Friday Book Report: Full Catastrophe Living

So usually I finish reading the book before writing the book report.  Having been away and having to get things back together from being away, I am a little behind and should have chosen a shorter book.  I am about halfway through Jon Kabat-Zinn’s book, Full Catastrophe Living:  Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness.  It is awesome.

I chose to read it because it kept coming up as a major resource for mindfulness in all the other stuff I have been reading.  The book outlines Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MSBR), which is used in hospitals and medical centers.  It is both practical and inspirational, laying out the tools and the evidence for mindfulness as a way of life.  I am looking forward to reading the rest.

One caveat:  the book references a companion CD program of guided meditations.  While the book can be used without the CDs, I personally wish that I had bought both at the same time instead of waiting (somewhat impatiently now) for the CDs to arrive.  Once they do, I will be embarking on the eight week program.  Anyone want to join me?

Drip drip drop...

Let’s talk about sweat.  Our culture doesn’t really like it much.  We have products to help us reduce its smell.  We have products to reduce its very presence!  We all try to appear calm, cool, and collected.  We have saying about how we do not sweat; we glisten or glow.

I’m not going to go into the physiological purpose of sweat.  It exists.  I am more interested in sweat as a marker for our brains.  Sweat is a good indicator that we are working hard enough at our workouts.

If we can float through our workouts and come out the other end without needing to wipe our brows, we are not going to make a lot of progress.  Ideally, we work out hard enough that a shower is not only a pleasure but a public service.  Let’s get drippy.

Garbage out...

Many times when I set goals, I find that I keep adding things.  I am encouraged to do this by the zeitgeist:  in just minutes a day I can become thin, flexible, smart, sexy, and have perfect eyebrows!  My house can be pristine, my children creative, and my meals organic, free-range delicious.

Maybe so.  That kind of thinking has its place.  But I would like to suggest a slightly different idea.  As I looked over what I wanted to accomplish on my list of goals the last few times around, one way to summarize all of them was:  Keep Taking Out the Garbage.

Things might be different at other people’s houses, but in our house, things make it to the wastebaskets really well and then nothing happens.  One more can can cram into the recycling, right?  I’m kind of in a rush… I can empty the bathroom trash later.  And then things overflow and I get cranky and it is just totally unpleasant.

Taking out the garbage makes space.  It makes a pleasant environment.  It builds community, smells better, and improves morale.  And that is just in the literal sense. 

In the metaphorical sense, we can take the garbage out of our eating habits.  We can drop the waste out of our schedules.  We can remove the ideas that hold us back out of our minds, leaving us with a nice clean basis for what we really want to spend our time and energy on.

Take out the garbage and find the treasure.

Start again...

I’ve had some setbacks recently, physical and personal.  Sometimes things get tough.  I had to miss some workouts, modify others, and even flaked on some.  I didn’t always make the right food choices.  That is just what happened.  Now is the time to start again, to assume what Buddhists call Beginner’s Mind.  In case you find yourself in a similar situation (thank you, Arlo), I offer some thoughts about what to do and how to shape this new start.

What to do:  Just get started.  At breakfast, choose the food that will truly nourish your body without overloading it.  Go to the gym and lift one thing and then maybe another.  Go outside and walk a block, or pedal around the block, or go up and down the front steps a few times.  Go easy, go small, but go.

How to go:  On purpose.  Treat yourself with the hard love you would extend to a child or a best friend.  In the same way that you would make sure that your dear one brushed his or her teeth for his or her own good, get yourself to eat and move like you should.  Be loving, but be firm.  And then tell yourself you did a good job.

Monday Workout

Welcome to September, my personal new year.  After all those years of school, I am surprised that any of us manage to think of January as the start of things when things clearly begin in September with fresh notebooks, sharpened pencils, and unmarked PeeChee folders.

This new year, I am shaking up the blog format just a little.  The jokes will not improve, since I am still writing it, but oh well.  I’ll get the week started off by posting the weekly workout on Mondays (yes, lovely clients, this means that you will know in advance more or less what is on the schedule for you!!!).  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday posts will include the usual stuff and the weekly book report will move to Friday. 

All of this means that, since it is Monday, it is time to post a workout!  As many of you know, I am very fond of the 30-20-10 format for workouts.  There are three sets of three exercises.  We will complete 30 repetitions of the first exercise in each set, 20 of the second, and 10 of the third.  Between sets, we will pause to rest and have some water.  We will go through the entire cycle of sets three times.  Some exercises can be done with body weight, others you can use dumbbells or barbells or medicine balls to add resistence.  Experiment!  Ready?  Here’s the list:

Step ups:  30

Squats:  20

Curls:  10

Woodchoppers:  30

Rows:  20

Pushups:  10

Mountain climbers:  30

Overhead press:  20

Lunges:  10

Repeat entire cycle 3 times!

Friday Exercise: Diane Plank

The Amazing Stickie loves learning new exercises.  She was overjoyed when one of my clients suggested this one, which is now called the Diane plank in her honor.  (Diane, however, may never suggest another exercise…)

The starting position is the basic plank position, but in arm’s distance from a wall.  Basic plank position is:  hands on the ground, inner elbows facing each other, humeral heads centered in the sockets, head in line with the spine, spine a long, straight line from head to heels, legs straight, toes on the ground, abdominals lifted.  In other words, Stickie sets up for a push-up. 

From this starting position, Stickie raises one arm to the wall.  Then she raises the other arm to the wall.  The first hand returns to the floor and then the second.  A perfectly acceptable variation of this exercise is to raise one arm to the wall and lower it back to the floor, repeating on the other side.  Stickie understands that sometimes we have to work up to things.

Ten repetitions is usually more than enough.

Thursday Book Report: The Emotional Life of Your Brain

The Emotional Life of Your Brain by Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D. with Sharon Begley analyzes emotional styles by way of brain function.  It is a more anatomical and strictly scientific approach to how our emotions work and how they come together to create something like a personality or temperament.

The applicability to fitness lies in the plasticity of the brain.  Mindfulness, which is an essential fitness skill, plays a key role in our ability to shape our emotional experience.

The extremely short version of the book goes something like this:  meditate and life will get better because it changes your brain.