Rediscovering Excellence

" Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) Greek Philosopher"

Habits are amazing. My habits can liberate me or enslave me. Take this blog for instance. After I got my iPad I found it convenient to write and post my blogs from it. But then there was some code problem between the iPad and Blogspot. I couldn't get my posts to save as draft or to post. Then, instead of changing my habit, I let my habit of only blogging from my iPad stop me from blogging at all. Luckily I've checked out Blogspot again and the issues seem to be worked out (maybe its that incredible iOS5 upgrade!).

It happens with my health and fitness as well. I get into the habit of eating and exercising a certain way or time, and it keeps me going, improving. But when "life" interferes and causes conflicts or changes, the habit - if it is too inflexible - is no longer my liberator, but my enslaver.

I moved from my 4 year apartment stint into a house in August. The house is great, but I no longer have the free time that I had before. The drive into town is further, the yard demands attention, cleaning the kitchen just takes more time because there is more space to be covered moving around. And though there is a great space I've dedicated for exercise, I'm allowing my habits from a more leisurely paced life to block my fitness and nutrition goals.

Okay, so yet another lesson learned. This is another example of how easy and how incredibly complicated pursuing health can be, and often both at the same time. This is a change in focus here, but this simple fact (that health can be easy and complicated at the same time) underscores the importance of having accountability or success partners for this journey.

So, the challenge before me I the next few days is reactivating powerful liberating habits. After all, excellence is a habit.

Again, the Bike

My P90X and Insanity schedule is in limbo for a few more weeks. But I have been using the mountain bike for transportation a lot. I haven't hesitated to jump on it for any trip of 5 miles or less. And the strength in my legs I'd getting better quickly.

Which is the reason for this post, an observation about the way the strength is working. I posted earlier how regular bike riding had done next to nothing to prepare me for my 5K. Guess if I want to train for running, it's best to run. Did seem to help my endurance, but that just meant that my legs hurt that much more, since I was able to run longer than I had trained to do.

But here is a gain I have noticed: strength walking down stairs. Big deal, huh? Not when I li e on a second story apartment and have knees that are 56 yeRs old. I'm in good shape, but I would have to exercise extra caution when descending a staircase. But since I've added regular bike riding to my exercise, I'm practically bouncing down stairs. Another serendipitous discovery. As I increase my fitness level I continue to discover what I lost as I recover it. Yeah, healthy is much better. And riding that bike is worth it, too.

You Never Forget (But There's Still Lots To Learn)

I've enjoyed getting back on a bike. That's "bicycle", not a motorcycle like most other guys my age. And it's true, you don't forget how to ride a bike. It's a 21 speed Schwin mountain bike, but it suits me well for riding in town. I find I'm more of a blood and guts kind of guy, more so than the finessing road bike type. I like jumping curves, fighting traffic, muscling the bike through traffic. It very existential when I'm in the traffic, a la running with the bulls of Pamplona, omlyni get to do it every day.

I started riding as a way to supplement what I was doing for my fitness level. I've gradually increased my distances. I've gotten up to 45 miles in the course of a day. I getting faster riding around town. And it's working on the supplementing health aspect.

Just a few things I've observed (learned) about the results of bike riding. It doesn't help you prepare for a 5K. Yeah, learned that one the hard way. Ouch! My legs ate definitely stronger. I can literally feel that. It is changing the way I walk. And I'm standing straighter. Dunno if that is the result of the legs being stringer or maybe the core getting stronger. But it's great noticing how much more erect I'm standing since I started hunching over handlebars. Who knew? Lots to learn riding a bike.

Exercise/Carb Craving Connection?

Is there a connection between exercise and craving carbs? I've discussed this with co-workers and we've noticed this trend. This is purely anecdotal information, but I'll see what else I can find out about it. We've noticed that when we are exercising regularly it is much easier to control/manage appetite. Both cravings and hunger are reduced, and one exercising routine seems to make resolve to do the next easier. The complication is when the opposite seems to happen. If we are not exercising then we start having to deal with increased hunger pangs, even if we are eating. That's an interesting reversal. Exercising, reduced food intake, no hunger. No exercise, increased food intake, more hunger. That alone is reason enough to put a premium on setting aside time for exercise.

But our observation gets more specific and interesting. When we exercise it is easier to control/manage nutrition. If we neglect exercise, we noticed that we don't just crave food in general, we crave carbs, not good natural carbs, but highly processed carbs: sugars, breads, pastas. For me it's sweets. I get to that stage of "no thank you, I do not want A cookie, I want the entire package of cookies."

So, the take away is plan meals, plan exercise, and work the plan. Missing exercise has greater consequences than just missed burned calories. Whether this is a physical response, a mental phenomena or a combination of the two I don't know. I don't know if this is anything other than just a unique response true of just a few people. My intuition is that it is a hard wired connection (exercise controls cravings, no exercise brings on carbohydrate craving). What have you noticed. Post a response and tell me about your observations on this.

Sometimes the Sun Doesn't Shine

Nutrition was far less than good today. I had my super healthy omlette this morning and started fine. But I also cooked with my students today. We repurposed some leftovers from the freezer that came from a banquet we had in February. The dishes were casseroles that weren't particularly healthy to begin with, and by the time we added some ingredients to bump the fare up, it was really bad news. I don't want to explain everything, but let's say it involved a lot of marshmallows and Jiffy corn bread mix.

Of course I had to eat some. And the some more. And thar ended up spelling the end of restraint. I even ate barbecue baked chips. I haven't had those in ages. I could taste the heavy dose of sugar on those things.

I did do my Insanity plyometric cardio routine. It went really well. I went to walk, but the legs were hurting a bit too much.

So, where from here? First, "do your best, forget the rest" remains the order of the day. I plan to start a cleanse to drop kick my butt into ketosis and get backminto a steady fat burn. I'll make a stab at walking again in the morning ands get those 5 miles in. I'll use what was a bad day to push me to have a a string of great days. Sometimes the runner stumbles. But you get up and run again. May not have been the best day. But it's just a day. Carry on.

Shutting The Back Door

Most people I know who, like me, have lost weight have two wardrobes: a fat wardrobe and a skinny wardrobe. The skinny wardrobe is made up of clothes we can now wear. The fat wardrobe is made up of old favorites, clothes that gave us comfort, or for whatever emotional or financial reason, keeps is from getting rid of them. I have a pair of bluejeans that fall in that category. They are special to me because they are hand-me-downs from my son! When I lost over 100 lbs he gave them to me because the jeans were too small for him (he was wearing his "fat" wardrobe at the time).

I lost enough weight that had started wearing smaller jeans than this favorite pair. But I held on to those jeans because they were significant to me. And I held on to a lot of my other "fat" clothes, most just because I didn't take the time to get rid of them.

I had left the back door open to regaining weight. What later started out as a minor fluctuation, or up tick in my weight continued going up without alarm or reignited concern from me partly because I had an entire "fat" wardrobe waiting to accommodate me.

By neglecting to get rid of bigger clothes I gave myself an avenue to get bigger without being forced to realize that it had to stop. I had left a back door open to regain weight I had lost. And this has happened more than once.

By holding on to our "fat" clothes for whatever reason/rational we use to defend keeping them, we put ourselves on the road to regaining weight previously lost. So it's time to make some tough decisions. I just got back to wearing some of my smaller clothes, especially some smaller jeans. So I'm taking that special pair of jeans and taking them to Goodwill. I'm putting some other items with the jeans, things I've held on to but don't have to wear because I'm into some smaller clothes: printed t shirts, khaki cargo pants, polos, dress clothes and more. I'm going to shut the back door to regaining weight I have worked hard to lose.

Get rid of that old "fat" wardrobe and celebrate the new you. Shut the back door to gaining/regaining weight.

Walking the Halls for Health - what we can do at Landrum HS

Walking the halls.

Spent some time using a Measure Master Roll Tape this morning to work out some walking distances. I took the measurement of the three main hallways and came up with this.

The distance from the opening of the 200 hall to it's end is 365 feet. So one lap is 730 feet. The same measurement on the 300 hall is 315 feet, so a lap is 630.

From the opening of the 200 hall, to the end of the 400/500 hall, and then to the opening of the 300 hall is 1152 feet. And the distance across the commons is 53 feet.

Putting all that together, 1 lap up and down all three main halls is a total of 2565 feet. Two laps: 5120 feet.

There are 5280 feet in a mile. So for the sake of argument, 2 laps up and down the three major halls is approximately 1 mile (an extra 1/2 the distance down the 200 or 300 hall would make up that distance, but let's not quibble).

So, of your health goals involve a certain amount of significant walking, here's an excellent way to meet that goal: 2 laps equal 1 mile.

How many calories is that? I walk a mile in 15 minutes so that comes out to 100 calories a mile. Here's a good website to go to find how many calories you can burn in a mile.

http://walking.about.com/library/cal/uccalc1.htm

Happy walking.

Serendipitous Almond Milk

I've seen almond milk on the shelf and have read some folks recommending it, but I mostly ignored it. I thought of almond milk as just a bit of over reach that wouldn't make much difference in the long run. I didn't think the the results would be worth the additional expense.

However, I decided to give it a try this week. Let me tell you what I learned just by comparing the nutritional tables between 1% milk (I normally use 2% - when I'm not using water) and almond milk. Just for the record, by the time milk is reduced down to 2% or less, it is treated almost like a sugar water by the body when being digested. First, almond milk has fewer calories. A cup of unsweetened almond milk has 40 calories, while a cup of 1% milk has 200! That cup of almond milk only has 2g of carbohydrate, the 1% milk has 24g (to maintain weight you only need about 150; that cup of 1% milk becomes 1/6 of what you need for the day). The lopsided comparison goes on. Nutritionally, almond milk is far superior to bovine milk.

Now here's the real surprise: I was trying this out in my chocolate Shakeology. My expectations were low, but I was blown away by how much better my chocolate Shakeology tasted. Today I tried it with greenberry Shakeology. I've always liked greenberry, but adding almond milk to it - wow!

Here's the way I made my greenberry Shakeology: 1 scoop greenberry Shakeology, 3/4 cuo of Dole frozen mixed fruit, 4 Tblspns of Dannon Light and Fit vanilla yogurt, and 1 cup of Blue Diamond unsweetened almond milk. Absolutely great.

Side Benefits to Shakeology and Almond Milk

I asked one of my clients who works in the building with me try the Sakeology with almond milk. She usually blends hers with fruit and water. Later in the day she came to se me to tell me that she thought another benefit was that the Shakeology was more filling. Her usual experience is that late in the afternoon she feels a little hungry and goes for a snack, usually of nuts. But today after having almond milk I her Shakeology she felt no need to snack to hold off her hunger until supper time.

I thought about that for just a moment and saw how it was entirely possible that a Shakeology user would feel more satisfied after having a shake made with almond milk. The additional nutrients in the almond milk could very well result in an enhanced sense of of satisfaction after eating. The body recognizes empty calories for what they are and will push us to eat to get the nutrients it needs. But if nutrients are high the body responds by not desiring as much food, even if the calories count is much lower.

So an added benefit to using almond milk with Shakeology is that enhanced sense of being nutritionally satisfied, and not being hungry or constantly craving snacks.

All That Wasted Time!

The three day cleanse is going right along. However, I do make one modification: I use some dairy. In my Shakeology I like to add a little vanilla or strawberry yogurt and use 2% milk. The amounts used add about 100 calories to the Shakeology.

I had seen almond milk in the past and considered it an unnecessary measure, so I never used it. Recently I read some reviews on the product and noticed that coaches whose guidance I listen to were using it.

So today I made my Shakeology with my Shakeology. Shakeolofy already tastes great, but this was even much better tasting with half the calories of 2% milk and many more nutrients and antioxidants, I'm sold.

To make my Shakeology I use a handful (a half cup to a cup's worth) of Dole frozen mixed fruit, about a cup of almond milk, 4 table spoons of Dannon's Light & Fit yogurt, and a scoop of chocolate Shakeology. The fruit adds 70 calories, the almond milk 40, and the yogurt maybe 10 ( the whole container is only 400). The Shakeolog is 140 calories. That makes about 260 calories in a meal replacement that is loaded with nutrients.