Writing is my artistic expression. My keyboard is my brush. Words are my medium. My blog is my canvas. And committing to writing daily makes me feel like an artist.
Starting today I was going to write a 7-day series on 7 Virtues, like I did on the 7 Sins. I totally don’t feel like doing that right now. Also, I thought I was going to give myself a social media break… but I kinda want to stay connected now, so I’m not doing that either. What I am doing is leaving my phone behind on family walks… but I’m not going dark now when Social Distancing for Coronavirus is making feel disconnected enough.
So what now? I’m going to experiment with getting connected with people online and doing some video chats and podcasts. I might put out some quick videos. I’m going to share my #SDFitnessChallenge progress.
What I’m not going to do is lock myself into 7 days of writing on specific topics. And while I’ll put my phone away for parts of the day, I’m not locking myself away from digital connections. This is a time to experiment, do some new things, stay connected… and learn.
The time for regular routines will be back soon enough, for now I’ll keep things open, and try something new on a regular basis. Tonight, it will be handstand push-ups, inspired by Kelly Christopherson (@kellywchris).
If you’ve been letting ‘Social Distancing’ isolate you, it’s time for a change of plans… reach out to someone, reach out to me… connect, learn something new, get fitter… enjoy the time you never thought you would have. Be great.
Ok, here we go! I’m proposing that we all do our own 30 Day Social Distancing Fitness Challenge #SDfitnesschallenge
Social Distancing has taken away our gyms, but not our desire to be healthy and to make positive goals for ourselves. This was inspired by my buddy Ross Macdonald, whose goal is a 5 minute plank within 30 days. He started yesterday with 20 seconds. Thanks for the inspiration Ross! He was inspired by #PlankTheCurve – a literal interpretation of Canada’s Chief Medical Officer’s quote that we don’t just need to flatten the curve (of COVID-19 infections), we need to plank it!
Since I’ve been building my plank up for over a year, 5 minutes is already something I can do. I did one for a time lapse video yesterday before dinner.
So, rather than plank, my goal will be something I originally hoped to accomplish by last June but failed to do: My goal is to do an unsupported 30 second handstand. The actual goal was a full minute, but if I’m going to try to do this in just 30 days, I’ll be happy with 30 seconds.
What about you? What is a #SDFitnessChallenge that you would like to make for yourself?
Make it challenging and also attainable.
Share it publicly. Be it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or even a comment on this blog.
I’ve been meditating daily since January 5th, 2019, but yesterday I broke the streak. I’m aware from my use of an app that there might have been a few times I missed my meditation, but I count a meditation after midnight as being on the day before, because it’s still part of my day, and I’ve done that a few times in the past year. Yesterday was an unusually low day for me, and I completely forgot to meditate.
I woke up tired and went to join a friend for breakfast rather than starting my day with my regular routine. After a wonderful breakfast I came home and did nothing other than talk to my dad, eat lunch with my family, and sleep until dinner. I changed to go work out, but never made it. I wrote my Daily-Ink just before dinner sitting on the couch, and after dinner I flaked out on the same couch.
It’s the first Saturday (or any day) in a while that I’ve done so little. I give myself permission to have a low energy day. But I also need to get back to my routines. Yesterday was the first time ever that I didn’t earn a single sticker on my healthy living motivation chart. But as I shared in my year-end reflection of my healthy living goals:
The best time to start a new streak is RIGHT NOW.
Yesterday, I missed my meditation. I skipped my workout for the second day in a row (for the first time this year). And although I did my writing, I didn’t do my reading (audiobook), and this was missed for the first time this year. I also missed my time restricted eating window with my breakfast meeting, but I don’t usually try to do this on weekends anyway.
Today, after hitting publish on this post, I’m headed to meditate and work out, while listening to an audiobook. I might get a second workout and meditation in today as well. I’m not going to overdo it, but I might start my new streak with a bit of an exclamation point.
Permitting myself to have a day like yesterday doesn’t mean I have a new low point to measure myself against. It doesn’t have to give me permission to fall to this kind of low again anytime soon. It was simply a low day, and the inspiration to start a new, long streak. And that streak begins right now!
For about 5 weeks now, I’ve been recovering from a shoulder injury. It’s nothing too serious, and I think it was brought on by hours of shovelling snow then doing some wide-arm chin ups for my workout the next day… I put together two activities I seldom do, and I overdid it. I recently wrote about how my physiotherapist stopped weeks of pain in one session. I saw him a second time last week and he put me through a regimen of exercises that I’m to do over the next 3 weeks until I see him again. Although he was able to quickly stop the pain I was dealing with, he thinks that it will be another 6 weeks before I’m able to do everything that I could do before the injury.
This is the hard part of injury recovery. Progress is slow and nothing comes easily. But if I don’t put the time and effort in, I delay the recovery time. Day-to-day the results are not visible. Yesterday felt less strong than the day before, today will hopefully be different. When this is the experience, it doesn’t feel like I’m getting better. I have to put that aside, focus, and keep my regular routine up, including pushing myself to work my shoulder, while also not overdoing it.
We are often enamoured by the quick fix, the easy answer, fast and obvious results. But these quick rewards are not always available. Sometimes it’s the slow incremental changes that make us better, stronger, and more resilient. Sometimes we need to work through things slowly and properly in order to see the results we really want.
It doesn’t always seem glamorous, but the day to day grind of doing things well, with positive intention, and dedicationcan be the key to success. Sometimes it’s not about what we can do to quickly fix a problem, instead it’s about what we can do consistently over time that brings results. Staying positive and keeping the end goal in sight is important. This isn’t always easy to remember when the results we want come from incremental improvements.
My sister is visiting and she is a foodie. I can’t believe how much I’ve eaten this long weekend, and she is preparing pork chops for a late dinner tonight. I’m actually about to get on the treadmill before dinner… I need to burn some calories!
She also brought me 3 versions of a family pepper sauce that I love and I’ve already had a meal where I portioned Spanish rice into three sections to try each sauce. This made me think about how different people spice their meals. Growing up, I had a friend who added salt to everything he ate. He wouldn’t even taste the food before giving the salt and pepper shakers a shake over his plate. I do this with black pepper into any cream soup. And certain meals I add pepper sauce to without tasting it first. For example, pasta with a meat sauce always tastes better with some of our family recipe pepper sauce. I don’t need to taste first before adding spice.
How often do we do this, we add a spice before even tasting what we are about to eat? We layer on the sauce or the gravy, or we add salsa or cream cheese to a meal. We get accustomed to what we like and we spice things up out of habit. This time with my sister has made me appreciate what it means to enjoy food and eating, and to think a bit about how to spice up my diet. It has also made me question my portion sizes when I enjoy a meal. Spicing something up and enjoying it shouldn’t mean that I also consume much more… but this weekend I really overdid the volume of food consumed.
For over a week now, I’ve been dealing with a minor shoulder injury. I’m not sure how I got it, but I think shovelling snow and wide grip chin-ups were a bad combination, and I’ve pinched a nerve. Mentally it has been tough because I can’t help but think that this would have been an injury that would have lingered for 3 days if I were in my 20’s, but it has bugged me now for over a week. This “I’m no spring chicken anymore” attitude isn’t great, but I can’t help but think it when even trying to put my coat on makes me feel old.
However, in previous years, this injury would have brought my workouts to a standstill. I would have taken a break from my routine. Instead, I’m sticking to my Healthy Living Goals. In this 2019 year-end post, is a tip that I shared which I’m sticking to. This tip is to ‘reduce friction’, and a key point is:
Donāt exercise at your maximum every day. Some days I push really hard, and some days I go at 75%. A day when you are feeling low, give yourself an effort break, but donāt give yourself a break from actually doing exercise.
I haven’t been able to get on the treadmill because the bouncing causes my shoulder to ache, so I’m getting on the exercise bike.WhileI love mountain biking, I’ve never loved riding on a stationary bike, and so this isn’t my favourite thing to do. Still, today will be my 8th time on the bike in 9 days.I’m not winning any speed records, I am getting my heart rate up, and getting my minimum 20 minute cardio workout in.
I’ve also stopped weights and chin-ups, but I still stretch and work on my core. My workouts are a bit shorter, but they haven’t stopped.
The simple fact is that an injury like this used to become a major roadblock to my regular routine. It used to break the pattern and I’d stop working out. Instead, I’ve looked at this as a minor speed bump. Yes, it has slowed me down. No, I’m not improving my strength and conditioning. I am maintaining my healthy living routines and my streaks (another important tip from my year-end post).
I’m also trying to stay positive and stop myself from experiencing the “I’m getting old” self-pity party, but it’s easier for me to go through the positive physical motions than the mental ones… And on that note, it’s almost 5:30am, time to meditate and then get in that exercise bike. Remember, we are going to hit speed bumps on our healthy living journey, and while we need to listen to our body and slow down, we don’t need to stop.
My video follow-up that I filmed yesterday morning:
The 5 tips I shared:
1. A year-long calendar poster. You get to see at-a-glance how you are doing and you can motivate yourself to meet your goals at the end of the week if you are not on target.
2. The best time to start a new streak is RIGHT NOW. I mentioned this in the video, donāt wallow in disappointment. There are only 3 weeks (starred) in the chart below that show weeks that I didnāt get at least 4 workouts in. I didnāt let those weeks define me.
3. Reduce friction. Here are 3 examples:
My stickers and sticker chart are right next to my treadmill. I make it easy to track and see this.
I have a pair of runners and a shoe horn in my exercise room. I never have to look for my shoes, and I donāt need to tie them, the shoehorn allows me to slide my feet in while still being tight enough to run in. Also, my headphones, and all equipment are where I need themā¦ Always ready, and I never need to search for them.
Donāt exercise at your maximum every day. Some days I push really hard, and some days I go at 75%. A day when you are feeling low, give yourself an effort break, but donāt give yourself a break from actually doing exercise. If you end up doing 3 workouts at a lower effort, youāll have the drive to push when you feel up to it. Make the friction about how hard you work out, rather than if you are going to work out or not.
4. Share your goals with others. You are more likely to hold yourself accountable if you have made your goals public. Thatās partly why I did my original post in January, and promised in that post that I would do this update.
5. Be vigilant at your busiest times. It is really easy to say, āSeptember is too crazyā, or āIāll get started as soon as things calm down.ā There will always be an upcoming busy time to deal with. Things wonāt calm down (sorry, but you know this is true). If you want this to work, make it work when you are busiest and the rest of the year will be easy.
My year long calendar I used to track my goals:
Summary of the percentage of days that I achieved my goals:
Workouts: 63% (57% would have been an average of 4-days a week. I only did less than 4 days a week 3 times during the year.)
Time Restricted Eating: 48% (71% would have been the max, or 5/7 days a week).
Meditation: 100% (possible that I might have missed a maximum of 2 days).
Reading & Writing: 86%, 26 books (listened to), and 168 blog posts (mostly through a daily blog since mid-July).
My challenge to you:
Grab a 2020 calendar from Staples, Amazon, or where ever you shop for things like this, and get the new year off to a healthy start!
Yesterday the piano tuner came to our school for our pianoās yearly tuning. I asked him if he used a machine or if he tuned by ear?
āI use a tuning fork for the first note, then Iām good.ā
Later in the day I was in my core fitness class and I was doing an exercise where I was supposed to be activating my gluteus (my butt muscles), but I kept activating my quadriceps (front leg muscles). The Physio at the class asked me to show her how I sit down, and it turns out that I donāt know how to go from a standing to a sitting position properly.
A little background here, I have a bad lower back, and deal with discomfort or pain on a regular basis. For decades now Iāve been compensating for my lower back by using it less and using my legs more. While this protects my back for working too hard at a given moment, it also limits my range of motion and creates tightness in my upper legs and lower back that makes things worse.
The challenge, however is that after decades of misuse, I have no idea what the sensation is to use the correct muscles? Essentially, I canāt ātune inā to the feeling of what itās like to do the right motion versus doing the wrong motion. As Iām being coached and physically guided to use the correct muscles, and my Physio says either, āNo, you are still activating your quads,ā or, āThatās good, youāve got it,ā my internal reality feels no different. I canāt distinguish what Iām doing differently.
While the piano tuner has spent 40 years finely tuning his ear to be honed to the sounds needed for his trade, Iāve spent almost as long dealing with a bad back and tuning out certain muscles that I should be using to help me be more mobile and agile. He has become an expert at doing something very well, while Iāve become an expert at doing something very poorly, and I am now a novice at doing it correctly.
Like with most things, itās probably much easier to learn something correctly the first time, compared to unlearning and relearning it. But that process of correcting ourselves is seldom something we can do on our own. We canāt tune in if we donāt have that reference point, that tuning fork, that coach/mentor, or in my case physiotherapist. We often arenāt aware of how weāve tuned out, and we need outside help to help guide us to tune in.
Where do you need to tune in more? Who are you going to get to help you?
The four burner theory, as seen in this video shared below, suggests that we never actually live a balanced life, and if we do, we can never really be successful in any key areas of our lives: Family, Friends, Health, and Work.
The theory suggests that we have a limited amount of energy to distribute to these different burners, and so we need to decide where best to distribute that energy. The video also suggests that we might want to distribute that energy differently at different times in our lives.
I agree with this video in that I have seldom found balance in my life and I’ve often put one of the areas ahead of others, reducing those other areas in time commitment and overall satisfaction. However, this year I’ve also realized something else… we don’t need to accept that the limited amount of energy we have is completely fixed.
Since the start of this year, I have instituted a self-care program that has really changed my ability to give more to all 4 burners, so by giving time to a 5th burner of self-care, I have more to offer. This vlog shared my healthy living goals for 2019.
Does this mean that I’ve suddenly found balance in my life. Absolutely not! I agree with the idea that balance is not fully achievable if we want to excel in different areas of our lives. But I don’t agree that our fuel, our energy levels are fixed. I think we all know this too. Every one of us have had times when we’ve felt down, and low in energy, when trying to be successful in one area means we have nothing left for the other areas of our lives. We’ve also had times when we’ve had high energy levels and things are going great in more than one area of our lives. The question is, are these differences ones that happen to us, or do these differences happen because we create them? This year, I’ve been able to give more of myself in more areas of my life.
By taking the time to listen to audio books, and to write; by exercising more consistently than I have in over 15 years; by reducing my unhealthy snacking; and, by meditating daily for almost 10 months now, I have felt more energized, more level-headed, and more productive in other areas of my life. That said, I’m the first to admit I don’t have everything under control, I’m not perfect, and in fact I’m still my own biggest critic. The start of this calendar year was so crazy at work, I had days I just wanted to run away and move to a remote island. There were weeks where my only communication with my wife were logistical. There were days where 20 minutes on the treadmill started with 40 minutes of procrastination. But as I approach the end of September, the craziest time in the school year, I feel more on top of things than I did a year ago. I’m enjoying my family time more. I’m seeing leaps of improvement in my strength and conditioning. And I’m doing things like this daily post on a Saturday morning, while my family is still sleeping. Sunday morning, when this post goes live, I’ll be having breakfast with a friend.
The reality is that we may never have balance, but if make taking care of ourselves a priority, we have more fuel to add to the other burners in our lives.
I’ve always said that the sport which correlates best with success in school is swimming. I think that when a kid regularly wakes up early and is on a pool deck at 5:30 or 6am, has to look at a board and see a tough workout that will take an hour to do, that builds a mental toughness that most other sports don’t provide.
I’m not saying a football or gymnastics workout can’t be equally as tough, but I am saying that no other sport routinely creates such a tough mental frame for a workout.
You arrive at swim practice and the workout is on the board. You know your warm up, your workout, your cool down. You know it will take an hour. You know it will be hard. You know that you can’t rely on others for anything other than to push you to work even harder. Now get in the pool.
After years of that, pushing yourself through the hoops that schools create are fairly simple. You understand hard work, you understand putting your head down and muscling through what needs to be done.
Forget for a moment that school isn’t just about that, and think about how valuable a skill that is. How useful it will be in the future?
Where in our lives do we train our bodies or our minds to push through and do something hard, for the payoff later? Because ‘work smarter, not harder’ is a wonderful quote, but it doesn’t build grit and perseverance. We don’t become mentally tough through short cuts. Diets don’t work without discipline. Strength doesn’t come without resistance. Effort can’t be sustained without practice. Patience isn’t built without delay of gratification.
Sometime hard work is the reward.
We love the rewards of our hardships but curse the hardships themselves. ~ Seneca
