Fitness

Blog / Fitness

Obesity, insults, and living by your values

In a recent online discussion a guy talking about a tv show on morbidly obese people talked about people on the show disparagingly. He also said he used to be fat. Other people took him to task and criticized him as insulting and rude. I'm not sure I agree he was necessarily insulting and rude. For one thing, he later clarified he said what he did in part "to galvanise people into action and not blame their condition on nebulous causes." To me, that intent meets the Golden Rule. Maybe I'm revealing my ignorance and not that I say "you're fat" to anyone, but I don't see calling someone fat as insulting. If someone takes being called fat as an insult, I see it as…

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November 14, 2012
Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Leadership

Sports and passion

I ask people about their passions a lot. Many tell me they have no passions, which makes me sad for them. I don't think passions are something you find lying around but something you create and build from small interests through self-awareness, effort, and dedication. It means they haven't created something they could have. They either never invested enough to find out what it took to create a passion or, if they did, capitulated on the effort. Or they're young enough not to have had the chance yet. I've written before about the sink-or-swim moment experience in college that taught me the meaning of competition -- that I had to work hard to make something of myself and the decades of reward it brought me.…

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September 28, 2012
Blog / Fitness / Nature

Science is a long way from helping diet

I wrote the following in response to this New York Times article, "Eating for Health, Not Weight" in a discussion on Hacker News. With an Ivy League PhD in physics, I'm a big fan of science. I have not observed a scientific approach to diet effective in promoting health. In my albeit limited observation, I observe no correlation between knowing a lot about food, digestion, etc and fitness or healthiness. In particular, American culture appears to approach diet most scientifically, yet has probably the least healthy population. Meanwhile, many illiterate cultures appear to have healthy diets (implying thousands of years of trial and error, admittedly a form of science, works). My observations are anecdotal, not data, so feel free to dismiss them as such. I…

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September 27, 2012
My Mom, the new face of fashion
Blog / Entrepreneurship / Fitness

My Mom, the new face of fashion

It seems grandmothers running marathons appeals to a lot of people. A fitness and fashion line called Miss Matahari has profiled my mother as one of (currently the first on the page, naturally) several inspirational women representing the fitness and fashion-inspired brand. Better branding you won't find at any price. Their tagline is Have you ever wanted to do something others told you was impossible? I could get behind that perspective. Here's one of the images of the brand (neither model is my mom) Personally, I think the clothes look great. I know Natasha, the entrepreneur behind Miss Matahari, but that's not why I'm talking about her site and line. I just like how the clothes look. EDIT: I'm taking the liberty of quoting Natasha…

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September 21, 2012
Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Nature

Where do you buy fruits and vegetables?

I was inspired to write the past couple days of food-related posts by an article about the food store I grew up with in Philadelphia called Weaver's Way, which my family called just "the co-op." The store is a cooperative, meaning you have to be a co-owner to shop and you have to work a certain number of hours per year. When I was younger and lived in Philadelphia I had to work some of the hours for my family. Whether you consider buying and preparing food relevant to leadership or life-improvement, I'll leave for you to decide. As for me, the connection seems clear, particularly if you or the people you lead eat and if what they eat affects their behavior. Anyway, back to…

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September 19, 2012
Why food matters
Blog / Fitness / Leadership

Why food matters

I don't know if I have to explain how shopping for, preparing, and eating food qualifies as fundamental to self-awareness and therefore leadership. A few years ago I would have considered food shopping irrelevant to self-awareness. I've changed. I'll start with an aside on how big an effect just gardening can have with Victory Gardens. During the World Wars, when mainstream food production dropped, governments promoted their citizens planting so-called victory gardens -- using whatever spare land anyone had, even window-sills, to plant fruits, vegetables, herbs or whatever you could grow. They started them in parks, some continuing as gardens to today. Here are a couple posters for the project. and Apparently, at their peak, victory gardens produced nearly half the vegetables Americans consumed and…

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September 17, 2012
Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Nature

Broccoli rabe versus sweets

I'll describe an effect across many spheres of human life, including, probably, yours. I'll describe it in the realm of food, but it applies all over. Most people, when they don't think much about it, like sweets and comfort food -- not always that healthy. If you gave them, say, some broccoli rabe, even cooked to perfection -- say just lightly fried in olive oil with a touch of lemon juice and salt -- they wouldn't like it. They'd say it didn't have flavor or tasted bad or boring. They might complain they couldn't eat it fast, like a candy bar. Or it didn't crunch, like chips. If you wean them off the intense, simple, short-term, pleasure of sugar, fat, salt, and the chemical concoctions…

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September 13, 2012
Blog / Education / Fitness / Leadership / Tips

If you want to change something you do, its opposite usually is no better. Look for its complement.

People seem to want to change a lot about them. I see them trying to do the opposite of what they are trying to change. Sometimes it works. More often trying to do the opposite of what they want to stop reinforces doing it more. Food For example, overweight people often think if they eat too much they should try the opposite and try to eat less. But dieting seems to predict obesity more than prevent it -- that is, people who diet tend to be more obese than those who don't (sorry I don't have a source, so feel free to read this part skeptically). I find the complement to eating too much is not to eat less but to savor and enjoy your…

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September 9, 2012
Blog / Education / Exercises / Fitness / Freedom / Models / Tips

A model to make hard decisions easier

[This post is part of a series on "Mental models and beliefs: an exercise to identify yours." 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.] When I worry about a difficult choice I have to make I think of a parable. Some martial arts students ask their teacher how he always keeps his balance. He asks what they mean. They say, well you never fall down so you must never lose your balance. He says, on the contrary, I'm always losing my balance, but I'm also always recovering. I try to live like that. Things are always making me lose my balance but I rarely fall.…

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September 6, 2012
Blog / Fitness / Nature

Being overweight looks depressing

Some people choose to be overweight -- Mario Batali, for example, seems to love fattening food, knows how eating it will affect him, and eats it, accepting, even celebrating, the consequences with pleasure. I take my hat off to him. This post isn't about him. I should also point out I don't consider being overweight bad. Regular readers know I don't consider such things good, bad, right, or wrong. I'm mostly interested in consequences. If someone achieves whatever weight they want, I support them, independent of what a doctor says. I should also note that I think tracing causes of obesity leads to our huge agri-business subsidies that make unhealthy food cheaper than healthy and to what I consider counterproductive laws that allow poor labeling,…

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September 4, 2012
Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Tips

Too much is a problem too

I hear people talk about those who have less -- usually less materially or less opportunity -- as deserving help and compassion. With due respect to their problems, I'd like to consider another challenging situation: having too much. First let me preface the huge difference between having too little and too much: people with too much can cut back. People with limited access to resources or opportunity can't usually create them out of thin air. People with too much may not know how to cut crap out, but they can. Big difference. Walking around New York last visit, I saw people with a lot more stuff and opportunity than I saw in Asia. But I didn't see them happier. On the contrary, I saw many…

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September 3, 2012
Blog / Fitness / Freedom

My coffee habit and rules

Everybody has their deal with how they drink coffee -- how many cups per day, where they get it, etc. I've written about my habits. Here's the coffee habit I designed for myself. I should remind anyone I haven't mentioned this to that I find creating habits creates freedom. Some things you have to figure out anew whenever they enter your life. But for things that happen the same every day, once you figure out what's right for you, creating a habit frees you from having to think about it all the time. I'm writing this post not to recommend you adopt my rule, but to show an example of a habit I created to create more freedom for myself. If I seem overly pedantic…

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August 7, 2012
Blog / Fitness

Why I don’t like watching soccer

If you don't mind my indulging in sharing a pet peeve of mine perhaps unrelated to leadership and my other usual topics, playing Ultimate again this summer combined with being outside the U.S. during a major soccer event (I think the European cup was major), I got to think about soccer and values. I find soccer players often shameful and occasionally repulsive. Just my opinion, of course, but I already mentioned I'm indulging myself today. People speculate Americans don't like soccer as much as the rest of the world because it doesn't score as much or doesn't allow for easy commercial breaks. If only those were the problems I had with the sport I wouldn't mention anything. Sports are more important to me than just…

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August 6, 2012
Awareness / Blog / Fitness

Three things I learned from yoga

You can learn a lot from yoga. I'm no expert, but I did it a couple times a week for a couple years a few years ago. My teacher was great, if anyone wants a recommendation for someone in New York City. I learned three things I didn't expect that I found valuable. I haven't seen them written up elsewhere, not that I read much on yoga since I find most yoga writing too new age-y, so I thought I'd write them up here. I should mention I don't find yoga more life altering than any other physical activity. Some people attach a mystical aura to it, with all the foreign words and claims to thousands-of-years-old heritages, but I find any physical activity can give…

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August 5, 2012
Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Freedom

An olympic shock

I tend to divide the Olympics as a business from the athletes. I respect the athletes greatly. Whatever ideals the event may have embodied, I lose respect for the Olympic committees and the collaborating corporations -- media companies, advertisers, etc -- all the time. The business seems to focus on making money while protecting its sustainable competitive advantage -- its brand -- at draconian costs to the freedom of athletes, attendees, and other participants. Meanwhile the Olympic committee takes bribes, applies rules arbitrarily, colludes with governments to curtail speech and coverage of the events, etc. The value of sports continues to surprise me Still, the value of sports perennially surprises me in raising people's awareness and cooperation, despite the politicization and commercialization of the Olympics.…

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August 3, 2012
Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Freedom

My fitness habits, part 4: Nothing special about what I did

Since so many people don't like their physical condition, don't find reward or joy in exercising, and regard these aspects of their life as punishments, I imagine many of them want to change their beliefs and behaviors, perhaps using my example as inspiration. Many people may not care too, I guess. I've written a lot on the topics -- enough that it might seem overwhelming. Can anyone do what I do? I didn't do anything anyone else couldn't. Maybe they don't want to or haven't figured out how to, but they could. I don't read many diet or exercise books, but I have a feeling they don't make a point of focusing on your emotions, which I consider the foundation for successful change. I focus…

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July 20, 2012
Blog / Fitness / Freedom

My fitness habits, part 3: Exercise

As I've written before, exercise for me is about the emotions it creates. I start exercises for joy, fun, friendship, etc. For many people exercise seems punishing. If I didn't realize I, like anyone, could make exercise create whatever emotions I wanted and I felt stuck with punishment, I wouldn't do it. Luckily I learned to find the joy, fun, etc in exercise -- as anyone can -- and built from there. History I've exercised consistently since I started running cross country in high school in the 80s. I was chubby as a kid -- at least I remember my older step-brother teasing me about being chubby before I started sports. Although they signed me up for little league baseball and soccer, I don't remember…

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July 19, 2012
Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Freedom

My fitness beliefs and habits, part 2: Food and Eating

What I eat I don't feel like I pay attention to what I eat that much, although I've habitualized a lot so I probably eat healthily without thinking about it. I don't pay attention to proteins versus carbohydrates. I definitely don't count calories. I think paying attention to those things means you're eating the wrong things. I mean, I'm kind of aware of those things, but the more I eat fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains, the less I pay attention to proteins, carbohydrates, and calories and the better my body seems. How can you eat too much spinach, mangoes, or oats? Can you? I mean, your body will stop you before you can. With sugary beverages, I've noticed your tongue always sends signals…

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July 18, 2012
Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Freedom

My fitness beliefs and habits, part 1: Principles

A reader asked I like what you said about the body being a reflection of how we live our life. I also agree about the genetics; its too much of a cop out to say that you can't help being obese. I do have a question though. Your photos show that you are in shape but you have previously posted that your workout regimen consists of only a minute of burpees twice a day. As someone who works out an hour a day to stay in shape this blows my mind. Are you rationing calories as well or just watching what you eat? Do you have any before/after photos showing the progress made after 6 months on this program? Context The short response to that…

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July 17, 2012
Blog / Fitness / Nature / NorthKorea

Ultimate in Shanghai!

I played ultimate in Shanghai for the first time Monday and Saturday since the tournament in August in North Korea (in particular getting the end zone D and catching the goal to win the game), which was the first time in something like five years. Wow, nothing compares to playing ultimate. Even with probably 90 degree temperatures and high humidity, running around, throwing, and catching was awesome. It's like what our bodies evolved for. At 40, I thought I was done playing, but I think I'll play regularly this summer. They have games scheduled twice a week and the community, as with ultimate communities everywhere, is fun, welcoming, international, and spirited. Come to think of it, I saw a random guy in Singapore dressed like…

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July 3, 2012
Blog / Fitness / Freedom

Burpee overview

[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.] Yesterday I started to consolidate posts on burpees but when I realized it was the day after the six month anniversary of starting doing them daily, I wrote a six-month review, which ended up as a long post on friendship, freedom, and motivation. It reinforces that sharing what you love fills your life with sharing, love, and the stuff you love. As people who have read all my posts on the Model and Method know, a thing's value, meaning, and purpose…

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June 25, 2012
Blog / Fitness / Tips

Burpee six-month review

[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.] I refer to burpees so much I'm making a page to consolidate my burpee references (EDIT: now tomorrow's post). As I'm writing this, I only have three posts specifically on burpees (four when I post this, more evidence on how sharing what you love fills your life with sharing, love, and stuff you love), but I link to it a lot. Also, enough people I meet in person hear about burpees that it makes sense to link to this page from…

8 Comments
June 24, 2012
Blog / Fitness

My cousin — Olympics bound?

News on my mom's side is that her sister's grand-daughter -- my first cousin once removed -- is winning competitions in her first year at Stanford. Here's an interview after she came in second at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships yesterday. Remember the name Brianna Bain. P.S. For those who read my Roots post, she descended from the same seventeenth century puritans.

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June 7, 2012
Blog / Fitness / Humor

Giant marshmallow dreams

People who have met me will recognize my favorite joke to start this Colbert segment, followed by satire on my favorite American things deserving satire -- corporate "food" and Americans' tolerance (passion?) for it. At least one of the products is right out of an Onion piece. I wonder how outrageous an Onion piece has to be that America can't catch up to it. Yesterday's post was long, so today's is a couple links to fun and funny videos.  

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May 6, 2012
Blog / Fitness / Nature

Ecology, economy, population growth and Do The Math

I've written about Do The Math, the blog that takes a quantitative, scientific, and usually non-judgmental approach to understanding our impact on the environment. I posted on it today for the first time about some questions I'd been thinking about for a while but haven't approached in that blog's way. He has written about increasing his efficiency in using energy. I generally applaud that approach and do it myself, but I wonder about its value in the long-term, given population growth. I wrote the following on a thread on conserving energy in the home and persuading others to. Regarding efficiency, while I also try to improve mine, I can't help but put these gains in the context of population growth, mainly driven by having read…

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May 3, 2012

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