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Summary
On episode 333 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan replays his KetoFest presentation, “Keto Energy, Now What?”, after the original recording was lost to technical problems. The talk is about what to do once ketosis gives you back your energy: how to point that energy at the things that matter most instead of letting it go to waste.
Allan opens with his own story: at 39 he weighed over 255 pounds and calls himself “the fat bastard” before finding keto, dropping to about 205 pounds, and adding more than 11 pounds of muscle. From there he lays out a framework: define your why (deep, emotional, and fixed), set a real vision of your healthiest, fittest, happiest life, then turn that into a commitment instead of relying on resolutions or willpower.
He closes by walking through the core fitness modalities, strength, endurance, mobility, balance, and speed and agility, and why training each one matters more as we age, tying independence and quality of life directly to how well we maintain them.
Links
- https://40plusfitness.com
Key Takeaways
- Resolutions, diets, and willpower are words built for failure. Allan calls them “weak words”: resolutions rarely stick, diets imply a finite end date, and willpower is a resource that runs out under decision fatigue.
- Commitment is the word to replace them. A commitment, or “vow,” comes from marrying your vision with your why: because you want to be there for your family and stay independent, you commit to keeping your health in check.
- Your why has to be deep, emotional, and fixed. Allan says a why that's just “lose weight” won't sustain you; his own why started with his daughter and grew to include his wife, children, and grandchildren, rooted in self-love.
- Set a vision, not just a goal. Allan defines a vision as picturing your happiest, healthiest, most fit life in detail: what you're doing, what you're capable of, and what that day to day life looks like, not just a number on a scale.
- Fitness is not a look, it's capability. What “fit” means should be defined by what you want to be able to do in your own life, whether that's finishing a Tough Mudder or keeping up with grandkids at the zoo, not a physique standard.
- Strength training fights sarcopenia and osteopenia. Muscle and bone loss accelerate with age, starting around 35 and speeding up after 65, and it's one of the core reasons older adults lose their independence.
- Balance training is a direct defense against a serious risk. One in three people over 65 fall each year, and one in four seniors who fracture a hip from a fall dies within six months of the injury.
- Endurance and mobility keep you moving through daily life. Endurance is the ability to keep going (Allan trained for his 12 mile Tough Mudder mostly by taking stairs and staying active outside), while mobility, loosened by years of sitting and tight muscles, prevents the injuries and back pain that come from compensating movement patterns.
- Speed and agility let you keep “playing.” Allan cites older athletes such as Jack Nicklaus, Louise Adams, and Yuichiro Miura, all of whom trained specifically for what mattered to them well past 65, as proof that targeted training keeps you doing the things you love as you age.
“We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.”
George Bernard Shaw
Another Episode You May Enjoy
Episode 337 – Managing ketogenic diet mistakes with Eric Stein
