January 20, 2025 • 42 mins
This episode emphasizes the transformative power of fitness and nutrition for individuals over 50, illustrating how a proactive approach can drastically improve quality of aging. Graham shares compelling insights from his experiences, encouraging listeners to embrace resistance training and nutritious eating habits as vital components of a fulfilling life.
• Graham’s early experiences reveal the stark contrast between vibrant and frail individuals over 50
• Resistance training is vital in combating age-related ailments and maintaining bone health
• Overcoming resistance to change and conveying the importance of fitness is crucial
• The analogy of "banking fitness dollars" highlights the significance of investing in health
• Nutrition plays a key role, advocating for the “80-20” approach for sustainable eating
Learn More at: www.Redefine-Fitness.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hello and welcome to Health and Fitness Redefined.
I'm your host, Anthony Amen,and today we have another great
episode for all of you,especially the Golden Girls.
No, I'm kidding.
But without further ado, let'swelcome to the show, Graham.
Graham, it's a pleasure to haveyou on today.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thank you very much, Anthony.
Pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
We had a nice little conversation.
Graham for those listening isfrom Australia and obviously I
live in New York.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
So I'm talking to my future and he's talking to his
past.
I wish my past was as handsomeas you, anthony.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I wish my future was going to be as handsome as you,
so I'm going to win-win here man, I'll be happy.
I'll take it so with that forthe dude graham.
I know, uh, we're gonna betalking a lot about aging after
50, working out a lot of funstuff, but before we do that,
how did you get into the healthand fitness world?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
okay.
So, uh, in my corporate,anthony, I worked as a sales
manager for a retirementcommunity retirement business
and I saw people in their mid50s that were already frail and
pre-frail.
I saw people in their 80s and90s that were still traveling
the world, still exercising,moving every day and fully
(01:22):
healthy, and I saw everybody inbetween.
When I saw, in fact, aparticular guy, he was in his
mid-50s, a chain smoker, quite ahandsome guy actually, and he
was moving into this retirementcommunity because he wanted
somewhere safe for his wife whenhe passed away.
He's only 55.
(01:42):
And I thought to myself thisjust does not need to be this
way.
And it just motivated mebecause I've been into fitness
ever since I could walkunassisted, ever since I was a
little boy.
And I said to this guy I saidyou know, it doesn't need to be
this way.
We've got gyms and things inhere when you come in and that's
(02:02):
one reason, largely the reasonwhy I got involved seeing people
that had sat on the shelf, saton the couch, eating ice cream
and jelly for 10, 15, 20 yearsand had an accumulation effect
because of that, and then that'shard to reverse when that
happens.
So I thought I can make acontribution here and I formed
(02:24):
Renewed After 50 about well, Iformed it in 2012, but actually
really revved it up during COVIDactually, or just before COVID
in 2018.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Love it.
So you kind of projected rightinto the fitness hormone.
I know obviously you're workingyour retirement Kitty, so that
got you into.
So you're working yourretirement kitty, so that got
you into working with that agepopulation.
So first off, I agree with yourobservation off the bat.
I have seen 87 year olds thatlook better than 45 year olds,
(02:56):
yes, and I wish that was anexaggeration, but it just kind
of shows how important it.
To me the biggest commonalityis exercise, would you agree?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I do.
Um, the other thing that cameto my mind as you were just
responding then is the level ofobesity in our world.
I know that our percentage ofobesity is about the same as
what it is in your country, andthat's because of that
accumulation effect eating thewrong things for too long, but
that's because of thataccumulation effect, eating the
wrong things for too long.
So I actually believe nutritionis number one, but it goes hand
(03:29):
in hand with exercise.
One's no good without the other, because if you've got a good
diet and you're not exercising,you're going to finish up with
poor posture in my joints and soforth.
So some weight resistanceexercise with some cardio is
absolutely what's required as weget older.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, there's a lot of cool research coming out,
especially with that population,as we get more interested in it
.
First and foremost,weightlifting, which was the
bane of that population'sexistence in the beginning where
I don't want to go lift weightswith those 30 year olds, thrown
in teenagers but it's beenshown that that actually that
(04:09):
group needs that more than the18, 20 year olds really do.
When you start looking insideof a human body when it comes to
osteoarthritis, right, thecured osteoarthritis is weight
training.
The cured osteopenia andosteoporritis is weight training
the cure to osteopenia andosteoporosis is weight training.
Yes, yes, so all of these thingshave tied back just to simply
lifting weights and adding inresistance training.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Look, I couldn't agree with you more.
It actually goes further thanthat.
I think weight resistancetraining pushes back against
heart disease, stroke, falls,falls is the greatest killer of
people in the age group 75 andabove.
So balance is important.
So if you've got a good corestrength, a good base strength
(04:54):
through weight resistancetraining, you push back against
all of those things.
Depression it's been proventhat weight resistance training
actually aids mental health.
So all of those things are, uh,beneficiaries of a really good
white training program yeah, andI know you've been saying light
resistance training.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Is there a reason you're going light as opposed to
just general or moderate?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
well, with, with due respect, when, when you're 75,
you don't want to be doing 100pound or 100 kilo bench presses
anymore.
You nor do you want to do, youknow, 15 pound, seven half kilo
Reps, 20 reps of that.
(05:40):
What, what we need to do as weget older is do more power
training.
So that what what we need to doas we get older is do more
power training.
So, uh, so that you can liftthe grandchild, so that you can
lift the shopping into the backof the car, so you can lift the
shopping off the bench into thetop shelf.
They're one-off lifts, so youneed to do.
In fact, I have a power trainingclass for older adults and we
(06:00):
focus on slightly heaviertraining, but not really heavy
training.
As we get older, whether welike it or not, the recovery
time takes a bit longer, thepropensity to injury is greater.
So we need to be a bit morecareful, but still concentrating
(06:21):
on power training.
As opposed to a heavy, a um,it's a word for it as opposed to
a heavyweight training regimeor even a light one, if that
makes sense power training.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
For those that don't understand, just one rep maxes
kind of deal, because that'swhere you, that's what you're
doing when you're lifting achild, right you're yeah,
exactly exactly, yeah, exactly.
Hold on, son, let's do 15 ofthese, yeah but what?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
what I would do is I'd work out what their one rep
max is, uh in a pt session,personal training session, and
then I'd wind it back to 80,because you're never going to
lift your one rep max.
But what you might have to do,uh is your 80 max, and and do,
do that five times and notoverly fatigue.
You want to feel as thoughyou've had a workout, but you
(07:09):
don't.
You don't want to have to havea workout that's going to make
you go home and sleep for therest of the day well, some
people might want to, so itdepends.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, that's right yeah, it's not time after the
gym, anyway, but I just not tobeat a dead horse.
But cardio is great, right, wewant to make sure we're doing
some, especially like speedwalking.
Things like that are amazingfor your cardiovascular system.
But going back to weighttraining, you can do all of that
(07:39):
through it, making sure yourotate your days with light
resistance training and thengoing into more of a power
training program.
I really couldn't agree more.
It's very hard to convincepeople in that age group that
this is what they need to bedoing if they try to fight you
on it.
So how do you overcome that?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Okay.
So two things come to mind.
You talked about weightresistance.
When you get older, weightresistance is king, followed by
cardio, followed by some agilitywork, followed by some core
work, mobility, balance.
All of those things areappropriate for the age group.
So how do I cope with and howdo I introduce training,
(08:24):
whatever it is?
I say to my clients look, you'reapproaching retirement age.
If you're in your mid-50s,you're approaching retirement
age, and I'm not sure about inthe US, but we have a system of
paying in money while you'reworking so that you can draw
down on that retirement.
It's called superannuation.
So our people spend theirlifetime putting together a good
nest egg of superannuation.
So our people spend theirlifetime putting together a good
(08:45):
nest egg of superannuation.
You might have stocks and bonds,you've paid off your house,
you've educated your kids andyou come to a time in your life
where you've got all of thiswealth that you can enjoy, but
unfortunately you haven't bankedfitness dollars along the way.
So by the time you get to theage of being able to appreciate
(09:06):
your wealth, you don't have thefitness or health.
You might have one or twochronic diseases that impede you
from going on overseas trips orwhatever.
So I give them that analogy.
While saying it's never toolate to start, I try and promote
getting going as quickly as youcan, because you need to start
banking those compoundingfitness dollars the same way
(09:29):
you've compounded wealth withyour actual dollars.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
That's true.
We have a 401k, so very similar.
They can build up wealth forretirement.
And I just kind of add to that,we had an 83-year-old that
joined four years ago, and he isnow 87, and he can do a four
and a half minute plank and hehas no, which I think is the
most impressive thing.
But according to him, the bestthing he got out of it is he's
(09:57):
no longer worried about falling.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
He said I know I can catch myself and if I do fall, I
know how to fall and to makesure I don't break a hip or
anything like that, Because,like you said, that's usually a
death sentence for someone atthat age.
Yes, yes.
So it just kind of shows youcan start now, you can start at
83.
You can start at 85.
You can start at 90.
You don't have to be like, well, I'm too old to go do something
(10:22):
like that, which is why I'mhere all the time.
So it's like no, no, no, youneed to start now so you can
draw out the rest of your life.
Really interesting stat, and Ilike mentioning this because
it's true and I'm going toreiterate If you took smoking,
smoke cigarettes right and yousmoked a pack a day every day
(10:45):
for 30 years, you took thatgroup and that group went and
exercised at least three times aweek.
Then you took a group of peoplewho don't smoke, never smoked a
day in their lives, and don'texercise.
Which group lives longer?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Oh, that's a good question.
Oh, that's a good question.
That's a really good question,anthony, I've never thought
about that one.
Well, I've just got stopsmoking, stop smoking in my head
.
But which group would livelonger?
I think the group that didn'tsmoke and didn't exercise.
(11:22):
But the other questions what'syour diet like?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
You know, diet.
They did a whole study on thiswith a thousand people.
Yeah, they did a group study ofit.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
It's the opposite the smokers lived almost twice as
long as the other group.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Really, truly, that's amazing.
But on the flip side of that,the group that, because they had
a bunch of other groups in it,they had a group that exercised
and didn't smoke they lived evenlonger.
Yeah, so it shows the power ofexercise that we know.
Like you said, you hear nosmoking, no smoking, no smoking.
It was drilled in our heads.
How bad smoking is it?
(12:03):
Labels on everything right,smoking can kill you.
Actually, that exercising isgoing to kill you way quicker
than a cigarette is.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, right, okay, that's amazing.
That's really really amazing,because emphysema is one of the
greatest killers of older adultsgoing around.
If you've been a smoker allyour life and you get infocema,
that's a death sentence, a slowdeath sentence.
You finish up running out ofair to breathe.
In fact, in Australia, we're apopulation in total of about 6
(12:36):
million people, and 6 million ofthose people are older adults
older than 55.
And one in three people haveone chronic disease and some
have two or three chronicdiseases by the time they get to
55, 60.
And most of them don't exercise.
It's only a very smallpercentage of people, as you
(12:58):
would know, that have a regularhabit of exercise, and the
biggest reason that they don'texercise is I don't have time,
um, so uh, but yeah, uh.
I could not agree more, andthat is so surprising to hear
that, uh, the smokers livelonger.
Maybe I should take up smokingagain the moral of it is the
(13:19):
non-smokers.
Exercises are the longest yeah,so I'll start with that, I think
.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
I mean.
But let's talk about infancy,right?
So that's something you know.
In like COPD, people are like,oh, that scares you, it's like
you're slowly going to die andyou know it's a death sentence,
right?
People get afraid it and it'slike, oh my God, I'm sorry you
have that.
But then look at theconversation for that same age
group, for type two diabetespeople, people and maybe it's me
and the groups, some peopleI've heard they like joke about
(13:47):
their type 2 diabetes together.
Oh, you have it.
Oh, I have it too.
And how much insulin are youtaking?
Well, look how much I'm taking.
Type 2 diabetes is the samefreaking death sentence as COPD
is.
It just kills you differently.
But both have the same endresult and both are slow,
torturing deaths.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yeah, I agree and and Because of the addiction and
maybe maybe type two diabetessufferers are addicted in a way
as well.
But type two diabetes is moreeasily reversible than getting
off nicotine, which is even moredifficult than heroin to get
off.
So type 2 diabetes, if you getit early enough, go into a
(14:31):
healthy diet.
Recommend a plant-based diet.
You can reverse that in mostcases.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yeah, it's interesting to think about.
So food for thought today,grahamham, that's what we're
talking about, right?
I'm talking instantly.
I'm projecting my future self.
Hey, if you're gonna pick,either stop exercising or start
smoking, start smoking over,stop exercising, but no, I'm
never gonna do that I'm way tooaddicted to the gym.
(15:02):
So, going back to theconversation, bringing in
different things we could focuson as the age group above,
specifically above 50,understanding we're trying to
have hard conversations withthem.
It's a lot to convince someonein the age group that this is
something they need to do now.
It's more important now than itwas when they were younger.
In general, this is my questionbecause I'm not in that age
(15:25):
group, right, and you, I know,work with a lot of people and
you specifically are.
So it's like, okay, what isusually that come-to-God moment
for people in that age group,and what I mean by that is what
have you noticed in people'slives is the trigger for that
(15:45):
that says, oh my god, and youjust start working out like what
happens to?
All of a sudden.
Then they have that doctor cometo the gym okay, um, a couple
of thoughts.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
The first one is most of my clients are women, uh,
and the average age would be 60.
And many of my clients have gotosteopenia.
So they go along to theirdoctor, they go and have a bone
density test.
The doctor says, hey, you'vegot osteopenia.
And they say, oh my God, whatcan I do about that?
(16:19):
And he says you need to goalong to a gym, find a trainer
and do some weight resistanceexercise and build up your bone
strength.
So that's the first thoughtthat comes to mind.
Second one there are chronicdiseases.
Somebody's overweight.
Second one would be people cometo me and say, look, I've got
(16:41):
this tummy, I want exercises toget rid of my tummy.
And I say and they're obviouslyoverweight.
So do you have a refrigeratorin your kitchen?
Yes.
Do you have a lock on it?
No.
Do you have a lock on yourkitchen door?
No, well, get one put on yourkitchen door and stay out of the
kitchen as much as you can,because it won't matter whether
(17:04):
you come to the gym seven days aweek, seven hours a day, if
your diet's not right, you'regoing to continue to put on
weight.
So diet's the first place.
So that type two diabetes, thedoctor says, hey, you need to
start moving, you need to getrid of some weight, otherwise
you're going to die, and thathappens in this age group.
The other thing that I try andpoint home, anthony, is that
(17:28):
there's a thing calledsenescence.
Every living thing on theplanet is born, it matures and
there's a steady decline tilleverything on the planet will
die.
It's inevitable In the case ofa human.
We mature about mid-30s, aroundabout, and then there's that
steady decline.
Now the people that areexercising are going to stay
(17:50):
with a really good range ofmovement, health, strength,
right, hopefully, to the end.
You'll wake up dead one morning.
That's my goal to wake up deadone morning.
Other people that don't exercisewill fall down gradually, go
below the disability line andmaybe spend 5, 10, 15 years at
the end of life in some form ofcare or needing so, and that's
(18:15):
the other thing I say, whetherit's type 2 diabetes, osteopenia
which progresses toosteoporosis, as we know, mental
health, whatever it's been, andI've had all of these people
referred to me by the medicalprofession for all of those
ailments that we've spoken about.
And I say that where do youwant to be?
Do you want to be in care forthe last 10 or 15 years of your
(18:37):
life, or five years, or do youwant to be as healthy as
possible, stay above thedisability line, stay totally
independent for the whole ofyour life and maybe only spend a
short time at the end of life,unwell or with some disease that
eventually is going to get usall?
Speaker 1 (18:56):
I had a guest on about six months ago at this
point and you're going to lovethis.
This is right where youmentioned.
He said I want to live my lifelike a square and not like a
bell curve.
For those that don't get thereference, if you had a plot
from zero to death, a bell curveis a standard deviation.
(19:17):
Bell curve it goes all the wayup.
You peak and then you slowlydecline.
For him, peaked fast all theway alive dead 100% agree.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I want to die as young as possible, as late as
possible.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I want to just not have to worry about going
through torture.
I've watched people for 5, 10,20 years and they just look like
they just want to die and Idon't want that.
I want it, just like you saidin my sleep quick.
If I'm younger, it's fine.
If I'm older, great, whateverthat is.
That's kind of what I'mshooting for, but I want to make
(19:54):
sure that up to like seven daysbefore I die, I'm still like
hiking out west in Arizona,right, or, for you, in central
Australia in that heat, andpeople are looking at me like
what the hell is this guy doing?
And I'm like beating mygrandkids like catch up kind of
(20:15):
deal.
Isn't that what life is about?
We work so much, right?
Most people get into theworkforce 24, 25, 26, roughly.
They start working 40 hours aweek.
They go all the way to they'reabout 65.
So you're talking 40 years thatyou're really committing to
your job.
You restrict your travel, yourestrict your free time.
(20:36):
Job comes priority in order tomake money and supply for your
family.
And then we have this idea thatonce we retire, we're going to
do things.
And we'd say this a lot whenwe're younger, when I'm 25, 30,
35.
When I retire, we're going todo this when I retire, we're
going to do this when I retire25, 30, 35.
When I retire, we're going todo this.
When I retire, we're going todo this.
And then what happens?
You get to retirement age, youget close to it and you see a
part of the population stoptalking about when I retire, I'm
(20:57):
going to do this, because theirhealth has gotten such a shit
and they just have given up onthemselves mentally.
It's no longer a thought.
That's when they becomedepressed.
That's when they becomedepressed.
That's where you really see themental issue.
Step in here, because they justgive up and they no longer are
enjoying talking about whenthey're going to retire, when
they're only a couple years out,at this point, whereas if you
(21:18):
take care of yourself, you needto control and you really put
the work into it and you hadthat compounding health benefits
, like you mentioned before.
Right, like compoundinginterest, compound health and
you build up.
Even over two years, you canturn your life around.
You could be a totallydifferent person.
You could be spry, you could bemobile and you do not have to
worry about going out, hiking,going out, hanging out with the
grandkids.
Food is a huge point which youmentioned before about diet.
(21:42):
I'm a big believer in eating toeat, and what I mean by that is
you eat 80% of your diet.
Well, right.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
But if I'm going to retire and I'm out and I want to
have a couple beers and I wantto go have a fried ice cream,
I'm going to do it because 80%of the time I'm good and I can
compound that over so that 20% Ican be like all right, I'm
going to go eat whatever theheck this is.
It looks horrible for me, yeah,but just to get the enjoyment
(22:16):
out of life, I don't have toworry about the effects on my
body.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
I hear what you're saying and I totally agree.
Too many people live to eatrather than eat to live and
that's why we've got the obesityproblem.
Yeah, portion size and whatthey're reading and so forth
Just not right Talking aboutgoing as long as you can, going
up, living the square and thencrashing down at the end.
(22:39):
When I worked in the retirementindustry, as I said, I worked
as a sales manager in thecorporate world and I reported
directly to the board ofdirectors and one of the
directors had a father.
His father was in his early 90sand he lived totally
independently.
He'd lost his wife, still livedin his own home, rode a bike.
(23:01):
In fact, he had only just takenup bike riding because his
knees were aching, running longdistances and we're talking
early 90s here, by the way.
So on a second or third bikeride, a long bike ride he was
doing, he fell off a drop dead.
Uh, on this long distance bikeride, um, and he's um.
(23:22):
He said simon was the guy's namethat I reported to and he said
look, dad lived a very, veryhealthy life.
He would have been happy goingthat way.
He was totally independent,looked after his garden, did the
shopping, vacuumed the house,did everything himself and he
loved exercise.
So the fact that the he diedriding his bike, sure he wasn't
(23:44):
a good look.
When we found his body he saidthat he, he did what he wanted
to right to the very end andstayed active right until the
very end.
What a way to go.
Love that story.
Yeah, so he was either 92 or 93and took up bike riding after a
lifetime of running.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
What a great story.
See what I mean.
That's what it's about justknowing you can do something
like that.
If it's over, it's about beingjust knowing you can do
something like that.
And then, yeah, if it's over,it's fine.
Yeah, I didn't become relianton over the counter drugs and
all this fun medical shit theyhave to worry about.
So, graham, just to kind of getthe big picture of you, how do
we go about changing theconversation for people?
(24:26):
And because we're losing theobesity epidemic, just to be
clear, I don't want to sit hereand act like we're winning.
We're totally getting our buttskicked.
The obesity rate, especially inthe states, goes up
dramatically year on year.
So how do we change theconversation to teach people
what we you and I already know?
We're just bullshitting aboutthings we already know.
(24:48):
But how do we get people thatdon't know and really turn in
the other direction?
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Do you know what you and I know at the coalface,
right in front of our clients?
Because we see our clientsevery day.
We know what to do at thatlevel and if you've been sitting
on the couch, as we saidearlier, and developing a body
that has taken you 15 years todevelop, you're not going to
wind that back in five weeks, soyou need to be patient to wind
that back.
(25:15):
We understand what it's like ona client client, us to a client
basis, but I think it goes fargreater than that.
I think it goes to government.
Governments actually know whathealthy eating is all about, yet
they actually subsidizeindustries that provide food
that we know that's not healthyfor us.
I don't want to becontroversial, but I perhaps
(25:37):
won't mention the industries,but there are many and those
industries provide research thatpushes back against any
negative thought about theirproduct.
But it's funding.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Let me hop in here to help you out real quick,
because I have a stat for you.
Most ultra-processed foodcompanies are owned and you can
look this up by the oldcigarette companies.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, right, so you want to talk about addiction.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
They are the ones that created the ultra-processed
foods.
If you go, look at the ownersof the companies, the suitors of
the old tobacco industry,because they knew they were
getting shut down so they wentand bought all these little
companies.
Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Sorry, I stole that interesting stat yeah, so let's
take that a step further.
In that case, if it comes in abox, comes in a wrapper, it's
not natural.
It, if it comes in a box, comesin a wrapper, it's not natural,
it's been processed.
Keep away from it.
If it comes in a box and ifit's got eyes, ears and feet,
keep away from it as much as youcan.
Eat red meat if you must, inhigh moderation, once a week,
(26:46):
max 150 grams.
I don't know what that is in uhounces in your language.
Um, red meat, um, all meat isso, so high with um, um
medications and so forth thatthey we're getting medication.
Um, what do you call themantibiotics?
Speaker 1 (27:05):
we are developing resistance to antibiotics
because we're eating it I'mgoing to disagree on that just
real quick, because we had awhole podcast on it that
actually comes out tomorrow,next day, this week.
That's why I didn't want to becontroversial.
No, no, it's fine, because it'sthe same conversation.
You're going to agree exactlywith what I'm going to say.
It's not the meat, it's the typeof meat.
It's the fact that we're goingfor cow, pig, chicken, turkey,
(27:28):
right, and those aremass-produced animals.
So in order to get them out, inorder to come on the shelves,
they have to inject them, theyhave to keep them in shit-living
environments.
But if you went and ate realmeat and I'm talking more what
people call gamey meat, superlean, super high in protein,
(27:50):
super low in associated fatthey're not processed in
factories like most of the otheranimals are, so they have no
antibiotics in them, they haveno other resistance and it's one
of the healthiest things youcan put into your body because,
especially as you age, you needcomplete proteins and the only
way to get that is through redmeat or any other kind of animal
(28:10):
products.
So it's not meat and that'swhat that study was for.
It's the types.
I eat a lot of elk, I eat a lotof bison.
I actually ate kangaroo for thefirst time a couple of days ago
, so going back to Australia.
So it's just the types of meatwe're eating, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
So I am predominantly plant-based these days and I
found that when I was a meateater, my joints would ache.
I'd have to have a rest after aday of heavy weightlifting to
rest before I could train again.
As a plant-based predominantlyplant-based my diet is not
inflammatory, it'suninflammatory.
(28:50):
So my joints and muscles aresuch that I can exercise every
day.
Look, I'll come clean.
I'm 75 years of age and Iexercise every day.
I'm doing two or three hours ofexercise every day.
I would not be able to do thatif I was still a meat eater.
I get my protein.
I have to be honest.
I eat a little bit of fish, butI haven't eaten any meat for
(29:13):
probably 10 years.
I get my protein from tofu,nuts and seeds, all the legumes,
and in fact there's protein ineverything that we eat,
everything.
And I basically basically saywe can cut out the middleman,
largely the middleman being themeat.
(29:33):
We can go straight to thesource.
You don't see any weakelephants, gorillas, giraffes.
They're all very, very healthyand strong, and I'm very, very
healthy and strong.
So, um, so I respect everybodythat still likes me, but I um,
you know, respectfully sayanthony, I try and keep away
from it as much and processedmeat, by the way, has been
(29:55):
scientifically proven to becarcinogenic, cancer causing
nitrates and found in like uhcoke cuts probably the worst
thing you can put in your body,yeah, so already I can tell you
that I love you, but I and Idon't want to disagree with you,
but, um, I come from adifferent school, hey, it's all
good.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I have the exact opposite problem.
I suffer from IBSD.
So if I eat anything high infiber, which is your seeds, your
plants I die.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Oh really.
Well then, don't do that.
Eat meat Well then, don't dothat.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Eat meat.
So my diet is 99% meat, withvery little anything added.
Like I will literally just eatlike a pound of elk in a sitting
, wow, wow, but it's awesome.
I highly recommend, by the way,if you haven't had elk, to go,
try elk.
It's phenomenal tasting.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
I have tasted kangaroo way back when Kangaroo
tail soup Beautiful.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Never had that, we know.
Obviously it's hard to get here.
The only thing I could find wasground kangaroo and I tried
making it.
It was leaner than elk, whichis crazy, because elk is super
lean and it's slightly more onthe gamier side, like venison
Right.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Well, you find plenty of kangaroos here.
They're in plague proportionsdown here out in the bush.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
I've talked to a couple of Aussies that have
moved up here and I've heardcrazy stories about kangaroos,
yeah, and they were like what,don't go near them.
I guess it's more like, uh,when you're down South in the U
S, like avoiding the Crocs yeah,you don't want to piss them off
on it.
Total side conversation.
(31:45):
No, but I really a lot of thethings you said.
I still, like I said, Ifull-heartedly believe and I
think you really hit the nail onthe head mentioning the
government side of it, and Icouldn't agree more actually,
with you on that it's the bigcompanies that pay for these
studies, are the reason thatthey come out fake.
(32:06):
And if you don't believe me,I've mentioned this about 400
times.
So if you don't believe me,I've mentioned this about 400
times.
So if you don't know this bynow, you don't listen to my show
.
But back in like the 70s, the USdid a study on the obesity
crisis, because it startedcoming around by then, and they
showed that it was high fats infoods that was causing the
obesity epidemic.
And they didn't just prove thatwas causing the obesity
(32:28):
epidemic, yeah, and they didn'tjust prove that.
For about 20 years later, likeyou remember, like for me
growing up, it was all no fatthis, no fat this, and it was
actually doing a lot of damage.
And then when you go look atthe study, you realize it was
sponsored by the Coca-Colacompany.
So no, shit.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Look, cardiovascular health is a big one and I won't
mention the name of thecardiologist number one because
I can't remember it off the topof my head, but he was the head
of cardiology in a hospital inNew York and he's a plant-based
doctor.
And he went to the board theboard managing the hospital and
(33:07):
said hey, we know what's causingheart disease.
We could stop heart disease.
We just need to reduce theamount of fat that people are
eating so their arteries don'tclog.
We know exactly what's required.
So if we were to implement thistype of diet within the
hospital and start promoting andeducating people around this
(33:27):
topic, he said we're going toreduce the amount of Americans
that have heart disease.
The board of the hospital cameback to me and said what are you
mad?
Are you mad?
How many people do you thinkare going to be out of work?
If we don't have these peoplesick, coming in, needing bypass
operations, needing stents putin, you know how many people
(33:49):
will be able to work.
The hospital will lose so muchrevenue.
How crazy is that?
The head of cardiology at thisgreat big hospital in America.
He resigned from the hospital.
He said I cannot work in anenvironment where we know the
cure, we know what to to do, andyet the hospital will keep on,
uh, promoting you know crap food, because they're being
(34:12):
supported by you know some yeah,coca-cola for example, further,
uh, you look at foods made hereand then foods.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
I think australia is the same as europe, where foods
that you can buy here like youbuy heinz ketchup, right yes, we
got it here.
It doesn't matter, our heinzketchup is different than yours,
ours has like 15, 20ingredients in it.
Yours I think it was last four.
Yeah, so a lot of thesubstances they're putting into
our foods are banned in europe,australia, other, because
(34:46):
they're known to be harmful.
Bring that kind of back towhat's going on now with the US
politics and I don't likegetting into politics because
people are going- to no, that'strue, it doesn't matter, this is
just important.
RFK is coming in and made veryclear the first thing he's going
to ban is red dye 40, which isa byproduct of petroleum and has
(35:06):
been shown time and time againto increase the amount of adhd
levels and anxiety in kids.
And it's the one of the biggestthings found in candies and
sodas, because they use it as afood coloring.
There's no purpose, but thenjust the coloring of a food.
It's banned in most of europeand we still have it on our
(35:27):
shelves, and we're not only that, we're promoting it to kids.
Yeah, that I say he had this.
So that is going to beinteresting to see how things
change here in the States, as hekind of hopefully, fingers
crossed really gets rid of thosethings that we know are
(35:47):
extremely bad for you.
And we don't even advertiseeither on labels or be just
different.
It's just overly processedbullshit.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Anyway, that's just my take on it.
Oh look, australia is the littlebrother, the baby brother, to
whatever happens in America.
Whatever happens there, we dohere, and we do have more strict
labelling on food products thatare 100 miles away from where
(36:19):
it needs to be.
It's still a long way away frombeing totally honest, but
basically, if it has, in my view, if it has eyes, feet, ears,
eat it in high moderation.
Go into a fruit and vegetablestore and eat anything that you
can see and as much of it as youwant.
(36:39):
If it comes in a box, it'sprocessed.
Keep away from it those threethings and you're going to have
a pretty healthy diet.
Alcohol that's plant-based,thank god.
Only a little bit now and again, in in high moderation as well.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
So um we've talked about.
You got to live right 80 20 youhave to have some fun.
You definitely have to have somefun.
And then that's the last point,going back to checking labels,
and I'm sure it's different byyour opinion this year.
But you look at, uh, peanutbutter, and yes, just another
case study.
Go to the grocery store nexttime, read a label.
So the peanut butter industryis the one that's most against
(37:19):
trans fat, the trans fat band,than any other industry.
The reason being is they use itto preserve the peanut butter
and keep it smooth.
Trans fat, also calledpartially hydrogenated oils.
If you read labels and it sayszero grams of trans fat, all
they did was change thenutrition serving to make it 0.4
, so then they can list it atzero.
(37:39):
It's still on there if you readit and you don't even know that
that peanut butter you'reeating, you think it's healthy,
is one of the worst things youcan put in your body.
Oh my God, it kills you.
And you have to be smart enoughto go pick and look at a label
and say, okay, this one doesn'thave it, this one ingredient say
peanuts, so I can have that oneand not the Skippy and the
(38:01):
Peter Pan that have all thesepartial hydrogen and oils in it.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Well, you're sending me right to my pantry to have a
look at my peanut butter now.
I love peanut butter.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
I don't know how it is in Aussie.
I know that's what it is here,though.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
I'll check it out.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Yeah, just read that.
It's usually the secondingredient.
The peanut butter stays smooth.
That's usually the reason.
It either has partially,hydrogen and oil, or it has palm
oil in it.
But, either way, it should notbe like that.
The oil should shift to thebottom, which, by the way, hack
on that.
If you don't want the oilseparating it, throw it in the
refrigerator.
It makes it a little harder toscoop, but the oil won't
(38:37):
separate it out because of thetemperature differential.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Okay, okay, I'm going to check that out as soon as we
finish.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I appreciate it Great .
All right, let's wrap thisepisode up, so I'm going to ask
you the final two questions.
I ask everybody.
First question if you were tosummarise this episode in one
sentence, what would be yourtake on message?
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Could you repeat that please?
Speaker 1 (38:54):
If you were to summarise this episode in a
sentence, what would be yourtake on message?
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Oh, okay.
Well, privilege is the firstword that comes to my mind.
It's been an absolute delightto meet you, anthony, and, and
do this and we've, I think we,we, we come sing from the same
hymn book, so we.
So that's the first thing.
Privilege, we are like-minded,wonderful.
Who get my message out inAmerica, although I'm sure
(39:20):
everybody knows it people talkabout, oh yes, I know that we
need to exercise and only eatwell, get enough sleep, get rest
, have some social interaction,but nobody does it.
So let's get off our butts, getout, get active, uh, and start
winding back the clock I lovethat.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
And the second question how can people find you
get a hold of you, find yourbook?
Go ahead, give it all away,okay my website is
wwwallthewscomau for Australia.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Anybody contact me, I'll be happy to show them what
we do.
They can join in on my onlineclasses if they're interested,
and we actually have an appcoming out, probably February or
March of next year,specifically for over 50s.
We're launching it worldwide.
My son and I, and so the peoplefrom 50 on, can exercise in
(40:21):
their own home.
Lots of pre-recorded exercisesbecome part of our community
worldwide, close Facebook groups, et cetera, et cetera,
different levels.
I won't bore you with all ofthat.
But if anybody said, can yousend me details of what you're
doing next year, I would happilysend them a questionnaire to
(40:41):
get their feedback as we'redesigning, finishing the
designing of the product, andthen, when we start, if they
fill out the questionnaire, behappy to give them a two-month
free subscription to what we'redoing.
So if you go into my website,wwwrenewedafter50.comau, and
contact me, I'll be happy toforward that information onto
(41:04):
them.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
I love it.
Thank you so much, graeme, forjoining us.
Thank you, guys, for listeningto this week's episode of Health
and Fitness Redefined.
Don't forget to hit thatsubscribe button and enjoy this
next week as we dive deeper intothis ever-changing field.
And remember fitness ismedicine Until next time.
So Outro Music.
Hello and welcome to Health and Fitness Redefined.
I'm your host, Anthony Amen,and today we have another great
episode for all of you,especially the Golden Girls.
No, I'm kidding.
But without further ado, let'swelcome to the show, Graham.
Graham, it's a pleasure to haveyou on today.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thank you very much, Anthony.
Pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
We had a nice little conversation.
Graham for those listening isfrom Australia and obviously I
live in New York.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
So I'm talking to my future and he's talking to his
past.
I wish my past was as handsomeas you, anthony.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I wish my future was going to be as handsome as you,
so I'm going to win-win here man, I'll be happy.
I'll take it so with that forthe dude graham.
I know, uh, we're gonna betalking a lot about aging after
50, working out a lot of funstuff, but before we do that,
how did you get into the healthand fitness world?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
okay.
So, uh, in my corporate,anthony, I worked as a sales
manager for a retirementcommunity retirement business
and I saw people in their mid50s that were already frail and
pre-frail.
I saw people in their 80s and90s that were still traveling
the world, still exercising,moving every day and fully
(01:22):
healthy, and I saw everybody inbetween.
When I saw, in fact, aparticular guy, he was in his
mid-50s, a chain smoker, quite ahandsome guy actually, and he
was moving into this retirementcommunity because he wanted
somewhere safe for his wife whenhe passed away.
He's only 55.
(01:42):
And I thought to myself thisjust does not need to be this
way.
And it just motivated mebecause I've been into fitness
ever since I could walkunassisted, ever since I was a
little boy.
And I said to this guy I saidyou know, it doesn't need to be
this way.
We've got gyms and things inhere when you come in and that's
(02:02):
one reason, largely the reasonwhy I got involved seeing people
that had sat on the shelf, saton the couch, eating ice cream
and jelly for 10, 15, 20 yearsand had an accumulation effect
because of that, and then that'shard to reverse when that
happens.
So I thought I can make acontribution here and I formed
(02:24):
Renewed After 50 about well, Iformed it in 2012, but actually
really revved it up during COVIDactually, or just before COVID
in 2018.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Love it.
So you kind of projected rightinto the fitness hormone.
I know obviously you're workingyour retirement Kitty, so that
got you into.
So you're working yourretirement kitty, so that got
you into working with that agepopulation.
So first off, I agree with yourobservation off the bat.
I have seen 87 year olds thatlook better than 45 year olds,
(02:56):
yes, and I wish that was anexaggeration, but it just kind
of shows how important it.
To me the biggest commonalityis exercise, would you agree?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I do.
Um, the other thing that cameto my mind as you were just
responding then is the level ofobesity in our world.
I know that our percentage ofobesity is about the same as
what it is in your country, andthat's because of that
accumulation effect eating thewrong things for too long, but
that's because of thataccumulation effect, eating the
wrong things for too long.
So I actually believe nutritionis number one, but it goes hand
(03:29):
in hand with exercise.
One's no good without the other, because if you've got a good
diet and you're not exercising,you're going to finish up with
poor posture in my joints and soforth.
So some weight resistanceexercise with some cardio is
absolutely what's required as weget older.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, there's a lot of cool research coming out,
especially with that population,as we get more interested in it
.
First and foremost,weightlifting, which was the
bane of that population'sexistence in the beginning where
I don't want to go lift weightswith those 30 year olds, thrown
in teenagers but it's beenshown that that actually that
(04:09):
group needs that more than the18, 20 year olds really do.
When you start looking insideof a human body when it comes to
osteoarthritis, right, thecured osteoarthritis is weight
training.
The cured osteopenia andosteoporritis is weight training
the cure to osteopenia andosteoporosis is weight training.
Yes, yes, so all of these thingshave tied back just to simply
lifting weights and adding inresistance training.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Look, I couldn't agree with you more.
It actually goes further thanthat.
I think weight resistancetraining pushes back against
heart disease, stroke, falls,falls is the greatest killer of
people in the age group 75 andabove.
So balance is important.
So if you've got a good corestrength, a good base strength
(04:54):
through weight resistancetraining, you push back against
all of those things.
Depression it's been proventhat weight resistance training
actually aids mental health.
So all of those things are, uh,beneficiaries of a really good
white training program yeah, andI know you've been saying light
resistance training.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Is there a reason you're going light as opposed to
just general or moderate?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
well, with, with due respect, when, when you're 75,
you don't want to be doing 100pound or 100 kilo bench presses
anymore.
You nor do you want to do, youknow, 15 pound, seven half kilo
Reps, 20 reps of that.
(05:40):
What, what we need to do as weget older is do more power
training.
So that what what we need to doas we get older is do more
power training.
So, uh, so that you can liftthe grandchild, so that you can
lift the shopping into the backof the car, so you can lift the
shopping off the bench into thetop shelf.
They're one-off lifts, so youneed to do.
In fact, I have a power trainingclass for older adults and we
(06:00):
focus on slightly heaviertraining, but not really heavy
training.
As we get older, whether welike it or not, the recovery
time takes a bit longer, thepropensity to injury is greater.
So we need to be a bit morecareful, but still concentrating
(06:21):
on power training.
As opposed to a heavy, a um,it's a word for it as opposed to
a heavyweight training regimeor even a light one, if that
makes sense power training.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
For those that don't understand, just one rep maxes
kind of deal, because that'swhere you, that's what you're
doing when you're lifting achild, right you're yeah,
exactly exactly, yeah, exactly.
Hold on, son, let's do 15 ofthese, yeah but what?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
what I would do is I'd work out what their one rep
max is, uh in a pt session,personal training session, and
then I'd wind it back to 80,because you're never going to
lift your one rep max.
But what you might have to do,uh is your 80 max, and and do,
do that five times and notoverly fatigue.
You want to feel as thoughyou've had a workout, but you
(07:09):
don't.
You don't want to have to havea workout that's going to make
you go home and sleep for therest of the day well, some
people might want to, so itdepends.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, that's right yeah, it's not time after the
gym, anyway, but I just not tobeat a dead horse.
But cardio is great, right, wewant to make sure we're doing
some, especially like speedwalking.
Things like that are amazingfor your cardiovascular system.
But going back to weighttraining, you can do all of that
(07:39):
through it, making sure yourotate your days with light
resistance training and thengoing into more of a power
training program.
I really couldn't agree more.
It's very hard to convincepeople in that age group that
this is what they need to bedoing if they try to fight you
on it.
So how do you overcome that?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Okay.
So two things come to mind.
You talked about weightresistance.
When you get older, weightresistance is king, followed by
cardio, followed by some agilitywork, followed by some core
work, mobility, balance.
All of those things areappropriate for the age group.
So how do I cope with and howdo I introduce training,
(08:24):
whatever it is?
I say to my clients look, you'reapproaching retirement age.
If you're in your mid-50s,you're approaching retirement
age, and I'm not sure about inthe US, but we have a system of
paying in money while you'reworking so that you can draw
down on that retirement.
It's called superannuation.
So our people spend theirlifetime putting together a good
nest egg of superannuation.
So our people spend theirlifetime putting together a good
(08:45):
nest egg of superannuation.
You might have stocks and bonds,you've paid off your house,
you've educated your kids andyou come to a time in your life
where you've got all of thiswealth that you can enjoy, but
unfortunately you haven't bankedfitness dollars along the way.
So by the time you get to theage of being able to appreciate
(09:06):
your wealth, you don't have thefitness or health.
You might have one or twochronic diseases that impede you
from going on overseas trips orwhatever.
So I give them that analogy.
While saying it's never toolate to start, I try and promote
getting going as quickly as youcan, because you need to start
banking those compoundingfitness dollars the same way
(09:29):
you've compounded wealth withyour actual dollars.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
That's true.
We have a 401k, so very similar.
They can build up wealth forretirement.
And I just kind of add to that,we had an 83-year-old that
joined four years ago, and he isnow 87, and he can do a four
and a half minute plank and hehas no, which I think is the
most impressive thing.
But according to him, the bestthing he got out of it is he's
(09:57):
no longer worried about falling.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
He said I know I can catch myself and if I do fall, I
know how to fall and to makesure I don't break a hip or
anything like that, Because,like you said, that's usually a
death sentence for someone atthat age.
Yes, yes.
So it just kind of shows youcan start now, you can start at
83.
You can start at 85.
You can start at 90.
You don't have to be like, well, I'm too old to go do something
(10:22):
like that, which is why I'mhere all the time.
So it's like no, no, no, youneed to start now so you can
draw out the rest of your life.
Really interesting stat, and Ilike mentioning this because
it's true and I'm going toreiterate If you took smoking,
smoke cigarettes right and yousmoked a pack a day every day
(10:45):
for 30 years, you took thatgroup and that group went and
exercised at least three times aweek.
Then you took a group of peoplewho don't smoke, never smoked a
day in their lives, and don'texercise.
Which group lives longer?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Oh, that's a good question.
Oh, that's a good question.
That's a really good question,anthony, I've never thought
about that one.
Well, I've just got stopsmoking, stop smoking in my head
.
But which group would livelonger?
I think the group that didn'tsmoke and didn't exercise.
(11:22):
But the other questions what'syour diet like?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
You know, diet.
They did a whole study on thiswith a thousand people.
Yeah, they did a group study ofit.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
It's the opposite the smokers lived almost twice as
long as the other group.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Really, truly, that's amazing.
But on the flip side of that,the group that, because they had
a bunch of other groups in it,they had a group that exercised
and didn't smoke they lived evenlonger.
Yeah, so it shows the power ofexercise that we know.
Like you said, you hear nosmoking, no smoking, no smoking.
It was drilled in our heads.
How bad smoking is it?
(12:03):
Labels on everything right,smoking can kill you.
Actually, that exercising isgoing to kill you way quicker
than a cigarette is.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, right, okay, that's amazing.
That's really really amazing,because emphysema is one of the
greatest killers of older adultsgoing around.
If you've been a smoker allyour life and you get infocema,
that's a death sentence, a slowdeath sentence.
You finish up running out ofair to breathe.
In fact, in Australia, we're apopulation in total of about 6
(12:36):
million people, and 6 million ofthose people are older adults
older than 55.
And one in three people haveone chronic disease and some
have two or three chronicdiseases by the time they get to
55, 60.
And most of them don't exercise.
It's only a very smallpercentage of people, as you
(12:58):
would know, that have a regularhabit of exercise, and the
biggest reason that they don'texercise is I don't have time,
um, so uh, but yeah, uh.
I could not agree more, andthat is so surprising to hear
that, uh, the smokers livelonger.
Maybe I should take up smokingagain the moral of it is the
(13:19):
non-smokers.
Exercises are the longest yeah,so I'll start with that, I think
.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
I mean.
But let's talk about infancy,right?
So that's something you know.
In like COPD, people are like,oh, that scares you, it's like
you're slowly going to die andyou know it's a death sentence,
right?
People get afraid it and it'slike, oh my God, I'm sorry you
have that.
But then look at theconversation for that same age
group, for type two diabetespeople, people and maybe it's me
and the groups, some peopleI've heard they like joke about
(13:47):
their type 2 diabetes together.
Oh, you have it.
Oh, I have it too.
And how much insulin are youtaking?
Well, look how much I'm taking.
Type 2 diabetes is the samefreaking death sentence as COPD
is.
It just kills you differently.
But both have the same endresult and both are slow,
torturing deaths.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yeah, I agree and and Because of the addiction and
maybe maybe type two diabetessufferers are addicted in a way
as well.
But type two diabetes is moreeasily reversible than getting
off nicotine, which is even moredifficult than heroin to get
off.
So type 2 diabetes, if you getit early enough, go into a
(14:31):
healthy diet.
Recommend a plant-based diet.
You can reverse that in mostcases.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yeah, it's interesting to think about.
So food for thought today,grahamham, that's what we're
talking about, right?
I'm talking instantly.
I'm projecting my future self.
Hey, if you're gonna pick,either stop exercising or start
smoking, start smoking over,stop exercising, but no, I'm
never gonna do that I'm way tooaddicted to the gym.
(15:02):
So, going back to theconversation, bringing in
different things we could focuson as the age group above,
specifically above 50,understanding we're trying to
have hard conversations withthem.
It's a lot to convince someonein the age group that this is
something they need to do now.
It's more important now than itwas when they were younger.
In general, this is my questionbecause I'm not in that age
(15:25):
group, right, and you, I know,work with a lot of people and
you specifically are.
So it's like, okay, what isusually that come-to-God moment
for people in that age group,and what I mean by that is what
have you noticed in people'slives is the trigger for that
(15:45):
that says, oh my god, and youjust start working out like what
happens to?
All of a sudden.
Then they have that doctor cometo the gym okay, um, a couple
of thoughts.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
The first one is most of my clients are women, uh,
and the average age would be 60.
And many of my clients have gotosteopenia.
So they go along to theirdoctor, they go and have a bone
density test.
The doctor says, hey, you'vegot osteopenia.
And they say, oh my God, whatcan I do about that?
(16:19):
And he says you need to goalong to a gym, find a trainer
and do some weight resistanceexercise and build up your bone
strength.
So that's the first thoughtthat comes to mind.
Second one there are chronicdiseases.
Somebody's overweight.
Second one would be people cometo me and say, look, I've got
(16:41):
this tummy, I want exercises toget rid of my tummy.
And I say and they're obviouslyoverweight.
So do you have a refrigeratorin your kitchen?
Yes.
Do you have a lock on it?
No.
Do you have a lock on yourkitchen door?
No, well, get one put on yourkitchen door and stay out of the
kitchen as much as you can,because it won't matter whether
(17:04):
you come to the gym seven days aweek, seven hours a day, if
your diet's not right, you'regoing to continue to put on
weight.
So diet's the first place.
So that type two diabetes, thedoctor says, hey, you need to
start moving, you need to getrid of some weight, otherwise
you're going to die, and thathappens in this age group.
The other thing that I try andpoint home, anthony, is that
(17:28):
there's a thing calledsenescence.
Every living thing on theplanet is born, it matures and
there's a steady decline tilleverything on the planet will
die.
It's inevitable In the case ofa human.
We mature about mid-30s, aroundabout, and then there's that
steady decline.
Now the people that areexercising are going to stay
(17:50):
with a really good range ofmovement, health, strength,
right, hopefully, to the end.
You'll wake up dead one morning.
That's my goal to wake up deadone morning.
Other people that don't exercisewill fall down gradually, go
below the disability line andmaybe spend 5, 10, 15 years at
the end of life in some form ofcare or needing so, and that's
(18:15):
the other thing I say, whetherit's type 2 diabetes, osteopenia
which progresses toosteoporosis, as we know, mental
health, whatever it's been, andI've had all of these people
referred to me by the medicalprofession for all of those
ailments that we've spoken about.
And I say that where do youwant to be?
Do you want to be in care forthe last 10 or 15 years of your
(18:37):
life, or five years, or do youwant to be as healthy as
possible, stay above thedisability line, stay totally
independent for the whole ofyour life and maybe only spend a
short time at the end of life,unwell or with some disease that
eventually is going to get usall?
Speaker 1 (18:56):
I had a guest on about six months ago at this
point and you're going to lovethis.
This is right where youmentioned.
He said I want to live my lifelike a square and not like a
bell curve.
For those that don't get thereference, if you had a plot
from zero to death, a bell curveis a standard deviation.
(19:17):
Bell curve it goes all the wayup.
You peak and then you slowlydecline.
For him, peaked fast all theway alive dead 100% agree.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I want to die as young as possible, as late as
possible.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I want to just not have to worry about going
through torture.
I've watched people for 5, 10,20 years and they just look like
they just want to die and Idon't want that.
I want it, just like you saidin my sleep quick.
If I'm younger, it's fine.
If I'm older, great, whateverthat is.
That's kind of what I'mshooting for, but I want to make
(19:54):
sure that up to like seven daysbefore I die, I'm still like
hiking out west in Arizona,right, or, for you, in central
Australia in that heat, andpeople are looking at me like
what the hell is this guy doing?
And I'm like beating mygrandkids like catch up kind of
(20:15):
deal.
Isn't that what life is about?
We work so much, right?
Most people get into theworkforce 24, 25, 26, roughly.
They start working 40 hours aweek.
They go all the way to they'reabout 65.
So you're talking 40 years thatyou're really committing to
your job.
You restrict your travel, yourestrict your free time.
(20:36):
Job comes priority in order tomake money and supply for your
family.
And then we have this idea thatonce we retire, we're going to
do things.
And we'd say this a lot whenwe're younger, when I'm 25, 30,
35.
When I retire, we're going todo this when I retire, we're
going to do this when I retire25, 30, 35.
When I retire, we're going todo this.
When I retire, we're going todo this.
And then what happens?
You get to retirement age, youget close to it and you see a
part of the population stoptalking about when I retire, I'm
(20:57):
going to do this, because theirhealth has gotten such a shit
and they just have given up onthemselves mentally.
It's no longer a thought.
That's when they becomedepressed.
That's when they becomedepressed.
That's where you really see themental issue.
Step in here, because they justgive up and they no longer are
enjoying talking about whenthey're going to retire, when
they're only a couple years out,at this point, whereas if you
(21:18):
take care of yourself, you needto control and you really put
the work into it and you hadthat compounding health benefits
, like you mentioned before.
Right, like compoundinginterest, compound health and
you build up.
Even over two years, you canturn your life around.
You could be a totallydifferent person.
You could be spry, you could bemobile and you do not have to
worry about going out, hiking,going out, hanging out with the
grandkids.
Food is a huge point which youmentioned before about diet.
(21:42):
I'm a big believer in eating toeat, and what I mean by that is
you eat 80% of your diet.
Well, right.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
But if I'm going to retire and I'm out and I want to
have a couple beers and I wantto go have a fried ice cream,
I'm going to do it because 80%of the time I'm good and I can
compound that over so that 20% Ican be like all right, I'm
going to go eat whatever theheck this is.
It looks horrible for me, yeah,but just to get the enjoyment
(22:16):
out of life, I don't have toworry about the effects on my
body.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
I hear what you're saying and I totally agree.
Too many people live to eatrather than eat to live and
that's why we've got the obesityproblem.
Yeah, portion size and whatthey're reading and so forth
Just not right Talking aboutgoing as long as you can, going
up, living the square and thencrashing down at the end.
(22:39):
When I worked in the retirementindustry, as I said, I worked
as a sales manager in thecorporate world and I reported
directly to the board ofdirectors and one of the
directors had a father.
His father was in his early 90sand he lived totally
independently.
He'd lost his wife, still livedin his own home, rode a bike.
(23:01):
In fact, he had only just takenup bike riding because his
knees were aching, running longdistances and we're talking
early 90s here, by the way.
So on a second or third bikeride, a long bike ride he was
doing, he fell off a drop dead.
Uh, on this long distance bikeride, um, and he's um.
(23:22):
He said simon was the guy's namethat I reported to and he said
look, dad lived a very, veryhealthy life.
He would have been happy goingthat way.
He was totally independent,looked after his garden, did the
shopping, vacuumed the house,did everything himself and he
loved exercise.
So the fact that the he diedriding his bike, sure he wasn't
(23:44):
a good look.
When we found his body he saidthat he, he did what he wanted
to right to the very end andstayed active right until the
very end.
What a way to go.
Love that story.
Yeah, so he was either 92 or 93and took up bike riding after a
lifetime of running.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
What a great story.
See what I mean.
That's what it's about justknowing you can do something
like that.
If it's over, it's about beingjust knowing you can do
something like that.
And then, yeah, if it's over,it's fine.
Yeah, I didn't become relianton over the counter drugs and
all this fun medical shit theyhave to worry about.
So, graham, just to kind of getthe big picture of you, how do
we go about changing theconversation for people?
(24:26):
And because we're losing theobesity epidemic, just to be
clear, I don't want to sit hereand act like we're winning.
We're totally getting our buttskicked.
The obesity rate, especially inthe states, goes up
dramatically year on year.
So how do we change theconversation to teach people
what we you and I already know?
We're just bullshitting aboutthings we already know.
(24:48):
But how do we get people thatdon't know and really turn in
the other direction?
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Do you know what you and I know at the coalface,
right in front of our clients?
Because we see our clientsevery day.
We know what to do at thatlevel and if you've been sitting
on the couch, as we saidearlier, and developing a body
that has taken you 15 years todevelop, you're not going to
wind that back in five weeks, soyou need to be patient to wind
that back.
(25:15):
We understand what it's like ona client client, us to a client
basis, but I think it goes fargreater than that.
I think it goes to government.
Governments actually know whathealthy eating is all about, yet
they actually subsidizeindustries that provide food
that we know that's not healthyfor us.
I don't want to becontroversial, but I perhaps
(25:37):
won't mention the industries,but there are many and those
industries provide research thatpushes back against any
negative thought about theirproduct.
But it's funding.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Let me hop in here to help you out real quick,
because I have a stat for you.
Most ultra-processed foodcompanies are owned and you can
look this up by the oldcigarette companies.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, right, so you want to talk about addiction.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
They are the ones that created the ultra-processed
foods.
If you go, look at the ownersof the companies, the suitors of
the old tobacco industry,because they knew they were
getting shut down so they wentand bought all these little
companies.
Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Sorry, I stole that interesting stat yeah, so let's
take that a step further.
In that case, if it comes in abox, comes in a wrapper, it's
not natural.
It, if it comes in a box, comesin a wrapper, it's not natural,
it's been processed.
Keep away from it.
If it comes in a box and ifit's got eyes, ears and feet,
keep away from it as much as youcan.
Eat red meat if you must, inhigh moderation, once a week,
(26:46):
max 150 grams.
I don't know what that is in uhounces in your language.
Um, red meat, um, all meat isso, so high with um, um
medications and so forth thatthey we're getting medication.
Um, what do you call themantibiotics?
Speaker 1 (27:05):
we are developing resistance to antibiotics
because we're eating it I'mgoing to disagree on that just
real quick, because we had awhole podcast on it that
actually comes out tomorrow,next day, this week.
That's why I didn't want to becontroversial.
No, no, it's fine, because it'sthe same conversation.
You're going to agree exactlywith what I'm going to say.
It's not the meat, it's the typeof meat.
It's the fact that we're goingfor cow, pig, chicken, turkey,
(27:28):
right, and those aremass-produced animals.
So in order to get them out, inorder to come on the shelves,
they have to inject them, theyhave to keep them in shit-living
environments.
But if you went and ate realmeat and I'm talking more what
people call gamey meat, superlean, super high in protein,
(27:50):
super low in associated fatthey're not processed in
factories like most of the otheranimals are, so they have no
antibiotics in them, they haveno other resistance and it's one
of the healthiest things youcan put into your body because,
especially as you age, you needcomplete proteins and the only
way to get that is through redmeat or any other kind of animal
(28:10):
products.
So it's not meat and that'swhat that study was for.
It's the types.
I eat a lot of elk, I eat a lotof bison.
I actually ate kangaroo for thefirst time a couple of days ago
, so going back to Australia.
So it's just the types of meatwe're eating, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
So I am predominantly plant-based these days and I
found that when I was a meateater, my joints would ache.
I'd have to have a rest after aday of heavy weightlifting to
rest before I could train again.
As a plant-based predominantlyplant-based my diet is not
inflammatory, it'suninflammatory.
(28:50):
So my joints and muscles aresuch that I can exercise every
day.
Look, I'll come clean.
I'm 75 years of age and Iexercise every day.
I'm doing two or three hours ofexercise every day.
I would not be able to do thatif I was still a meat eater.
I get my protein.
I have to be honest.
I eat a little bit of fish, butI haven't eaten any meat for
(29:13):
probably 10 years.
I get my protein from tofu,nuts and seeds, all the legumes,
and in fact there's protein ineverything that we eat,
everything.
And I basically basically saywe can cut out the middleman,
largely the middleman being themeat.
(29:33):
We can go straight to thesource.
You don't see any weakelephants, gorillas, giraffes.
They're all very, very healthyand strong, and I'm very, very
healthy and strong.
So, um, so I respect everybodythat still likes me, but I um,
you know, respectfully sayanthony, I try and keep away
from it as much and processedmeat, by the way, has been
(29:55):
scientifically proven to becarcinogenic, cancer causing
nitrates and found in like uhcoke cuts probably the worst
thing you can put in your body,yeah, so already I can tell you
that I love you, but I and Idon't want to disagree with you,
but, um, I come from adifferent school, hey, it's all
good.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I have the exact opposite problem.
I suffer from IBSD.
So if I eat anything high infiber, which is your seeds, your
plants I die.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Oh really.
Well then, don't do that.
Eat meat Well then, don't dothat.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Eat meat.
So my diet is 99% meat, withvery little anything added.
Like I will literally just eatlike a pound of elk in a sitting
, wow, wow, but it's awesome.
I highly recommend, by the way,if you haven't had elk, to go,
try elk.
It's phenomenal tasting.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
I have tasted kangaroo way back when Kangaroo
tail soup Beautiful.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Never had that, we know.
Obviously it's hard to get here.
The only thing I could find wasground kangaroo and I tried
making it.
It was leaner than elk, whichis crazy, because elk is super
lean and it's slightly more onthe gamier side, like venison
Right.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Well, you find plenty of kangaroos here.
They're in plague proportionsdown here out in the bush.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
I've talked to a couple of Aussies that have
moved up here and I've heardcrazy stories about kangaroos,
yeah, and they were like what,don't go near them.
I guess it's more like, uh,when you're down South in the U
S, like avoiding the Crocs yeah,you don't want to piss them off
on it.
Total side conversation.
(31:45):
No, but I really a lot of thethings you said.
I still, like I said, Ifull-heartedly believe and I
think you really hit the nail onthe head mentioning the
government side of it, and Icouldn't agree more actually,
with you on that it's the bigcompanies that pay for these
studies, are the reason thatthey come out fake.
(32:06):
And if you don't believe me,I've mentioned this about 400
times.
So if you don't believe me,I've mentioned this about 400
times.
So if you don't know this bynow, you don't listen to my show
.
But back in like the 70s, the USdid a study on the obesity
crisis, because it startedcoming around by then, and they
showed that it was high fats infoods that was causing the
obesity epidemic.
And they didn't just prove thatwas causing the obesity
(32:28):
epidemic, yeah, and they didn'tjust prove that.
For about 20 years later, likeyou remember, like for me
growing up, it was all no fatthis, no fat this, and it was
actually doing a lot of damage.
And then when you go look atthe study, you realize it was
sponsored by the Coca-Colacompany.
So no, shit.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Look, cardiovascular health is a big one and I won't
mention the name of thecardiologist number one because
I can't remember it off the topof my head, but he was the head
of cardiology in a hospital inNew York and he's a plant-based
doctor.
And he went to the board theboard managing the hospital and
(33:07):
said hey, we know what's causingheart disease.
We could stop heart disease.
We just need to reduce theamount of fat that people are
eating so their arteries don'tclog.
We know exactly what's required.
So if we were to implement thistype of diet within the
hospital and start promoting andeducating people around this
(33:27):
topic, he said we're going toreduce the amount of Americans
that have heart disease.
The board of the hospital cameback to me and said what are you
mad?
Are you mad?
How many people do you thinkare going to be out of work?
If we don't have these peoplesick, coming in, needing bypass
operations, needing stents putin, you know how many people
(33:49):
will be able to work.
The hospital will lose so muchrevenue.
How crazy is that?
The head of cardiology at thisgreat big hospital in America.
He resigned from the hospital.
He said I cannot work in anenvironment where we know the
cure, we know what to to do, andyet the hospital will keep on,
uh, promoting you know crap food, because they're being
(34:12):
supported by you know some yeah,coca-cola for example, further,
uh, you look at foods made hereand then foods.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
I think australia is the same as europe, where foods
that you can buy here like youbuy heinz ketchup, right yes, we
got it here.
It doesn't matter, our heinzketchup is different than yours,
ours has like 15, 20ingredients in it.
Yours I think it was last four.
Yeah, so a lot of thesubstances they're putting into
our foods are banned in europe,australia, other, because
(34:46):
they're known to be harmful.
Bring that kind of back towhat's going on now with the US
politics and I don't likegetting into politics because
people are going- to no, that'strue, it doesn't matter, this is
just important.
RFK is coming in and made veryclear the first thing he's going
to ban is red dye 40, which isa byproduct of petroleum and has
(35:06):
been shown time and time againto increase the amount of adhd
levels and anxiety in kids.
And it's the one of the biggestthings found in candies and
sodas, because they use it as afood coloring.
There's no purpose, but thenjust the coloring of a food.
It's banned in most of europeand we still have it on our
(35:27):
shelves, and we're not only that, we're promoting it to kids.
Yeah, that I say he had this.
So that is going to beinteresting to see how things
change here in the States, as hekind of hopefully, fingers
crossed really gets rid of thosethings that we know are
(35:47):
extremely bad for you.
And we don't even advertiseeither on labels or be just
different.
It's just overly processedbullshit.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Anyway, that's just my take on it.
Oh look, australia is the littlebrother, the baby brother, to
whatever happens in America.
Whatever happens there, we dohere, and we do have more strict
labelling on food products thatare 100 miles away from where
(36:19):
it needs to be.
It's still a long way away frombeing totally honest, but
basically, if it has, in my view, if it has eyes, feet, ears,
eat it in high moderation.
Go into a fruit and vegetablestore and eat anything that you
can see and as much of it as youwant.
(36:39):
If it comes in a box, it'sprocessed.
Keep away from it those threethings and you're going to have
a pretty healthy diet.
Alcohol that's plant-based,thank god.
Only a little bit now and again, in in high moderation as well.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
So um we've talked about.
You got to live right 80 20 youhave to have some fun.
You definitely have to have somefun.
And then that's the last point,going back to checking labels,
and I'm sure it's different byyour opinion this year.
But you look at, uh, peanutbutter, and yes, just another
case study.
Go to the grocery store nexttime, read a label.
So the peanut butter industryis the one that's most against
(37:19):
trans fat, the trans fat band,than any other industry.
The reason being is they use itto preserve the peanut butter
and keep it smooth.
Trans fat, also calledpartially hydrogenated oils.
If you read labels and it sayszero grams of trans fat, all
they did was change thenutrition serving to make it 0.4
, so then they can list it atzero.
(37:39):
It's still on there if you readit and you don't even know that
that peanut butter you'reeating, you think it's healthy,
is one of the worst things youcan put in your body.
Oh my God, it kills you.
And you have to be smart enoughto go pick and look at a label
and say, okay, this one doesn'thave it, this one ingredient say
peanuts, so I can have that oneand not the Skippy and the
(38:01):
Peter Pan that have all thesepartial hydrogen and oils in it.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Well, you're sending me right to my pantry to have a
look at my peanut butter now.
I love peanut butter.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
I don't know how it is in Aussie.
I know that's what it is here,though.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
I'll check it out.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Yeah, just read that.
It's usually the secondingredient.
The peanut butter stays smooth.
That's usually the reason.
It either has partially,hydrogen and oil, or it has palm
oil in it.
But, either way, it should notbe like that.
The oil should shift to thebottom, which, by the way, hack
on that.
If you don't want the oilseparating it, throw it in the
refrigerator.
It makes it a little harder toscoop, but the oil won't
(38:37):
separate it out because of thetemperature differential.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Okay, okay, I'm going to check that out as soon as we
finish.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I appreciate it Great .
All right, let's wrap thisepisode up, so I'm going to ask
you the final two questions.
I ask everybody.
First question if you were tosummarise this episode in one
sentence, what would be yourtake on message?
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Could you repeat that please?
Speaker 1 (38:54):
If you were to summarise this episode in a
sentence, what would be yourtake on message?
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Oh, okay.
Well, privilege is the firstword that comes to my mind.
It's been an absolute delightto meet you, anthony, and, and
do this and we've, I think we,we, we come sing from the same
hymn book, so we.
So that's the first thing.
Privilege, we are like-minded,wonderful.
Who get my message out inAmerica, although I'm sure
(39:20):
everybody knows it people talkabout, oh yes, I know that we
need to exercise and only eatwell, get enough sleep, get rest
, have some social interaction,but nobody does it.
So let's get off our butts, getout, get active, uh, and start
winding back the clock I lovethat.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
And the second question how can people find you
get a hold of you, find yourbook?
Go ahead, give it all away,okay my website is
wwwallthewscomau for Australia.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Anybody contact me, I'll be happy to show them what
we do.
They can join in on my onlineclasses if they're interested,
and we actually have an appcoming out, probably February or
March of next year,specifically for over 50s.
We're launching it worldwide.
My son and I, and so the peoplefrom 50 on, can exercise in
(40:21):
their own home.
Lots of pre-recorded exercisesbecome part of our community
worldwide, close Facebook groups, et cetera, et cetera,
different levels.
I won't bore you with all ofthat.
But if anybody said, can yousend me details of what you're
doing next year, I would happilysend them a questionnaire to
(40:41):
get their feedback as we'redesigning, finishing the
designing of the product, andthen, when we start, if they
fill out the questionnaire, behappy to give them a two-month
free subscription to what we'redoing.
So if you go into my website,wwwrenewedafter50.comau, and
contact me, I'll be happy toforward that information onto
(41:04):
them.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
I love it.
Thank you so much, graeme, forjoining us.
Thank you, guys, for listeningto this week's episode of Health
and Fitness Redefined.
Don't forget to hit thatsubscribe button and enjoy this
next week as we dive deeper intothis ever-changing field.
And remember fitness ismedicine Until next time.
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