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Good morning!

Welcome to The Weekly Pounce, where you'll get current healthspan science delivered to your inbox each week. You'll find personal, real examples and easy-to-manage tips to help you build a healthier future.

I’ve divvied up research into five easy-to-manage categories (have you noticed yet they each have their own special color?) that can help you reach your goals for vibrant longevity and active pro-aging. 

It’s not too late to start, and it’s never too early. Let’s pounce on life’s possibilities together! Thanks for reading! — Laura Lee

Boost Your Brain

Your New Fall Hobby is a Brain Game

While it may seem a little too hot and humid to have a pile of warm wool on your lap, it might be something you’d enjoy soon with fall coming around the corner. Knitting, along with crocheting and needlepointing, is not only fun, but also significantly beneficial to your brain health. 

A recent article from Martha Stewart shared the latest research. Handicrafts, like knitting, light up several areas of your brain including those involved with pattern-making, attention, memory, and fine-motor skills.

I have to admit to having a gorgeous needlepoint project sitting right here next to me. A practical item seemed logical and wise, so I’m covering a brick with an intricate pattern to use as a door stop. At the rate I’m going, it’s likely to be a multi-year project! You can learn how to knit on YouTube with this tutorial that’s had nearly 14 million views.

Let me know if you knit, crochet, or needlepoint. I’d love to hear about what you’ve made, and if you only work alone or with friends. A knitting group could be a fun way to connect with others, don’t you think?

And, hey, of course men knit, too. Here’s an uplifting story about a male knitter who repurposes wool and cashmere sweaters from thrift stores.

Connect & Thrive

Step Out of Survival Mode and Into Your Playful Side

I often think about a common phrase that coroners use: “adult failure to thrive.” What does that mean, exactly? To thrive?

An article I read this week in Psychology Today does a great job of explaining this concept of thriving. In a nutshell, the author suggests that we are often (and I can relate to this) stuck in survival mode. You know, the basic cycle of working, eating, dealing with stressful situations, finding time to sleep, and repeating this over and over.

This week, think about resetting your just surviving button. My son’s girlfriend seems to be doing a great job at this: she’s joined an improv troop. Her energetic stories about their workshops make me realize how just dang, plain normal we can let our lives become. While she’s up on stage with new friends, she’s practicing playfulness, presence, creativity, connection, and joy. Exactly all of the inner qualities that we can also embrace to help knock us out of our just surviving mode.

I’m not suggesting that you should join an improv class this week (I mean, it would be fun), but think about some simple ways that you can bring some of those same qualities into your daily life. Perhaps just a walk for the sake of looking at nature with the micro lens on your phone, not for counting your steps.

For a moment this week, think like a child, like you did before school and work took priority over your playfulness and joy. See if you can step out of survival mode even if just for an hour or so.

Harness Hidden Powers

Your Diet's Hidden Impact on Sleep

I'm always looking for easy ways to improve my sleep. Recent research highlighted by the BBC, suggests the following diet-based pointers:

• Eat more fruits and vegetables. (Sound familiar?)

• Eat more fiber. (I’ve been eating more oatmeal for breakfast.)

• Eat at consistent times as much as possible.

• Stop eating a few hours before bedtime.

I also found the following two takeaways to be especially insightful:

1. We can’t just think we can drink a glass of milk or tart cherry juice right before bedtime and think it’s going to help. It’s what we eat throughout the day that can affect our sleep quality.

2. Along those same lines, we can’t just pop a melatonin and a magnesium before bed and think that’s going to cure our sleep issues. If you have a few minutes, read this article for yourself. I found it easy to read and very informative.

I wish I had read it a few days ago before I gleefully downed a “fun” coldbrew at Starbucks with my daughter. We were bonding, out running a few errands together, and, you know, getting a little treat.

I should have heeded the research that what you eat and drink throughout the day affects your sleep. We should have bonded over a glass of water! I paid for that jolt of caffeine and sugar all that night, tossing and turning, totally unable to get back to sleep after my precious, lovely, I could kill him, beautiful kitty, Momo, tiptoed across the top of my head at 1 a.m.

I was absolutely sleep-deprived and unproductive the entire next day. Lesson learned: Fail. Learn from mistake. Try again!

Fuel Your Journey

Low-effort, High-Quality Salads

I love salads, and they’re an essential part of our nutritional well-being, but don’t you also get sick of just plain lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers? I’m always hunting for more substantial and interesting salads, ones that are heartier than just, I dunno, an iceberg wedge or a bowl of chopped romaine.

I ran across this collection of “low-effort” salad recipes, and while they might be low-effort, they certainly aren’t low-quality. I’ve already tried several of them, and most put chickpeas as their base.

Each recipe lists nutrition notes and facts, describing in detail why chickpeas and lentils, for example, are so great for you. I’m a fan of #1, the High Protein Caprese Chickpea Salad.

Give these chickpea-based salads a try. Y’all let me know which one turns out to be your favorite this week.

Stay Active

Adding Strength Training to Your Week

Walking, practicing yoga, stretching, biking, swimming, dancing. Yes, these are all fabulous ways to stay active. However, research is clear that we also need muscle strengthening exercises about twice a week to help counteract natural muscle loss that occurs as we age.

If you haven’t been active in awhile, start here. According to this study, you could lose 3 to 8 percent of your muscle mass every decade after the age of 30 without regular resistance training. That’s half your strength by your 80s!

This article suggests five exercises to focus on if you’re trying to gain back some of the muscle tone you’ve lost over the years:

1. Step-ups (watch this for some suggestions using a staircase)

2. Wall-sits (if that’s too hard, try sit-to-stands from a chair)

3. Inclined push-ups (work your way to a real push-up using this tutorial)

4. Chair-assisted lunges (or these advanced moves)

5. Standing banded rows (move on to dumbbells for heavier reps)

I used to brag that “all I need to do is yoga”; however, I have added strength-training to my home workouts. Even though I still love yoga and practice it frequently, I need more than body-weight moves these days. According to Dr. Peter Attia in Outlive, we definitely need to build up reserves by using heavier weights than we’ve gotten used to.

It’s hard to find the time, I know. And even harder to find the motivation when it’s all for something in the future, similar to how it’s so hard to want to save money when you can spend it now.

Let’s focus this week on completing at least one strengthening exercise while thanking ourselves from the future. Use your imagination and have a conversation with your future self. You might be surprised at what you have to say.

Pounce Pot Post

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