Scroll down for the picture I’ve held back from posting since this site is mostly about leadership, meaning, value, importance, purpose, emotional awareness, emotional skills, etc. First a few words. I find people’s attitudes toward diet and exercise become self-righteous so I prefer not to bring up diet and exercise in conversation, so I’d generally not bring it up here. Plenty of sites show before and after pictures of people’s[…] Keep reading →

I don’t keep track of my total burpees, but since my last update at 30,000 burpees in January since starting at ten a day on December 21, 2011, I hit 40,000 somewhere around now. In the past I’ve celebrated milestones by writing about the value of burpees. Today I’ll write general thoughts. Moving up to fifty a day (two sets of twenty-five) from forty (two sets of twenty) was my[…] Keep reading →

I’ve always wanted to experience the feeling of surfing when I’m skilled at it. Have you ever asked a surfer to describe it? They can’t put it into words. I love skiing and playing ultimate. Surfing seems to have something similar, maybe more. So I’ve meant to learn for a long time. It turns out they teach surfing at the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, New York City, a subway ride[…] Keep reading →

Starting a set of twenty-five burpees is hard. I do something that makes them a little friendlier. It comes from the friend I started doing burpees with years ago. Most descriptions of burpees start with you dropping down. For some reason my friend starts with a jump up before his first burpee. Ever since I first learned he started that way, I have too: I start with a jump, then[…] Keep reading →

I’ve never had a flat stomach with definition—a six-pack—but I’m close to it now and I’m amazed at how well getting close to it motivates me to eat healthily and exercise. It’s not the first time I’ve felt motivation to get fit. Earlier times led to long-term changes nothing like what diet books seem to recommend. While I didn’t grow up fat, I was chubby enough that my step-brother made[…] Keep reading →

Longtime readers will remember that before burpees I got a rowing machine — see my posts “Best solo workout I know” and “First time sprints” — and enjoyed it, putting in about half a million meters in the first year of using it. I finally it back out of storage and started using it after renovations. I enjoy using it as much as ever. Actually, I’m enjoying it more for[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on Cold Showers. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view that series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] This morning I ran about a half-marathon. I say “about” because I run for the fun of it and how it makes me feel after (and this year to train for the marathon[…] Keep reading →

Most people look at fitness from an individual perspective—what you eat, how much you eat, how much you exercise, who you spend time with, and so on. I find that perspective useful for many purposes, but not all. I consider it the most important perspective for the individual to plan what to do about their fitness. People don’t live in vacuums. They have contexts. I find a systems perspective helpful[…] Keep reading →

Why do people not get this? If something takes hard work, only hard work will attain it. And hard work is hard. Sure, some work is easy, but some things take hard work. I talk about how much I enjoy doing burpees. More precisely, I like doing them in principle, I like the effects they have on my physical condition and motivation skills, and I like just having finished a[…] Keep reading →