Struggling With Your Age? These 5 Tips Will Help

I’ll admit, there is nothing I hate more than when someone asks my age on a photo…because I know their goal is to give themselves as an excuse as to why they can’t look that way.

They’ll say no they’re just curious or whatever, but I know…because I’ve done it myself.

And I get it. There are new challenges we face as we get older.

Changes we have to make.

But these changes don’t have to limit us. They just require us to shift how we are doing things.

Never give yourself the excuse to give up.

Because guess what? That doesn’t help you ever live your healthiest happiest life!

Not to mention, I have to admit that I pride myself on not only achieving something personally. I think what we can personally achieve honestly doesn’t even translate well to how we coach.

Now the fact that I can help CLIENTS achieve their goals? Well that is what matters! Being called the menopause whisperer may be one of my proudest life moments ever.!

Now what are 5 tips you can use to overcome the AGE hang up?

#1: Realize it’s often previous dieting practices adding up.

Often what we associated with age is simply build up over time.

It’s that we used to be able to “get away with something” that..well…we shouldn’t have tried to get away with.

Because it actually resulted in overload and injury.

And the sooner we stop those improper habits, the more we can avoid feeling like it’s our age adding up.

You need to re-train your body as soon as possible.

You need to add in that mobility work and proper warm up.

You need to stop the extreme deficits and restrictive diets.

Start focusing on the long-term success of your body!

#2: Avoid More Extreme Deficits

So as we get older, the struggle to lose weight becomes, well, more of a struggle.

Metabolic adaptations happen with age as it becomes harder to build and retain lean muscle to start with.

Plus, too often we’ve created metabolic adaptations through improper dieting practices that now cause us to gain weight while under eating.

Remember our body adapts to what we give it. It will find a way to function on fewer calories.

So when we create an extreme deficit we cause our body to adapt and function off of fewer calories not to mention we create hormonal imbalances that can even cause us to feel hungrier as our body learns to function off of less.

This leads to us gaining weight and even losing muscle.

It then makes it harder for us to lose more weight or even keep it off long term.

So the first scary step is actually to retrain our body to eat MORE before we create that deficit.

You need to restore hormonal balance. Teach your body to use more fuel. Give your body the fuel it needs to build muscle.

Only then can you actually create a deficit that will help you lose.

#3: Don’t fear a macro.

Too often when we try to lose weight we restrict whole food groups.

We cut out all of a macro, like say carbs, fearing they cause us to gain weight…especially because if we do eat more carbs after going low carb, we DO see that scale shift up.

But so often when we cut out a whole macro, we throw off our hormonal balance and we can even destroy the anabolic environment we need to build and retain muscle as we diet down or even as we get older.

So while we can strategically bump or lower a macro, we don’t want to demonize it. AND we need to realize that even occasionally favoring one or the other could be key.

Going low carb we CAN deplete glycogen stores to potentially expedite the process of using stored fat.

HOWEVER, this can backfire if we’re training intensely.

We may also find we usually go low carb, BUT strategically bump carbs at points to maintain balance and even benefit from the whoosh effect.

The key is NOT fearing a macro but realizing we can cycle them to our advantage!

#4: Realize more is not better – your workouts aren’t just to burn calories.

When we are struggling to see results, often we turn to doing more.

But trying to train harder as we eat less can not only backfire and cause further metabolic adaptations but it can lead to a lot of wasted effort!

We have to remember that the benefit of our workouts goes beyond calories burned.

Working out should be about doing something we love and learning to move well. It should be about building functional strength.

By focusing more on moving well and even building muscle, we help ourselves stay strong till our final day on this planet and even AVOID metabolic adaptations.

Focus on designing for the time you have. You can make even just 20 minutes work if you design strategically. And this can benefit you more than hours in the gym AND be sustainable!

And then don’t skip that mobility work! Learn to use muscles correctly to avoid aches and pains adding up!

#5: Focus on building muscle and strength training.

This can not only fuel the sports you love but help you avoid metabolic adaptations, injury and keep you functional strong till your final day on this planet.

Use it or lose it really is spot on.

So don’t just go for the highest calorie burning training you can or fear lifting heavy.

This is what keeps you young. It’s what helps you actually burn more calories at rest and look leaner!

SUMMARY

Yes changes happen to our body as we get older. But age is just a number. And at any age we can become our leanest, strongest selves.

Don’t just say you can’t because of a number.

Realize that often it’s just about learning what our body needs and reversing not so ideal habits we’ve ingrained in the past!