Try something new. . . again.

I know I've talked about this before, but learning new things never gets old. Sometimes it's good to practice what you know and other times it's good to try something new. Today I tried something new: hydroponic growing. I planted a tomato plant and some tomato seeds in a single five gallon bucket with an air pump that keeps the water oxygenated. The plants are nestled in a bed of pebbles that sit just above the water. I had a good time getting my hands dirty.  I also learned a few things:

• Gardening takes patience. I am a man that likes instant gratification.  Growing is the opposite of that. It will be months before I see the fruits of my labor.
• Making something grow is pretty simple. All you need is light, water, nutrients and TLC. Or so the guy at the gardening supply store said.
• Cats are inherently interested in plants. That is now the number #1 threat to the future of these tomatoes. Not lack of food or water, not natural disaster, not my lack of experience. Our evil cat.

So not many actual gardening lessons learned on day one, but I'm sure I will have feedback after the first cycle. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty excited.

Trying new things is fun. You learn new skills, get to practice valuable traits (for me, patience) and may even get some delicious homegrown tomatoes. Maybe.

Jack

PS - These are growing on my balcony so my cat can either eat the plants or knock the whole contraption to a three story fall.

Oil for your Muscles

One of my chronic bad habits is poor hydration. I am constantly drinking less water than I should. As a result, I get more sore after exercise; recover slower; wake up groggy and get more fatigued throughout the day. In extreme conditions (walking through equatorial jungle for two days) I have experienced extreme dehydration in the form of nausea and severe vertigo. Not fun and potentially dangerous. On the flip side, when I start hydrating early in the day and keep it going for a few days, I find myself more alert, more eager to exercise and full of energy when I do. Bottom line: I need to drink more water. We all do.

I was talking with a man in his 80s yesterday and he mentioned that he had had bad leg cramps for years and only recently learned that "water is like oil for your muscles." I would not be surprised if this was a revelation for people of all ages. Unless you play organized sports, hydration is rarely emphasized as a health matter. For most of my life, I never really consciously hydrated. I just drank when I was thirsty, which is a sign of dehydration. It wasn't until I started to really push myself physically that I realized you have to hydrate. Most of us spend our lives in a perpetual state of semi-dehydration, not knowing what it's like to be truly hydrated. We all need water to survive.

I've met people who prefer soda to water because they don't like the taste of water. In some places (coastal areas, usually) I can relate. Water's taste can range from delicious to rotten egg to chlorine. Our tap water is gross and flouridated so we bought a 5 gallon glass jug that we fill for 25 cents per gallon about once a week. We go to a local store that filters their water to remove ". . .bacteria, mold, viruses, chlorine, fluoride, prescription drugs, MTBE, arsenic, and lead." This option is cheaper and healthier than buying plastic bottles of water (most of which is just tap water and can have BPA leach into it). And it tastes better. Yet I digress.

How do we make sure to drink enough water every day? Here are a few of the habits I've been trying to adopt:

• Start Early - I make sure to down a glass of water upon waking each day. This ensures that, even if I don't drink anything else until the afternoon, I still get some water in me. The alternative is nothing but coffee until late in the day; a bad option.
• Use the Same Vessel - I use the same 20oz aluminum bottle every day. My daily intake goal is four of these bottles.
• Keep Track - I've found that keeping track of how many ounces I drink each day makes it more likely that I will meet my daily intake goal.
• No More Sugary Drinks - While I'm not on board with the NYC ban on giant sodas, I do think that we drink way too many drinks that are full of sugar. Soda, frilly coffee, sports drinks and even fruit juices are mostly sugar. If water bores you, try a sugar free tab or powder. I like Nunn (http://nuun.com/) and Ultima (http://ultimareplenisher.com/).

Water is the essence of life. And wetness. Wetness is the essence of moisture. We are fortunate enough to have abundant fresh water available. Make sure you drink enough.

PS - If you are interested in the effects of flouride in water, here is an article with some good info. There is much debate on both sides of the argument, but I choose to avoid flouride intake. It seems that something intended as a topical dental hygene chemical should not be ingested in any scenario, let alone daily. http://www.naturalnews.com/038217_fluoride_tap_water_side_effects.html

Go Deep

Multitasking. We all do it every day. Driving, eating and listening to the radio. Talking with your loved ones and checking your phone. Writing your weekly blog and watching the NBA playoffs. . . We live in a world where technology makes multitasking a way of life. How many times do you find yourself with ten or more tabs open on your Internet browser? Me? All the time. Am I really working on all of those at the same time? No way. Am I jumping around from one thing to the next, not really getting anything done? Usually.

There are numerous advantages to having so many options in our daily life. We have nearly unlimited information available instantly. I can check social media, read the news and manage my fantasy football team all in the same place. Text, email and even face to face chatting exponentially increase our ability to stay in touch with people far and wide.

But at what cost? Are we sacrificing depth of learning and experience for volume and instant access? We would drive better if we stopped eating and messing with our phones. We would learn more if we weren't constantly switching between media. We would develop and maintain deeper, better relationships with our friends and family members if we took time to have conversations instead of relying on tweets and facebook status updates. Our time does not need to be constantly filled with new information. Sometimes it is best to cut off the fire hose of new data and go deeper into the info we already possess.

Here are a few of the ways I try to control myself when it comes to multitasking:

• Silent drive - Instead of pumping the jams or listening to talk radio or talking on the phone while you drive to work, try driving in silence. I do some of my best thinking when it is quiet. Also, it helps curb road rage.
• Turn off Tones - Unless you are waiting for some very important phone call, turn off any alerts or ring tones. Don't be a slave to technology. If you find yourself on your device with no idea why, you are doing it wrong.
• Read - I found that the more I accessed fast sources of media, the less willing I was to sit down and read something longer than a few pages. So now I make an effort to actually read books and articles with more depth than a tweet.

There is a time and place for multitasking. It's a valuable skill. But so is the ability to focus on one specific task and do it well. Take time and go deep once in a while.

Jack

PS - Here is the article that inspired today's topic:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/brain--interrupted-173621758.html

Gameday Games , NBA Playoffs style

Gameday Games are back! This was my first attempt at a non-football gameday game, and it seems to work. Today we watched the Heat complete the sweep of the outmatched Bucks. I will say that I changed the scoring scheme after halftime. The original scheme had us doing over 800 push ups! We checked the box score for accuracy after the game. It is harder to keep track of stats during a basketball game than it is during football. Here is the breakdown:

• Points - 1 squat per point for a total of 165 squats
• Assists - 2 upright kettlebell rows per assist for a total of 86 rows (43 per arm).
• Steals - 5 push ups per steal for a total of 75 push ups.
• Blocks - 1 minute of plank per block for a total of 14 minutes.

This might not look like much but the cumulative effect of everything, especially the push ups and plank got tough toward the end. Next time I want to try and do it real time with the game. Maybe score dunks, fouls, 3 pointers and every time they show the players on the bench celebrating a big play. Let me know your thoughts on today's workout, ideas for future workouts or any other Gameday Games suggestions.

Jack

PS - Are the Heat the odds on favorite to repeat? I think so.

"Cardio"

When you hear the word "cardio," what do you think? Jogging? Cycling? We have a narrow concept of the definition of cardio: long duration, low intensity activities. Aerobic exercise, where your body burns oxygen for fuel is an excellent workout. I'm not knocking it. Where I see an issue is when one type of cardio becomes someones only form of exercise. We need to broaden our arsenal.

Our bodies are excellent at adapting to external stress, like exercise. When one activity is performed on a regular basis, it becomes relatively easier over time. We also begin to receive diminishing returns in terms of health, weight loss and muscle tone. Studies shoe that someone who spends an hour a day, a few times a week jogging at a moderate pace can actually lose muscle mass and gain weight! How can this be? Lean muscle mass requires more calories than fat and moderate cardio does not require lean muscle. So if all you do is moderate cardio, than you will lose muscle and, in turn, your metabolism will slow down, leading to weight gain. I know. What the F?!

So what are we to do? I am not advocating a complete abandon ship on all cardio. What I do like is a variety of different types of cardio in a variety of different configurations. Mix cardio and anaerobic work together in the same workout. Incorporate weights and endurance activities into the mix. Crossfit.com has lots of great workouts that do exactly this. Here are some ways to get some variety up in your life:

• Combine two or more types of endurance exercise. This might take a little more planning, but it is worth it. I like the "run-swim-run" model. I will run to the pool (about a mile) swim a mile and run back. This is basically the same idea as a triathlon. Get creative.
• Endurance intervals. Say you like to run three miles a day. Instead, pick a day and run one mile at a pace that is faster than your three mile pace. Rest for five minutes. Repeat this process twice more. You still get your three miles but you put a different type of stress on yourself.
• Cardio + Weights. Basically, Crossfit in layman's terms. This can be as easy as doing twenty push ups every five minutes on a run. Pick your endurance exercise and then a body weight exercise like pull ups or push ups and combine them into a workout. The only limit is your imagination.

Variety is the key to continued progress. Stop thinking about "cardio" as a separate thing from other forms of movement. I'm pretty sure that burpees tax your heart.

Jack

PS - Here is our workout from today. It is a version of cardio.
        10 minutes on the bike - 4 cycles of 2 minutes hard, 30 seconds easy
        Rest 2 minutes
        10 minutes, AMRAP (as many reps as possible) Kettle bell snatches

I used a 35lb KB and did 173 snatches. I burned 168 kcal on the bike, covering 5 miles. If you don't have a bike or a KB, sub running or swimming or rowing for the first part and something like burpees or jumping squats for the latter part.

Eat Slow

We've all been there: you're hungry, food arrives, and you dive in. You don't talk or take breaks to breath. You do not share. Finished, you push your plate back and slip into a bad case of puppy belly, not remembering what just happened. Believe it or not, wolfing your food down is not ideal. You eat too much, digestion is impeded, and people probably think you are underfed.

This is one of my worst habits. I eat too fast and I don't think I'm alone. I love food almost to a fault. I am morbidly obese on the inside. I think about lunch while eating breakfast. Eating is a competitive sport for some, and I consider myself a champion in training.

All kidding aside, it is better to eat slow. As hard as this can be when you are hungry and the food is tasty, there are many reasons to slow our forks:

1. Digestion - When we eat fast, bites get chewed less, meaning they get less exposure to our saliva. This is the first step in our digestive process and if it gets skimped or skipped all together, we end up getting less goodness from our food.
2. Intake - As we eat, there is a delay between food reaching our stomachs and our stomachs telling our brain that we are full. During this delay, we can shovel down a few more helpings before we realize we overate. If we slow down, we can eat an appropriate amount and not get that "puppy belly" feeling after a big meal.
3. Manners - I know not everybody is super interested in having impeccable table manners, but even if you are eating at a fast food place, it is important to conduct yourself like a civilized human being, not a ravenous hyena. 
4. Enjoyment - As fun as it is to try and slam you food as fast as possible, food really does taste better when you enjoy each bite. Try putting down the fork, sandwich or other food delivery vessel in between bites. It might just taste a little better.

My goal is to be more mindful at every meal. I want to enjoy my food as well as my company. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Jack

                                                

PS - Today's workout: Descending ladder of front squats, push press and windmills. So, 20, 16, 12, 8, 4 reps of  each exercise using a kettlebell for all three. Split the reps so you do half with the kettlebell in each hand. I did it with my 50lb. KB. Enjoy.

The Power of 'Tude

Every morning we wake up with a choice: how to approach our day. Will you hate your job, dread going to the gym, and doubt yourself? Or will you get out of bed excited to go to work, hungry to work out and believing in yourself and your abilities?  Whatever you decide, the choice is 100% yours to make. We sit at the controls of our attitude, no one else. Some people seem to look for reasons to complain and think everything is stupid or someone else's fault. Other people attack the day like nothing can stop their relentless march of awesomeness. The difference? Attitude.

It is easy to let your attitude slip into the negative, especially when things are difficult. How you react to a situation, good or bad, can mean the difference between success and failure, health and sickness, happiness and misery. People in terrible situations can be happy and healthy while people in great circumstances can be miserable. Their 'tude makes the difference.

One of my favorite ways to impact my attitude is to say a mantra when I wake up. Even if I feel terrible or don't want to get out of bed and face the day, saying something positive kickstarts my brain into a better place. I learned this habit from my uncle. His morning mantra is "I feel great and I'm going to have a great day." This simple act has ripple effects on the rest of your day and, in turn, your life.

So what will your mantra be? Will you choose to be a beacon of positivity or a negative fun sponge? Either way, you will be contagious. The choice is yours.

Jack

PS - Today's workout went like this:
25 rounds of 1 pullup, 2 kettlebell squat cleans, 3 kettlebell high pulls and 4 atomic situps. This was a good workout after 5 weeks of little exercise and poor diet. Time to get back on track.