5 min read
THERE’S A QUESTION I’ve been hearing from my clients lately. Given everything currently en vogue in the wellness world, you’d think it’d be about protein timing, carb cycling, or maybe even creatine. It usually comes from guys in their late 30s and 40s, athletes I’ve worked with for years who by any reasonable measure are doing everything right. It sounds something like this: I feel like I’m starting to slip, like things that used to work aren’t working the same way. What can I do to maintain what I’ve got—and keep feeling good for the long haul?
What they’re describing is the difference between fitness and what we’re calling strengthspan. How long are you able to stay mobile, sharp, and capable while avoiding the aches and pains that sometimes come with age? It’s a different goal than the next 12-week cut, and it requires different thinking. The habits that got you to where you are now aren’t necessarily the ones that carry you to 70 with your joints intact and your body feeling so good you can run a marathon or still sprint 100 meters.
And yes, these things matter. Aging through the decades doesn’t need to mean losing your ability to move and be athletic and hang with younger guys, because fitness and nutrition science is letting us prolong our peaks for so much longer.
How? When it comes to nutrition, here’s what I’m actually telling clients about how they should be eating. Check out the whole new MH Maximum Strengthspan program to learn more about how you can combine your healthy diet with smart, sustainable training, too.
MOVE ONE: Don’t Eat the Same Thing Every Day
Consistency is almost always the right call. I’ll say that until I’m blue in the face. But there’s a version of consistency that quietly works against you, and it’s when your food rotation gets so narrow that your gut starts to reflect it.
Why This Works:
Pick three theme meals a week that aren’t your usual, then keep the plate math the same. Variety feeds your gut, widens your nutrient net, and keeps food fun.
How to Do It:
Choose 3 themes: Tacos, sushi night, stir-fry, curry, Mediterranean bowl, ramen, or a shawarma plate.Keep the plate math: This means a palm-and-a-half of protein, a fist of high-fiber carbs, half a plate of color, plus a spoon of healthy fat.
Here are some quick combos you can actually add:
Taco night: corn tortillas, black beans, grilled fish or chicken, salsa, avocado, cabbage.Sushi night at home: rice bowl with salmon or tofu, edamame, cucumber, seaweed salad.Beef-and-broccoli: lean beef, a mountain of broccoli, rice, and sesame.Mediterranean bowl: chickpeas, tomatoes, cukes, olives, feta, quinoa, olive oil + lemon.
Keep things simple and make changes each week as needed.
MOVE TWO: Don’t Shortchange Antioxidants. Powders Can’t Do All the Work.
Supplementation is great, but it’s meant to supplement an already balanced diet. You need to eat real food—especially when it comes to brightly colored fruits and veggies.
Why It Works:
Loading every plate with three to four colorful, antioxidant-rich foods expands your “nutrient net,” increasing variety and giving you a greater opportunity to enrich your micronutrients with each meal.
How to Do It:
Build the plate: aim for two fists of veggies plus one cup of fruit daily. Think berries, broccoli or Brussels, leafy greens, and peppers.Cook with absorption in mind: add olive oil to greens and nuts or seeds to salads so fat-soluble compounds land.Make sure to measure the fats versus just throwing them in and hoping it works without proper portioning in mind. MOVE THREE: Don’t Put Collagen in Your Coffee
Your skin and tendons will lose collagen as you age, so you might add a supplement to your stack. But if you’re putting a scoop of it in your hot coffee, you’re shortchanging yourself from the important qualities you’ll get, because heat denatures collagen protein.
Why It Works:
Think of the pairing like building a house. You need a foundation, and then all the inner workings of a home. Including anti-inflammatory foods and collagen builders throughout the week helps strengthen the body.
How to Do It:
Hit two fatty-fish meals weekly (four to six oz salmon, sardines, or mackerel). No fish? Consider an EPA+DHA supplement.Spice routine: use 1 teaspoon turmeric + a pinch of black pepper most days, and add fresh or powdered ginger to eggs, soups, or stir-fries.Collagen support: 10 to 15 grams of collagen with a vitamin C source (citrus or berries) 30 to 60 min before tendon-heavy work, or sip bone broth with a squeeze of lemon.
Doing all of these pairings helps to engage the food matrix and all its synchronicities.
MOVE FOUR: Don’t Skip Fiber
Fiber and regular bowel movements go hand in hand. You don’t need to fibermaxx, but you should make sure that you have a minimum intake for a healthy gut (and longevity).
Why It Works:
Meeting your 38 grams of fiber each day can reduce your overall mortality risk by nearly 50 percent.
How to Do It:
Build the base: aim for 1 cup of beans or lentils daily (12 to 15 grams), ½ cup of dry oats at breakfast (4 to 5 grams), 1 cup of berries (4 to 8 grams), and 1 tablespoon of chia or ground flax (4 to 5 grams).Easy adds: add fiber-fortified items like tortillas or breads, pile leafy greens and mushrooms on dinners, add a spoonful of sauerkraut or kimchi to one meal.
That’s the secret to life. Fiber and pooping regularly so that you can detoxify your body.
The Longevity Brain Blend Smoothie
Here’s why it works:
You might not love the ingredient list here at first glance, but the kefir, tofu, and white beans together put you in the 28 to 35 gram protein range without any powder. Blueberries and cocoa stack polyphenols. The matcha’s L-theanine pairs with its caffeine for a focused, steady rise that’s different from how straight coffee hits me. There’s less edge, with more even energy. And the beans plus chia feed the gut microbiome in a way that mirrors what researchers actually see in long-lived populations.
Ingredients (1 big 18–20 oz)
1 cup plain kefir (or unsweetened yogurt + splash of water)½ cup canned white beans, rinsed150 grams silken tofu (about ⅔ cup)¾ cup frozen blueberries½ frozen banana1 tablespoon chia seeds1 teaspoon matcha powder (or 4 oz cold brew)½ teaspoon cocoa powder (optional, for depth)1 teaspoon honey or 1 Medjool date, to tastePinch of saltIce as needed
Directions
Blend until ultra-smooth. Pour into a clear glass.
Adaptations: If you need to go dairy-free, swap kefir for unsweetened soy milk, and a teaspoon of lemon juice. Add more protein: a quarter cup of extra tofu or 2 tablespoons of hemp hearts. To reduce caffeine, cut the matcha to 1/2 teaspoon or skip it entirely. Sweeter, bump the cocoa, add almond extract, and finish with crushed pistachios on top.
Approximate macros: Protein ~30 to 35 grams | Carbs ~55 to 65 grams | Fiber ~12 to 15 grams | Fat ~8 to 10 grams | Calories ~450 to 520
Check out all of our the videos in our Maximum Strengthspan program, available exclusively for MH MVP subscribers, here.
Dezi Abeyta, RDN, is a Men’s Health Nutrition Adviser, author of Lose Your Gut Guide, and founder of Foodtalk Nutrition LLC.