Jan
18
Keep Your Motivation With You
Filed Under Motivation | 3 Comments
In the old days, a knight going off to battle would take a keepsake with him from his beloved. This could be something as simple as a piece of jewelry or a small scrap of cloth. In later years, soldiers going off to wars would take pictures of their wives or letters from home to remind them of what they were fighting for. Now you’re probably asking yourself, what the heck does this have to do with fitness? The answer is, a lot.
Motivation Is Key
Those pictures, rings or letters probably didn’t stop any bullets or deflect any swords, but they did something just as important, they provided motivation. They reminded those men that they had a reason to stay alive and that’s a very valuable weapon. The same applies to fitness and health. In fact, I would say motivation is probably the most important factor in your health.
I can teach you a hundred little tricks for exercising while traveling and a thousand ideas for healthy meals but they could all be summed up with “eat healthy, be active.” So if fitness is that easy, why isn’t everyone fit? The answer is motivation. We know that coke is bad for us but it’s right there and we really want to drink it. We know we should take a walk but that episode of American Idol just started and we really want to see what smart ass remark Simon comes up with. We know we could be healthier but we find a thousand reasons to not do anything about it.
Your Mind At Work
Let me ask you a question, how many times have you rationalized something unhealthy to yourself in the past week? Be honest. How many times have you told yourself “Oh, it’s just a little candy bar, I’ll make up for it later today” or “come on, it’s too late to go to the gym”? How many times have you done something you know is unhealthy but you did it anyway?
The problem is that health and fitness are these vague, long term goals, while that chocolate bar has an immediate and obvious reward. It’s hard to see the impact that one missed workout has, but it’s easy to see the immediate reward that sitting on the couch or surfing the web has. We know health and fitness are important, but it’s just hard to visualize that and put it into perspective next to the immediate and very tangible rewards of unhealthy activities.
Keeping It Real
So here’s where the knight analogy comes in. Those men in armor knew what they were fighting for just like those soldiers realized why they were on the battlefield. However, they took those keepsakes with them as a way of making what they already knew into something real and tangible. It’s hard to remember concepts like freedom when you’re in a war, but it’s very easy to look at a picture of your wife or kids and see exactly why you should stay alive.
Well, this concept applies to fitness and health as well. It’s hard to look at a chocolate bar and remember why fitness and health are important enough for you to give up that immediate reward. So why not keep something with you that makes things a bit more real? For example, my wedding ring. It’s a reminder to me of all those things I keep healthy for. I want to spend many long and healthy years with my wife. I love going dancing with her. I have plans like hiking through South America or sailing through the Mediterranean with her. All of these are reasons to stay healthy and that ring is an immediate and tangible reminder of them. It’s a lot easier to look at that ring and say to myself “I shouldn’t eat this candy bar because I love my wife and I’m going hiking up Masada with her” than it is to say “I shouldn’t eat this candy bar because it will raise my body fat % and cause my heart disease risk to rise by a small percentage”. One of these things is tangible and immediate, the other is vague and hard to visualize. That’s why the first works as motivation and the second fails all too often.
Find Your Motivation and Hang On To It (Literally)
So find something that motivates you. Maybe it’s wanting to play outdoors with your kids or learning to salsa with your wife. Maybe it’s a picture of that mountain you’ve always planned to climb or the beach you want to explore. Whatever it is, find it and then keep a physical reminder of it with you at all times. If you’re trying to rationalize an unhealthy habit to yourself, take a look at that item and remind yourself why your health is important. It works a lot better than trying to visualize your cholesterol level 
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Jan
16
The Difference Between $21.32 and $19.67
Filed Under Eating Healthy, Money | 2 Comments
I’m on the road again this week, traveling on business. Last night, I was driving back to my hotel when I decided to change my habits a bit. The previous night I had eaten through room service. My bill was $19.67 and for this amount I got:
$19.67 through room service gets you:
- One veggie wrap smothered in too much sauce.
- One small green salad.
If any of you readers travel on business a lot, you’ll know that this is pretty average. In fact, for some hotels, this is a really good deal. It’s not uncommon to walk away with a $30 to $40 bill per person on some business meals. Restaurants are about the same. For a typical dinner I would have paid $20 to $30.
Inspiration strikes!
Yesterday was a bit of a driving day for me. I usually stay close to where my meetings are, but yesterday my meeting was about 70 miles away from the hotel. So on the drive back, I started looking around for restaurants to stop at. I spotted a Mexican place and decided that this would be an acceptable choice. I pulled off the highway and into the parking lot. As I was parking, I noticed that the strip mall I was in also had a large supermarket.
Now I’ve never actually gone shopping for groceries while on a business trip, but I recalled a reader’s advice from the last discussion we had on healthy habits while traveling. So I figured, why not give it a try? My hotel did not have a microwave but it did have a small refrigerator in the room, so I was limited to things that were ready to eat and I could store leftovers. After about 10 minutes of shopping, I ended up with the following:
$21.32 at the supermarket gets you:
- Container of hummus
- Small package of pepper jack cheese
- Package of cucumbers
- Package of sliced mushrooms
- Container of raspberries
- Three oranges
- Three apples
This is without doing any comparison shopping or looking for good deals. I just grabbed whatever looked good. I also grabbed some plastic cutlery from their deli section.
The results
My dinner was great. I ate about half of the cheese, hummus, cucumbers and mushrooms. If you’re ever looking for a great snack option by the way, some cucumbers with cheese or mushroom with hummus work great. The veggies are great substitutes for the bread you usually eat with these things. I also ate the raspberries, one of the apples and two of the oranges. I had plenty of leftover, which I stored in the room’s fridge and I’m planning on eating those for lunch today. So for about the same price, I got two meals worth of food. Even though my company reimburses me for expenses like meals while on business trips, it still feels good to save money. I work for a small company and every penny counts. Plus this is a great example of the difference in cost between going out to eat and buying a few things at the supermarket. That’s a lesson I intend to remember when I get home. I usually eat out a lot but I’m going to try and reduce that.
However, the real difference was in the health of the food. My meal included a whole lot of very fresh and very good veggies and fruit. The food was much higher quality and infinitely healthier than typical fare I would have gotten through room service or at a restaurant. All that for 10 minutes worth of work.
Summary
So there’s a lesson for you. You don’t need to cook in order to make your own meal. 10 minutes at the supermarket can get you a cheap and healthy meal that’s ready to eat. That’s a trick I’m going to use on every business trip from now on.
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Jan
14
Losing Friends Over Health?
Filed Under Communication, Motivation | 3 Comments
I mentioned in yesterday’s weekend workout that at some point in your pursuit of a healthier lifestyle, you may need to make a choice between health and hanging out with friends. This morning I got an email from a reader who asked me whether I had lost or chosen to lose friends over health. This seemed unreasonable to them and they didn’t think we should make sacrifices like these just to be healthier.
Personal Experience
The answer is, no, I have never chosen to lose a friend simply because I wanted to be healthier. That thought never even occurred to me. What I did do is change the time I spend with my friends. I used to go to the movies with them almost every weekend, spend many late nights playing video games and go to a variety of fast food place.
These days, we still go to movies but much less frequently. Instead, we go hiking every once in a while or spend time at the farmer’s market. I’ve also made better choices in my meal options and I rarely find myself at fast food places. Finally, I have cut down the video game time considerably and replaced it with more quality time at home, with my wife. I haven’t lost any friends and I don’t believe I have weakened any friendships. In fact, I have found my friends to be understanding and supportive of all the changes I am making in my life.
So no, there’s no reason to think that you will lose friends just because you want to be healthier. Who knows, maybe one of your friends will wind up being your gym buddy.
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Jan
13
Since December 21st, I’ve spent a total of 4 days at home. The rest have either been spent on the road for business or vacation. Today, I’m in lovely Princeton, New Jersey. I’m here for a week, following which I will be spending another week in Chicago. Luckily for me, I have a wonderful wife. So rather than spent all of this weekend flying back and forth across the continent, she came out to meet me on the east coast and we spent the weekend in NYC. We had a wonderful time, and a relatively healthy one, except for one side trip into the M&M store on Times Sq. Oh well, no guilt here. One of the reasons I live healthy most of the time is so I can indulge on those special occasions, and this was definitely one.
And on that note, here are some articles from this week which I thought were interesting.
One of the things that are just impossible to avoid in New York is advertising. Especially in Times Square, you are bombarded 24 hours a day with ads for anything everything. Many of the articles I saw were for weight loss programs. So I thought this recent article from the Financial Post on health program advertising was a good read. It’s always interesting to see how the health industry tries to market products to us by playing on our weaknesses. Remember that it doesn’t a complicated health program to be healthy, just eat well and be active. All the information you need is already out there on sites like 60 in 3 and other free fitness pages.
@The Financial Post
If we’re already talking about advertising, here’s a must read article for those of you interested in health (which I’m hoping is all of you). It’s from the Daily Press and it talks about common deceptions in the marketing of so called health foods. Take the time to read this and then do some of your own research on the foods that you always assumed were healthy. I think you’ll be surprised at how much sugar, fat and other crap is in so called health food.
@The Daily Press
And while we’re on the subject of diets being marketed to us, here’s a review from the Star of the Fat Fighter Diet. I linked to a similar review of such diets in last week’s weekend roundup and I’ve reviewed a few myself. The usual verdict? Yah, has some positive points but it’s just not realistic. I suppose if you’re a rich Hollywood star with a team of chefs and a personal trainer then maybe you can stick to it. If you’re like me and have a full time job, you might as well forget about it. Sorry folks, but there just isn’t a magic bullet diet out there.
@The Star
From Fox Business News we have this article about the link between social circle and health. We’ve talked about this before on 60 in 3, but it’s nice to have some expert findings. Yes, there is a clear connection between you health and your family / friends. They affect your eating, your physical activity and your general well being. At some point in your quest towards health you’ll find yourself making a decision between health and one more evening sitting at the bar with friends drinking beer. At that point you may want to remind yourself that you don’t have to stop seeing your friends to be healthy. Just find new common activities you can do together. You may even be surprised to find that they too are looking for a way to change their lives.
@Fox Business News
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Jan
11
The Rules
Filed Under Eating Healthy | Leave a Comment
I just reread my last two posts and it seems like there are some basic rules or guidelines one can make for choosing a healthy restaurant or healthy dishes at a restaurant.
Meat is ok, but too much meat is bad - I keep finding myself saying this but I think it’s important. I don’t have anything against meat. I think it has a place in a healthy diet. However, I think most people eat too much meat and specifically, too much processed meat with too much fat. If the restaurant you’re looking at has a menu built on dishes heavy in beef or pork, you’re probably not looking at a healthy restaurant. That covers most burger places, steak houses and bbq joints.
Fried is bad - If your restaurant or dish has “fried” in the name, you’re not eating healthy. That applies to fried foods, french fries, fried desserts and fried fish. Deep fried is even worse. And no, changing your name to KFC doesn’t make us forget that the F stands for Fried.
Portions are important - Most restaurants serve too much food. They do it because food is cheap and they know that people find big portions impressive. If you have the self control to take half your dinner and save it for later, then you’re fine. Most of us however, don’t. A good way of solving this issue is going to restaurants that serve food family style. Tapas restaurants for example, serve small portions of multiple dishes. Everything is brought to the table and everyone samples a little bit of everything. If you’re still hungry after the first few small plates, order one or two more, the delay in their arrival will allow your stomach to catch up with your brain. You end up with a great dining experience but you don’t feel constrained to polish off everything in sight.
Breads are bad - Actually, let me correct that. Any restaurant or dish that relies primarily on processed grains is bad. That includes most pastas, Italian places, noodle houses, pizza’s and many breakfast dishes. Sorry, processed grains are nothing but empty carbs. While I am not a carb hater nor do I advocate low carb diets, I do think we consume far too many processed carbs and most of them come from grain based dishes.
Processed is a warning - The further you take your ingredients from their natural form, the iffier things get. Take most fruit. In its natural form, fruit is great. However, the more your preserve, process and cook it, the worse it becomes. You don’t need to be a raw food fanatic. Just make sure your daily intake of fruits and vegetables isn’t coming in the form of deep fried onion rings and an apple pie.
Cheap is not the same as inexpensive - I should have made this a bit clearer in the previous two posts. Good food does not have to be expensive. In fact, there’s quite a bit of inexpensive good food. However, cheap food is usually bad. Cheap restuarants use cheap ingrediants. They then hide their cheapness with tricks like extra salt, extra ranch sauce or extra sugar. Make sure you understand the difference between cheap and inexpensive. A McDonald’s Big Mac is cheap, but it’s also unhealthy. A veggie wrap at Subway is inexpensive and relatively healthy. Price has nothing to do with health and you don’t need to compromise health to get affordable food.
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Jan
9
The Healthiest Restaurants, Cont.
Filed Under Eating Healthy | 4 Comments
Two days ago we talked about some cuisines that were healthy and some that were not. I wanted to finish up that post with some more examples.
Ethiopian - This one is actually becoming more common in California and it’s a good example of some African cuisines. Lots of veggie based dishes, some but not a lot of meat and not too many grains or potato based side dishes. Ethiopian food is served family style, which allows you to eat more or less depending on how hungry you are. The only problem is the flat bread which is considered an integral part of most meals.
Middle Eastern - Very similar to Greek. Lots of veggie based dishes with little meat. The meat that you find is typically lamb or chicken and is usually not fried. Some side dishes can pack on the calories, especially the ones which are grain or bean based and include a lot of olive oil. These can include things like hummus or tahini and should be enjoyed in moderation. Relatively low in desserts which is also good.
BBQ - High in meat and especially in unhealthy meat like processed beef and pork. Preparation is decent without too much frying. Side dishes are really bad though tending towards fries, potatoes, baked beans or breads. The closest thing you get to a vegetable is a ketchup bottle. Even the desserts in places like these tend towards the unhealthy varieties with each BBQ place claiming to have the biggest cookie or the greatest ice cream sundae.
Pizza - Some people think of this as Italian but American pizza is pretty far from Italian cuisine. Pizza is one of the worst foods out there healthwise, consisting mostly of processed bread, processed cheese with processed meat on top. There are absolutely no redeeming health qualities to pizza. However, if you are going to eat it, go for thin crust and less cheese. If you could skip some of that sausage in favor of chicken, that would be good too.
Sandwich Shops - These places range from chain stores like Subways, to mom and pop style delis. They can be quite healthy but they can also be very deceiving. A sandwich is not necessarily a bad thing, but most places end up making it so. They use highly processed bread, pile on the meat/cheese and use high fat sauces like Mayo and Ranch. There’s a local chain in my area called Eric’s Deli Cafe. Their sandwiches seem healthy until you realize their “secret sauce” is essentially mayo. This makes a healthy looking veggie sandwich into a fat laden, 1000 calorie crime against nature. Try to use whole wheat breads or flat breads, substitute veggies for some of the meat or cheese and skip the “secret sauce”.
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Jan
7
The Healthiest Restaurants
Filed Under Eating Healthy | 2 Comments
My wife and I eat out very frequently. We’re both very busy and have little time to spend on cooking. We eat breakfast at home but almost every other meal is bought at a restaurant. We enjoy every type of food and, living in the Bay Area, we have quite a few selections of cuisine and food types to pick from. Over the years, I’ve tried to figure out which types of foods are healthy and which aren’t and wanted to share some of what I’ve learned with you.
American - I include of restaurants in this category, from Denny’s to Coco’s and Lyon’s and unfortunately, they’re all bad. These places rely on heavy meat dishes, supersized portions and potato sides to keep their customers fat and happy. There isn’t much on the menu here that’s healthy and even the salads are usually nothing more than a stack of lettuce with lots of ranch dressing.
Mexican - Overall, Mexican is healthy. There are quite a few veggie heavy options and the meat portions aren’t excessive. Mexican dishes frequently use vegetable salsas as opposed to creamy sauces which makes them even healthier. The only problem with Mexican food is the excessive use of dairy products, rice and chips. Avoid the premeal chips and ask the restaurant to make your food with no sour cream and less rice. You’ll get a relatively healthy meal at what are usually good prices. One of my personal favorites is Chipotle, but if you go there, make sure to get the healthier options. Substitute lettuce for rice and stay away from the sour cream. A Chipotle burrito can easily go over 1000 calories if you’re not careful.
Chinese - I include a few other Asian cuisines in this category such as Korean and Thai. Overall, these are good options. Again, meat portions are not excessive and side dishes are vegetable heavy. Try to stay away from the dishes with a lot of noodles and rice, those are processed carbs you just don’t need. Also try to avoid dishes that are breaded and fried like most sweet and sour chicken. For a really healthy option, try some of the Asian style soups (pho). They do contain some noodles but not too many and the tasty broth will fill you up without filling you out.
Japanese - Similar to Chinese but less emphasis on noodles and more on sea food. The same advice applies, try to stay away from the heavy rice dishes and avoid things that are fried. Contrary to popular belief, sushi is not necessarily healthy. Many sushi rolls are fried or filled with mayo. Try to go for sashimi instead. It’s the raw fish by itself.
Italian - Hit or miss. Some Italian dishes can be great, but a lot of American restaurants like to serve too much pasta and too much creamy sauces. By the way, an average serving of pasta in Italy is about one fifth of the average serving of pasta in the US. So enjoy, but save some for later. Also, try for whole wheat pastas and non creamy sauces.
Seafood - One of the healthiest options out there, although unfortunately not for vegetarians like myself. Plenty of lean source of protein and not too many of them are fried. Watch out for side dishes. Those stacks of mashed potatoes and rice will add up and destroy any benefit you got from eating fish. Also, watch out for the cooking method. Fried and breaded fish are not healthy, despite what the TV advertisements say.
Well, this post is getting a bit longer than I expected and I have to go catch my flight, so I’ll continue it with more information on Wednesday. In the mean time, I would love to hear from you all on the types of food you find healthy and specific dishes to watch or watch out for.
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