KBs

KBs

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Add/Subtract

We all have habits; some good, some bad. Regular exercise and cooking meals at home = good. Procrastination and reflexively spending time in the smart phone hole = bad. How do these habits form? And how can we make a change? Like many other things, success starts with making a list. My wife and I recently sat down and listed the things we'd like to change, add or subtract from our lives. This process started by identifying the recurring troubles we both had in our weekly routines.

Missing workouts

Making time to exercise in the P.M. is hard. Our previous approach had been to try and sandwich a quick workout in between cleaning the house, putting our daughter to bed and making dinner. Plus, by this time of day, we were both usually pretty worn out. This meant that many nights passed without a workout happening.

Our solution? We moved our workout to the A.M. We had been sleeping until the baby woke up, usually between 7 and 8 am. We added an alarm at 6 am and, Monday through Saturday, we get out of bed and get our workout done for the day. We plan the workout and lay out our clothes and gear the night prior to give as much help to our bleary eyed future selves as possible. The mornings are usually cool and quiet, the perfect setting for a short, intense workout. We now face the rest of the day with a sense of already having accomplished something (and not thinking about when we are going to exercise).

Tech Hole

If you own a smart phone, you have probably found yourself picking it up and mindlessly thumbing through apps, not knowing what you are looking for until you find something that catches your attention. You have probably also channel surfed a time or two. The glow of the device and its unlimited access to information are known to activate the brain's reward system, much like chocolate or heroin. Our brains have not evolved to handle this technological onslaught and we, adults and children alike, are left mindlessly staring down in all situations, public or private. I see other people doing this and I am disgusted, yet I am 100% guilty of doing it myself.

To combat this deeply entrenched issue, we instituted a "no-fly zone" for devices and screens between the hours of 9 pm and 8 am. The reasons for these hours are two-fold: Starting the day with 2 hours of no screen time helps set the tone for the rest of the day. I used to check my phone upon waking, feeding my habit. Now, I exercise, write, make breakfast and prepare for the day, all before touching my device. The second reason is that the blue spectrum of light emitted by screens affects our brains' ability to shut down and go to sleep. Turning off all screens 1 hour prior to bed time allows us to wind down and get a full night's sleep.

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

After 6 days of morning workouts, Sunday deserves a change of pace. We still wake up at 6, only we spend our morning writing instead of sweating. She writes poetry and prose, I write a blog. It is a great time to sit quietly and gain clarity on thoughts that have built over the course of the week.

By making these changes, we are actively choosing how we want to live our lives. It is too easy to sit passively back and let life happen, wondering why things are the way they are. Identifying the activities we want to add and those we want to limit is key in living the happy, productive life for which we all strive. We will try this schedule for a month and reassess to see what effects we have seen.


Wednesday, October 12, 2016

On The Road Again

Do you travel for work? Me, too. I spend a good chunk of my time in hotels and airports and this can wreak havoc on my exercise routine. Fortunately, I have an arsenal of road workouts and habits that help to stay active on the go.

Let's start in the airport.

- If there are stairs,  take them. You will be spending most of your day sitting,  so it won't hurt to skip the escalator.

-I like to get to the airport early.  Once I'm at the gate,  I'll use my carry-on bag for a terminal farmer's carry. Walk to one end of the terminal with your bag in one hand and then switch hands and walk to the other end. Repeat until you board your flight. If you have kids, they provide extra weight for this one.  If you don't have kids, just borrow someone else's. (Do not borrow a stranger's child for farmer's carry).

-For the truly dedicated,  you can do plank, wall sit, lunges, pushups and any other bodyweight exercises. Find a quiet, sparsely populated corner and perform these moves slowly to avoid sweating. Nobody wants to sit next to a sweaty guy on a flight.

Now for the hotel.

-Most hotel gyms are pretty thin on equipment. Treadmill, eliptical machine,  bike and dumbells up to 50lbs. My staple hotel workout is an incline walk with weight.  I put the treadmill on speed 2 and max incline and carry 2 x 25lb dumbbells. It helps to alternate carrying the weight low (like two suitcases) and high, on your shoulders (like the straps of a backpack). Shoot for 30 minutes without stopping or putting the weights down. Feel the burn.

-If the hotel has a pool,  chances are it's short and shallow, not great for lap swimming. Instead try sprinting the length of the pool. A sample pool workout might look like this: on the side of the pool,  do 20 pushups and 20 arm haulers (*see description below*). Then hop on the water and run to the other end and run backward to the start point. Repeat this cycle 5 times.

-Finally, get outside and run. There is no better way to learn the area than by running around and seeing the sights. Just don't forget your room key

*Arm haulers - Lie face down with your hands by your side. Lift your head and chest off the ground. Raise your hands over your head and then being them back to your side without touching the ground. This is one rep. These work rear shoulders and back. Enjoy.

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Clarity

Life is busy. We keep track of dozens of different ideas, projects and responsibilities. Work, family, hobbies, taxes, politics, sports, health and planning for the future all compete for our attention. Couple those things with a 24 hour news cycle and social media and sometimes it can be a challenge to really focus on one thing.  So how do we make the noise fade away and make serious progress? We need to find a way to achieve clarity.

This can be done in a number of ways. Every person will have their own way to get into the zone. I do some of my best thinking when I'm on a trail run.  Each and every trail is different and focus is required to avoid rocks, cliffs and other trail goers. The attention to the details of the trail, along with the physical discomfort of running hard combine to dissolve the constant churn of thoughts running through my brain. Anxieties fade. Worries evaporate. I often find the answer to questions I've been stewing on for months. Clarity through focus and discomfort.

After a run,  I like to immediately write down any ideas or thoughts while they are fresh. This helps them solidify in my head and makes it more likely that I will act. This routine of gaining clarity through toil and getting results on paper can lead to progress on goals,  improved decision making and a great degree of satisfaction.

So find your zen arena, the place where your world comes into focus and breakthroughs are made. Go there regularly and write down the results while they're still fresh.  You might be surprised how far you can go with a little clarity.