The Overarching Goal Of FitOldDog’s Blog Is To Make Our Lives Better Through The Encouragement Of Change For The Better As We Age

Spring really has arrived at last in North Carolina and, though not seen here, both the redbuds and dogwoods are coming out. Photo by FitOldDog

Life is most certainly wet and dynamic, and dynamism requires that one embrace beneficial change.

Avocado, tomato, lettuce, little goat cheese, olives, red pepper, with a dressing of olive oil, Balsamic vinegar, and mustard.

Change of Diet: But what should one change, and how does one know if a particular modification of our lifestyle will reap benefits or not. The absolute answer is that you really cannot know for sure because we are embedded in complex networks, and networks have a way of responding unpredictably. Take food for instance. There is an assumption by many that eating vegetables, fruits and nuts, without recourse to meat, will be good for us personally and the Earth in general. I suspect that this might not the case, simply because of the way ecosystems have worked for millennia on this beautiful planet. For instance, one thing has greatly surprised me about my recent excursion into the Paleo Diet, which is clearly omnivorous in nature. The surprise is that eat a lot more salads, including avocados, and nuts, especially macadamias, and less meat. How odd! The beauty of Paleo is that you eat what you feel like and when you feel like it!

A breakfast of eggs fried in pasture butter and sardines in olive oil. Yum!

The complex web of my personal metabolism certainly had a surprise in store for me. A pleasant surprise, which I most certainly did not predict. Another dietary change that I made in response to Mark Sisson’s great advice was to purchase organic foods when possible, and especially local produce, including farm eggs (I did this already). Just look at the rich orange yellow color of the yolks of free-range eggs, especially when cooked with pasture butter. So, what have these dietary changes done for my Ironman training, if anything, and should they. They’ve given me plenty of energy, and I suspect there is also a positive change in my mental attitude.

FitOldDog is proud of his Ironman, dentist, great Dad son, Nigel, after the race.

Change of Attitude: I love to train for Ironman triathlons, but the last two races resulted in DNFs (the dreaded Did Not Finish), and which your timing chip is snatched away and you are no longer ‘an athlete’ that day, just a failure – if you want to think about it in that way, which I do not! Every day is what you make of it in terms of your attitude. One day I was walking through an institute in which I had been employed for about 15 years, from the front desk back to my office, thinking that “I am in an unfriendly environment and I need to get out of here.” Later that day I was walking along exactly the same hallways thinking “what a great job I have and how well things are going!” Then the light bulb went on, the epiphany; the only thing that had changed was my attitude. It was up to me to be happy or not. It was my call.

FitOldDog on the beautiful Lake Placid Ironman course 2011. Time to train and train some more, whilst being kind to my body!

My last two Ironman races feel like that. DNFs can be demotivating or a valuable lesson, it is your choice. In the first instance, Lake Placid 2012, I was on an excessively high dose of a blood pressure medication, which I have since stopped as my stent-induced hypertension was self-correcting, combined with excessively hot conditions. In the second case, Los Cabos 2013, I wasn’t adequately trained for the bike leg, expecting a very different ride, so I was pulled off of the course. Instead of running until late into the night, by 9:00 pm I was enjoying a Mexican meal with my son, Nigel, who had a great race. It worked out fine, and now I’m all excited, and training hard on the bike (and the swim and the run) for the Lake Placid Ironman 2013. My attitude caused the Los Cabos DNF to just be an educational blip in my training.

Change In Our Sales Pages: finally, I’m learning a whole set of new tricks, as I attempt to become a successful scientist turned businessman. I have a long way to go and a lot to learn. Take the following Twitter exchange, for instance. I was looking over my conversion (success!) statistics for our Plantar Fasciitis Treatment product, a video and manual, where we have two measures of success. #1 number of clicks to the FitOldDog Video Store. #2 number of purchases of the product.

FitOldDog’s Twitter conversation (from top to bottom) with Peep Laja, which is very much appreciated. It is rare to receive gratuitous insightful advice – thanks again, Peep! Click on image to reach his Twitter stream.

My approach to challenges is to study them and try to adapt to the new situation with the goal of finding a solution to any problems. Well, marketing and sales sure are a challenge, and my reading lead me to a blog post entitled, “How To Design Kickass Long Form Sales Pages,” by Peep Laja. The article was excellent, so I wrote to Peep and said so, and he actually replied, much to my surprise. Our brief conversation is provided in the adjacent image, with the bottom line being that my landing page “Still Sucks!” What do I take from this encouraging remark, and encouraging it most certainly is? I have more to learn, will make progress as and when my brain is ready, and this learning process will keep me young at heart.

Financially rich too? Well, that remains to be seen, but happy? Most certainly, especially when I feel that we are helping people.

So, I have achieved one of my goals for this blog, to make my life better through the encouragement of change for the better as I age.

Why don’t you do that for yourself too?

-k @FitOldDog