…ON RETAINING VALUED MUSCLE TISSUE AS WE AGE!   the boomer generation …our generation!

Congratulations! …still not sure how we pulled it off but somehow we made it thru the maze!   …by Steve Johnson

It’s great to know you’re now on three committees at the church but you have to remember that I know you. I also knew you back in the day! Don’t worry, my lips are sealed! I was on your side back then and I’m still your advocate today!

I still can’t figure it out. How did we go from sixteen to sixty, seventeen to seventy  or eighteen to eighty in such a short time? It seems like yesterday you were having that phone conversation with that special someone about your parents being out of town for the weekend, but just in case they came home early, park your car in the vacant lot next door. Think you had your parents fooled? …I doubt it as they would usually wait until a Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner when the whole family was around to bring that situation back to life, but that was then and this is now  …ahh; sweet memories!

Losing valued muscle tissue as we age is going to happen. If I had a way to stop it you’d be getting a postcard from Hawaii but I can share with you what seems to be the catalyst that has slowed it way down for me. Muscle burns fat so if we’re no longer carrying as much muscle, we tend to carry more fat…but heres the simple trick that’s working for me at 67.  Recording entries in my own fitness journal shows that complete protein builds muscle and muscle burns fat so if we consume more complete proteins it’s elementary that we should retain more muscle…even as we age. Again, the more muscle we carry, the more we’re burning fat.

IMPORTANT! KNOW WHAT KIND OF PROTEIN YOU’RE GETTING!

In the paragragh above I mentioned complete protein builds muscle, the key word being complete. Here’s the difference between complete and incomplete protein:

Protein is made from 20 amino acids (not to be confused with that stuff that was floating around at Woodstock) but or body only produces eleven of these. The other nine have to be ingested from an outside source. If we don’t get the other nine, we’re only receiving incomplete protein which means we’re lacking in these essential nine amino acids needed to make up complete protein. Some great examples of complete proteins are meat, fish, eggs, whey as well as other types of dairy foods. If you’re looking for plant based complete protein then soy may be a good choice. If your choice of protein proves to be incomplete then there are supplements that can be taken to make up for these missing amino acids. You can find these at most health food stores.

The bottom line is, as my grandaddy used to say, “It’s just as easy to do something right as it is to do it wrong…so why not do it right to begin with!”  We’ve only got one shot at this thing called life, but if we do it right the first time; I’d say once is enough!

That’s about all I’ve got for today but please tell Mick and the boys if they ever do a concert in Columbia, please play the four songs I know first so I can be back home and in bed by nine!

Until next time…continue to fly high as I want to see you all at the gym; as well as on the dark side of the moon!

PEACE AND FITNESS TO EACH OF YOU!

…from your friend still made the ‘ole fashioned way …HAND BATTERED SINCE 1952!  …sj