I'm sorry this is so long, but its such a complicated issue and I have evolved over years.
What works for me:
I have closed my eyes to the FDA food chart. I will not touch any foods that are GMO or processed. That includes processed salt and changed out to sea salt or Himalaya salt, because its an important nutrient for your adrenal glands. I have embraced the good fats to support hormonal health, adrenals and brain. Gut health is paramount, because everything runs on gut health, which connects to the brain. Fermented foods, sauerkraut, probiotics, kefir, certain cheeses, yogurts, etc., will go a long way here. Think about adding in a comprehensive digestive enzyme especially if you fart a lot after eating beans or certain foods
.
Stop eating every two hours which has been popular for years. The minuscule caloric burn from digestion is not worth the body losing connection to what hunger feels like, or the real benefit of lowering blood sugar. (If one is diabetic, please disregard of course.) Cancer cells feed on sugar. If you are not going to have any more children, or not pregnant...look into intermittent fasting which is one of the best ways to detox and rid the body of excess sugar. Starvation is not the goal, neither is chronically lowering caloric consumption. I stay away from seed oils: canola, soy, sunflower, corn, which go rancid and oxidize far too quickly. A side note about soy, most of the cadmium accrued in women's bodies is from soy products because of the pesticides used on soy. Go organic when eating soy. Cadmium directly negates absorption of potassium, calcium, magnesium, vitamin D and is the cause of 1 out of 5 women acquiring osteoporosis by age 65. But your doc won't tell you that, except prescribe calcium supplements or worse a prescription. Excess calcium will lodge in your arteries, lungs and heart (like it happened to me).
Gaining and maintaining muscle:
Lift weights, and go heavier. If you want to change the way you look, lift heavy. Periodize by 5 percent at least every two weeks and be consistent to build muscle. Those last two reps should be a struggle. My favorites are STS, Gym Styles, Slow & Heavy, 4DS and XTrain. I also am really loving ICE for intermediate days. Nutrient timing afterwards is so important. I usually take a whey protein shake after lifting and sometimes before with even better results. I believe in split sessions (two upper body splits and one lower body) and then one full body easy high rep workout weekly. Rest is imperative, you build muscle when you sleep. You must have a
passion, do something you love (for me its mountainbiking) and I lift for riding. Try very hard to cut out negative feeling and stress, about anything when you are working out, because that is your time and you owe it to yourself.
I limit my stretching and favor Chi Gong instead. No yoga for me. My favorite form of lengthening and creating core strength and muscle balance is Pilates on a reformer.
Cardio:
Subtract your age from 180 and stay within that range for cardio that lasts
longer then 45 minutes. Chronic Cardio is not healthy and will boomerang back in the form of cortisol stress and adrenal fatigue (which is very serious) plus it is not good for the heart on a long term basis. Working out in an aerobic state will burn more fat, then anaerobic plus it will build endurance like never before. I can attest to this method (Dr. Phil Maffetone) as an endurance athlete with several 50 and 100 mile mountainbike races under my belt. I am not discounting hiit workouts, as they are imperative once or twice a week but for no longer then 40 minutes. My hiit workouts are never longer then 30 minutes.
For me, strength training and interval training reduces body fat, maybe not affecting total body weight, but I gain/maintain my lean muscle mass. At this point in my life, I resist counting calories, and rely on my burn calories from lifting, working out riding, etc. I wear a Polar V800 to keep track and to let me know my present state, because I will always over-train if I'm not careful.
Supplements are hard to talk about because every one needs different things at different times of life. Also depends on your training level and what your goals are. For me my staples are:
Powdered Vitamin C - Nutribiotic 1/2 teaspoon daily.
Glutamine - NOW 1/2 teaspoon daily
MSM - Jarrow 1/2 teaspoon daily
Whey Protein - Blue Bonnet (their scoop and recommendation)
Collagen - Great Lakes (their recommendation)
Multi Vitamin (organic from Mega Foods or Garden of Life)
Omega 3 - Calamarine (Dr. Sinatra)
Astaxathin for my eyes and brain
Vitamin D - NutriGold 5,000 (I'm in Minnesota and need it)
Vitamin k2 -must take this if you are supplementing Vitamin D, super important
I also cycle in other items that are essentially herbs or roots
The rest of my nutrients comes from food and I'm basically Paleo and very low to the ground.
I eat walnuts, macadamia nuts, pistachios and two Brazil nuts daily.
Three eggs daily
Ghee butter
Avocados
Red palm oil
Coconut butter
Olive Extract or oil
Grass fed beef, lamb, fish (wild caught)
Okay, if you have read this far... roll the eyes!
Carbs are in the form of veggies, sometimes I will have quinoa or steel cut oats (but becoming more and more rare).
One simply cannot out-train a lousy diet or lifestyle and I've learned over the years that muscle is intertwined with a solid base of nutrition, hormonal health and rest. There is no need to over eat on protein either, I keep it at .75 percent ration per pound body weight. (Read about m-tor but its sooo boring.)
One more thing...but it may not be easy depending on what your job is. If you can change from sitting mostly...to standing mostly, it will have a profound influence on your overall health. Peace out, thanks for reading. I'm 57 and resist being put into an age box. Rock on ladies!
