I'm working on a long post. Check this out for now:
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Control Your Environment
Do you ever have this problem? There's one little corner of the office that has the candy and cookies and pie and every time you walk by those areas, you get hungry.
Or, you're at home, watching TV, and you look down, and you've eaten the entire bag again.
When you have control over your environment, it's easier to stop yourself from screwing up. I know this isn't exactly ground-breaking stuff, but like I say over and over again, the most basic principles, applied diligently and regularly, are all you typically need. Does it help to know the biochemistry of the human body? Without a doubt, but it helps more to eat less of whatever you're eating.
All of this is reminding me a bit of--What's his name? Mike Magnusson. He wrote a book about losing weight and finding himself--Heft on Wheels: A Field Guide to Doing a 180
". The first half of the book, that's what I'm identifying with.
Anyway, old Mike starts punishing himself on his bike, and doing crunches and stuff, and he's drinking espresso and protein shakes, and not much else. Really, it seems like a pretty extreme version of the Velocity Diet. Really, though, whatever he had to do, he was willing to do. I think that's the point you have to reach.
I don't mean that to be discouraging--the key here is to put the dumb part of your brain in touch with the smart part of your brain (this is the way that Merlin Mann talks about lifehacks). The lifehack in this situation is to not have the bad food in your house.
If you want to know why this is so important, take a minute to listen to Radiolab's Choice episode. Go ahead, it's worth it. For those of you who want the summary, just check this out. You hear what happens when you get distracted by some cognitive task, just a little? You take the cake.
Now think of your average work day. How much stress is there? How many times does bad food show up, all on its' own? This is why, I think, people gain weight when they stop smoking: they're so consumed with stopping themselves from smoking that they can't control their drives to eat.
So the smart part of your brain says, "Don't eat cake," and the dumb part of your brain says "cake". In a head-to-head matchup, who wins? The dumb part. The dumb part is big, strong, and willful.
But the solution is simple--the good news about the smart part of your brain is that it's smart. If the smart part of your brain can engineer situations where there is no cake to be had, then it wins by default. The dumb part of your brain never knows what it's missing, because it is only triggered by being near the stuff you crave. That's why TV is such a bitch if you want to lose weight.
In addition to making you less active, the TV actually makes you eat more. Why? How long can you go without seeing an ad for food if you watch TV? 8 minutes? Maybe?
The point of all this is to say: Control your environment, don't let your environment control you.
Don't bring the crap into your house. The best way to do this is to make a list of the food that is on your diet, hopefully whole and fresh, and go shopping for it after you've eaten.
At the office or workplace, don't go to where the crap is. And you know what the crap is: sugary, cakey, floury: crap. Anything made with corn, oil, or corn oil.
Cancel your cable. I don't think you should get rid of your TV, but maybe cancelling your cable isn't so bad. I like for this very reason: no ads, and you get to watch exactly the shows you want, in sequence. At the very least, using a TiVo or something to skip the ads would be part of the game plan to keep the temptation at arm's length.
By controlling your environment, you control temptation. If you can control temptation, you can control your diet. If you control your diet, you control your weight--and that's the whole point.
Or, you're at home, watching TV, and you look down, and you've eaten the entire bag again.
When you have control over your environment, it's easier to stop yourself from screwing up. I know this isn't exactly ground-breaking stuff, but like I say over and over again, the most basic principles, applied diligently and regularly, are all you typically need. Does it help to know the biochemistry of the human body? Without a doubt, but it helps more to eat less of whatever you're eating.
All of this is reminding me a bit of--What's his name? Mike Magnusson. He wrote a book about losing weight and finding himself--Heft on Wheels: A Field Guide to Doing a 180
". The first half of the book, that's what I'm identifying with. Anyway, old Mike starts punishing himself on his bike, and doing crunches and stuff, and he's drinking espresso and protein shakes, and not much else. Really, it seems like a pretty extreme version of the Velocity Diet. Really, though, whatever he had to do, he was willing to do. I think that's the point you have to reach.
I don't mean that to be discouraging--the key here is to put the dumb part of your brain in touch with the smart part of your brain (this is the way that Merlin Mann talks about lifehacks). The lifehack in this situation is to not have the bad food in your house.
If you want to know why this is so important, take a minute to listen to Radiolab's Choice episode. Go ahead, it's worth it. For those of you who want the summary, just check this out. You hear what happens when you get distracted by some cognitive task, just a little? You take the cake.
Now think of your average work day. How much stress is there? How many times does bad food show up, all on its' own? This is why, I think, people gain weight when they stop smoking: they're so consumed with stopping themselves from smoking that they can't control their drives to eat.
So the smart part of your brain says, "Don't eat cake," and the dumb part of your brain says "cake". In a head-to-head matchup, who wins? The dumb part. The dumb part is big, strong, and willful.
But the solution is simple--the good news about the smart part of your brain is that it's smart. If the smart part of your brain can engineer situations where there is no cake to be had, then it wins by default. The dumb part of your brain never knows what it's missing, because it is only triggered by being near the stuff you crave. That's why TV is such a bitch if you want to lose weight.
In addition to making you less active, the TV actually makes you eat more. Why? How long can you go without seeing an ad for food if you watch TV? 8 minutes? Maybe?
The point of all this is to say: Control your environment, don't let your environment control you.
Don't bring the crap into your house. The best way to do this is to make a list of the food that is on your diet, hopefully whole and fresh, and go shopping for it after you've eaten.
At the office or workplace, don't go to where the crap is. And you know what the crap is: sugary, cakey, floury: crap. Anything made with corn, oil, or corn oil.
Cancel your cable. I don't think you should get rid of your TV, but maybe cancelling your cable isn't so bad. I like for this very reason: no ads, and you get to watch exactly the shows you want, in sequence. At the very least, using a TiVo or something to skip the ads would be part of the game plan to keep the temptation at arm's length.
By controlling your environment, you control temptation. If you can control temptation, you can control your diet. If you control your diet, you control your weight--and that's the whole point.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Planning meals ahead of time
I'm going out to eat tonight, because I'm not going to have enough time between work and This American Life's live show tonight. So, it's time to drop some science about how to plan meals on the go.
Bring your own
This is usually both the cheapest option and the least practical. If you're into bodybuilding or fitness, you've probably seen the cooler people. Those people who pack like 16 tupperware containers for their eight meals a day? Yeah, that doesn't work for me. But, at the very least, this is an option. To be fair, I usually brown-bag my lunch this way, pre-measured and ready to go.
Nutrition Calculators/Information
The web has made things a lot easier. I'm going to Chipotle tonight, and I was able to use Chipotle Fan's nutrition calculator to plan my meal in advance. Basically, what this gives you is the opportunity to fine-tune your meal. I also like the fact that, because of the way Chipotle serves their food, it's easy to say "this, not that" without raising eyebrows or ruffling feathers. So, you can plan ahead, or you can freestyle and figure out what you ate on the back end. If you're really trying to lose fat and not in a maintenance phase, I caution you against freestyling too much--check out how much sugar those salsas have!
Intermittent Fasting
If all else fails, you can skip a meal. It's not going to hurt you. If you skip dinner, just go to bed at your normal time, and eat breakfast normally.
There you go, three options for eating on the go!
Bring your own
This is usually both the cheapest option and the least practical. If you're into bodybuilding or fitness, you've probably seen the cooler people. Those people who pack like 16 tupperware containers for their eight meals a day? Yeah, that doesn't work for me. But, at the very least, this is an option. To be fair, I usually brown-bag my lunch this way, pre-measured and ready to go.
Nutrition Calculators/Information
The web has made things a lot easier. I'm going to Chipotle tonight, and I was able to use Chipotle Fan's nutrition calculator to plan my meal in advance. Basically, what this gives you is the opportunity to fine-tune your meal. I also like the fact that, because of the way Chipotle serves their food, it's easy to say "this, not that" without raising eyebrows or ruffling feathers. So, you can plan ahead, or you can freestyle and figure out what you ate on the back end. If you're really trying to lose fat and not in a maintenance phase, I caution you against freestyling too much--check out how much sugar those salsas have!
Intermittent Fasting
If all else fails, you can skip a meal. It's not going to hurt you. If you skip dinner, just go to bed at your normal time, and eat breakfast normally.
There you go, three options for eating on the go!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Fat Loss Made Easy
I wrote a long post a while back about why I generally think that eating low carbohydrate diets is effective for fat loss, and I stand by that. More than that, though, I think the challenge of dieting is not picking the most effective one, but rather, it's sticking to the one you pick.
It's the same issue with exercise--the challenge isn't necessarily picking the most effective workout program, it's sticking to the program that you pick. This doesn't obviate the need for intensity or progressively more difficult workouts, but it does point out that it doesn't matter how good your plan is if you're not executing.
One important caveat--if you're not used to working out every day, don't start with weight training or interval training every day. Start with weight training or intervals a few times a week and then fill in your sessions with walking or yoga. Don't kill yourself--the point is to build the habit of being active.
So here's my three point fat loss plan. I'm giving it away for free. You ready?
1. Figure out something that you really want. This can be anything but food, and it should be something that you can afford but you usually wouldn't buy for yourself. More fitness equipment is great, clothes are great, going to see a movie, a new video game or video game system, music or a movie that you wouldn't normally buy, a book, whatever. You know what you want more than me. I am using an Xbox 360 to motivate myself.
Figure out how much it would cost to buy it at the end of 30 days if you broke your savings amounts down to a daily cost. So, I'm budgeting $300, say, for an Xbox and games, there are 30 days, $10 a day. I can afford this, so I'm good to go. If your rewards are smaller, you can give yourself more of them and do a reward bi-weekly or weekly.
2. Eat according to your diet plan and keep a detailed journal including what and how much, then punch it into a site like fitday.com. Fitday is much better than keeping a food journal by hand, something I did when I was coming down from my all time high of 273 lbs. If you're interested in why food journals work, check this out.
If you keep a food journal, and you are in the guidelines for whatever diet you have chosen, congrats, you get to put $8 (about 80% of the total) in the kitty towards whatever you want. (IOUs work just as well as cash, but cash is uniquely satisfying, don't ask me why.)
3. Exercise according to your exercise plan every day. For each day that you exercise, throw $2 in the kitty (about 20% of the total).
That's it!
So this post doesn't tell you much about how to get motivated or pick the correct program, but I do think it speaks a lot for maintaining your motivation. I've certainly felt a pick up with my motivation since I've instituted it. It is simple to implement, and easy to do, but will have profound effects given the compound interest of time. It will also help you build habits by creating things that you do every day the same way.
The final note--if you slip up during the 30 days, that's okay. Add whatever money you got for that day, but you may want to pick another reward (maybe one that's about 1/2 as much) and start working towards that. Feel free to go again if you found it useful--there's nothing to stop you from using it all the time, though my hope is that eventually, you will no longer need it.
Try this out whenever you find your habits slipping.
It's the same issue with exercise--the challenge isn't necessarily picking the most effective workout program, it's sticking to the program that you pick. This doesn't obviate the need for intensity or progressively more difficult workouts, but it does point out that it doesn't matter how good your plan is if you're not executing.
One important caveat--if you're not used to working out every day, don't start with weight training or interval training every day. Start with weight training or intervals a few times a week and then fill in your sessions with walking or yoga. Don't kill yourself--the point is to build the habit of being active.
So here's my three point fat loss plan. I'm giving it away for free. You ready?
1. Figure out something that you really want. This can be anything but food, and it should be something that you can afford but you usually wouldn't buy for yourself. More fitness equipment is great, clothes are great, going to see a movie, a new video game or video game system, music or a movie that you wouldn't normally buy, a book, whatever. You know what you want more than me. I am using an Xbox 360 to motivate myself.
Figure out how much it would cost to buy it at the end of 30 days if you broke your savings amounts down to a daily cost. So, I'm budgeting $300, say, for an Xbox and games, there are 30 days, $10 a day. I can afford this, so I'm good to go. If your rewards are smaller, you can give yourself more of them and do a reward bi-weekly or weekly.
2. Eat according to your diet plan and keep a detailed journal including what and how much, then punch it into a site like fitday.com. Fitday is much better than keeping a food journal by hand, something I did when I was coming down from my all time high of 273 lbs. If you're interested in why food journals work, check this out.
If you keep a food journal, and you are in the guidelines for whatever diet you have chosen, congrats, you get to put $8 (about 80% of the total) in the kitty towards whatever you want. (IOUs work just as well as cash, but cash is uniquely satisfying, don't ask me why.)
3. Exercise according to your exercise plan every day. For each day that you exercise, throw $2 in the kitty (about 20% of the total).
That's it!
So this post doesn't tell you much about how to get motivated or pick the correct program, but I do think it speaks a lot for maintaining your motivation. I've certainly felt a pick up with my motivation since I've instituted it. It is simple to implement, and easy to do, but will have profound effects given the compound interest of time. It will also help you build habits by creating things that you do every day the same way.
The final note--if you slip up during the 30 days, that's okay. Add whatever money you got for that day, but you may want to pick another reward (maybe one that's about 1/2 as much) and start working towards that. Feel free to go again if you found it useful--there's nothing to stop you from using it all the time, though my hope is that eventually, you will no longer need it.
Try this out whenever you find your habits slipping.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
I take it all back
I've deleted all the affiliate links from this webpage. They're ugly. I'd also like to point out that I may be "backfilling" some of my posts,as they are more time sensitive than I had originally assumed.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Consistency, Simplicity, Elegance
I've been trying to maintain the status quo for so long that I've given up the idea of making new ground, because I'm always trying to continue to hold the ground that I've established. I end up wasting a lot of energy, because I work out hard and then I lose ground, all in a period of one or a few weeks.
So that's the challenge: consistency. I know I can do anything with persistence and consistency. But that's the hard part, not getting motivated in the first place, per se, but staying motivated, on the days that aren't going as well as I'd hoped. And when things get busy, putting in a workout just to put one in. That's the key. Don't get frustrated, take your time, stay consistent. It seems like I spent a lot of my twenties learning those lessons as they apply to writing and to exercise, and to work; so now it's time to apply those lessons to both staying consistent with exercise, with diet, and with working out. I don't want to make this too complicated, because it doesn't need to be. And that's okay. Things don't have to be complicated to work.
Take, as just one of many examples: the super squats program. Twenty reps of the squat, as hard as giving birth, are the basis of the program. The program also calls for dumbbell pullovers, to build the lats and ostensibly to "expand the chest". You want to know why this program works? Because it takes the biggest muscular structures in the body and forces them to do tons of work. You then stuff yourself with an excess amount of calories, focused on milk, which is a good,cheap source of protein, fat, and carbohydrate, and "miraculously" you grow. It ain't exactly rocket science, and I'm convinced that it doesn't have to be.
As Bruce Lee said, "Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, add what is specifically your own." (I've heard this quote attributed to Mao Zedong, minus the "add what is specifically your own" clause, so I guess Bruce took that last bit seriously.) In every case, stripping out the inessentials: "It's not daily increase, but daily decrease. Hack away the inessentials." to quote Bruce again. But stripping out the inessential only gets you half the way there. If you strip your program down to squats, pullovers, and milk, you haven't gotten anywhere if you squat with the bar, skip the pullovers, and drink a pint of milk: the missing piece is kidney-shitting intensity. So what is specifically your own? That piece is hard fucking work.
So this year, I don't think that it's going to be so much a year about making up complex splits and rationales. It's going to be about figuring out what works, making it as simple as possible, and then pushing myself to the limit.
So that's the challenge: consistency. I know I can do anything with persistence and consistency. But that's the hard part, not getting motivated in the first place, per se, but staying motivated, on the days that aren't going as well as I'd hoped. And when things get busy, putting in a workout just to put one in. That's the key. Don't get frustrated, take your time, stay consistent. It seems like I spent a lot of my twenties learning those lessons as they apply to writing and to exercise, and to work; so now it's time to apply those lessons to both staying consistent with exercise, with diet, and with working out. I don't want to make this too complicated, because it doesn't need to be. And that's okay. Things don't have to be complicated to work.
Take, as just one of many examples: the super squats program. Twenty reps of the squat, as hard as giving birth, are the basis of the program. The program also calls for dumbbell pullovers, to build the lats and ostensibly to "expand the chest". You want to know why this program works? Because it takes the biggest muscular structures in the body and forces them to do tons of work. You then stuff yourself with an excess amount of calories, focused on milk, which is a good,cheap source of protein, fat, and carbohydrate, and "miraculously" you grow. It ain't exactly rocket science, and I'm convinced that it doesn't have to be.
As Bruce Lee said, "Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, add what is specifically your own." (I've heard this quote attributed to Mao Zedong, minus the "add what is specifically your own" clause, so I guess Bruce took that last bit seriously.) In every case, stripping out the inessentials: "It's not daily increase, but daily decrease. Hack away the inessentials." to quote Bruce again. But stripping out the inessential only gets you half the way there. If you strip your program down to squats, pullovers, and milk, you haven't gotten anywhere if you squat with the bar, skip the pullovers, and drink a pint of milk: the missing piece is kidney-shitting intensity. So what is specifically your own? That piece is hard fucking work.
So this year, I don't think that it's going to be so much a year about making up complex splits and rationales. It's going to be about figuring out what works, making it as simple as possible, and then pushing myself to the limit.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Ross Enamait Books
I mentioned on here, quite a while ago, that I had ordered the Ross Enamait books and DVD. Though I haven't actually used any of the materials yet, I have to say that I'm very impressed with them. Ross is in incredibly good shape, and got there with a minimal amount of equipment. I highly recommend all three of his current works.
Pros: Inexpensive, both the books and the plans. An equivalent amount of information on the "open market" could easily run into the hundreds of dollars. A great value. Information on conditioning, strength, strength-endurance, and everything in-between. This is especially valuable for boxers, wrestlers, Mixed-Martial Artists, or other martial artists (or people who want physiques like these guys). The layout is clearly home-made, but this generally works for the production rather than against it. All of the manuals are spiral-bound, which is nice, because it lays flat where you can refer to it quickly on the floor while you exercise. A lot of my paperback books are absolutely torn up because of this, but I can see that Ross' manuals are going to last. The DVD is also clearly home-made, but the production values are absolutely fine for the layout, and as usual, there's a ton of info presented. The DVD is over an hour long and comes with a 100 page manual that has fresh content, for $25 right now. Which is an awesome deal. There are plenty of ideas for people who want to "tweak" their programs, and a couple of different examples of overall programs too. So great balance there.
Cons: Some (very, very little) of the info is repetitive. Ross uses the phrase "spice things up" a few too many times. There's no color in the manuals(but color's not really needed). The only model is Ross!
Finally, I have to confess that I am still working through Pavel's challenge of 200 24kg snatches in 10 minutes and a 1/2 bodyweight military press, so I haven't tried Ross's programs. I can't report with a final rating until I've actually done it, so consider my 10/10 rating preliminary. If I were starting all over again with no equipment and no knowledge, Ross is where I would start. Highest recommendation.
Check this out:
Pros: Inexpensive, both the books and the plans. An equivalent amount of information on the "open market" could easily run into the hundreds of dollars. A great value. Information on conditioning, strength, strength-endurance, and everything in-between. This is especially valuable for boxers, wrestlers, Mixed-Martial Artists, or other martial artists (or people who want physiques like these guys). The layout is clearly home-made, but this generally works for the production rather than against it. All of the manuals are spiral-bound, which is nice, because it lays flat where you can refer to it quickly on the floor while you exercise. A lot of my paperback books are absolutely torn up because of this, but I can see that Ross' manuals are going to last. The DVD is also clearly home-made, but the production values are absolutely fine for the layout, and as usual, there's a ton of info presented. The DVD is over an hour long and comes with a 100 page manual that has fresh content, for $25 right now. Which is an awesome deal. There are plenty of ideas for people who want to "tweak" their programs, and a couple of different examples of overall programs too. So great balance there.
Cons: Some (very, very little) of the info is repetitive. Ross uses the phrase "spice things up" a few too many times. There's no color in the manuals(but color's not really needed). The only model is Ross!
Finally, I have to confess that I am still working through Pavel's challenge of 200 24kg snatches in 10 minutes and a 1/2 bodyweight military press, so I haven't tried Ross's programs. I can't report with a final rating until I've actually done it, so consider my 10/10 rating preliminary. If I were starting all over again with no equipment and no knowledge, Ross is where I would start. Highest recommendation.
Check this out:
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