Healthy Living For Smart People
No, this isn't me (yet!)
295lbs pressed. That’s right, I managed to do a full set of bench presses with 295lbs on the bar last week. I was really pleased because I had no idea I could do this. The closest I’ve come before is 285lbs and that was a few weeks ago. Last Wednesday though, I just said “screw it”, stacked those plates on either side, found my spotter and got to work. [Read more...]
I’ve been pondering an app called Lose It! for the past few weeks. I’ve talked about it before and I think it’s an incredible tool for those who are looking to make a change. It can really help you identify what you’re eating, how much you’re exercising and where the difference is between where you are and where you want to be. However, is it something I, or anyone else, should use for the rest of their life? At what point does tracking numbers like this stop being beneficial and start being stressful? Is it worth it to pause in the middle of a wonderful dinner with my wife just to enter in the fact that I ate a burrito?
I would quantify the usefulness of Lose It! and other apps like it in three ways:
Not much to report this week. I’m back down to 225, which I was disappointed with at first because I was hoping to be lower than that by this point. However, then I thought to myself, “holy crap! I’ve lost 12lbs in the past month and a half and I did it in a completely sustainable way. AWESOME!” Sometimes, you just need to remind yourself how well you’re doing overall so you don’t get too depressed with the little setbacks. [Read more...]
I’m writing this on Thursday, October 20th. I’m frustrated and angry. The details are unimportant but the results on my eating are. To preface this, I want to say that I had a great day so far. I ran 5 miles this morning, had a healthy breakfast with some nuts and a bit of fruit and then a healthy lunch (chicken). I haven’t had a diet coke all day (had one this entire week) and I’m feeling great. And then it happened, I had a really crappy meeting and I was annoyed. I didn’t feel like working and I didn’t feel like talking to anyone.
In the past, this would mean a trip to McDonald’s and 3000 calories of junk food plus a gallon of diet coke. Seriously, my usual “I’m frustrated and I want to hit someone” order at McDonald’s was a double quarter pounder with cheese, 20 nuggets, two snack wraps, fries and an extra large diet coke. That’s an insane amount of food, especially when you consider this isn’t instead of any of my regular meals, it’s in addition to it. I would always justify it though by saying to myself “well, they screwed you over and you’re allowed a treat to feel better.” [Read more...]
This is week five of my project to get back to a healthier lifestyle. If you recall from a couple of weeks ago, my goals at this point were:
And The Goals Were:
How am I doing? [Read more...]
That’s me in the picture. It was taken maybe a week ago, when Julie and I went to Half Moon Bay. You notice that big smile on my face? That’s because I’m happy. I’m doing something fun with somebody I love. The last few weeks, since we came back from our honeymoon have been great. I feel good, I’m happy and I’m doing well because of it. I’m more productive at work, I’m more at ease with my friends and I’m doing far better with my fitness goals than I thought possible.
I’m not quite sure where this post is headed by the way, I’m typing this as it occurs to me, but it seems like the connection between physical health and emotional health is undeniable. Feeling better in general has led me to feeling better about my body and health. It’s led me to have more motivation for my goals, health related and otherwise. I wonder if this is why married men are on average healthier and tend to live longer. I suppose it could be because we tend to do less stupid things when married but I also believe it’s because we’re happier and happiness is conducive to a healthier life. Happiness means less stress and stress is the thing that kills most of us. [Read more...]
I mentioned a few weeks ago that being healthy means living a healthy lifestyle. It’s a lot more than just 4 hour diets and trips to the gym. It means doing everything possible to live a life that gets you moving more and eating less. Today I’d like to talk about the act of giving.
We all enjoy giving. We like making people around us feel better. However, purely monetary giving (the act of giving money) seems to be unpopular these days. We hear constant stories of our money being used for less than charitable purposes, we believe that the individuals we give our money to might misuse it or we simply have no money to give. So, I would like to propose an alternative that is satisfying to both body and soul, volunteering. [Read more...]
