I would never endorse cheating on your significant other or in some other unethical way, but I would definitely encourage you to cheat on your meals. It's good to cheat for a few reasons: one, when you designate a certain time of the week to eat whatever you want and however much of it you want, you'll be more likely to stick to your meal plan for the rest of the week. Maybe it's bar food on Friday or Saturday nights, or perhaps it's Sunday evening dessert, or it could be a giant pizza to accompany Monday night football. Whatever the food and whenever the time, eat whatever you want and as much of it as you can tolerate in one sitting. Secondly, when you parcel out your meals in individual portions and you're eating regularly (every few hours or so), your metabolism will burn more calories and become more efficient. Then when you incorporate a cheat meal at a random time during the week, one that's likely high in fat and caloric value, your metabolism will burn this even more quickly because you've trained it to continually utilize the nutrients you consume as energy. Finally, cheating on your meals is good for your psyche. Life, exercise, and your diet are all about balance. You can't be all work and no play in the same way that you can't only eat chicken and vegetables. You must eat foods that are what I like to call, "Good for the soul." It took me a long time to realize this.
After I had begun eating more healthily and exercising with greater regularity, I eventually swung so far toward the opposite end of the spectrum: I never ate anything unhealthy, I always had to pack my own meals wherever I went, and I had to to eat every two hours on the dot, no exception. But, eventually I discovered that adhering to healthy habits with such fervor, ironically, produced unhealthy psychological detriments. I allowed my food consumption to dominate the forefront of my mind, detracting my focus from other more important facets of my life, and the larger picture as a whole. One, or two, or even a few meals each week that are "good for the soul" are not going to negate your largely healthy lifestyle in the same way that one, or two, or just a few healthy meals each week are going to yield you positive results. You must incorporate balance in your diet, which is why cheating is good and also why I don't believe in counting calories.
There are so many different programs on offer today to help invoke healthy changes in one's lifestyle: Advocare, Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, etc. If you're interested, I'd love to do one with you: we can call it "Cookin' with Keta" (corny as hell, I know, but what else could you expect from a hopeless English major?) Give me one month, regardless of your current physical condition or exercise prowess. We'll do some workouts, develop a personalized program, and you can take me grocery shopping with you. I don't want you to pay me, or compensate me in any way for that matter; just give me one month of honest effort. The benefit for me is that it will be as much of a learning process as it might be for you. If you're at all interested, shoot me a message.
"Start where you are...That's a very rich place to start--juicy...Just where you are--that's the place to start." -Pema Chodron
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Friday, September 13, 2013
"I don't want to get bulky, I just want to be tone"
Ladies, if I had a dollar for every time I heard one of you say that, I'd be able to retire now. Be honest with yourself: have you thought or said that at least once? Or, in other words, has an internal conception of idealized beauty guided your approach toward exercise and shaped your goal of how you wish to ultimately look? And, men, why is it that you mostly feel compelled to exercise your chest and arms, to achieve a misguided look of feigned largeness in the upper regions of your body?
I believe so strongly that the socially constructed generalizations of universally desired beauty are paradoxically the most unhealthy ends towards which we aim to aspire. Women are constrained to this idea of smallness, a diminutive stature, as the means to ultimate beauty, which is why so many ladies skip meals or eat less and less. Men are steered by this false idea that larger is better, in every single capacity from body mass to genital size. Be honest with yourself: how many times have you wished you were taller, had a bigger chest, were more well endowed, stronger in general, had six-pack abs, or wished at least one thing about yourself was "that" as opposed to "this"? And, ladies, how many times have you wished you had hips like Beyonce, differently shaped breasts, more shapely looking legs, a toner stomach, were smaller, or wished something about yourself was different in some capacity? You cannot achieve true healthiness by riding the elliptical for an hour and a half and then doing 8-minute abs. The point I'm trying to underscore is that we always want we don't have, from things in life to the natural physical characteristics of our bodies, and as a result, we allow these insecurities about what we're not, or what we don't have, to unhealthily guide our pursuit toward better bodies. We want a large, wholesome egg long before we've given thought to nurturing a healthy chicken. You're the chicken, and it's time to lay better eggs; but, to do so, you must focus internally, not externally.
I don't believe in the Paleo diet, I don't believe in the Atkins diet, I don't believe in "no carbs," I don't believe in 8-minute abs, P-90X, meal replacement bars, juice cleanses, any of those infomercials about the newest gimmicky tool to help you "trim fat," and I loathe the "must look good for summer" mentality. All of the aforementioned is predicated upon this idea of "get fit quick." They all champion this false notion that there is a secret to success, which has been unlocked and that you can now easily access. And more importantly, they all perpetuate the idea that the body of your dreams is now within reach, whereas it wasn't before some "National Treasure-esque" health discovery yielded the hidden enigma of a better looking body. There is no secret to becoming healthier other than this: if you want that elusive "body of your dreams," you have to stop thinking about the "body of your dreams." Take whatever idealized image of a "hot body" you have stored in your mind and throw it away, place it under lock and key and burn it to smithereens. Never think about it again. Instead, think about becoming healthier. Meditate on adopting new life habits and focus your energy on mental cultivation. Stop thinking, "Only 10 more days left! Only 2 more sizes to go! Only 20 more lbs. on my bench press!" Instead, think, "I am strong, I am beautiful, I will become healthier." Life is a marathon, not a sprint. And if you always pine over an ephemeral method of diet and exercise, expecting it to generate everlasting life changes, you will forever endure disappointment. There is no shortcut, no simple and secret method to feeling successful. And the journey most certainly doesn't commence in any gym or through any proclaimed diet and exercise plan; it begins in your mind, in the self-constructed view you of yourself.
Sure, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all win the lottery, if we could all take a pill that magically allowed us to eat whatever we want, never exercise, and still look amazing? Yes, some people do win the lottery, and, yes, some people do have genetics which allow them to seemingly eat whatever and remain thin. But, for the rest of us who reside outside of those anomalies, we have to assume different approaches. In order to look better, you have to cultivate a stronger mind. Consistency is key to anything, mental discipline and the resolve to follow through even when you reach the bottom of the ninth inning, so to speak. Becoming healthier is pretty simple: exercise regularly and consistently, eat healthily, drink lots of water, receive sufficient rest, and consume alcohol and fatty foods in moderation. What is not initially simple is following through consistently. Diets and exercise regimens that claim you can bypass the aforementioned conventional method to becoming healthier through newly discovered shortcuts are completely false. Furthermore, these extremes through which people put themselves, such as eating only protein, enduring insubstantial juice cleanses, or whatever else, don't encourage strong foundational life habits, and whatever benefit might be gleaned from them is temporary.
The gym is always packed during the month of January. After people resolve to stick with their new year's resolutions, they drag themselves with heavy feet to the gym and haphazardly sulk around or force themselves through pain to try and invoke some sort of healthy change. When you analyze gym attendance on a weekly basis, Monday mornings and afternoons are the fullest; as the week elapses and you reach Thursday and Friday, the number of people tapers off considerably. Like trying to quit something Cold Turkey, you can't suddenly subject your body to exertions hitherto not experienced. You must start small, you must commence with a bite that you can manage to chew. You have to set yourself a schedule of 3-4 times per week and stick to it, no matter what. "Well, I just don't have the luxury of devoting that much time to exercise. And I simply don't have time to eat when at work." Really? Ask yourself honestly, do you literally have no time whatsoever to interject a new habit into your life? I so firmly believe that you have time for the things for which you want to have time. If you exercise four times a week consistently for roughly 45 minutes each time, very little of your schedule has been encroached upon. And if you spend 30 minutes the previous night making lunch for the next day, you still have ample time to fulfill whatever obligations you might have. This one is huge, especially for all the ladies: you must, no matter the circumstance, eat, and eat plentifully. There is a stigma in the wretched dieting world against eating and that we must only eat the bare minimum to subsist, less we fall victim to consuming more calories than we need.
Stop counting calories. You must eat 4-5 small meals every day, and you absolutely have to eat breakfast. "I just am not hungry in the morning, so I only drink coffee, maybe have a bar and then I'll wait until lunch to eat." I would bet my life on this: force yourself to eat in the morning, a real breakfast, even if you feel nauseous at first (yes, I used to feel the same way about breakfast) and I guarantee that after a week, maybe two, you will wake up hungry and be looking forward to breakfast. You have to eat. There's an old adage: "You don't build abs in the gym, you build them in the kitchen."
Stop looking in the mirror and scrutinizing your body. Stop concerning yourself with how you think others perceive your physical appearance. Out of the six odd billion people in the world, there is not one other person who looks exactly like you, twins included. Your body is unique to you and only you. In order to be healthy, you have to love it. That love begins in your mind and commences with your self-perception. Your body is a mirrored reflection of your internalized mental view of it. The way you think about your body and the habits you adopt as a result directly translate to your outward physical appearance. I look at myself everyday and I wish something about my body was different. I have insecurities about my physical appearance that shape and corrupt my thoughts in some fashion. I have to remind myself that I am who I am, that I look however I look, and that my physical appearance is unimportant in relation to the condition of my mind. I will focus on what I love and the rest will fall into place in the manner it should.
To the men: remember that your strength is not measured in the weight you can move, the stoicism that you are able to maintain, and the masculinity you can exude. To the ladies: remember that your worth is not measured by your beauty, that you do not need to drastically alter your appearance despite what societal constraints and media may sensationalize, and your body is your temple in which you can solely reside without invasion. People always ask me why I like chicken and vegetables with no sauce, why I enjoy exercising; people, I think, assume I must be trying to show off if I don't wear a shirt, or that I'm trying to look a certain way by exercising. I enjoy eating good foods regularly and exercising often because they both make me feel good. I learned through my own personal hardships that the things I thought I controlled merely resided under my realm insomuch as a pot of gold is attainable at the end of a rainbow. Control is an allusion under which we blanket ourselves to compensate for the insecurities we really have about the unpredictability of various outcomes. You don't truly control much of anything, as your life can change dramatically in an instant and circumstances for which you're simply not ready can befall you. But through the hailstorm of sadness and distortion, I arose on the other side with a new-found understanding of myself: that I can always control my own mind, my body, and my personal agency, regardless of whatever else I may incur. Your body is yours and you are so much stronger than you even realize.
The next time you exercise and arrive at the point that you think is your limit, pause for a brief moment, close your eyes, allow your music to fill your head and dispense with all of the thoughts running amok in your mind; breathe deeply, allow that succulent oxygen to fill your lungs, allow it to travel through your bloodstream and replenish your exhausted muscles. Remind yourself that everything will be okay, that the discomfort you are feeling is not so much physiological as it is your mind holding onto the safety net of its preconceived idea of your own limitations. Remind yourself that no matter what else is happening in your life at that moment, this small period of time is a block you have devoted to yourself and only yourself; you will confront the innumerable stresses in your life afterward, but first you will finish this set, this repetition, this mile, this last step, and you will feel so much stronger subsequently. Remind yourself that you are not concerned with how you look, but how you feel. Remind yourself that you need this time for yourself in order to bring balance to your life; you cannot only work and you cannot only exercise, you must have both for ultimate balance. Continue forth, focusing on your energy levels, your eating regularly, and your overall consistency; And one day, when you least expect it, you'll catch yourself in the mirror and your body will have assumed the appearance of your positive mental outlook of it--and, trust me, that's going to feel amazing.
"Your mind can subjugate anything, even real pain." -Bruce Lee
I believe so strongly that the socially constructed generalizations of universally desired beauty are paradoxically the most unhealthy ends towards which we aim to aspire. Women are constrained to this idea of smallness, a diminutive stature, as the means to ultimate beauty, which is why so many ladies skip meals or eat less and less. Men are steered by this false idea that larger is better, in every single capacity from body mass to genital size. Be honest with yourself: how many times have you wished you were taller, had a bigger chest, were more well endowed, stronger in general, had six-pack abs, or wished at least one thing about yourself was "that" as opposed to "this"? And, ladies, how many times have you wished you had hips like Beyonce, differently shaped breasts, more shapely looking legs, a toner stomach, were smaller, or wished something about yourself was different in some capacity? You cannot achieve true healthiness by riding the elliptical for an hour and a half and then doing 8-minute abs. The point I'm trying to underscore is that we always want we don't have, from things in life to the natural physical characteristics of our bodies, and as a result, we allow these insecurities about what we're not, or what we don't have, to unhealthily guide our pursuit toward better bodies. We want a large, wholesome egg long before we've given thought to nurturing a healthy chicken. You're the chicken, and it's time to lay better eggs; but, to do so, you must focus internally, not externally.
I don't believe in the Paleo diet, I don't believe in the Atkins diet, I don't believe in "no carbs," I don't believe in 8-minute abs, P-90X, meal replacement bars, juice cleanses, any of those infomercials about the newest gimmicky tool to help you "trim fat," and I loathe the "must look good for summer" mentality. All of the aforementioned is predicated upon this idea of "get fit quick." They all champion this false notion that there is a secret to success, which has been unlocked and that you can now easily access. And more importantly, they all perpetuate the idea that the body of your dreams is now within reach, whereas it wasn't before some "National Treasure-esque" health discovery yielded the hidden enigma of a better looking body. There is no secret to becoming healthier other than this: if you want that elusive "body of your dreams," you have to stop thinking about the "body of your dreams." Take whatever idealized image of a "hot body" you have stored in your mind and throw it away, place it under lock and key and burn it to smithereens. Never think about it again. Instead, think about becoming healthier. Meditate on adopting new life habits and focus your energy on mental cultivation. Stop thinking, "Only 10 more days left! Only 2 more sizes to go! Only 20 more lbs. on my bench press!" Instead, think, "I am strong, I am beautiful, I will become healthier." Life is a marathon, not a sprint. And if you always pine over an ephemeral method of diet and exercise, expecting it to generate everlasting life changes, you will forever endure disappointment. There is no shortcut, no simple and secret method to feeling successful. And the journey most certainly doesn't commence in any gym or through any proclaimed diet and exercise plan; it begins in your mind, in the self-constructed view you of yourself.
Sure, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all win the lottery, if we could all take a pill that magically allowed us to eat whatever we want, never exercise, and still look amazing? Yes, some people do win the lottery, and, yes, some people do have genetics which allow them to seemingly eat whatever and remain thin. But, for the rest of us who reside outside of those anomalies, we have to assume different approaches. In order to look better, you have to cultivate a stronger mind. Consistency is key to anything, mental discipline and the resolve to follow through even when you reach the bottom of the ninth inning, so to speak. Becoming healthier is pretty simple: exercise regularly and consistently, eat healthily, drink lots of water, receive sufficient rest, and consume alcohol and fatty foods in moderation. What is not initially simple is following through consistently. Diets and exercise regimens that claim you can bypass the aforementioned conventional method to becoming healthier through newly discovered shortcuts are completely false. Furthermore, these extremes through which people put themselves, such as eating only protein, enduring insubstantial juice cleanses, or whatever else, don't encourage strong foundational life habits, and whatever benefit might be gleaned from them is temporary.
The gym is always packed during the month of January. After people resolve to stick with their new year's resolutions, they drag themselves with heavy feet to the gym and haphazardly sulk around or force themselves through pain to try and invoke some sort of healthy change. When you analyze gym attendance on a weekly basis, Monday mornings and afternoons are the fullest; as the week elapses and you reach Thursday and Friday, the number of people tapers off considerably. Like trying to quit something Cold Turkey, you can't suddenly subject your body to exertions hitherto not experienced. You must start small, you must commence with a bite that you can manage to chew. You have to set yourself a schedule of 3-4 times per week and stick to it, no matter what. "Well, I just don't have the luxury of devoting that much time to exercise. And I simply don't have time to eat when at work." Really? Ask yourself honestly, do you literally have no time whatsoever to interject a new habit into your life? I so firmly believe that you have time for the things for which you want to have time. If you exercise four times a week consistently for roughly 45 minutes each time, very little of your schedule has been encroached upon. And if you spend 30 minutes the previous night making lunch for the next day, you still have ample time to fulfill whatever obligations you might have. This one is huge, especially for all the ladies: you must, no matter the circumstance, eat, and eat plentifully. There is a stigma in the wretched dieting world against eating and that we must only eat the bare minimum to subsist, less we fall victim to consuming more calories than we need.
Stop counting calories. You must eat 4-5 small meals every day, and you absolutely have to eat breakfast. "I just am not hungry in the morning, so I only drink coffee, maybe have a bar and then I'll wait until lunch to eat." I would bet my life on this: force yourself to eat in the morning, a real breakfast, even if you feel nauseous at first (yes, I used to feel the same way about breakfast) and I guarantee that after a week, maybe two, you will wake up hungry and be looking forward to breakfast. You have to eat. There's an old adage: "You don't build abs in the gym, you build them in the kitchen."
Stop looking in the mirror and scrutinizing your body. Stop concerning yourself with how you think others perceive your physical appearance. Out of the six odd billion people in the world, there is not one other person who looks exactly like you, twins included. Your body is unique to you and only you. In order to be healthy, you have to love it. That love begins in your mind and commences with your self-perception. Your body is a mirrored reflection of your internalized mental view of it. The way you think about your body and the habits you adopt as a result directly translate to your outward physical appearance. I look at myself everyday and I wish something about my body was different. I have insecurities about my physical appearance that shape and corrupt my thoughts in some fashion. I have to remind myself that I am who I am, that I look however I look, and that my physical appearance is unimportant in relation to the condition of my mind. I will focus on what I love and the rest will fall into place in the manner it should.
To the men: remember that your strength is not measured in the weight you can move, the stoicism that you are able to maintain, and the masculinity you can exude. To the ladies: remember that your worth is not measured by your beauty, that you do not need to drastically alter your appearance despite what societal constraints and media may sensationalize, and your body is your temple in which you can solely reside without invasion. People always ask me why I like chicken and vegetables with no sauce, why I enjoy exercising; people, I think, assume I must be trying to show off if I don't wear a shirt, or that I'm trying to look a certain way by exercising. I enjoy eating good foods regularly and exercising often because they both make me feel good. I learned through my own personal hardships that the things I thought I controlled merely resided under my realm insomuch as a pot of gold is attainable at the end of a rainbow. Control is an allusion under which we blanket ourselves to compensate for the insecurities we really have about the unpredictability of various outcomes. You don't truly control much of anything, as your life can change dramatically in an instant and circumstances for which you're simply not ready can befall you. But through the hailstorm of sadness and distortion, I arose on the other side with a new-found understanding of myself: that I can always control my own mind, my body, and my personal agency, regardless of whatever else I may incur. Your body is yours and you are so much stronger than you even realize.
The next time you exercise and arrive at the point that you think is your limit, pause for a brief moment, close your eyes, allow your music to fill your head and dispense with all of the thoughts running amok in your mind; breathe deeply, allow that succulent oxygen to fill your lungs, allow it to travel through your bloodstream and replenish your exhausted muscles. Remind yourself that everything will be okay, that the discomfort you are feeling is not so much physiological as it is your mind holding onto the safety net of its preconceived idea of your own limitations. Remind yourself that no matter what else is happening in your life at that moment, this small period of time is a block you have devoted to yourself and only yourself; you will confront the innumerable stresses in your life afterward, but first you will finish this set, this repetition, this mile, this last step, and you will feel so much stronger subsequently. Remind yourself that you are not concerned with how you look, but how you feel. Remind yourself that you need this time for yourself in order to bring balance to your life; you cannot only work and you cannot only exercise, you must have both for ultimate balance. Continue forth, focusing on your energy levels, your eating regularly, and your overall consistency; And one day, when you least expect it, you'll catch yourself in the mirror and your body will have assumed the appearance of your positive mental outlook of it--and, trust me, that's going to feel amazing.
"Your mind can subjugate anything, even real pain." -Bruce Lee
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Are you really happy?
Louis CK is crass and notably funny for taking relatively mundane facets of life, and generally portraying them through heavy use of profanity and treading on the boundaries of moral acceptability. Many of his sketches touch upon the facet of hate, especially hatred of other people. He transforms the morbid interactions among people into hilarious instances, and his overarching tones generally illustrate people as relatively stupid, fat, unattractive, and reprehensible, often times using himself as his most loathed example of the aforementioned derogatory characteristics. In one of Louis' sketches, he aptly points out when you're standing in line at the post office, for example, "...
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you look at someone and form an opinion with no information…and it’s
never positive… ‘oh, look at his shoes! What a fuckin’ asshole…ahh, look at that piece of shit, I hope he dies today!’ He’s
just standing there, he has no idea you’re just boiling with hate!" It's funny because there's a solid grain of truth anchoring the sketch: I postulate that a majority of people are guilty of forming incredibly negative opinions of others prior to having any legitimate basis for doing so. But why is that? Why do people assume the worst in others before being proven wrong, even though the age-old adage promotes the inverse?
I think the answer can be found introspectively. I would venture to guess that overt hate or disdain originates from an inherent bitterness in and with oneself; furthermore, I think the bitterness is cultivated over time, it being the direct product of a series of setbacks that one incurs, causing his view of the exterior world to perpetually be negative. This predisposition to disdain and assumptive disappointment in others is a manifestation of internal bitterness, his perception of the outside as an exact reflection of the inherent self-deprecating feelings he has for himself that he then projects onto others.
The following is purely conjectural, but I often believe that our infatuation with reality TV is an indication of this inherent bitterness. Think about some of the most popular reality TV shows: The Osbournes, Jersey Shore, Survivor, The Bachelor, etc. The unscripted, loose-ended nature of the shows often feature incredibly intense drama, never-ending strings of "bleeps" to censor the hailstorm of expletives, and hysterical crying and shouting. Why do we love watching so much? DH Lawrence once said: -->
I think the answer can be found introspectively. I would venture to guess that overt hate or disdain originates from an inherent bitterness in and with oneself; furthermore, I think the bitterness is cultivated over time, it being the direct product of a series of setbacks that one incurs, causing his view of the exterior world to perpetually be negative. This predisposition to disdain and assumptive disappointment in others is a manifestation of internal bitterness, his perception of the outside as an exact reflection of the inherent self-deprecating feelings he has for himself that he then projects onto others.
The following is purely conjectural, but I often believe that our infatuation with reality TV is an indication of this inherent bitterness. Think about some of the most popular reality TV shows: The Osbournes, Jersey Shore, Survivor, The Bachelor, etc. The unscripted, loose-ended nature of the shows often feature incredibly intense drama, never-ending strings of "bleeps" to censor the hailstorm of expletives, and hysterical crying and shouting. Why do we love watching so much? DH Lawrence once said: -->
"Always this same morbid interest in other people and their
doings, their privacies, their dirty linen, always this air of alertness for
personal happenings, personalities, personalities, personalities. Always this
subtle criticism and appraisal of other people, this analysis of other people’s
motives. If anatomy presupposes a corpse, then psychology presupposes a world
of corpses. Personalities, which means personal criticism and analysis,
presuppose a whole world laboratory of human psyches waiting to be vivisected.
If you cut a thing up, of course it will smell. Hence, nothing raises such an
infernal stink, at last, as human psychology.”
We love the "smell," we revel in others' misfortune, we devour the entertaining aspect of others' drama put on public display. Nothing sells like a scandal, or a socially unacceptable breach of societal boundaries. When you incur a series of setbacks, you feel disenchanted with the world and the people in it; you repress the subsequent pain and disappointment, repress the unfair disenfranchisement you feel. But something as powerful as pain and bitterness can only be bottled up so long before the seals break and there's nothing left to contain the miasma of anger and despair. When the floodgate does open, your inherent loving nature becomes poisoned, tainted with this bitterness, which then transforms into the lens through which you view others and the exterior world. I think that's why Louis' joke about hating others irrationally is so funny; why DH Lawrence's apt illustration of "morbid interest in other people" relates so well to reality TV's popularity: your inherent bitterness can find solace and company in others' misfortune, and you can feel okay about preemptively assuming the worst in others.
Gandhi articulates in his writings that one of his primary impetuses for pursuing religious and racial freedom was driven by a disenfranchising experience he had when riding a train. The ticket he purchased was for a seat toward the front of the train. However, at sudden notice, train attendants asked him to move toward the back of the train; Gandhi refused to comply, arguing that he had purchased a ticket fairly and was afforded the right to sit in accordance with his seating assignment. He was thrown off the train, physically removed from his seat, humiliated in public and debased by others more powerful than him. He described afterward how angry he felt, developing an internal rage over the public humiliation he experienced. Gandhi was able to harness it and use the anger as one of his major driving forces, transforming his rage into peaceful pursuit.
I think when we're faced with similar junctures in life following major traumatic instances, two very oppositely oriented directions present themselves: you can follow the route Gandhi took, or you can allow yourself to feel angry and hateful. The latter route is a superlatively slippery slope, though: it is a sign of insecure selfishness, as you subsequently assume the worst in others, which ironically, will most likely beget the very negative things you already assume. You get out what you put out, right? But the cloud of disdain in which you enshroud yourself precludes your vision from seeing beyond the six inches in front of your own face; anything that you manage to allow within that close proximity will look ugly no matter what, because deep down, inherently, your own feelings of resentment paint the very perceptions you form. Feeling angry is much easier than assuming responsibility for your own feelings, though; why should I face what I fear most, the face staring back at me in the mirror, when I can easily blame my resentment on outside things that caused it?
After my brother died, I thought about all the things I said and did to him that may or may not have attributed to his premature passing. Eventually, contemplating so heavily over the subject cultivated an immense guilt, which I then wore upon myself everywhere I went. The figurative weight was so immense, heavier than any physical weight I ever attempted to move. How could I ever again say anything of worth when everything I exclaimed henceforth was followed by tremendous second-guessing? Why would anyone love me after I had let someone so close to me down? How could someone I loved so dearly be taken from me in such an unfair manner? Why me? In many ways I've become stringently stoic, dry, even borderline morbid. Underneath all those layers of crusty stiffness there still exists love, but it's buried underneath unrelenting self-deprecation. When I finally did let someone in, I fell in love, deeply in love. But in retrospect, I think it may have been always doomed to expire because I could never traverse the obstacle in my mind that someone else actually accepted me, loved me truly and genuinely.
How does any of this relate to fitness? Well, it's your body and mind that comprises who you are. We are what we say, what we do, what we eat, and what we think. Your mind will wander and your body will follow in strict obedience. Obesity is a psychological dependence on food in the same way that hyper-activity- overexercising- is a psychological obsession with fulfilling a perceived deficiency within yourself, a physical one or otherwise. If you're inherently angry and bitter, your body will follow: perpetual fatigue, incurable with even the strongest caffeine; disappointment and anxiety over your own physical presence; lethargy and general sedentary behavior. Any mountain can be moved, any physical feat or personal triumph can be accomplished. But before anything can be achieved, you have to move the hardest obstacle that you will ever face: yourself. I lay in bed every morning, waging an immense war within myself, my own mind, trying to cultivate the strength and wherewithal to emerge from underneath the covers. Some mornings are more successful than others, but when a victory does occur, it's an accomplished feeling. Even after all this time, not much has changed other than a more lucid understanding of these own feelings within myself. That's step one. Step two is going in the other direction of the juncture, not feeling selfishly resentful and bitter about being thrown off the train. DH Lawrence also once said: "
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One must learn to love, and go through a good deal of suffering to get
to it, and the journey is always towards the other soul." So, when you don't feel like exercising, or when you're feeling tired, not just sleepy, but that deep-set fatigue that originates from your bones, your soul, take solace in knowing that there are others who can wholeheartedly, unabashedly, and most purely relate.
Monday, March 18, 2013
The Significance of the Heart
Think about all of the common phrases of speech that we have adopted into our everyday lexicon which somehow relate to the human heart: "That person has heart," "I gave you my heart," "Home is where the heart is," "She broke my heart," "I feel it in my heart," etc. Why have we appropriated the human heart, an organ without any capacity for thought or feeling, as a vessel to symbolize our intense emotions, chief among which are feelings of passion, love, and despair? When you think about the logic objectively and interpret the diction literally, it seems preposterous that we would so casually associate the heart with our feelings, yet we do all the time. Why do we? I don't have a real answer, and quite frankly, I'm not sure if there is one. I have speculations as to why I think we have characterized the heart in such a light, but I think any attempt to elucidate the inquiry is less an objective pursuit of reason and more an exercise in subjective interpretation of the casual manner in which we dispense such expressions regarding the heart in association with intense emotion.
On average, your heart beats 70-80 times per minute. For those who love mental arithmetic, do the math: 70 beats per minute, times 60 minutes in an hour, times 24 hours a day, times 365 days a year, times an average lifespan of 75 years: that is more than 2.5 billion times throughout an average life that a heart will beat. But how do we draw connections from the heart's tremendously incredible physiological capacity to it somehow serving as a housing in which we store intense emotions? I speculate that before advancements in science, when our understanding of human anatomy was rather rudimentary, people believed that the heart was directly responsible for how we felt. Think about when you become excited or scared and your heart beats faster; to this same end, people used to believe that the changing pace of one's heartbeat was an activator of certain feelings and emotions. Over time, increased understanding of what the heart's function actually is rectified these inaccurate beliefs. In the 17th century, William Harvey published his On the Motion of the Heart and Blood, in which he asserts that the heart is responsible for circulating blood throughout our arteries and body. Prior to Harvey's treatise, it was believed that the circulation of blood was a two-part process, venous and vital. The vital was blood and spirits that flowed from the heart and was distributed as life force throughout the body. Harvey points out with disdain, however, in his treatise that, “The heart, it is vulgarly said, is the fountain and workshop of the vital spirits, the centre from which life is dispensed to the several parts of the body.” It was over a period of time following Harvey's publication of his treatise that fundamental beliefs about the heart's function altered, but it is readily apparent in the juxtaposition of these two strains of thought that the physiological and figurative had unequivocally collided.
I believe that our contemporary lexicon, which incorporates casual phrases associating the heart with emotion, is a reflection of the original beliefs surrounding the heart's function in our bodies dating back to Harvey's era. Furthermore, I think the associative relationship of our two primary parts, the brain and heart, is paramount to spiritual peace and self cultivation. Even if the separation only occurs in one place, our mind, the appropriation of our heart as a figurative symbol that represents our intense capacity for emotion allows for a symbiotic development between our life blood (heart) and our rational processing (mind). The heart is where we store our intense emotions, our strong feelings of passion and despair. I think that's why we so commonly say things like, "She broke my heart," and also why all our Valentine's are accompanied by pictures of hearts.
When we're severely afflicted by something someone does or says to us, we feel it to the "core." In a sense, I think this refers to our heart, our vessel in which we store the different things that make us feel extreme happiness or pain. Trying experiences, I feel, harden your heart over time. When you encounter situations that defeat your resolve, you retract and naturally become more reclusive by building up figurative layers of insulation in which you can ensconce yourself. Maybe you've lost somebody close to you and the fear of a sudden reoccurring jarring experience precludes you from opening up to others. Maybe you fell in love with someone, someone for whom you truly felt love and amorousness, but she eventually forsook endearment in favor of pragmatism even though you still sided with romantic idealism. Maybe you've been working tremendously hard at your own physical capacity, but then someone who is a supposed training expert says something disparaging that subverts the positive beliefs you hitherto held about your development. Hindsight, like that old adage goes, is always 20/20. It's natural, I think, to spend an unhealthy amount of time ruminating on the past, dissecting your own decisions and scrutinizing the choices you made. As a result, it's easy to adopt an unnecessary amount of guilt and burden, which we then wear upon ourselves like a weighted vest, constantly carrying this heavy baggage wherever we go. I used to get so exhausted at the end of the day, looking forward to the earliest acceptable time at which I could go to sleep and thereby close myself off from everything. When you wear this figurative vest around yourself, you inadvertently push others away, retreating behind your own layers of self constructed insulation.
Think about the people in your life who you consider the strongest: how much does the amount of weight they can move actually factor into your perception of their strength? Strength, I think, has less to do with the amount of weight one can move; rather, I think a more accurate measure is the extent to which one's resolve can be stretched. I believe we all have our own personal barometers, and the scale of our personal barometer is directly contingent upon our own experiences and wisdom that we accrue. There is no growth in comfort, no growth within our self-perceived limit of our own personal barometer. The only way to extend the scale of that measurement is to surpass the limit you heretofore thought achievable. But I've learned that you can't attain those results by yourself. When you push others away and seclude yourself, you do nothing more than illustrate your own inherent weakness. Why else would you want to shield yourself from others, save for the fact that you're afraid of scrutiny? Strength is as much about your willingness to stretch your resolve as it is about having the humility to recognize and openly acknowledge that you need help to do so. It is difficult to release your inhibitions and dissolve your apprehension, but someone who I sincerely admire observed that when you do, you allow your heart to be opened up to something new, to sensations and circumstances not yet experienced.
Harvey and scientific proof since the assertions in his treatise, have indubitably proven the genuine function of the heart, thereby rendering any romantic notions about its capacity for feeling ridiculous. But our everyday vernacular surrounding motions of the heart indicate, at least subconsciously I think, our desire to still acknowledge the distinction between our logical mind and passionate heart. If nothing else, think of the difference metaphorically: our hearts beat continuously without fail, never faltering by choice, persisting unerringly like a metronome; even in the face of unfathomable difficulty, our hearts do not stop. Our minds, in contrast, have the personal agency of choice, the power of free will. When you endure a trial that tests your personal limit, you retain the option to choose for yourself as to when you will desist. Your heart will never forsake you, your body will never stop, which means that a choice will always be left for you to decide. This symbiotic relationship between your mind and body becomes clearer for an ephemeral period after you exercise; like a medium interacting with spirits to bridge the gap between life and the regions beyond it, the cloud of murkiness between your heart and mind is elucidated during periods of intense stress. When nine out of the ten voices in your head urge you to desist, plead with you to give chase, it becomes so easy to acquiesce. But if you attune your senses sharply enough, you can discern one small whisper among the cacophony of indistinguishable noise. You can hear this whisper spurning you on, compelling you to continue. This feeling, this sensation you encounter in various life experiences is not always justifiable in a rational, logical sense; instead you chalk it up to something else-you say, "I can't explain it, I just feel it in my heart." A significant notion of strength becomes illustrated when you let go of, "what if..." and yield to this sensation felt in your heart.
So, why do we associate the heart with human feelings? I really don't know, and no part of the aforementioned I think elucidates that inquiry. There are much better intellectual inspections of the ways in which we commonly adopt illogical language regarding the heart; the abovementioned is merely one lay person's conjecture. I do love this quote, though, from the Chinese Book of Poetry: "In his heart is love, why not admit it? He stores it in his heart, when could he forget it?"
On average, your heart beats 70-80 times per minute. For those who love mental arithmetic, do the math: 70 beats per minute, times 60 minutes in an hour, times 24 hours a day, times 365 days a year, times an average lifespan of 75 years: that is more than 2.5 billion times throughout an average life that a heart will beat. But how do we draw connections from the heart's tremendously incredible physiological capacity to it somehow serving as a housing in which we store intense emotions? I speculate that before advancements in science, when our understanding of human anatomy was rather rudimentary, people believed that the heart was directly responsible for how we felt. Think about when you become excited or scared and your heart beats faster; to this same end, people used to believe that the changing pace of one's heartbeat was an activator of certain feelings and emotions. Over time, increased understanding of what the heart's function actually is rectified these inaccurate beliefs. In the 17th century, William Harvey published his On the Motion of the Heart and Blood, in which he asserts that the heart is responsible for circulating blood throughout our arteries and body. Prior to Harvey's treatise, it was believed that the circulation of blood was a two-part process, venous and vital. The vital was blood and spirits that flowed from the heart and was distributed as life force throughout the body. Harvey points out with disdain, however, in his treatise that, “The heart, it is vulgarly said, is the fountain and workshop of the vital spirits, the centre from which life is dispensed to the several parts of the body.” It was over a period of time following Harvey's publication of his treatise that fundamental beliefs about the heart's function altered, but it is readily apparent in the juxtaposition of these two strains of thought that the physiological and figurative had unequivocally collided.
I believe that our contemporary lexicon, which incorporates casual phrases associating the heart with emotion, is a reflection of the original beliefs surrounding the heart's function in our bodies dating back to Harvey's era. Furthermore, I think the associative relationship of our two primary parts, the brain and heart, is paramount to spiritual peace and self cultivation. Even if the separation only occurs in one place, our mind, the appropriation of our heart as a figurative symbol that represents our intense capacity for emotion allows for a symbiotic development between our life blood (heart) and our rational processing (mind). The heart is where we store our intense emotions, our strong feelings of passion and despair. I think that's why we so commonly say things like, "She broke my heart," and also why all our Valentine's are accompanied by pictures of hearts.
When we're severely afflicted by something someone does or says to us, we feel it to the "core." In a sense, I think this refers to our heart, our vessel in which we store the different things that make us feel extreme happiness or pain. Trying experiences, I feel, harden your heart over time. When you encounter situations that defeat your resolve, you retract and naturally become more reclusive by building up figurative layers of insulation in which you can ensconce yourself. Maybe you've lost somebody close to you and the fear of a sudden reoccurring jarring experience precludes you from opening up to others. Maybe you fell in love with someone, someone for whom you truly felt love and amorousness, but she eventually forsook endearment in favor of pragmatism even though you still sided with romantic idealism. Maybe you've been working tremendously hard at your own physical capacity, but then someone who is a supposed training expert says something disparaging that subverts the positive beliefs you hitherto held about your development. Hindsight, like that old adage goes, is always 20/20. It's natural, I think, to spend an unhealthy amount of time ruminating on the past, dissecting your own decisions and scrutinizing the choices you made. As a result, it's easy to adopt an unnecessary amount of guilt and burden, which we then wear upon ourselves like a weighted vest, constantly carrying this heavy baggage wherever we go. I used to get so exhausted at the end of the day, looking forward to the earliest acceptable time at which I could go to sleep and thereby close myself off from everything. When you wear this figurative vest around yourself, you inadvertently push others away, retreating behind your own layers of self constructed insulation.
Think about the people in your life who you consider the strongest: how much does the amount of weight they can move actually factor into your perception of their strength? Strength, I think, has less to do with the amount of weight one can move; rather, I think a more accurate measure is the extent to which one's resolve can be stretched. I believe we all have our own personal barometers, and the scale of our personal barometer is directly contingent upon our own experiences and wisdom that we accrue. There is no growth in comfort, no growth within our self-perceived limit of our own personal barometer. The only way to extend the scale of that measurement is to surpass the limit you heretofore thought achievable. But I've learned that you can't attain those results by yourself. When you push others away and seclude yourself, you do nothing more than illustrate your own inherent weakness. Why else would you want to shield yourself from others, save for the fact that you're afraid of scrutiny? Strength is as much about your willingness to stretch your resolve as it is about having the humility to recognize and openly acknowledge that you need help to do so. It is difficult to release your inhibitions and dissolve your apprehension, but someone who I sincerely admire observed that when you do, you allow your heart to be opened up to something new, to sensations and circumstances not yet experienced.
Harvey and scientific proof since the assertions in his treatise, have indubitably proven the genuine function of the heart, thereby rendering any romantic notions about its capacity for feeling ridiculous. But our everyday vernacular surrounding motions of the heart indicate, at least subconsciously I think, our desire to still acknowledge the distinction between our logical mind and passionate heart. If nothing else, think of the difference metaphorically: our hearts beat continuously without fail, never faltering by choice, persisting unerringly like a metronome; even in the face of unfathomable difficulty, our hearts do not stop. Our minds, in contrast, have the personal agency of choice, the power of free will. When you endure a trial that tests your personal limit, you retain the option to choose for yourself as to when you will desist. Your heart will never forsake you, your body will never stop, which means that a choice will always be left for you to decide. This symbiotic relationship between your mind and body becomes clearer for an ephemeral period after you exercise; like a medium interacting with spirits to bridge the gap between life and the regions beyond it, the cloud of murkiness between your heart and mind is elucidated during periods of intense stress. When nine out of the ten voices in your head urge you to desist, plead with you to give chase, it becomes so easy to acquiesce. But if you attune your senses sharply enough, you can discern one small whisper among the cacophony of indistinguishable noise. You can hear this whisper spurning you on, compelling you to continue. This feeling, this sensation you encounter in various life experiences is not always justifiable in a rational, logical sense; instead you chalk it up to something else-you say, "I can't explain it, I just feel it in my heart." A significant notion of strength becomes illustrated when you let go of, "what if..." and yield to this sensation felt in your heart.
So, why do we associate the heart with human feelings? I really don't know, and no part of the aforementioned I think elucidates that inquiry. There are much better intellectual inspections of the ways in which we commonly adopt illogical language regarding the heart; the abovementioned is merely one lay person's conjecture. I do love this quote, though, from the Chinese Book of Poetry: "In his heart is love, why not admit it? He stores it in his heart, when could he forget it?"
Monday, February 25, 2013
Food for Thought
I detest the word diet and everything associated with it. When you
hear "diet," you think an array of thoughts along the following: "food
that tastes like cardboard," "deliberate suppression of culinary
predilections," "self-induced starving," etc. There's also a very
problematic principle to the notion of dieting: it is in my mind a
method of consumption that is at one end of a spectrum, which is in
direct juxtaposition to gluttony at the other end. The concept of
dieting eliminates the possibility of a middle ground: you're either
losing weight or gaining weight, but never at a happy medium. Dieting
champions the notion of losing weight quickly. The very adjective
"extreme" is used often to describe the rate at which one can lose
weight drastically. This fervor perpetuates a discomfort with personal
self-image; while there is definitely credence to the act of dieting in
order to lose weight for health reasons, it is paramount to keep your
frame of reference over the more important overarching goal: adopting
good consumption habits that you can incorporate into your every-day
life.
I prefer the term "eating right" to "dieting." And eating right is just like exercise or anything else insofar as it takes time to adopt the habits that promote the act itself. Think about something at which you're really good, something you've mastered or at which you've worked particularly hard. You didn't attain the skill-set associated with your specific talent over a quick period of time; you honed your skills with practice, cultivating them slowly with diligence, discipline, and attention to detail. Exercise, and by extension, eating right, requires the same level of attention. Eating right and exercise are a married couple, as they are completely contingent upon each other. If exercising is the figurative engine, then eating right is the fuel that propels that engine. Nothing you do in terms of exercise is worth anything if you don't consume the proper nutrients to expound upon your physical efforts. Some people spend their lives mastering the study of nutrition, making careers out of becoming nutritionists. As such, what little dispensable advice I have to offer is rather rudimentary in comparison, but they do serve some purpose insofar as showcasing a few methods that have and have not worked at an individual level.
First, reflect on your own eating habits. When do you eat? How often do you eat? How much do you eat? What do you eat when you're hungry? Do you buy your own groceries? How much water on average do you drink daily? Some people find that keeping a food journal is helpful because you can read back on the day and visualize everything you've consumed. There is literally infinite information about what types of foods are best in what order and at what times. Furthermore, there is endless debate about the benefits and detriments of carbohydrates. Some people maintain that the Paleo Diet (aka "The Caveman Diet") is the better way since our neolithic ancestors never ate grains, only raw foods. I'm no expert, but I eat carbohydrates. You need them because they give you energy. You just have to be discerning about what types: donuts and refined sugars are obviously bad, but foods like vegetables, whole grains, quinoa, beans, and raw oats are great.
BREAKFAST! You must eat breakfast. So many people don't, either because they're not hungry or they complain about not having enough time, but I can't stress the importance of it enough. You must eat breakfast in order to "break" your "fast." Think about it this way: if the last time you ate was dinner (~6pm), then maybe you had a small snack before bed, after which point you slept for eight hours, skipped breakfast, then made it all the way to lunch time around 12pm the next day...that's basically 18 hours you've gone without food. Any food you therefore eat will almost all be stored as fat because your body essentially goes into starvation. You must eat breakfast; think of your daily food intake as a reverse pyramid: breakfast should be big, lunch should be a little bit smaller or the same size, and dinner should be smaller than lunch or around the same size. The important thing is that breakfast should most definitely not be the smallest meal you eat. Once you force yourself to eat a big breakfast, your body will adapt and you will always wake up hungry. Eating breakfast sparks your metabolism and causes you to burn more calories. It will give you energy, improve your mood, and reduce large swings in your blood sugar levels.
Breakfast: 8am
-Bowl of plain oatmeal cooked with skim milk (mix in fresh berries, unsalted nuts of your choice, scoop of unsalted peanut or almond butter, flax or chia seeds, a little bit of raw honey if desired)
-half cup of plain egg whites with salsa
-fish oil (pill or liquid form)
Snack: 10am
-Power shake: whey protein, skim milk, 1 scoop raw oats, flax seeds, banana, 0% plain yogurt, spinach, coconut butter, water
-Small piece of fruit (e.g. apple, orange, etc.)
Lunch: 12pm
-Mixed green salad with: quinoa, a lot of raw vegetables of your choice, chicken, beans, strawberries light vinaigrette on the side
-Half turkey sandwich on whole wheat or spelt bread, lots of turkey, vegetables, no mayo or light mayo, mustard
Snack: 3pm
-Power shake: " "
-handful of mixed nuts (unsalted)
-Small piece of fruit
Exercise: 4-5pm
Dinner: 6pm
-Large chicken breast, lean steak, salmon, or tuna steak
-Baked potato or yam plain
-Steamed broccoli
Snack: 8pm
-Cup of plain yogurt with some berries and peanuts, scoop of unsalted peanut butter
Snack: 10pm
-Whey protein in skim milk or water
-Piece of whole grain toast
This is just an example of what you might eat in a day. The most important part is the hourly breakdown and spread. You should try and eat every few hours and limit your portions at each meal. The three most important meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, should most certainly be satisfied. Then try and mix in three additional "meals" among the primary three. The meals don't have to be Thanksgiving feasts, as evidenced by the example above. Eating less more often will keep your blood sugar at sustained levels and reduce that "tired" feeling you get after eating a large meal.
DRINK WATER. You should try to drink your body weight in ounces every day (e.g. 180lbs. = 180oz.). Your urine should be clear or mostly clear so that you're always hydrated. If 80% of our bodies is water, then the intake has to be constant. At the very least, you should consume the minimal 8 glasses (8 glasses at 8oz each is 64oz daily). But if you do any sort of physical activity, even brisk walking, you're losing more water than you would normally just sitting sedentary, so you need to drink more.
INDULGE. There are foods that are good for your body and there are foods that are good for your soul. Pick two meals out of the week and eat whatever you want for those meals. Taste is purely nerve endings in your tongue sending messages to your brain, but the sensation is very powerful...rewarding yourself will encourage consistency during the rest of the time. Someone once told me I had an eating disorder because I would only eat anything I made and emphasized what I ate and when I ate it to an extreme degree. I think she was right to an extent. If you over obsess about calories and everything you eat, I think you'll probably cause yourself more mental stress and detriment than is necessary, thereby negating any potential physical benefits you might glean.
FATS. You need to eat fat because your body needs fat to burn. You just have to be discerning about the sorts of fats: Olive oil, salmon, peanut butter, coconut oil, peanuts, avocado, etc.
EATING OUT. You can choose a good option almost anywhere you go out to eat (granted, there are exceptions). If you want a burger, ask if you can get it on a wholewheat bun or skip the bun altogether; ask for no cheese or Swiss; condiments on the side; and go with salad or fruit instead of fries. When you order a salad, ask if you can get extra chicken and the dressing on the side. Or if you decide you want to indulge by eating out for one of your meals, order something particularly eccentric and tasty that you wouldn't normally make for yourself.
Remember, nothing I've said is an assertion. There are many clinically documented studies that hold far more credence. Read different publications and think about what works best for your lifestyle. I found that eating well improved my mood and gave me more energy. Try to use that as your focus for eating right; if aesthetic value is solely what motivates you, it will be harder to cultivate the resolve and discipline to remain consistent. I came across this quote somewhere: "If you don't take care of your body, where will you live?"
I prefer the term "eating right" to "dieting." And eating right is just like exercise or anything else insofar as it takes time to adopt the habits that promote the act itself. Think about something at which you're really good, something you've mastered or at which you've worked particularly hard. You didn't attain the skill-set associated with your specific talent over a quick period of time; you honed your skills with practice, cultivating them slowly with diligence, discipline, and attention to detail. Exercise, and by extension, eating right, requires the same level of attention. Eating right and exercise are a married couple, as they are completely contingent upon each other. If exercising is the figurative engine, then eating right is the fuel that propels that engine. Nothing you do in terms of exercise is worth anything if you don't consume the proper nutrients to expound upon your physical efforts. Some people spend their lives mastering the study of nutrition, making careers out of becoming nutritionists. As such, what little dispensable advice I have to offer is rather rudimentary in comparison, but they do serve some purpose insofar as showcasing a few methods that have and have not worked at an individual level.
First, reflect on your own eating habits. When do you eat? How often do you eat? How much do you eat? What do you eat when you're hungry? Do you buy your own groceries? How much water on average do you drink daily? Some people find that keeping a food journal is helpful because you can read back on the day and visualize everything you've consumed. There is literally infinite information about what types of foods are best in what order and at what times. Furthermore, there is endless debate about the benefits and detriments of carbohydrates. Some people maintain that the Paleo Diet (aka "The Caveman Diet") is the better way since our neolithic ancestors never ate grains, only raw foods. I'm no expert, but I eat carbohydrates. You need them because they give you energy. You just have to be discerning about what types: donuts and refined sugars are obviously bad, but foods like vegetables, whole grains, quinoa, beans, and raw oats are great.
BREAKFAST! You must eat breakfast. So many people don't, either because they're not hungry or they complain about not having enough time, but I can't stress the importance of it enough. You must eat breakfast in order to "break" your "fast." Think about it this way: if the last time you ate was dinner (~6pm), then maybe you had a small snack before bed, after which point you slept for eight hours, skipped breakfast, then made it all the way to lunch time around 12pm the next day...that's basically 18 hours you've gone without food. Any food you therefore eat will almost all be stored as fat because your body essentially goes into starvation. You must eat breakfast; think of your daily food intake as a reverse pyramid: breakfast should be big, lunch should be a little bit smaller or the same size, and dinner should be smaller than lunch or around the same size. The important thing is that breakfast should most definitely not be the smallest meal you eat. Once you force yourself to eat a big breakfast, your body will adapt and you will always wake up hungry. Eating breakfast sparks your metabolism and causes you to burn more calories. It will give you energy, improve your mood, and reduce large swings in your blood sugar levels.
Breakfast: 8am
-Bowl of plain oatmeal cooked with skim milk (mix in fresh berries, unsalted nuts of your choice, scoop of unsalted peanut or almond butter, flax or chia seeds, a little bit of raw honey if desired)
-half cup of plain egg whites with salsa
-fish oil (pill or liquid form)
Snack: 10am
-Power shake: whey protein, skim milk, 1 scoop raw oats, flax seeds, banana, 0% plain yogurt, spinach, coconut butter, water
-Small piece of fruit (e.g. apple, orange, etc.)
Lunch: 12pm
-Mixed green salad with: quinoa, a lot of raw vegetables of your choice, chicken, beans, strawberries light vinaigrette on the side
-Half turkey sandwich on whole wheat or spelt bread, lots of turkey, vegetables, no mayo or light mayo, mustard
Snack: 3pm
-Power shake: " "
-handful of mixed nuts (unsalted)
-Small piece of fruit
Exercise: 4-5pm
Dinner: 6pm
-Large chicken breast, lean steak, salmon, or tuna steak
-Baked potato or yam plain
-Steamed broccoli
Snack: 8pm
-Cup of plain yogurt with some berries and peanuts, scoop of unsalted peanut butter
Snack: 10pm
-Whey protein in skim milk or water
-Piece of whole grain toast
This is just an example of what you might eat in a day. The most important part is the hourly breakdown and spread. You should try and eat every few hours and limit your portions at each meal. The three most important meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, should most certainly be satisfied. Then try and mix in three additional "meals" among the primary three. The meals don't have to be Thanksgiving feasts, as evidenced by the example above. Eating less more often will keep your blood sugar at sustained levels and reduce that "tired" feeling you get after eating a large meal.
DRINK WATER. You should try to drink your body weight in ounces every day (e.g. 180lbs. = 180oz.). Your urine should be clear or mostly clear so that you're always hydrated. If 80% of our bodies is water, then the intake has to be constant. At the very least, you should consume the minimal 8 glasses (8 glasses at 8oz each is 64oz daily). But if you do any sort of physical activity, even brisk walking, you're losing more water than you would normally just sitting sedentary, so you need to drink more.
INDULGE. There are foods that are good for your body and there are foods that are good for your soul. Pick two meals out of the week and eat whatever you want for those meals. Taste is purely nerve endings in your tongue sending messages to your brain, but the sensation is very powerful...rewarding yourself will encourage consistency during the rest of the time. Someone once told me I had an eating disorder because I would only eat anything I made and emphasized what I ate and when I ate it to an extreme degree. I think she was right to an extent. If you over obsess about calories and everything you eat, I think you'll probably cause yourself more mental stress and detriment than is necessary, thereby negating any potential physical benefits you might glean.
FATS. You need to eat fat because your body needs fat to burn. You just have to be discerning about the sorts of fats: Olive oil, salmon, peanut butter, coconut oil, peanuts, avocado, etc.
EATING OUT. You can choose a good option almost anywhere you go out to eat (granted, there are exceptions). If you want a burger, ask if you can get it on a wholewheat bun or skip the bun altogether; ask for no cheese or Swiss; condiments on the side; and go with salad or fruit instead of fries. When you order a salad, ask if you can get extra chicken and the dressing on the side. Or if you decide you want to indulge by eating out for one of your meals, order something particularly eccentric and tasty that you wouldn't normally make for yourself.
Remember, nothing I've said is an assertion. There are many clinically documented studies that hold far more credence. Read different publications and think about what works best for your lifestyle. I found that eating well improved my mood and gave me more energy. Try to use that as your focus for eating right; if aesthetic value is solely what motivates you, it will be harder to cultivate the resolve and discipline to remain consistent. I came across this quote somewhere: "If you don't take care of your body, where will you live?"
Sunday, February 10, 2013
You don't need a gym to exercise
3 Round for Time:
Sofa flips
Farmer Carry
100lb. heavy-bag step-ups
Plyo Jumps
Pull-ups
(adjust the number of repetitions per exercise to your personal liking)
Sometimes the gym can feel crowded or uncomfortable. Don't let your potential aversion to the gym preclude you from exercising, though. There are many unconventional ways to work up a sweat. Think outside the box and do anything that makes your body move.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Transforming negative energy into positive motivation
Negative energy exists all around us, emanating from various facets of our lives to varying degrees. It's so difficult not to become consumed by the obstacles that stand before us. When setbacks present themselves to you in a series of discouraging outcomes, it's hard not to assume a defeatist attitude or become pessimistic. Negativity diminishes your optimism, in turn begetting more negativity, and eventually your mindset alters altogether. But I believe that every challenge with which you're faced and every setback you're forced to endure prepares you for the road that still lays ahead. The most difficult aspect to any trial is trying to find the lesson in it, becoming a better self as a result of having to deal with new challenges.
When my brother passed away, my perspective on life and my relative understanding of struggle altered entirely. I thought I knew what challenges were, what struggle felt like. But when he died, it was like nothing I had felt or experienced before. The world dropped away beneath my feet and I was falling endlessly into an abyss. One day he was there and the next he was gone, in an instant. The deftness felt so harsh it was as if somebody came and stole him away in the night with no fair warning or fighting chance to ward off the forthcoming devastation. When you experience something like that, your body goes through trauma. You don't really believe what has happened and you go through a period of disillusionment. I can't really articulate the feeling, but try and picture one of those moments when you see something so astonishing that it elicits the phrase, "I can't believe it, did that really just happen?" After the trauma subsides, you go through denial as a way of protecting your emotional well-being. You refuse to acknowledge what has happened and part of you still latches on to the outlandish notion that the departed will reappear at some point. After the dust settles, so to speak, after denial eventually dissipates, a floodgate opens and waves of anger, sadness, bitterness, resentment, and guilt come crashing down on your head like the heaviest anvil you can possibly imagine. The subsequent feelings do not reside ephemerally; they burrow their talons into the very fibers of your mind and roost for what feels like will be infinity.
In the movie Life of Pi, Pi poignantly inquires at the conclusion of his story that if life becomes an exercise in letting go of the things and people you love, then is it so much to ask for 5-10 minutes to say goodbye? To have a chance to disclose the most endearing sentiments to the ones you love in order to ensure that they know how you really feel? We rarely get those chances in life; we always take for granted the availability of time with them to express those affections. When that chance is taken from you, though, you feel a restlessness like nothing you've ever felt before. On a much smaller scale, it's like when you have a hunger for something to eat but absolutely nothing you have sounds minutely appetizing. Regardless of what you decide upon, your appetite will never be satiated.
In order to counter the restlessness I felt inside, I exercised with a fervor that I heretofore had never. When you exercise or do something exciting, your body releases a natural hormone called endorphins. My limited understanding of the physiological effects of this hormone preclude me from detailing the actual process of this chemical reaction, but I know that in layman's terms the hormone makes you feel happier for an ephemeral time afterward. I found that when I exercised, I felt happier, I had some channel through which I could filter all of the feelings that were bottled up inside of me. If I didn't exercise, I felt like a soda bottle being shaken up with no chance for the pressure to release. I sought this endorphin high all the time; I tried to get more of it by exercising more; I tried to become fitter so I could exercise for longer and feel higher. I read about nutrition, hydration, different training methods, anything that could possibly lengthen my endurance to train for longer so I could always be in that state of endorphin euphoria. Eventually, I saw how exercise could help cultivate my mental outlook, how it could transform my feelings of negativity into peaceful meditations of positive channeling.
Jay-Z raps in one of his songs, "Time don't go back, it goes forward." Challenges will hinder your forward progress and the degree of those trials will do so to varying extents. However, if you whittle away the time in the present ruminating on the setbacks you have faced in the past, then you ultimately diminish the time you have in your life to cultivate a better self. Remember that you are always in complete control of your personal realm; your feelings of happiness, anger, sadness, and joy are always under your immediate command. Nothing can ever relinquish you of your personal agency and ability to respond. Meditate on all of the negativity in your life, the specific things that are hampering you, and store them in a figurative box. Store them so tightly that the box is bursting at the seams. When you exercise, imagine yourself smashing this box in the act of exercising, using the negativity as fuel to push yourself just a little bit further. Smash the box until there's nothing left, until it's a pile of ashes.
Renounce your preconceived notions of your own personal physical capacity and let go of your inhibitions. Close your eyes and meditate on all of the obstacles that stand before you. Focus on them and confront them head on. When you exercise, immerse yourself in the interaction with these negative aspects and try to ascertain positive elements from them. I struggle with not feeling resentful or bitter every single day. Losing my brother has underscored for me the brevity of life. Exercise and the meditation accompanied with it has elucidated the importance of valuing the time you do get with the ones you love and the opportunities you have to forge relationships with them. Your life is a perpetual test of your resolve. Your body can go anywhere; your mind will take it there.
When my brother passed away, my perspective on life and my relative understanding of struggle altered entirely. I thought I knew what challenges were, what struggle felt like. But when he died, it was like nothing I had felt or experienced before. The world dropped away beneath my feet and I was falling endlessly into an abyss. One day he was there and the next he was gone, in an instant. The deftness felt so harsh it was as if somebody came and stole him away in the night with no fair warning or fighting chance to ward off the forthcoming devastation. When you experience something like that, your body goes through trauma. You don't really believe what has happened and you go through a period of disillusionment. I can't really articulate the feeling, but try and picture one of those moments when you see something so astonishing that it elicits the phrase, "I can't believe it, did that really just happen?" After the trauma subsides, you go through denial as a way of protecting your emotional well-being. You refuse to acknowledge what has happened and part of you still latches on to the outlandish notion that the departed will reappear at some point. After the dust settles, so to speak, after denial eventually dissipates, a floodgate opens and waves of anger, sadness, bitterness, resentment, and guilt come crashing down on your head like the heaviest anvil you can possibly imagine. The subsequent feelings do not reside ephemerally; they burrow their talons into the very fibers of your mind and roost for what feels like will be infinity.
In the movie Life of Pi, Pi poignantly inquires at the conclusion of his story that if life becomes an exercise in letting go of the things and people you love, then is it so much to ask for 5-10 minutes to say goodbye? To have a chance to disclose the most endearing sentiments to the ones you love in order to ensure that they know how you really feel? We rarely get those chances in life; we always take for granted the availability of time with them to express those affections. When that chance is taken from you, though, you feel a restlessness like nothing you've ever felt before. On a much smaller scale, it's like when you have a hunger for something to eat but absolutely nothing you have sounds minutely appetizing. Regardless of what you decide upon, your appetite will never be satiated.
In order to counter the restlessness I felt inside, I exercised with a fervor that I heretofore had never. When you exercise or do something exciting, your body releases a natural hormone called endorphins. My limited understanding of the physiological effects of this hormone preclude me from detailing the actual process of this chemical reaction, but I know that in layman's terms the hormone makes you feel happier for an ephemeral time afterward. I found that when I exercised, I felt happier, I had some channel through which I could filter all of the feelings that were bottled up inside of me. If I didn't exercise, I felt like a soda bottle being shaken up with no chance for the pressure to release. I sought this endorphin high all the time; I tried to get more of it by exercising more; I tried to become fitter so I could exercise for longer and feel higher. I read about nutrition, hydration, different training methods, anything that could possibly lengthen my endurance to train for longer so I could always be in that state of endorphin euphoria. Eventually, I saw how exercise could help cultivate my mental outlook, how it could transform my feelings of negativity into peaceful meditations of positive channeling.
Jay-Z raps in one of his songs, "Time don't go back, it goes forward." Challenges will hinder your forward progress and the degree of those trials will do so to varying extents. However, if you whittle away the time in the present ruminating on the setbacks you have faced in the past, then you ultimately diminish the time you have in your life to cultivate a better self. Remember that you are always in complete control of your personal realm; your feelings of happiness, anger, sadness, and joy are always under your immediate command. Nothing can ever relinquish you of your personal agency and ability to respond. Meditate on all of the negativity in your life, the specific things that are hampering you, and store them in a figurative box. Store them so tightly that the box is bursting at the seams. When you exercise, imagine yourself smashing this box in the act of exercising, using the negativity as fuel to push yourself just a little bit further. Smash the box until there's nothing left, until it's a pile of ashes.
Renounce your preconceived notions of your own personal physical capacity and let go of your inhibitions. Close your eyes and meditate on all of the obstacles that stand before you. Focus on them and confront them head on. When you exercise, immerse yourself in the interaction with these negative aspects and try to ascertain positive elements from them. I struggle with not feeling resentful or bitter every single day. Losing my brother has underscored for me the brevity of life. Exercise and the meditation accompanied with it has elucidated the importance of valuing the time you do get with the ones you love and the opportunities you have to forge relationships with them. Your life is a perpetual test of your resolve. Your body can go anywhere; your mind will take it there.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Many times people have asked me, "What are you training for?" I never know how to respond. The inquiry always makes me feel taken aback. "I don't know," is how I've always responded. But as time has gone on and I've learned more about myself, about exercise, about life, I suppose I would change that response: "To prove myself wrong."
I so firmly believe that your body will literally go as far as you want it to. It is the greatest vessel of which you will ever take command. The only things that preclude you from continuing forth are the preconceived notions in your mind that you form about your personal physical capacity. But every single time you exercise, you put yourself in a position to push past the constraints that hitherto relegated you to a certain position, even if only slightly. The incremental increases may not total great lengths each time, but when you add up the sum of them all, the distance you've spanned is far beyond what you previously fathomed; that's what I love about exercise. You prove yourself wrong every time.
If this were my manifesto for exercise, then I would say that a paramount facet is the notion of mental clarity that exercise affords you. Exercise isn't about aesthetic benefits, it's not about looking good for spring break, or trying to lose weight quickly. If you attune your senses to the cacophony of noise surrounding you about exercise, you will be amazed at the sheer number of diets, workouts, and phenomena about the latest and greatest for looking like the next lady or man killer. But all of these have one thing in common: how to look amazing as quickly as possible with the least amount of effort. The mindset that this fosters disparages the true benefits of exercise and subverts the underlying importance of exercise to begin with: to cultivate a better self.
You've heard the old adage before: "You can do anything you put your mind to." The frequency with which it is spoken dulls the message therein. But sometimes the most important things are said in the simplest of ways. You truly can. Exercise is a way to cultivate the belief that you can accomplish that which you desire. It's a channel through which you can transform all of the pressures and negativity that consume you into positive energy.
The aforesaid and the subsequent posts are merely my personal reflections and thoughts. None of which I disclose or state is substantiated by clinical documentation or professional assertion unless specifically noted. They are not absolute truths; rather, my observations, the chronicles of my personal journey through exercise and how it saved my life. Take it for however much or little it may be worth.
People were amazed at how Gandhi managed to perpetually exude such positive and energetic force in his passionate pursuit of religious and racial freedom. For hours on end, every single day, he managed to carry out his endeavors with no outward sign of fatigue, becoming a seeming source of perennial light. As a result, he championed the notion: the body is frail, the spirit is boundless.
I so firmly believe that your body will literally go as far as you want it to. It is the greatest vessel of which you will ever take command. The only things that preclude you from continuing forth are the preconceived notions in your mind that you form about your personal physical capacity. But every single time you exercise, you put yourself in a position to push past the constraints that hitherto relegated you to a certain position, even if only slightly. The incremental increases may not total great lengths each time, but when you add up the sum of them all, the distance you've spanned is far beyond what you previously fathomed; that's what I love about exercise. You prove yourself wrong every time.
If this were my manifesto for exercise, then I would say that a paramount facet is the notion of mental clarity that exercise affords you. Exercise isn't about aesthetic benefits, it's not about looking good for spring break, or trying to lose weight quickly. If you attune your senses to the cacophony of noise surrounding you about exercise, you will be amazed at the sheer number of diets, workouts, and phenomena about the latest and greatest for looking like the next lady or man killer. But all of these have one thing in common: how to look amazing as quickly as possible with the least amount of effort. The mindset that this fosters disparages the true benefits of exercise and subverts the underlying importance of exercise to begin with: to cultivate a better self.
You've heard the old adage before: "You can do anything you put your mind to." The frequency with which it is spoken dulls the message therein. But sometimes the most important things are said in the simplest of ways. You truly can. Exercise is a way to cultivate the belief that you can accomplish that which you desire. It's a channel through which you can transform all of the pressures and negativity that consume you into positive energy.
The aforesaid and the subsequent posts are merely my personal reflections and thoughts. None of which I disclose or state is substantiated by clinical documentation or professional assertion unless specifically noted. They are not absolute truths; rather, my observations, the chronicles of my personal journey through exercise and how it saved my life. Take it for however much or little it may be worth.
People were amazed at how Gandhi managed to perpetually exude such positive and energetic force in his passionate pursuit of religious and racial freedom. For hours on end, every single day, he managed to carry out his endeavors with no outward sign of fatigue, becoming a seeming source of perennial light. As a result, he championed the notion: the body is frail, the spirit is boundless.
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