weight loss
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Best Practices for Healthy Nutrition
Steve Markusen Featured Photo: First ride of the season and four months until the 2026 state championships. March 25, 2026. Credit: Charlie Markusen Foreword The starting judge lines us up for the first event of the 2017 Minnesota State Senior Cycling Championships: the 10K time trial. It is a miserable spring day: the air temp…
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It’s War: 7 Strategies for Winning the Weight Battle
Photo: Losing the war: three months ago and six pounds lighter. U.S. Senior National Cycling Championships, August 2025. I know the bad news even before stepping on the scale. Over the last several weeks, my pants fit tighter, I feel heavier and my stomach is prone to bouts of indigestion; familiar signs of weight gain.…
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Staying Fit as We Age: Lessons from One of the World’s Best
Photo: Staying fit to keep up with my daughter who is 40 years younger. Big Sandy Opening trailhead after a 7 day 50 mile back pack in the Wind River Range, Wyoming. 2023. The title of the article in the Washington Post caught my eye: At 77, she’s as fit as a 25-year-old. What her…
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My Aching Back: Managing Lower Back Pain
Featured Photo: The origin of my lower back pain: backcountry telemark skiing. Berthoud Pass, CO 1979. Credit Dale Anderson It’s 5:30 AM. Turning off the shower, I grab the squeegee to clean the glass door. Lifting it over my head, I feel a twinge in my lower back— red light. My lower back muscles spasm.…
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Weight Loss: Changing Your Body Set Weight
Photo: Off the beaten path looking at Baker Lake, Klondike Glacier, and Klondike Peak on our way to climb Gannett Peak and a new body set weight. Wyoming, July 2024. Credit Paul Gardner. We walked in circles under grey skies. The air was bitter cold. Thanks to an early season snow storm, two foot high…
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Training with a Plan, Part One: A Disciplined Approach to Achieving Goals
Photo: Achieving goal on Spaceshot, Zion, Utah. Credit: Paul Gardner, 2000 Sitting at my computer, I am listening to the drumbeat of rain on the skylights and day-dreaming about adventure… The position is surreal: a vertical wall split by a single crack. There is no ledge. Called a hanging belay, I am connected to the…
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High Intensity Interval Training: A Fitness Regimen for all Ages and Abilities
Photo: ready to rock the Minnesota Senior Games Time Trial. Perhaps you’ve seen them or participated—group fitness classes at the gym. I mean the ones called cross-fit, boot camp, or alpha. The participants generally range in age 20 to 40 moving from exercise to exercise, sweating and breathing hard. These classes are based on principles…
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Fasting: Critical for Weight Loss
Photo: Pronghorn Peak from Bonneville Pass 5 days into an 8 day through hike in the Wind River Range, WY. At age 65 made possible by strength training, interval training and intermittent fasting. Mark was frustrated. He was out of shape, thirty pounds overweight and pre-diabetic. He came to me for strength training and help…
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Feeding Your Fire: Nutrition for Training, Competition, and Adventure
Featured photo: Bob riding the world famous Slick Rock Bike Trail, Moab, Utah. The heat from the rising sun activates the sweat glands on the back of my neck; drops of sweat snake down the center of my back. It is 6 am on a clear June morning. The deep blue sky outlines the desert…
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What I Learned: Training for Hiking and Backpacking
Featured photo: Escalante wilderness at sunset. The names on the map tell stories: Scorpion Gulch, Deadman Ridge, Carcass Canyon, Fifty Mile Cliffs, Rattlesnake Bench and Little Death Hollow. This is the Escalante, three million acres of National Monument and National Recreation Area in Southern Utah. One of the most remote wilderness areas in the country,…