A reminder: Get up!

In March I saw quite a few news articles about sitting increasing your risk for dying irrespective of exercise.

As a writer, an office worker, and a citizen of the laziest country on earth! I know that I sit too much. Well—I would sit too much if I didn’t do something about it.

But still, I probably sit too much. Get up!

This article over at NPR caught my attention because they had a nice, short video that included some good tips.

Tips to Avoid “Just Sitting There”

The first tip is to walk. If you head over to Bruce Lee’s bare bones fitness advice, you’ll see that he recommended parking farther away and taking the stairs. (Also recommended in this video.)

A tip I thought was creative was to print to a printer farther away. I like that one.

One that I didn’t like was to fidget.

I say, don’t fidget and focus on the task at hand—work. Then, get up. Fidgeting is a nasty nervous habit that makes it look like you’re unstable! The Japanese even have a word for the shaky leg thing that some people do—binbo-yusuri.

This translates literally as poverty shake.

Get More Walking

One of the ways to get more walking in is to live in a walkable neighborhood. That is a highly attractive amenity to anywhere I decide to live and was common before the age of the automobile when we foolishly stretched everything out.

Still, even if you don’t combine walking with errands, you can just simply go for a walk. Walks are extremely pleasurable and teach you to unwind. Read Why I walk for some more info.

Hey—are you still sitting down? Get up!

Which is what I’m about to do!

One way of looking at habits is that they are repeated actions that get executed unconsciously.

In this post I’m addressing eating and drinking habits. What you eat and drink is extremely important. Reforming your eating and drinking habits creates real health transformations occur.

Habits Gone Awry

The other day, I noticed someone with a nefarious coffee habit.

He added three pumps of artificial creamer and a packet of sugar to his “coffee.” All extra unnecessary junk. He was tremendously overweight, so I’m sure he had other habits to go along with this one. They all add up—and they did, on his belly, on his frame in general, and of course, on his internal organs.

That’s one habit. One. Imagine how many additional calories that will amount to over a day, a week, a month, a year, or a decade. How much vitality will be sucked from this man’s overall life due to his failure to reform his habits?

If he drinks alcohol or soda, he’s consuming even more needless calories that his already over-burdened body cannot process. The downward spiral is clearly evident.

Exercise is Not the Cure For a Lack of Mouth Responsibility

You simply cannot attempt—nor should you—to exercise off these additional calories. That’s getting it backwards. Thinking that you have to exercise to lose weight is the same as taking medication to relieve your symptoms while ignoring the cause of your ailment.

It’s irrational feel-good thinking that causes problems where none have to exist.

By the way, lots of skinny folks have poor habits and a nervous mind and personality that burns off their foolish caloric excesses. They suffer, too, but in different ways. They don’t have society looking down on them, but they have gunked up innards, low energy, sickness and disease.

The First Steps Towards Habit Reformation

Awareness. It’s always the first step. Become aware of what you are eating and drinking. Keep a spreadsheet. A log. Do whatever it takes to gain awareness over what type of fuel you’re giving yourself and figure out how it makes you feel. Be open to new food selections and embrace them. Observe others who have transgressed more than you and let that remind you that they are an example for what not to do.

Realize the benefits. Above all, see the benefits of reformed habits. Look to those benefits for motivation and inspiration. You’ll feel better. You’ll learn to eliminate sickness. You’ll have more energy. You’ll experience less downtime. You’ll think more clearly. You’ll have better control over your emotions.

Embrace a better life. No medication, prescription, or self help guru can give this type of health to you—you have to take it. And it comes through the reformation of your habits. And you do that by first becoming aware.

A good read on reforming habits of eating and thinking is John Tilden’s Toxemia Explained—a free download over at Soil and Health.

Eating.

As kids our eating instincts were perverted by well-meaning but misguiding parents.

And then there were the breakfast cereal advertisements. Not well-meaning.

Shilling sugar to unsuspecting kids who would then persuade parents to buy garbage.

Now there is the portion size problem. This runs into the “Well there are starving kids in [insert country here] so eat your food.”

Yes, parents actually said that. I’ve confirmed it with others.

There is also the clean plate club. Good boy! You finished all your food!

Of course our parents didn’t want us to grow up fat, soft, and weak, but this mental programming we have towards food has created exactly that environment here in America.

Stop Pointing Fingers at the Obese

It’s easy to look at obese people and point a finger.

I like to pick on people who aren’t obese.

People who through exercise or a higher metabolism are able to transgress the laws of eating with seeming impunity.

At least, on the outside. They’re suffering from diseased minds and over-taxed digestion.

For the finger pointers who like to go around self-righteously saying: “Oh, why can’t those people eat less food!”

Here’s a question for you: Why can’t you reform your eating habits and eat the way you know you should? Why do YOU overeat? Why do YOU eat too many snacks?

Because reforming your eating habits is fucking hard! That’s why.

That garbage mental programming goes back to childhood, EARLY childhood where you got little bits of sugar because you behaved. And now you’re an adult and you eat a donut in the morning for the hell of it, just like the big little kid that you are.

Faulty Thinking Creates Liars

According to Neo-Tech, the only disease of the conscious mind is mysticism. This is that something for nothing mentality, that mentality that rationalizes poor behavior choices instead of honestly confronting them and saying they are wrong—and then stopping.

Fuck that’s hard!

The conscious mind can rationalize. Therefore, the conscious mind can lie to itself. This is a diseased mind. We all have one, and therefore, if we have any self-respect for ourselves, we should be assiduously monitoring ourselves and figuring out where we are wrong and correcting it.

Coming Clean

Recently I’ve been exposed to how thoroughly I’ve transgressed. This happened through self-awareness, correction, and gout—yeah, rich man’s disease.

For one, I had a hideous alcohol problem. As I peeled that layer off, I noticed other areas of my life where I was below the mark.

What’s really become apparent is food addiction. It’s a reward system. It’s a placater. It’s a boredom-killer. It’s a drug. It’s a refuge for that child-like part of myself to think it can get its way with impunity. (Just look at my face in my food addition post, total little kid look.)

It’s not just me, either. I watch other people and they have the same problems that I have with food.

We’re lax about it. Especially if we’re skinny and in otherwise good shape.

“Oh–you can eat a little more–you’re skinny!” I’ve heard that bullshit all my life!

That line of thinking is full of incorrect thought. Eating takes energy. Take more energy than you have and you get sick, run down, and need more rest. Then because you ate too much, you have to caffeinate yourself to get through the day.

The Only Real Healthcare Solution

Food is medicine. How we eat and what we eat matters. The reason we can’t afford healthcare is simple—practically the entire populace is living and eating incorrectly. That’s why.

You have an obligation—if you don’t want to be a liar—to do everything in your power to conduct your affairs in the healthiest manner possible within your awareness. Of course you’ll make mistakes. Of course it’ll be hard. Of course people around you will make fun of you for trying to be healthy—you health nut you. But you’ll feel better, have more energy, more peace of mind, and run circles around your well-fed (and poorly fed) counterparts who insist upon an irrational engagement with life and their health.

Why am I so passionate right now? Because I just overcame a food attack—a nearly insatiable urge to put something in my mouth just for the hell of it!—and I feel great!

You probably know how frustrating it is when you’re trying to change your behavior and this little voice within convinces you to do something you want to avoid.

Just try quitting coffee. Or smoking. Or soda. Sooner or later that voice speaks up, telling you to indulge.

Sometimes you don’t really hear the voice. You just notice the behavior and you wonder why it is happening.

That’s how it was with me and sugar lately.

The other day, I figured out the programming that was rationalizing my sugar jubilee.

Because I’m doing so well with alcohol, I can have some sugar—I deserve it!

I don’t want to eat too much sugar. It’s bad for my health. It’s bad for my bones. It weakens my immune system. It gives me needless calories that my body has to process.

But, there was that little program running in the background. You know, I deserve it!

The good news is that with the addictions I have uncovered I’ve done a good job of eliminating them. So I know that sugar is next.

The bad news is, the sugar addiction is deep. Deeper than alcohol. Sugar runs back to childhood. “You can have some candy if you’re a good boy!”

Yikes. That’s deep. (If you’re a parent, hopefully you’re not perverting your kids natural eating tendencies by using the old carrot and stick tactic with sugar.)

And what about you? What rationalizations are you using to justify your behaviors that you want to get rid of?

If you’re someone who has frequently used the time excuse to keep yourself from getting a workout, take a look at the stats above.

That’s 7 workouts in the month of March and only four and a half hours.

Some people spend that much time in a week exercising. Or maybe they’re exorcising…

In case you’re thinking you can’t make progress with this type of training, take a look at the picture below (taken recently).

This training is perfect for my lifestyle. I take three days rest between exercise sessions. That means I have time for other things I’d rather be doing.

It’s tough though, I won’t lie.

Each workout session contains exactly no bullshit—no extraneous thought. It’s direct, focused, and to the point.

So, therefore, I can’t be thinking about how I don’t want to workout prior to my workout. I just think about the task at hand.

And once things start, it’s so intense that I’ll wilt immediately if my thoughts aren’t straight.

But that carries over to other things. The same mental approach I conjure up towards working out can be conjured up towards anything. If you can learn to embrace muscular pain without contorting your face or thinking this sucks, you can learn to embrace many situations in life.

That’s why I think this style of working out is great. It forces you to focus your thoughts and think correctly. After all, why use the power of your mind incorrectly?

The ability to learn to think correct thoughts is far more important than the workout.

But the workout is great, too.

In China, Olympic athletes have been told to raise their own chickens. It’s not some sustainability measure, it’s simply because the food quality can’t be trusted in China.

You’re an athlete. You’re important. You should eat good food. The rest of you foolish citizens who can’t bring glory to the state can eat the regular meat. Muahhahaha.

- Theoretical Olympic Official

In another story, new regulations in California have prompted Coke and Pepsi to change their formulas to reduce levels of 4-methylimidazole, whatever the hell that is.

I have faith that someday, sufficient awareness will build and the market for products that destroy health will vanish entirely.

Until then, I find the PR messages that justify their actions extremely amusing.

Yeah, it’s really not a problem. What a ridiculous assertion. But we had our supplier change the formula anyway because we really care about health. Remember, coke = happiness!

– Theoretical Coke Official

It’s also interesting that in our culture, at this present time, we have a concept of allowing certain levels of carcinogens in our products. Surely a higher evolved civilization will come to laugh at this, much as we laugh at the doctors of yore saying that smoking cigarettes was OK.

Until we reach this point together, there will still be many people caught up unawares or unwilling or unable to change their habits. And poor health will be the result.

In a related news story, the Republicans are urging the repeal of Obama’s health care law. Their plan, of course, is to use the power of the aforementioned PR firms to convince the public to crave a healthier diet, which will cause all sorts of important reforms and localization efforts to improve our food supply, dietary habits, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

No, not really.

That would make sense–and this blog post is all about things that don’t.

As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other…I concluded at length that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous was not sufficient to prevent our slipping, and that the contrary habits must be broken and good ones acquired and established before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct.

- Ben Franklin

Who doesn’t admire and respect Ben Franklin. How comforting it is to know that even a man as great as he struggled. In fact, when he first undertook his program of developing the 13 virtues, he said of himself

I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined.

Ben Franklin’s 13 Virtues

1. Temperance. Eat not to dullnesss; drink not to elevation.
2. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; that is, waste nothing.
6. Industry. Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the enefits that are your duty.
9. Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries, so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
11. Tranquility. Be not disturbed at trifles or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. Chastity. …
13. Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

The Program to Incorporate Ben Franklin’s 13 Virtues

You can’t focus on all 13 at once. Being fuller of faults than you imagined, you would soon drive yourself crazy!

The program is to focus on one fault for a week, and try to eliminate it. Focus on one at time, but record all transgressions for the week. The virtue you are focusing on should have an empty row at the end of the week. Franklin just marked whether the transgression occurred. You might want to mark the number of times it occurred to have a better mechanism of showing progress.

The 13 Virtues Chart

How to Proceed

1. Use the chart and work on one virtue per week, marking your transgressions.
2. Proceed to the subsequent virtue the next week.
3. After week 13, repeat week 1, and proceed through the virtues again.

Following this course, you can go through the program four times per year.

Hey, it worked for Ben Franklin. Why not give it a try?

I glanced at the magazine rack while doing some shopping this morning and an article in Harper’s magazine caught my eye:

Starving Your Way to Vigor: The Benefits of an Empty Stomach

The article started off with a story about a man who wanted to end his life. He decided to starve himself to death. At the time, conventional wisdom asserted that you would die in 10 days without food.

Ten days passed and the man felt great. His problems melted away. He ended up going 41 days without food.

Later, at the checkout line I saw an article in Self magazine that—in big letters (as if to emphasize the importance)—asserted that you could burn 300 calories in 22 minutes.

Are You Exercising to Burn Off Calories You Shouldn’t Have Eaten in the First Place?

I majored in English, but, wouldn’t it make more sense not to consume the needless calories in the first place?

Maybe my head is getting more clear from not drinking, but I think we’re guilty of treating the symptom and not the cause here.

Check This Out

Check out my new page on sustainable eating where I’ve assembled different quotes and good information about food and how to eat.

P.S.One more thing:

The student asks the master: “How can I become enlighted?”

The master replies to the student: “Chew your food.”

Worth thinking about.

iPads, much like any computer or smartphone screen you stare at for awhile, might contribute to “computer vision syndrome,” a set of eye problems caused by staring at a screen for long periods of time without taking a break.

http://m.cbsnews.com/blogsfullstory.rbml?feed_id=0&catid=57393457&videofeed=36

How we use our computers can definitely affect our health. I’ve written about posture exercises for computer users before, but it sounds like I need a post about eye exercises, too.

Vision is a sense that I like quite a bit and have grown quite accustomed to. Staring at a screen, it should seem self-evident, probably isn’t something that long-term is going to provide much benefit.

The 20/20/20 Rule

In this article, it is recommended that for every 20 minutes of computer use, you look away for 20 seconds, at something that is 20 feet away. The 20/20/20 rule. It’s something you can do to refresh your eye site.

Another Eye Exercise

When I played tennis, I did a similar exercise while driving—I shifted my focus at cars that were different lengths away. The reason was to help me pick up my opponent’s server better. However, I believe that the exercise has additional benefits outside of tennis.

*     *     *

Our lives used to feature a lot more variety and offer more stimulation for our senses. Now we need to supplement some of that activity in—at least, we have to if we want to retain full use (as much as possible, anyway) of our senses and our body as we age.