Intermittent fasting - Living Long and Strong with Verne and Roy

April 21, 2024

#36 Ageing Disgracefully? – Part Three, DIY for Ageing Backwards

The disgraceful fabulosity of ageing backwards; eat for longevity – all hail to cake!; Dave Asprey’s plan to maybe live forever; Dr Kara Fitzgerald; take this ageing backwards quiz!; epigenetic tests to measure ageing; eating for longevity; would you eat a politician?; time-restricted eating; destressing for longevity; grounding, walking in nature

Feature photo, above: My crazily energetic Les Mills Pump class friends at Craigie Leisure Centre

You know the slightly lame jokes some of us start making about birthdays after a certain age: “I’m not having birthdays anymore” (a bad idea), or “I’ve started counting backwards”.

While it would be a dreadful shame to renounce the champagne, cake, prezzies and general hurrah-ness that go with celebrating the anniversary of ones birth, actually ageing backwards would be a fabulously disgraceful approach to getting older.

February 10, 2024

#34 Ageing Disgracefully? Part One

Ageing disgracefully; how old are you really, and does age matter?; vanity vs honesty; 3 ways to measure age; biological age markers; perceived age; psychological age; skin deep; Pitu will make you pretty!; reversing ageing: exercise, meditation and more; Human Growth Hormone promise; massage, the tender trap?

“Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?”

The Beatles

How old are you, really? And does it matter? That’s three questions already, with more to follow.

As this new year dawned – where did the last one go? – and a landmark birthday* (musically speaking) approached, I found myself thinking again about age. How significant is the number, if at all? We all know people who are old at 35, and others who still present as physically, mentally and emotionally young into what’s generally regarded as middle to old age.

Reversing ageing — At my birthday lunch last month, taken in fairly good lighting

December 3, 2022December 4, 2022

#28 Eat right while travelling: Low Carb, No Crap™ goes on holiday

Can you eat right on holiday? Sticking to my Low Carb, No Crap™ plan, or any other healthy lifestyle, may seem impossible. But I believe it can be done. Here’s how Roy and I have been trying to do it… and sometimes even succeeding.

Covid-related lockdowns and other restrictions have had different effects on different people – and brought about varying results. Some turned to so-called comfort food, obeyed the anti-science instructions to hunker down indoors, and naturally put on weight and became unhealthier.

Others – like Roy and me – did the opposite. We’d started on my Low Carb, No Crap™ eating and lifestyle plan just before the axe fell in March 2020. Over the next 18 months, unexpectedly locked down in Western Australia, we got steadily slimmer (Roy) and healthier (both of us) than we’d been for decades.

March 20, 2022April 28, 2022

#19 When to Eat

When to eat might be as important a question as what to eat. VERNE MAREE spills the beans on how Roy and she are faring with Intermittent Fasting (IF) and Time-Restricted Feeding (TRF).

It’s not just what you eat that matters. When you eat is important, too. I’m a firm believer in both intermittent fasting and time-restricted feeding. If you’re not already on track, why not give it a try?

January 7, 2022January 8, 2022

#14 Getting Back on Track after the Festive Season

Getting back on track ASAP after the festive season is a jolly good idea for health and longevity. Fortunately, while you’re still feeling utterly stuffed, it may not be so hard to do.

Have you recently been derailed by mince pies? – or Prosecco, or pavlova, or whatever your seasonal poison may be? I know I have. It doesn’t take long to go off the rails. Fortunately, there’s nothing to stop us getting right back on track – and in the case of Roy and me, that means back on to the Low Carb, No Crap TM eating plan that helped him lose 35kg… and keep it off.

The pics below, taken a year apart, are presented as evidence. (It’s a shame I couldn’t afford a new dress.)

Slim, svelte Roy, Christmas 2020 …

… and again in Christmas 2021

#11 How Much Fat Do We Need to Eat?

How much fat we need depends on other things – how many carbs we can tolerate, for example, and what sort of fat we choose. Saturated fats from sustainably pastured animals is a pretty good start.

Note: The droolworthy featured image (above) is from the cover of The Big Fat Surprise, by Nina Teicholz

I’ve always liked this old 16^th-century English rhyme, mainly because it sounded just like my parents – my tall, skinny, carrot-crunching father and my plump, butter-loving mother. Luckily, though I inherited her penchant for pork crackling, fatty lamb chops and anything sautéed in butter, I also inherited a tendency to Dad’s lanky frame – as long as I curb my cursed sweet tooth!

September 29, 2021October 17, 2021

#2 My Low-carb Lifestyle Plan for Weight Loss

This post explains our low-carb lifestyle: the low-carb, no-crap, whole-food plan that helped my husband Roy lose 35kg over 18 months and come off his blood pressure meds. Apart from what to eat, it’s also about intermittent fasting, cooking from scratch and moderate exercise.

Before photos

Roybeforebaguette

French meal confit

Roy before Nambiti

Roy before wedding

Roy before Singapore

Roy before

After a long summer 2019 of gastronomic excess in France, followed by my extended birthday celebrations in South Africa, then niece Charlie’s fancy wedding in London (via France), and a gluttonish stopover in Singapore, when we got to Perth WA at the end of February 2020, Roy was the first to admit he needed to cut back for a while – but neither of us had the slightest inkling of how successful he was going to be.