose weight, get fit and stay fit for life that doesn’t rely on crazy diets or killer workouts. And, it was developed to be effective by a busy Over-50 guy, just like you!

It worked for me nearly ten years ago. It’s still working for me today! And it should work for you, too!

2. Tip of the Week

Get 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise 5-6 times per week. 

Motion is medicine! An active program of sustained movement is good for you now and for years into the future. By moderate, I mean exercising at a sustained rate of 50-65% of your maximum heart rate.

(A quick estimate of your max heart rate is 220 minus your age. For a 60-year-old Guy, the estimated moderate rate would be [(220-60) x 65% = 104] beats per minute).

You might achieve this level of activity by brisk walking, jogging, cycling, or swimming.

Consistent aerobic exercise burns fat, improves cardiovascular health, reduces obesity and protects cognitive function.

If 30 minutes 6 days a week seems like a lot, here’s a simple strategy: just start where you are! Do what you can do! Make the decision to start moving, however much that is. Remember, progress starts with one good decision!

Remain in motion!

3. News and Media Bits for Later

Here are a few interesting news items to bookmark for later:

• Thermic Effect of Food: Eat Foods That Burn Calories - A quick and useful intro to the thermic effect of food (TEF) and how it helps you to put food to work for your weight loss goals, including suggested foods. This is a quick description of how our food choices help us to actually burn more calories.

• This Blood Test Targets 50 Types of Cancer - The Gallerie blood test screens for 50 different cancers and is available in the USA now. If you face cancer risks in your life, this new test may be a valuable resource to help you stay ahead of those risks. It might be something worth discussing with your doctor. 

4. What I’m Reading

This week, I’m reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. To create a healthy new lifestyle, it's important to be able to develop new healthy habits.

James Clear is a world-recognized habits expert whose approach is both practical and science-based.

I plan to write a detailed review once I’ve finished the book. For now, I’ll share two early takeaways and a recommendation.

Takeaway #1 - If you want to succeed at creating new habits, forget about goals and focus on systems instead.

Here’s a practical example of this in action: rather than setting a goal to run every morning, create a system by laying out your running gear every night before you go to bed.

Takeaway #2 - The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you want to become.

Here’s an example of this idea at work: rather than wanting to write more, I am becoming a writer.

Recommendation - For ongoing insights into James Clear’s thinking, sign-up for his 3-2-1-Thursdays. It’s a short, wisdom-packed newsletter that I read every week. Sign up for your copy at: https://jamesclear.com/3-2-1

I’m Writing A Book!

I’m a busy Over-50 Guy who has spent the past ten years building a practice of personal health and fitness that relies on real food and smart exercise instead of crazy diets and killer workouts. This process, called ThriveAge, helped me to lose 70 pounds and keep it off for going on ten years. Now, I want to share what I have learned with other Over-50 Guys. So, I wrote the book!

In The ThriveAge Way (The Over-50 Way To Lose Weight, Get Fit & Stay Fit For Life), I share everything I’ve learned about the principles and practices necessary to create and sustain a healthy lifestyle. I call it my ThriveLife.

New subscribers to the LenDentonThrive Letter will receive Chapter 1 of my new book for free. To get your free copy of Chapter 1, just subscribe to the LenDentonThrive Letter.

Upcoming Topics

Here’s a quick look at some of the topics I’m working on for upcoming editions of the newsletter.

• The ThriveLife - What It Is, And How To Get There

• Ten Things I Would Tell My 50-Year-Old Self

• How to Put Food to Work for You

• Develop a Longevity Mindset to Add Years to Your Life

Please let me know if you have a particular preference in how I prioritize these for publishing, or if there’s a topic you’d like to see in future editions.

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

Thrive & Prosper,

Len

Hey, Before You Go…

Did someone share this copy of the LenDentonThrive Letter with you?

That’s awesome!

If you’d like to get your own subscription, just click on the Subscribe button on this page. I’ll get you hooked up with the news and info you need to start your own ThriveLife journey.

And, as an added bonus, I’ll throw in Chapter 1 of my new book as well.

Thanks for visiting!

Hey Subscribers, do you know someone who would benefit from the information we’re discussing here in the LenDentonThrive Letter? If you do, please forward this email to them and ask them to have a look. You might just change somebody’s life by doing so.

Thanks for sharing!

See you next Saturday!