Wake Up Eager Workforce 
Episode 98 Transcript

Suzie Price: [00:00:00]

Hi there! We are back with the Wake Up Eager Workforce Podcast and today is a Wake Up Eager Mind Body Spirit episode. I'm talking with a 93 year old runner who didn't start running until his 70s and he's still running today. He just did a 10K last month. He's got great insight to share with us about staying fit and healthy, and a bit about his journey, and I'm eager to share it with you. Hit it. Michael.

Intro/Outro: [00:00:28]

Welcome to the Wake Up Eager Workforce Podcast, a show designed for leaders, trainers and consultants who are responsible for employee selection and professional development. Each episode is packed full with insider tips, best practices, expert interviews, and inspiration. Please welcome the host who is helping leaders, trainers and consultants everywhere Suzie Price.

Suzie Price: [00:00:59]

Hi, my name is Suzie Price and you are listening to the Wake Up Eager Workforce Podcast, where we cover everything related to helping you and the employees in your organizations build a high commitment, low drama, wake up eager workforce. Bottom line, we want to help leaders in organizations make good decisions about their people. And in this podcast and the work we do every day, we provide tools, tips, and expert interviews designed to help create wake up eager individuals, teams, leaders, and the entire workforce. I am excited about this episode because this gets us to some personal development topics, and there's nothing more important than feeling healthy and confident and being able to move about in the world with that level of confidence. It's hard to have that level of confidence when we don't feel well and we're spending time in the medical system, and that's kind of one of my big objectives and has been for many years, is to stay healthy and take control of my own well being, and that's something I can work on. I can't always control everything, but I can control how I spend my time, what I eat, making sure I feel good in my body, paying attention when I don't. I love the statement that the greatest wealth is health, and it reminds us that no matter what our financial possessions may be, health is our most valuable asset. If we don't have that, then it doesn't matter how successful we are or how much money we have.

Suzie Price: [00:02:21]

So we've got to prioritize this. And it's not easy to do in this busy world. And we're all working so hard and we have so much to do and so much to juggle. So I like these reminders. We have much material on our website related to waking up eager personally, and I'll link to a lot of that in the show notes. But that's why we're kind of coming back to this topic a little bit. Plus, it's the end of the year. We'll be in January soon, where we're all thinking about, oh, I should have been a little more, more healthy during November and December. So this will be a little start of that where you'll have some insights. This is episode 98 and we're talking about Healthy Aging Secrets from Augie Leone. He's a 93 year old marathoner. He's going to talk about the Nutritarian Lifestyle and Diet. You're going to learn about a new diet lifestyle. It's not that new, but it's very specific. You'll understand some of it and might be of interest to you. We're going to talk about its benefits for health and longevity. We give you lots of resources and tools related to it. And then he's going to talk about his personal influences and healthy habits. If you want to look at the show notes and look at all the links to the resources that we talk about here today, go to pricelessprofessional.com/healthyagingsecrets.

Suzie Price: [00:03:40]

I want to tell you a little bit about Augie's bio. He has a story of a happy and fulfilling life. You're going to hear that in his conversation. He was born. I love to tell the date because we're highlighting the fact that he's living so well into his 90s. He was born January the 8th, 1930. He was born in Kankakee, Illinois. I'm sure I'm not saying that city correctly. He got a mathematics degree in 1952, and then he joined the Air Force and was a first lieutenant, spent some time in Greenland. He married his wife, Josephine. He refers to her as dear wife, very affectionately and sweet, in 1956. He has three children, four grandchildren and no great grandchildren, but has been married 67 years. He went back and got a mechanical engineering degree, and throughout his career he spent time at Johnson & Johnson and General Foods. He specialized in packaging equipment for products. He retired early in 1987, and he talks a bit about some of the things that he appreciates in his life. His wife, Josie, was a mom, but she also played the keyboard and was a leader of her own dance band. How cool is that? Right? And it was called Jo and The Boys, and they played every Saturday night, and it was Augie's job to drive the group to the gig and set up the band. That sounds like so much fun. I mean, I wish they had been my parents. Sounds like they were having fun and being creative. He mentions here that he was a scuba diver at one point, and he talks a little bit in our discussion about taking a beginner running course in his early 40s.

Suzie Price: [00:05:18]

And then kind of work took over and he got away from running, but then he started back running when he retired and was living in Florida, which is a great dream. What he says was my dream life, to be able to run and do the cruising, they do a ton of cruises. He talks about that and then the Nutritarian Diet. He started in his 70s in 2002, and he credits that for his ability to continue to run and and and run past most runners age out at about 75, I think he says 75, 79. And the fact that he's 93 and just did a 10K this month is amazing. So they live in Jacksonville, Florida now. And he says his overall goal is to maintain a healthy lifestyle running, cruising and enjoying our family. And I want to make a note. We had a few technical challenges with the volume on his iPad, so neither one of us thought about turning the volume up. So we're going to patch in some of my questions, because we spent a little bit of time saying, can you hear me? So it's a little awkward there. That's okay. The content that he shares, he's a wonderful individual and I know you'll get a lot from it. So let's go to the discussion now. Hi, Augie. Thank you for being here today.

Augie Leone: [00:06:32]

Well, thank you, Suzie. I'm actually honored that you're offering me this opportunity.

Suzie Price: [00:06:37]

I'm so glad to learn about you. I've been reading your forum posts and just so excited about what you represent and what you have to share. And so we'll jump right in. And I'm going to ask you to talk a little bit about your wonderful running journey and about the Nutritarian way of eating, and talk a little bit about how you started this, why you started it, how you stick with it, and anything you want to share.

Augie Leone: [00:07:02]

I just want to start off by saying, yes, I am a Nutritarian and I really fully believe that at my age, 93, I'm only here and running because of my conversion to the Nutritarian diet. Now, we say it's a diet, but it's not really a diet. It's a healthy eating lifestyle. But I was 70 before I took charge of my health and made that a top priority. And that's when I started reading books on vegetarianism, veganism and even tried all raw. Then I finally found the book Eat to Live by Dr. Fuhrman, and that was my inspiration. Now, I have told many, mostly on cruises, that I'm a Nutritarian. No one has ever heard that word before. So just for those who don't know, it's a high nutrient plant based diet. It means eating only the healthiest foods. So the healthiest foods make the healthiest diet now, as they say. What a concept. It is not a starvation diet. Now, I've been on this diet for over 20 years, and I started out at 165lbs. I got down after a few months to 140 and stayed there for years. Now I'm at 135lbs.

Suzie Price: [00:08:21]

Wow.

Augie Leone: [00:08:22]

And that's Dr. Fuhrman's weight for my height of five foot six inches. Now for some of my other health statistics, I take no prescriptions. I'm proud of that one. My cholesterol is in the 150 range. My resting pulse is around 46. Now, I have what I call an Omron Fat Scale, and that gives me a body fat of like 14.6%, a visceral fat of 5%. And the one I like, I think is funny. It says my body age is 44.

Suzie Price: [00:08:55]

Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Love that.

Augie Leone: [00:08:59]

Now, I think this diet is so beneficial and so good because it keeps your arteries clean, so clean arteries. You don't get the common diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease, dementia, high cholesterol. So it will keep them clean. And if you have clogged arteries, this diet will clear them. Guaranteed. It may take 3 to 6 months, but it will happen. And I'm, as I say, one of the ones that says it does work. Now I'll start off on my running if that's okay with you here.

Suzie Price: [00:09:34]

Oh, that would be great. That would be great. I love your description of the Nutritarian diet. Very clear and the benefits are very clear. Let's talk a little bit about your running, which is I see your posts, you have a conversation with some other runners on the Fuhrman Forum, and I think last week or recently you ran a 10K. I think that's amazing. Talk a little bit about your running, how you started and a little bit about that.

Augie Leone: [00:10:00]

Okay. Well, my introduction to running actually was back in my late 40s don't know why, but I joined a beginners running club at a Kankakee, Illinois YMCA at six in the morning before work and we finally got up to three miles. But I only did that a couple of years, and I had an unexpected job transfer from Illinois to Michigan, and that ended my running. Then it was 18 years later that I started running again when I was living in Florida on A-1-A. And that was like a dream life from the cold weather to running along the ocean. Anyway, I was about to turn 70 and thought, what can I do special for my 70th birthday? And our local running store had a training program for a marathon at Disney on January the 9th, 2020. That was one day after my 70th birthday, so that was perfect timing, so I joined them and couldn't believe I was doing training runs up to 18 miles. But it worked and I ran my first marathon at 70. Now I was hooked. I became a marathon maniac after that. I ran 48 marathons in the next 16 years, averaging three a year. And two of those were 50Ks, 31 miles, which is the start of ultramarathons. And I did those at age 82 and 83. So anyway, I did Disney four times. Now, Disney sounds like fun, but actually most of the run is in the service roads between theme parks. And then I did Boston three times. I qualified for my first Boston in Chicago with 4 hours, 29 minutes and 24 seconds. That was my fastest. And one year I did Boston and New York just two weeks apart. I did one international that was London, going past all the sites and ending in Buckingham Palace.

Augie Leone: [00:11:58]

But my favorite marathon though, is Anchorage, Alaska, and that's why I did that four times. What's good about that is just a wildlife preserve. No roads, no cars, just runners and bicycles. And each year I saw a moose and calf along the way. And that was my last marathon at age 85. And along the way I did 36 half marathons, 5 sprint triathlons. A sprint triathlon is a quarter mile ocean swim, 12 mile bike ride, and a 5K. They're a lot of fun. I've done up to 20,000 miles running up to 450 races. Now all races aren't the same and sometimes I even surprise and amaze myself anyway. My favorite race is the Jacksonville Gate River run 15K, that's 9.3 miles. It's a famous race because it's for the national championship, so there's up to 18,000 runners through that race. So I'm the oldest to ever run that one now doing it 22 times. And I'm registered for next year. I'm proud of what I've done, but it's not what I've done, but the age at which I started and I started when most runners age out and they age out because of heart trouble. Most runners age out between 75 and 79. We find very few runners after that, and that's what I say is because of heart trouble. So you have to stay heart healthy. And a healthy diet is the only way. And I think the Nutritarian diet is the best. So that would lead me into how I started the Nutritarian diet.

Suzie Price: [00:13:51]

Yes. Let's talk about that.

Augie Leone: [00:13:53]

I was fortunate in my life, in my younger days, my childhood days where we had a garden and ate right out of a garden, but we moved and eventually evolved into the standard American diet. And my dad in particular, became a heavy steak and potato eater and didn't realize how fatal the words were. When I heard the doctor tell my dad, you're a very sick man, but he died at 84 from colon cancer, and it was my firm belief that the meat and potato eating was the cause. So that was the seed, but didn't change my diet for years after that. It wasn't actually until I finished my first marathon that I decided to make health my priority. And that's when I found the Furhman's book Eat to Live. And it made sense. And it tells you what you could expect from the diet. One thing about common sense I always like to comment on is butter. Butter is 100% fat, goes right straight to your fat cells, has no nutritional value. So why on earth should you eat butter? And the book also debunks all the myths about diet that the food industry puts out there. Like eating chicken and fish is better than beef. Well, that's not true. All animals doesn't make any difference which it is. All have the same amount of cholesterol. The body makes all the cholesterol it needs.

Augie Leone: [00:15:19]

So any additional cholesterol just goes to clogging the arteries. It's just that simple. No, the only difference between chicken and fish and meat is the amount of saturated fat. That's it. That's all they're promoting anyway. I don't know how to emphasize how bad animal protein is for the body. Another myth, and that includes chicken that includes eggs, cheese and milk. Now another myth is milk for calcium. That's not true, but you're going to have to read the book to explain that one. Figure that one out and another one is orange juice for vitamin C, a glass of juice will have like 6 to 8 oranges. That's way too much sugar. So don't drink juice. Just eat the fruit and you get all you need. There's another one Dr. Fuhrman says no SOS. That means no salt, no oil, no sugar. That's part of the diet. I like what Dr. Fuhrman says. This diet is a longevity eating lifestyle. Weight loss is a side benefit. So longevity is what got my attention and what I like about it. He also states in another way, it sustains excellent health, delays aging, and gives you a long, active life. So I can say it has done all that for me. And it's not because I have good genes. You have to earn it. I think that ends that question.

Suzie Price: [00:16:41]

That's excellent. That's excellent. The long running career that you have is tied completely to your diet. I know people comment, what I've noticed from my working out is how I can work out so much longer now that I've been on the Nutritarian diet. I don't have aches and pains. It's anti-inflammatory. Some people have commented to me about how much I work out, and I always turn it back to kind of like what you're saying. I attribute it to the diet. I can work out long and hard, better than when I was in my 20s and 30s because of the diet. And then I'm not feeling better because I'm working out. I'm feeling better because of the diet. So I like your sharing of the diet and how it's let you, let you continue to be passionate about your running career. That's fantastic. Talk about the biggest challenge to getting started and talk going on cruises. How do you stay on the diet? Talk a little bit about any of that.

Augie Leone: [00:17:41]

Okay. Well, as I always say, my biggest challenge was my dear wife wasn't too enthusiastic about the diet. And she says, if you want to eat this way, you got to prepare it. So me, who never prepared a meal in our 40 years of marriage, took over the kitchen except for making soup. Now, I surely didn't do too well at the start, but unfortunately she put up with it, so I didn't have any setbacks. In my 16 years of running marathons, I was in a mood. I was like possessed, ecstatic, fanatical. All that about running and the diet. So that's what kept me going. Now, I did have those setbacks when I started cruising, because going into the dining room was a cruise thing to do, and even though I ate the vegan menus and salads, I was still put on 3 or 4lbs at the end of a cruise. So we finally decided no dining room. So we just have a breakfast and a late afternoon large salad and sometimes might have a couple hors d'oeuvres in the evening. So basically we went to a two meal day and we went two meal days cruising and at home. And that solved that issue there.

Suzie Price: [00:18:52]

Do you find you get hungry? Some people might be listening and wondering if you get hungry.

Augie Leone: [00:18:56]

Well, somewhat, but it wasn't that bad. That did bother us. Both of us feel fine with just a two meal day and it's worked out great. I think that's what caused me to drop that pound from 140 to 135.

Suzie Price: [00:19:14]

What I have found is the high nutrients. Eating a lot of nutrients makes me less hungry than when I was eating other food. Do you find that the nutrients in the food, all the vegetables and all the minerals and the nuts and the seeds and all that? That helps a lot.

Augie Leone: [00:19:31]

Yes, actually, my dear wife and she says she's full from eating the vegetables, a good variety of vegetables in the salad. And we try to mix them up. But that's my job, I do. I pick that out and beans in there are a must. That's part of the diet. There's a lot that doesn't go into what consists of the diet.

Suzie Price: [00:19:54]

Do that. Share that if you would. What consists the diet do the GBOMBs or sharing or that if you're open to it.

Augie Leone: [00:20:02]

Well, the diet has particular food groups you have to have. And that is a large salad is mandatory: a half a cup of beans, medium every day, 3 to 4 fruits every day, some nuts and seeds every day. And I think I might miss something here. But anyway, those are required every day and they're easy to get.

Suzie Price: [00:20:24]

He uses an acronym in the book and I'll just share it real quick here. The acronym is GBOMBs.

Augie Leone: [00:20:29]

Acronym and GBOMBs. Yeah, the GBOMBS, green beans, onions, mushrooms, berries and seeds. That's what's required.

Suzie Price: [00:20:37]

Yes. That is according to Fuhrman in the book Eat to Live are the nutrients that give us the longest life, the longest, healthiest life. They're the nutrients for longevity and anti-aging. The GBOMBs. So yes. What else do you want to say? About the diet and about running and staying consistent and strong.

Augie Leone: [00:21:01]

Let's see if I can get back into my running. That's my favorite subject anyway. People always ask me if I run every day. Of course not. Now I'm down to like three days a week, and I do the same thing on cruises. I'm up at 6 a.m. on the jogging track and I'm not alone. So during the week here at home, I have Saturday and Sunday morning running groups, and I meet them at 6:30 every morning. That means I set the alarm at 5:30 and I get waking up eager, going to meet my friends, and usually I do 3 to 4 miles, but I always get in one 6 miler a week just to maintain my endurance for the 15K. No, as I say, I don't run steadily. I go for a run. I have a beeper that sets off every 30s so I don't walk any longer than my 30s, but I can run longer depending on how I feel. Now that's one other thing. I have some affirmations that I like and that is pick a dream goal and that affects your whole life.

Augie Leone: [00:22:10]

A dream goal makes you something to focus on and that sparks your life. That's an important item. And I go by that. My dream goal was a marathon. Now it's to maintain that 15K and a half marathon is still in my mind. So you have to pick your own dream goal. One other item I like to bring up here though, is there's a benefit of fitness. It's not easy staying fit, but few people can do what I do. What I like to say is you got to exercise beyond your comfort zone. That means you have to sweat. I feel comfortable and I like to push the limits of the body and the races do that. So I kind of feel like that's my secret to life.

Suzie Price: [00:22:55]

Love it.

Augie Leone: [00:22:56]

There's one more comment in there. Clint Eastwood recently turned 93, and he has this saying, when I get up in the morning, I don't let the old man in and running and this diet, I don't let the old man in.

Suzie Price: [00:23:11]

I love that, I love that, Augie. That's beautiful. Beautiful. Okay, Augie, let's talk a little bit more about who most influenced you in your life and other things that you would like to share that are inspiring or meaningful to you about life, and any advice you'd like to give?

Augie Leone: [00:23:29]

I can't point to anyone who influenced me other than my mother and kind of influenced me to pick my dear wife, and that worked out great. We've been married 67 years, but what I really learned the most from was my part time jobs. I think I had a lot of part time jobs, and I had one job between college semesters working in a furniture manufacturing plant, and I saw what it was like working on a production line and I just didn't want part of that. Now, in my college days, the draft, there was a military draft, two years in the Army, so I wanted a different experience. So I took four years in the Air Force and that was one of my best decisions. I wasn't a pilot, but I sat behind the pilot in a jet fighter aircraft and I really enjoyed that. And it was a great four years. Then after I was discharged. I went to the University of Illinois and got my degree in mechanical engineering. So basically my part time jobs influenced me the most.

Suzie Price: [00:24:31]

That's wonderful. Thank you. Let's go to waking up eager things that you do for your mind, body and spirit.

Augie Leone: [00:24:38]

Well runners are a great example of waking up easier. Who else? Who else gets up at 5:30? Set the alarm at 5:30. I'm willing to drive 30 miles or do a 5K race in only 3.1 miles and I drive 17 miles from my Saturday run, 12 miles for my Sunday run. We do that just for the camaraderie of our fellow runners. And you know, I have to admit though, at races and I do a lot of those, I like the attention I get because everybody likes to talk to me and congratulate me for all I do. And they always say, I want to be like you when I grow up.

Suzie Price: [00:25:20]

That's wonderful. So are there other things that you do for mind, body and spirit that help you wake up eager?

Augie Leone: [00:25:27]

Well, besides running and a little exercise, no, that's my life right now. I have to say that running is my exercise, and cruising is our other hobby right now. That's really our life. My life right now.

Suzie Price: [00:25:43]

Yeah. I was just wondering, Augie, if you had additional advice, additional tips for people who are listening, who are younger to have a good life. You're living a good life. Told us some of the secrets. Didn't know if there was anything else you wanted to share.

Augie Leone: [00:25:59]

If I had it to do over again, I would have become an endurance ultra runner because I really enjoyed long distances and other things I would do, in my days I was very active on boards of directors of different clubs, but I never joined a running club for some reason. So I feel guilty there and if I had to do it over again, I would do that. One sad thing though, I just found out a runner, a girl 50 years old, did a 5K two years ago, is now in hospice care due to breast cancer and it expanded. And now cancer is something that starts years before you get any symptoms. Now, this diet besides other things, if you start early enough, will prevent cancer. So you never know what's in the future. And I feel like cancer would have been my fate by now had I not started this diet. 

Suzie Price: [00:26:54]

Yes. Health is wealth. And the diet helps us be healthy so that we can feel wealthy and live long. Yes. Okay, Augie, you have a really good billboard that you'd like to share. And this is one you put anywhere. What would you say on the billboard and what advice would you add there for everyone to see?

Augie Leone: [00:27:14]

Oh that one. Well, there's only one line I could do there that would say "Go Nutritarian and you will wake up eager." That's about just that one line. That's about it.

Suzie Price: [00:27:24]

Any tips on getting started with the Nutritarian diet? Have you had friends who started the Nutritarian diet and struggled with it? Any tips around that?

Augie Leone: [00:27:33]

I have to admit, one time I had the optometrist I was going with. He was impressed and he started on the Nutritarian diet and I went in to get into his office and he gave me a bottle of wine. He said, thank you for getting me started on this diet and had a talk at a Rotary Club. And the guy who asked me to do the speech, he started the diet. He gave me a letter saying that he started the diet and he thanked me for that. And I have others that make comments to me, so I'm sure I'm influencing some that I don't realize. At least that's my thinking anyway.

Suzie Price: [00:28:11]

Wonderful, wonderful. And then we'll close with Augie. One more chance to share some wisdom or advice from your life. What you want everyone listening here today to take away from our discussion about health, fitness and nutrition. What would you share?

Augie Leone: [00:28:25]

Well, I'd like to remember that I think it's the best eating lifestyle ever developed and you have to read one of his books, research the word Nutritarian, and you're going to find Dr. Fuhrman and his book Eat for Life. Now, that's the one I recommend. Now, as he says in his book, and it is true, you have to have the knowledge of the diet and why it works. And that's what helps you stick with it. So the knowledge of the diet is important. Now, as I like to say, don't worry, be pulled, don't worry about peer pressure. Just stick with this diet here. As they say, your health is your responsibility. No one else. You have to believe in it and stick with it. That's been my motto and my goal. Another important thing about this thing, it's not just diet you have to exercise. So I think a minimum would be to get up to a one hour walk, a steady walk to build up your pulse a little bit. Of course running, tennis, cycling, swimming are all great and martial arts would be fantastic. Even Zumba classes would be good. Anything exercise. I like to say I'm an example, but it's up to you. You have to do it for your own purposes. And this book will give you the guideline of how to get there. But you have to want it. And that's the desire. I feel like this diet is the method, but it's up to you.

Suzie Price: [00:29:54]

Wonderful. Well, Augie, thank you. This has been wonderful. I appreciate you, and I can't wait to share this with my friends and family and my co-workers and colleagues. Thank you for being a great role model, and thank you for taking time to be here today on the podcast. Thank you.

Augie Leone: [00:30:14]

I just want to say last year my dear wife and I are enjoying our retirement years, traveling and watching our grandkids grow up. Now cruising is our other, other activity. So we're waking up eager to go cruising. Now we've been on like 200 cruises and put that in perspective. That's like living on a cruise ship for four years. So I wish you all good health. Thank you Suzie! 

Suzie Price: [00:30:41]

We want to be like you, Augie. You're our role model. We love you and appreciate you and thank you. And I love that you're cruising and being an example of the good life. Happy life. Healthy. Happy. Energized. Feeling good. So thank you.

Augie Leone: [00:30:56]

Thank you Suzie. Wish everybody good health.

Suzie Price: [00:30:59]

So I hope you feel inspired from Augie and interested in his example, the show notes for today, the links to the book we talked about and other resources that pricelessprofessional.com/healthyagingsecrets. It's all one word pricelessprofessional.com/healthyagingsecrets. There you'll get links to everything and the recording. And you can listen to the podcast anywhere that you listen to podcasts. So type in Wake Up Eager Workforce and you'll find us.

Suzie Price: [00:31:30]

I want to share some of my favorite insights from this episode, and just kind of recap and remind you of what he shared. And then I'm going to share a little bit about my journey with the Nutritarian diet. Not a lot, but a little bit after I kind of recap some of the favorite things just to kind of bring some points home, Augie says, I fully believe that at my age, at 93, I'm only here running because of my conversion to the Nutritarian diet. And so that's kind of why I want to share a little bit about what I've experienced. And so I do feel like I'm aging backwards because I feel so much better. And it has to do with the arteries and less inflammation. I like that he said that because I think, man, how can I be feeling so good? And he's kind of confirming it based on his age and interest. So as a reminder, what is the Nutritarian diet? It's a high nutrient plant-based diet.

Suzie Price: [00:32:25]

So it's getting all these nutrients into your body so that you feel good. And it means eating only the healthiest foods. So easily said and kind of common sense. But sometimes we don't live common sense based on all the pressures we have in our life and the marketing and all the confusion about diets. But basically, the healthiest foods make the healthiest diet. So we want to figure out what those foods are. That's kind of why I'm so excited about this whole program, because it has made me feel great and it's so easy once you're on it and it's like, oh yeah, that makes sense. Eat the healthiest foods, eat the things that make people live longer and focus on that. So he's a great example because listen to his health statistics. He said he has no prescriptions. His cholesterol is at 150. His resting pulse rate is around 46. And he does that fat scale, which having extra fat on our body is what creates a lot of storms in our body, creates more artery issues and more immune issues. And he has a body fat of 14.6% and a visceral fat of 5%. And the body age, which he chuckled at and liked this a lot. His Body Age at 93 is 44, based on that Omron Fat Scale, which is very cool.

Suzie Price: [00:33:44]

He says that, I think this diet is so beneficial and so good because it keeps your arteries clean, so with clean arteries, you don't get common diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease, dementia, high cholesterol, cancer. He recaps his running, saying he's run up to 20,000 miles, up to 450 races. And again, that statement about most runners age out between 75 and 79, and he's still going. And what we all know is it's not easy to stay fit, but people can do it. And he's an example of that. And he says, you've got to exercise beyond your comfort zone. That means you have to sweat. You have to push the limits of the body. And for him, the races do that. And it's cool that Clint Eastwood is the same age as him. Clint has this saying, when I get up in the morning, I don't let the old man in. I don't let the old man in. And so for Augie, running and this diet is his way of not letting the old man in. And as they say, your health is your responsibility. No one else, just you. That was kind of the final statement from Augie.

Suzie Price: [00:35:05]

So on that last point, it's our responsibility. And I mentioned that I have really focused on this. I didn't grow up with family members who were focused on this or health conscious or athletic. I mean, there was no family environment that made this a priority. But somehow, some way I gravitated towards it early on, and I think it was just wanting to have an outlet. So I ended up going and doing aerobics, and that has turned into a whole thing in my life. But I think it became a way to control my life, my stress, to find confidence. And somehow out of all of that, people around me and mentors and kind of getting into the kind of fitness group has been a habit that I've cultivated, not been perfect at it. It ebbed and flowed. Been better sometimes than others, but I have found that every time I get back to it, I feel better. I feel better when I'm taking care of myself. I feel better that I'm taking that time and putting myself first in a way so that I can be available to others. We can't give to others what we don't have within ourselves, and if you don't feel good in your body and feel confident in who you are and aren't rested, and you physically feel awful when you walk into a room, it just is not a combination of being able to be of great help to others.

Suzie Price: [00:36:28]

And then I liked what Augie said about not worrying much about what other people think. So you're not doing the fitness, or you're not eating in a way that you're worried about. Other people are going to think I'm weird. You just get focused on what is it that I have to do to feel good in my body? And then that's a journey for all of us. So there's a great amount of confidence and ease that can come from it as a result. And you can hear that in Augie. He has a lot of pride in the best kind of way. You have pride where you just feel good about your capability. You're not worried about your ability to live well. And you hear his bio that I read, they are living and have lived a good life, and you can learn so much from other people around us. We have instant mentors and Augie is one of them. So over the years I've tried every kind of eating style and I've found it interesting. It has all been informative, but for the last three years or so, I've been eating the Nutritarian way like Augie, and I've seen incredible results, so it's heartening for me to see him talk about it, because nobody's really that interested in your results, and you don't want to really talk about yourself so much, but I am in this episode because it's just incredible that this is possible.

Suzie Price: [00:37:51]

So it's not necessarily about me. It's about saying, hey, this is possible. We can feel better. And so for me, I'm back in my high school weight, low cholesterol, low body fat numbers, all the things that he was talking about. I turned 59 this year. I'm able to work out longer and harder, higher and faster than I did 30 years ago. So I've always kind of stayed in the fitness game a little bit, sometimes more than others. But now it's like, who is this person doing this that has no aches and pains, all the inflammation and things that you get as you get older. It's not a given. We have the ability to take control of that. We have the ability to try to improve our sleep and make our energy stronger. We're not a victim of old age or getting older, and my joke always is on my birthday and all my family members know, I said, oh, I'm 29 again. And this is the first couple of years where I've actually liked it. I might feel like I am actually anti-aging. It's not just a joke on a card, but it's fun to know that it's a possibility.

Suzie Price: [00:38:52]

So I'd love for you to let me know how you're doing. What are you doing to feel strong and healthy and create wake up eager days and maybe I can feature you on a future podcast. I hope that Augie's story is interesting to you. When you look at the show notes at pricelessprofessional.com/healthyagingsecrets, you'll see links. Two years ago I wrote a book 120 Mind, Body, Spirit Tips. There's a complimentary PDF download of that book. There's another set of tips that I did from a series that we ran. There's episodes about a couple other people who have talked on the podcast about their healthy lifestyle habits. Go check that out. One thing that I've done over the years, and I do this for my husband every day when he's traveling. One great way to get nutrients, because this is Nutritarian, is about nutrients in your body. Eating high nutrient foods is green smoothies. They can be delicious, so I've got a link to a page where I talk about that. I started that back in 2009 and knew I had hit on something I didn't quite get to the Nutritarian lifestyle yet, or the eating the full nutrient density, but I knew smoothies was a pathway to it. It's the easy way to eat well or start your day out right? So check that out. Go to pricelessprofessional.com/healthyagingsecrets for all of those links, be sure to subscribe to the Wake Up Eager Workforce Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

Suzie Price: [00:40:20]

And one last reminder that I've been sharing is we'd love a review. If you give us a review, we're giving you a free Workplace Motivators Assessment. It's a 24 page report. We've got over 100 development resources, all of that tied together as a value of about $350, because it's like having your own coaching call. It has a video in there, a debrief video that helps you understand your results, and then tons of resources. So leave us a review so others can find us and we can know that we're on track, or that you like something that we've done. And let me know and we'll send you. Complimentary link. Okay, and if you're not sure how to leave a review, go to pricelessprofessional.com/review all all lowercase and talk about how you do that. So check us out. Our directory is at wakeupeagerworkforce.com. And if I can ever help you in any way, or if you have ideas or you want to talk about something that you're doing, that's completely cool to stay creative, wake up your life and mind body spirit strong. Okay, reach out to me and my email is suzie@pricelessprofessional.com. Thanks for tuning in. And let's remember health is wealth and let's all continue to create every day our wake up eager life. Thank you.

Intro/Outro: [00:41:45]

This episode of the Wake Up Eager Workforce Podcast was brought to you by Priceless Professional Development. Thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed today's show, head over to pricelessprofessional.com to gain access to more professional development resources.