Time for a Change

Okay, so you are four weeks into your workout program. You are getting comfortable with things. Guess what? That means it's time to look at making a change.

When you are starting a workout and nutrition program it's important to set up a good framework that will help take you forward through a lifetime of health and fitness. One part of that framework is understanding the value of changing up workouts

The human body is a wonderfully adaptive machine. As you apply stress to the body in the form of exercise, your body will adapt and grow. As it adapts to the exercises you do and foods you eat, it will require more work to get the same results. This happens to every individual who works out. It happens to every athlete, regardless of sport. The better you get, the harder you have to work in order to see results. Now in your first 18 months, your body is learning movement patterns. You will see amazing gains in strength and stamina in this time period. In order to keep your body moving forward, it's a very good idea to change up your workouts every 4-6 weeks. Doing this allows your body to learn new movement patterns, practice the old ones, and helps keep things confusing enough that your body doesn't adapt.

Body for Life recommends changing up your workouts every 4 weeks. Sit down and take a look at what you've been doing. Select new exercises to work on. Now this can be a bit challenging with some movements. There are limits to what you can do without access to a gym. Don't stress over these changes. The goal is to keep yourself from getting into a comfortable place with exercise. You want it to be challenging.

If you have been using the elliptical for your cardio, shift to the bike. Ignore for a moment the conventional wisdom that says machine XYZ works best. You are looking to generate confusion. You'll be amazed at how a simple change in equipment can leave you gasping for breath. If you rely on outdoor running for your workouts, pick a new route or add a new technique to your intervals. Again, the goal is keep your body guessing.

For weight workouts, there is a wide variety of exercises you can find. A quick internet search will provide lists of exercises and often videos to accompany them. It's like walking into a Chinese restaurant. Pick one from column A and one from column B. Changing up your exercises also helps you address potential strength imbalances. Even a simple change from a machine based exercise to a free weight based exercise will change things up enough to keep your body guessing.

Make sure to keep notes of what changes you make. Over time, you will find exercises you particularly enjoy, and develop workouts of your own that elicit changes which excite you. You will find new sports to participate in, or fall back in love with old favorites.

Change is a good thing when it comes to workouts. This is the time where you are learning what does and doesn't work for you. Enjoy it.

Saturday

Since getting down to Texas, I've been a bit slow in indulging my inner tourist. I've been to Dallas and Houston. I've gone out exploring a bit in the Hill Country. I've even done a little wandering around downtown Austin. I have not quite gone out and really started poking around. That changed up this weekend.

Saturday I went down to San Antonio with a friend. After finishing up a small errand, we headed down to the downtown area to check out the Alamo and the surrounding area.

I forget sometimes how much I love exploring new places. In particular new places with history associated with them. The part most folks think of as the Alamo is actually the original sanctuary/church/shrine area for the old mission. I've seen my share of missions in my travels through the southwest. This one is a pretty good size actually. To most folks it seems small. They don't understand that the Alamo was a complex of buildings and walls, originally designed to protect settlers from hostile Indians (of the Native American type, not the Sub Continent type).

From the Alamo we wandered down to the Riverwalk area, then looped back around and up. There's some simply amazing old buildings through downtown. You have buildings reflection the old Mission style, then buildings that went up during the art deco era of the 20s and 30s. I love walking down those kinds of streets. If you close your eyes and listen, you can hear the old Fords rumbling down roughly paved streets, see the mix of Tejanos, cowbody and city folk blending as they walk through the doors of Woolworth. You can look up at the windows and just make out secretaries typing away, if you strain to hear you can catch a whisper of phones ringing.

The light was beautiful as we made it back to the car in late afternoon. I fired of a couple quick shots from the camera just to remind myself of time and light quality. I can tell San Antonio is going to be a good place to wander down to periodically and play.

I'm reminded of the need to re institute tourist day every month so I get out and play. It was a great day.

Better Days II

Better Days II-

In 2005 New Orleans and the Gulf Coast was devistated when Hurricane Katrina hit the area. None of us can forget the horrible images from that storm. The impact was magnified when it became apparent that we could not get help to people in a rapid manner. For days, people suffered as public services struggled to return some sense of normalcy to New Orleans.

On January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake leveled the city of Port-au-Prince, Hati. Again we have images of complete devastation, loss on a scale to horrible to contemplate. In many ways the images mirror what we saw after Hurricane Katrina.

On Saturday, January 16, 2010 an American football game is being played. On first glance it's nothing really remarkable. It's a game, and not really significant when you look at the horrors in Hati. But take another look. This game is between the Arizona Cardinals and the New Orleans Saints.

It's easy to forget now with time and distance just how bad things were in New Orleans. The Superdome had been turned into an emergency shelter. It became a symbol for the chaos and despair after the storm. People trapped, unable to get basic services, living in conditions unimaginable in America. The battered dome was a symbol for a destroyed city. There was talk of the Saints relocating to San Antonio, Texas on a permanent basis. There was talk that New Orleans would never be able to recover, that the city would fade into obscurity and literally be wiped off the map.

A determined group of New Orleans leaders refused to let that happen. They pushed, lobbied, and fought. A little over a year later, the New Orleans Saints returned to the city of New Orleans.

I wrote the following that night, watching Monday Night Football.

"So take these words
And sing out loud
Cuz everyone is forgiven now
Cuz tonight's the night the world begins again"

--"Better Days" The GooGooDolls

Tonight football returns to the city of New Orleans. It's been over a year since the world stopped spinning for folks there and on the Gulf Coast. For the people of New Orleans the return of Monday Night Football is a graphic demonstration that even with all the work still surrounding them- there's progress.

The Superdome was a scene of horror a year ago. Dark, dank, overflowing toilets, people who had gone there as a last resort trapped in a modern day Inferno. People died in horrible ways in the dark of the Superdome. The pictures we all saw can't begin to capture the terror those trapped felt. The smells, the sounds, those will be with those folks for a lifetime. Imagine seeing everything you owned washed away. Imagine leaving family, pets, friends behind thinking they would be safe only to return and find them gone. Lives were truly ended the day Katrina hit.

From day 1, there was a push to get the Saints back into the city. The key question was- can the Superdome be saved? Can this building that's dominated the skyline of the city be saved. Can the soul of a city be saved? The interior of the Dome was considered a hazmat site post Katrina. They found blood in random places in the dome for months after. A dedicated team of architects, builders, day laborers, and ordinary citizens decided to make the impossible happen. It takes years to build a stadium. This team had one year to rebuild a dream. They worked around the clock, gutted the building and did something amazing. This scene of horror and hopelessness has been rebuilt. The people of New Orleans today can gather around their televisions, tailgate, and reconnect with old friends. They can show the rest of America that while they are down, the city is far from dead.

Tonight the world begins again. Tonight the New Orleans Saints come marching home."

It's been 4 years since that night. The New Orleans Saints have continued to lead the community in recovery. This day, they look for a chance to bring a Super Bowl appearance to a still healing city. It seemed at the time that life in New Orleans would never again be normal. It won't be. It can be better. That's one of the lessons sports shows us.

Haiti faces a long and difficult recovery. The obstacles are greater, the poverty deeper, the odds against them higher. Yet history shows us that nothing is impossible. With hope, faith, and a heck of a lot of hard work the impossible can become reality.

Go Saints, Go New Orleans, Go Haiti.

Moving On

Moving ranks as one of the most stressful things you can do in a calender year. Having done a cross country move, I can vouch for that. I'm finding moving is a bit like a break-up where you both still love each other, but things just needed to shift up. You both grew in different directions, there's no hate, no ultimatums, just a moment of realization that a change needs to happen.

So you move on, but find yourself constantly looking for the familiar. You compare every new relationship to the old one. Yet at some point you realize you have to let go and start taking things on face value.

I'm not going to have 5 inches of snow each year around December for my Christmas card shots. What I may get is a nice bit of fog. Combine the fog with a lit tree and now we are talking. I don't have a classic city Christmas. I do have randomly decorated pine trees as you drive down the highway. I don't have the National Christmas Tree. I do have a way cool tree made out of lights in the park.

Time doesn't ever stand still. You can't live in the past. Once you make the decision to move, you have to move. Even if you want to go backwards, you'll never be able to move any direction but forward.

Might as well enjoy the ride and move on.

Giving Gifts

After a little bit of bumpy air I'm settling into a more holidayish feeling here in Austin. There was an...incident with the fake Christmas tree. The less said there, the better. ;) Just remember, hammers are not normally tools you need to assemble a Christmas tree.

I've started pulling together the Christmas card list. That should be done this weekend. I've also been reviewing my list for Santa. This can bring a smile to my face.

The last couple years I noticed an interesting trend. For all practical intent and purpose I really don't want much at Christmas. Sure I keep a running list of things I'd like to end up with. I tend to use my Amazon wish list as a book list reminder. I've always got some camera gear that would be fun to end up with, but it's never a case of "I MUST have this".

Somewhere along the way I've found that balance point. I don't walk around depriving myself of small enjoyments. At the same time I'm also not needing to prove my self worth via piles of stuff. At the same time, I'm not proving my virtue by saying, "oh I don't need this." I allow myself to want things and when it's reasonable I get it. If it's a reach, I simply start to plan long term how I can get it.

If I don't feel inclined to plan it out, then I don't want it enough.

If it's too hard to sit down and budget out what I need to save in order to get a thousand dollar lens for my camera, I don't want that lens. If it's too hard to sit down and figure out how I need to eat for the day, then I don't want the health benefits enough. If it's too hard to take 5 minutes to sit down and write up my workout, I don't want the positive results enough.

If I'm inclined to wait for Santa to drop things I "want" into my stocking, I'll be waiting a long time. But if I take the initiative to figure out how to get what I want, to plan out what I want, then the magic happens. You see at that point in time, where I know I have the things I want in addition to the things I need, that's when things I never could imagine will show up. That's where the magic of Christmas morning kicks in. That's where you find the wonder of exploring under the tree, and the anticipation of waking up to a world of new possibilities.

You see, when you learn how to give yourself amazing gifts, it makes the gifts you receive from others even more amazing.

Feeding America

"Are there no prisons...and the union workhouses? Are they still in operation...The treadmill and Poor Law are in full vigour?" --Scrooge, A Christmas Carol

I overheard part of a conversation this week regarding donating to charity. The two folks in question were talking about the food stamp program and how unfair it was that they were forced to subsidize "deadbeats". The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has its roots in the late 1930s as a way to provide food assistance to individuals on the margin. Over time the program has been mocked and berated, trotted out as an example of useless government spending, and generally viewed as something unpleasant.

In the middle of all the back and forthing, people forget what the program was designed to target. Hunger. America is not a poor nation. Yet we find people all over the country are going hungry. As the economy has gotten worse, more and more Americans are forgoing meals. This past year 1 in 7 Americans are going without food.

Think about that for a minute. Pull away all the rhetoric and back and forth. Look at the people you are sitting around. Count seven people. One of those seven people has odds on missed meals. That's a staggering statistic. We as a nation are starting to approach numbers that you find in some parts of the Third World.

It's easy to assume that these people are "deadbeats". It's easy for those of us who can pull together our daily meals to mock the people we see in line at a food bank or using a food stamp card. Some of us may say, "well I worked my way out of poverty, so those folks need to get it in gear and do something. It's not my job."

Since when is compassion not the job of EVERY citizen?

One of the greatest gifts you get from changing your health and fitness is the ability to give back. Because you feel so much better, because you can do so much more, it's possible to give in a variety of ways. You can give money to causes you believe in. You can donate canned goods or product to local charity. You can also donate your time.

This year think about that 1 in 7 Americans who face hunger on a daily basis. Consider this year donating time or goods to your local food bank. Feed America provides information on local food banks in your area. You can volunteer to pack boxes, or volunteer to help deliver goods.

It's a couple of hours out of your life that will make a difference for someone. Remember that down the road it may make a difference for YOU.

http://feedingamerica.org/default.aspx?show_shov=1/

Read Your Label

Read Your Label-

Learning how to correctly read a nutrition label is a critical step towards lifelong health and fitness. When you take the time to read labels on food you start to gain a better understanding of what you are putting into your body.

Now there are a wide range of pieces of information on a food label. You have total number of calories, macronutrient breakdowns including carbs, protein, and fat content. You have vitamin and mineral breakdowns. You also have the actual ingredient lists. All this information combines to give you a good idea of what you have going into your body. Depending on your fitness program this information is valuable data.

As you start, looking at labels is a conscious action. You are trying to master the content of your food. With time, you develop favorite brands and know what to expect.

Still, things can go wrong. And that's when good habits can save your bacon. I was out earlier this week shopping for ingredients for a new recipe. One of the things require was soy yogurt. Now I've been working hard on learning how to improve my cooking overall. One thing this means is I'm supposed to follow the recipe. If I don't, and then I don't like what I make I can't tell if it's a case of me not making it properly. (Which is a highly likely event) On the other hand, it could be a case of missing something that provides a key taste component. So I have to make something 3 times before I decide it's a wash.

Anyway, so back to the soy yogurt. I needed plain soy yogurt. I peruse the shelves of my local groceteria and find my faux dairy product. At twice the price of normal yogurt. Now I'm not a penny pincher, but I am trying to be conscious of my spending these days. So I start scanning the other yogurt products to see if there's a better low cost option. All I've got is regular dairy plain yogurt. Looks like it's a strike out. So I mutter and grab the soy. Now it's soy and it's plain. No brainer right? Healthy right? Out of sheer habit I flip the container around.

Calorie count is 140 calories. Which catches my attention. I know what I should be seeing for a "healthy" option and it's closer to 80-90. 140 calories is a red flag. I check fat content- 3.5 grams. That only accounts for around 30 calories. Down I scan to carbs- where my eyes catch the offender. Sitting in my plain yogurt is 12 grams of sugar.

If you are familiar with dairy yogurt you know that plain means just that. Plain. Nothing added. Especially no sugar added. Now I'm not the sugar police. Far from it. I enjoy sugar. I just want to know when I'm getting it. I prefer to spend my sugar budget on things I enjoy. Like candy corn.

Did I mention plain means just that? PLAIN. My brother used to order his cheeseburgers plain. He'd specify PLAIN. Just cheese, meat, and bun. He did this because more often than not McDonald's thought plain meant he wanted ketchup and mustard too. More than once his burger went back, or he'd dig out the mustard and ketchup parts. His kindly obligating sibling would be kind enough to eat the pickles for him. The ritual of watching him check his cheeseburger for offending condiments still produces giggles.

At this point in time, I'm channeling John. I start looking for mustard and ketchup in my yogurt. I find cornstarch, tricalcium phosphate, and natural flavors. Now again, these are not unhealthy things per say. BUT- I have this thing about my yogurt containing minimal ingredients. Ideally ones I can pronounce too. Anytime I see something saying, "natural" flavor added I'm not happy. This tells me that my product in it's original form does not taste like something I wish to eat.

So I could spend $2 on soy yogurt that was hitting my "this food lies" buttons, or go for dairy yogurt that contained- drumroll please- milk and acidophilus cultures for 80 cents.

Three guesses, and the first two don't count.

Again, I'm not anti-dairy replacement products. At this moment I have almond milk in my fridge that contains a couple interesting ingredients to keep it shelf stable. It's also got the magical "natural flavor" tag. But my almond milk made no pretense of being plain. It also doesn't have 12 grams of cane sugar sitting in it.

Get in the habit of flipping to check your label. Don't assume something is good for you. Look at it, understand what's in it, and make an informed choice. Remember, the power rests with you.