Just after I despatched last week’s newsletter I had a chat to a lovely chap, 83 years old, been on my newsletter list for years.
Like most of us as we age, he is being more sedentary means not eating as much as he did when he was younger, so his toilet trips, or lack of them, is problematic.
And of course, being more sedentary also means his circulation is not as good and his energy consumption is lower means he needs to eat even less.
And he can’t start pumping out the pushups as he has just had surgery in one arm.
Then there is the growing problem of short term memory loss and resulting senior moments.
So I figured out what I would do if I needed to increase my circulation and food throughput to solve constipation, ’cos if you are not taking as much in then you there is not as much to push out.
My number one most important principle regarding exercise is gradient. No starting out too hard or too fast and increasing it only a little at a time so no injuries occur. I recall Dr Al Sears saying he got someone to increase their exercise tolerance by starting on them walking 45 seconds at a time.
Applying that principle I told him if I were in his shoes, this is what I would do and then I thought to share it with you so you could pass it on to whomever could benefit from it.
Lowest Gradient Exercise Program
- 1. Walking – start small and increase it a little each day. None of these 5 mile hikes in the bush to start with!
- 2. Bouncing/rebounding on a mini-trampoline – in his case, starting with REALLY small bounces, very close to a wall for balance support.
- 3. Stair steps – step up one step then down the repeat with other foot.
- 4. While sitting stand every 10 minutes – experts are saying sitting is the new smoking and this negates the adverse effects of sitting.
- 5. Heel to toe rocking – hold onto a chair or the wall and just rock gently bank and forth from toes to heels and back.
- 6. NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis [the production of heat, especially in a human or animal body] by activities such as fidgeting with hands or bouncing the foot while sitting). Apparently it is quite remarkable how many calories you can burn this way.
We both agreed that his liking of biscuits wasn’t going to do his contipation any favours so he bought a tub of my no added sugar muesli: https://www.healthelicious.com.au/Muesli.html
For improved general nutrition he grabbed a tub of my NutriBlast Grees Plus: https://www.healthelicious.com.au/Nutri-Blast-Greens-Plus.html
To address the short-term memory loss he is going to start using my Memory and Intelligence Blend: https://www.healthelicious.com.au/Nutri-Blast-Memory-Blend.html
And he will be traveling soon so he wanted to try three of my energy bars while on the road.
Hopefully I will be hearing a glowing success story from him in a week or so!