Tony’s Journey From 65 to 31 - How Did He Turn Back Time?

Have you ever met a 65-year-old man who exercises twice a day, takes 40 supplements and loves inspiring others to succeed on their health journeys? If you haven’t, today is your chance. Let us introduce you to Tony, our client with an amazing GlycanAge result. 

Let’s start with an easy question, what is your GlycanAge?

I’m 65 and my GlycanAge is 31.

That's actually one of the best results I've ever heard about.

Yeah, it's 34 years difference. It's currently less than half.

I’m sure there are multiple reasons behind this great result, but let’s start at the beginning. What encouraged you to get started on this health journey?

Just like many of us, my greatest fear is mortality. It’s our nature to want to prolong your life while being in good health. I want to be able to keep applying the knowledge that I've gained in life and in business too. 

The greatest joy of my life are my 3 kids!  From the youngest in middle school to the two older ones who have graduated from college, and building amazing lives for themselves. I'd do anything to see what their lives hold, celebrate their successes, support them through life's challenges and see them build their own families. I want to be around for all of it. So that's the core inspiration.

That’s such a sweet reason. I’m sure they are all immensely proud of you. Was it a big surprise for you to get your result?

My first Glycan Age result was 38, which is pretty good, but even then I felt like that wasn’t in line with how I felt and performed. I feel like I’m 25. I hoped for a better result and it got me thinking - what else could I be doing to be 25 biologically? 

Because I was already doing a lot, I knew I had to “double down” on my discipline to bring the result further down. For my next test, I brought it down to 31, which was a fantastic surprise. 

Even before the first test, I had a very rigorous diet. It was low carb, high fat. I take a tremendous amount of omega-3 molecularly distilled fish oil, which has high EPA and DHA. That's the foundational thing I take every day.

I eat a lot of protein, like a pound of grass-fed, organic beef every day. More recently, I also eat fermented foods every day - apple cider vinegar, sauerkraut, natto (Japanese fermented soybeans) or kimchi.

The rest of my diet is not whole foods. It is shakes that are a combination of whey protein powder, ground flaxseed, psyllium husk, and essential amino acids. Put that in a blender, pour some apple cider vinegar in that. That's the first thing I drink in the morning and the last thing at night.

The other staple is organic decaf coffee that's blended with soluble fibre, a tiny bit of organic chocolate and collagen peptide. 

That’s a very detailed look into your diet, and I’m wondering have you made any changes after the first test?

More rigour. That's when I introduced the extra virgin olive oil. 

The other thing is - I lift six days a week. I walk every night before bed. I walk exactly two miles every night. Now I start every morning by walking backwards on a treadmill, just for 10 minutes.

And the last thing I got more rigorous in is taking a ten-minute ice bath every night. It's not super cold. It's about 64°F, but I live in Florida, so the ambient temperature is often 90 degrees. So because of that difference, it feels really cold. 

What was the biggest surprise for you during this healthy journey?

Well, other than the scores, it’s the fact that I've been able to sustain my aerobic fitness. Remember, I’m in my mid-60s. But aerobically, because of my high-intensity stuff and high heart rate, I feel super fit, and I have been able to maintain my muscle mass. 

In fact, during that period of time between the first and the last test, I gained 6-8 pounds of muscle.

I test my body fat regularly. It went down from about 13% to around 9.5%. At the same time, I gained muscle. So now I weigh about 175. It's the most I've weighed in years.

My fitness is good, and the GlycanAge score came back and, I say, well, it kind of makes sense because I'm feeling aerobically super fit. I've got more muscle, and I've gained strength on all my lifts. So all these things seem to be in harmony.

What are some misconceptions other people have about living a healthy life?

Well, this would be controversial, but people think they have to be vegan in order to be healthy, and some even think animal protein is bad. 

Some people hold this view because of spiritual and ethical reasons. And I totally respect that. 

But when it comes to others, I don't agree that animal protein is bad, just based on my experience. I have a lot of animal protein because Whey protein is an animal protein, collagen protein is an animal protein, and grass-fed ground beef is an animal protein. 

So I think the idea that animal proteins are bad is a big misconception. 

Also, there's a lot of science that backs the calorie restriction thing. But I found, in this period of time when I made the biggest improvement, I wasn't really restricting my calories that much, but I was exercising. 

It put me in a bit of a calorie deficit. So if I'm at 2500 calories but I'm exercising twice a day, I'm lifting in the morning and walking backwards on the treadmill, and in the evening I'm walking for two miles, maybe I am on a calorie restriction at 2500 calories because I'm burning so many during my workouts. 

This kind of 20% calorie restriction thing where people say - starve yourself, get down to 1800 1900 calories, for me personally, wouldn’t work. I don't think that's healthy, and I think I would lose a lot of muscle if I did that.

And then your body gets into what's called autophagy. It starts eating its own tissue and stuff. And you want to do that intermittently. I don't think you persistently want to have your body consuming itself every day, day in and day out. You want to do that episodically. 

I do intermittent fasting. Most days I probably have a ten-hour window I eat in. I'm getting my 2500 calories in that ten-hour window, so I'm not eating first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

It's an important part of my discipline as I've been eating this way for 20 to 25 years. I've been working on this since I turned 40: 

• Fewer carbs 
• More lean protein
• Fish oil
• Daily exercise
• Lifting at least 6 days a week

Do you snack in between meals?

I eat freely. I eat whatever I want, whatever I want, but I find that because of the psyllium husk and the ground flaxseed that I put in the drinks, I don’t get hungry in between my meals. 

Once I fill my stomach with all that, I’m completely full. I don't really have a desire to snack.

That's so cool. What do you think is the most challenging part of living healthier while managing a busy lifestyle?

Sleep is the most challenging. This is one of the things where I've really been inspired by Bryan Johnson. He got me to focus on my sleep hygiene. So now I sleep a good solid eight hours.

When I say solid, I'm counting from lights out to lights on in the morning, it's eight hours, but in that, there’s a little bit of tossing and turning. I don’t get high sleep scores, I average around 70s and 80s on that scale. So that's the challenging thing, I really want to improve my sleep scores.

The other thing is I take a ton of supplements. This actually is the most challenging thing. I take so many supplements that it's hard to swallow. I really dread swallowing them every day.

I probably take 40 different supplements, all at the same time, so close to 80 - 90 pills. 

Can you tell me how you de-stress?

My night walks help there. It's beautiful here in Florida at nighttime, and the nights are super clear, meaning it's very dark. So if you go outside and you walk for 30 minutes, you can see the stars. People talk about grounding, like taking your shoes off and touching grass and touching nature and everything.

There's something super grounding about just walking outside where it's very quiet and dark and looking at the sky. If you have any stress, it just evaporates. Sometimes I see the moon, sometimes I don't. But I'm starting to recognize different constellations that I never thought about before, and I love it.

Do you have any tips that you can share with us in order to inspire others?

I think people should avoid fructose. In my view, it’s inherently harmful. Earlier in life I used to be hyper-focused on glycemic index, and I was more worried about glucose. Then I studied carb metabolism more carefully and how our livers react and process fructose. Since then, I’ve been trying to avoid it. 

Also, I recommend going to the sauna. Try and use it at least multiple times a week and do your daily cold exposure.

Final disclaimer – I’m not a doctor and can’t offer anyone medical advice. Definitely consult your physician. Good luck and good health!!

If you want to learn more about Tony and get inspired to start your own health journey, you can follow him on Instagram.