[SB 210] Your morning mashup, Blame It On The Rain

I’m Matt, and welcome to Steady Beats. If you like to walk for a better life, and also like Dire Straits’ “Walk of Life,” you just might like this newsletter.

Welp. Here we are again: another storm bearing down on Florida. It’s starting to feel like an annual rite of late summer. While at one time in our American youth the Jerry Lewis Telethon marked a TV transition from summer to fall, it’s now weatherfolk talking wind fields and storm surge while a colorful swirl of theoretical future radar pictures spins in the background.

But let us not be prisoners of the moment. I can remember many hurricane seasons here in the last 20 years without any trouble.

Also: is it federal law that the worst part of a hurricane must hit at night?

It never fails.

(We’ll be fine, by the way.)

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Fitness Beats: What’s your morning meal?

At some point in the morning —earlier on mornings I work out, later when I don’t work out first thing—I mix together my morning concoction. The point is protein, and some other additives to aid in the endless border skirmishes of aging.

• One cup of non-fat Greek yogurt. This serves as the largely tasteless base of my breakfast stew. Offers up 20-plus grams of protein, a dozen carbs, and not much flavor.

• One scoop of Muscle Milk 100% whey protein powder. Vanilla flavored, it takes the yogurt to the edible level without adding a bunch of sugar. And it piles on another 25 grams of protein. I buy giant 5-pound bags from Amazon which last a couple of months.

• Five grams of creatine powder. The one supplement I’ve ever taken than I am 100% sure makes a difference. It added a rep or two to most of my lifts, helping me with energy and recovery—and has a bunch of other benefits. Creatine is made naturally in the body and it’s extremely well-tested and safe. If you work out regularly in middle age, strongly consider it. If you don’t work out regularly in middle age, please consider starting.

• One-fifth of a teaspoon of magnesium l-threonate. Allegedly helpful for sleep quality, anxiety, and cognitive function, but sadly I cannot report any improvement in my lackluster mathematical skills since first ingesting it 8 months ago.

• Four tablespoons of Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides Powder. Useful for bone, joint, skin, and joint health. Unfortunately my facial wrinkles remain, and seem to be entrenching further. But Chris Coffman, who’s been deftly swinging on rings for a long time, credits it with helping him prevent injury and that’s good enough for me.

The main point is to get a huge dose of protein without loads of sugar or fat, and then sprinkle in some of these other preventative garnishes to try and put some friction into the aging process.

So, what am I missing? What else should be in this morning mash-up for a middle-aged fitness guy?

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Music Beats: An 80s track for endless hurricane tracks

The Scorpions’ Rock You Like a Hurricane is the obvious choice, and a fine selection at that.

But let’s not go with the obvious.

In 1989, Milli Vanilli took the Top 40 by storm with a parade of smash hits, including Blame It On The Rain, which reached #1 in November of that year.

You likely are aware of the scandal that destroyed their careers when they were caught lip-syncing at a concert when the voice track began to skip. This began a great unraveling that revealed the duo didn’t actually sing their songs.

Despite later releasing an album of their own songs, the duo never recovered. Tragically, Rob Pillatus took his own life in 1998.

Oddly, if a track skip happened on stage today, no one would likely think twice about it after a chuckle. With voice tracks layered, remixed, and auto-tuned, some recorded vocals are standard ops for modern pop music concerts.

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