Fitness and Exercise

I'd like to offer a different point of view regarding the importance of fitness and exercise.
As I discussed in an earlier post, good Health embodies aspects of physical, mental and social well-being.
Undoubtedly, it is very important to put in the right kind of fuel in the 'machine', however it is equally as important to take the 'machine' for a good spin every day to keep the motor in good shape [by the way I semi-apologize for the car-type references, I know a lot about them and I can relate to a lot of body processes as a result].
Of all the muscles in our body, there is one that really, really is important.  The motor.  You know which one I speak of:

Yes the heart. It is a lot of things, but first and foremost it is a muscle.  The cool part, I think, is that not only does it pump blood to the entire body, but it also pumps blood to itself.  Anyway as a muscle, it needs to be exercised and kept in tip-top shape.  Eat well, great.  Do what you like, awesome.  Reduce your stress, go for it.  Be a good, well-liked person, super.  All those are great, but your heart needs one more component to be happy, and that is exercise.  So let's talk about exercise, shall we?
Before I get into more specific details, I would like to back track a bit and put this line of thoughts into context.  As I started to make changes, I knew that exercising was going to have to play a big role, so I read up on it.  I really wasn't sure what I would like to do, so I started by swimming.  I was heavy, just quit smoking so I figured it was probably the best way to get moving without stressing my body or doing too much.  Right around the same time, I knew a couple of coworkers that ran marathons so it got me thinking about doing more than just swimming.  I wasn't a runner, as I was made to do it as a kid [thank you French education system], but I thought maybe when I got a little bit smaller I could give it a try.  Of course, if I was going to do that I might as well get on the bike too.  And so the challenge started to take shape: why not do all 3? And so I decided to read a little bit about triathlons, what the deal is, how to train, what to expect, those sorts of things.  I found one author particularly interesting, Brendan Brazier, a world-class Canadian triathlete and ultra marathoner [not to be confused with Brendan Fraser, also Canadian but not involved in endurance sports, that I know of anyway :)], who since his competitive days has [among other things] advocated for better health through better nutrition, particularly by ways of a vegan diet.  He also has a little something to say about training for endurance sports, specifically about the heart.  His point of view, albeit simplified a bit, is what I would like to share.
It really struck a chord in me and it goes something like this: Training too hard will degrade your performance.  Furthermore, the additional energy required to complete a task, when done improperly or too much, is very costly as it could be used on the back side to do it longer.
It is nothing more than a statement of the law of diminishing returns, that is at some point, whatever effort going into a task will no longer provide any benefit or even make it worse.  Mr. Brazier talks in length about the topic in his book and how he tailored his training to focus on quality and not quantity.  It is especially important for endurance sports, where energy management is paramount.  Here is how this thinking applies to the heart.
The average resting hear rate is about 72 bpm [beats per minute].  Below is a chart showing the spread based on age and fitness level [for men. women's looks just the same, just a few beats difference]:

Let's take 2 people in the 36-45 age group, one in the below average category with a resting rate of 78 and one in the excellent category with a resting rate of 60.  Here are my assumptions:                                          

- 8 hr sleep at resting rate
- 60 bpm individual exercises for 1 hr around 145 bpm average, rest of the time [15 hrs] spent at around mid to high 70s on average
- 78 bpm individual does not exercise, rest of time [16 hrs] spent at around mid to high 90s on average
- The difference between the 2 'rest of the time' rates is explained like this: the healthy heart will not beat as fast during the regular daily events compared to the less healthy heart. It may have a spike here and there, but it will recover faster and stay lower throughout the day.
Graphically, it looks something like this:

With a little arithmetic, it looks like this:
- 60 bpm individual: [60*60*8]+[145*60]+[78*60*15]= 107700 Beats per 24 Hrs
- 78 bpm individual: [78*60*8]+[98*60*16]= 131520 Beats per 24 Hrs
Let's think about this for a moment.
That's about 22% more heart beats for the below average individual.  For that 'cost', he has nothing to show for, day in and day out his health and fitness level will not change.  Not only that, but in 5 days his heart will have beaten twice the number of beats compared to the other individual. Twice.  5 days.
The other individual has worked out pretty hard each of those 5 days, he has something to show for: each day his health and fitness levels improve.  During the hour of hard work, he will gradually cover more ground, or go faster.  I'm not going to qualify those numbers any more.  For me, twice the beats in 5 days is enough to get my ass moving.  It may not be medically proven but in terms of energy used to do the same task [living our lives for 5 days], I'll take half the heart beats. There has to be a tally somewhere, and it seems to me it's one to keep low.
Now I realize that it isn't always feasible to workout 1 Hour each day.  That said, I bet 30 minutes can be done easily, and the result will be the same: a great improvement in heart and overall health.  And that's the point, a small payment for a large return.
Don't just take my word for it, check out the links, read up on the stuff.
Until next time,

Oliver P.

Nuts and bolts

Alright alright I know it's been a while....Life has been just plain crazy lately!  More on that in a later post...
Anyway I wanted to touch a little bit on just what our daily meals look like, specifically breakfast and lunch.
As a reminder, we follow the Eat to Live principles pretty tightly, which is the foundation of my increasingly good health.  It's not just about the food, as I discussed before, but putting in the right fuel greatly helps all the parts of the puzzle fit together better.
As with most of our past efforts, finding a good routine to keep things going was pretty high on the list. At first the novelty of it all carried its own momentum, but after a while it was evident we were going to have to come up with something for the long run. I felt we needed to make sure we could streamline as much as possible, both for economical as well as practical reasons.
Somewhere around the start of it all, we purchased a Vitamix [aka the Obliterator], and with it came a nice book of recipes.  We tried a few smoothies, and pretty soon we found ourselves just making the one, day after day.  We gave others a few more attempts, but we knew.  So the Breakfast smoothie was born.  

The breakfast smoothie

It's pretty basic, but no less delicious.  In it are the following:

- 1/2 C Almond milk [any non-dairy will do there]

- 1 C Water

- 1 Banana

- 1 Apple

- 1 Orange

- 2 Dates

- 2 Handfuls of Spinach

- 7 Slices of frozen Peaches

- 7 Frozen Strawberries [a couple more if they are small] 

We like to call it a Seagram's smoothie [...], and it makes 3 servings for us.  I like to augment mine with 2 Tbsp of Chia seeds and generous 1/2 C of Soy milk. I generally have it a bit later in the morning as I like to work out first and then enjoy the smoothie.

We still had to come up with a bit more breakfast.  We both love Oat Meal so we decided to try different flavors with it.  We settled on mixing in a banana and some of Costco's 3-berry mix [1 C or so].  It was good [we still make it], but not delicious like the smoothie.  What really did it was coming across one of Dr. Fuhrman's recipe for an antioxidant breakfast bars.  They basically have the same base ingredients, but somehow the combination is about as good as it gets for us.

Breakfast Bars

We modified it just a bit, and this is what we ended up with:

- 2 ripe Bananas

- 3 Dates

- 2 Tbsp Sunflower Seeds

- 4 Tbsp ground Flax Seeds

- 1/4 C Craisins

- 1/4 C Zante Currants

- 1/4 C chopped Pecans

- 6 dried Apricots

- 2 Tbsp Goji Berries [optional]

- 1/2 dozen Almond [optional]

- 1/4 C Pomegranate Juice

- 1 C Frozen Blueberries, thawed

- 1 C Frozen Costco 3-Berry mix, thawed

- 2 C Oat Meal

Oven 350 F.  Using a food processor, blend bananas first until near liquid. Add all but the Oat Meal, blend thoroughly.  Pour in a bowl, add Oat Meal and mix well by hand.  Pour in an 8x8 pan, bake for 40 minutes.

One batch will make 8 bars, we each get 1 [you can see one to the left of the plate in the picture].  And that's breakfast! Like I mentioned earlier, I will typically have a bar with a cuppa joe, go work out about an hour later and then have the smoothie.  We'll have the regular Oat Meal breakfast when we forget to make bars, but by and large it's all about the bars!

My next idea came from reading the Eat to Live book itself.  I noticed there was a 'baseline' quantity of greens, veggies, legumes, seeds and others that the good doctor recommends to have throughout the day, so I said why not make a salad out of those?  It was going to be big, but that's the idea anyway so we gave it a try.  As we made our first, its name emerged right away, The Gynormous!  I struggled to finish it at first because it is so much food! It didn't take very long to get used to it, and nowadays the only thing I have to worry about is how long it takes to eat it [lots of chewing!].

The Gynormous

Here is the breakdown:

- 1/2 head of Romaine, chopped [we use the Costco package, you would have to use less than that if using one from the store or the farm, like 1/4 head]

- 1 large handful of spinach, chopped [any dark green will do there]

- 1/2 Red Pepper, chopped

- 1 Carrot, chopped

- 1/2 beefsteak Tomato, chopped [use a whole for smaller types]

- 1/2 Cucumber, chopped

- 1 handful of Sugar Peas, chopped

- 1/4 Avocado, sliced

- 4 Mushrooms, sliced

- 15 grapes, sliced in half

- 1 can of Garbanzo Beans [any will do]

- 1 1/2 Tbsp Sunflower Seeds

- 1 Tbsp ground Flax Seeds

- Dressing: Costco Mango Peach Salsa [a smattering usually], Balsamic Vinegar [to taste]

I find that it is also a great place for leftovers to go...A bit of rice, steamed veggies, salmon...I also like to put in some heat, like a chopped fresh jalapeno or some Chipotle Peppers.

And so there you have it, a tasty breakfast and a delicious lunch!  It has been more than a year and a half so far, and we both feel the same way we did the first time, we love it!  As a matter of fact we don't feel quite right if we miss them, especially the Gynormous.  The streamlining made a big difference both in the amount of money spent on those meals as well as the time to make them.  No longer do we have to come up with something new day after day.  We get most of the stuff from Costco [less in the summer] and we'll make batches at a time.  I usually make a batch of bars along with dinner, it doesn't really take any more time.  We make the salads the night before, sometime 2 or 3 days' worth [think about it, nothing goes bad and as long as we don't put in the 'dressing' nothing wilts].  We do make the smoothies daily, but that has become part of the morning routine [it only take a few minutes anyway, but it does taste better freshly made].  This approach may sound weird, but it really works well for us.  The way I see it, doing it this way locks in the good habits and keeps the temptations away.  I'm no longer terribly worried about those temptations anymore, but just the same I enjoy sticking this well established routine.  Like I said before, we both have tried all sorts of ways to eat well in the past, this one's sticking!

That leaves dinner open.  We try different things and experiment there, but it keeps it reasonable.  I will share some of the recipes and ideas in a later post.

Until next time,

Oliver P.

Labels

There is no shortage of labels in this world...Everywhere you look, people brandish them, wear them, argue over them, kill for them.  It's really quite crazy.  It seems our lives are driven by labels, believe in this, belong to that, oppose those guys...I said it before, this World is crazy and it's out take it all from us, that's probably why people want to feel like they belong, stand out of the crowd a little bit.
I know that the good doctor coined the term 'nutritarian' to encompass the practices described in the Eat to Live book, but I'm not into it.  I don't feel the need to wave that flag. Since I've started this whole thing, I have come to think of myself as just 2 things: Healthy and Active.
If we want to get down to it, I am gluten-free sugar-free oil-free egg-free dairy-free pescatarian triathlete [in training], 90% of the time.  Talk about labels!  I would rather say that I make my choices based on a long term plan to stay in good shape, minimize preventable diseases [especially in the cardiovascular area] and maybe even stay clear of others [I may be genetically predisposed for certain diseases, such as cancer, but being in great Health sure can't hurt anything, can it?], and generally keep sharp. I don't have any condition that requires me to do any of things, I choose not to have them.  I'll break it down quickly:
All of those foods that I am avoiding are, in my opinion, far too calorie dense.  They tend to associate with less-than-healthy habits.  I don't want to pick on anything in particular, but let's pick Italian food in general.  It pretty much has all of the things I avoid [gluten, oil, sugar, eggs, dairy, meat] because any given plate of just about any dish has just too many calories, too much fat and far not enough nutrients.  So instead of trying to compromise I decided to exclude.  I feel that it is more productive to concentrate on a Healthy habit rather than modifying an unhealthy one.  Keep in mind that I will still have those from time to time, that's what the 90% is for.  Because a glass [or two] of great wine is only better with a slice [or two] of Brie! I am French after all!
Now certain labels I do pay some attention to, like the ones in the grocery store.  They can get pretty confusing, especially with the ever-changing serving size deceit, and I don't buy too many things I don't prepare but just the same it's always good to see what's in them.  If it goes in a recipe, I may alter the amount or keep some information from it in the back of my mind.
Overall I think it makes more sense to keep it simple, makes it easier to focus on the task.  I'm sure that my activity won't always include training for triathlons, but I will always be active.  There may be times when I won't be able to eat this way, but I will always make the healthiest choice.
Well that's it for now.  Please send me some feedback, let me know how I'm doing!
Until next time,

Oliver P.

Food for thought

As I have mentioned in my earlier posts, the road to Good Health is a multidisciplinary effort.  While the physical aspect covers a lot of ground, we can't forget the others.  Remember the others, right? Yeah the mental health and the social well being.  This is a bit delicate to talk about, but it can't be ignored.  There are hard questions and there sure as Hell aren't any easy answers.  This is the being honest with yourself part of this.  I mean if you have tried to make improvements in the past, in any form,  and didn't stick with it or didn't succeed, there is probably some underlying reason for it...And at some point, you are going to at least have to acknowledge it, otherwise you are doing something over and expecting a different result.  There is a word for that.  I know that this time around looking at these issues certainly has made a difference.  That kind of inward look takes time, but the way I see it I'm in it for the long haul anyway.  I'm not going to go into any more details here, that's not the point.  The point is to say that part of my success has come from broadening the spectrum of my changes, and that includes my mental health.  I strongly believe that both social well being and mental health are strongly connected.  As you start to feel good inwardly, you start to exhibit that feeling, and the quality of your interactions starts to increase, and that feeds the good feelings inside, and so on...
This part of the journey is very personal, so I won't spend any more time on it.  Know what it plays a big role and it can't be ignored.
Until next time,

Oliver P.

Let's talk nutrition!

I've talked about it a little in the earlier posts, but this time I want to dive a little deeper in the food aspect the health, shall we?
Going back to the health screening, the nutritionist talked to me about Eat to Live.  The first point that she mentioned is calorie density Vs. nutrient density.  Take a typical restaurant meal, let's say a small salad [standard fare here, so let's pick a Caesar salad, croutons, Parmesan, dressing], a medium sized steak with mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, a couple of dinner rolls with butter, then a small scoop of ice cream and a soda to wash it all down.  Every part of this dinner is quite rich calorie wise, but as far as nutrition goes the count is pretty low.  And as far as I know, this isn't necessarily a huge dinner, meaning it would be safe to think that most could easily eat a lot more during this type of meal, you know throw in an appetizer, a bigger steak and some cake with that ice cream.  That's the point she was trying to make.  The original dinner was already way more than plenty as far as calories [way more] and nearly devoid of healthy nutrients, there is room to add the second part!  The food doesn't take up that much volume, so there is room to feel hungrier. Now, she says, imagine an alternate dinner, starting with a large [and I mean large, think bowl] salad mix [romaine with spinach or kale or chard] and then start piling on some tomato, red pepper, cucumber, carrot, avocado, grapes, beans, snap peas, seeds, mushroom and top it with a dressing made of apple, water, vinegar and spices.  For good measure throw in a couple of ounces of fish and a half of a baked sweet potato.  Wash it down with a tall glass of water.  When you do finish [it takes a while], there is no room for ANYTHING else in your stomach.  Calorie wise, this isn't even in sight of the restaurant meal.  It's at least half as many, more like a third.  Now nutrient wise, you get all that you need, protein, fat, carbs, etc...But you get them in a healthy format.  There is no added sugar in this meal, little to no saturated fats and enough calories to keep you going.  Your blood sugar won't spike, so there is no crash afterward.  This is idea behind the plan, to replace low nutrient/low volume/high calorie foods with high nutrient/high volume/low calorie foods.  Your body gets more nutrients and get them in healthy form.
Notice I didn't mention anything about weight loss.  That's right, the focus is shifted, the approach is broader.  There is no longer a fixation on the scale.  The goal is to bring the health indicators, such as blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and the likes in the lowest ranges possible in order to just plain live longer and healthier! The weight is but a byproduct of this effort.  You can only go so far with proper nutrition, you also need to be active.  That only speeds up the process, and besides you have so much energy it's got to go somewhere!
Now I am of course paraphrasing here, there is so much more to this! But the main idea is that you have to make a real shift in what you buy, how you cook it and how much you eat.  By and large it is a plant based diet.  That may turn some people off, and there's a whole lot of stigma out there but that's just what is it.  The main point of it is this: you can achieve ALL of the nutrient and caloric needs to sustain a healthy and active lifestyle with a plant, fruits, seeds, nuts, legumes and grain based diet.  In doing so, you will also achieve a much healthier physical state of being.  This is the argument that the author makes, and it is my position as well.
That is the path I took for my journey, and it has worked for me.  It was hard, it still is.  Because of my somewhat addictive personality, I had to make sure to go all 'OCD' on it, otherwise it wasn't going to last.  But that's just me. I have been taking great pleasure in cooking this way [since I do most of the cooking], trying new recipes, keeping things interesting and varied.  We have an accumulated [and growing] set of recipes that we all like that I keep in a rotation.  I shop and cook per recipe and that also has helped for 2 reasons: it keeps the cost reasonable and drastically reduces the waste from the fridge.  When it's shopping day, let me tell you it's bare!  We have the breakfast and lunch as set meals.  They are both portables [and we do take them when we go for a couple of days], leaving dinner as the changing meal.  We have snacks [and I need them these days as I am increasing my activity].  We use Costco as much as we can to keep the cost down on the staples.  In the summer we try to buy from the local farm and can some for the winter.  I don't shun meat, actually we have Salmon once a week or so, preferably the ones that I caught [there's just no other way if you ask me].  As for the rest, it's really gone.  No sugar, no oil, no eggs, no dairy [that was a tough one but worth a pant size!].  I did, though, just recently finally gave up cream in my coffee.  So I drink less of it now, and that's a good thing. All and all, it's about a 90/10 thing.  So over a week, that 2 meals I can have whatever, and I do.  But really, it ends up being a little bit more fish, or a bit of chocolate with a couple of glasses of wine.  Or maybe a couple of slices of a good pizza, or even barbecue for my [former] Big Green Egg.  Hell we even have an omelet in the rotation.
Anyway that's the short of it.  If you think it's tough, it is.  But the rewards are so great!  I had my blood drawn last fall, so about a year+ after my initial screening, and it was amazing!  All of my numbers that are nearly optimal.  The nurse that handed me the results said they were that of a man half my age, and a healthy one at that.  And it's only getting better!
I'll gladly share recipes, tips, motivation, whatever.
Until next time,

Oliver P.

On the topic of Physical Health

As I said in my last post, good Health isn't merely one aspect of our lives, but all of them.  Today I would like to focus a little bit on the Physical Health portion.
In my past efforts, the goal was nearly always to lose a set amount of weight.  Typically, as I was exhausting the 'low hanging fruits', I would reach a plateau and start to lose steam in my effort, ultimately resulting in failure.
This journey, however, was different from the very start.  No longer was I going to focus on the weight.  I will talk more about this real soon when I outline the Eat to Live principles.  It was quite a pleasant feeling when I started to see real results without going on the scale.  Being ever the Engineer, I did start to wonder how I would be able to quantify my progress.  After all, if I wasn't going to look at pounds alone, what could I look at?  What could I use as a benchmark?
The answer is this: Weight over height squared.  Sounds familiar?  Yes I am talking about the BMI.
Before typing these words, I have extensively researched the topic, read a great many pieces both for and against it.
I want to assure you at this point that by no means do I consider the BMI to be more than what it is: an index.  But much like the very succinct definition of Health from the WHO, I feel it is a very loaded number, one that reflects a lot of information.  
I think it is fair to say that if you calculate your BMI or look at published charts like this one, it seems unreasonable.  How can you possibly lose that much weight and be considered healthy?  You probably think you'll have to do something like starve yourself just to reach it.  Conversely, you can look at your current numbers and say that you are in great shape with a good weight yet the charts say you are at Death's doorsteps.
Here's my take on it:
You can lose quite a bit of weight using a specific diet plan. There are plenty out there.  But if your only goal is to lose weight, your focus is too sharp, there is no margin for error.  As you get closer to the "number", you work harder and harder.  This creates a huge stress on the body, and then, because you have such a small margin of error, something happens and you start to slide, eventually regaining most or all of it, and feeling like crap too.  However, if you instead don't put a time limit on the effort and start taking small steps but making sure the changes are fully in place, you start to feel good, it is no longer a challenge or deadline but rather just what you do.  Now this does not mean that it is easy.  Believe me, at some point you run out of little things to change and have to start taking a good hard look at yourself.  But at least by that time you have worked up some real confidence, the framework is in place.  How does that relate to the BMI you say?  By the time you start making some of the bigger changes, you know the ones that involve being honest with yourself, you realize that you are already almost there.  It's crazy but I am proof of it.  By the time I started to plan to begin exercising and quitting smoking, I had already lost more than half of the weight. That's right.  And that put me ever so close to the 'normal' range I couldn't believe it.  Now the rest wasn't any easier to lose, but I was in such a good place I had no problem keeping going.  Like I said the framework was in place.  That almost 'healthy' BMI meant that not only had I lost the pounds, I had taken the steps necessary to keep them gone for good.  As I added a healthy dose of exercise (sorry pun intended!), the rest of it just kept coming off.  I never really thought that I could be under 170 lbs and not be a walking skeleton.  On the contrary, I am in the best shape of my life, and getting stronger.
So take the BMI as a guide.  Get blood drawn, see where you are.  Change everything, but change it slowly.  Who cares about the pounds, they WILL come off.  By the time you are anywhere near that dreaded 'healthy' range, you will be amazed.  When you're right smack dab in the middle of it, you just plain won't believe it.
Until next time,

Oliver P.

So what does being healthy mean anyway?

According to the WHO, Health is defined as follows:  "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" Reference 
That seems to be about as good a place to start as any.  A little bit on the vague side, and not without its weaknesses but still a great definition, one that has been around for a while too.  It is also quite powerful because it encompasses so much with so few words.  It really is all there.  
My next step was to try and see if I could illustrate those words with pictures.  So I did a search using "health" and these are some of the images I got back:

I can see that the main themes of the WHO definition are present as expected.  However, it seems to me the message is starting to be warped a little bit.  I see a lot about food, and good habits, exercise, and more food.  Where's the rest of it?  
Of course the food aspect of Health is important, and I'll be the first one to admit that it is a focus, but certainly not the only one.  Since I started my journey, I spent quite a bit of time considering the subject.  To be truly Healthy means reaching into every aspects of our lives, not just the easy ones.  You can exercise all you want but if you don't change your diet it isn't healthy.  You can exercise and eat well but if your stress level is through the roof, it isn't healthy.  It is all connected.  I've made a lot of changes in my life that have contributed to my overall increase in Health, and I recognize that I am very fortunate in that our situation has allowed it to happen.  Leaving the Big Company was not an easy feat to accomplish, and compromises were made [and still are] as a result, but it needed to happen.  My stress levels were just out of hand, I just wasn't happy at work.  It permeated throughout everything, and threatened to ruin it all.  There are some things are certainly more difficult to change than others, but by no means are those things impossible to achieve.  I'm a big believer in plans.  As a household [and a couple], that's how we've functioned best.  Slowly but surely we've been able to tackle bigger and bigger issues and start getting somewhere.  
I'm not there yet, and I'm not entirely sure I ever will be [or want to be, after all isn't the fun in the journey?], but my road to Good Health is well underway.  
The world is a mad place and it wants to take it all, it's up to you which side of the car you want to sit in, driver or passenger...
Until next time,

Oliver P.