Healthy Habits

It has been said that it takes three weeks of repeating a specific action before it becomes a habit. After this time, the action takes less thought to initiate and less effort to perform. Basically, it’s like cruise control. As long as you continue to steer in the right direction, the pre-programmed car will take you where you want to go. In the same manner, establishing these healthy habits in your life will take much of the struggle out of eating and living well. Sure you will still have to put in some effort to initiate and maintain these habits, but after a while, your fitness plan will be on autopilot.

One of my habits that I’ve developed lately is regular exercise. 3-4 times a week I have an workout consisting of either a 3+ mile jog or an hour or two of Ultimate Frisbee. If I don’t get 3 running workouts a week I feel noticeably groggier. I’m also currently trying to create a habit of strength training. Since I’m actually in between gym memberships, I am trying to accomplish this through pushups and free weights that I have at home. For some reason this is much harder for me to establish than my running was. Maybe it’s because I have more fun when I’m out sprinting or jogging but I know that upperbody strength is much needed.

I’m also continuously working on my eating habits. Over the last two years I’ve made significant changes in my diet. However, once I achieved my goal weight, I became a little slack about what I put on my plate. Just because I’m no longer trying to lose massive amounts of weight doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be trying my best to eat well. For me this will mean drinking more water and having more fresh fruits and vegetables mixed in with my meals with a bunch of lean protein (like grilled chicken). I’m very thankful for the healthy habits that I have developed in the past, like my new found love of unsweetened iced tea, but I still have plenty of room to grow.

Are there any healthy habits you have established (or need to establish) in your life?

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Diet Cola: Lesser of Two Evils?

Occasionally a situation arises where I’m tempted to buy a diet cola. This is hardly common since when I usually crave a Dr. Pepper I go straight for the real stuff. But sometimes, when I feel like I’ve had too much sugar for the day, I reluctantly get a diet drink. These drinks, sweetened with aspartame instead of the HFCS found in regular colas, contain zero calories, but taste far from the real thing. Also, there has been some controversy over whether aspartame is even considered safe for human consumption. Given the controversy and the taste, I usually am successful in avoiding these drinks altogether. But when push comes to shove and you’re really craving a Coke or Mtn. Dew, is diet soda really a lesser of two evils?

Drink Sparingly: Just as you should drink regular colas sparingly, I’d suggest going easy on the diet stuff as well. Neither could ever be considered good for you. Your daily diet should consist of lots of water to stay hydrated and well fueled throughout the day. The caffeine found in these drinks only serves to sap water from your body. And all the artificial ingredients don’t help you either.

Less Calories: It is true, that diet cola contains much less calories than regular cola. If you have surpassed your calorie limits for the day and are in an either-or situation, I’d have no problem going for the diet drink. I often do this in movie theaters. If I’m splurging on buttered popcorn and need something to wash it down, diet drinks are sometimes a convenient way to avoid a couple hundred extra calories.

Not for me: Ultimately, though, I just don’t believe that aspartame drinks are right for me. The flavor along with the controversial ingredients are enough to turn me off from them for the most part. However, this is somewhat of a fitness gray area. While professional nutritionists are probably getting ready to hurl tomatoes and insults my way, let me just say that diet drinks CAN be good for cutting some calories from your daily intake. If you are like I formerly was and are totally addicted to colas, a process of slowly weaning yourself to healthier drinks (like water or unsweetened iced tea) is a great step to take. If diet cola is an intermediary step in this process for you, then I certainly have no problem with that.

Popularity: 35% [?]

5 Helpful Nutrition Tips

I’ve been meaning to post a more thorough article about nutrition lately, but in the meantime, here is a great post about some quick tips on how to eat a more healthy diet. These 5 tips aren’t all encompassing but are certainly good guidelines for the next time you go to the grocery store.

“1. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store.

The perimeter is where you find your produce, your fish and meat, eggs and dairy, etc. It is not where you find twinkies, chips, or donuts. Make quick ventures into the middle aisles to get other items like salsa, tuna, oats and flax. Sticking to the perimeter will also allow you to avoid buying stuff you don’t need just because it is on sale or is making some ridiculous health claim, you usually don’t get suckered by produce.”

link - 5 Helpful Nutrition Tips (via Ultitraining)

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Hack Your Morning Routine

The mornings are literally the worst time of day for me. I am such a zombie right after I wake up that I really need things to be as simple as possible for me in my process of getting ready for work. If I have to spend too much time doing mundane morning activities I’m likely to get really grumpy toward anyone near me. With that in mind, I’d like to share a few of the quick and dirty shortcuts I use in my daily morning routine.

Only Use Two Colors of Socks: I have been doing this one for years. It saves me tons of time both in the morning and when I’m doing laundry. By only buying two colors of socks I never need to pair them or properly sort them. As soon as they are dry I dump the whole lot of them into my sock drawer. Then, in the mornings when I’m rushing out the door I can simply grab any two black socks (for work) or any two white socks (for everything else).

Never Iron Again: I have mentioned this before, but it has saved me so much time in the past, I have to mention it again. I never iron my clothes… ever. I also don’t steam them or take them to the cleaners. All I do in the morning to get the wrinkles out is to spritz my shirts lightly with a water bottle. When the shirt is very slightly damp, I smooth and tug on the shirt to remove the wrinkles. That’s it! I swear this works on most of my shirts and saves me several minutes at least. If you simply have a spray bottle handy you can avoid all the annoying steps of ironing: setting up the board, filling the iron with water, plugging it in, waiting for it to heat up and finally ironing. Yes, I’m lazy, but that is the point.

Shave With a Beard Trimmer: I may be alone on this one, but I hate shaving. I hate it a lot. I actually only really shave twice a year: my wife’s birthday and our anniversary. I don’t even like using an electric razor - it is often uncomfortable and never gets all my whiskers. So, since I unfortunately don’t look great sporting a beard, I have to improvise. A few days a week I reach for my beard trimmer, adjust the guard level down to “zero” and run it against the grain on my face. It never gives me the totally smooth face of a prepubescent boy, but again, that’s the point. It trims my growth back down to a barely noticeable stubble that I actually prefer the look of. Plus, I’m out of the bathroom in mere seconds.

Keep Shirts Buttoned: I have only discovered this trick recently. It won’t save you all that much time, but any seconds that I can cut from my morning routine are seconds that I can happily spend doing something else. Since most of the shirts I wear to work are button-up shirts, I was used to buttoning and unbuttoning every individual button. What a fool I was all this time! If you leave all but the top two buttons secured, you should easily be able to slip the shirt on and off over your head just as you would any other shirt. I imagine I will use this more and more as my blogging career will eventually render my overworked fingers useless.

Redeem your commute: This one is particularly important if you have a long commute. Until very recently I was spending over seven hours a week in my car going to and from work. Eventually, I learned to redeem as much of that time as I possibly could. I subscribed to a number of podcasts relating to technology, productivity or spirituality. I uploaded them to my MP3 player and turned my 7 hours of weekly commute into a personal development study session. Sometimes, I even loaded audiobooks on my device. Listening to books is just as good as reading them in my opinion and everyone could use a little more culture in their lives. Lastly, another great option is to spend your time in productive activities like brainstorming or even prayer. Honestly, some of the my greatest ideas or revalations have come from behind the wheel.

I suppose none of these items are really lifechanging. But I just hate getting bogged down in the little stuff that steals away my time. Do what you have to do to get on to life’s more important matters.

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How To Make Fast Food More Fit

In today’s society, it’s hard to imagine life without fast food. The quick and easy restaurants are virtually everywhere and provide a plethora of cheap, tasty meals. However, the stuff you can find at a fast food restaurant is almost guaranteed to be high in calories, saturated fat and cholesterol. Almost all professional nutritionists demand that you completely cut all fast food from your life. But is this really practical? Yes you could definitely find something better in a health food store, but if you are pressed for time and just want something quick and easy, here are a few tips you can use at your local drive-thru to turn a fat meal to a fit one.

hold the mayo: A single serving of mayonnaise is around 100 calories. If you remember to ask for your order without the mayo you can make a significant reduction in your caloric intake without reducing much of the flavor. To me, mayo doesn’t really add much to the meal anyway.

remove the cheese: This step may be a bit harder (since cheese is pretty delicious) but if you can summon the will power to order your meal without cheese you can subtract another 100 calories from your order.

forget the fries: This is a big one. A single order of fries can range from 200-400 calories depending where you go. A lot of places offer alternative sides for the health conscious. Wendy’s, for example, offers fruit or baked potatoes as sides to their meals. These are both much better choices and are great substitutes for the french fries.

skip the cola: Here’s another tough one. By ordering a glass of water with your meal, you are saving a lot of needless sugar. Another favorite of mine is to order iced tea (unsweetened). Zero calorie beverages are great because they help fill you up without any extra baggage.

try the chicken: All fast food restaurants should offer at least one option with grilled chicken, a great source of lean protein. By ordering a sensible grilled chicken sandwich without the mayo, a healthy side item and a glass of water you can show the world that “fast food” isn’t always bad.

Popularity: 36% [?]