We've all got it, right? That thing you think leads to your downfall?
For some it's chocolate, for others it's donuts. For some it's chocolate donuts.
I don't have a lot of those. I don't drink soda. I don't really go for sweet stuff. Most foods I really crave are fried or some form of meat, and those aren't just things you grab in a bag and plop down on the couch with. They actually require a little preparation, so my laziness usually overcomes my craving and I do okay (Let's hear it for weight loss through laziness!).
But for some reason, I can't keep my hands out of the cereal boxes.
When I'm frustrated, bored, deep in thought, or aggravated, I tend to wander. And let me tell you, in a two bedroom apartment, wandering doesn't get you far.
For some reason, if I'm not thinking about it, I can't seem to wander through the kitchen without grabbing a handful of breakfast cereal.
We're not talking Kashi here. No, way. I've got kids. This is real breakfast cereal. I think the last handful I grabbed was Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie Crisp. Yeah, I guess I was the Cookie Crook.
And yeah, you read that right. By the handful. I just stick my big fat hand in the box and yank out a handful of starch and sugar the same way I'm sure my caveman ancestors pulled the Frosted Sugarcane Yak Back cereal they fed their kids out of the box.
(This was before they started putting milk on breakfast cereal. You ever try to milk a wild Yak? I'd rather kill one any day.)
So yeah. That's a big part of my downfall. Handfuls of kid's breakfast cereal I don't even really remember eating, but was just looking for something to do while I thought about something else.
Maybe I should take up knitting.
Then I could make myself a cool black Cookie Crook sweater.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
How To Make Exercize More Fun
So I'm reading this book, and I'll just be upfront with you and say that it's not a fitness book. It is a work book. As in, the place you go work 9-5 and make money.
It's called The Game of Work, and the premise of it is basically this:
People will pay money for the privilege of working harder than they'll work if you're paying them.
You know what he's talking about--it's the way the same guy who grumbles about getting up at 7am for his 9 to 5 job, and about his 45 minute commute will get up at 4 am to drive 2 hours to go skiing in the freezing cold or flyfish in frigid waters.
So if we can make work more like a game, then it should make work both more motivating and more enjoyable.
One of the main things he talks about is how in these types of recreation, there's usually some kind of goal. Whether it's to win the game, catch a fish, improve your score over last time, or something else, there's usually something you're going for that's pushing you to give that extra effort.
I posted a list of all the qualities he feels that goals should have at work in order to make it feel more like play on my new blog, How To Manage People.
But it got me thinking--I think that, recreationally speaking, exercise is probably the one thing we do that feels the most like work. That's probably why we're often as reluctant to do it as we are to go to jobs we hate.
So I thought, why not incorporate some of the ideas Coonradt had about making work more enjoyable through goals, and adapt them into daily exercise?
So here is Erik's list of ways to make exercise more like a game, very loosely adapted from Chuck Coonradt.
1. Really make it a game. What sport did you used to like to play? Or what game have you been interested in, but never tried? Why not do that for exercise?
Often people say, "I know I need to exercise more, but I just hate to go on the treadmill." I think that's because you're sane. The treadmill is like that scene in the bad dream where you're running and running and not getting anywhere. If an exercise is literally something out of your nightmares, you're not going to get excited about it.
So think about what activities, if any, you do get excited about, whether you've done it before or not.
2. State your goals in positive terms. This one is straight out of Coonradt, and I like it.
Goals should be something you think about all the time, that you focus on. What happens if you state your goals in negative terms?
When we state the goal in terms of something we're trying to get rid of, it means when we think about our goals, we're focusing on the things we don't like all the time.
No basketball coach worth his title tells his team, "Go out there and don't miss baskets." The coach doesn't even want to put the picture of missing baskets into their minds. Instead, he'll talk about making baskets. He'll even have his players visualize themselves making baskets.
Similarly, if we make a goal like, "I'm not going to eat fast food," then as we think about the goal, we find ourselves thinking about fast food all the time.
Or if we say, "I don't want to be so heavy any more," we're still thinking about how much we weigh.
Instead, we can find a way to say the same things in positive terms. "I eat perfect portions of healthy, delicious foods." "I am achieving a healthier body."
Those are much nicer things to think about all they, aren't they?
3. Track stuff. The more stuff you track, the more things you have to me motivated by.
Didn't lose as many pounds as you wanted this week? You can look at the inches on your waistline.
Didn't lose as many inches as you'd have liked on your waistline? You can look at how you managed to go a full minute at level 6 on the treadmill today instead of just for 30 seconds.
Didn't go the full minute? Well, maybe you hit 1.4 miles in 15 minutes instead of 1.2.
You don't have to look like the football coach with a big huge clipboard--just a small, pocket sized spiral bound notepad is perfect.
4. Challenge yourself. It's 6am, and you're under your nice, warm covers, trying to decide whether to hit the snooze button again. If all you're doing is getting up to exercise, those covers might just hold you in.
But if you know that the last time you exercised, you came up just 15 seconds shy of getting around the block in less than 20 minutes, and you think today just might be the day you hit that mark--well, that just might make the difference.
And if it isn't enough--well, what goal would matter enough to you that it would get you out of bed? Work on that goal instead.
5. Always keep at least one goal close. Yeah, you've got that goal weight, but that's probably a good three to six months off, right? What is it you're going to see this week?
The closer the goal can be to your heart and to reality, the more it will motivate you today.
It's the thing you think you might be able to do by Friday that will get you out of bed on Monday. It might be figuring out that little quick step on your Dance Away The Pounds video that you've been stumbling over, or it might be cutting 30 seconds off the time it takes you to walk a mile.
Whatever it is, try to make it matter, and try to make it achievable.
*
Even if all of these don't work for you, I hope at least a couple of them help. And even if you're not sure about a couple, find a way to incorporate them, and see if they don't make a difference.
It's called The Game of Work, and the premise of it is basically this:
People will pay money for the privilege of working harder than they'll work if you're paying them.
You know what he's talking about--it's the way the same guy who grumbles about getting up at 7am for his 9 to 5 job, and about his 45 minute commute will get up at 4 am to drive 2 hours to go skiing in the freezing cold or flyfish in frigid waters.
So if we can make work more like a game, then it should make work both more motivating and more enjoyable.
One of the main things he talks about is how in these types of recreation, there's usually some kind of goal. Whether it's to win the game, catch a fish, improve your score over last time, or something else, there's usually something you're going for that's pushing you to give that extra effort.
I posted a list of all the qualities he feels that goals should have at work in order to make it feel more like play on my new blog, How To Manage People.
But it got me thinking--I think that, recreationally speaking, exercise is probably the one thing we do that feels the most like work. That's probably why we're often as reluctant to do it as we are to go to jobs we hate.
So I thought, why not incorporate some of the ideas Coonradt had about making work more enjoyable through goals, and adapt them into daily exercise?
So here is Erik's list of ways to make exercise more like a game, very loosely adapted from Chuck Coonradt.
1. Really make it a game. What sport did you used to like to play? Or what game have you been interested in, but never tried? Why not do that for exercise?
Often people say, "I know I need to exercise more, but I just hate to go on the treadmill." I think that's because you're sane. The treadmill is like that scene in the bad dream where you're running and running and not getting anywhere. If an exercise is literally something out of your nightmares, you're not going to get excited about it.
So think about what activities, if any, you do get excited about, whether you've done it before or not.
2. State your goals in positive terms. This one is straight out of Coonradt, and I like it.
Goals should be something you think about all the time, that you focus on. What happens if you state your goals in negative terms?
When we state the goal in terms of something we're trying to get rid of, it means when we think about our goals, we're focusing on the things we don't like all the time.
No basketball coach worth his title tells his team, "Go out there and don't miss baskets." The coach doesn't even want to put the picture of missing baskets into their minds. Instead, he'll talk about making baskets. He'll even have his players visualize themselves making baskets.
Similarly, if we make a goal like, "I'm not going to eat fast food," then as we think about the goal, we find ourselves thinking about fast food all the time.
Or if we say, "I don't want to be so heavy any more," we're still thinking about how much we weigh.
Instead, we can find a way to say the same things in positive terms. "I eat perfect portions of healthy, delicious foods." "I am achieving a healthier body."
Those are much nicer things to think about all they, aren't they?
3. Track stuff. The more stuff you track, the more things you have to me motivated by.
Didn't lose as many pounds as you wanted this week? You can look at the inches on your waistline.
Didn't lose as many inches as you'd have liked on your waistline? You can look at how you managed to go a full minute at level 6 on the treadmill today instead of just for 30 seconds.
Didn't go the full minute? Well, maybe you hit 1.4 miles in 15 minutes instead of 1.2.
You don't have to look like the football coach with a big huge clipboard--just a small, pocket sized spiral bound notepad is perfect.
4. Challenge yourself. It's 6am, and you're under your nice, warm covers, trying to decide whether to hit the snooze button again. If all you're doing is getting up to exercise, those covers might just hold you in.
But if you know that the last time you exercised, you came up just 15 seconds shy of getting around the block in less than 20 minutes, and you think today just might be the day you hit that mark--well, that just might make the difference.
And if it isn't enough--well, what goal would matter enough to you that it would get you out of bed? Work on that goal instead.
5. Always keep at least one goal close. Yeah, you've got that goal weight, but that's probably a good three to six months off, right? What is it you're going to see this week?
The closer the goal can be to your heart and to reality, the more it will motivate you today.
It's the thing you think you might be able to do by Friday that will get you out of bed on Monday. It might be figuring out that little quick step on your Dance Away The Pounds video that you've been stumbling over, or it might be cutting 30 seconds off the time it takes you to walk a mile.
Whatever it is, try to make it matter, and try to make it achievable.
*
Even if all of these don't work for you, I hope at least a couple of them help. And even if you're not sure about a couple, find a way to incorporate them, and see if they don't make a difference.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Which TV Show Motivates You?
Which TV show motivates you the most?
Here are the choices:
The Biggest Loser on NBC
I Lost It! on Discovery Health
Inside Brookhaven Obesity Clinic on TLC
The Biggest Loser is the show that does the most for me. And not just any episode--I get bogged down in the weekly show, and the vote-offs aren't that interesting to me.
My favorite episodes are the specials, the ones where there are just two couples or two teams or two families against each other. Nobody voted off and nobody forming alliances or stabbing people in the back. It's just people working hard and losing weight. And on the specials, it's nice because it all happens in one episode. People start the episode heavy and end it healthy.
But it still shows the part that I need to see the most--the part where they're working hard. Seeing people start out the show dying every time they exercise and then pushing through the pain and making themselves stronger by the end of the show. I need to see that.
That's the biggest thing that's missing on I Lost It! That show basically shows two people in each episode. Each person is shown in two segments--one is the "fat" segment, where they show pictures of how heavy the person used to be, and they talk about how miserable their life used to be when they were heavy, and what the big moment was when they decided to lose the weight. It's generally something embarrassing or health related.
Then, after a commercial break, they do the "skinny" segment, showing video of how they look now, holding up clothes that used to fit them, and showing how far they've come. They generally mention how the person lost all the weight, but it's generally just a mention.
For me, it's not the hardship of being heavy or the joy of being healthy that's the most motivating, but watching people hang in there during the day-to-day struggles of the time it takes to lose weight. That's what's missing from this show.
As for Inside Brookhaven Obesity Clinic, my wife has said that's the show that motivates her. Not because she has anywhere near the amount of weight those people have to lose (The show features morbidly obese people at up to almost 1,000 pounds, and my wife has far less to lose than even I do), but because of the things coming out of the people's mouths.
For example, one episode featured a man who was so large, he had to have holes cut into the walls of his house and be hoisted out by awkward cranes. Rather than come to a realization of how far gone he was, the man spent his on-camera time complaining about how no one had developed better technology for moving extremely heavy people.
My wife said seeing people so brazenly dismissing their own role in creating their problems motivated her to do get up and do something more than any of the other shows we've watched lately.
How about you? Which shows keep you motivated?
Here are the choices:
The Biggest Loser on NBC
I Lost It! on Discovery Health
Inside Brookhaven Obesity Clinic on TLC
The Biggest Loser is the show that does the most for me. And not just any episode--I get bogged down in the weekly show, and the vote-offs aren't that interesting to me.
My favorite episodes are the specials, the ones where there are just two couples or two teams or two families against each other. Nobody voted off and nobody forming alliances or stabbing people in the back. It's just people working hard and losing weight. And on the specials, it's nice because it all happens in one episode. People start the episode heavy and end it healthy.
But it still shows the part that I need to see the most--the part where they're working hard. Seeing people start out the show dying every time they exercise and then pushing through the pain and making themselves stronger by the end of the show. I need to see that.
That's the biggest thing that's missing on I Lost It! That show basically shows two people in each episode. Each person is shown in two segments--one is the "fat" segment, where they show pictures of how heavy the person used to be, and they talk about how miserable their life used to be when they were heavy, and what the big moment was when they decided to lose the weight. It's generally something embarrassing or health related.
Then, after a commercial break, they do the "skinny" segment, showing video of how they look now, holding up clothes that used to fit them, and showing how far they've come. They generally mention how the person lost all the weight, but it's generally just a mention.
For me, it's not the hardship of being heavy or the joy of being healthy that's the most motivating, but watching people hang in there during the day-to-day struggles of the time it takes to lose weight. That's what's missing from this show.
As for Inside Brookhaven Obesity Clinic, my wife has said that's the show that motivates her. Not because she has anywhere near the amount of weight those people have to lose (The show features morbidly obese people at up to almost 1,000 pounds, and my wife has far less to lose than even I do), but because of the things coming out of the people's mouths.
For example, one episode featured a man who was so large, he had to have holes cut into the walls of his house and be hoisted out by awkward cranes. Rather than come to a realization of how far gone he was, the man spent his on-camera time complaining about how no one had developed better technology for moving extremely heavy people.
My wife said seeing people so brazenly dismissing their own role in creating their problems motivated her to do get up and do something more than any of the other shows we've watched lately.
How about you? Which shows keep you motivated?
Monday, November 26, 2007
What's Up With Goals?
Why are goals so hard?
I mean, they shouldn't be hard. It doesn't make sense, rationally.
I mean, think about it. A goal is where you write down something you want, then write down the steps you need to take to get that thing, and then you go through and do the stuff.
There's no downside in there. It's about you figuring out something you want and then doing the stuff it takes to get it.
And yet goals are, generally, absolutely, unbelievably, excruciatingly hard.
It's not like that in other things. When Jack Bauer is on the phone with the guy back at CTU who's telling him which wires to cut to defuse the bomb, it's not a major issue. It's not like Jack feels any need to stop and question the guy or think about if he really wants it or put off a certain step until he feels more like doing it. He just goes through the step the guy gives him over the phone, and he diffuses the bomb.
Isn't that how all goals should be? After all, generally goals are about things we want almost as bad as Jack wants to diffuse that bomb. Shouldn't we just whip through the steps, happy as clams, and then enjoy our post-goal touchdown victory dance?
But maybe it's just because it's TV. Maybe in real life, bomb squad guys do lose focus. Maybe they do want to take a break in the middle of diffusing bombs to go read Ann Landers and have a couple of Little Debbie's cakes. Maybe they do give up halfway through because they made a little mistake and just don't know if they can ever recover from it.
I know that's what they'd do if they ever called diffusing that bomb a goal. At that point, it would become, somehow, psychologically impossible to do.
But of course, I exaggerate.
I actually read a really good book about the answer to this question once, and maybe sometime I'll tell you about it.
But for right now, as I start back down this path again, I just toss that question out into the ether of the interweb, and ponder the unjustness of it . . .
Why are goals so hard?
I mean, they shouldn't be hard. It doesn't make sense, rationally.
I mean, think about it. A goal is where you write down something you want, then write down the steps you need to take to get that thing, and then you go through and do the stuff.
There's no downside in there. It's about you figuring out something you want and then doing the stuff it takes to get it.
And yet goals are, generally, absolutely, unbelievably, excruciatingly hard.
It's not like that in other things. When Jack Bauer is on the phone with the guy back at CTU who's telling him which wires to cut to defuse the bomb, it's not a major issue. It's not like Jack feels any need to stop and question the guy or think about if he really wants it or put off a certain step until he feels more like doing it. He just goes through the step the guy gives him over the phone, and he diffuses the bomb.
Isn't that how all goals should be? After all, generally goals are about things we want almost as bad as Jack wants to diffuse that bomb. Shouldn't we just whip through the steps, happy as clams, and then enjoy our post-goal touchdown victory dance?
But maybe it's just because it's TV. Maybe in real life, bomb squad guys do lose focus. Maybe they do want to take a break in the middle of diffusing bombs to go read Ann Landers and have a couple of Little Debbie's cakes. Maybe they do give up halfway through because they made a little mistake and just don't know if they can ever recover from it.
I know that's what they'd do if they ever called diffusing that bomb a goal. At that point, it would become, somehow, psychologically impossible to do.
But of course, I exaggerate.
I actually read a really good book about the answer to this question once, and maybe sometime I'll tell you about it.
But for right now, as I start back down this path again, I just toss that question out into the ether of the interweb, and ponder the unjustness of it . . .
Why are goals so hard?
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Back To Blogging
Well, I'm coming back.
Those of you who used to be delighted by this blog's mix of information and personal history, and have missed it since it's been gone will be delighted to know that it is coming back.
It will be back to what it used to be--a chronicle of my own efforts to get out of debt and lose weight, spiced up with (hopefully) fun explanations of principles of finance and fitness.
The goals have actually gotten a little more ambitious. Stay tuned for more details.
Also to be returning is the "Tale of the Tape," the counter that chronicles the decline in my debt, my waistline, and my poundage. All values will be reset and start over effective the 1st of December.
I look forward to rejoining you all and sharing with you some of the fun stuff I'm going to be working on for the next 365 days.
Wish me luck, and stay tuned!
Those of you who used to be delighted by this blog's mix of information and personal history, and have missed it since it's been gone will be delighted to know that it is coming back.
It will be back to what it used to be--a chronicle of my own efforts to get out of debt and lose weight, spiced up with (hopefully) fun explanations of principles of finance and fitness.
The goals have actually gotten a little more ambitious. Stay tuned for more details.
Also to be returning is the "Tale of the Tape," the counter that chronicles the decline in my debt, my waistline, and my poundage. All values will be reset and start over effective the 1st of December.
I look forward to rejoining you all and sharing with you some of the fun stuff I'm going to be working on for the next 365 days.
Wish me luck, and stay tuned!
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