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Maybe you read 60 in 3 in the morning, right before you head to work. Maybe you read it in the evening before you go to sleep. You might even read 60 in 3 during the day, while you’re at work. Whenever you read this article, it’s still a good time for your ten minute workout. Yes, that’s right, you’re going to get up and workout regardless of time of day and where you are.

Lunges - Start with the lunge, one of the best exercises ever invented. If you don’t know what a lunge is, click on the link and you’ll get instructions complete with a video courtesy of Cooper’s guns. One note, we’re not going to be going as fast as the guy in the video. We’re going for a 5 by 5 rep. That means it takes you 5 seconds to go down and another 5 seconds to come back up. So while the guy in the video takes about 2 seconds to complete a lunge, you’re going to take 10 seconds.

Deadlifts - We’re going to follow the lunge with the deadlift. Again, click on the link if you don’t know what that is. Unlike the video, we’re going to do this with no weights. We’re also going to use the 5 by 5 rule again. So stand up and then slowly bend at the waist for 5 seconds until your fingers dangle down and hopefully touch the ground. If you can’t touch the ground, that’s fine, just try. Then take 5 seconds to straighten back up.

Leaning Press - Keep going with the press. Now the video shows a man lying on the ground doing these. We’re not going to do that. This is supposed to be a workout you can do anywhere and lying down at work is probably not acceptable. So instead of a lying press we’re going to do a leaning press. All you need to do is lean forward against a wall and then press yourself back into an upright position. Again, take 5 seconds to go forward and 5 seconds to push yourself back up.

Trunk Twist - Now lets work out that core for a minute with the trunk twist. It’s a very simple exercise as you can see from the video, and when you slow it down with the 5 by 5 rule, it becomes even more effective. Make sure you have some room around you since you don’t want to hit anything as you swing those arms; trust me, I’m talking from experience

Squats - And we’re going to finish it up with the squats. From a standing position start bending your knees until you reach a squatting position. Now stand up. Rinse and repeat using the 5 by 5 rule to make sure you slow it down.

A Note On Weights

This is supposed to be a quick workout that you can do anywhere. It’s halfway between a workout and a warmup routine and isn’t supposed to be very challenging. It’s just supposed to get you up off your butt and doing something physical. However, if you want to increase the difficulty a bit, feel free to hold something in your hands while doing this. I just did this routine while holding my laptop in my hands.\

Medical Disclaimer

Again, I’m not a doctor, nor do I know your specific medical issues. If you have some kind of problem, don’t be silly and attempt this workout. For example, if you have a serious back issue, don’t do the deadlift just because “that guy on 60 in 3 told me to do it!” Know your body’s limitations and check with a doctor before you do something dumb.

Time

5 exercise, 10 reps each at 10 seconds per rep. That’s less than 10 minutes. If you’re at work then think of it as a break that will make you more productive. If you’re at home, think of it as something a bit more productive than catching up on that last episode of American Idol or checking out new pictures on cuteoverload.com.

Not A Workout Substitute

Again, this is supposed to be a simple workout / warmup. It’s not a substitute for a real workout.  This is something you do in addition to a regular workout.

Repeat

Don’t just do this once.  You need to keep active all through the day and if you have a desk job like me then you should do something like this at least once every two to three hours.  So bookmark this page and then come back to it every two to three hours.  Make this a habit.

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Our bodies were designed with regular physical activity in mind.  They are not meant for sitting behind a desk for 8 hours.  Make sure you break up that monotony with a quick workout.

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A few days ago I went out to dinner with some friends. We went to a local pub where the fare consisted of burgers, sandwiches and fries. One of my friends ordered a burger and, to make things a bit healthier, he ordered the side salad instead of fries. Unfortunately, this didn’t make his meal very healthy. The burger consisted of a patty, a large sesame seed bun and lots of dressing. The salad was mostly lettuce with a few croutons and cherry tomatoes and a whole lot more dressing. End result, over a thousand calories, lots of bad fat and carbs and very few good nutrients.

So yesterday, while cooking dinner for my wife and myself, I decided to see if I could take that theme of burger and salad and make it a bit healthier.

Note - I went non vegeterian for this meal. Yes, I do on rare occasions eat meat.

The Ingredients

• 2 buffalo burger patties. These are available at most supermarkets. We bought ours from Trader Joe’s.
• 1 large orange bell pepper (can also use the green variety but I like the taste of the yellow and orange types).
• 2 large tomatoes.
• 1 medium sized avocado.
• 1/2 large cucumber.
• Garlic pepper. You can find this in most supermarkets in the spice area.

Preparation

Salad - Take the tomato, cucumber, avocado and pepper and chop them up into small pieces. By small I mean no larger than a 1/4 inch. Add a bit of garlic pepper and mix throughly.

Burgers - Lay them out on the BBQ, sprinkle with a bit of garlic pepper and let them sit for about 5 minutes on a high flame. After 5 minutes turn over, sprinkle a bit more garlic pepper and let them sit for another 5 minutes. We like our burger medium done. If you them more or less well done feel free to adjust the time on the grill. I use a small, gas powered grill on our balcony. If you don’t have access to that, broiling in an oven is just as good.

That’s it. Take your burgers and your salad and enjoy.

Total Preparation Time

From beginning to end, this took about 20 minutes. Most of that time was spent watching the burgers on the BBQ.

Total Cost

This dinner cost less than 10 dollars. the buffalo burger patties come in packages of 4 for around $8 dollars and we only used up 2. The vegetables were picked up at the local farmer’s market for about $5 total.

Calories

If you’re counting your calories, this meal had about 400 to 500 per person. The buffalo burger patties are relatively low in fat and only had 210 calories each. The vegetables, with the exception of the avocado, are also low in calories but we did eat a lot of it.

What Didn’t We Do?

Notice a few things that were different between that restaurant meal and our dinner.

• No bun - You don’t need a bun to have a good burger. In fact, I find that it detracts from the flavor. Buns are nothing more than refined carbs. Get rid of them.
• No dressing - Neither the burger nor the salad has a lot of creamy dressing. Even those light ranch and other fat free dressings are still packed full of junk you don’t need.
• Healthier meat - Choose meat options that are healthy. Processed beef is the opposite of healthy. The buffalo patties were relatively lean and unprocessed making them a good option.
• Healthy salad - I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, a few leaves of lettuce do not make a good salad. A salad should have good flavor and texture all on its own, without needing croûtons and dressing.
• No sodas - Neither of us decided to add hundreds of empty calories to our meal by tossing in a soda.

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It’s not that hard, expensive or time consuming to make a healthy dinner at home. If even I, the man who can burn water, can do it, so can you.

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In the last post, I talked about sauna’s and how they make a poor weightloss solution.  Overheating yourself doesn’t do much for your metabolism.  All it creates is temporary weight loss through sweat.  However, what about the opposite effect?  Can we cool ourselves down and burn a few calories?  Sounds a bit counter intuitive, how can we burn calories if we’re cold, but it actually works.  Not only that, it’s one of those health tips that’s also good for your wallet, not to mention the environment.  So let’s take a closer look.

How Do We Keep Warm?

Our bodies need to maintain a relatively stable temperature.  We don’t like being too hot or too cold.  In the case of overheating, we usually try to cool down by resting and / or sweating.  However, what do our bodies do when our environment is cold?  Simple, our burn calories in order to keep warm.  It’s just like you throwing another log on the fire to keep warm during a cool winter night.  Our bodies version of firewood is calories, and we use them up to keep those inner fires burning.

So How Do We Use This?

Simple.  Whatever temperature you keep your house at, turn it down by two or three degrees.  Don’t go overboard, I don’t want you getting frostbite in your own home.  I also don’t want you uncomfortable and miserable.  However, a small two or three degree change is almost unnoticeable by most people.  Your body however will notice it and will burn more calories to keep warm.  Your wallet will also notice it since heating costs tend to add up rather quickly.

Should We Keep Gyms Cold?

On a related note, someone recently asked me if working out in a cold gym was also better for burning calories.  Well, not really.  When you exercise, your body creates a lot of heat.  So you’re going to burn a lot of calories regardless of the temperature of the gym.  However, a gym which is slightly colder will help you get better performance since you lower the risk of overheating.  Your body will have an easier time dumping excess heat in a cooler environment which means you’ll be able to exercise longer and harder.  This is also why you shouldn’t overexercise on warm days.

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Lowering the thermostat won’t make you thin overnight.  However, it can help burn an additional 20 to 30 calories a day.  That’s an extra 2 to 3lbs over the span of a year.  That’s not bad for an effortless and money saving change.

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If you’ve read 60 in 3 for any length of time longer than a month, you’ve probably seen me ranting about sodas and other unhealthy drinks. In a nutshell, I think these are one of our worst habits. They’re usually filled with calories that we don’t pay attention to, they cost money and they generate a tremendous amount of waste. In short, you’re paying money to harm yourself and the environment. Well, rather than complain some more, I decided to try something different and suggest an alternative.

The cheapest and healthiest drink out there is still water. Unfortunately, water to many people still means paying good money for bottled water which then fill up the garbage can. So you might have solved the health issue, but you’re still wasting money and generating waste. Tap water, although I personally like it, seems to have developed a bad reputation as impure. Nevermind the fact that most bottled water is just tap water, but ok, if that’s what people want to believe, I have a solution. Introducing, the Brita Filter!

What The Heck Is It?

Brita makes two types of water filters. The first is a device that attaches to your tap and filters water as it comes out. The second is a decanter that you fill with water, which is then filtered. They also make a refrigerator tap filter that operates very much like their faucet tap one. In other words, Brita takes your tap water and cleans it up.

So Why Should I Use It?

Number 1 - Water is healthy. That soda you just drank? 140 empty calories that won’t even make you feel full. That Starbucks Latte? As much fat as two McDonald’s Cheeseburgers. That fruit smoothie? 500 to 600 calories of mostly sugar. Water is better than any of these alternatives.

Number 2 - You’ll save money. Want an extra million dollars when you retire? Take a look at the Latte factor. And this is only assuming you pay $5 a day for your drinks. I know people (including myself a few years ago) who paid a lot more than that for their daily drinks. Add in the extra health care costs from all those calories and it seems like your drinks are costing you quite a bit, aren’t they?

Number 3 - Reduce Waste. Even if you’re not a die hard environmentalist, you can’t argue the fact that cans and bottles generate a huge amount of waste. Every time I go hiking, I try to pick up the trash I see on the trail. You know what I find most often? Water bottles. You know what I found when I went canoing? Cans and bottles. Millions of tons of waste generated every day because we like to spend money on poisoning ourselves.

So What Am I Going To Do About It?

Well, not only am I posting this article, but I’m also going to give away three Brita faucet filters for your tap to the first three people who post comments on this thread. I wish I could afford to give away more but hey, it’s a start. If you want one of these, just post a comment on this thread. They’re brand new and in the box. I’ll even pay the shipping cost

If you do comment, please make sure to include your email so I can contact you and get your address. You do not need to include your email in the body of the comment, there’s an email field just for that in the comment form.

And for those of you who might read this a bit too late, why not go to the Brita site and check out their products? Filters are in the $20 to $40 range. Think about how much you spent last month on drinks and then compare that cost. Now throw in the fact that you’re trying to be healthy. How much is that clean tap water worth to you now? Toss in a few cleaner trails and it’s a no brainer.

DISCLAIMER

I am not affiliated with Brita. I do not make any money on their products or on anything you purchase from their website. Nor does Brita pay me to endorse or recommend them. I’m doing this because I believe it’s the right thing to do.

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I recently read a post on my one of my favorite personal finance blogs which really struck a chord with me. The author talks about the training wheels coming off of his financial life. What he means is all the tools he used to use to keep careful track of every cent he spent are being used less and less. He no longer needs to log everything, measure everything and analyze every decision. Instead, he has developed good financial instincts which he can now use to make good decisions. The original post can be found here.

The reason this post resonated with me is because Trent’s financial training wheels are very much like my own health training wheels.  When I first started trying to turn my health around, I knew nothing.  I started from zero with very little in the way of information.  Actually, I started with less than zero since I did have some information but a lot of it was incorrect.  So I used tools.  I read about health, I listened to radio programs about health, I recorded every food I ate and obsessively reviewed my workout plan and every little change to it.  I counted every calorie and reviewed the nutritional information on the side of every food package I bought.  There was even a period of my life where I ate nothing that didn’t have clearly labeled nutritional information because I didn’t want to make any mistakes.  I would carefully record the calories of every meal and check my daily total so far before choosing what food to eat for lunch.

Now that’s probably a bit more obsessive than most people, but this is actually a common complaint I hear from people who are first starting to work on their health and fitness.  There’s just so much information to track, learn and record and they’re discouraged by the fact that they’ll need to do this for the rest of their life.  Well here’s the good news.  At some point, those training wheels come off.  Just like Trent discovered that he now has good financial instincts, you too will discover your health instincts developing to the point where you can trust them for decision making.

Do I still check nutritional information on boxes?  Rarely.  I only do it these days when I’m checking out a brand new food I never heard about.  Do I still count calories through the day?  Nope, I know what a good portion size is and I know what healthy foods are, so there’s no need to obsess about every calorie.  Do I track every detail of my workout?  Nope.  In fact, I rarely refer back to my workout spreadsheet.  Every month or so I might look up a new exercise I’m thinking about trying, but that’s about all.

So no, you’re not going to need to analyze and record everything you eat and do for the rest of your life.  Yes, there is a period of time where I think the more information you have, the better.  That’s when you’re first starting out and need all the information you can get.  All those spreadsheets, nutritional labels and eating plans will come in very useful at that point.  However, sooner or later you’ll make an amazing discovery.  You’ll find out that you know what’s healthy.  You’ll know how much is too much and you’ll even know what muscles an exercise works out just by looking at it.

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Don’t despair, you’re not going to need to count calories forever.  There’s a leaning curve with health just as there is with everything else, but believe me, it’s worth it.

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My wife and I just came back from two weeks in Israel.  The trip was mostly for visiting family but we also got some quality tourist time at places like Eilat, Jerusalem and Masada.  I’ll save the details for my personal blog, but there were a few things that I thought were very appropriate for 60 in 3.  First and foremost were my observations on the Middle Eastern lifestyle.

A Notable Lack of Obesity 

The first thing I noticed was the lower rate of obesity.  This is not to say that everyone was slender and in shape, there were some overweight individuals.  However, the rate of obesity was much lower than I was used to from the US.  To make this even more puzzling, most people I met were not gym goers.  There were very few Israelis who worked out on a regular basis and the streets were markedly lacking in the joggers that we’ve become used to here in the US.  Curious about how Israelis maintain their health, I did a bit of unofficial research.  I talked to the people I met about what they ate and how I lived their lives.  These are the differences I observed in the life of the average Israeli compared to that of the average American.

The Differences

Less snacking - Very few Israelis seemed to snack.  When they did snack, I saw more fruit than candy bars.

Less liquid calories - I saw virtually no one drink sodas with the exception of a few drinking diet coke.  I also saw no one carrying around those large latte cups.  Starbucks by the way, tried to enter Israel but had to close its stores because they were so unprofitable.

Light dinner - People ate a very light dinner.  It typically consisted of a bit of bread and some cheese with some fruit and vegetables thrown in.  Lunch was the main meal of the day it was eaten at around 1pm.

Consistent breakfast - Everyone I met ate breakfast.  This wasn’t the heavy eggs and bacon breakfast we’re used to from the US.  Instead, it was usually some cheese, perhaps a pastry and some fruits and vegetables.

Activity level - While they didn’t frequently go to the gym, Israelis did keep very active.  This ranged from my father who went dancing every other day and walked every morning, to my uncle who walked a few miles every evening.  There’s also a lot of weekend activity such as hiking or biking.

Lack of car culture - This is related to activity level but I wanted to separate it a bit since I thought it was important.  Israelis use public transportation a lot more than Americans.  They walk to the bus or to the train and they walk to work.  At night, when they go out, they walk around with friends.  They go to school using their legs instead of their car.  It was a noticeable difference and I think it has a huge impact.

Less meat - I didn’t meet a single vegetarian Israeli, but all of them ate less meat than most Americans.  Not only that, but they usually ate healthier meats.  I saw no pork and very little beef.  Instead, I saw a lot of lamb and chicken.

Lower fast food consumption - In the entire ten days, I never once heard someone say “we just came back from McDonald’s.”  They do exist but they seem less popular than in the US.  The standard Israeli fast food is falafel, which is healthier than a typical Big Mac.

What Does It All Mean?

It means that Israelis do naturally what we try to force ourselves into.  Rather than spend a lot of time at the gym, they simply live a healthy lifestyle.   I think it’s something we can all learn from.

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Quick fitness tip for today.  Did you know you could actually make a slight improvement in your health while also saving money?  Yep, just adjust your air conditioning or heater two or three degrees away from where you really want it to be.  You’ll spend less money on electricity and gas while actually burning more calories.

How you ask?  Well, our bodies are very finely tuned temperature maintenance devices and when our environments are either colder or warmer than our ideal temperature, our bodies will spend energy to either heat us up or cool us down.  If it’s a bit cold, our bodies will burn more energy trying to keep us warm.  If it’s a bit too warm, our bodies will burn energy trying to cool us down.

Now don’t go overboard with this, there’s no reason to turn the temperature up to 110 or down to 0, just turn that AC to 75 to 78 on warm days and the heater to 68 to 70 on cold days.  Your body will burn calories will do the rest.

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