Hungry, or...?

While there are other factors that complicate things, in general, there are two ways to address weight loss:  eat less and move more.  Weight loss occurs at a healthy rate when we average a calorie intake about 500 calories fewer than we expend.  For example, if a person eats 2500 calories per day and uses 3000 due to normal activity and exercise, that person would expect to lose about a pound each week.

Eating less sounds simple enough.  Yeah, right.  Food is not just fuel, but a powerful emotional and cultural signifier—this is why we believe in things like “comfort food.”  There are times when we eat not because we are hungry, but because we think we are hungry.  Here are a few questions we can ask before we choose whether or not to eat the cookies.

• Am I hungry, or am I thirsty?  Sometimes what we actually need is more water.

• Am I hungry, or am I bored?  Maybe we could use a change of scenery, at least for a few minutes.

• Am I hungry, or am I lonely?  Call, text, email, chat, send smoke signals to a friend.  Bonus points for physical contact with another human being.

• Am I hungry, or am I sad?  We can take ourselves for a walk instead to get the benefits of cardio plus the ones from going outside.

Maybe we are hungry.  Maybe it is the right choice to eat the cookies or the celery or the spoonful of almond butter.  If not, let’s choose what actually helps the issue at hand.

Monday Workout: Choice!

This week involves choices!  If you are looking for more cardio and tolerate higher impact well, choose the plyojacks, jump squats, and jump lunges.  If you need to be kind to your knees, opt for modified jacks and regular squats and lunges.  As always, modify the workout to meet YOUR needs, choosing weights that are appropriate for you and your goals.  If you are sweaty and tired at the end, you have done a Good Thing.  Three rounds.

plyojacks/jacks/mod jacks	30
flies	20
pushups	10
(jump) squats	30
bent over rows	20
skullcrushers	10
(jump) lunges	30
curls	20
Russian twist	10

Curiouser

My blog-related reading is taking a back seat to finishing my other reading goals for the year, so no book this week.  Instead, I’m thinking about the connection between curiosity and movement.

I have two tendencies (at least!) that make me want to explore this.  One is that I am almost always in a rush.  Faster is almost always better, in my idiom, in the Monty Python sense of the word.  The other is that I’m almost always self-critical.  Clearly, I am doing it wrong, whatever it is.

But I have managed to notice something.  When I am compelled to slow down, as in yoga or Pilates, the constant criticism doesn’t help.  I’m not saying I’m not bad at lots of things in yoga and Pilates.  I am.  But when I approach whatever movement or balance or pose or exercise it is with a sense of curiosity rather than censure, I learn stuff.  What exactly is happening when I fall out of my own personal Tree (pose)?  How is one side different from the other?  What happens if I shift my hip or ankle or knee?  What if I think about baseball instead?  Some of those things help.  Some not so much, but even laughing is an improvement over the constant I-suck-at-this message.

Maybe everyone else is not like me.  But maybe some people are and could use a change from high-speed negativity.  Maybe we can learn.