Friday Report Report (And a Chance to Tell Me Things!)

“How We Gather” is a paper by Angie Thurston and Casper ter Kuile.  I read it because something else I read referred to it, although I don’t remember what now.  The writers explore ten organizations where millennials gather to find meaning in our somewhat post-organized-religion culture, where they found six broad themes:  community, personal transformation, social transformation, purpose finding, creativity, and accountability.  While the focus was on millennials, I think what they found speaks to other generations as well.

One thing I found striking was that two of the ten organizations chosen as exemplars of this new way of building community were explicitly exercise-based.  It’s nice to know that I am not alone in thinking that changing bodies can change the world.

Here’s the thing:  I want to do it better.  Give me feedback!  How can I do more to foster community, personal and social transformation, purpose, creativity, and accountability with my work?  What do you wish I offered (besides weekend hours—a person needs a little balance!)?  Would you enjoy reading groups?  Community meals?  Service projects?  Meditation?  Classes?  What needs can I meet?

Art Walk Anyone?

Some of us just love running or lifting weights or swimming or dancing or whatever it is that we do for exercise.  The rest of us need a little extra motivation.  One technique that works for some folks is called Premacking (Premack is the guy who made up the term.  Modest fellow.).  Another term for it might be “bribery,” but of a specific kind.  Most of us would work out for cupcakes, but that might not exactly accomplish our goals.

Premacking involves tying something we enjoy, like getting coffee with a friend, to something we need to do, like walking.  We make a deal with ourselves that we can go for coffee as long as we walk there.  Other possible combinations might include podcasts and cardio machines, swimming and hot-tubbing, family time and ice skating.  The key is to piggyback what we need to do on something we want to do anyway without simply canceling out the gain with the reward.

Be creative!  And maybe go stroll down Christmas Tree Lane with a special someone!

Avoid the red ink...

Back in the day when I worked in office management and spent a lot of time with financial statements, I learned the basics of improving gross profit.  There are two choices, and both can be done at once:  reduce expenditure or increase revenue.  In fitness, gross profit is analogous to weight loss.  We can improve our weight loss through reducing the calories we take in and/or by increasing our activity level.

In business, the best way to know how things are going is to look at the reports.  When we track our calories and our activity, we are more likely to see the results on our bottom line.

This time of year has fitness challenges.  Treats are everywhere.  Parties!  Family gatherings!  Cold weather!  Steal a business tactic:  budget.  Plan for extra activity to offset the cookie.  Plan on limiting the cookies, so that extra activity actually fits in the available time.  Let’s get through the holidays with good physical responsibility.