Trying it Out

While at H3. I brought my old mountain bike and rode almost daily for at least 5 miles a day, with a few 10-15 milers.  Back in Jacksonville, I continued riding.  I found it preferable to doing cardio in the gym.  One of the (few) benefits of living in Jacksonville, FL is the weather.  I can ride year round.

Old News

Back in grad school, a could of friends of mine were (and still are) bicycle enthusiast.  Marty used to commute about 30 miles round trip on an old road bike.  Kyle and I had shorter commutes, but they were on old , ca. 1940-1950′s, 3-speed Raleigh bikes.  Those bikes were made of steel and kept you fit.

It was not until I was back in Hilton Head, that I remembered how much I liked simple getting out and riding.  Aside from the fitness benefits, I find it a great way to clear your head.

The Present

I’ve put over 500 miles on my new bike in less than 2 months.  I love it.  I’ve joined the North Florida Bike Club and ride 2-3x a week with a group.  The past weekend, I rode 35 miles on Saturday and another 55 on Sunday.  The Sunday ride almost killed me.  The pace was about 4-6 mph faster than I am accustomed, but I made it.

Future Plans
A few of us are considering doing the Horse Farm 100 in a couple of weeks. I think I’m ready for that distance, provided I’ve an experienced rider to help set the pace.

Lesson’s Learned

• Revisit physical activities that you’ve long given up but previously enjoyed.
• Don’t stop being a kid. This is from 50-something Jim who’s rides in our Wed. group and noticed that everyone is pretty happy at the end of a ride.
• Find a club to support your cause. (I would not not rode at a 20 mph pace yesterday without a club).
• Try it first, spend money later.  Some activities may require expensive gear. Find some used or cheap stuff first, make the commitment and then invest later.

And remember in the words of Humpty Hump, Doowutchyalike

We’ve all used this excuse for something.  When it comes to living a healthy lifestyle, this is typically used for exercise.  I’m sure I’ve even uttered this excuse on occasion. I call this excuse the “Time Dragon”.  Why a dragon?  Dragons have a mystical nature and often portrayed as cunning, and ruthless.  The “I don’t have time excuse” is very similar.  The excuse is ruthless  – you can always use it.  The excuse is cunning – it resolves you of responsibility. To make changes, you have to slay this excuse.  There’s no +10 magic sword to do this.  You have to find your own motivation, but here’s some thoughts.

Think Long Term: The Time Bank

Indulge me in a thought experiment.

What if exercising prevented you from getting sick at least 1x per year?

What if exercising relieved stress, increasing your work productivity 1%?

If you are using the time excuse, then you must be a really busy person.  Let’s say you work 10 hours a day with 4 hours of other tasks.  That’s a 14 hour day.  Not being sick on one of those days gives you 14 hours.  Improving your productivity by just 1% when working 50 hours per week give you an additional 25 hours per year.  So now you have 39 hours in the bank.  What can you do with 39 hours?

Work out for 20 minutes 117 time( that’s more than 2 sessions per week).

Work out for 30 minutes 72 times (that’s more than 1 sessions per week).

Work out for 45 minutes 52 times (that’s 1 session per week).

Outsource: Pay for Minutes

We’ve all heard about outsourcing to China and the impact it has on the US job market.  Outsourcing, however, does not have to be for the fortune 500.  You too can outsource.  There are many services that you can outsource.  By outsourcing, you give up some money but you get back some time.  Once again, think long term and what value you will derive from the extra time you have.

For example, I’ve outsourced the cleaning of my house.  Sure, I have to pick things up, but the routine dusting, sweeping and mopping is left to someone else (Rachel, who rocks!).  Yes, this costs money, but I gain back at least an hour a week.  I spend that hour investing in myself.  If I’m healthy, then I may be less likely to get sick or be sick for a shorter duration.  Being self-employed, being sick can really rick the paycheck, especially if it were for a long period of time.  So I consider hiring a housekeeper a financial investment in myself — think health assurance rather than health insurance.

Other things you can outsource:

-Lawn care: Check out Angie’s List for good recommendations.

-Laundry

-Grocery Shopping: Join a buyers club or PeaPod

-Appointments/Errands (anything online or by phone):  Check out Your Man in India or AskSunday

-Car Care: Mobile Detail and Oil Change services

-Cooking: Chef at home or these cooking clubs where groups cook homemade meals together

I highly advise any one to check around before saying, “I cannot afford it.”  With the current economy, you may find the services are less than you think.  Also service based companies tend to raise prices carefully.  For example, I get 15% off of my housekeeping services thanks to the economy and using Angie’s List

Go To Bed!

One of my biggest challenges was staying up and watching the late night talk shows.  You get involved in something and before you know it, the midnight hour is upon you.  Getting ready for bead at midnight means I don’t get to sleep until about 1 AM, which makes it pretty hard to get up at 7AM for a bike ride or other exercise.

If there is some late program you cannot live without, get a DVR.  I think I pay $5/mo for my DVR from comcast. If you consider that gives you an extra hour of rest every day of the month, the investment does not require Warren Buffet’s wisdom.

Trying to get to be earlier is a major change for me.  I was historically a night owl.  Making this shift has taken time, but I really enjoy riding my bike before work.  I get 30-60 minutes to myself before the busy day begins.  That helps me focus and increases my productivity, meaning I work less.

Simple Planning

If you find chores difficult in the morning, do them before bed.  Look for ways to move tasks to different days or different hours to be more efficient.  Fix your lunch the night before, lay out your clothes or your kid’s clothes if you have monsters in the house.  Small things can really help out.  If you have a smoothie for breakfast, consider portioning the fruit on the weekend, so you can just dump the bag into the blender and you are ready to go.  A few minutes here and a few minutes there do add up, especially when you make this a permanent change.  If you can find 15 minutes per week, that’s 13 hours a year.

Start Small

You have to start small.  Embarking on some rigorous time saving schedule will likely fail.  Find simple ways to claw back a few minutes here in there.  Outsource some tasks.  Enslave your family for more assistance.  Every minute you can get back for yourself is an investment in your health.  Think of the minute as an ounce of gold — how hard would you work to get an ounce of gold, now trading over $1000/oz?

Focus on the Benefits

Keep the benefits in mind.   Focusing on the outcome is what propels me to drag myself from bed at 7AM to endure an hour on the bike.  I know about 15 minutes into it I will,

• Feel more energized
• Reassure myself that I can do this
• Gain confidence
• Relax
• Be glad I did it

Your rewards may be different than mine, but if you discover both short and long term benefits, you can use these to push yourself to find more time to exercise.

My Battle

I too have used the “I don’t have time excuse.”  I finally stopped doing it.  Here’s what I’ve done to slay my Time Dragon.  I’m sure it will raise its ugly head again, but these things keep it in check:

Hired a housekeeper (saved 3-5 hours/month)

Go to bed earlier (gives me 30-60 minutes before work)

Delegated more tasks at work (saves 5-10 hours per week)

Consolidating my Traveling Preferences to 1 Site (saves 30 minutes to 60 minutes per trip 12+ trips a year)

Cook More on the Grill (kitchen is cleaner, fewer pots and pans 10-15 mins vs. cooking indoors)

Put all workout gear in one drawer in dresser (saves about 5 minutes looking for shorts, socks, etc)

Ride with a Bike Club (being new to the area, going to the bar is about the only other social activity 2 hrs/wk)

Considering ….

Instead of journaling my food, I may just start taking pictures with my cell phone and upload them to flickr.

Only doing blog posts once per week when I feel I’m ready to post.

Prepping my bike the night before for early morning rides.

Slay the Dragon

In the end, you have to slay your own Time Dragon.  You have to find that balance between work, family and self that makes sense for yourself.  Steve Covey’s time management may be for you, but for others it will fail.  Keep trying to find what works.  Claw back those few minutes.  They begin to add up.  When you see the benefits, you will be encouraged to find more time.

Looking back on that moment, I realized that my quality of life was suffering because of my poor health.  A year or so later, we were in Montreal for the F1 race.  F1 is like crack for an adrenaline junkie.  Nearly 800 horsepower launches the car from 0-60 in under 2 seconds.  These are phenomenal bits of machinery.  Plus, the international atmosphere is great.  However, poor health coupled with  record heat wave made the event barely bearable.

Hiking to the Furthest Northwestern Point in the Lower 48
This past week, I was in Seattle. One of the highlights of my week long stay was a day trip to the Olympic Peninsula and Cape Flattery – the most Northwestern point in the continental US. The best thing about this trip — no health issues. I managed the ~2 mile hike with ease. If I had the time, I could have hiked for miles.

Perfect Motivation
For the first time in several years, I was able to really enjoy myself without nagging health issues. I never realized that I had “health” problems, but I did. I avoided certain routes, stayed out of the heat, chose to drive instead of walk. Now, being as fit as I have been in a long time, I don’t shy away from a 5 mile walk through a city because I know my knees will hurt the next day.

I probably walked 20 miles while on my trip. Only did a long car trip annoy my back, which some yoga took care of pretty quickly. Sprints up the stairs to Pike Place Market, which would have killed me a few years ago, where part of my exercise routine.

Mini-Bootcamp

So I managed to drag myself out of bed this morning to get some exercise.  I knew if I went to the fitness center buried in the basement, I would be discouraged, so I headed outside. Temp was good ~78F but humid 80%.

I did a “countdown” routine.  You decrease your reps each time.  I find this motivating as you have less work to do as you go along. On your first round you do 10 reps, then 9, then 8 and so on down to 1.

Warm Up:  Jog 500m

Step Ups to 20″ Ledge Each Leg

Jog 50m

Push-up on Park Bench

Jog 50m

Should press With Boulder

Jog 100m back to start

Repeat 10 times decreasing reps each time.

Countdown Pysch-Out

I like the countdown as you lose track of the reps.  If someone told me to get up this morning and do 55 push ups, 55 step ups and 55 shoulder presses and then jog 2.5K, I would have told them they were nuts.  However, that’s what I just finished.

Now on to more talks on SEO, SEM, Cloud Computing, and social media strategies.

TIP: Over on Nicki’s blog, I commented that you can often get egg whites at hotel breakfast buffets.  At the omelette stand yesterday there was no mention of egg whites, only a big vat of mixed eggs. I asked and he had some egg whites underneath in the fridge.  So I had 3 egg whites, tomatoes, green pepper, and onion.  1/4 mixed berries with 2 tablespoons of yogurt and a mini whole-grain waffle plain, 3 oz of grapefruit juice.

This week, I’m at the Gaylord National Resort in Washington D.C. for Hostingcon, the annual geek fest for people providing internet services.  Conferences pose some huge challenges:

• Disrupted Exercise Routine
• Unhealthy Food Abundant
• Networking Drinking Events

Fruit Hoarding

The food at these events is typically poor, but this year, I have to give the operation some credit. At least there is some fruit available during breaks. This is a welcome addition to the fat-laden goodies like cookies, donuts, and muffins that are typically served.  When I find some good fruit, I stash it in my conference bag.

Luckily, my fruit hoard has saved me twice.

Yesterday, before the evening network event. I had an apple.  Typically at these events I drift from one reception to another, trying to limit the drinks people are tossing my way.  Finger foods are the menu du jour, so the apple helped.  I drank less and was less tempted by the nachos on offer.

Today when walking into the exhibit hall around 10:30 AM, Otis Spunkmeyer greeted my nostrils.  For our obese nation, fresh-baked cookies are probably better than a booth babe in attracting attendees to your both.  The plum I had stashed in my bag saved me. One booth was giving out slices of chocoloate cake — that’s the last thing an overweight sedentary system administrator needs.

Lunch Deconstructed

Lunch is tough.  There is a mixed green salad offered but very little healthy protein.  Yesterday, they served some turkey and cheese sandwiches on a roll.  So I made a salad with some cucumbers and tomatoes and took the turkey from the sandwich to make a meal.  I thought this was pretty good.  I did indulge a bit in the mini-desert, which was a shot glass sized serving of cheesecake.

Today was a little tougher.  The protein option was a fish bathed in butter and bread crumbs or a chicken breast wrapped in ham with some cheese.  I scraped the ham and cheese off of the chicken and added it to my salad.  Still pretty fatty, but better than the butter soaked fish.

Not Drinking

Alcohol greases the engine of business.  Hanging out in a social setting and kicking back a beer or six builds trust.  Why you should trust a drunken salesperson is beyond me, but that’s how it works.

Last night was tough.  There are many people here I’ve know for years, so catching up required more than a couple of drinks.  Fortunately in H3I speak, this is an infrequent event, so overdoing it is relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.  I did, however, make it back with much less damage than in the past.

Tonight, I had a wonderful dinner with some of business partners.  I had a couple of drinks at dinner and one after.  Probably 3 servings of alcohol total.  The bread bowl had a flat bread in it, so I ate a very small portion of it — better than eating the entire bowl of bread which was an old habit.

I had a mixed salad and fish for dinner.  The portion was a little large but I did not have any afternoon snack and a light lunch, so on balance, I think it was a success.

Exercise (Kind of)

The conference runs from 8:30 AM to about 5:30 PM, then dinner and/or a networking reception.  By the time you’re done, exhaustion takes hold.

Yesterday, I asked myself a question:

“What benefits the my business more?  Going to a boring sessions with little import or taking 45 minutes out of the day to improve my health?”

When posed that way, the answer was clear.  In the past, I felt a little guilty about taking some “me time” at these events as they can be expensive.  After a closer inspection, I realized that being rejuvenated from exercise would make me more effective in the important sessions.

This is a win-win attitude.  I win and the business wins.  This is a big shift in my attitude about business events.  In the future, I will look for low impact events and see if I can use that time to get some exercise.

Simply Stairs

Taking the stairs.  Though sometimes I forget or just follow the crowd down the escalator, I’ve been trying to take the stairs.  This conference is spread over 3 floors which each floor occupying about 2 stories.  So to go from the exhibit hall to the conference room is 6 flights.  I did that about 4x today, so that 24 stories.

Hanging in There

I’ve one more day at the conference and then over to my aunt’s place for  some family time.  I think I’ve managed pretty well but will not know for sure until I hit the scale when I get home on Sunday.

Since leaving H3I, I try to at least get one “ThermoWalk” in a day.  Most of the time it is an after dinner walk.  However, this time of year in Jax, the weather does not always co-operate.  Afternoon and evening downpours are common.  So how to get your exercise? Enter Wii Fit.

Don’t fire your trainer just yet.

Unless you’ve not been working out at all, most of the games, aerobics, strength and yoga on the Wii Fit will not challenge you.  The Fit is not a replacement for a full exercise program.  But what it can do, it provide you with some entertaining, low intensity exercise.  A great replacement for walking  after dinner.

Games, Aerobics, Strength, and Yoga

The Fit has balance games, aerobics, strength and yoga.  The games mostly focus on balance.  For example, the ski slalom requires you to use a slight squat and balance side to side.  In the aerobics area, there is a hula-hoop game that can get take your heart beat up a notch or two.  The strength and yoga  items hold not surprises.  For many of the exercises, you use the Wii remote or the balance board.  The game then keeps track of your score.

Weight Log

The Wii also measures your weight. I’ve seen this change by as much as 2.5 lbs in 30 minutes, so the Wii board is quite sensitive to how you stand on it.  I’ve found I get more consistent results by doing my weigh in at the end of the workout.  The best thing is this provides a very easy way to track your weight.  The accuracy is not too important.  What you mainly want to see is the graph moving in the right direction over the month.  Don’t worry about +/- 2lb gains along the way.

Integrating the Fit

Integrating the Wii Fit into your daily/weekly schedule.  If you plan on walking but just don’t feel like getting outside.  See if you can manage 10 minutes on the fit.  While dinner is cooking, you may be able to find 5 minutes of low impact games.  The goal is to increase your total exercise level not to get Fit by using the Wii.

For example, if 2x a week I forgo my 20 min walk due to some reason, I’ve given up 160 minutes of exercise a month. But if I get on the Wii instead,  I don’t lose that 160 minutes of exercise.

Getting the Kids Involved

I don’t have kids so take this for what it is worth.  While I think kids my like the games on the Fit, they probably will not like the other routines.  I can’t imagine getting a 4 year old to do Yoga.  However, the Fit comes with Wii Sports.  That game can get you moving.  For example, with Wii Bowling, bowl into  lunge and hold it until the ball hits the pins.  Switch legs have way through. Don’t worry about the score.  Get your exercise in.

With the baseball, hold the Wi-mote in one hand and a weight in your other.  Be a switch hitter to balance the work out.

Buy a Fit

At first, I did not like the Fit, but now I probably rack up 90 minutes on the fit weekly.  That’s 6 hours per month of additional exercise.  For someone my size and the intensity I work out on the Fit, that is at least 1700 calories a month.

By using the Fit, I can expect to lose an additional 5 pounds per year.

Five pounds may not seem like much, but if it is combined with walking more, eating better and other lifestyle improvements, that fiver gets added to another fiver and soon we are talking significant weight loss.

About two weeks ago, I went to Hilton Head Health Institute (H3I)  in South Carolina.  After a 10 day stay, the sherpas at H3I had me on a path to a healthier way of living.  At H3I, you spend a good portion of your day exercising.  From aerobics to zumba, they have it all.  I greatly enjoyed the cardio boxing and kayaking.  When not exercising, you are in class learning about nutrition, stress management, fitness and health issues.  There are no gimmicks here — straightforward advice on weight management, nutrition and living a healthier life.

Oh yes, you do get to eat.  The quantity is cant (~1200 calories/day) but the quality is excellent.  With 3 meals and 3 snacks a day, I rarely felt hungry, even after a full day of exercise.

While there, you live in a bubble. Your exercise, meals and much of your social activities are planned for you.  Of course, you could go awol if you wanted but the impact would be diminished.

Making Friends

Though I was only there 10 days, I met some truly inspiring people.  Nicki started blogging about her experience at H3I. I started commenting on her blog 8 Headed Hydra.  I found I liked writing about food, fitness and seeing how others struggle with some of the same demons as I.  So you can credit her with the existence of this blog.

I met some other great people there as well. People that I hope to see again, hopefully in a much slimmer form.  Robert was a real inspiration.  Every morning you could find him on the beach for 2 mile sunrise walk – even after he’d punished his legs the day before with 45 minutes of treading water.
Cooking and Eating

I love to cook.   Over the years my culinary skills have improved significantly.  I do try to make original recipes and will try to include some of the more tasty experiments here.  One thing I learned is not to be timid.  There are nights when the dish went into the trash after one bite.  Probably more times than I care to remember.

I love to eat.  From fine dining at swanky places like Per Se to dives like Louis Lunch, I love good food.  That’s an issue when you are trying to lose pounds, but it is something you have to learn to manage.  I’m still learning.

Exercise

H3I re-ignited my passion for being outdoors.  In the week since I returned, I’ve logged about 30 miles on my bike.  Now that’s not a lot until you consider I probably only rode 10 miles over the past 6 months.  I’m getting into the routine to start the day with a good ride.