XTREME GEEZER
You’re only young once, but you can be immature forever
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XTREME GEEZER
You’re only young once, but you can be immature forever
You don’t stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing
GET OFF THE BUS, GUS... The Geezer part of being an Xtreme Geezer is easy–stick around awhile and you are one. The challenge is to start having more fun. It’s not easy for adults to go from work-focused to fun focused. How do you transform a body that spends most of the day sitting at a desk into a machine that’s ready for the stresses of vigorous and even dangerous activities. For that matter how do you manage the dangers and understand what you are up against.
Since the site www.xgeez.com is all about BEING an xtreme geezer, most of the articles will include some element of what it takes for older athletes to participate–it’s the reason this site exists. The purpose of this e-book is to take some of the core information and present it as a basic roadmap:
Most of the answers you’ll find in various articles on the Xtreme Geezer website. These answers Work-Focused to Fun-Focused require the flexibility and scope of a Life is not a rehearsal. There is full website because each sport or no guarantee that your patience in activity offers different challenges. keeping your head down and doing your job is going to pay off in the
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Stand Up Paddle A new variation surfing that is well suited for athelete.
Surfing on standard particularly the late-onset
GEEZER IS...
long run with the time and money you need to go play. The answer is pretty simple–play now. That doesn’t mean quit your job and move to Fiji, though it certainly is an option. It means figure out what YOU want to do for fun and start working towards that. For example, you might be working out every morning five days a week. What’s that for? If the answer is just “fitness” then no wonder you call it WORKING out. You need a goal that sounds GREAT to you, that you can think about when the time you’re taking and the effort you’re making just seems like too much. Make the time to work towards the fun goals, and make the goal funfocused. Keep Your Goals Rational Your goals are what keep you going strong. If you don’t have
Try A New Thing Every Day
...As Geezer Does There are so many ways to have fun in this world, and it’s such a critical part of having a rewarding life. Staying fit, keeping an open mind, preparing for and enjoying adventures. Sharpening your mind as you hone your body. That’s what Xtreme Geezer is all about.
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them you can only plod fitfully towards success. But irrational goals breed disappointment. Keep the time frame reasonable--I want to lose 20 pounds in two weeks? No way. How about ten weeks, that’s ratioinal and safe. Align Training To Goals Suppose you want to learn to stand up paddle surf in big waves. You can start focusing your workouts on core exercises, shoulder and arm strength, and balance. Instead of working out five days a week maybe you work out three and swim two. Believe me, if you’re going to surf big waves you want your swimming tuned up. Go buy a standup board and paddle and spend time on the weekends or after work paddling whatever body of water you have near you. It’s great exercise, great balance training, and
it’s focused right on what you want was clearly at least ten years older to do. than him and quite a few pounds heavier. “We’re too old for that” he said, and he turned and walked Make a Plan The difference between being a back to the bus. kid and being an Xtreme Geezer isn’t what you’re able to do–if snowboarding a half-pipe looks like a blast to you, then it’s a worthy goal. But a kid will just jump in and do it. If they screw up, they’ll heal. As a Geezer you have different resources and you can take a smarter path to wind up at the same place. The difference is that you know injuries never heal. They come back to plague you years and decades later.
Not me, buddy, not me. Take Lessons We’re going to assume throughout the site that you have financial resources. I apologize for the impoliteness is that’s not true, but in general, people have more disposable income in their fifties than they do in their thirties.
Xtreme Geezers--or at least the most effective ones--take You know enough to start advantage of that and use some taking yoga to improve flexibility cash to buy expertise. You could and doing pliometrics to improve paddle an outrigger canoe for ten your spring. You can take lessons years and all you might do is from an expert who can bring you solidify the bad habits you formed along in progressive steps. And the first few weeks. A good coach you can get the right equipment to will show you proper form, which make the effort more fruitful and reduces injuries (VERY important less dangerous. In other words you for Geezers) and then move you can be smart and have a plan. along far faster than you ever could progress on your own. Get Off The Tour Bus I paddled Stand Up boards for We use the “Tour Bus” as a four years before I took some metaphor for watching instead of lessons from Dave Kalama on doing. Television is the ultimate tour bus. It burns vast amounts of paddle technique. I was stunned to time with no return. I started using learn that I was basically doing the term after my wife and I saw a EVERYTHING wrong. It’s a year later and I still fall into my crappy vigorous-looking guy get off the technique when I get tired or lose Tour Bus at the Ho’okipa beach concentration, even though the outlook in Maui and gaze at the surfers. I was glassing the waves to proper technique increases my speed, decreases effort, and decide where I was going to surf. protects my muscles, joints and He turned to me and said “looks fragile shoulders. like fun, doesn’t it”. I said “It is fun, I’m going to go do it”. He looked at me skeptically, since I
TRAINING MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
My takeaway--take the lessons early and often. Practicing the
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The kids just jump... ...and often pay a big price for their enthusiasm. Xtreme Geezers take advantage of their greater resources and experience to approach Xtreme activities with a greater potential for success and less liklihood of injury--they buy some expertise from a pro. There are no guarantees, lessons don’t ensure that you won’t be injured or killed, but they sure change the odds.
VINTAGE
wrong moves just prints bad habits deeper into your muscle memory. Doing it right from the beginning is the Xtreme Geezer way.
fickle nature of wind. But then Stand Up Paddle board manufacturers started putting mast tracks on their SUP boards. With the large volume of an SUP board Remember to Have Fun you could use any medium-sized It’s what it’s all about. If you get sail and have fun. When there’s no bored with the activities you wind, you Stand Up Paddle, when choose, pick another. go through there’s wind, you sail. The gear the same process–Focus, Plan, Take requirements are low--you only Lessons, Jump in. No point in need one sailing rig and one board continuing to do something FOR suits two sports fun that no longer IS fun. That said, having fun is hard work, and the Other sports like bicycling lend harder you work at it the more fun themselves to the same reyou have. examination. But whether you rekindle an old passion or try You can also retool your something completely new, there’s activities. Many people who really only one rule: gravitated away from windsurfing did so because several things about Enjoy the Ride! the nature of the sport irritated them: The need for so much gear, swapping sails or boards when the wind changed a bit, and the overall
Watkins Glen Grand Prix Vintage Racing is the perfect Xtreme Geezer undertaking--the cars you lusted after as a kid, racing at tracks you dreamede of seeing. And YOU are the dashing race car driver. It takes planning, some resources, and special training, but it’s in the reach of almost anyone.
Imagination is the only limiting factor
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More Than Just Fuel To Play
NUTRITION FOR XTREME GEEZERS
Xtreme Geezers need to pay attention to how their food is going to affect long term performance. You can’t eat junk and expect good results. Whole foods without man-made junk delivers fuel to play and long term health.
Weight Control and Energy: Geezers Need Both Anyone who is active in sports considered extreme people have become commonplace. Dieting hasn’t needs to pay attention to nutrition. But many would-be worked, exercise alone hasn’t worked. People Xtreme Geezers are overweight and in less than frequently say “you have to change your perfect condition. Me too. I’ve been lifestyle” but to what? How many times have overweight most of my life. you heard “its just a matter of taking in Burn Off Those fewer calories than you need”. But how I’ve spent a lot of time studying on my many do we need? And what about Extra Pounds own, and consulted with doctors and metabolism, and genetic differences? Does nutritionists, including a very good one: Tish the kind of food matter? Berman (http://www.tishberman.com ). Tish finally set me on the path to getting my weight under Out of all the research, especially diabetes studies, control and giving my body the energy it needs to has come some dramatic new findings, and new continue to do well at sports and other activities. methods for managing the kind of food we eat. I’ve started “changing my lifestyle” incorporating advice from Tish along with eating focused on managing to a Our Diet Is Killing Us It turns out that a lot of the things people believed low glycemic index. The results have been pretty about diet are simply wrong. Over the last twenty years fantastic. I’ve just been at it for a month and a half, I’ve lost 15 pounds, lost three inches off my waist, I the problem of weight control and nutrition has intensified greatly in the United States. The foods and have high energy, and I’m satisfied with how I’m eating. I get hungry about every three hours but it only the way we eat them in this nation are simply killing takes a small amount of food to fill me up and keep me us. Diabetes is considered epidemic. Morbidly obese [6]
going. Not only is this new lifestyle working for me, I can’t see any reason why I wouldn’t eat this way for the rest of my life–I don’t feel like I’ve given up anything important and I feel great.
basically a way to get your body down off sugar and starches. It helped me a lot. I did the sugar control diet for three weeks, almost four because it took me at least a week to really get on it. I kept screwing up. No big deal, just do it If you’d like to give this a go, until you get a good two weeks in. it’s pretty easy, everything you need The directions below are a little to do it is right here. You WILL find sketchy because they are not meant it optimal to consult with a to be followed without the added nutritionist to get started, but that’s directions from a nutritionist, but your choice. Tish gave me a I’ll fill in with some tips Tish gave comprehensive evaluation that me. tuned everything up specifically for me. She can do this remotely for Is This Really Good For Me? anyone, anywhere. You can contact This diet looks goofy, kind of her through her website Atkins-like, but it isn’t. I ran this by
glycemic index stuff all says minimize it, and keep it whole grain, minimally processed.
Roughly 70 percent of people are actually allergic to grains and processed starches. Makes sense– we really haven’t been finely milling grain for very long, certainly not long enough for our bodies to evolve enough to accept it well. A country full of fat people getting type two diabetes eating all the bread they want is pretty good evidence that it might not be the best thing for us. I don’t think I am allergic, we re-introduced grains and starches to our diet, but sparingly. You may have eaten your two other nutritionists and my last sub sandwich and your last Let’s Start Doctor–they all told me this is the plate of fries. Not as big a deal as First step, go on Amazon and latest stuff. The FDA is reworking you might think, there are workget the book The Complete Idiot’s the food pyramid to try and arounds and you certainly can take Guide to Glycemic Index Weight accommodate these new findings a day off every so often. I tried to at Loss. and combat obesity, though the food industry lobbyists are probably thanksgiving, but the plateful of food I took was way too much for I got the first edition digitally making it tough. me. but the second edition seems to be SUGAR CONTROL DIET only currently available in paper. One piece of good news–try to Either works. While you are eat all whole foods. No fake eggs, The following is a two-week waiting for the paper version to be no 1 percent milk. Nutritionists now diet, designed to help recalibrate delivered (or for the digital version believe that the whole foods are your body’s sugar control circuits. to download) you can get started on MUCH better for you and don’t It will increase your energy and the kickoff plan below. affect cholesterol if eaten in vitality. You need to re-start the moderation. The other piece of clock every time you screw up and I also found the companion good news is that you really can eat don’t follow it closely. It is not a recipe book to be very handy. Sure, pretty big meals. I started eating healthy diet for all times, but it is you can do without it, but when fairly heavily, but lightened up beneficial for you during a short you’re staring in the refrigerator pretty quickly because I found I period. As your condition improves, thinking “I DON’T want another was satisfied with less. we will add other foods back into omelet, what can I make” it can your diet. This way of eating does give you a quick, easy, tasty take a little planning, but is well No Grains!?! answer. Giving up grains and starches is worth the effort. Most people may a bitch at first, but in a pretty short also lose weight while on this diet The book makes a little fun of without being hungry. Others, who time I didn’t miss it other than initiating a diet with some special convenience–mainly the simplicity need to gain weight, often find their cleansing effort, but Tish Berman of a sandwich. Once you get a good weight will return to normal started off me with a two week without undue effort. clean two weeks you can sugar control diet shown below. It’s reintroduce it, but sparingly. The
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MAIN CHALLENGES: 6 feedings daily; plan ahead. Three meals with lunch being the heaviest, two snacks. Snacks need to be balanced.
NUTS: Soaked or slow-roasted nuts make a great snack.
DAIRY: No dairy is PROTEINS: Each meal should allowed. include a minimum of 4-6 ounces FATS: No artificial of protein, but you can have as or hydrogenated fats much as you desire. Meat, poultry, allowed, such as fish, eggs are unlimited, if no margarine or sensitivity exists. shortening. VEGETABLES: Eat as much as you desire. You cannot eat too much. Focus on dark, leafy greens and a variety of colors. No potatoes, yams, or other starchy vegetables. ( ie: corn, peas, winter squash, cooked beets or carrots) FRUITS: Careful here – only to be eaten between meals as a snack with nuts or seeds or a piece of cheese or a bite of plain, full fat yogurt, Leave the sweeter fruits such as bananas. mangos, persimmons. papayas. dried fruits. etc. alone. One or two small sized pieces of fruit per day is plenty. (apples, pears, peaches, plums, all berries)
SWEETENERS: No sweeteners of any kind. Stevia OK if no hyperinsulinemia ( high insulin levels) exists.
Better Fuel = More Fun
You must eat every two to three hours of the waking day. You need not eat a large volume of food at these meals – just a handful of nuts or a slice of cheese. Include a medium piece of fruit or some raw veggies if desired. No processed or packaged foods allowed. Eat only those foods found in nature. Eat some raw vegetables every day.
Organic is best, but the most important thing is to avoid starches and potential intolerant foods. GRAINS: No grain including breads, rolls, muffins, and pasta. No Avoid antibiotic-treated, hormonally-raised animal foods, beans or legumes. No rice.
Nutrition Plus Excercise Xtreme Geezers need to attack both general fitness and nutrition. The idea that you can control body weight with just excercise is simple NOT TRUE tor older athletes. First of all
your body is almost certainly well adapted to the activities you like best. Second, your metabolism is slowed by age-you don’t burn as much fuel between sessions. And third, that doesn’t really work for anyone--even xtreme effort doesn’t burn that much more
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and foods treated with pesticides and insecticides. Why All The Touchy-Feely Organic Stuff? The first thing I think of when someone starts talking about Organic this and whole grain that is all the unhealthy people I see in natural food stores. I don’t want to walk around in drawstring pants going on about my karma. I just want to lose forty pounds and stay strong. So here’s the basics on why you need to eat whole, natural, organic, minimally processed foods: 1. You’re going to be eating a lot more vegetables. How much pesticide do you want with that?
energy than your base metabolic rate. Sooner of later you need to start watching what you eat and refining your fuel. You might as well start right now. Better fuel makes for better fun anyway.
If you’re going to peel a vegetable or fruit it’s not quite so important, but anything you’re going to eat the skin of should be clean and natural. Besides, pay a little attention in grocery stores. Sometimes the organic stuff looks better and costs less. Not always, but pretty often.
multiple categories of food. Perhaps half an apple, pear, peach or a 1/2 cup of berries, a little cheese, and a few nuts. Or raw vegetables with hummus. Oddly satisfying. You’ll be hungry at every meal but you’ll soon learn that it doesn’t take much food to fill you up. Breakfast
Lunch Lunch is a bunch of vegetables– raw or cooked–a reasonable amount of meat. Healthy fats are fine– avocados, olive oil–no worries. Just avoid all the others, including Canola oil. Hapa
Breakfast is pretty much eggs 2. Processed food means the during the cleanout diet, I generally ingredients will include stuff made a two or three egg omelet you wouldn’t include yourself– with vegetables, meat and cheese in like sugar, preservatives, and it. It doesn’t take much of the filling chemicals you can’t pronounce to make a meal, hardest thing for and have no idea what they do me to learn is how little I could use. or came from. “Healthy” I might take a few broccoli tops–not breakfast cereal is still a an entire branch but five or six of smorgasbord of junk. And it’s the little flowers. Two or three all ground up fine so your body mushrooms sliced, and half a piece will digest it all. It’s rocket fuel. of thin sliced ham. Saute all that You want stuff that burns together. Mix in the egg or do a slower and less completely, traditional omelet, grate some hard cheese all over it and fold it over. 3. That brings us to whole grains. When and if you I’d also have a little cantaloupe reintroduce them, stick with or other fruit and some full fat really coarse stuff. The surface yogurt. Not a lot of fruit, just a taste area of particles in your so you don’t get sick of eggs too digestive system have a lot to soon. My portion sizes kept getting do with how completely your smaller and smaller as I realized I body can process them. Whole was stuffing in food when I didn’t grains gets digested a little and want it. then pass, contributing to good bowel action. Finely ground stuff gets digested and Hapa converted to sugar very Hapa is Hawaiian pidgin for efficiently–exactly what you “Half”. I generally eat breakfast at don’t want. 6:00 AM and lunch around noon. That’s six hours and it’s too long. So it’s not touchy-feely So halfway to lunch (9-10:00 AM) I birkinstock-wearing, smugly eat a snack--usually a half and flatulent vegan hippy drivel. It’s apple and a bit of cheese, or a few common sense. nuts. A few nuts means SIX not a handful. A big handful of nuts can The way you do balanced be more calories than a typical meal snacks is eat three things that fit should be.
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Another snack between lunch and dinner. Again, a snack is not a meal. I like a few raw veggies and a little hummus. Dinner Dinner is the same. You can eat all the vegetables you want, and a lot of lean meat. Night Snacks Can be a real killer. I get hungry around 9:00PM, which is a lousy time to eat. If you’re going to snack in the evenings, make it really healthy and light. Vegetables, a little meat. This is the time to be on guard. This is when you blow it. After being on the diet a week a little meat is all I wanted. I have no idea why, but my eyes and brain are starting to drive my idea of how much food I need. This morning I made eggs and ham and a yogurt parfait with fresh blueberries. I looked at the three big pieces of ham in the frying pan, cut one in half and that was what I ate! My diminutive wife Diane ate more of it than me. It wasn’t some kind of guilt thing, or some discipline about staying with a diet–it was all I wanted. Bizarre. Time was I would have eaten all three and considered something more.
humans, which makes a lot more sense than just looking at the Going On Read the Glycemic Index book. chemical composition. Turns out that anything that raises your Pay close attention to the PLATE insulin level above the amount you notion. Dividing up the food you need makes you fat. It’s a real eat on your plate is a really easy downward spiral, no wonder diets way to stay on track. Below is a permanent guideline tailored for me don’t work. by Tish. Your mileage may vary. I This isn’t the only book I read, I don’t do protein shakes very often, really dug in, but this brings they are too processed. everything into one place, and one of the people who wrote this book It’s surprising how bad processed food is for weight loss. I is a leading researchers. heard people rattle on about that for years and thought it was just bullshit, but there’s a lot of research that shows fractionating foods triggers a lot of unexpected consequences. Even just milling grains and making flake cereal. As mentioned above, milled grains have a lot more surface area for digestion to take place over, and so more gets turned to sugar, raising insulin levels.
THE NEW NEW CHALLENGE
By doing the cleanup diet for a few weeks and shifting over to Glycemic Index stuff I’ve raised my energy level and lost weight.
We’re mostly alternating egg breakfasts with Oatmeal now. It will be interesting to see what my cholesterol does. Tish says it’s going to improve dramatically. That would be nice. I’m still taking blood pressure medication, but I need to talk to my doctor about that. Don’t Eat “Health” Crap I have a feeling I can ditch that pill. All the bullshit health food stuff My BP is running 120 over 70 with is bunk. Fake desserts like Tofutti a resting pulse of 60. are way worse for you than premium ice cream made with whole natural ingredients. Pretty HEALTHY HORMONE DIET weird, Haggen Daz has a lower PROTEIN glycemic index than Tofutti–way lower. Of course high fructose corn Protein meals are best eaten syrup is about as bad for weight early and mid-day (before 4:00 or gain as anything gets and Tofutti 5:00 in the afternoon). Patients may has lots of it. have as much protein as desired (unlimited meat. poultry. fish. All this Glycemic Index stuff eggs). In addition. also consider a comes from diabetes research. They protein shake or supplement for a feed people stuff and monitor their quick and easy meal replacement blood sugar and insulin production. when needed. It’s a directly measured effect in
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The Challenge Try something completely new every week. It can be a simple, small thing or something huge, like finding streest in your town that you’ve never been on, or taking up B.A.S.E. jumping. Keep a journal of it, and post it on the Xtreme Geezer Forum.
VEGETABLES
omega 3 fats should be nearly Eat as much as you want. as you equal. can never eat too many vegetables. FRUITS Focus on dark leafy greens. and a variety of bright and rich colors. Continue to be careful Consider fresh vegetable juicing to with fruits. They should increase intake of plant foods. Eat be eaten alone or as a It’s not a some vegetables raw or lightly snack between meals. diet, it’s a cooked every day unless otherwise Limit the sweeter fruits, lifestyle directed by your doctor. Use starchy such as bananas, grapes, change... vegetables, such as potatoes and persimmons, papayas, yams, sparingly. dried fruits, etc. One to three pieces of low glycemic Stimulants, such as sugar, fruit daily are sufficient. Best fruits caffeine, tobacco, tea and alcohol GRAINS are most berries, mangos, avocados, are best avoided. Whole grains may be eaten coconuts, kiwi, guava, olives. when there are no food allergy concerns and weight is normal. If, WATER NUTS however, weight is a problem, Drink a minimum of one quart grains should be eliminated along Eat raw nuts and seeds liberally, of fresh, pure, water daily for each with sugar and other high glycemic especially raw cashews, almonds, fifty pounds of body weight. foods. Grains are best eaten whole, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, etc. soaked or fermented prior to That’s eat. Pretty simple. It’s consumption to increase nutritive DAIRY not really a diet, it’s a fundamental value. Soaking grains begins the change in what you eat and when. I Dairy is not recommended for digestive process and helps to guess that’s that “lifestyle” most people unless there are no neutralize inhibiting factors such as allergy problems. Ifno allergies are everyone talks about. Have fun phytic acid. present, suggest raw, unpasteurized building your new body, and then go out and have some real Xtreme and non-homogenized dairy FATS Geezer fun with it. products when available. Also, 4. Eat plenty of wholesome natural recommended are milk products fats, such as butter and oils from such as raw goat or sheep milk, or coconut, sesame, olive, hemp. raw cheeses, and unsweetened walnut, t1ax, etc. Supplemental fish yogurt or kefir. oil is normally recommended. Avoid all artificial fats and oils, SWEETENERS such as hydrogenated or partially Sweeteners should be limited hydrogenated oils. Most people and not used on a regular basis. should decrease use of Omega-6 oils and increase omega-3 oils. Ideally, intake of omega 6 and STIMULANTS
We’re Not Done Here... The Xtreme Geezer Mnifesto is a living document. We’ll add to it whenever we
publish an article that fits the format, which is articles that will help you be a better Xtreme Geezer.
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XTREME GEEZER Http://www.xgeez.com