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Review – The Primal Blueprint

June 8, 2009 By 3 Comments
This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series The Primal Blueprint

Long time readers of 60 in 3 know that I greatly enjoy Mark Sisson’s articles over at Mark’s Daily Apple.  I may not always agree with him, but his posts are thought provoking, educational and informative.  So I was quite happy to hear that Mark was taking his primal blueprint for health and putting it into a book form titled appropriately enough, The Primal Blueprint.

Style

As usual, Mark’s writing is great.  The chapters are well laid out and include multiple examples which are easy to understand.  While there are some high end biology, genetics and nutrition discussions, all of them are well explained.  In other words, this isn’t just a book for fitness enthusiasts, it’s also accessible for people who are just now getting into a healthier mindset.  That said, even the best written book is useless if the content is bad, so let’s examine what the primal blueprint is all about.

Overall

Mark believes, as do I, that people need to get back to their roots.  Health wise, he sees our primitive ancestors as leading extremely healthy lifestyles from a variety of aspects.  His model, a caveman named Grok, does everything right and treats his body well.  By comparison, Mark uses chapter two of the book to show us a modern family by the name of Korg, Grok backwards, and how the modern lifestyle is extremely unhealthy.  So far so good, I like this philosophy, but is there something actionable in the book?  The answer is absolutely.

The primal blueprint is a set of rules for how to live a healthier lifestyle by emulating our ancestors.  This blueprint is laid out in chapter one and each rule is further detailed in subsequent chapters.  I’m going to list the rules out here and give a brief opinion on each.  For more information on them, visit Mark’s site or buy the book.

The Primal Blueprint Rules

  1. Eat Lots of Plants, Animals and Insects – I like this rule, yes, even the insects part.  Too many of us limit our diets to just a few specific ingredients.  In the US, a majority of food seems to be beef, chicken, potatoes, wheat and corn.  That’s a bad thing and health conscious individuals will attempt to change this.
  2. Avoid Poisonous Things – Well, that’s a no brainer, right?  Seems smart to avoid drinking that drain cleaner.  Except Mark isn’t just talking about obvious poisons.  He’s referring to all the modern crap that people put into their systems.  That means excess carbs, preservatives, processed sugars, caffeine and a variety of others.  I’m not sure I agree with Mark’s policies on whole wheat foods, but otherwise I think he’s spot on.
  3. Move Frequently At A Slow Pace – Mark’s recommended physical activity is slow and moderate paced movement.  Things like walking, biking and hiking.  Can’t argue with him on this one, except that Mark argues against prolonged cardio like jogging and makes some very convincing arguments against it.
  4. Lift Heavy Things – Makes sense.  Challenge your muscles and build a better body.  This one I agree with and I like Mark’s emphasis on natural, compound exercises like squats and lunges.  The primal blueprint recommends explosive, all out efforts rather than slow and gradual by the way, something I’m not sure I agree with.  However, that’s a minor quibble.
  5. Run Really Fast Once In A While - Rather than prolonged cardio, Mark believes in the occasional all out effort.  Sprints are a great example of this.
  6. Get Adequate Sleep – No argument here.  This is one of the basic rules of healthy living.
  7. Play - Again, no argument.  If you can combine physical activity with fun, you’re doing great.
  8. Get Plenty of Sunlight – Just not too much!
  9. Avoid Stupid Mistakes – Which basically translates to “don’t walk into traffic”.  Not sure how Mark reconciles this with his snowboarding but hey, it’s definitely a good rule to follow.
  10. Use Your Brain – Great last rule to finish with.  Fitness isn’t just about the body.  We need to pay attention to the most important muscle of all, their brains.  Use it or lose it folks!

Is the Primal Blueprint Worth Reading?

Absolutely.  Even if you disagree with some of what Mark says you’re still going to find a lot of worthwhile information here.  Plus the Korg chapter alone is worth the price of the book because it shows us just how unhealthy our modern lives have become.  However, there’s a more important question here.

Is the Primal Blueprint Worth Following?

That is, is this a healthy way to live?  For the most part, I think so.  I agree with Mark on 80% of what he says.  Still, there’s a lot that seems off to me.  Whole wheat is bad?  Jogging is bad?  Cavemen are healthier than modern men?  Mm…  Still, I’m an open minded person and I feel odd rejecting this idea out of hand.  After all, there’s a lot here that makes sense.  So

The 60 in 3 Primal Blueprint Challenge

For the next couple of months, June and July, I’ve decided to adopt the Primal Blueprint in its entirety and see what kind of a difference it makes in my life.  That means the following:

  • No more jogging.  Trading this in for occasional sprints and more hiking and walking.
  • Eliminate those poisons.  No more breads, pastas, rice, caffeine, sugar and the rest.  Yes, even whole wheat.
  • Add a bit more protein to my diet.  Yes, that means eating more meat.  I’ve already found a local farmers market vendor who has great organic beef, chicken and venison plus another vendor who sells fresh fish.
  • Focus on vegetables, fruits and nuts for my other nutritional requirements.
  • Change my weight lifting routine to be a bit faster in line with Mark’s recommendations.

I’ll blog about my progress here in a series called The Primal Blueprint.  At the end of July, we’ll see how I feel.  That’s when I can tell you if the Primal Blueprint makes for a good lifestyle and not just a great book.

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Mark’s site can be found here: Mark’s Daily Apple

Mark’s book can be found here: The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram Your Genes for Effortless Weight Loss, Vibrant Health, and Boundless Energy

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The Basic Equation of Life

April 27, 2009 By 2 Comments

I often get questions along the lines of “will this make me thin?” or “what do you think of this diet?” which make me believe that most folks don’t understand the basic mechanisms of our body.  So I decided to devote today’s post to a review of the underlying equation of life and weight.  Here it is folks, the theory of relativity for weight loss.

Calories In – Calories Out = Change In Weight.

If calories in are higher than calories out, you get a positive change in weight (you gain weight).  If calories in are lower than calories out, you get a negative change in weight (you lose weight).  That’s it, the basic equation.

A Bit More Detail

To understand how various things work, I’m going to expand the equation a bit into the following:

(Calories In * Digestive Efficiency) – (Metabolic Calories Out + Activity Calories Out) = Change in weight.

What does all this mean?

Calories In – This is an easy one.  Calories in are what you consume.  Eat a 300 calories candy bar and you’ve consumed 300 calories in.

Digestive Efficiency – Not exactly a scientific term but a good one nonetheless.  This basically represents how many calories your body actually derives from those calories in.  For example, some people are unable to digest certain foods.  So they may consume 100 calories worth of that food but their bodies don’t really get the full 100 calories worth.  For anyone thinking this is a good thing, spend some time with people who are lactose intolerant, they’ll set you straight.

Metabolic Calories Out – Your body uses a certain amount of calories per day just to stay alive.  Basic living activities such as breathing, pumping blood and maintaining temperature all require calories.  This is what goes under Metabolic Calories Out.

Activity Calorie Out – These are the calories you use on activities other than basic bodily functions.  For example, walking, running, lifting weights, dancing, hiking, having sex.  All of these activities require energy and that energy expenditure falls under activity calorie out.

So What?

So, now that we have our equation and our terms, what does this all mean?  Well, the basic lesson here is that anytime someone tells you about something that could help you lose weight, you want to make sure you understand how it’s going to affect your body.  That’s why it’s important to know this equation.

For Example:

Exercise - Well, that’s an easy one.  We exercise which means we increase Activity Calories Out.

Eat More Vegetables – This one is a little less obvious.  Vegetables are relatively low in calories.  So if we eat the same volume of food but make more of that volume vegetables, we’ll eat less calories overall.  That means less Calories In.  Note that “eat more vegetables” isn’t really the secret.  It’s “Eat Vegetables Instead Of Other Food With More Calories”.  If you ate everything you did today and then just added vegetables, you’d actually gain weight since you increased Calories In.  That’s the power of this little formula.  Once you understand, you can make sense of a lot of these diet and health tips.

Eat More Frequent Meals – Why?  Well, the theory is that our bodies spend calories more freely when they get food frequently.  Our bodies will behave like people who get 10 dollars every day instead of 300 dollars at the end of the month and they’ll be more willing to spend that 10 dollars right now.  Note that this only affects metabolic calories out.  That is, by eating more frequent but smaller meals, our Metabolic Calories Out increase.

Calorie Restrictive Diets – These are the diets that tell you to cut down your calories in drastically.  Sounds simple enough, lower calories in and you lose weight, right?  Maybe, but what other parts of the equation could these diets affect?  Well, as our bodies receive less calories, they also try to spend less calories.  Bodies do this by lowering the amount of calories spent on basic life sustaining activities.  For example, stay on a calorie restricted diet long enough and your body will shut off things like reproductive systems.  It will also start cannibalizing calorie rich tissue like muscles.  In other words, your body will compensate for the drastic decrease in Calories In by reducing Metabolic Calories Out.

Bad Ideas

As a general rule, there are a few bad things you can do:

Changes in digestive efficiency – This includes taking laxatives, forcing yourself to throw up and so on.  Most of these fall into the realm of eating disorders and if you’re doing them, please seek help.  As someone who’s struggled with healthy eating for many years, I can understand your pain, but this isn’t the way to solve the problem.

Artificial changes in your metabolic calories out – This includes things like smoking, most diet pills and other stimulants.  Sure, they cause you to burn more calories but at what cost?  Most of these things put a tremendous burden on your body and can cause many other health issues.

Drastic changes in calories in – Things like 500 calorie a day diets or week long fasts.  These aren’t healthy for you and, in the long run, they are not conducive to weight loss.  You’re just going to ruin your body by doing these.

Luckily, there are some good things you can focus on:

Increase in activity calories out – This is easy.  Move more.  Go out.  Walk, exercise, dance, swim.  Whatever it is, just keep moving.

Natural increases in metabolic calories out – This includes things like eating more frequent meals, lowering the thermostat at home (forcing your body to spend a few more calories on the proper temperature), building muscles (muscle tissue uses up a lot of calories) and so on.  There are a variety of ways in which you can tell your body “speed it up!” that are natural and good for you.

Gradual and healthy changes in calories in – For example, removing sodas and coffee from the menu.  Your body won’t notice the removal of most liquid calories so you can do this without sending your body into panic mode.  Also, doing things like replacing high calorie foods with low calorie foods like vegetables is good.  Your body will get the same volume of food but less calories overall.  That means your body still believes it’s getting a good amount of food and so it won’t start enacting emergency measures.

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Just remember that basic equation and try to figure out how various behaviors fit within it.  It will make you a smarter and more educated consumer of health activities.

Also, this was a VERY short and unscientific primer about the human metabolism.  People should educate themselves about their bodies in more detail than this.  It’s just as important as learning about your mortgage rate or how your car works.  In fact, it’s probably a lot more important than either one of those.  If you’re interested, I highly recommend YOU: The Owner’s Manual, Updated and Expanded Edition: An Insider’s Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger

Filed Under: Reader Q&A, Weight Loss Tagged With: , , , , ,

Great Abs Workout

April 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Disclaimer

  • This abs workout is NOT guaranteed to get you six pack abs.
  • This abs workout is NOT guaranteed to trim inches off your waistline.
  • This abs workout is NOT guaranteed to take two sizes off your jeans within the next week

All of these things have more to do with weight loss than they do with an abs workout.  If you want to lose weight, lose inches and show more muscle definition, you need to lose weight, and that’s all about eating right and being more physically active.

What this workout is designed to do is to strengthen 50% of your core, by which I mean your abdominal muscles.  The other 50% is your back muscles and I’ll deal with those at a later date.

Why?

So if this workout doesn’t give you six pack abs, why do you care?  Well, first of all, that’s a bit misleading.  This workout does help tone the muscles that show up as part of your six pack.  However, they won’t show up until you lose weight, hence the disclaimer above.  More importantly, this workout does strengthen your core, which is a part of your body that you rely on for almost every movement.  Take a moment to really notice what muscles your body uses.

Are you breathing?  Well, you’re using your core muscles.  Walking?  You’re using your core muscles to stabalize your upper body.  Doing push ups?  You’re using your core muscles to keep your body rigid.  Running?  You’re using your core muscles to stay upright and balanced.  There’s almost no complex movement that your body does which does not use the core muscles, which is probably why they’re called your core.  That means that you need to strengthen these muscles or else suffer poor performance in pretty much every thing else you do.

Sounds like an exxageration?  It really isn’t.  Your abs and lower back are your foundation.  They are quite literally the core of every complex movement your body makes.  It all starts right there at the center of your body and you need to pay a bit more attention to it than just doing some crunches.

Let’s Start

Start with the basics.

This is called a V up.  It can be done with an exercise ball, with weights on either legs and / or arms or with just body weight.  Either way, you need good form.  Look at how this woman does her V ups.  She’s really controlled in her motion and takes her time.  She pauses all the way at the top to allow some strain to build and then slowly releases it as she moves back down to the resting position.  Excellent form all the way around.

Work the Sides

We’ve worked the center, now we work the sides with some trunk twists.  Again, check out the form.  This guy is doing them a bit faster than I would recommend but notice how controlled he is.  Also note the slight pause at the end of each movement.  Great way of working out the obliques and staying in that crunched position means your whole abs muscle group is being worked out.

Let’s Get Creative

Why stick with regular crunches when you can do reverse ones?

You can do this one with straight legs too if you want, but it’s slightly easier on the joints to do it this way, with legs folding as you raise them.  I like this one a lot better than regular crunches since it puts less strain on my neck and works out more of my abs.

Yoga Finish

And finally, if you have a bit of time, yoga can be a great way to finish out an abs workout with a bit of stretching.  This video is umm… slightly more artistic than your usual workout videos, but it’s a great example of a yoga abs workout.  Note that this workout can actually be quite challenging if you do it slowly.  Also, this is a great example of amazing form and muscle control.  Even if you’re not interested in the spiritual aspects of yoga, this is a great example of abs in action.

Filed Under: Building Muscles, Exercise, Work Out Tagged With: , , , ,

10 New Ab Exercises

April 3, 2009 By 1 Comment

I’ve been looking for some new ab exercises for a while now to vary up my weight routine.  Most of my current ab exercises are body weight based and I was hoping to add at least 1 or 2 more dumbbell ones.  I went through a lot of books, magazines and videos before I finally found the following:

If you cannot see the video, the link to it is HERE.

I love the exercises shown here.  They really add a range of motion to my ab exercises that it was lacking before.  Plus I like the use of the exercise balls.  These are great, low impact items that are a great addition to any home gym.

My plan is to try all the exercises shown in this video over the next week or two and pick out the three or four that I like best.  That’s going to be my new ab workout.  If anyone has any feedback or comments on these, please feel free to add it in the comments.

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Freeweights or Machines, Which Is Better?

April 1, 2009 By 3 Comments

Colin writes in:

I started working out about 6 months ago and I’m feeling great.  I have a question, which is better, freeweights or machines?  Also, is it true that people who use freeweights get injured more?

Hello Colin, congratulations on your 6 months of working out.  You’re past the hardest parts.

I think I answered a similar question a few months ago but since I couldn’t find that article myself, I guess I’ll answer this again.  If any reader manages to find the original post, please link it in the comments.

As for your question.  Let me handle the second question first.  Yes, free weights do pose a greater injury risk.  First of all, it’s easier to injure yourself through simple mishaps such as dropping a weight on your foot or falling down, things that are nearly impossible when using a machine.  In fact, my only gym injury in 6 years happened because I dropped a dumbbell on my head.  Second, because your body isn’t confined to a limited range of motion, there is a greater chance to stress muscles and joints in an inappropriate manner while working out with free weights.  For example, if you try to do dead lifts incorrectly with free weights, you can strain your back or your legs.  Doing back exercises with a machine is much safer since your range of motion is limited.

However, that said, I am still a big proponent of free weights and believe that they are superior to machines in a number of ways.  When you work out with machines, you are limited to a very specific set of motions and muscles.  For example, when you do a back exercise on a machine you are only working out the back muscles, nothing else.  When you do a similar back exercise with free weights (dead lifts for example) you are working out the back but you are also recruiting the leg muscles, shoulders and upper arms in a variety of ways.  Yes, the back muscles are still the ones being worked out, but you’re also seeing benefits all over your body.  In other words, working out with free weights is a more “natural” way of working out.  You’re doing motions that your body does normally, only with weights.  Where as machines limit you to a very narrow motion.

The key is good form.  If you have good form, you will minimize your injury risk and maximize your free weight workout.  Good form means control and isolation of muscles.  It means you lift the weights with the muscles you’re trying to work out, recruiting other muscles only for stability, and you control both the speed and the range of the lifting motion.  If you don’t have good form and you have no desire to learn good form, you should stick to machines.  You’ll get a better workout and you won’t injure yourself.

Filed Under: Injuries, Reader Q&A, Work Out Tagged With: , ,

Trying Out Bikram Yoga

March 18, 2009 By 4 Comments

I’ve been wanting to try out yoga for a while now. I’ve always heard that it’s a great combination of workout and stretching with some meditation elements thrown in. So when a friend invited me to try Bikram yoga, I jumped at the opportunity. Of course, I did run away from the first class I was supposed to attend with her, but that’s another story. This morning, at 5:30am, I showed up for my lesson of Bikram Yoga.

For those who are not aware of it, Bikram Yoga is similar to other yoga in that practicioners go through a variety of poses.  Some of these poses resemble stretching while others are pretty intense resistence bearing exercises that come very close to being a weight workout.  The only differences with Bikram style yoga is that it’s done in a room heated to 105f degrees.  That’s slightly lower than sauna temperature if you’re trying to do the math.  According to the originator of this style, the heat is conducive to both the physical and mental aspects of the exercise.  I’m not so sure about the mental part but the heat definitely had me straining physically.

The Poses

I’m not going to go through a description of all the poses but I will give a few examples.  About half the poses fell into a category I would define as intense stretching.  Things like standing straight up with your hands reaching above your head and then bending to the right at the hips.  Many of these poses were quite difficult and required much more flexibility than I have.  However, I can see how, with time, I could achieve the same level of flexibility a few of the other students had and that’s encouraging.  The second category of poses were what I would define as load bearing exercises.  For example.  Stand up straight, reach your hand forward and then slowly bend at the knees.  When you are in a position resembling a seated one only with no chair beneath you, hold that position for ten second.  Essentially this is a slow motion squat with the hardest part held for a lengthy period of time.  Doesn’t sound like much compared to my usual dumbbell squats but believe me, it’s challenging.  Especially when you have to do these things on one leg.  Post workout, my body felt like I had just gone through a moderate weights workout.

The Heat

This aspect is unique to Bikram Yoga and is not shared by other yoga styles as far as I know.  For me, it was a bit difficult to stay focused on the poses because of the heat.  I sweat a lot and the heat combined with the exercising had me dripping sweat by the 10 minute mark.  The last 30 minutes were uncomfortable for me as I stood there dripping sweat but trying to focus on my breathing.  However, the first 60 minutes did feel good, possibly due to the intensity of the heat.   I’m not sure to be honest, but it was a very different feeling to work out in this intense dry heat and, until I got to the point where I was totally soaked, I was enjoying it.

Is It Worth It?

For me, the answer is no.  The cost of a yoga class is around $10 to $20 and I can get the same benefits at the gym or on the track.  Still, I’m glad I tried this class.  It was an interesting experience and taught me some good lessons about my body and stretching.  For someone with less inhibitions about spending money or for someone looking to work on flexibility, this class would be very valuable.  Also, if money is an issue, you can find a variety of yoga instructions online or in book format.  All you need to practice them at home is a mat and some patience.

If you’re in the South Bay, this is the yoga studio that I took the class at:  Bikram Yoga San Jose

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Next up on my list of workouts to try?  Spinning!


Filed Under: Alternative Workouts, Work Out Tagged With: , , ,

Approaching Fitness With An Open Mind

March 11, 2009 By 13 Comments

Someone recently asked me why I bothered trying out intermittent fasting.  Couldn’t I see that this is something that wouldn’t work for me?  During their conversation they said “sorry, but that kind of thing would NEVER work for me”.  At which point I asked “How do you know?  Have you ever tried it?”  Of course they had not.  In fact, they never even considered trying it and yet they had such a strong opinion of it.  It reminded me of myself a few years ago.

When I first started thinking about exercise, I had a very narrow image of it in my mind.  Exercise essentially fell into three categories.  First, I thought of weight lifters in the gym.  That’s exercise, right?  Large men with huge muscles popping steroids and bench pressing a ton of metal.   Second, I thought of jogging.  That was clearly exercise in my mind, after all, everyone was doing it and they all seemed so fit.  Finally, I thought of calisthenics of the sorts I would see in the movies.  Drill sergeants telling people to “drop and give me 20 push ups!”  That was exercise to me since those people would always start out of shape but would finish basic training in style, after some sort of musical training montage of course.

So yes, my image of fitness was very limited and that limited my starting point.  It was no surprise that the workout regimen I picked out included a lot of weight lifting, jogging and some calisthenics.  I would lift weights five times a week, jog five times a week and do an army style workout on the weekends.  First of all, that was insane.  There was no way I could keep that workout up both in terms of time and the toll it was taking on my body.  Second, this workout got boring really quick.  I was doing the same thing over and over and over and over.  By the second month I was ready to quit and go back to eating cheetos while sitting in front of a computer screen.

By the way, this monotony also extended to my diet where I thought a healthy meal should consist of a small piece of chicken and some veggies on the side.  Sounds funny now but I ate chicken and veggies for every meal for about a month.  By the end of the month I hated chicken and I couldn’t even look at steamed vegetables.

What Was Wrong?

I made three mistakes which led me down this path.  First, I did no research.  Second, I underestimated the cost of monotony.  Finally, I approached fitness and health with a closed mind.  The first two mistakes were easily fixed but the third took more time.  I’m not going to discuss research and monotony today, those are topics for a different post, but I would like to go over the benefits of an open mind vs. the costs of a closed one.

A Closed Mind

When I thought of exercise, I thought only of weights, jogging and calisthenics.  When I thought of healthy eating, I thought of steamed veggies and chicken.  It’s not that these were the only things I knew, it was more that they were the only things I would accept.  For example, I knew about swimming and had done it in high school, but I thought it was boring.  I knew about the elliptical but I thought it wasn’t as good as jogging, even though I had no real reason to think that.  I knew about salads but I considered them “rabbit food” and didn’t think I could ever like them.  I knew about hiking but thought it was only for nature nuts and didn’t really count as exercise.  What I’m trying to say is that I had a completely closed mind.  I knew what I knew and I refused to consider any other option as viable.

Note that I actually had a lot of experience with some of these things in the past and in some cases I had actually liked them.  When I swam in high school I had always enjoyed it.  When I hiked as a child I considered it a lot of fun.  When I ate salads in the past I always considered them very tasty.  However, my mind was closed.  I KNEW what fitness was and I didn’t think of including anything else in my definition.

Common Mistake

We all do this by the way, not just me.  We all KNOW what’s right for us and we often discard other options without even considering them.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to people and heard “Oh, I could never be a vegetarian” from people who had never tried it,  “I could never jog” from people who had never jogged a step or “sorry, I just hate gyms” from people who had never set foot in one.  For some reason, people have preconceived notions of what they like and dislike.  They are unwilling to try new things and they are unable to imagine the possibility of changing their habits.  They are set in their ways and refuse to change.  In fact, they refuse to even consider the possibility of change.  Their minds are closed.

A Life Not Lived

What would my life be like today if I had retained this mindset?  My guess is that I would have stopped my experiment with health sometime in the second or third month.  I would have gotten bored with lifting weights, tired of the chicken with steamed veggies and sore from all the running.  I would have quit and gone back to my unhealthy life.  Still, it’s even worse than just being unhealthy.  If I had kept a closed mind I would have missed out on experiences like hiking to the top of Masada in Israel and watching the sunrise over the dead sea.  I would have missed out on wonderful dishes and recipes that I now know and enjoy.  I would have missed out on the thrill of a boxing workout, the rush of dancing and the exhilaration of mountain biking.  So many things that I enjoy these days would be missing.

What Saved Me?

For me, the thing that opened my mind were the people in my life.  It was the coworker who took me trail running.  It was the old friend who took me hiking.  It was the girlfriend who took me dancing and the mom who made me salads.  It was all of these people and quite a few others who introduced new ideas into my thinking.  I resisted as best I could.  I said no many times, I didn’t show up to things, I complained, I rejected.  I did everything I could to avoid new things but they persisted.  They kept asking and I’m really glad they did.  Eventually, I opened up my thinking and I’ve never gone back.

A Simple Plan

it doesn’t take much to open your mind, just two little things, a willingness to try and a persistence to try again.  First, say yes.  If someone asks you to try out something, say yes.  I know, you think you’re going to hate it.  You think you’re going to dislike every minute of this new experience.  You don’t want to try it and you have no intention of enjoying it.  Still, say yes.  Try it just once.  Then, once you try it once, try it one more time.  It takes more than one time to really get to know something.  It takes more than a single experience to see if you’re really going to enjoy a new experience.  The first time you do something you’re brand new at it.  You have no idea what you’re doing, you feel like an amateur, you feel self conscious and you’re not quite sure how to behave.  That’s normal.  Just keep trying.  Try it twice, try it three times and don’t give up until you really know something.  At that point, if you still don’t like it then maybe you should stop, but don’t stop trying after the first time.

If you’re interested, take a look at Steve Pavlina’s 30 day experiment idea.  It’s one way of trying out something new and seeing if you like it.  However, that’s just one possibility.  Bottom line, don’t be afraid to try new things and don’t give up after your first attempt.  Sure, there are some things that are clearly too stupid to try.  Smoking will make you lose weight but I wouldn’t recommend you picking it up just as an experiment.  There’s a difference between having an open mind and being an idiot who’ll do anything without any thought.  However, there’s a whole big world of ideas out there.  Hundreds if not thousands of recipes, exercises, workouts, activities and sports for you to try.  Don’t rule them out just yet.

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What new thing are you going to try this week?  What about next week and next month?

Filed Under: Editorial, Healthy Habits, Motivation Tagged With: , ,
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