Fitness

Fitness / My Favorite Posts

Personal rowing record: 5,016 meters in 20 minutes

Three weeks ago I rowed 4,994 meters in 20 minutes, a speed that felt surprising to keep up the whole time. I've been approaching 5,000 meters in 20 minutes for a while. Today I rowed 20 minutes 5,016 meters 334 calories or 1,003 calories / hour 1:59.6 min / 500m split I can't tell you how good the accomplishment feels. I didn't plan on doing it today. I started rowing faster and harder than usual, felt good, and kept the pace. Not long ago, I struggled to keep up 900 calories per hour for a few minutes at the end. Now I maintained over 1,000 calories per hour for twenty minutes. My body and mind kept telling me to stop. I felt nauseated for part…

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June 18, 2016

Fitness / Nature / Visualization

Farm fresh vegetables

I meant to post about the vegetables I got each week from my farm share deal (called Community Supported Agriculture or CSA). The farm drops off its vegetables to a place a few blocks away and everyone picks up their share within a three-hour time slot. The summer/fall one I do delivers food twenty-four weeks. The winter/spring one delivers less often. This year's started last week, so the fresh vegetables are on my mind. The CSA changed my diet tremendously last year, along with avoiding food with packaging and the pressure cooker. I buy almost exclusively fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, and build legumes, nuts, and seeds. Before joining, I didn't know how to prepare from fresh vegetables or even what most of them were, which…

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June 17, 2016

Awareness / Fitness / Nature / Perception

Have you noticed this distinction in flavors?

Most of my life, I've liked eating apples and I've liked eating potato chips. I would say they both tasted good as a result. Doesn't wanting to eat something mean it tastes good? I'd like to suggest a subtle distinction. Actually, it's only subtle at first. After you realize it, it becomes obvious and changes how you think about food and eat. At least it did for me. It led to me eating more foods I liked and were healthy and losing taste for unhealthy foods. Apples I stand by my feeling that apples taste good. They're sweet and crisp. Note, however, that after you eat one, eating another is hard. Since the next apple tastes just like the first, we seem to have a…

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June 16, 2016

Awareness / Fitness / Habits / Perception

Exercise thoughts

Exercise takes mental effort, not just physical effort. Everyone's mind handles the challenge differently, but some things are common. I find some people feel silly or awkward about their thoughts. More than any other thoughts, I think about fractions of the way finished I am. For example, a lap of Central Park is six miles. I know roughly where each mile is. The first mile is one-sixth, or about sixteen percent. The next mile is one-third, then one-half, then two-thirds, then the next marker has one-sixth left. I generally note when I pass the seventy-percent mark, since in grade school seventy percent meant passing. I also note ninety percent, since that's where you get an A. I do twenty-six burpees every day. Many burpees have…

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June 15, 2016

Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Fitness / Models / Nature

The myth you believe about yourself that causes you to fail

I pointed out to a friend that he interrupted me nearly every time I spoke. He apologized and added, "I will never do it again." I believe he felt sincere when he said it, but I work in developing people and I've heard people say similar things too many times to expect he could do it. More importantly, I know the difference in mental states between saying "I will never do it again," and how you feel when you do the thing later. Psychologists call it an empathy gap and I've written about it. Sincere pledges A sincere pledge is when you say you will do something and when you say it, you mean with all your heart and mind that you will do it.…

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June 14, 2016

Fitness / Leadership / Models / Relationships

These two surprisingly touching Vince Lombardi quotes reveal the source of his winning leadership

For Vince Lombardi's birthday, I wrote in Inc.com, "These two surprisingly touching Vince Lombardi quotes reveal the source of his winning leadership." The piece begins These two surprisingly touching Vince Lombardi quotes reveal the source of his winning leadership For the great coach's birthday, how to create winning traditions in your teams. I'm writing this article exhausted and sore because two days ago I started researching for this article. Having hurt my leg running, I decided to skip a workout to recover. Then I read Vince Lombardi. His birthday is tomorrow. Most people think of him as a hard-core tough guy. He was. He yelled at his team. He won in a time when not everyone got a medal for participating. The integrity he exuded…

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June 11, 2016

Fitness / Nature

Why I love springtime more than ever

One of my increasing themes here is living more simply, which involves eating more simply and appreciating nature more. I've cooked since childhood, when my siblings and I were responsible for cooking dinners regularly. Only since last year have I started cooking from fresh, raw fruits and vegetables, especially since joining the farm share and the experiment not buying food with packaging that I'd have to throw away. I still take four months or so to fill a canvas tote bag with all my trash, to give you an idea of how little packaging I'm using. What was I doing all that time? Now the joys of springtime are greater than ever. Warm weather is nice, but I can't believe how much more I love…

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June 7, 2016

Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs / Visualization

Your choice of sidcha isn’t that important. Just do one.

Following up yesterday's post about the subtle value of sidchas, I want to lower the bar on choosing what activity to base your sidcha on. Doing one or two sidchas means you can say no to all the others and know you aren't missing out. Still, if you want to do an art-related sidcha, an exercise sidcha, a personal development sidcha, and so on, aren't you missing out on others. Maybe you're missing out by choosing the wrong one. Not a problem. All sidchas give you incredible value Doing a sidcha gives you some value. I'll represent it with this bar: I've done three sidchas for several years now---my burpee-based exercises, posting on my blog, and cold showers, not counting things that I don't consider…

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June 6, 2016

Exercises / Fitness / Freedom / Habits / SIDCHAs

The subtle value of sidchas

I write about self-imposed daily challenging healthy activities (sidchas) a lot. Why is the sidcha different from the countless recommendations to do other things daily? The difference is subtle but important. It will give you more time, structure, and discipline. Some examples: People who meditate regularly tell me that I should meditate daily for the full benefit. Yoga people say the same thing about yoga, at least that I should do it regularly. A video of a girl who practiced dancing daily for a year, became amazing at it, and got onto TV for it inspired me to want to practice dancing daily. Marshall Goldsmith tells me I should answer six questions daily. Writers tell me I should write daily. Fitness people tell me to…

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June 5, 2016

Fitness / Freedom / Leadership

RIP Ali

About few people in few fields can we say there is a before and after. Muhammad Ali is one of them, and beyond "just" boxing, but to sport in general, and free and open expression. Every athlete today lives in his shadow. Every war resister. Every public speaker. Every person who works for fairness. Nobody before him did anything like what he did. Compare athletes of today. Michael Phelps and Michael Jordan dominated their sports, but what social change did they create outside it? Who speaks with his honesty? Compare public speakers today. What public figure spoke with such openness? Who made such sacrifices for their beliefs? Who inspired so many? What poet or songwriter put so many phrases with so much meaning into the…

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June 4, 2016

Awareness / Exercises / Fitness / SIDCHAs

4,994 meters in 20 minutes

I used to like sport for winning. I still do, but no sport compares with ultimate, which I'm too old to compete in. Or rather, I know I'll get worse every year so investing effort for the future has less payoff. Now sport is about discipline, dedication, discovery, self-awareness, and things like that---switching to the second meaning of competition from the first. I've had a rowing machine for years. They give a great workout, in my opinion. Lately I've rowed for 20 or 30 minutes. My split has been dropping to the low two minutes for 500m. A couple months ago 2:00min/500m for a 20-minute row, or 5,000 meters, started looking feasible. I finish the last 4 minutes or so unsustainably fast, like 1:59min/500m, which…

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May 24, 2016

Awareness / Fitness / SIDCHAs

Get to know this emotional pattern: it will improve your life

The pattern is this: You know something will help you and you want to do it You look forward to doing it in the future Just before doing it you feel like you don't want to do it Starting takes a lot of willpower Once you start you want to keep doing it After you finish you're glad you did it and find yourself feeling like in step 1 Examples include Going to the gym or general exercise Avoiding unhealthy foods Working on projects you want to work on Writing Most flow activities Cold showers or any sidcha and more The challenge is getting past step 3. If you do, you'll be glad you did. Most of the time you feel reluctant to do something…

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May 21, 2016

Awareness / Fitness / Nature

Staples aren’t

I grew up thinking a food being a staple, like bread, pasta, potatoes, and rice, meant you were supposed to make them the foundations of your meals. Like pasta was the main part of your meal and you'd put sauce on it. When I ate meat I'd put meat in the sauce. Bread was the foundation for a sandwich. Rice was the foundation for meals it was in. That's what I thought, anyway. The more I cook with vegetables, fruits, and legumes, the more I realize staples don't make for great foundations for meals. Vegetables do. So do legumes like lentils and beans. Wheat, rice, potatoes, and things like that stretch your meal into more mass but not more nutrition, especially when they take the…

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May 11, 2016

Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Exercises / Fitness / Leadership / Nature / SIDCHAs / Tips

How not to be afraid to be yourself, Italian style

The other day I was interviewed for a podcast (I'll link to it when they edit and post it). The interviewer asked me how I accomplished so much. I told him and his listeners to look up sidchas on my blog. Everyone who aspires to greatness knows the importance of building discipline, integrity, dedication, and other skills. I accomplish things by acting by my values. I practice with small challenges like daily exercise, daily writing, cold showers, and so on. Almost nobody does these things or their equivalent for them, yet they want the benefits. You have to do things to get the benefits of doing them. Well, today's post is the smallest yet activity you can do to develop such skills. I don't care…

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May 7, 2016

Exercises / Fitness / Leadership

You’re lying if you say you don’t have time to exercise

"I don't have time to exercise." Everyone has said it at some point. It's a lie. At best, it's ignorant. If you want to lead others, you better know how to lead yourself. Effective exercise can take a few minutes a day. The hard part about effective exercise is that you don't feel motivation to do strenuous things. I'm not saying it's easy. The point is that if you talk about time when the challenge is motivating yourself to overcome demotivation, you're focusing on the wrong issue and you won't solve the problem.

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April 16, 2016

Awareness / Fitness

Your impulses on healthy versus unhealthy activities

Healthy activities: Before, you don't want to do them. After, you feel emotional reward that you did them. Unhealthy activities: Before, you want to do them. After, you regret doing them. For healthy, think exercise, cooking a nutritious meal, helping a friend, even reading a book. For unhealthy, think putting off exercising, eating junk or even just eating too much, staying home when you could help a friend, and watching TV. Examples: I never feel like doing burpees before doing them, but I'm always glad I did. Same with cold showers and marathons. On the other side, when I felt tempted to eat donuts or sugar cereal, I'd regret it from the sickly feeling they'd leave in my mouth. I love the feeling of exhaustion…

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April 15, 2016

Fitness / Models / Nature / Perception

“Eating healthy is expensive and takes too much time” is wrong

I just read yet another post of someone saying eating healthy takes more time and money. I can't believe how wrong that view is, at least by my experience. Living in New York City means I have access to some of the best restaurants in the world. I can afford to eat at them. Yet my past year's cooking has disillusioned me in them. I find them disappointing. Their food still tastes that same. They're just as convenient. Their food just doesn't taste as good as what I can make at home and cooking, eating, and cleaning at home takes less time than eating out our having it delivered. I like cooking at home first and foremost because it tastes better. Next because it takes…

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April 13, 2016

Awareness / Fitness / Nature / Perception

Cabbage

If this doesn't sound like leadership and the rest of what I usually write about, it is. It's about awareness, perception, discovery, and living your life. Increasingly I see food and how you eat as fundamental to leading yourself. Cabbage is delicious! I grew up thinking it was supposed to taste bad. I thought maybe when I grew up I would "acquire the taste for it." I never bought cabbage before last year. Since joining the farm share, where I get vegetables from a nearby farm every week, I've been eating a lot more vegetables. Even when I got it last year as part of the shipment, I would steam it and make something like sauerkraut with it. I didn't know anything else to do…

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April 11, 2016

Fitness

Six-pack abs for your mind and life

A lot of people still think you can lose fat from your stomach by doing sit-ups. Most people know you can't target where you lose fat. More importantly, since you can eat calories faster than you can burn them, especially with sugary foods where the fiber has been removed, six-pack abs come from eating less more than from exercising more for most people. It depends on your eating and exercise habits and you can't rigorously quantify it, but people say losing fat is around 70% or 80% discipline eating and 20% to 30% discipline exercising. What creates mental fitness? If physical fitness comes so much from avoiding junk, what do you think leads to mental fitness: more facts or less mental garbage? What creates business…

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April 2, 2016

Choosing/Decision-Making / Education / Entrepreneurship / Fitness / Models / Perception / Relationships

I’ve been catching up my whole life

School Doing a gratitude exercise recently, writing my undergraduate advisor who helped me figure out how to major in physics starting my second semester junior year. Physics is intense so most of my classmates were younger, having known their major since high school. So academically, I was catching up with classmates from when I chose my major. I just finished the major in my last semester and got into Penn for graduate school, so I felt caught up. Graduate school brought a new level of classmates. Many of them came from abroad, where their educational systems had them take only math and science classes from fifteen or sixteen years old. Some of them had taken forty math and science classes. Columbia is a liberal arts…

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March 29, 2016

Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

Look who’s doing a sidcha: Mark Zuckerberg, running a mile a day this year

The founder and CEO of Facebook set a goal to run a mile every day of 2016. Sounds like a sidcha to me! Detractors claim he's not running every day or the whole mile or that it's too polluted to be safe. At least he stated the intent. I hope he keeps it up. Since he says he's only doing it for the year, learning the concept of a sidcha will help him start another when he's done running so he can keep up a sidcha practice even if he stops running. Here he is running in Beijing: What's your sidcha? EDIT: A reader responded "He better not miss a day, then he could miss two." It turns out that he responded to someone pointing…

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March 22, 2016

Exercises / Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs / Visualization

Video: I recorded my burpee sidchas

I've meant to post a video of my burpee sidchas. Someone writing a book on high intensity interval training asked me for a video, so I finally recorded my morning and evening burpee sidchas. Maybe my burpee sidcha will show up in a book. I don't claim they're glamorous but I haven't missed a burpee in over four years. I do them every day. I started with ten burpees a day in December 2011, before I created the term sidcha. I add to the routines when what was challenging becomes easy. Ten burpees seems like nothing now. I turn 45 in a few months, if that matters. By the way, if you want to start a burpee sidcha, I recommend finding how many is challenging…

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March 10, 2016

Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

Video: the first and last word on improving yourself

[This post is part of series on the Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Healthy Activity (SIDCHA), burpees, and cold showers. If you don't see a Table of Contents to the left, click to view the SIDCHA series, the burpee series, and the cold shower series where you'll get more value than reading just this post.] Yesterday's webinar, on sidchas, my most comprehensive treatment to date: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3KdM8fZME4

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February 28, 2016

Fitness / Inc.com / Models / Perception / Stories

Inc.com Today: How to Win an NBA Championship as a 66-Year-Old Grandmother of Five

My post today on Inc.com, "How to Win an NBA Championship as a 66-Year-Old Grandmother of Five," begins: How to Win an NBA Championship as a 66-Year-Old Grandmother of Five Knowing your values and living by them enables you to achieve the value of what others only dream of. This is a post about values, living by them, and achieving more through it. You read Inc.com. You value achievement. Let's talk about overcoming challenges and winning. Marathons I've run a few marathons. One year an 88-year-old woman finished the same race. For fun I teased my mom that she could train for twenty years and still be younger. She laughed but said she was past marathons. She grew up on a farm, so knew exertion, but had never run more than a…

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February 26, 2016

Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Fitness / Habits / Leadership / SIDCHAs

Webinar: Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Activities, Saturday 1pm EST

After teaching, coaching, studying, and practicing leadership for twenty years, I announced my online leadership course, "Introducing the most effective leadership course available anywhere." I'm hosting a series of free webinars on the most actionable, useful, effective, and exciting parts of the course. My webinars will always deliver exclusive, valuable lessons you can use that day and how to build for the long term. Attend my third webinar, free, this Saturday, February 27, 1pm Eastern Standard Time! All you need is an internet connection. SIDCHAs: Self-Imposed Daily Challenging Healthy Activities If you read my blog you know about SIDCHAs. Learn more about them in detail and how you can make them work for you. Read more about them here to learn how critically useful they…

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February 22, 2016