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Summary
On episode 501 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Chuck Rose, who has spent nearly 50 years developing simple, gradual techniques to integrate nutrition, fitness, and the mind-body connection. After surveying about 500 health books at a Barnes and Noble and finding only 10 worth reading, he wrote the Customize Yourself book series, including Customize Yourself Nutrition, and What I Learned from My 110-Year-Old Mother.
Chuck argues that radical, all-or-nothing changes scare people away from diets and fitness programs, and that a slow, individualized approach works better, especially past 40. He walks through his “more-harm-than-good foods” method: pick one food, cut back a set amount, then celebrate the win before deciding whether to cut further.
The conversation covers French fries, factory-farmed meat, sugar, reading ingredient labels, and why vegetables and organic berries matter, closing with Chuck's own habits at nearly 69 years old, still able to pass the lifeguard fitness test he once worked.
Links
- https://customizeyourself.org
Key Takeaways
- The Customize Yourself approach favors gradual, individualized change over radical overhauls. Chuck says telling someone to stop everything they're doing all at once triggers both physical and psychological alarm bells, which is why people quit.
- Track your “more-harm-than-good” foods and reduce them on a schedule. Pick one food, cut it back by a set amount (like skipping one day of ice cream per week), mark six months out on the calendar, then celebrate before deciding whether to reduce further.
- There are three ways to deal with a harmful food: eliminate, reduce, or replace. Which one works depends on your own personality. Allan says he does better eliminating a food entirely, while others need the gradual reduction Chuck describes.
- Read only the ingredients list on food labels. Chuck says the average American diet is about 16 percent sugar, often hidden in so-called natural foods under names like cane sugar or maltodextrin, and cutting that in half makes a real difference.
- Factory-farmed meat carries real risks beyond nutrition. Antibiotics, steroids, and hormones used to keep sick, overcrowded animals alive end up in the meat, so Chuck recommends grass-fed, grass-finished meat in smaller portions instead.
- Vegetables are central to long-term vitality, and organic matters most for berries. Pesticide residue sticks heavily to berries, so Chuck suggests spending the extra dollar or two on organic there in particular.
- Don't let family tradition or social pressure guilt you out of eating differently. Chuck has seen people, especially women in their 40s and 50s, feel guilty for not eating a grandmother's recipe the old way, when the healthier choice is really theirs to make.
- Don't rely on food to make you happy. Chuck's rule is simple: eat to live, don't live to eat, and find other reliable sources of joy instead.
- Chuck's three strategies to get and stay well: take the gradual approach, thinking evolution rather than revolution; don't let family or tradition guilt-trip you away from the way of eating that serves you; and don't rely on food for happiness, find it elsewhere, even something as simple as playing with a dog for a few minutes a day.
“Think evolution, not revolution.”
Chuck Rose
Another Episode You May Enjoy
Episode 519 – How to end the crash and burn cycle of food addiction with Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson