[SB 186] Ruling the world, cinnamon, training as we age

Hi, I’m Matt. Welcome to Steady Beats: a newsletter about building the middle-aged life you want in small and steady beats.

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It was a wild week as we evaluated applications to join the Student Success Team for Write of Passage Cohort 10, which kicks off April 17. Guides, Mentors, Leads, and Editors will support our students, and nearly twice as many people from the community applied to work with us this time compared to Cohort 9.

It’s fun to build the team. On the flip side, it’s hard to turn down talented and ambitious people who want to help.

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Nutrition Beats

I ingest black coffee with cinnamon approximately 14 seconds after waking up each morning. Turns out that’s great for battling inflammation:

Scientific studies show that cinnamon is anti-inflammatory, can help reduce cholesterol and supports cardiovascular health, among other benefits. One reason for this is because it’s high in antioxidants, which protect tissues in the body from damage caused by free radicals. This in turn prevents an inflammatory response.

And if you’re sprinkling cinnamon into black coffee, you get a double boost: coffee is also anti-inflammatory—as long as you skip the sugar.

Hat tip: Further

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Fitness Beats

Rest and recovery from exercise is important as we age. But just how much rest do we need?

Less rest than we’re taking, maybe:

You don’t train less because you’re getting old; you get old, to a surprising extent, because skipping that long Sunday run with your pals becomes a habit instead of a rare exception. Don’t do it.

We naturally lose aerobic capacity as we age. Training more can offset this:

All else being equal, the amount of aerobic fitness his athletes lost by getting a year older was almost identical to the amount they gained by adding an hour per month of training time.

There are limits to simply exercising more, obviously. But at a minimum, reducing training as we age may play right into the natural decline we’re already fighting.

As always, Steady Beats.

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Classic Beats

“Everybody Wants To Rule The World” by Tears for Fears crushed the charts in 1985, but the song’s title proved oddly malleable for such a monster hit.

First written as “Everybody Wants to Go to War,” cooler heads decided that theme was too apocalyptic for the Cold War Era. Following a rewrite, band cofounder and co-frontman (is that even a word?) Roland Orzabal said, "Once we got those lyrics, it was a joyful song."

The rest was history. Released in February of 1985, the song reached number one in the United States that June.

But there was another title tweak to come.

In 1986, the song was re-recorded as “Everybody Wants to Run the World” to support a charity called Sport Aid.* The new version gained some traction on the UK charts.

Orzabal and Curt Smith weren’t precious with their art. They took input, tweaked the song, and created one of the great tunes of the decade as a result. Then after the song was established, they were willing to alter it again for a worthy cause.

Thankfully, Tears for Fears is still Ruling the World. Last summer the band toured to support their 2022 album “The Tipping Point.” We saw and loved the show, which mixed the band’s hits with some jazz and even a little country.

*In the 1980s, every charity had to include the word “Aid” in its name. Band Aid, Farm Aid, Live Aid, and on and on. It was an oddly uncreative branding era for the philanthropy space.

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Time Beats

As if we needed a reminder the years are flying by:

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Thank you for reading.

Let’s keep the Steady Beats going. 💚

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