Tag Archives: health

30 Day Social Distancing Fitness Challenge #SDFitnessChallenge

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!

(#PlankTheCurve Source)

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?

  1. Make it challenging and also attainable.
  2. Share it publicly. Be it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or even a comment on this blog.
  3. Add a hashtag: #SDFitnessChallenge

Whose in with Ross and I?

Rest and relaxation

It has been a week of being on hyper alert. The Coronavirus, Covid-19, has spread globally, and the news virus has been equally as aggressive. I haven’t payed this much attention to the news in over a decade. So with this being day 1 of my 2-week March break, I gave myself a short time limit to read the news this morning and now I’m going into rest and relaxation mode.

I’m going to stop listening to my current audio book and pick a good fiction to listen to. I’m going to enjoy a walk with my family. I’m going to binge a bit on Netflix. I’m going to take an afternoon nap.

Tomorrow I’ll check in on the world again.

It’s about saving lives

Chances are that you will know someone who contracts Covid-19. If you are unlucky, you will know someone that this Coronavirus kills. That’s already the case for me. My dad’s cousin, my second cousin, was just a year older than me. She went on holiday from England to Bali, arrived without symptoms, and was diagnosed 4 days later. Six days after that she passed away. She had some significant health conditions which contributed to the affects of the virus. There are many people who do.

You probably keep hearing that we need to “flatten the curve”, what this really means is that we need to save lives.

Here is an excellent, detailed article that goes over the numbers. The reality is that no country will escape the effects of this virus, but some will have significantly higher or lower mortality rates… and we can all do our part to decrease that number by helping slow the virus down. We can’t increase the capacity of our hospitals in a significant way. We can help them not reach that capacity in an overwhelming way.

In this article by NPR, Drew Harris, the population health researcher at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia who created the widely shared graphic below, compares the concern about overburdening our hospitals to rush hour on a subway. We need to get everyone on the subway trains/in our hospitals when they need to be there. However, missing a train is different than not getting a respirator when you need one. Italian doctors are already doing wartime-like triage in hospitals, deciding who lives or dies because there isn’t enough equipment to save everyone.

Do your part to flatten the curve and you will be doing your part to save lives!

*UPDATE – These simulations show how to flatten the coronavirus growth curve – From the Washington Post

Spicing it up

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.

I think I need to spice up my workout too!

Adapt, Adjust, and Amplify

“Lose 25 pounds in a month.”

“Earn $1,000 a day.”

“Look 10 years younger.”

“Discover your potential.”

“Live the life of your dreams.”

“Anything is possible…”

…But none of it is attainable for the vast majority of people. The plans are made to look simple, but the goals are lofty, and the path to success is anything but easy. How many of us are excessively rich, looking and feeling healthier and younger than we are, and living our ideal dream life? We aren’t going to get all these things from some motivational speaker or some club membership or program. As Derek Sivers says,

“If [more] information was the answer, then we’d all be billionaires with perfect abs.”

It’s amazing how easy it can sound, but real, incremental, and meaningful change often takes two things:

  • Consistent effort.
  • More time than you think.

I’ve written about my healthy living goals, and the shoulder injury that I’m recovering from. In the past, an ice-pick-like stabbing pain in my shoulder would have been enough to derail my entire workout schedule. I would have stopped everything and gone into lazy mode.

Instead, my treadmill run, which bounced my shoulder too much, became a stationary bike ride; my weights set became a core strength set. My other routines remained as well. I think this happened because I am not on some crazy, unrealistic path to health goals I’ll never achieve. I’m on a slow, attainable path, that I want to maintain.

Here is the path that worked for me:

Adapt, Adjust, and Amplify.

It wasn’t easy at first, and it was not going to happen overnight. There wasn’t a romantic appeal, it wasn’t sexy or overly inspiring. It took patience. And unlike the fads and crazes, it lead to significant change over time.

1. Adapt – The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. If at first you don’t succeed, try something different. I made changes that were realistic and sustainable. Twenty minutes of cardio – totally doable to fit into my schedule. Before, I’d incrementally move that up to close to an hour. Now, I can put in over an hour on the basketball court, running hard, even though I haven’t done more than a 25 min. hard cardio workout in over a year. I won’t win any marathons, but I’m not dumb enough to ask my body to try. I adapted a workout schedule that optimizes my fitness in a minimal amount of time.

2. Adjust – My schedule had to adjust when I started writing this daily blog before my morning workouts. I kept running out of time. Now I’m writing this at 10pm, in bed on Sunday, rather than early tomorrow morning. I write longer posts on weekends, when inspired, and keep them short, with limited writing time on weekdays. I’ve adjusted a few things along the way, each time I do so, it’s to reduce friction and to make maintaining my wellness regimen easier. A great example of an adaptation is that when I felt I was stagnating a bit on my runs, I started doing some interval training. I increased my speed for minute or minute-and-a-half intervals, and I watched my top speed increase. When I got to a good speed, one that I used to run when I was in my 30’s, I made that my new maximum for my hard days… I adjusted again, rather than pushing myself to some unreasonable goals.

3. Amplify – When things are working, I highlight them. I’m public with them on my blog, and with family and friends. This isn’t bragging, it’s holding myself accountable. When I see results from interval training, I push myself to do this more often. When I got injured, I focussed on my daily calendar, and the things I could do, rather than the things I couldn’t. By amplifying the small successes, and the commitment I made to myself, I’ve created a positive feedback loop that inspires me to keep going.

As catchy as Adapt, Adjust, and Amplify may sound, it’s the other two tips that really make this work:

  • Consistent effort.
  • More time than you think.

Keep going, knowing that long term goals are more sustainable than flashy weight loss or instant muscles. Low motivation or injuries will happen, they don’t need to break the pattern of consistency, they will just slow down the intensity, and the timelines to the goals that were created.

There are times to aspire to be great, and to put everything you have into success and achievement. And, there are times to focus on self care… Times to realize that mentally and physically, we need to be consistent, show up, and maintain as well as tweak, the patterns and behaviours that make us incrementally better over time. It’s not fast, it’s not glamorous, it is achievable and rewarding, as long as you are dedicated and show patience.

The voodoo of being skilled

I’ve been dealing with a pain in my left shoulder that starts in my bicep and spikes into my shoulder when I move it the wrong way. Unfortunately ‘the wrong way’ meant about 80% of anything I wanted to do. Awaiting my physiotherapy appointment has been debilitating as I’m not able to do the simplest of things without feeling like someone is poking my arm with an ice pick.

As serendipity would have it, on Wednesday I had to cancel Thursday’s appointment with my Physio due to a work appointment that I couldn’t switch, but that very morning a friend came by and recommended a Physio that he goes too, and he told me to look him up on my web browser. So, the moment I canceled my schedule-conflicted appointment, I went online and saw that this new Physio had a time slot just after my conflict time and just before my dinner meeting.

This new Physio asked me a lot of questions about my lifestyle and goals for recovery and put me through a series of mobility tests, moving my arm in different directions, sometimes with resistance. Then he told me, ‘it’s one of 3 muscles’ and started me on an exercise regimen, after three of these, he said, “It’s down to one of two muscles, but they both do the same thing, and the treatment is the same.”

He then had me squeeze my fist as tight as I could and punch above my head 10 times slowly. After that he had me move my arm in directions that minutes before would have sent a spike of pain through my arm, but now there was just mild discomfort. He then ran me through 2 specific exercises that will not just help me heal, but will also strengthen the muscle. And he told me to use the punching-the-air-above-my-head move twice a day, and again if I felt any twinge if pain,

“Think of this as pain relief exercise instead of pain relief meditation. I know it looks weird, so you might want to find somewhere private to do it.”

I told him my secretaries were used to weird, and maybe I’d even play some disco music while I punched the air above my head ten times, just to see their reaction. 🤣

The process left me feeling like I had just visited a voodoo doctor. I was expecting 2-3 weeks of progressively less pain, if I was lucky. Instead, I walked out with instant relief and an exercise rather than pill-based pain reliever. It’s amazing not just to watch, but also to experience the skill of a knowledgeable practitioner. This reminds me of a favourite story that I often share:

“There is an old story of a boilermaker who was hired to fix a huge steamship boiler system that was not working well.

After listening to the engineer’s description of the problems and asking a few questions, he went to the boiler room. He looked at the maze of twisting pipes, listened to the thump of the boiler and the hiss of the escaping steam for a few minutes, and felt some pipes with his hands. Then he hummed softly to himself, reached into his overalls and took out a small hammer, and tapped a bright red valve three times. Immediately, the entire system began working perfectly, and the boilermaker went home.

When the steamship owner received a bill for four hundred dollars, he became outraged and complained that the boilermaker had only been in the engine room for fifteen minutes and requested an itemized bill. So the boilermaker sent him a bill that reads as follows:

For tapping the valve, $.50 x 3: $1.50
For knowing where to tap: $398.50
TOTAL: $400.00”

How important is it?

How important is your health to you right now? It becomes more important when you feel an ailment.

How important is money to you right now? It becomes more important if you are struggling financially?

How important are your friends to you right now? They become more important when you are in need of one.

There are so many things that we don’t readily recognize as important until there is a deficit pointing out our concern. Food, shelter, affection, love… all things we value/desire/need, and all are taken for granted except for when we notice their absence.

It’s good to be thankful when we have these things. To recognize what’s important to us when we are fortunate. To remind ourselves that we are lucky, appreciating what we have rather than only paying attention when there is a shortage.

How important is it to appreciate the positive people and circumstances that surround you, when things are going in your favour?

And how important is it to be charitable to those who are less fortunate?

Speed bumps are not road block

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:

Don’t 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 don’t 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. While I 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.

Sugar Monsters

“Listen to your gut.”

We use phrases like this all the time. But it looks like we might actually be listening a lot more than we realize. Research suggests the bacteria within our gut biome actually influence our thinking. This takes the phrase ‘you are what you eat’ to a whole new level!

What we eat determines the makeup of our gut biome, and our gut biome sends messages to our brain. Our brains literally get craving messages from our gut, and just like a drug addiction, these signals can control our behaviour. One food that acts a lot like addictive drugs do is sugar.

I’m going to issue a challenge. I want you to go into your pantry and choose any 10 items that you enjoy eating. Include condiments, cereal, sauces, treats, and even a few things you consider healthy. Now look for the Sugar in the ingredients. How many of these items have sugar as one of the first four ingredients?

In case you didn’t know, ingredients on labels are ordered from largest to smallest amounts, so if sugar is one of the top 4 ingredients, that likely means there is a considerable amount of sugar in the product. Some labels will also have Nutritional Facts that show how many grams of sugar are in a single serving. And that single serving is likely smaller than what you serve yourself.

It’s almost impossible to avoid large doses of sugar in your diet. It takes effort. With high levels of sugar in so many things, if you aren’t intentionally thinking about it, you are literally creating sugar-hungry, mind-controlling monsters in your gut.

The next time you get a food craving, is it really your mind doing the craving or is it the bacteria in your gut taking control of you?

Vaping epidemic

It’s sad to me to know that nicotine use in teens has been going down for years, but with the growth of use of e-cigarettes and vaping, that statistic is now going up. And if it isn’t bad enough that vaping is increasing nicotine use, these little machines are heating up oils and vaporizing them into droplets that are inhaled into the lungs.

“Federal authorities consider the ingredients safe to consume as food. But our lungs are only equipped to inhale clean air.” Vaping heats up oils but “Our lungs are never meant to have fat in it.” This is “a chemical insult to the lungs,” according to What are vaping-associated illnesses and why are doctors concerned? – CBC News

Here is some interesting information, in infographic form, from The National Institute on Drug Abuse: Teens and E-cigarettes

The last time I went to the movie theatre there were two ads for vaping, one for a vaping product, the other to promote vaping marijuana. The legalization of marijuana has probably created a spike in teen use here as well. A few days ago, I read an interesting article on the teenage brain, and this was the section on smoking and pot smoking:

“Other studies have linked smoking in teens to alcohol abuse, which itself has a devastating effect on both memory and intelligence. And it turns out smoking pot may be far worse for the teen brain than previously thought. Recent studies have linked regular marijuana use in adolescence to smaller brain volume and more damage to white matter. Smoking daily before the age of 17 has been shown to reduce verbal IQ and increase the risk of depression.“

I think that things will get worse before they get better. More than ever, advertising deploys strategies of influence that we didn’t even understand a decade ago. And while advertising for cigarettes is banned, that’s not the case for vapes and now marijuana. Vaping flavours like cotton candy and cherry entice young kids to get used to vaping. Peer pressure doesn’t help. Add to that the fact that vapes are designed to be easily concealed, made to look more like USB drives rather than cigarettes, and you have the makings of a major problem.

Teen vaping is on the rise… so are the negative effects of inhaling oil droplets, nicotine, and marijuana into the young, developing lungs, brains, and bodies of our youth.