As we age, we notice that our body is losing its tone.
Fat around the midline starts to become more prominent, and the rest of the body also seems rather floppy.
Even though we run,🏃 bike,🚴 and practice yoga,🧘 it doesn’t seem to change the look. In fact, no matter how much we exercise, it feels like our clothes get tighter and tighter. 😱
Why??🤔
It is not your fault.
As we age, our body naturally loses muscle, starting around age 30: as much as 3-5% per decade, and faster after 60. This is just a part of our natural aging process.
Unfortunately, these muscles don’t simply disappear. They are usually replaced by fat.
This explains why our clothes get tighter👖even though our weight doesn’t change (fat takes more space than muscles for the same amount of weight).
These muscle loss have more consequences than just clothes not fitting.
Lack of muscle mass is associated with a variety of conditions, from weakness, and loss of balance to lower life expectancy and poorer prognosis if you get diagnosed with major illnesses such as cancer.
Muscle loss also affects our metabolism.
It is our muscles that are metabolically active 💪, not our fats. So, even if our metabolic rates remain the same, if the amount of muscles we have is declining, our total metabolism naturally goes down.⤵️
What can I do?, you may ask. It is best to start preventing muscle loss as soon as possible. Some of the best solutions that you can incorporate in your life right away include:
➡️ Consume enough (but not excessive) protein 🫘🧀🧬
This is probably not a problem for most of you. The basic recommendation is about 0.36 gram of protein per pound of body weight, so if you weigh 150 lb, that is about 54 grams of protein per day (that’s grams of protein itself, not the weight of the food). As we get older, many experts recommend a bit more, around 0.45-0.55 gram per pound (roughly 70-80 grams a day at 150 lb).
Spread it out over your meals, and you will likely get there without needing protein shakes!
If you do a lot of resistance/strengthening exercises,🏋 you want to aim for the higher end, or even a bit more.
Below is one of our favorite salad when wild salmons are in season 🐟 - it’s fast, delicious and satisfying! I will be sharing other plant-based sources of protein in the future emails and social media posts.
➡️ Resistance or strengthening exercises.
Do you like to run 🏃♀️ or bike 🚵♀️? Do you practice yoga 🧘🏻♀️ or dance 💃🏻? They are all great AND please make sure to incorporate strengthening exercises that build muscles. Use weights or resistance bands so you are always replenishing lost muscles. Don’t worry, you will not get bulky- it’ll take tremendous amount of work to have a body-builder type of muscles :)
In addition to increasing your metabolism, your body will thank you for these strengthening exercises because you’ll be preventing injuries too! (In another blog, I will write about how I used to get injured often and how I overcame them :)
In my more recent yoga classes, I put a lot of emphasis on incorporating strengthening exercises so we can minimize muscle losses and prevent injuries. As a result, I have tons of strengthening-based exercises and yoga classes in my library.
🎁🎁🎁 Because I want to help you kick start with the habit of strengthening your body, I am offering a “1 month FREE access” to my yoga library of more than 250 recorded classes! 🎉🎉🎉
Go to the Online Library page, sign up, and use the code “ONEMONTHFREE” at checkout, and you’ll get your first month FREE! (after that you have an option to cancel or continue)
Once you are in the library, look for “Strength & Conditioning” and there will be plenty of classes to choose from. For some classes, you will need small weights and/or resistance band- these are essential items to have around anyways, so invest in them!
It is a great place to start strengthening your body, especially if you are not quite ready to go to a gym!
Please let me know how you like the classes. You may be sore at the beginning but it means that you are building muscles where you needed :)
Happy strengthening!
Much love ❤️,
Ai
Salad with Wild Salmon
Ingredients
Wild Salmon filet
Lettuce mix
Tomatoes
Cooked quinoa or grains
Optional: Onion, zucchini, corn, capers
Salt & pepper
Dressing: 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon mustard, 2 tablespoon wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon honey, salt & pepper
Directions
Grill or broil salmon: drizzle olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper and cook until done to your liking (cooking time depends on the size of fish and your preference)
If using onion, corn and zucchini, slice them, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and grill/broil
Make dressing: shake all the ingredients in a jar until mixed
Assemble the salad. On a bed of lettuce, top other vegetables, quinoa or grains, and the salmon. Dress the salad, top with capers if you like. Enjoy!
