2012 Review -> 2013 Preview

What a year - lots of highs, and a few lows. I wanted to recap a bit and set the stage for 2013 - a year I am very excited for and have complete faith will be great. It won't be my best, but rather the beginning a consistent pattern of successive bests.

2012 included me hitting several fitness goals and milestones. I achieved and then blew through my body fat percentage goal of 10%, getting down to sub-7% (if only for a few days). I went from not running to running 4+ miles in a single go and loving it the whole time (or at least overall). I also started newbodi.es, and have been really fortune to help others while also growing tremendously through the work I've done on myself. I also had ab muscle definition for the first time ever. Lastly, while it may sound like a negative, I had double hernia surgery. The positive in that is in how I did afterward. The fitness level I had when going into the surgery, and the way I approached my recovery lead to a fast recovery and great health overall.

Fantastic all around.

On the opposite side of the equation, I really only have one thing I'm unhappy about. No, it's not scrubbing my first official race due to back pain. No, it's not my hernia surgery. It's not the minimal sleep I got most nights. It's really just the tear in my left lateral meniscus that I had operated on at the end of December. I'm just over a week post-op right now, and am generally doing ok, but am anxious to be doing amazingly well.  I'm anxious to get back into cardio the way I was in September when my knee became an issue. I haven't gone without good, intense cardio work in a very long time, and I feel out of sorts or at least not myself. I've done ok, and have generally stuck to my weight target (still between 175 and 180 on any given day), but my body fat has crept back into the low teens. With that, the stage is set for 2013.

I had a goal after getting back into running post-hernia surgery. I wanted to do five 5K races by the following summer. I would have done that easily if not for my knee injury. I didn't let failing on that goal get me down, and I won't set that as my goal for the coming year. No. Instead, my goal will be to return to the fitness level mentally and physically that I had going into my hernia surgery. That means:

• Stay <180 lbs="lbs" li="li" weight="weight">
• Return to <10 body="body" fat="fat" li="li">
• Regain Definition in my ab muscles
• Read every book I bought in 2012 but haven't started

Beyond that, I'm not going to sweat it. How I get there isn't a concern. I have a year, and I need to remember that. I don't need to push myself on getting back into cardio too fast and prolong my knee recovery (or risk re-injury). I don't need to starve myself. I need instead to build a healthy, active life that yields a strong level of fitness and health that inspires my wife, son and those around me to do the same for themselves.

The last one is really crucial, actually. All the books I bought in 2012 are inspirational books. Some are self-help-y (like "The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Achor, and some are stories of personal journeys (like the three Dean Karnazes books I have), but all are valuable to achieve my goals.

What are your goals for 2013, and how has the past year impacted those goals? How will you enlighten.your.body.

Infect Others with Positivity

Recently, while waiting at a doctor's appointment, I talked with another patient.  She inquired about the newbodi.es logo I had on my shirt and iPad (I was reading The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor). She shared that was is a personal trainer, so we talked about what we do to help people with fitness. It was interesting for me as I've been thinking about getting certified by NASM, which she's done.  I think it was interesting for her as I take a very different approach, with my work really focusing on the mental side of it rather than giving people specific exercises (I can do that, but it's not really the driving force behind my coaching).

She gave me the rundown of how she got into it, and the experience she's had working for various gyms. The overall tone was negative and unhappy, with things she doesn't like about each gym. We then talked about her fitness objectives, and the conversation focused mainly on the barriers she faces and why it's so hard or impossible to do XYZ. For example, we talked about running, and the discussion moved immediately to why she can't run more than 3 miles.

I'm not trying to be critical of her or our conversation. What I'm trying to do is point out how the general view of things can be a trap. It's not simple irony that I was reading The Happiness Advantage when we started speaking as the teachings in the book are exactly what's in play for her. The chapter I was reading was about how our emotional state is contagious - when we're happy, we 'infect' others with happiness; when we're unhappy or negative, it causes the same in others. Acutely aware of this, I took a very positive tone, and tried to be inspirational. I ensured I didn't end up 'catching' her negative approach, but wanted to give her a case of the 'see possibilities and reach for them' that I am infected with.

For example, when telling me the reasons she can't run more than 3 miles, I offered the idea of running two shorter runs in the same day.  Book end your day with 20 minute runs (that should get you 2 to 2.5 miles) so you avoid the issues she was raising while getting a good bit of training done and enjoying yourself. I could see the wheels turning as to why that wasn't going to work, and then she said, "Well, but I want to run longer, so that isn't going to help." True, but it will condition your muscles for the longer run, and perhaps change your other issues in the process.  You're essentially training around them.

It boils down to the analogy I often give people when discussing The Happiness Advantage. If you walk up to a wall, you see a barrier - something that's in the way of progress. It could be illness, a bad boss, financial trouble, whatever. The book wouldn't suggest that there's no wall. The reality is that the wall exists. That's not the problem. The problem is whether you just sit there, staring at it dead on, focusing solely on the existence of the wall. If you could break your fixation and look around, you'd notice the door over to the side. You just have to be willing to look at it. The door could be budgeting better, sitting down with your boss with some key points jotted down around how you feel you'd perform better with different support from him or her, or a new treatment plan for your illness that you have hope will really help.

Our conversation was all wall, so to speak.  Every time I tried to suggest a slight turning of the head, she'd remind me that there's this big freaking wall there. The funny thing is that I was sitting there, not even a week out of knee surgery - my 14th operation, mind you - and saw all kinds of possibilities around fitness and overcoming physical constraints. Every time I've gotten cooking with my own fitness, something goes haywire and I end up in an operating room. I've chosen not to let that be my reality or a forgone conclusion. She can, too.

There's a great story that Achor shares, and is pretty famous. No one had been able to break 4 minutes in the mile, and it was a medically accepted fact that it was physically impossible to break it. People got close to 4 minutes, but just couldn't break through. Of course not, it wasn't physically possible, as all the experts reminded them. One man wouldn't believe that. In 1954, Roger Bannister of the UK broke 4 minutes, and set a world record (and he didn't even train too intensely as he was studying to be a doctor a the time...and became a well-regarded neurologist, so he better believe that studying was intense and time-consuming). Where the story really gets interesting is that his record only stood for 46 days until Australian John Landy broke it by nearly 1.5 seconds (that's a huge margin, actually). Bannister showed the world that this immovable wall of 4 minutes actually had a huge door you could run right through. People starting breaking 4 minutes regularly (18 more times, actually), setting successively faster records. The current record was set in 1999, and stands at 3:43.13 (great table of the records on Wikipedia). Once people realized it wasn't impossible, the flood gates opened.

How we look at situations dictates how we feel.  While how we feel dictates how we act, it also impacts all those around us - for better or worse. I fought the negativity in the conversation with positivity and inspiration - both to benefit her and to protect myself from getting a case of the negatives. I think I showed her the light, but she will have to embrace it herself.

How did you impact someone's mindset today? How did you enlighten.your.body?

Make a Resolution to Act, Not Just Talk

Every new year, millions of resolutions are made, and within a couple of days, they're either broken or forgotten. Why is this? Do people not want to make good on their resolution? Do they not want to improve their situation? That's not it. They do want these things. The problem lies in the path to improvement.

Resolutions are words. People think by making them, that's all they really need to do to turn things around. Just say, "I will eat better." Poof, you'll never crave the wrong foods or eat unhealthily again. See, the trick is, you actually have to make the right choices to back up your words to make it so. Same goes for the all-too-common and all-too-often-broken "I will work out regularly this year" resolution.

We seem to think that saying something is enough - as if it's the entirety of action needed to succeed. In fact, this is a really crucial piece of the puzzle, but we do it wrong, and we don't recognize what other pieces of the puzzle we need to look at along with this one.

We often make resolutions privately - not even telling our friends, significant others or family. That means no one else expects anything of us. We have no social pressure in place to help push us. This is one of my 10 Principles - Go Public (it's #2, actually, so it's super important!). Telling others about your goal puts some pressure on you to deliver it. That pressure helps keep you honest about keeping up with it as few people want to be judged, and no one wants to be judged a failure. The louder you are about your resolution, the better. Tell people, post it on social media sites, put it on paper and tape it to your fridge/cubicle/face...ok, don't tape it to your face, but the more places and ways you put it out there, the better.  There are also sites that let you put money on it - who wants to be judged a failure and have to pay out of pocket for it?

Next, you need to see these words as a first step, not the only step. Whether you go public or not, you need to use the words as the catalyst to build an action plan. If you're going to work out more, how will you do it? What changes to your schedule will you make so you can work out? Who in your life do you need to support this activity so they can help you make it happen (e.g. flexibility in your work schedule, splitting or adjusting child care responsibilities with your partner so you can get a run in each morning, etc). Get creative on the action plan - so many people join a gym and stop going. Maybe the gym isn't your thing. Is there a workout DVD you can buy to use at home? Do you enjoy the outdoors more and would benefit from biking, running, jogging, etc outside (bonus - many of these are free or near free, which lowers the barrier to getting into it).

Once you have a plan of attack, you need to build reinforcing measures of success into the mix. How do you know if you're succeeding without a benchmark and way to check progress against that benchmark? So, figure out what the overall goal is as your first step. If that's really big or profound, what interim goals can you set so you aren't demotivated by the size of the overall goal? For example, if your goal is to lose 30 lbs, take it month by month, and aim for 3 lbs per month - much less scary to many people.

And once your goal is set, you need to know how to measure it and start doing just that. My first principle is "Track It". Get a spreadsheet, piece of paper, our ad-free trackbodi.es or ad-supported trackbodi.es free iOS apps. You can't know you're hitting your goals if you're not measuring against them, so track 'em, and get there. And don't be afraid of failure, but don't let yourself off the hook if you do fail to meet your daily goal (e.g. get to the gym today, do 30 minutes of cardio today). One thing I insisted on as a feature of trackbodi.es is for the app to color-code your performance against your goals, including a strong red color when you don't hit your goals.

This gets at the idea of 'gamification' - a fun way to play with your goals and tracking of them. It's something I'm a huge fan of. It's all about using metrics and performance as a real-world game. The rewards and competition of it become self-supporting, and will help drive you to do better. This is the concept behind Nike+. You can read my review of the Nike+ FuelBand and Nike+ GPS Sportwatch, which both live and breath gamification. (By the way, if you're on Nike+, friend me up! Same goes if you use dailymile.com.)

So, don't just say "I'm gonna do better next year." Actually do better. Actually enlighten.your.body.

Only You Know Your Body

As I recover from yet another surgery (my 14th, unless I'm forgetting one), I had another reinforcing lesson that I felt was important to share with all of you.  Doctors are fantastic, amazing people.  My father is one, and I have an incredible amount of respect for and trust in him and his peers. That said, they aren't perfect, and they don't know everything. The human body is incredibly complex, and each one of us is truly unique, so things may work differently or impact us differently. The moral of this story - you need to be an active part of your care and the choices made around your care. When you feel something is heading in the wrong direction, you need to voice your concern. When you raise a concern and feel you aren't being heard, don't hesitate to walk away.

I'm now past the 24 hour mark after my second knee-surgery (another arthroscopy, but this was just a cleanup vs a repair done 5 years ago on a different ligament). So far, the post-op experience is truly night and day from last time in a good way. Last time started with me being incredibly nauseous in recovery, and then more so on the ride home thanks to the nurses insisting that I needed to pop a Percocet.

That knee surgery was the first in a series of surgeries, and the beginning of me being more active in my pain management choices thanks to the learning I was doing about my body with all the experience I was getting as a patient. That first knee surgery was followed two years later by back surgery (minor - a microdiscectomy at L5/S1 to resolve major sciatica in my left leg that left me numb from the calf down, and feeling like my leg was being cut open from the calf up). The surgery went fine, but I was very nauseous afterward, both in recovery and at home. While I was smart enough to refuse the Percocet or Vicodin they offered me in recovery, they gave me an anti-nausea drug (anti-emetics, as the class is called). This was in addition to the one they typically give during general anesthesia. Not fun puking when your back was just operated on.

Two years after that (this past summer), I had my double hernia surgery. It was a different experience. This was by far the biggest surgery I have had. My others were done via microsurgery with scopes and small incisions and tools. This was a full, open procedure, and lasted 3 hours.  My abs were being cut, and a prosthetic mesh was being sewn in to reinforce my muscles once the tears were stitched up. Granted, going in, I was in the best shape I've ever been in, but the real benefit came from my knowledge of what I do well with - and what I don't. I was lucky to have a very good bedside-mannered anesthesiologist who really listened to me. I told her I get nauseous from anti-emetics and from many pain meds. While people around her were skeptical ("No, you don't understand, they keep you from feeling sick," was the chorus around me), she believed me.  I told her specifically about my recovery-room experience after my back surgery where the only variable was the anti-emetic the nurse put in my IV.  Within about 15 minutes, I was throwing up.  So, she believed me.  She removed them from her plan.  I woke up from the surgery with a clear head (ok, after about 10-15 minutes of grogginess), and was smiling and lucid quickly, and ready to go home faster than expected.  My recovery, while painful due to my abs being cut, was really far easier than expected.  At my two week post-op check up, my doctor felt I was about four weeks ahead of schedule for my recovery. I credit starting on the right foot as much as I do with my level of fitness going in.

Unfortunately, my left knee became a problem almost as soon as I got back into running.  By September, it was clear I'd need my knee scoped again, so the running stopped.  I tried to avoid surgery by taking it easy for a while, but the inevitable happened on December 21st (yes, I know, I scheduled it for the end of the world). While being prepped, I was visited by the anesthesiologist. He was nice at first, but his ego came out really fast. I told him that I did not want any anti-emetics as they made me sick. He sort of blew me off, and said, "Well, you need to be more specific. I use X, and it works really well, so we'll do that." I repeated myself, and said I've had a lot of surgery and know well what to do for the best outcome. I don't want any. He pushed back again, but only after rolling his eyes and looking annoyed.

I'd much rather he have a moment of being annoyed than me feel sick for a day while also dealing with surgical pain. That's what this is about - the ego bruising you may be afraid to do to a doctor is nothing compared to what you might go through if they don't listen to you. Do you owe them anything? Does your puking somehow boost their self-worth? No, of course not. Egotism and pompousness aren't good qualities, so they don't deserve to be repaid with your suffering. If you know better, do better (as Oprah says).

So I really pushed the anesthesiologist about what not to give me. Despite all his eye rolling, laughing at my comments and push back, I prevailed. He cut me off, threw his arms in the air, and said, "Fine! Fine!  I'll just X it all out, ok?" To him, it was about his expertise being challenged. To me, it was about quality of life. Which do you think is the nobler cause?

Let me put a little disclaimer on this post. This doctor was actually very good, and did a great job once we were on the same page. He didn't let my push back get in the way of his professionalism in the OR or the quality of care he gave. This post is not an attack on him at all, but the interchange we had serves as a great foundation for this blog post - one I've been thinking about for a while.

The funny thing is, as scientists, doctors should be curious and observe reactions to learn. Instead, some of them are too engrained in their knowledge and feel too high and mighty to hear the views of a common idiot like myself. Heaven forbid he learn something that makes him an even better doctor. Funny, it's the same issue we saw with the world being flat and when it was thought to be the center of the universe. Only idiots thought otherwise. Eventually, common belief was disproven, and only idiots thought otherwise. That's the thing with knowledge - it's always evolving and growing. Wouldn't it be better to evolve and grow with it?  Of course! Some people just care to be more engrained and stubborn in their egotism.

So, who was right? Well, I woke up feeling great. I went home within an hour of waking up. I've felt great since. Clear mind, very manageable pain. Heck, I'm not even using crutches. Now, I'm not saying I would be doing poorly if I was throwing up yesterday, but it certainly wouldn't have helped. It wouldn't have kept my mind clear and positive, and that is directly related to how well I recover. You need to start on the right foot if you want to get to the best outcome, and that only comes with the right choices along the way. I made sure the right choices were made for me.

Only you know your body. Don't let someone else's ego force you into a place you know you shouldn't be.  Doctors are amazing, but amazing isn't the same as omniscient or infallible.

No one else can enlighten.your.body.

Play The Beats That Move Your Feets

I have an old friend who is a DJ. A very good DJ. He's also hilarious, and rhymes a lot. He had a fun little slogan for his DJ business where he says, "I play the beats that get people out of their seats." I'm sure he isn't the first to ever say this, but it stuck with me. You all know what he means - there are songs that you can't help tapping a foot to, if not signing along with and dancing. You can use music's innate ability to get you moving even when you're not intending to move to amp up your workout performance (and enjoyment).

I have always used a workout mix when working out, and have generally tried to use up-tempo, powerful songs. But I was too lazy to make several workout mixes, so I'd use one for all types of cardio, weights, body weight exercises, etc. And the truth is, the right music for running isn't always the right music for pumping iron.

The reason is primarily about tempo. For running, you hear that the magic number is in the neighborhood of 180 beats per minute, or bpm (typically +/- 20bpm). For lifting, that will either likely be too fast, or you basically ignore the cadence the music is trying to move your body to. That's ok, but then you are breaking the natural connection your mind is making with that song, lessening its ability to almost instinctually move you better when you run/lift/jump/etc, and making those motions harder since your mind has to actively (even if subconsciously) tune out the tunes.

I found this first hand last summer. I was recovering from double hernia surgery, and was walking 30-60 minutes a day - usually outside in the gorgeous (though drought-like) weather we had. It was great. I rebuilt my workout mix with some great new songs I was into, and found they really fit my walking pace (between 12 and 15 minutes per mile). As my recovery progressed, I started to jog, and eventually got back to running at sub-7 minute mile paces (at least for my intervals). One of those newer songs came on during a fast interval. I remembered how it was perfect for a faster-paced walk. It had good base so you could really feel the beats and the pacing. It was catchy without being cheesy. The vocals were great. But I literally felt my body slowing and feeling encumbered when it came on during a run. It was like my feet each instantly weighed 20 lbs more. Ensuring it wasn't really a physical thing, I skipped the song, and a really good, running-paced song came on. It was like I had gotten a shot of energy instantly.

So I wanted to share a few songs that I have found to be really good for running, but there are lots of suggestions out on the web. Lots of them are really bad, actually. The reason - it goes to what the person likes as a good song, but they often lose sight of the appropriateness to running. So, think about what activity you will be engaging in when you pick a song, and try to picture your body moving in that activity. Will the song fit? Will it seem awkward? And if you aren't sure about the BPM, just Google the song name and "bpm", and you'll likely get your answer.  Aim for a minimum of about 160 if you're running, but feel free to go a little slower if you run a little slower.

Some great ones I happen to really like from three of my favorite artists are:

• White Rabbits, "Danny Come Inside" from Milk Famous
• White Rabbits, "The Day You Won the War" from Milk Famous
• Matisyahu, "Sunshine" from Spark Seeker
• Matisyahu, "Shine on You" from Spark Seeker
• Matisyahu, "Tel Avivin'" from Spark Seeker
• Coldplay, "Charlie Brown" from Mylo Xyloto
• Coldplay, "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall" from Mylo Xyloto
• Coldplay, "Hurts Like Heaven" from Mylo Xyloto

You are probably asking, "Who are the White Rabbits?" They're literally the greatest band you've never heard of. Unreal talent, and incredible live (I was really lucky to have gotten to see them in concert once). Their latest album, Milk Famous, has a few good workout tracks, but the two above really stand out for running tempo-wise. One of the reasons they're good for workouts is that they have two drummers, so there's a really strong baseline to their music. It's great for reinforcing tempo.

Spark Seeker is generally an upbeat, positive album that works well for running, but has too many intros and outros that are slow and quiet, so if you want to use it, be sure to trim the tracks (in iTunes, you can get info on the track, go to the Options tab, and set the start and/or end time to avoid this stuff). Other Matisyahu tracks are also great for running, especially from the albums Youth and Light. He's worth checking out, and his message is very positive. I don't like running to negative stuff...sets the wrong mood.

I do like rap and hip-hop for workouts because the base is strong, consistent and can really pump you up. The attitude and message are often too tough or negative, so I tend to reserve it for things like lifting when I want to feel tough and hard rather than nimble and lithe. If you're interested, some good options are "When Will They Shoot" by Ice Cube from The Predator; "Do My" by Memphis Bleak from The Understanding; Juvenile's "Act You Know Me" from UTP: The Movement; and Lil' Wayne's "6 Foot 7 Foot" from The Carter IV, and Jay-Z's "Dirt Off Your Shoulders" from The Black Album.

Experiment with your favorite songs to see which ones seem to aide your body in moving toward its goals, and which ones you should relegate to casual listening and/or shower singing. Music is a fantastic way to enlighten.your.body

Inside the Cult of Running - It's All Happy (& Kinda Cult-Like)

For most of my life, like most people, I was an onlooking on the world of running.  From where I was looking, and my little experience inside the world, it was terrible.  It was a painful, exhausting, tedious thing that was really just there to talk negatively about - all the ways it bores you, why you can't do it, the injuries it causes, blah blah blah.

If you're not a runner, you know exactly what I mean.  You do it, too.  We talk poorly of it.  We justify why we can't do it, and why it's not for us.  And we're right.  Right?

Sure.  Runners are skinny little beanpoles who don't get bored or injured.  They're not humans.  They're probably crazy.  That's it.  Right?

And then I read Born to Run, and let my mind open a bit.  I was so smitten by the book and drawn in by the way it portrays running that I had to give it a shot myself.  Running isn't painful, monotonous and dangerous in the book.  It's enlightening, joyful, freeing, and - if done right - pain-free (or minimally painful, and no more so than other exercises).

I tried it myself, and followed the minimalist style, and it was all it was cracked up to be.  I say "was" because I'm currently nursing a torn meniscus (not from running), so I'm sidelined for the time being (but not forever).

Once I got into it, I realized how great it was.  And then I subscribed to Runner's World. That's when I saw running from inside the world of running. It's amazing how different it looks once you step in.  People love it. They are uplifted by it. They support each other. They find it exciting.

It just hit me today when reading an article in Runner's World from a college student who suffers from a condition that seems to greatly limit her life.  She can run, and it's become this amazing source of empowerment and freedom for her as it's one of the few places she's not encumbered by her condition or inferior to others.  You'd never see that if you had stayed on the outside being judgmental.

Another thing I read in Runner's World was a reader question from a high school cross country team member who gets made fun of by the football team when they run by the football practice. The advice ended with suggestion the runner get a t-shirt that says, "My sport is what your sport does for punishment." That puts it in perspective - you're a bad a$$ for running, not a wuss.  Unfortunately, it's still a negative way of looking at things (and the author suggests as much, calling it not the ideal approach, and rather advocates the "ignore them and enjoy your run" approach instead).

This ties in beautifully with the teachings of Shawn Achor in The Happiness Advantage (you can get the 12 minute digest via his TEDx talk here). It's all about how we see the reality we're in, and how that perception can lead to better outcomes - people who think positively and look at things in a positive light do better. It's not Hippy new age thinking. It's actual, scientific-research-proven fact.

All this positivity and support within the world of runners is akin to a cult. Everyone believes. Outsiders don't understand.  I guess red Gatorade can look a lot like Kool-Aid, too.  But if it's a cult, it's a really good one, and I'm ecstatic to be a member.  Really, I feel honored and lucky to have found what running can really do.  As soon as I'm cleared by my doc, I'm ready to get back out there.

So, stay on the sidelines. Judge running negatively. Stay unhealthy and boxed in.  Or, open your mind. Try it again. Perhaps try it a different way that might work better for you. Smile. Have fun. Be positive and supportive.  enlighten.your.body.

Cheating Too Often -> Cheating Too Often

Before my hernia surgery this summer, I was extremely good about cheating only one day a week.  I went 'off the wagon' during my recovery, and had things like fruit and bread for a couple of weeks.  Since then, I've kept fruit in my diet (not much, but at least a little), and have found myself having 'cheat day' items here and there throughout the week.  It was ok for a while because I was doing three-a-day workouts with about two hours of interval cardio (elliptical, running, biking), plus body weight exercises (push ups, sit ups, pull ups, etc).  I was burning so much that it really didn't matter (typically hitting 7-10k NikeFuel vs what Nike says the average American who goes to the gym does - 3k).

I warn people about cutting themselves slack because they will just burn it off later as they are changing their discipline around what they eat regularly.  Well, I'm no different.  What I've come to realize is that I'm craving 'cheat foods' in a way I didn't when I was strict.

That's when it hit me that the piece Dr. Sanjay Gupta did for "60 Minutes" on sugar being toxic was right - it's not only toxic, but it's addictive.  If you haven't seen it yet, you absolutely must.  You can view it here (Is Sugar Toxic?).

Having a donut, a piece of candy, etc doesn't satiate me the way it would have done on an old cheat day.  Instead, after I finish, it's like the old days - I want more or another.  Even if I am uncomfortably full, the craving is still there.  I strongly believe this is from the slow trickle of the stuff into my system - it's always just enough to tease me and keep raising the threshold of what amount would drive satisfaction.

See, on a cheat day, you go nuts and have so much and feel no guilt for it, so you get really uncomfortable.  And your body is so not used to it that you probably wind up sick and swear it off (for at least a week until the next cheat day).

When you have a little each day, you remove the 'special' nature of having it, and desensitize yourself to the idea.  Then add in the addictive nature of the sugar, and you're in real trouble.

So, I need to recommit and get back to the concept of a cheat day.  Otherwise, the slope will get more and more slippery until it's an oily, vertical plane.  Plus, with a (doubly) torn meniscus in my left knee, I can't adjust the angle of that slope very easily at the moment, so diet is my main tool in my health quest.

What about you?

enlighten.your.body

Q: When Were You in the Best Shape of Your LIfe?

Q: When you were in the best shape of your life?

A: Interesting question, and one that I almost answered before the truth behind it all struck me.  I just had a birthday (yesterday, actually), which is when this question came up.  That's because the past year (when I was 33) was when I launched newbodi.es, started running and dropped to just over 6% body fat (at least for a month before my hernia surgery), so it would seem like that year would take the prize.

The same year also saw me get double hernia surgery, re-herniate a disc in my back, tear my lateral meniscus in my left knee while re-tearing the medial meniscus in the same knee.  So, it would also seem that this would not be a podium-finishing-year.

But that's not what struck me.  What struck me is how answering that question with a finite year from the past resigns me to view the rest of my life as downhill.  That isn't right at all.  See, if you are on the path of health and fitness, and are enlightening your mind and body, then each year should be successively healthier than the year before, and you get into better and better shape.  Obviously, there will be a point where age overtakes lifestyle, but surely I am not there yet if you look at people like Dean Karnazes (if you don't know his story, you MUST Google him - super inspiring and amazing) and Harold Shaw.

So, if I had to pick a year from my past, it would be my 33rd.  I am in the midst of dealing with the tears in my left knee, so I'm not at my peak right now.  But I will get through this, just like I did with my double hernias, my herniated disc (both times), and every other adversity that could lead me to sit on the couch and eat Oreos (the basic theme of my childhood).  I have a feeling 34 will be a rebuilding year where I take more time than I did after my hernia surgery to make sure I don't get reinjured while building my running mileage back up, and then it will be a nice curve upward from 35 onward.

I was talking to my wife about this on my birthday, and how I want to do a half marathon before I'm 40.  If the fittest year of my life has already happened, and I couldn't do a half marathon then, then surely I can't do it in the next six years.  But I can.  And I will.

When was I in the best shape of my life? I don't know, it hasn't happened yet.

enlighten.your.body.

Staycation? No, Fitcation

Ah, the "Staycation".  It's how Americans spend time off all too often.  See, we have it all wrong.  I work for a European company, and those guys take 2 weeks off and go rent a villa in Portugal or something.  Me, I take a day or half day here or there to get something done - doctor appointments, work around the house, etc.  We need to learn to recharge.

But that's not what this is about exactly.  No.  I'm sort of advocating the mini break that isn't about going off relaxing somewhere.  Instead, take a day, and spend it being fit and active.  It will recharge you, get you boosted onto the right track, and not dip into your bank of days off too much.

Here's the ideal situation - adjust it to fit your budget and time accordingly.  Get a hotel room close to home or, better yet, close to some area you want to work out in (e.g. a good bike path, great running course like a river, etc).  Also, pick one with a good gym and a mini fridge in the room.  Don't worry about room service too much since you can bring stuff from home.  If a hotel isn't in your budget, you can just stay at home, but sometimes the new setting is good in terms of removing you from your day to day a bit.

Use this day to exercise and eat right. Don't set an alarm and allow your body to wake up naturally when it's ready (remember to put out the Do Not Disturb sign on the door).  Then go for a morning workout - in the gym, on a trail, along a river - whatever you have at your disposal.

Come back, shower, have a healthy lunch.  Find a nice setting and read a bit after lunch while you digest.  Pick something empowering, enlightening and educational.  I have several great recommendations here.  If a book feels like too much, grab something like Runners World and take in a few articles.

Then, go for an afternoon workout.  Come back, shower, have a healthy dinner, and then relax a bit.  Maybe lay down and listen to some music.

Then go for one last workout.  Shower, and get to bed.

I realize three workouts may seem like a lot, but they don't all have to be intense, and you can spread activities out over the three sessions.  I did this at home one day, and did my typical morning workout of about 45 minutes of mixed cardio with some body weight stuff (pull ups, sit ups).  Then I did a mid-day run.  Then at night I did another mild cardio session of about 30 minutes, but not crazy intensity.  I finished up with a sauna session and shower before hitting the sack.  Awesome day.

That's it. Simple. Healthy. Active. Rejuvenating. Empowering. Enlightening.

Q: Do You Do Life Coaching?

Q: Do you do life coaching in addition to the fitness and health coaching you do?

A: That's a great question that really deserves a deeper response than a simple 'yes' or 'no'.

The coaching I do isn't the same as the coaching you'd get in high school or college if you played a sport, or if you hired a running or cycling coach to train you for a race.  Instead, it's coaching to help you achieve your bigger goals in terms of a health and fitness transformation.

To separate that profound of a shift in your life from 'life coaching' doesn't make sense to me.  This is for a simple reason - for it to really work, your mind will change.  You will view yourself in a different, better light.  That will change your life outside of the fitness and health aspects.

Life coaching is about making you better in your own life - being more present, powerful, positive and successful (in a broader sense than just success at work).  Health coaching must move your position in your life if it is to work and its results to persist.

So, yes, I do life coaching simply because it's inherently part of being and staying healthier.  After all, you can't enlighten.your.body if your life isn't coming along for the ride, too.

The Contextual Fat Kid

Growing up as 'the fat kid', I struggled when I lost weight and got in shape to see myself another way.  I was in high school, and everyone around me knew me as the fat kid.  It manifested primarily in a lack of self-confidence that pervaded my life, and was strongest at parties where I couldn't approach girls because I knew they thought I was unattractive.  Surely girls from my school didn't think of me 'that way', but when there were girls who didn't know me at a party, I couldn't fathom the idea of looking like anything but 'the fat kid' to them.  When one of them would approach me and show interest, I'd blow it off assuming it couldn't be real and that I must be misreading things.

For me, I carried that feeling through to college, and either hung out along the back wall at parties, or opted to stay in my dorm room instead of going out.  College was a very similar setting to high school in terms of the types of people and situations I was in, so it wasn't a surprise that I felt and acted the same.  The weird thing is, I was and always have been pretty outgoing and extroverted.  So this wasn't just my general personality at play here.  This was an outdated self-image stuck in my head from the past overpowering my natural outgoing nature.

It actually took spending a summer in China where the context I was in was so markedly different that I was able to see myself differently.  Because I stood out so much from my surroundings, people noticed me instead me of passing by me to go talk to the football team star or basketball team captain.

At the same time as all of this, a high school classmate of mine was seen as shy, quiet, and nerdy yet not brainy (most people thought they were a bit of an airhead).  That lasted all four years.  Then in college, they took advantage of their new context, and created a new self image that they portrayed out. Popular, but not into cliques; smart but not in a socially awkward way; outgoing; friendly.  A near 4.0 student who everyone knew and liked, they consistent made really sharp comments in class.  It was literally night and day from high school.  Of course, they didn't spend the summer between senior year in high school and freshman year in college in some intensive course on how to be smart, witty and outgoing.  The underlying person was always the same, but something in high school was stifling it, and they succumbed to that pressure.  High school is weird and does things like this, but it was great to see how they broke free of that to be who they were meant to be when they got to college.

The lesson here is the power of the context in which we live, and how we frame our self image in that context.  For me, I was unable to break free of my original context when it changed a bit, and really needed a major context change to be who I was supposed to be.  For my friend, they broke free sooner and blossomed.

What I've come to realize is that context isn't something you are subject to so much as the creator of. I was able to shift my view of myself and my health over the past year and half in the exact same context because I decided to look at myself differently.  It was literally a light switch being thrown.  Just because your surroundings are the same, the people viewing you haven't changed, etc, doesn't mean you can't grow, reshape yourself (literally and figuratively) and blossom.  Whether you're in the same situation or not, you can enlighten your body.  Knowing this is a contextual shift enough to make it happen.  Now you just have to stop fighting it and go for it!

Sweet N' Spicy, Burning Coffee

What a title, right?  How appetizing does that sound?  Well, it's actually really good (assuming you enjoy coffee).  I rely on this flavor addition to black coffee to make it enjoyable, but also use it as the flavor basis for my unflavored casein drinks.

There are four things about this that make it good for getting the most of the Slow Carb Diet:

1. Cinnamon
2. Cayenne Pepper
3. Stevia
4. Coffee

As discussed in The Four Hour Body by Tim Ferriss, cinnamon is something Tim covers due to how it increases insulin sensitivity.  That's a good thing for helping your body process sugar rather than storing it.  That's a very good thing.  I put in about a teaspoon in a cup of coffee.  Tim really stresses the need for it to be freshly ground/grated as the insulin sensitivity boosting properties are tied to freshness (i.e. oxygenation ruins it).  I tend to use an organic cinnamon in powder form, so I'm not being good enough here, but I often use it on the go, and have a little thing of it, so I can't fresh-grind it often.  When I can, I do.

Cayenne and other hot peppers can also juice your ability to burn (Tim discusses its ability to spike the thermogenic response).  The key with this is to use as much as you can tolerate without going nuts.  I typically put in one shake from a little glass herb container of the stuff I buy at Wholefoods, and I tend to get the organic kind.  Yes, it costs more, but an extra dollar becomes a negligible amount when the entire bottle lasts you several months.

Stevia is a godsend.  It's natural, and very sweet without tasting like a laboratory. Black coffee can be stark and sharp for many folks used to a creamy, sugary cup of Joe.  Stevia makes a big difference, especially when you consider that all other options either are essentially sugar (agave) or chemical (sucralose, aka Splenda, for example).  Tim goes into the negatives of the chemical sweeteners given their impact on lab rats and the potential they have to lower your insulin sensitivity.  Stevia suffers from none of that.  Just note that it tends to be sweeter than sugar ounce for ounce, so if you are a two-scoop-of-sugar person, don't assume you need as much stevia.

Tim also talks at length about the fat burning effects of coffee (caffeinated).  I won't rehash them, but it really does help burn fat/sugar, and is a staple of a smart Cheat Day strategy.  Power it up with these two burn boosters, and throw in the sweetness of stevia, and you've got a delicious and effective weapon on your side.

Hopefully this helps some of you who really feel the need to add milk to your coffee.  Milk isn't allowed on the SCD.  You could add almond milk, but I find it introduces too strong of an almond flavor without really impacting the creaminess of the drink, so it doesn't really achieve what I'd be going for in adding milk or cream.  The cinnamon adds interest to the flavor, and takes quite a bit of the edge off black coffee.  The cayenne is largely unnoticeable, but adds a little dimension to the flavor.  And then the stevia just adds the right sweetness for me.

Of course, if you drink black coffee today, you can skip the stevia, but you should consider adding the other two since they will benefit you.  Enjoy.  enlighten.your.coffee.

Be 'Fit', Not 'Not Healthy'

My wife shared a great book with me about how you can heal your life.  It's titled, oddly enough, You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise Hay.  It's really brilliant.  You might be skeptical of these things, but I promise you, read a bit, and you'll be hooked.  Amazon has a great box set with the book and DVD for under $15.  It's worth it.

So, there is a particularly relevant and powerful piece that ties to what newbodi.es is all about.  Hay talks about how whatever you think about grows.  To explain it better, here's a quote from the book:

What you put your attention on grows and becomes permanent in your life.  Move away from the negative and put your attention on what you really do want to be or have.

 Louise Hay, You Can Heal Your Life, Hay House Inc, Carlsbad, CA, pages 76. 

 

Fighting the negative is a total waste of time if you really want to make changes in your life. The more you dwell on what you don't want, the more of it you create.

 Louise Hay, You Can Heal Your Life, Hay House Inc, Carlsbad, CA, pages 75. 

She goes into the power of affirmations.  It may sound like flowers and unicorns, but she's right.  This is exactly what I was getting at in two blog posts - 'Frame Your Self to Value Yourself' and 'Visualizing a Carrot & Stick'. Take the positive side of the same equation or question, and it will put you ahead. You will be stronger.

Using Hay's examples and advice, if you're on this health and fitness journey with me, you wouldn't think, "I don't want to be unhealthy anymore."  You would instead think, "I want to be healthy."  Not, "I don't want to be fat."  But, "I want to be thin and fit."  It's so simple.  But it's true, it does make a difference.  The end goal and meaning are the same, but the way you get there is literally night and day.  One inspires while the other punishes, guilts and puts down.

How do you think you're going to succeed?  By feeling bad about yourself, or by feeling inspired and driven?  I'll give you a hint, depression and lack of self-worth don't tend to lead us to be better.  Instead, enlighten.your.body.

Visualizing a Carrot & Stick

Visualization (or 'visualisation' for my UK-English-speaking friends) has long been a tool of athletes around the world to perform better.  I've read a lot about it as I enlightened my body, but have also had much experience playing with it myself.  I've started using it a wider range of settings, so I thought it would be a good topic to discuss a bit.  Let's take a look at the two approaches - the carrot (positive visualization) and the stick (negative visualization).

The Carrot
This is how most people experience visualization, and what I personally use, prefer and recommend. It's about seeing yourself be successful in whatever goal you're looking at, big or small.  Envision yourself thin, crossing the finish line, being handed a diploma, etc.

My first real experience with it was with testing maximum weights I could lift in high school.  My coach would have me sit on the bench, close my eyes, and, while breathing in deeply I would imagine the weight coming down, and then with a forceful exhale and thrusting of my arms, send the weight up.  I'd do this several times (10-15) while he set the weight so I wouldn't know what was coming.  This way, I couldn't latch on to a number fear or doubt, but instead only focus on putting up the weight I was seeing in my mind's eye.  On the last imaginary set, I'd get into position, and go right into the lift.  I'd always put up more weight than I would have chosen for myself, and likely than I could have done without the mental warm up, so to speak.

The other way I have been using it is when I run on the treadmill.  There's no escaping the monotony of treadmill running versus a great outdoor setting on a nice day.  I was going to do a 30 minute run, and was really dreading how long it would feel like it was taking.  So, I said to myself that I'd stop focusing on that, and just recall my runs along the River Thames in London that I was lucky enough to do recently.  I really pictured the Thames Path - each turn, bridge, staircase, landmark, etc.  I actually ended up getting totally lost in it.  I looked down, and half the run was already done.  It blew me away.

I was talking to someone about this, and how you can use it for the non-physical, too.  If you're sick, you can either focus on every ache and pain, or see yourself better, and focus on that.  Being happy and hopeful releases chemicals that make you feel happy and ultimately better since the immune system does better when stress is reduced (see "Stress: Portrait of a Killer" from National Geographic).

The Stick
Two authors I recommend for a health journey are AJ Jacobs (Drop Dead Healthy) and Tim Ferriss (The Four Hour Body), both of whom suggest visualization. The thing is, they are using it opposite to how most people think of it - to prod you away from the wrong path rather than draw you to the right one.

Ferriss is pretty explicit here, and the visualization is aided by a picture.  He recommends you have a 'before' picture prominently displayed somewhere you'll see it every day, and preferably somewhere around where you're trying to get or stay healthy, such as on the mirror you get changed in front of when putting on workout clothes, or on the fridge so you don't pick bad things inside.  It works, but I think you can get there by focusing on who you want to be more than what you're afraid of going back to or staying.  It's the same game, but taking the positive side of the equation rather than the side engulfed in fear, negativity and guilt.

Jacobs uses an iPhone app to take a picture of himself before embarking on his fitness journey and age it.  He looks at the picture of his future self, and talks about wanting to do better for him and not let him down.  The thing is, it's really about disappointment and the image of himself aged from the wrong starting place.  I tried it.  The results were scary, and more like I got wrinkles painted on my face for some summer camp play in which I played a grandfather.  And then they threw flour in my face and hair.  It was freaky.  It's not a stick as explicitly as what Tim Ferriss does, but it's not positive, either.  While he talks about owing it to your future self, it's really about guilting you into being healthy.

Guilt and fear can work and work well, but my concern is that they are not going to help you with moving to a mentally positive place overall with your attitude.  You should do what works for you, but be open to positive visualization as a motivator as the more positive things you use to get to your goals, the stronger a person you will be and the more likely you will be to stay on the right path.  Ultimately, that's what matters - you are trying to get and stay healthy. That takes some serious personal strength, and that strength comes from empowerment and positivity, not from fear or guilt.  Since when do people associate fear and guilt with empowerment and strength? Enlighten.your.body.

Tread Miles

As the weather gets less amazing, I'm relegated to treadmill miles more and more. I've been really lucky to have been able to run in some great locations lately, including a week of running along the Thames in London.  Amazing.

The treadmill isn't all bad, so perhaps 'relegated' isn't the right word, but it is not as good as running outside.  It does have some distinct benefits, and I'd actually recommend it for a novice or to get back on your feet to help build some basics. Then set yourself free and really do some amazing things on your feet outside.

The Good
Treadmills provide a steady, reliable and consistent platform on which to run. That means the major muscle groups can develop in a bit of a protected environment. I've discussed how this helped me rebuild foot toughness as I got back into running after hernia surgery.  It's also really easy to see your progress thanks to all the metrics most treadmills provide.  So, if you're just getting into running, it can be a good way to build into it smoothly.

One other strong point is that you don't run on treadmills.  Treadmills run you.  This is also a downside I discuss later, but for a novice, this can be really helpful.  If you use intervals, you are forced to keep up (or fall off), so you end up going faster when you should and slower when you shouldn't.  Just be sure to be choosing appropriate speeds.

So, there are benefits.

The Bad
I already mentioned a pro that is a con - treadmills run you, not the other way around.  While this can help to ensure you speed up during your intense interval, I find that, for the same level of effort, I go considerably slower on the treadmill than outside.  I tend to run in the low 7-minutes when I go on my 2 minute intense interval.  On the treadmill, I really have to kick it hard to maintain an 8-minute pace, and am hurting to break 8.  I can also maintain a sub 7'30" pace running outside for some distance (or time), but can't do that on the treadmill.  Well, 'can't' is a strong word.  I could, but it wouldn't be wise.

Another downside is the lack of variability in cushioning, path level/variation, and direction.  Hitting different types of surfaces builds some really fine motor skills in your feet, ankles, calves...basically, everything - even your arms since you likely use them a bit differently on different surfaces.  The same goes for dealing with uneven or undulating surfaces.  And making a turn is a good thing to develop muscles all around your leg rather than just the narrow set needed to go straight ahead.  In essence, variability in what you're running on really helps build a complete running machine.  This is really similar to lifting weights with a machine versus free weights.

The Surprising
I was really shocked at the whole 'treadmill runs you' aspect.  I started running on a treadmill, and signed up for a 5K, but was really concerned with my expected time given what I was doing on the treadmill.  My first run outside, I shaved 3 minutes off my 5K.  That's huge.  By the end of the month with maybe 40% outdoor running, my non-treadmill time had come down by another 3 minutes.  My treadmill time was roughly the same, though.  This was so surprising.

So, they aren't all bad, and aren't all good.  They serve a purpose, and are definitely better than not running, but if you can, do get out into the world and run a bit.  It's really rewarding mentally and physically.  If you can track your time and distance, I think you will find it really rewarding to your sense of accomplishment, too.  Go on, enlighten.your.body.

Frame Your Self to Value Yourself

We put frames on things we treasure.  Photos of loved ones, diplomas we worked hard (hopefully) to earn. Pictures of our kid's footprints. Our wedding invitations.  The list goes on.  But we actually frame everything in our life every day.  Framing is the act of putting context and boundaries, if you will, around something.  We frame a day as rainy (it happens to be a rainy day as I write this).  We frame Uncle Stu as the wacky uncle (full disclosure, I have no Uncle Stu, but if I did, he'd be hilarious).  But we frame ourselves, or, more accurately, our 'self' every day.

I had the honor of working with Stephen Wallace, former Chairman of SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions, or formerly Drunk Driving), on studies into how kids develop their sense of self.  Actions kids take and things they are exposed to lead directly to a strong sense of self, or the opposite.  It's all about how they see themselves, and that then correlates to the life choices they make as they grow.

If you are on this journey with me, and trying to do better for yourself, you should be thinking about how you frame the idea of you, and what boundaries that places on you and what doors it not only can open for you, but help you walk right through.

I want to share two framing exercises that I'm sure resonate if you're reading this.  The first is the smoker.  This may not apply to all (hopefully none) of you, but the lesson is surprisingly powerful and simple.  A friend's dad was talking about how he used to smoke, and we were all surprised.  We couldn't see him as a smoker.  He said that's exactly how he quit - he stopped seeing himself as a smoker.  He had tried every stop-smoking approach in the book.  The trouble was, he was always a smoker who was trying to stop smoking.  One day, he woke up, and decided that the problem was how he identified with the idea of being a smoker, so he started seeing himself as (and telling himself that he was) a non-smoker.  He literally never lit another cigarette after that epiphany.

I know, you're thinking that is either BS, or he's some super strong-willed genius and this isn't possible for mere mortals.  I can assure you it isn't BS (I've seen photos of him smoking, and his wife confirmed the story), and, yes, he is strong-willed and ridiculously smart, but that doesn't mean it's not totally possible for others in similar situations.  You needn't be a smoker to get the benefit.

So here's where the second example comes in, and the one I want to recommend you subscribe to.  It's worked for me and it almost makes me giddy when I feel the power it gives me.  You are an athlete.

Did you see that?  Say it with me, "I am an athlete."

See, you're not an out of shape person trying to lose weight. Or a lazy person trying to get a bit more active.  Or a bad example for your kids trying to teach them to live a bit better.  You are an athlete.

Athletes are healthy.  Athletes are active.  Athletes are driven.  Athletes are focused. Athletes succeed.  You are an athlete.

The day I embraced that, I signed up for a 5K race.  I was definitely capable of doing it before seeing myself as an athlete, but I was just a former fat kid who was working out.  That doesn't really inspire you to get out there, put a line in the sand, and do something now does it?

Of course, I'm not talking about the mega rich athletes who live a life of indulgence, dope, drink or do drugs, etc.  I'm talking about real, committed, pure athletes.

So, frame your image of your self as the thing you aspire to be, and you will be inspired.  You will enlighten.your.body.

Collateral Benefits of Running Outside

I struggled with calling this post “Collateral Damage of Running Outside”, but I’m trying to take a positive view on it lead to framing this as benefits.  And that is a fair characterization rather than just trying to be all smiley and rainbows about pain.

What’s the beneficial damage?  Blisters.  I’ve blogged about this a bit already, but it’s become really clear to me what has been going on.  As I got back into running after having to take a few months off due to having two hernias and then having surgery for them, I started outside right off the bat to take advantage of the gorgeous Summer weather we’ve been having courtesy of a drought.  When I first got into running, I started on the treadmill for a couple of months before venturing out (it was Winter).  When I started, I had minimal blistering or skin issues at all – never enough to keep me from going at it the next day.  This time around, it’s been a very different story, with several blisters that were so bad that I had trouble walking the next day, let alone going for a  run.  It got to the point where each run resulted in more blistering and needing to take a couple of days off to heel.

Then a tight schedule lead to an insight.  I didn’t have time to get all suited up to run outside, so I just hopped on the treadmill.  (“Suited up?” You ask?  This isn’t really about getting dressed so much as getting ‘kitted out’.  Mainly, this means getting my iPhone strapped to my arm, setting up the 3 apps I use to run (iTunes, Seconds and Nike+ Running), getting my Nathan hand held water bottle filled, connecting my Jaybird Freedom Bluetooth headphones waiting for GPS locks on my Nike+ GPS SportWatch and iPhone, etc).  I did a 30 minute interval session on the treadmill and had zero skin issues at all – no blisters, hot spots, etc.

Great!  I took that to mean that my feet had finally toughened up enough that I could just keep moving forward.  The next day, I ran outside, and got two really bad blisters on my mid-foot.  Then I had to take 3 days off as a result.

When I got back at it, I went right to the treadmill for my next two runs, and was fine.  It all hit me then.  I thought running on pavement wasn’t any harsher on my feet than running on a treadmill (not a very forgiving surface).  They’re both pretty consistent and predictable.  So what could it be that outside runs were causing so many issues?

Turns out, it’s turning.  The little rotations I do when running outside to go around corners, move around people, etc.  That’s all it takes to cause blisters, and it’s the one real variation from the treadmill.  As my friend Matt pointed out, I run minimalist, so it’s basically all happening directly on my skin whereas his thick Nikes protect him with their ample cushioning.

So, while running outside adds other benefits around how it develops ancillary muscles, it also adds benefits of toughening up your feet.  It strengthens more intricate aspects of your feet muscles as you deal with variations in the surface (cracks, rocks, grass, pavement, slants, etc), but also the strength of the skin on your feet.  That’s the collateral benefit.  While it is damage, it heels, and you end up stronger.  Isn’t that what building muscle is – doing a little damage that you come back stronger from?

As an update, I ran outside yesterday after coming to this epiphany, and was much more aware of how I twisted my feet as I turned.  The result was zero skin issues, and at the same time, I did more work with my calf muscles as I used them to stabilize my feet better.  Overall, good stuff.  Looking forward to another run today…outside.

Q: Why do I feel miserable all the time (Hint: I eat junk)?

Q: Why am I always tired; fall asleep really early, but wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep; feel run down and achy all the time? I can't start working out and stuff if I feel this way.

A: This is something I hear quite a bit of. It's not that the person is trying to make excuses for not getting on top of their fitness, they genuinely feel miserable most of the time and have very odd sleep issues.  While there may be a genuine medical issue going on (so be sure to talk to your doctor before starting a fitness program), a quick look at your lifestyle may hold all the answers you need.

For the person who asked me this, I had the privilege of seeing their diet on a regular basis.  It consisted of basically all take out, and the take out consisted of really poor choices - everything was fried, sitting in a heavy, sweet sauce, dessert was often included and many times the only thing that actually got eaten.  Veggies?  No, not really.  Regular meal times?  Not so much.  Candy and other junk food?  Yes.  Soda?  Uh huh.  Coffee?  Yup.  More coffee?  Yessir.  Chips, crackers, etc?  By the bag full.  Processed sugar and carbs?  Tons of them.

See, this is where my spidey sense started tingling.  OK, I don't have spidey sense, but if I did, it would tingle.  They are eating horribly.  Horribly.  Their body is getting a sugar rush several times a day and slammed with all sorts of chemicals and preservatives.  So their body keeps going through these ups and downs, and never gets what it needs in terms of vitamins or 'good' fuel.  Protein comes in small doses that don't suffice, and never come very cleanly as those doses include sugar and carbs and other junk.

How could you expect to feel marginally ok with a diet like this?  How could you expect to sleep well when your body is constantly going through these sugar ups and downs, and left empty of what it needs (so you wake up hungry and uncomfortable)?

While I could preach at this person until I'm blue in the face, for it to really work, they need to come to their own realization. They could make slight changes to start feeling better.  That progress would beget more changes and progress.

More than anything, I know they want to be feeling better.  The desire is there.  The path is fairly obvious (or at least these things need to change whether there's a bigger medical issue or not, and you can't really figure that out before you clean up the 'garbage in' approach that's leading to a 'garbage out' feeling).

How about you?  What's your diet like?  How do you feel every day?  Could you do better?  Do you want to feel better?  We could all pretty much answer yes to those last two questions, so let's enlighten our bodies.

Balancing Doable & Challenging in Your Workout

My wife and I were talking tonight as she begins to workout a bit again as her health stabilizes.  She shared a really interesting perspective that I wanted to blog about.  She recounted when she was younger and worked out a lot, she kept adding to her routine to keep it interesting and challenging as she got in progressive better shape.  The problem was that she started looking at 60+ minute workouts and that became daunting from a time-committment and started to feel like a chore.  It became something she had to push herself to do, and make sacrifices to make work schedule-wise.  Right now, she's doing little things in small doses so she can fit them in, and they're almost too short and simple to even begin to question doing - but they're enough that she's noticing the good feeling she's getting as a result.

I told her about how I'd do 70 minutes of elliptical work every day before I got my masters (which is when we met), and it just worked for me,  I didn't think of it as a chore, didn't question it, but did build my life around it (single, no kids, no real plans any given night after work, etc).

This is the key learning - it boils down to finding the right mix for you where it's enough of a challenge to do something for your body, yet not so much that you really question doing it.  Remember, Principle 3 is "don't question it" - one way to avoid questioning it is to develop a routine that doesn't even risk triggering the part of your brain that would question it.

That balance isn't set in stone.  It varies by person, by situation, by time of day/week/month/year/your life, and will vary based on the exercise in question.  For some people, lifting will trigger an instant question, and for others, they can lift all day, but suggest a 5 minute run, and they start consciously or subconsciously building excuses to get out of it.

So, work at it, and try to figure out where your balancing point is.  If you can find it, you're much more likely to stick with your workout program and see results.  That's how you enlighten.your.body.

Quick Meal Prep Tip

I've been getting quite a few questions about meal prep and cooking.  People can't seem to find a quick, easy and, perhaps most important, recipe that is Slow Carb Diet compliant.  I did post a little PDF cook book on the newbodi.es links page, but people want more than that.

So, while I toy with the idea of doing a few meal prep videos, I thought I'd share a tip that's at the heart of much of my cooking.  Three basic veggies, some olive oil and a pan.

The three veggies are frozen diced onions and frozen shelled edamame, plus fresh baby spinach.  You can use baby kale, too, but I find the spinach to be really tasty.  I use organic options for each. The pre-diced frozen onions are great since dicing onions can take some time.  The trick is to throw some olive oil (or macadamia, if you can find and afford it) in a pan, throw in the frozen veggies, and start the heat on medium-ish.  Then, after it warms up, you have a decision to make - what else are you going to add, if anything. You could add more veggies, or perhaps another protein beyond the edamame. Cashews and almonds go well with this dish, as does some shredded or cut up coconut.  I typically add an animal protein (usually a piece of fish or shrimp), but you don't have to.  This setup forms the basis of a fast, complete and tasty meal.

If you're going to add something pre-cooked like canned tuna, hard boiled egg, pre-cooked chicken breast, etc, you should add the spinach now while raising the heat to a medium high level.  It needs about 2 minutes to cook while being tossed so the oil gets it well covered.  I typically fill the pan with spinach as it cooks down fast and dramatically.  When it's still visible as leaves but darker in color, throw in your pre-cooked item, reduce the heat to medium, and let it sit for a couple of minutes to warm the pre-cooked stuff. Move the pan around occasionally to keep things mixed, free from sticking and so things heat evenly.  That's it.

If you're adding nuts, the story is the same, but you should consider pan roasting them a bit before adding them. Throw in a little sea salt (unless they're already salted), roast them in a little bit of olive oil while moving them around in the pan for 2-3 minutes, and throw them right into your veggie mixture.  Is really just about combining at that point, so you can even plate the veggies, and pour the nuts over the top.

Another option is to add lentils - an amazing source of vegetable protein, very hearty, and pretty filling. I tend to cook a put of lentils each week, and spoon the into various dishes.  I put some cayenne and a little sea salt into the water when cooking them.  Throw about a cup per portion into this meal, and it is a really complete dinner.

If you chose to add a raw item, like fresh fish or chicken breast, first make sure it's not a huge piece, or better yet, cook it a bit in another pan while you were warming the frozen stuff and oil.  Then throw it in, cover the lid, and raise the heat slightly toward medium high.  Let it cook for 5-10 minutes depending on the size of the item and what it is (chicken will take longer than fish or shrimp, for example). Move the pan around occasionally to keep it from sticking.  Check it, flip it, cover the whole thing is spinach, and then put a cover back on.  Then let it cook until the raw stuff is cooked through as you like it.  Be sure to move the pan around occasionally, and check it now and then to see doneness.  Just don't check too frequently so you don't release all the heat that's building up under the lid too much.

All in, you're looking at 10 minutes including prep and clean up without raw animal protein, or about 20-25 with it. Not bad at all.  And it's a pretty easy meal to make in terms of intensity.

A couple of side notes.  First, I don't insist on animal protein at all.  This dish works really well as a purely veggie dish, and you'll see it has no dairy, so it's easy to make it vegan. One thing I do insist on (if I can be so bold) is to really load up on the portion size if you aren't adding animal protein. Spinach is awesome, but cooks down really fast, and isn't very dense or filling.  Diced onions are kinda worthless from a 'fill you up' standpoint. Edamame is better, but still not filling enough in small to medium amounts.  The only trick is the lentils, which will fill you more than the other veggies.  But, do keep in mid, this meal will be fueling you for many hours.  For me, I typically eat around 5:30pm, and have breakfast the next morning around 5:15, and I might even work out again at night. Just be sure you are respecting your body's need for fuel and not thinking a cup of cooked veggies is sufficient. I typically have a fully loaded plate of this stuff, with the load being about 2.5 times as big when I go vegan on it.

"Principle 3: don't question it" Keeps Coming Up

As I've said many times over, I wrote my 10 Principles to help boil down lots of the advice out there into what I think is the set of essentials behind fitness success.  The third principle is "don't question it," and it reads like this:

don't question it
letting doubt in is the first step to failing. nike was right - just do it. don't start arguing with the rules of the diet or how you can't make it work because you love xyz. do you love your body? are you happy? really? obviously, you can do and be better, or you wouldn't be here. same for exercise. if you stop and think about whether you have it in you, you will find reasons not to have it in you. if you just do it, you get it done. stop questioning, and start doing.

Over the past two days, this kept coming up all over the place.  It started with a great blog post from Dai Manual, a really inspiring guy I follow on Twitter with a similar back story to mine (though he was overweight for a shorter period of time, and is ridiculous physical condition today).  He was posting about pushing yourself through those moments of doubt, and how you will feel better later.  He posted this great Bruce Lee quote in his post:

Then, when I went to respond to the post, I noticed the first comment, with another great quote that gets at the idea:

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. You can act to change your life; the procedure, the process is its own reward. 

– Amelia Earhart

 Really powerful stuff.

OK, moving on from Dai's blog, I was in a meeting with my direct reports at work, and we always close with a fun/quirky question or fact about each other. This time, the question was to write a fortune for a fortune cookie.  I don't have the exact words, but one of the people on my team had a quote that was about the same idea.  She talked about action being a greater endeavor than thinking of action.  I of course used my new-found Bruce Lee quote.

In another meeting, we were tackling a thorny corporate issue, and had to make a change to handle the situation.  Each option was difficult, and a few people had push back for each option.  The thing is, we have to take one of them because the status quo is no longer viable.  We can't just question the whole idea of doing.  We have to get on with it.

Then the day ended with me noticing a photo on Dai's Facebook page.

Totally.  If you're wording, the J stands for 'Just', the D for 'Do' and the I for 'It'.  The F is self explanatory.  Though, if you're not into swearing, it could mean 'Fantastically'.  That works, too.  So does 'Ferociously', but it doesn't really fit with the 'Calm' part, does it?