Focus on the Minutiae, while planning many steps ahead.
Oh no, you did not just do that? Really? that? did you? What were you thinking? I can not believe it. No, seriously? you did what?
Yes, yes I did, and yes I will.
In my quest to make 2010, my year of action. I am taking action. I’m stopping talking about things, and I am doing. I have not swam or biked competitively ever. The last time I ran in a track meet was bout 18 years ago (give or take a few years). Even when I did run, I ran mid-distance sprints. I did not run cross country. So, Can you guess what I did?
Congratulations! You are now registered for Chicago Triathlon, Kids Triathlon and Fleet Feet Sports SuperSprint Triathlon. Please check the event’s official website for updates: http://www.chicagotriathlon.com
Okay, I haven’t actually completed a triathlon. However, Yes, I did sign-up, and yes I will finish. You can cheer me on in Chicago Sunday, August 29, 2010 @ 6:00 AM local time.
I’ll be doing my best triathlete impersonation. When I finish, I won’t be impersonating anybody. I will be a triathlete. I’ve been talking about it for a few years now. I like biking. I like swimming, and I tolerate running when I have to get away from danger.
I know, I know. If you are a reader, you may be thinking that I am violating my own advice: Do not tell me your goal, and you will succeed. However, I don’t feel I have accomplished anything yet. I know I have work to do. Signing up is just one step along the way.
I have been taking steps along the way.
How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.
- I’ve been reading triathlon books at the bookstore (haven’t bought one yet, if you have a recommendation, let me know).
- I’ve been reading about improving my swimming form and better breathing techniques.
- I’ve been swimming once a week for the past few weeks.
- I’ve been doing some interval short runs/walk combinations to build up my running stamina.
- I’ve been doing some heart rate walking as well as some elliptical workouts regularly.
- I’ve been doing muscle focused weights every morning 6 days a week.
This is just the beginning. I’ve got 4 to 6 hours of running, biking, swimming, and weight workouts a week for thirty weeks.
So, as all the pro athletes state, focus on the next day, the next possession, the next move while thinking and planning multiple moves in advance. I focus on my next workout. I focus on my form during the weight workout. I focus on the posture while running, and the breathing while swimming. Build a strong foundation, and build up from there.
Step 1: Do your research. Done!
Step 2: Do a feasibility study. Done!
Step 3: Register. Done!
Next: Step 4: Build a training and fitness workout plan.
Next: Step 5: Execute the workout plan
What’s the funny thing about my registering for a triathlon?
I don’t own a bike. I do own running shoes. I own a swimsuit and googles, but not a wetsuit.
How do you train for a triathlon without a bike?
If you have any international distance training plans for newbies with 20 to 30 weeks, let me know.
More goals ahead. In the next few weeks, I am overloaded with work for my main job at my technology boutique consulting business. So, my simpleweight posts will be a little farther in between. Rest assured, I am making exercise a priority in 2010.
What’s your priority in 2010? As always, let me know how I can help you.
Pick and Commit Time to Exercise, 10 minutes a day. Ground Hog Day 2009 Fitness Resolutions.
Groundhog Day is here and gone, but there is still time for you to resolve to be better.
David Seah, the first person I know to talk about Groundhog Day Resolutions explains his GDR ideas. Leo at Zen Habits talks about Groundhog day resolutions too. It is in the air! So, is 6 more weeks of winter regardless of whether the Groundhog saw his shadow or not. (Hint: the First Day of spring is: March 20. Count the number of weeks from Feb 2, 2009 to March 20, 2009)
So, What is Simpleweight’s Ground Hog Day Resolutions?
Number one: I know I can do a better job at convincing you (and I) that we can and will achieve our fitness goals. I know it, and I will help you to know it! It is imperative!
Number two, and more importantly: Our GroundHog Day Goal is to become physically fit. That Goal is too BIG! however, we need it that way. As I wrote in my previous Groundhog day post, Begin With The End In Mind, we must become absolutely certain where we want to go. So certain, that we believe and know it is inevitable. Remove the fat talk from our consciousness and replace it with fitness talk.
Some suggestions about goals:
- Break out a map (a piece a paper).
- Draw a line of where you are to where you want to go.
- If you don’t know where you are, then write down everything about where you are now.
- If you don’t know where you want to go, then write down everything about where you want to go.
- Then keep that in your mind.
- Then, break this big elephant into small bites. We must start small in order to make good habits.
As we begin to create our new selves, creation and being creative is a habit we must form just as a our fitness habits must replace our fat habits. So, how do we build this creative habit? In Twyla Tharp’s book The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, the first step she talks about is the “Rituals of Preparation”:
When you have
- selected the environment that works for you,
- developed the start-up ritual that impels you forward every day,
- faced down your fears,
- and put your distractions in the proper place,
you have cleared the first hurdle. you have begun to prepare to begin.
Tywla Tharp
Wow. That is a lot in just one paragraph. I added the list and bold for emphasis. In order to create creative habits, we must make rituals. Rituals are things we feel impelled to do consistently. For some, that means to attend church everyday or every week. For others, it means praying five times a day. For basketball players, it means shooting your free throws in the exact same form every time. If we want to create good exercise and food habits, we have to be boring at first. We have to create rituals. We have to be consistent everyday.
Homework exercise:
- Decide what time of day you are going to exercise every day for the next week.
- Decide how much time you plan to exercise.
- Decide what type of exercises.
- Decide where you are going to exercise.
- Decide why are you exercising.
- Write this time and what you plan to do on 7 different 3 x 5 index cards.
- Put the index cards next to your alarm or on your mirror or somewhere you will have to see them!
- Set your phone alarm, set your watch alarm, set your clock alarm, set your computer alarm, and set your spouse alarm. Do whatever you have to do to meet this goal for the next 7 days! Each Day, pick up your card, go to the appropriate place and exercise!
Homework Hints:
Make this exercise time a ritual that is so rigid and so small, that it’s almost impossible for you to fail. Failure will not be possible. Guess, what we will do the following week. Increase the time and keep increasing it until we get to a net-caloric effect, but for now, we start small. We have to.
Mental thoughts: people who are not committed to exercise will ask themselves, how can I fit exercise into my day tomorrow. People who are committed ask themselves, how can I plan my day around my exercise time. Are you committed? Do you really want to become physical fit and achieve your ideal body? If so, change the questions you ask yourself.
Resist the urge to start exercising 60 minutes everyday. You are changing habits. People gradually become out of shape and sedentary. When we come out of the womb, we’re not super fat overweight babies. As we grow, most children are naturally active and moving around. We gradually learn to become sedentary, so we have to gradually learn to become active. If we do it too quick, we generally see people fail and over-whelmed. We know failure is not an option. So, start slow.
Homework Recommendations:
For those of you who need recommendations, because you don’t know where to start.
- When to exercise?: First Thing you do when you get out of bed is to exercise (you might need to use the restroom, take a drink of water, and put your exercise clothes on and then exercise!)
- How long? 10 minutes.
- What Exercises? Anything. Do Jumping Jacks for ten minutes, Do stretching. Do Yoga, Run in place. I don’t care as long as it is something physical and you are pushing your body beyond what it normally can do. The goal is really to make the exercise a habit. If you need more stringent recommendations, I think you’ll see the most benefits from High Intensity Strength Training (we’re not talking heavy weight lifting, we’re talking weights that make you tired when you get to repetitions 7, 8, or 9.) Possible Exercise plans: The pattern that Jorge Cruise uses in the 8 minute workout
is an excellent starter plan. Also, the Fitness Ladder Exercises from the Hacker’s Diet is another excellent quick starter workout. Remember pick something you love. So, if you love being outside, then go for a 10 minute walk.
I was reminded today, that big websites started out small. The first Amazon was nothing in comparison to what it is today. The first city began with a one room meeting place and then evolved into skyscrapers. Our Fitness habits will start small, we’ll build a strong foundation of habits that we’ll layer on top of. We’ll add biometric habits, eating habits, and more exercise habits all of which will make up the Slow Weigh to long term weight management and weight loss.
Dream Big, Start Small, and Continually take action! What’s your Ground Hog Day Resolutions?
5 Summer Weight Loss Strategies
Summer is the easiest time of year to lose weight, especially for those of us who endure long, cold winters. With summer’s abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables, not to mention, warmer weather, there’s no excuse for us not to be eating healthy and exercising. Adopting these simple weight-loss strategies into your summer plans may leave you more than a few pounds lighter come October.
Here are 5 Summer Weight-Loss Strategies to try this summer:
1) Get moving – self explanatory, but for those of you who see exercise as a big scary monster and run screaming when faced with it, think of exercise as a time to reenergize yourself. Exercise does not have to result in a pool of sweat (you know who you are). It can be as simple as a brisk walk with your spouse, playing tag with your kids, or biking to/from work a few times a week. Anything that gets you moving for at least 20 to 30 minutes a day is worthwhile.
2) Eat au natural – I’m not suggesting you eat naked, although some people may like to try this, but rather try to eat foods with the fewest ingredients and limit the amount of processed foods you eat. Processed foods can pack on the pounds, because they tend to offer less fiber and won’t fill you up as much as natural foods. One rule is to eat food with ingredients you actually know and can pronounce.
3) MUFA Me, MUFA You – Monounsaturated fat, or MUFA, is known as the “healthy” fat. MUFA keeps you feeling fuller for longer and studies show that MUFA may also help us stave off chronic diseases, including heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and depression. There are five main MUFA food groups:
* Oils that include canola, flaxseed, and olive oil
* Nuts and seeds that include walnuts, macadamia nuts, and sunflower seeds
* Avocados
* Olives, particularly the green variety
* Dark chocolate
Check out these great ideas to add a little MUFA to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Also, make it a habit to eat MUFA snacks whenever possible. Keep in mind, MUFA is still high in calories, but a little goes a long way.
4) Divide and Conquer – Think of your plate as a clock – fill the space between 12 and 6 with fresh or steamed veggies; the space between 6 and 9 with whole grains and 9 and 12 with protein/fish. Throw in a little low-fat dairy and you’ll be good to go. By adopting this strategy, it should be easy to eat meals that are low-calorie, high nutrient foods, and to keep portions in control – just make sure you are using normal size plates!
5) Limit simple sugars – Simple sugars or simple carbohydrates refer to foods made with refined sugars or table sugar. Most foods made with simple sugars are essentially “empty calories”, providing very few vitamins, minerals, or fiber but remaining high in calories. They tend to leave us feeling unsatisfied and/or less full, prompting us to eat more. Simple sugars can also lead to a spike in blood sugar levels, giving us a short boost of energy, but leaving us sluggish and energy-zapped for hours on end. Simple sugars can be seen in foods under the names of corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, and glucose, among others. Foods high in simple sugars include sweets like cookies, cakes, and candy. Simple sugars also are found naturally in fruit and milk, but, unlike other simple sugar foods, these provide essential nutrients.
Have another great summer weight loss tip? Let’s hear it….
Eating Healthy, 30 minutes Walking, and 60 minutes Quiet Thinking fixes Health Problems
Just another reason to eat healthy and exercise.
As reported by Will Dunham from Reuters, Dean Ornish conducted some studies on men with prostate cancer who elected against surgery for remediation. To try to combat the low grade cancer: the men in the study:
- Ate Healthy,
- Exercised 30 minutes a day, and
- Meditated | Prayed | Thought for 60 minutes a day.
Guess what happened? In three months time, they lost weight as expected, but even more encouraging is they actually changed Genes. The healthy lifestyle activated some disease fighting genes and deactivated some unhealthy genes. WOW!
Read the Original News source: Healthy lifestyle triggers genetic changes: study
I know many a people who say they can’t lose weight or can’t get healthy, because they have bad genes or they are big boned, or you name the excuse. Well, here is a study that says even if you have bad genes, you can get healthy with lifestyle changes. To steal a phrase from someone before me: Yes we can!
What’s stopping you from committing to a healthy lifestyle?
I want you around. I want you to live life! Enjoy what Earth, God, Metaphysics provide for you. Happiness is health and family. Frolic with grand children at the park, Watch your dog chase his tail, or just watching the trees blow in the wind.
Where do I start?
Well, Let’s Think about it.
What do kids get on their children’s menu at restaurants? They get connect the dot pictures. It allows the child to create a dog, lion, car, or any number of pictures by following the dots one at a time slowly and incrementally. It’s much easier to connect the dots to draw a picture than to draw on a blank slate.
So, connect the dots! Start Slow, be methodical and incremental. Work up a ladder. I’ll expand on this method later, but here’s the abridged version:
Dots:
- 0 days – 14 days: Commit to weighing yourself everyday for the first 2 weeks.
Don’t worry about the details. The fact that you are weighing yourself everyday is the accomplishment!
- 14 days – 42 days: Continue weighing yourself everyday, in fact, don’t stop weighing yourself for the rest of your life. Add to that small amounts of exercise everyday. I recommend the 8 minute weight workout, but you could also do 10 minutes of walking everyday, gradually build up.
You’ve got some great new habits now. you weigh yourself everyday and you commit to your 10 minutes of exercise a day!
Lets add another dot.
- 42 days – 56 days: Continue your current weighing and exercise habits. Now add tracking your diet everyday. Keep a pen and paper handy. Write down everything you eat, and just keep track, don’t worry about how much you eat. Just log it.
We’re finding out internally what we do. when we eat. It will guide us in our nutrition plan. Do I really eat 3 starbucks a day? Do I have that many potato chips? you can be amazed at what you eat without knowing it. Again, remember the goal is to Identify and Track. That’s the accomplishment for this dot.
- 56 days – 84 days: Pick one dietary change each week, and focus on that change.
Examples: I recommend lowering your diet each week by 200 calories. Or, Pick a food item that really causes you trouble. For me it is french Fries. If I cut out french fries, I cut out a ton of places I’d go to eat which means I make different diet changes. I also have the challenge of large portions. So, that can be my change. Whatever it is, Pick one and focus while keeping up your habits.
- 84 days – forever: Rinse, Recycle, and Repeat. What I mean, is this is lifestyle change. we have to be willing to commit to the change and keep it at that. it’s a change. No going back. Learn to love new foods and new ways of eating, Learn to love exercising, make it fun for you. By creating these new habits, we can replace our old diet habits.
How do you connect the dots? What’s your incremental lifestyle change you can make? Can you commit?
Of course, I recommend simpleweight for managing this healthy diet and exercise planning.
