Hey hey!
Hope you are having a great weekend.
I’ve had a rather poor work week - just been unable to get out of my head and get some productive stuff going. It is annoying as heck but it happens. I am hoping to get out of this funk tomorrow morning and just getting some stuff done.
Maybe it is time to experiment and tweak my productivity routine/system. My current one is to do a combination of an Eisenhower matrix and a list of tasks for the day (1-3 items). I’d love to hear about yours.
Alrighty, let’s get to the stuff for today.
3 tips on running, which are to help you get out of your head and not be too crippled by over-thinking. But instead to just go based on touch and feel.
3 quotes, as usual. One from Mr Miyagi, thanks to a friend who spent an afternoon re-watching The Karate Kid and wrote stuff down. Amazing!
on diets, and finding the right tools for our toolbox. Most of us try a diet. It works for some time. Then it doesn’t. We fall off. Then we try something else. Instead, accumulate a few tools for your toolbox. I’ll show you how.
Improve your running
While I don't run as often as I used to, these 3 fundamentals help me ensure that I run safely and constantly work on improving my skill.
Falling in love with running was how my fitness journey began. From being abysmal at it and dreading every run, it became the best hour of my day. Being out in nature (I was running in the glorious trails available in the SF Bay Area), slowly warming up in the cold as you are running and breathing in that crisp, cold air was invigorating. And alien.
#1: Breathing
Breathe through your nose.
This makes it a self-limiting activity and ensures that your aerobic system is working as the primary fuel system.
This is simple to test out - sprint 400m. You will want to open your mouth and breathe. Your body is craving more oxygen and so is bypassing the nose. But the nose has a lot of magic in it.
When you breathe through your nose, you will run at a pace that works for you. It is that simple.
#2: Glute activation
Our glutes went to sleep many years ago and it is imperative that we wake them up. The glutes are the powerhouse of the body and will help you run faster and better. Also, the pesky knee pain you face when you climb stairs or run - that's coz of weak and tight glutes.
Buy a resistance band and do any/all forms of glute activation drills that you can do. Here are a few. 3 sets of the following will change your next running session.
glute bridges. Loop the band over your knees (just above them). Lie down. Push your heels into the floor and drive your hips up and squeeze your glutes. Squeeze for 3 seconds. Do 10 reps.
lateral band walk. Loop the band over your knees. Walk 10 paces to the left. Walk 10 paces to the right. Repeat again.
squats with a band around the knee. Squat down and push your knees out against the band. You will feel your glutes (the medius) as you push the knee out and you will feel a different part of the glutes when you bounce out of the bottom. 10 squats.
Glute activation is the single biggest change you can do to change your running.
#3: Make less noise
Pay attention to the sound your footsteps make. Figure out how to be softer.
When you are making lesser noise, your technique has improved by a huge factor. You can break this down, do a gait analysis, find the right running shoes, pore over 100s of videos. Or you can just figure out how to make this change happen.
For a casual runner, any of these can create a large impact on your running. Do all 3 and watch your running improve faster than ever before.
3 quotes for this week
Sometimes What Heart Know, Head Forget
-- Mr Miyagi from The Karate Kid
Over-thinking is a perennial issue of mine. So, whenever possible, I try to let other things take over. Many times, things I’ve supposedly learned many years back (and have subsequently forgotten) get rediscovered this way.
Often, it's not how fast it travels but how soon it gets there that counts
-- Bruce Lee
Timing matters. Sure, speed matters. But timing matters more.
Though it feels malevolent, Resistance in fact operates with the indifference of rain and transits the heavens by the same laws as the start. When we marshal our forces to combat Resistance, we must remember this.
-- Steven Pressfield
It is not personal at all. You are shooting yourself in the foot constantly. You cannot keep berating yourself about it. You just need to pick yourself up and keep going.
I am constantly repeating this to myself after a rather poor work-week.
creating a dieting toolbox and why it is necessary
Through experimentation, we need to identify the right tools and build your toolbox. Using the right tool at the right time is what will get you to your goals. And not 'that' diet you are not currently on.
There are quite a few reasons why our diets fail. Or our resolutions are not met.
Your life is one piece. A shitty day at work where you are drained might mean you make poor choices when you come home. Decision fatigue hits.
You think that a magical diet that you haven't tried is the key. It is not. For long-term sustainability, you have to eat according to your tastes and culture and location. You need to make better choices, construct a better plate. The answer is not the diet you haven't yet tried. The answer is understanding the ups and downs of our day and our lives.
curveballs abound. Nothing is straightforward or linear. Good problems happen. Terrible problems happen. It becomes hard to stick to the plan while in the midst of all of this.
Results stall. You plateau. You get bored. Someone else is seeing better results. You want it all now.
are we doomed in this vicious cycle?
Absolutely not. It will certainly seem that way. Until it doesn't.
You need to find a method that works for you. And here's the key - you need to find multiple methods, not just one.
Don't get too attached to it. It is not something to get a tattoo of. Or to stand and yell from the rooftops about.
It is a tool in your toolbox. Accumulate a few of these. One is too little. Five might be too many.
building a toolbox
You need multiple tools. The right one for the right season and occasion. Let's build one! Before we start, let's make sure we are in agreement on the fundamentals.
the fundamentals
eat vegetables
drink more water
eat enough protein
don't eat too much junk - sugar, oily stuff, empty calories
sleep well
exercise regularly
Tool #1: On/Off
Find a method that works. For some of us, turning a switch on for a few weeks works. Especially in January. Great, that's tool #1.
A reasonable amount of time to be fully switched on is 4-12 weeks. Anything less won't produce results. Anything more might find you searching for your sanity.
The Daily9, for example, is about trying to turn things on for 8 weeks, as we've found that to be the sweet spot for significant results. And it is a challenging duration for one to overcome a few obstacles along the way and learn a few lessons.
A binary approach is useful at certain points in time. But the drawback of a binary approach is fatigue. So, part of this toolbox will need to be a week of unwinding. Not a week of undoing all the good work you've done. But a week where you can be relaxed about things - have the beer you've been craving, the ice-cream you've not had. But if you are drinking a case a day or eating a pint a night, we got issues. Maybe the duration was too much.
8 weeks on, 1 week off.
Tool #2: The 5/2
5 days of the week, things are on point. And for 2 days of the week, you just relax.
Simple. Repeatable. For many weeks.
If you are not happy with the results, the 5/2 can be tweaked to a 6/1.
How much do you relax? What's too much? What's too little? Ah, those are the hard questions.
Tool #3: The minimal DOs
Sometimes, eating vegetables can be hard. Or exercising regularly. Some of us find some things easy. Some of us find those very things impossible but other things easy.
Do the minimum.
For example, on vacation, I switch to this tool. My DOs become
sleep. a lot.
start the morning with some activity. spend a good chunk of the day walking.
and that's it!
let's chart out a year
It all comes down to you developing better routines for yourself. And understanding where things are in your life, and which tool to use at which point in time.
For example, let's chart out a year.
January and Feb: Daily9 or the equivalent i.e. fully on.
1 week off.
March: 5-on-2-off
check "results". If happy, continue with 5/2. Else, switch to 6/1.
April-June 23: 5/2 or 6/1
last week of June: 1 week off
July and August: Fully on.
1 week off
rest of September and October: 5/2
November: 6/1
Dec 1 to Dec 20: fully on
Dec 21 onwards: chill!
repeat!
goldilocks
These are not the only tools. You need to figure out what tools work for you - intermittent fasting, walking, swimming, pranayama, yoga, badminton, the Warrior Diet, the Parillo method, whatever.
Find your tools. Create your toolbox.
Chart out your year.
Tweak. Tinker. Iterate.
You need to measure a lot more than your body weight as the goal. It is not all about your waistline.
Finding the "just right" in everything is key. Including this dieting thing.
And that’s it for this week’s digest.
I’d love it if you shared one post with ONE friend.
And if you have any thoughts/comments/feedback, do write to me. I’d love to hear from you.
