It's been a few months since my last post, but I'm happy to say that I've kept off the weight I lost earlier this year (despite a family vacation that involved baby back ribs a great selection of micro-brew beer).
I've found a second wind with an increasingly motivating vinyasa yoga practice. Often with distance running, I found my workouts to be somewhat punishing - the long miles left me feeling energized but very hungry and sore. At the end of each run, I felt entitled to overindulge. Not that any of this is running's fault (it's me, not you), but more that I found it easy to slip into auto pilot.
With yoga, the vast amount of technical details, fellow practitioners, and inspired writings help keep me engaged. Strangely, I've found that I don't miss the more intense cardio one bit. While yoga seemed too subtle at first to produce results, I soon learned that a practice can be as hard and grueling as one requires, producing results pretty quickly. It's only been a month, but I feel stronger, notice more definition all over, and even stand taller! (I started at 6' 3", but I swear I've grown half an inch).
My current routine involves rising at 7 am and practicing for an hour. I don't follow a video, but just put on Pandora and go to it. This required memorizing the sannas and connecting vinyasas, but that process was actually very interesting. Since yoga classes are pretty expensive (around eighteen bucks a pop), cultivating my home practice was key for me to feel that what I was doing was worthwhile. I do go to class once a week for a refresher, and International Orange in SF is my favorite (partly because its in walking distance of my apartment). My home routine includes 5 basic sections:
1. Sun salutations (see http://youtu.be/eGXgoW70IB0)
2. Standing poses
3. Abs
4. Backbends
5. Relaxation & Meditation
At the end of the day though, calorie deficit is what leads to weight loss. My buddy Mike turned me on to http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ which has proven to be very helpful (my username is matthewatabet, feel free to add me!). While the actual calorie counts seem a bit off (the whole thing seems skewed towards low-carb, high cardio lifestyles) I found that simply recording what I eat is a great way to cultivate awareness and hedge off unwanted snacking.
Peace,
Atabet
September 25, 2011
March 1, 2011
Best Practices
It's often tempting to think of health in the same way we think of talent: some have it, most do not. You're either born a genius or you're destined to live a life of at best above-averageness. However, Malcolm Gladwell points out in his book Outliers that talent is not so much about possessing a supernatural disposition as it is about living within the right environment and having access to the right opportunities. Despite our western perspective which places the responsibility of success on the choices of individuals, success actually lies in the details of our situations. My hunch is that the same environmental determinism applies to our health. In other words, our health is much more a product of our environment rather than our innate will power.
Which is good news. Psychologists are learning that using our will power exhausts us and that we only have so much of it to expend each day. Needing to make constant choices which we'd rather not make simply frustrates us, absorbs our attention, and, even if we do make the right choice, there's little payoff since we didn't get what we wanted anyway.
So, if we're not willing ourselves towards health, what are we doing? We're reshaping our environments to promote health. The National Weight Control Registry tracks people who have lost significant amounts of weight and have kept it off over a long period. The Registry has found that people who are successful at weight loss do three things:
1. Eat breakfast daily
2. Weigh themselves weekly
3. Exercise on home equipment
Interestingly, these three things have little to do with specific diets, workouts, or mantras. Instead, they focus on creating an environment which is conducive to weight loss. By owning exercise equipment, people are giving themselves the opportunity to lose weight. Regular weigh-ins provide just enough feedback to keep folks motivated without feeling burnt out.
Additionally, big changes often begin with smaller scale adjustments. Tweaks known as "micro-habits" require little work but can have big results. However, such habits may be difficult to develop because they require mindfulness - the ability to pay attention to details we are accustomed to overlooking. Often, there's a win involved in ignoring these details (e.g. if we don't schedule workouts ahead of time we'll probably have a bit more time for socializing). But, we can retune our environment if we find that such simplifications are merely making us lazy rather than getting us where we want to go.
For example, I flirt from time to time with being an early riser. Waking with a burst of energy, I head to the closet to pull on my running gear. However, I often have to sift through my clothes to find the right shorts, the right shoes, and some type of outer wear which matches the foggy, damp brew often rolling over San Francisco before sunrise. Of course, fumbling around in a dark closet quickly saps what little energy I have and before I know it I'm dreaming of crawling back under the covers, a dream which often becomes reality. Thus, I get my "reward" for having my gear strewn about. Then, after a few mornings of crawling back into bed, I've ditched my high-minded goals entirely, writing early mornings off as something reserved for "Type-A" personalities. However, if I spend five minutes before bed arranging my gear for the next morning in a neat bundle in the hallway, I don't waste my motivation during those first previous moments of the day. And, as soon as I start lacing up my shoes, I find my motivation growing, bringing on a surge of energy that gets me moving out the door. And, with such motivation, it's much easier to keep up the early-rising habit. Thus, a small change like setting out clothes the night before can have a snow-ball effect leading to a much larger overall change.
Finally, I'll leave this post with my own personal goal for overall weight loss. Right now, I weigh 210 (gasp!). But, I'd like to get down to 180. If I lose at least 5 pounds per month, I'll hit my target in 6 months. Not bad right? There's nothing too systematic about this goal so I'll be making adjustments along the way as I discover more.
Here we go!
Atabet
p.s. obligatory disclaimer: always consult your physician before starting a fitness or weight loss routine.
Which is good news. Psychologists are learning that using our will power exhausts us and that we only have so much of it to expend each day. Needing to make constant choices which we'd rather not make simply frustrates us, absorbs our attention, and, even if we do make the right choice, there's little payoff since we didn't get what we wanted anyway.
So, if we're not willing ourselves towards health, what are we doing? We're reshaping our environments to promote health. The National Weight Control Registry tracks people who have lost significant amounts of weight and have kept it off over a long period. The Registry has found that people who are successful at weight loss do three things:
1. Eat breakfast daily
2. Weigh themselves weekly
3. Exercise on home equipment
Interestingly, these three things have little to do with specific diets, workouts, or mantras. Instead, they focus on creating an environment which is conducive to weight loss. By owning exercise equipment, people are giving themselves the opportunity to lose weight. Regular weigh-ins provide just enough feedback to keep folks motivated without feeling burnt out.
Additionally, big changes often begin with smaller scale adjustments. Tweaks known as "micro-habits" require little work but can have big results. However, such habits may be difficult to develop because they require mindfulness - the ability to pay attention to details we are accustomed to overlooking. Often, there's a win involved in ignoring these details (e.g. if we don't schedule workouts ahead of time we'll probably have a bit more time for socializing). But, we can retune our environment if we find that such simplifications are merely making us lazy rather than getting us where we want to go.
For example, I flirt from time to time with being an early riser. Waking with a burst of energy, I head to the closet to pull on my running gear. However, I often have to sift through my clothes to find the right shorts, the right shoes, and some type of outer wear which matches the foggy, damp brew often rolling over San Francisco before sunrise. Of course, fumbling around in a dark closet quickly saps what little energy I have and before I know it I'm dreaming of crawling back under the covers, a dream which often becomes reality. Thus, I get my "reward" for having my gear strewn about. Then, after a few mornings of crawling back into bed, I've ditched my high-minded goals entirely, writing early mornings off as something reserved for "Type-A" personalities. However, if I spend five minutes before bed arranging my gear for the next morning in a neat bundle in the hallway, I don't waste my motivation during those first previous moments of the day. And, as soon as I start lacing up my shoes, I find my motivation growing, bringing on a surge of energy that gets me moving out the door. And, with such motivation, it's much easier to keep up the early-rising habit. Thus, a small change like setting out clothes the night before can have a snow-ball effect leading to a much larger overall change.
Finally, I'll leave this post with my own personal goal for overall weight loss. Right now, I weigh 210 (gasp!). But, I'd like to get down to 180. If I lose at least 5 pounds per month, I'll hit my target in 6 months. Not bad right? There's nothing too systematic about this goal so I'll be making adjustments along the way as I discover more.
Here we go!
Atabet
p.s. obligatory disclaimer: always consult your physician before starting a fitness or weight loss routine.
Best Practices
It's often tempting to think of health in the same way we think of talent: some have it, most do not. You're either born a genius or you're destined to live a life of at best above-averageness. However, Malcolm Gladwell points out in his book Outliers that talent is not so much about possessing a supernatural disposition as it is about living within the right environment and having access to the right opportunities. Despite our western perspective which places the responsibility of success on the choices of individuals, success actually lies in the details of our situations. My hunch is that the same environmental determinism applies to our health. In other words, our health is much more a product of our environment rather than our innate will power.
Which is good news. Using our will power exhausts us and psychologists are learning that we only have so much of it to spend each day. Needing to make constant choices which we'd rather not make simply frustrates us, absorbs our attention, and, even if we do make the right choice, there's little payoff since we didn't get what we wanted anyway.
So, if we're not willing ourselves towards health, what are we doing? We're reshaping our environments to promote health. The National Weight Control Registry tracks people who have lost significant amounts of weight and have kept it off over a long period. The Registry has found that people who are successful at weight loss do three things:
1. Eat breakfast daily
2. Weigh themselves weekly
3. Exercise on home equipment
Interestingly, these three things have little to do with specific diets, workouts, or mantras. Instead, they focus on creating an environment which is conducive to weight loss. By owning exercise equipment, people are giving themselves the opportunity to lose weight. Regular weigh-ins provide just enough feedback to keep folks motivated without feeling burnt out.
Additionally, big changes often begin with smaller scale adjustments. Tweaks known as "micro-habits" require little work but can have big results. However, such habits may be difficult to develop because they require mindfulness - the ability to pay attention to details we are accustomed to overlooking. Often, there's a win involved in ignoring these details (e.g. if we don't schedule workouts ahead of time we'll probably have a bit more time for socializing). But, we can retune our environment if we find that such simplifications are merely making us lazy rather than getting us where we want to go.
For example, I flirt from time to time with being an early riser. Waking with a burst of energy, I head to the closet to pull on my running gear. However, I often have to sift through my clothes to find the right shorts, the right shoes, and some type of outer wear which matches the foggy, damp brew often rolling over San Francisco before sunrise. Of course, fumbling around in a dark closet quickly saps what little energy I have and before I know it I'm dreaming of crawling back under the covers, a dream which often becomes reality. Thus, I get my "reward" for having my gear strewn about. Then, after a few mornings of crawling back into bed, I've ditched my high-minded goals entirely, writing early mornings off as something reserved for "Type-A" personalities. However, if I spend five minutes before bed arranging my gear for the next morning in a neat bundle in the hallway, I don't waste my motivation during those first previous moments of the day. And, as soon as I start lacing up my shoes, I find my motivation growing, bringing on a surge of energy that gets me moving out the door. And, with such motivation, it's much easier to keep up the early-rising habit. Thus, a small change like setting out clothes the night before can have a snow-ball effect leading to a much larger overall change.
Finally, I'll leave this post with my own personal goal for overall weight loss. Right now, I weigh 210 (gasp!). But, I'd like to get down to 180. If I lose at least 5 pounds per month, I'll hit my target in 6 months. Not bad right? There's nothing too systematic about this goal so I'll be making adjustments along the way as I discover more.
Here we go!
Atabet
p.s. obligatory disclaimer: always consult your physician before starting a fitness or weight loss routine.
Which is good news. Using our will power exhausts us and psychologists are learning that we only have so much of it to spend each day. Needing to make constant choices which we'd rather not make simply frustrates us, absorbs our attention, and, even if we do make the right choice, there's little payoff since we didn't get what we wanted anyway.
So, if we're not willing ourselves towards health, what are we doing? We're reshaping our environments to promote health. The National Weight Control Registry tracks people who have lost significant amounts of weight and have kept it off over a long period. The Registry has found that people who are successful at weight loss do three things:
1. Eat breakfast daily
2. Weigh themselves weekly
3. Exercise on home equipment
Interestingly, these three things have little to do with specific diets, workouts, or mantras. Instead, they focus on creating an environment which is conducive to weight loss. By owning exercise equipment, people are giving themselves the opportunity to lose weight. Regular weigh-ins provide just enough feedback to keep folks motivated without feeling burnt out.
Additionally, big changes often begin with smaller scale adjustments. Tweaks known as "micro-habits" require little work but can have big results. However, such habits may be difficult to develop because they require mindfulness - the ability to pay attention to details we are accustomed to overlooking. Often, there's a win involved in ignoring these details (e.g. if we don't schedule workouts ahead of time we'll probably have a bit more time for socializing). But, we can retune our environment if we find that such simplifications are merely making us lazy rather than getting us where we want to go.
For example, I flirt from time to time with being an early riser. Waking with a burst of energy, I head to the closet to pull on my running gear. However, I often have to sift through my clothes to find the right shorts, the right shoes, and some type of outer wear which matches the foggy, damp brew often rolling over San Francisco before sunrise. Of course, fumbling around in a dark closet quickly saps what little energy I have and before I know it I'm dreaming of crawling back under the covers, a dream which often becomes reality. Thus, I get my "reward" for having my gear strewn about. Then, after a few mornings of crawling back into bed, I've ditched my high-minded goals entirely, writing early mornings off as something reserved for "Type-A" personalities. However, if I spend five minutes before bed arranging my gear for the next morning in a neat bundle in the hallway, I don't waste my motivation during those first previous moments of the day. And, as soon as I start lacing up my shoes, I find my motivation growing, bringing on a surge of energy that gets me moving out the door. And, with such motivation, it's much easier to keep up the early-rising habit. Thus, a small change like setting out clothes the night before can have a snow-ball effect leading to a much larger overall change.
Finally, I'll leave this post with my own personal goal for overall weight loss. Right now, I weigh 210 (gasp!). But, I'd like to get down to 180. If I lose at least 5 pounds per month, I'll hit my target in 6 months. Not bad right? There's nothing too systematic about this goal so I'll be making adjustments along the way as I discover more.
Here we go!
Atabet
p.s. obligatory disclaimer: always consult your physician before starting a fitness or weight loss routine.
February 20, 2011
(Re)introduction
At the outset of any work, the writer faces an essential decision: to write about something understood or something mysterious. The first path results in textbooks, guidebooks, remedies, and fictional embodiments of personal hopes and regrets. The latter path produces ramblings, essays, and other bohemian pursuits (the very definition of a romantic might be the obsession with the unknowable). The word essay itself originates from "assay" implying at best an attempt along with the very real possibility of failure. It's this risk of failure which keeps the dreamer honest and dynamic. Not that expertise is boring, but rather that growth occurs in the unchartered territories. The important bit about these untapped regions are the experts often living there, ready to help us on our journey (e.g. Perceval and the hermit).
With this re-introduction to HealthiestHome, I'm focusing on something I do not understand in the least: self-care. I'm as adept at the ritual of being genuinely good to myself as I am the mating patterns of Scottish perch. This series of postings is an invitation for anyone wanting to follow my journey and push towards growth. And, I invite the experts out there to point out what I could be doing better.
To begin, my situation is not dire. But, I know that left uncheck, it will trend towards abysmal. I'm almost 31, not overweight but a little soft; my muscle tone is near to non-existent. I eat fairly well, though I often fall victim to late night chinese food binges. Further, I live a sedentary lifestyle as a software engineer and artist (a working environment not exactly full to the brim with positive health influences). Last year I did go through a running kick, completing two half marathons (my personal record is 1:48, not bad). But, I haven't achieved the undeniable change I'm looking for. Additionally, I rarely come across as being put together (mismatched socks, too long between haircuts, oily skin, you get the idea).
On the positive side, San Francisco offers plenty of resources for growth - abundant yoga studios, raw food restaurants, organic grocery stores, and holistic healing centers. But, the abundance of options reveals its own difficulties - what is truly beneficial and what is mere hype (the result of some marketing ploy to cash in on the desperate grasping of the masses to find some hope)? Much of this journal will research what works and what does not, remembering that overall health should not sacrifice genuineness or financial stability. Paying twenty-two dollars a pound for raw flaxseed crackers is not an option.
During the course of our conversation, we'll cover physical fitness, emotional intelligence, personal appearance, skin care, fashion, nutrition, and rest. At each step, my goal is to try out new habits, record my progress, and refine my overall approach. Of course, perfectionism would lead to unattainable goals and burnout while setting my sights too low would simply be fooling myself. While it sounds trite, moderation will be key.
So, onwards and upwards! Read, follow, and enjoy.
Peace,
Atabet
With this re-introduction to HealthiestHome, I'm focusing on something I do not understand in the least: self-care. I'm as adept at the ritual of being genuinely good to myself as I am the mating patterns of Scottish perch. This series of postings is an invitation for anyone wanting to follow my journey and push towards growth. And, I invite the experts out there to point out what I could be doing better.
To begin, my situation is not dire. But, I know that left uncheck, it will trend towards abysmal. I'm almost 31, not overweight but a little soft; my muscle tone is near to non-existent. I eat fairly well, though I often fall victim to late night chinese food binges. Further, I live a sedentary lifestyle as a software engineer and artist (a working environment not exactly full to the brim with positive health influences). Last year I did go through a running kick, completing two half marathons (my personal record is 1:48, not bad). But, I haven't achieved the undeniable change I'm looking for. Additionally, I rarely come across as being put together (mismatched socks, too long between haircuts, oily skin, you get the idea).
On the positive side, San Francisco offers plenty of resources for growth - abundant yoga studios, raw food restaurants, organic grocery stores, and holistic healing centers. But, the abundance of options reveals its own difficulties - what is truly beneficial and what is mere hype (the result of some marketing ploy to cash in on the desperate grasping of the masses to find some hope)? Much of this journal will research what works and what does not, remembering that overall health should not sacrifice genuineness or financial stability. Paying twenty-two dollars a pound for raw flaxseed crackers is not an option.
During the course of our conversation, we'll cover physical fitness, emotional intelligence, personal appearance, skin care, fashion, nutrition, and rest. At each step, my goal is to try out new habits, record my progress, and refine my overall approach. Of course, perfectionism would lead to unattainable goals and burnout while setting my sights too low would simply be fooling myself. While it sounds trite, moderation will be key.
So, onwards and upwards! Read, follow, and enjoy.
Peace,
Atabet
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