Fitness

Fitness isn’t easy. It’s awesome.

Fitness isn’t easy. It’s awesome.

Your attitude is why your body looks the way it does---no muscle, no nothing. Your body is the physical manifestation of your mental state. I don't mean this in some woo-woo new age way. You don't care about what you eat, if/how you exercise, or anything. Your body reflects your apathy and complacency. When you learn to care about yourself, you'll behave like you do. If I were you, I'd want someone to tell me this: Put some f'ing work into your diet and exercise even if you don't want to until you see and feel results. You're probably not going to like it because you sound like you've never worked hard in your life so you don't know the rewards and how good they…

November 12, 2016

Fat, Manhattan real estate, profit, and where obesity comes from

Fitness / Visualization

Fat, Manhattan real estate, profit, and where obesity comes from

I noticed when I shop at the grocery store, I use a lot less of it than I used to. I hardly use any of it any more, by floor space. I couldn't find a floor plan of my local market, but this one looks fairly representative: When you avoid food where you have to throw away packaging and food with fiber removed, you only use the two circled parts here: Some of the circled part includes a "coffee smoothie bar," which I wouldn't use. The biggest differences in my life for sticking with fresh produce (and bulk foods for nuts and legumes put in bags I brought with me) are that foods are more Delicious Convenient Cheap Local Healthy That is, by my values,…

November 10, 2016

I’d rather be hungry for a few hours than eat crap. Is that unamerican?

I used to know a lot of places to get convenient, fast vegetarian foods in the city. That way, no matter where I was caught, I'd know where to find a quick bite. Since choosing to avoid food with packaging and food whose fiber has been removed, I've found restaurant food disappointing, unhealthy, expensive, and trying to trick me into thinking I wanted rice or bread instead of fresh vegetables and fruit. The two words I associate with restaurants are disappointing and trickery. I've concluded tricking customers into thinking their food is healthy and worth the price is one of the main goals of restaurants. I pack lunches when I can, but when I get caught all day without food, I've found I prefer to…

November 7, 2016

Fitness / Perception

You drink too much water, probably

You've heard to drink eight cups of water a day. I can't count how many times I have. There is zero medical or scientific evidence supporting the advice. None. There never was and never will be. I hear people suggest it so often, feeling they're helping people when they're just repeating uninformed, confused misinformation, I couldn't help but post on it. This site---Snopes---summarizes the science debunking the myth, with citations to the research. I'm not going to tell you to stop repeating the nonsense, but at least now you know you're not helping anyone. EDIT: Here's a New York Times article compiling more research on it, "No, You Do Not Have to Drink 8 Glasses of Water a Day." It begins "If there is one…

October 14, 2016

Walking is faster

I just walked back from a place that's a 30-minute walk or 15-minute subway ride from home. That is, had I taken the subway, I would have gotten home 15 minutes earlier, but I also would have stood around on the subway for 15 minutes. So the way I calculate it, I spent 15 minutes getting 30 minutes of exercise. That's a win in my book. Plus, since I don't have travel time to a gym, I save more time. Since no medicine has been shown more effective than exercise for mental health, I save trips to doctors, psychologists, and drug stores for help I don't need. Plus I fall asleep faster. And so on. So I recommend walking when you can.

October 13, 2016

How This Bodybuilder With Cerebral Palsy Can Help You Reach Your Potential

Fitness / Inc.com

How This Bodybuilder With Cerebral Palsy Can Help You Reach Your Potential

My Inc.com article yesterday, "How This Bodybuilder With Cerebral Palsy Can Help You Reach Your Potential," began How This Bodybuilder With Cerebral Palsy Can Help You Reach Your Potential Can his example lead you to achieve something you thought you couldn't? Why are we here at Inc.com if not to be part of a community focused on improving ourselves, leading others, setting examples, and changing the world? And what are we standing against, if not accepting the status quo and limitations others try to impose on us? What do entrepreneurs do except do what others thought impossible? Watching the video below, from Great Big Story, I couldn't help think of how many people want to become more fit but accept physical limitations others get past.…

October 5, 2016

A long boring video I’m proud of

A long boring video I’m proud of

I met a woman who was coxswain for the Princeton rowing team. When I told her I rowed 5,016 meters in 20 minutes, she said it was a remarkable achievement and said if I showed her a video of my rowing she'd critique my form. So I recorded myself rowing for half an hour. It's hardly exciting and my time isn't world class, but I'm happy to show myself off, as well as my cherry tomato plant in the background. If you row and can critique my form, I'd love to hear it. I found out why I move my head back at the front of my stroke: my eyes couldn't see the screen that close so my body was subconsciously keeping my eyes farther…

September 29, 2016

Does eating meat make you ignorant?

Fitness / Nature

Does eating meat make you ignorant?

Most people who have talked to me for more than thirty minutes over the past year heard me talk about food, especially all the fresh vegetables and fruit, as well as the legumes I cook in the pressure cooker. With many of them, I describe in detail what I eat. Some I even show the pictures, like these, of what I eat Or these, showing the farm where my food grew: Or this, showing the full contents of my kitchen---everything I eat: That's everything in my kitchen! The ignorant meat-eater question So, knowing everything I eat, they ask, So where do you get your protein? The answer is right there. This isn't like I casually mention to someone that I don't eat meat. I describe…

September 28, 2016

A burpee conversation with a reader

I've written about the value of sharing your passions. When you do, people who share them too will find you and enrich your world. A reader wrote me about burpees and we got into a rewarding conversation. I'll share the start of it, mainly hoping to extend the community and motivate others. It's nothing earth-shattering, but it enriches ones life to find people to share passions with. It's encouraging, rewarding, and motivational. He wrote: Hi Josh, I have been captivated by burpees this past year. The first time I did them I did as many as possible and got to 30. It was exhausting! I then started to do them daily in one set as many as possible to failure. 30 the next day...then 32...34...38...40…

September 27, 2016

Choosing/Decision-Making / Fitness / Habits / Nature

Seek reward and joy, not deprivation

We all have Habits we don't like that we want to break Habits we think we'll like that we want to start Foods we want to avoid Foods we want to eat more of Skills we want to learn All sorts of things we want to change about our lives... BUT WE DON'T CHOOSE THEM. The classic case is the chocolate cake in front of us that, when it wasn't in front of us we said we wouldn't eat and we know we'll regret eating it later, but we feel the impulse to eat it. We know the value of controlling our impulses. We might know how impulse control correlates with success in nearly every measure in life. We have a lifetime of regretting eating…

September 20, 2016

My aging body

Someone asked on a forum for men over 30 when they started noticing physical declines. I thought I'd share what I wrote there here: My body overall peaked in my early 30s but the decline is a lot slower than I expected. My sports performance dropped off heavily. I played nationals-level ultimate frisbee then. Now I'm a bit player in summer league. A couple years, maybe age 32 to 35, saw enough drop-off that I couldn't compete. Still, I could run marathons with decent times for a while. I still can but it takes more training, or rather the training takes more recovery time. The biggest issue is time for injuries to heal. A small pull that used to take a week to heal, and…

September 19, 2016

Creating more life: more tomatoes! … and the sweetness of vegetables

Fitness / Nature / Perception

Creating more life: more tomatoes! … and the sweetness of vegetables

In "Creating life ... my first tomato!" I wrote about my first gardening experiments and how proud I was of my first tomato growing. That's nothing compared to people who seriously garden, but I have low standards the first time and this is a first time. It turns out it's a cherry tomato. Also, I learned that tomato plants usually need insects to pollinate the flowers and cause them to turn into tomatoes. A friend told me she learned that you didn't need insects, exactly, but their vibrations to cause the pollen to come off the plant. She told me she used an electronic vibrating device I didn't have but I have an electric hair trimmer that vibrates. Below are the results: more cherry tomatoes…

September 16, 2016

My favorite time of the day

Do you think Michelangelo looked at his statue of David while he sculpted it? I read that Da Vinci worked on the Mona Lisa for more than ten years. Do you think he looked at it in that time---to appreciate his work to date, to guide his upcoming work, and so on? I have a playful little rule for myself that I'm not allowed to look in the mirror before doing my burpees twice each day. Why does looking in the mirror matter? Because I can still remember my older step-brother teasing me as a child for having unnecessary fat. Because I can still remember in college, when sports had made me fit enough to feel good wearing shirts where you could see my abdomen.…

September 13, 2016

Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

80,000 burpees!

[This post is part of a series on my daily exercise and starting and keeping challenging habits. If you don't see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you'll get more value than reading just this post.] Today roughly marks my hitting my 80,000th burpee since starting the sidcha in December 2011. After the first month, I wrote "How to begin a workout routine to last: start with joy." I remember during that first month wondering as I did those early burpees when my body would give out and I'd have to stop, figuring it would be when I was 80 or so. Still, it feels like an accomplishment to approach six digits worth of them. I've come…

August 30, 2016

Awareness / Fitness

The danger of letting your starting point become your goals

The words of A Nation At Risk, a U.S. education policy document from 1983 have stuck with me through the years: we find that for too many people education means doing the minimum work necessary for the moment, then coasting through life on what may have been learned in its first quarter. But this should not surprise us because we tend to express our educational standards and expectations largely in terms of "minimum requirements." ... In some metropolitan areas basic literacy has become the goal rather than the starting point. It's easy to let the minimum become the goal rather than the starting point. Yesterday I played a couple games of ultimate. The temperature hit the 90s and I played more than I had in…

August 14, 2016

Audio / Entrepreneurship / Fitness / Habits / Leadership / SIDCHAs

Listen to Jim Harshaw’s Wrestling With Success podcast interview with me

I had a fantastic conversation with Jim Harshaw for his podcast, Wrestling With Success. I am honored and humbled that he invited me into the ranks of his guests. I recommend listening to many other episodes besides mine, including his early ones where you get to learn about him. Among other guests, he's had people in space. I've only helped build satellites. Jim is a Division 1 champion wrestler and coach who brings what sports and athletics brings to business and life. In his words, his podcast uncovers the secrets of the most successful people on the planet who are also former athletes and reveals how they used skills learned in sports to overcome failure and achieve a level of success not otherwise possible. Former…

August 1, 2016

20-minute vegetable stew

Fitness / My Favorite Posts / Nature / Visualization

20-minute vegetable stew

I've written about fresh vegetables, fruit, legumes, and how delicious, nutritious, convenient, and cheap they are. I decided to record myself making stew from scratch. I only wish I could write how delicious and nutritious it is. It tastes like it stewed all day. Yesterday and the day before you saw the contents of my fridge. Here's what I do with them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1Ss9fXtSAc A few comments You'll notice I comment on the bag, rubber bands, and water. I try to minimize waste. The main waste for this was the packaging for the salt and curry powder, which I would average over hundreds of meals. Everything else I reused without getting new. The choice of vegetables is seasonal by what I pick up from my CSA…

July 22, 2016

How to get a six-pack eating tons of delicious, cheap, convenient food: Cut out garbage and you get quality

Fitness / Freedom / Habits / Nature

How to get a six-pack eating tons of delicious, cheap, convenient food: Cut out garbage and you get quality

Yesterday I posted about two of my most valued things: Eating tons of delicious, convenient, cheap, and diverse food---basically until I'm stuffed nearly every meal A fit body with well-defined abs with energy for athletic achievement I have found that sharing what you love fills your life with sharing, love, and stuff you love. I can't tell you how good it feels to feel firm, lithe muscle under skin not thickened and jiggling uncontrollably with fat, even on your abs, while eating to stuffed incredibly delicious food, save time and money in the process and exercise, on average, less time than it takes to watch one sit-com per day. And I produce almost no trash. These are the pictures that tell the story. My 45-year-old…

July 21, 2016

45 6-pack

Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs / Visualization

45 6-pack

Today I turned 45 and my 6-pack is nearly there. My goal isn't to get big nor to exercise a lot but to get rid of fat I don't want and free the rest of me while taking minimal time from the rest of my life. As always, to learn more about myself and to grow. This (My usual diet) Plus this (All my exercise equipment) (rowing machine, four kettlebells, ab wheel, sneakers, and cleats. I forgot a Frisbee) Plus burpees, cold showers, and a pressure cooker for the most delicious, convenient, and cheapest food I've eaten Equals this If you'll pardon the hand-held selfie: I think the abs look good for a 45-year-old. I've never felt better.Â My resting heart rate is 53 or…

July 20, 2016

The most helpful burpee video I’ve seen

Fitness / Habits / Visualization

The most helpful burpee video I’ve seen

This video shows burpee form more simply and clearly than any other I've seen. If you're trying to learn how to do them, I think this video shows it best. I prefer doing them barefoot and bring my knees outside my elbows when I jump forward, but those are matters of taste. Note that he touches his chest and chin at the same time and keeps his back rigid, not curling it. Easy ways to challenge yourself with the same form are to jump higher and bring your hands closer to each other for the pushup, which works the same muscles but harder. Good luck with your burpees!

July 14, 2016

How to eat a bag of chips every couple days and lose weight

Fitness / Freedom / Habits

How to eat a bag of chips every couple days and lose weight

This is a post about freedom from people controlling your life. Years ago I couldn't help buying ice cream all the time. I'd almost always have a carton in the freezer. I'd come home and try not eating it but I often would. And I used to love the Snyder's of Hanover pretzel bits that were broken on purpose to hold the flavored powder they added. Before then I loved Doritos. Once I started eating them I wouldn't stop until the skin in my mouth was tender and even hurt. All the corn flour would get stuck in my teeth. The powder would cover my fingers. I loved chips and manufactured snacks. I lived an active lifestyle so I didn't put on too much weight,…

July 12, 2016

Fitness / Models / Nature

I don’t think of diet, exercise, and behavior as preventing cancer, heart disease, and diabetes

I was reading some articles on how diet, exercise, and behavior like not smoking can prevent cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. The story on cancer summarized from one study: Using sophisticated modeling techniques, the researchers argued that less than 30 percent of the lifetime risk of getting many common cancers was because of intrinsic risk factors, or the "bad luck." The rest were things you can change. and from another study: About 82 percent of women and 78 percent of men who got lung cancer might have prevented it through healthy behaviors. About 29 percent of women and 20 percent of men might have prevented colon and rectal cancer. About 30 percent of both might have prevented pancreatic cancer. ... Over all, though, about 25…

July 6, 2016

“I don’t know which I like more: a juicy, ripe peach in season, or the rest of the universe”

Awareness / Fitness / Nature / Perception

“I don’t know which I like more: a juicy, ripe peach in season, or the rest of the universe”

After the peach I just ate, I don't know which I like more: a juicy, ripe peach in season, or the rest of the universe. I can't believe people eat candy and junk when fruit and vegetables exist in the world. I used to, so if I think about it I can understand it, but I don't want to any more. Not after letting my taste buds heal from the damage Kraft, Frito-Lay, and so on inflicted on them and came to appreciate freshness, ripeness, and in-seasonness. The flavor in a peach, plum, pear, collard green, cabbage, and other things I eat with no more preparation than washing is shocking, in the best way. Dandelion greens and mustard greens I almost can't keep in my…

July 5, 2016

Awareness / Fitness / Habits / Inc.com / Tips

Get to Know This Emotional Cycle: It Will Improve Your Life

My Inc.com article yesterday, "Get to Know This Emotional Cycle: It Will Improve Your Life" began Get to Know This Emotional Cycle: It Will Improve Your Life Healthy, active, productive activities are often hard to start. Learn this cycle to identify when to use your willpower to help. Yesterday was rowing day. It was also the first hot, humid, sticky day in New York City. I didn't feel like doing it. I could think of dozens of things I'd rather do. Unlike those guys in the picture, I row indoors on a machine. I stuck with my plan, though, with my usual trick: changing into my workout clothes, an easy action, knowing what would happen next. Eventually my mind said, "I'm in the workout clothes.…

June 30, 2016

Kids doing burpees!

I stumbled across these videos and couldn't help sharing them. Almost anyone can do burpees. Why not do some today? I'll note that nearly everyone, including the adults are doing the push-up with poor form, not keeping their backs straight. Pushing your shoulders up while bending back at the waist undermines that part. Might as well leave the push-up out or work on the form. Also note the rowing machine in the background of the first video. https://joshuaspodek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kid_burpee.mp4 https://joshuaspodek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kid_doing_burpees2.mp4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvZM_1tD3Zg

June 27, 2016

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