Umair Yasin

There was a great article in Alex Hutchinson’s “ sweat science ” blog about maintaining sprint speed as we age. It was mostly geared towards running, but applies to other activities like hiking, biking, swimming, etc. , as well. This is one of the physical qualities that declines fastest in older adults. Even those who are sedentary still walk around quite a bit, but our activities of daily living no longer require much higher intensity work. A major exception is going up stairs, which is why I’m a big believer in using stairs, not escalators or elevators, as much as possible. I’ve shown this picture before- White is fat and grey is muscle, so the sedentary guy in the middle picture has lost a lot of muscle mass in his quads and gained fat, while the older triathlete’s muscle still look like those of a much younger athlete We’ve discussed this before. But the new article explains how we also start to lose “ motor units “, which are bundles of muscle fibers wired together so they ...

My upcoming exercise stress test is a few weeks away now so it’s time for me to “peak” my training for it, as in concentrating on activities that closely mimic the upcoming event. In this case, that’s intervals or fast “tempo” walking uphill. Morgan Hill is in a valley that’s pretty flat in the middle where I live, but gets very hilly on the two sides, which I can get to quickly by bike. So it’s time to do a lot of fast walking in the hills. Today I visited the West side, which has a bunch of streets on the slopes of El Toro with not too long but steep climbs. They are a nice challenge, and it felt great. El Toro from West Dunne Ave. from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/3dZaoW7 via IFTTT

I recommended Sharon Palmer’s book The Plant-Powered Diet a couple of year’s ago when I talked about the whole food Plant-Based diet. Now I want to review her new book California Vegan . From it I found out Sharon also has a graduate degree in sustainable food systems, which fits in well with the subject of my previous post. I’ll go over a great example from the book of traditional, sustainable farming of plant foods below. The California Vegan https://sharonpalmer.com/ Bottom Line: Two Thumbs Up! This is primarily a cookbook, but is also a book of inspiration about plant-based cooking. You don’t have to be a vegan or even semi-vegetarian to enjoy it. You might be just someone looking for looking for a little variety in your diet, or someone looking to try plant-based eating, like “meatless Mondays”. This is a great book for inspiration and recipes. The book is about the rich variety of plant-based recipes from our culturally-diverse state of California. All those cultures b...

The full title is Sacred Cow: The Case for (Better) Meat: Why Well-Raised Meat Is Good for You and Good for the Planet by Diana Rodgers and Rob Wolf. The book looks into the ethical and religious, environmental, and nutritional aspects of eating meat, as well as not eating ultra-processed junk. They argue, quite compellingly, that we are being sold an oversimplified narrative that the only approach to improve our health, cause the least harm to all beings (human and animal), and save the planet, is to eat a vegan diet. If you can’t go that far, at least eat as little meat as possible, especially red meat. The truth is, to put it mildly, more nuanced than that. They obviously did a lot of work researching this, and their writing is superb. I could not recommend the book more highly more highly, regardless of what your current views are on this. Remember, they are paleo diet advocates, and I lean more towards whole-foods plant-based. But I pretty much agree with everything in the boo...

I had promised at the end of my post “ What I Eat and Why “, that in my next nutrition post I’d discuss the WFPB diet and show how it is a subset of mainstream guidelines. I’ve written that post but put it on hold, because I’m currently reading Sacred Cow: The Case for (Better) Meat: Why Well-Raised Meat Is Good for You and Good for the Planet by Diana Rodgers and Rob Wolf. Diana is a dietician living on a farm, and the author of The Homegrown Paleo Cookbook . Rob rocketed to fame with The Paleo Solution , and wrote a second bestseller Wired to Eat: Turn Off Cravings, Rewire Your Appetite for Weight Loss, and Determine the Foods That Work for You ., Nothing I’ve read in the past couple of years about health, for our diets and the planet, has stimulated and challenged my thinking as much as their new book. The book addresses a vital issue I discussed a couple of years ago at the top of the post: Health Aspects of Animal Foods : how much meat should be in our diet is not just a...

There is an off-road route on the West side of Morgan Hill that I enjoy. It serves as a shortcut, and I’ve always wondered why there was this undeveloped corridor in a pretty prime real estate area. I just found out why. It turns our the land was set aside for the “ Hale Avenue Extension “. The city had planned this for quite some time but only now got the funding. It makes sense, traffic-wise. Hale Ave. is a major road coming down from the North that people use as a back way to commute. But it ends at Main, in a T-intersection, which makes people trying to get to the southwest end of town clog up other local streets, including downtown. The extenstion will help with that. But I’ll still miss my little off-road route. Hopefully, due to our complete streets , it will have good bike lanes, as does the existing part of Hale Ave. Near the Northern end of the corridor at Main Ave. Near the Southern end at DeWitt Ave. from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/3smer2E via IFTTT

I’m about to kick off a new series of posts about nutrition, I’ve learned a lot in the two years since my previous series in this area. I’ll give the same caveat I gave the last time: I’m an amateur in the subject of nutrition, though I like to think I’m well read on this subject. I thought I’d start things off by explaining what I personally eat and my reasoning. I recounted my eating history up till early 2019 here . I now eat a diet that is close to whole food plant-based (WFPB), at least as I interpret it. I’ll explain that in more detail in the next post, but here it is in a nutshell: I eat a lot of unprocessed plant foods, like fruits, veggies, legumes, whole grains, and a minimal amount of animal products, processed foods like cooking oils, and overly processed packaged foods. As I’ve discussed previously , I don’t interpret “processed” vs, whole foods as strictly as some do. Processed foods for me brings up images of things like donuts, cookies, potato chips, not canned ...

  Remember the days when there were only three channels on the television? Those days are long gone, with cable television offers hundreds of channels, and streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu providing their subscribers loads of new content every month. Who’s winning these streaming wars, or is cable television somehow going to come out on top?   Cable Television is Struggling With so much great content offered by streaming services at a much lower price, it’s practically impossible for cable to compete. It’s not going down without a fight though. Many networks are coming out with their own streaming services, like Disney+ and HBO Max, but the high cost coupled with so many unnecessary channels is making cable television itself unappealing for many.   Netflix is Still Reigning It’s hard to top Netflix, with over 195 million users and counting and billions of dollars in profits. The streaming giant plans to offer hundreds of new movies and original ...

We know that staying active has physical benefits, like maintaining a healthy weight and lowering your risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and more, but exercise is about more than the physical. It can also improve your mental and emotional health.   Physical Health Improvements The most obvious benefit of regular exercise is the physical. In addition to weight loss, being active can: Increase energy and reduce fatigue Help older adults with their balance and strength so they can stay independent for longer Prevent certain cancers and other ailments like stroke and arthritis Improve sleep Mental and Emotional Health Exercise releases endorphins that can boost your mood and reduce or even prevent anxiety and depression. It can also make your brain stronger by improving cognitive function. This is particularly important as we age because our brain benefits from being challenged regularly. Being active gives you some control over your life- something th...

I rode my Trek North to Santa Teresa Park, then hike in the park up to Coyote Peak. This is a ride I used to do frequently when my Trek had an electric-assist kit. It also had a pedestrian mode which helped pushed the bike up the hill. No assist today. It’s a bit harder without it! The bike weighs 28 pounds, and pushing it up some of the steeper trail sections was challenging. The hike up to the peak took about an hour. Rewarded with a nice view to the Southwest from the top It was nice to ride a shallower fire road trail back down part way, and then Bernal road the rest of the way. This added up to a challenging 3 1/2 hour workout. I’m sure I’ll do it again in the future. Maybe not too often. from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/3dhSvBy via IFTTT

In my last post I discussed “the red line chart” which sorts foods in accordance with their calorie density (calories per pound). Foods more to the left have been shown to be have more satiety so that people can eat more without taking in excess calories. The chart has a red line, and it is recommended to try to focus on eating foods to the left of it. Chef AJ, who created the chart, explains in her book that she is a recovered food addict. For people with food addictions, certain foods like sugary treats can be binge-triggering foods that can have a similar effect to nicotine or alcohol, or drugs to people with addictions to those substances. People in twelve step programs commit to abstain from their addictions. But those in Overeaters Anonymous know that food addiction is tricky because you can’t abstain from eating. It is up to the individual to come up with a precise definition of what they are abstaining from. You can’t eat trigger foods in moderation. You have to abstain from ...

Chef AJ is a delightful personality that I first encountered on Rich Roll’s podcast . This led me to read her book “The Secrets To Ultimate Weight Loss”, which is interesting and inspiring. This has a great, concise, concept of calorie density- the Red Line. The idea that unprocessed plant foods are a good way to lose weight has been around a long time, For example, there was Dean Ornish’s book Eat More Weigh Less , and nutritionist Barbara Roll’s book Volumetrics (whose contributions’ AJ acknowledges). But Chef AJ’s chart summarizes this with an easy to remember visual: The red line is food that has approximately 700 calories per pound. There is a study, mentioned in the book, that shows it is pretty much impossible to gain weight if you eat food that is less dense in calories than this. The chart doesn’t explicitly say it, but just about all animal foods are more dense than the red line, some considerably so (except milk because of its high water content). For example, even ch...

I did another of my “ hard day ” workouts that I do twice a week, but this time a walk for time up Barnard Riad served as the uphill walking challenge. This is one of my favorite challenging local walks, east of town in the foothills. It’s quite steep and takes a bit under 15 minutes at a brisk pace pushing my bike. An exercise stress test also takes around 15 minutes so Barnard is a good simulation. I got it down to 12:20 on this most recent try. For me this is a great length of a challenge, I recover quickly after and feel fine by the next day. View From about 3/4 of the Way Up. It winds down to the valley floor, not far from Anderson Dam Downtown and El Toro from the top Nice View to the Northeast of the Diablo range from the top from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/3dNBWMD via IFTTT