We can do it

Sometimes we forget.  Life gets busy and we spend our time zooming from one thing to another and we lose track.

We are strong.  We are powerful.  We can change the world.

Let’s remember that today as we work through what is in front of us.

Note to self

Almost everything out there about weight loss suggests that keeping a food journal helps.  Recommendations sometimes include writing down not only what was eaten, but how much, when, and in what emotional state.  There are many theories about why this works.

Of course, keeping data allows tracking.  If we don’t know what we are eating, how can we adjust?  The act of writing down each bite also creates mindfulness.  We may not want to record for posterity that midnight cookie, so we might skip it.  Patterns can emerge:  we overeat at those Sunday brunches with Grandma and on Mondays after that stressful staff meeting; we eat no vegetables on Thursdays because we do the shopping on Fridays and we are already out by Thursday.

Yes, writing down all the foods is a pain in the patella (as my son used to say when he was little).  Some people find the millions of software programs out there helpful.  Others like fancy notebooks.  All I can manage is a series of daily post-it notes.  I won’t do it if it is complicated.  As usual, the take-away is do what works.

Friday Exercise: Upright Row

The Amazing Stickie enjoys working the muscles of her back and arms to keep her posture lovely.  The upright row helps with this goal.

Today, Stickie is using a barbell, but dumbbells also work for this exercise.  She begins holding the bar with an overhand grip with her arms straight at her sides.  As she inhales, she makes sure that her body is aligned in good posture.  When she exhales, she lifts the barbell up toward her shoulders by bending her elbows.  The next inhale returns her to the starting position.

Depending on the weight she is using, she will do about three sets of 10 to 15 repetitions.

Thursday Book Report: Sweetness and Power

Sidney W. Mintz’s book Sweetness and Power: the Place of Sugar in Modern History is not, at first glance, anything to do with fitness.  That said, I can find fitness principles almost everywhere and it is easier than usual in a book about the evolution of our society around a food.

Anyone with interest in history, anthropology, or food can find something fascinating in the book.  There are questions of social justice inherent in the historical consumption of sugar and other “drug foods”—tea, coffee, chocolate, and rum as well as in our current consumption.

The book traces how the convenience and cheapness of sugar transformed meals by emphasizing convenience and quick calories.  The stimulant properties of sugar, especially combined with tea and/or coffee, kept the emerging proletarians working.  The once-exclusive luxury became the opiate of the people, so to speak.

It does not take a lot of imagination to apply the history of sugar to all the other convenient, mass-produced foods that surround us.  The place of sugar in our diets exists because of concerted effort to make it so.  We have the opportunity to question whether we want all those processed foods, to subvert the dominant paradigm, to return to fresh whole foods and the process of cooking, to create social meaning through eating together.

If we are what we eat, perhaps we should choose wisely and with the perspective of history.

Easy Peasy

We all know we are supposed to exercise, but what the heck are we supposed to do?  We can go look at what other people at the gym are doing, we can ask the internet, we can replicate those hazy memories from back when we were on the football team.  Ideas are all around us.  Some of them are better than others, but it isn’t that hard.

We all need three kinds of exercise:  cardio, weights, and flexibility.  Cardio works the heart and lungs, improves mood, burns calories, and increases endurance.  Walk, run, bike, dance, swim, roller skate, etc.

Weights make us stronger.  They change our body composition, fire up our metabolism, empower us, and make our butts look cute.  Lift stuff.  Maybe even yourself!

Flexibility keeps us mobile.  It may help prevent injury.  It also, many times, ties in with mindfulness practice.  Stretch.  Go to yoga.  Do some Pilates.  Spend a few minutes on the foam roller.

Go play.

I love you three sets of twenty

A lot of the rhetoric around exercise is about suffering and compulsion.  No pain, no gain.  Trainers are drill sergeants, torturers, dominatrixes, punishers.  Gym time is penance for the sins of the table.

Nope.

At base, exercise is about love.  It is about life and wanting to be around for it.  It’s about growth and victory and power.  We exercise because we matter.  That special thing that we are, that crazy, wonderful human who wants to climb trees or solve world hunger or balance the checkbook just once is worth preserving and cherishing.  That is why we run and lift and sweat and stretch.

Love yourself today and maybe take a walk.

Just Right

News flash:  we are all different.  What this means is that it is difficult to say how much exercise we each need.  Our government suggests we get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days a week.  That is not a bad place to start, but most of us could use more.

This does not mean that we should spend more time at the gym than, say, sleeping.  People who are not into endurance sports, who are not professional athletes, who hold actual jobs don’t need to spend hours and hours a day working out.  Do some cardio.  Lift some weights.  Stretch.  Find the amount of exercise (more than zero!) that makes you feel best.