You Can Achieve Your Fitness Goals With These Health, Diet And Exercise Tips For The Busy Modern Man And Woman

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Summer Is Here. Get A Sexy Beach Body With These Fitness Workouts For Your Positive Body Image.

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The New Rules of Fitness for 2013

We’ve entered 2013, and yet most of us think of exercise like it’s 1991. Let’s toss out the old and welcome the new.

The old: long sessions of jogging, or marathon sessions on the elliptical machine or treadmill, or working every bodypart individually on a dozen different weight machines and dumbbell stations, doing circuits in a women-oriented fitness center, taking dance-aerobic or kickboxing-aerobic classes.

There’s nothing wrong with all that, but it’s not how we live today. Today, we live online, in a world of Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Pinterest, of Gmail and iPhones. The way we live and think online isn’t at all how we think about fitness.

Let’s take a cue from how we actually live and think today, and change up fitness. Let’s rethink things for 2013.

If we take cues from our online world today, here’s how we’d do fitness (and some of us are already doing it this way):

Small. In the world of tweets and SMS messages, long classess or gym workouts or jogging sessions just don’t seem to fit. We don’t have time for all of that. So toss out the workout, and instead think of fitness as small as a tweet. Sprint up a hill after getting off the train or parking your car. Sprint up a flight of stairs as you go into the office. Do some pushups before a meeting. Do some squats after sitting for 30 minutes. Pick up a friend, put him on your shoulders, and carry him for a block. Let’s call it a fitness bit instead of a workout.Social. We rarely do anything online or offline without sharing it, or collaborating with others. So share your fitness bits, or do them with others. Play a sport. Find a place where others are sharing their fitness bits too (it’s probably where you’re already sharing other stuff).Distributed. Everything is out there in the cloud these days, not just on one server but distributed across many. But when we schedule a workout, we schedule it at just one time. So 1990s. Instead, do bits throughout the day, distributed among all the other little tasks you’re doing. Do some yoga sun salutations in the morning, a bit of walking or sprinting on the way to work, some bodyweight exercises at your desk (or in front of your living room couches for us work-at-home bums), some basketball or walking/running with friends after work, some chinups at home in the evening. It breaks up all the sitting you usually do, which is a good thing.Fun. We do most of our stuff online because it’s fun. Or at least, I do. I love reading good stuff online, or collaborating with friends, or sharing something interesting I’ve found or thought about. So why is fitness so boring to so many people? They’re doing it wrong. It’s fun as hell. If you’ve been doing exercise you hate, find something funner: a sport, playing with your kids, walking or running with a good friend, a new challenge with a group of friends.Open. Let’s toss out the days when companies had proprietary, secret methods for getting you in shape, and you had to hire a trainer to tell you what to do because he had all the knowledge and you didn’t. Instead, let’s share our best methods, learn from each other, improve on each other’s methods and share those. Let’s find a good way, like open-source software has, to collaborate and share our fitness methods.Exportable. These days, the best services allow you to export your data anytime you want, and you can take that data anywhere you want to take it (yes I know some services don’t do that, but those guys suck). So let’s do the same with fitness — instead of having to do your workout at a gym, or a track, or a yoga studio or crossfit gym or some other specific place … be able to take your workout anywhere. You can do bodyweight exercises anywhere … do yoga poses anywhere … do chinups at the playground or on a tree branch … sprint up a hill or some stairs … walk briskly anywhere. Be fluid with your fitness and be able to adapt to wherever you are.Fast. We work with unprecedented speed online these days. If a page takes 10 seconds to load, it’s too slow. That was unimaginable 15 years ago! So let’s get our fitness to move at the same speed: remove all the barriers to doing a fitness bit. Page speed comes when you remove all the heavy stuff from a page or app — so remove the heavy stuff that slows you down before accessing the fitness bit. What are some of the barriers? Having to go to a gym, sign up for a class, get some clothes or equipment. Instead, you should remove anything that keeps you from doing a fitness bit right now, or at any moment you want to do it.

Those are the new rules of fitness, and they will keep you active, all the time, if you give them a try.

If you’re interested in starting the fitness habit in 2013, check out my Simple Fitness Habit course, with a panel of fitness experts, a mini-course on how to form fitness habits, and a diet portion called The Mindful Diet.

The Simple Fitness Habit

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The Lifehack Editors’ Fitness Challenge: Week 3

So, we have made it to the third week of the challenge and I am officially sore! You know the saying “I’m working muscles that I never thought I had”? Yeah, I think I know what that means now.

Anyways, it’s been a big week for both editors here at Lifehack as we move forward with the challenge. Here is our experience from week 3 as well as our results.

I’ve gotten better over the past week with my eating, but not so much with my exercise. I’ve only started to get back into the NerdFitness stuff (only to be fully aware that I’m traveling again this weekend to watch my wife run in the Tough Mudder) and my Run 2 5K workouts have been non-existent since that first week.

Basically, I’ve fallen off the wagon and am slowly making my way back on. It’s clear to me that CM is going to take this thing, but that doesn’t mean I have to give up. After all, I’m not doing this just to win a challenge amongst editors; I’m doing this to improve my overall health.

There hasn’t been much in the way of change of measurements, which is a good thing (I suppose). But Week 4 has to be better. It just has to. Here is where I’m at as of the end of Week 3 (initial results are in parentheses):

Weight: 178 lbs (177.4)Waist: 35.8 inches (35.75)Hips: 40 inches (41.75)Biceps (flexed): 12.6 inches (12.5)Legs (mid-thigh): 19.9 inches (21)Total inches: 108.3 inches (111)

I decided to challenge myself this week by upping the weight and reps in the NerdFitness routine. I added significant weight to my leg exercises (30 – 40lbs) as well as upped the number of reps in my deadlifts. Also, I moved from inclined pushups on the stairs to full on pushups on the ground which has kept my heart rate up as well as help work out my core muscles more. I’m also making sure that I am using the right combination of weight and reps so that when I get close to the last rep per set I am exhausting my muscles.

I decided to switch up the 5K program to biking instead this week. The reason; I hate running. I’ve always been more of a “mechanical” kind of guy, so the idea of using a decent bike, repairing it, etc. is cool. Plus, I get to see more when I’m out for a ride and it’s far less boring. A couple of years ago I was turning into a biking fiend, so this fitness challenge has lit the spark.

As for my diet I am still sticking to a modified paleo approach. I have let a little more sugar slip back in (my wife bought me a mammoth peanut butter cup from a local chocolatier), but other than that I have been eating well. According to some different calorie counter apps I’m currently under the number of calories that I need to be eating, but I feel OK and my blood sugar seems correct, so I’m not too worried about it. Once again, the thing that I probably don’t consume enough of is water. But, in good Lifehack spirit, I have set up a few reminders on my iPhone to help me remember.

Here are my results for the past week (initial results are in parentheses):

Weight: 201.4 lbs (208)Waist: 41.75 inches (43.5)Hips: 42.1 inches (43)Biceps (flexed): 14.25 inches (14)Legs (mid-thigh): 23.5 inches (23.5)Total inches: 121.6 inches (124)

(Photo credit: Muscular man lifting weights via Shutterstock)

CM Smith is a technologist, writer, and husband. He holds a degree in MIS and CMPSC from Penn State. CM is also interested in personal productivity, creativity and how to use technology to get things done. Check out his writing at devburner.net or follow him on Twitter.

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The Lifehack Editors’ Fitness Challenge: Week 1

Well, we’ve finshed up the first week of the Lifehack Editors’ Fitness Challenge and there is one thing that both CM and I have in common as of right now: We are both very sore people.

Let’s get into our own experiences with this challenge so far, shall we?

I’m certainly glad we took on the Rookie level of the NerdFitness Rebel Fitness Guide because for me that was a challenge from the get-go. I haven’t done any real exercise in many months (almost a year) and the 2 routines that are part of the guide are tough. One of the things I’ve been concerned about is proper form, as I don’t want to injure myself and/or not get the true benefits of each exercise.

I’m using resistance bands for my workouts, as I’ll be traveling several times during the course of this challenge. So I’ve had to watch videos on how to adapt certain exercises to be performed with resitstance bands rather than free weights. As a result, my workouts are taking longer to do than I’d initially thought – but once I’m in the groove I am pushing through. And that’s a good thing.

The running hasn’t been as challenging, as I’ve only been away from that for a few months. Still, the first half of each Run 5K app routine seems way longer than it should. Luckily i’ve got my own custom iTunes playlist to keep me company, along with a solid set of earbuds that manage to stay in my ears throughout (Note: If you’re in the market for some new earbuds, Lifehack Deals is currently offering BodyGuardz Moxy Earbuds for 50% off). Next week the stakes get a little higher as the time spent running during the routine will increase. I expect that’s when I’ll start to really feel the burn.

Speaking of feeling, did I mention that I’m very sore?

I’ve not altered my diet too much, but am definitely noticing that I really can’t eat as much pasta as I have. Same goes with breads in general. Maybe it’s time I start to look at going Paleo…

As for my weight, it has actually gone up by 1.2 lbs since I started. Go figure.

So, where am I at after the first week? My starting weight and measurements are in parentheses below, preceded by my current ones in this shortened week of the Lifehack Editors’ Fitness Challenge

Weight: 178.6 lbs (177.4)Waist: 36 inches (35.75)Hips: 41.75 inches (41.75)Biceps (flexed): 12.5 inches (12.5)Legs (mid-thigh): 18.5 inches (21)Total inches: 108.75 inches (111)

I have to admit; I sorted of cheated a little on this fitness challenge as I started “working out the kinks” for the past couple of weeks. Because of that a lot of my soreness was worked out initially. To compesate for that I ended up doing higher amounts of reps this week in the Rookie level of NerdFitness. That made it challenging and kept me pretty sore. I realized after today’s NerdFitness workout that I need to add some weight to my squats and step ups at the beginning of next week. I will also add 5 pounds to all of my shoulder presses and rows.

As for the running portion of our challenge, I feel like it’s the perfect balance of walking and running. The first half or so of the workout is pretty easy, but once I get above 20 minutes, I really start to feel the burn in my legs and the workout becomes hard.

My diet has been somewhat paleo for almost a year now. I haven’t touched any bread since Fall 2011. The biggest change in my diet this week was to cut out processed sugars completely as well as make sure to drink around 8 to 10 cups of water a day. I haven’t necessarily had too much trouble with process sugars since I’ve gone paleo, but I made sure to cut them all out, at least initially to really cut the fat.

I have to say I am pretty happy with my first 5 days of results; I’ve lost weight and lost inches where it counts and am highly motivated to continue with the challenge. Also, as an indirect result of working out, I’ve found that my energy levels during the day are much more balanced.

Weight: 203.4 lbs (208)Waist: 42 inches (43.5)Hips: 43 inches (43)Biceps (flexed): 14.25 inches (14)Legs (mid-thigh): 23.5 inches (23.25)Total inches: 122. inches (124)

(Photo credit: Flexing via Shutterstock)

Mike Vardy is the Managing Editor at Lifehack. An independent writer, speaker, podcaster and "productivityist", you can read more of his writing at Vardy.me. He is @mikevardy on Twitter.

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The Thousand Cuts Fitness Program

I’ve trained for marathons, triathlons, 10Ks, a 13.5-hour challenge, Ubanathlons, and more. But my favorite fitness program isn’t one where you train for a major event.

It’s where you get fit by a thousand little actions.

When the actions are tiny, they are easy. You have no excuse. You can do them anywhere, all day long.

I fold fitness into my life, like blueberries into batter, and it becomes a part of the recipe, not just a topping.

If you haven’t found a way to get fit, try the Thousand Cuts Fitness Program. There is nothing better for those who don’t have the time.

Here’s how it works:

1. Right now, do something that only takes 1 minute. It might be a few pushups, bodyweight squats, an attempt at a pullup, a few lunges. You have time to do 1 minute.

2. In an hour or so, go for a walk if you can. If you’re in decent shape, make it a fast walk. Add some hills for challenges. If you’re not in good shape, just walk. Later, add some spurts of fast walking.

3. Later in the day, do a few more 1 minute activities.

4. Gradually build the 1 minute activities into 2 or 3 minutes. Then 4 or 5 of them. Add more of them throughout your day.

5. As much as you can, turn the activities into play. Throw your kids around. Run through a park and climb trees and benches. Race people. Play a sport.

6. Get a pullup bar for your home. Every time you walk by it, try to pull yourself up. If you can do pullups, do a few, or 10, every time you pass the bar.

7. Get a kettlebell. Swing it a few times a day.

8. Run places. Walk places quickly.

Always be active. It’s not hard, if you do it in tiny bits. You can’t say no to 1 minute, or even just a few seconds. And if you do a thousand of them, you’ll be fit.

Fitness is a part of my life now, but it wasn’t when I started. I did it in little bits, without designating a certain time as “workout time”. My whole life is workout time.

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A Compact Guide to Creating the Fitness Habit

A new year, a new slate of resolutions.

Perhaps the biggest resolution at New Year’s is to get fit — start exercising, start eating right, and all that jazz.

But resolutions never last. As you might already know, I’m not a fan of resolutions.

Instead of creating a list of resolutions this year, create a new habit.

Habits last, and they lead to long-term fitness (and more). They require more patience, but they are worth the wait.

As some of you know, fitness habits are what started me along the path to changing my life. I quit smoking, started running. Then I started eating healthier, became vegetarian (now vegan), quit the junk food addiction, started doing other types of workouts (bodyweight, weights, Crossfit, anything that was fun).

And six years later, I’m nearly 39 years old and in the best shape of my life. I have less bodyfat than any time since high school, more muscle than ever in my life, and I can run and hike and play longer than anytime in the history of Leo. That’s not to brag, but to show you what can be done with some simple fitness habits.

The appealing thing about many fitness programs is that they promise quick results. You see testimonials from people who have gone through the program and lost 30 lbs. and gain a washboard stomach in just 4 weeks!

That’s all complete crap.

First, most people won’t achieve those results. Second, and more importantly, if you do get quick results, you’ll reverse those results very quickly … because you haven’t created new habits. You’ve just done something intense and unsustainable for a short period of time. That’s nearly worthless.

You should be focused on long-term results, and more importantly on a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle starts with changing your habits and ends with long-term results.

Changing habits takes time. I recommend one habit at a time, and give yourself about a month per habit. That takes patience, but you shouldn’t try to see amazing results in just 30 days. You should enjoy your new lifestyle, which will be an amazing result in itself that you can achieve immediately. In a matter of months and years, your body and health will change too.

Let’s say you change one habit at a time, one per month or so. You’ll have 12 new habits every year. Even if you only formed 6 habits that stuck and that you loved, you’d be amazed at what kind of changes those 6 habits would create in your life and fitness. If you did 6 habits a year for three years, you’d be transformed.

If you don’t have the patience to change one habit at a time, or focus on enjoying your new habits rather than getting quick results, you should stop reading now.

So let’s say you’re just starting out … what habit should you start with?

My favorite habit is daily exercise, but if you’re looking to lose weight probably the most important habits relate to eating.

In truth, which habit you choose first matters very little in the long run. You will be changing many little habits over the course of the next few years, and the order of those habits is unimportant. What matters is that you start.

Here are some habits that I’d start with, if you haven’t created them yet:

Exercise for just 5 minutes a day, adding 5 minutes per week. Make it a fun exercise.Drink water instead of sweet drinks.Replace fried foods with vegetables.Eat fruit and nuts for snacks.Eat lean protein, including plant proteins, instead of red meat.Add strength exercises to your routine — pushups, pullups, squats, lunges.If you’ve been doing all of the above for awhile, add some weights — compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, dips, chinups, overhead presses and rows.

I’ve found that losing weight is simple: eat lots of veggies and plant or lean protein, reduce calories, do some kind of cardio, lift some weights to preserve muscle.

Gaining muscle is also fairly simple: eat lots of veggies and plant or lean protein, increase calories, do some kind of cardio to preserve heart health, lift heavy weights to grow muscle.

The weights should be compound lifts and heavy, the cardio should be enjoyable. Getting “toned”, btw, is just gaining muscle and losing the fat that covers the muscle, whether you’re a man or woman.

These are my top principles for forming habits. If you’ve read my writings on habits before, this won’t be new to you, but often it’s good to review these principles for things you’ve missed:

Make it social. This is an incredibly powerful too. I highly, highly recommend Fitocracy to everyone, as it’s a way to make exercise fun and social (invite code: ZENHABITS). It turns fitness into a game, and you log your exercises, get points, encourage others, complete fitness quests, get props for workouts you’ve done. Other great ways to make your habit change social: report on your daily progress to friends and family through Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or email, find a workout partner, get a coach, join a running group, join online fitness forums, join a class.Do one habit at a time only. People often skip this one because they think they are different than everyone else, but I’ve found this to be extremely effective. You increase your odds of success with just one habit at a time, for many reasons: habits are hard to form because they require lots of focus and energy, having many habits means you’re spreading yourself too thin, and if you can’t commit to one habit at a time, you’re not fully committed.Make it your top priority. People often put off fitness and diet stuff because they’re too busy, too tired, to stressed out by big projects or the holidays, etc. But in my experience, those are great reasons you *should* be exercising. So make your new diet or exercise habit one of your absolute top priorities for the day. If you don’t have time, you need to make time.Enjoy the habit. This is extremely important, and most people ignore it. If the habit is fun, you will stick with it longer. And even better, if you are enjoying it, you immediately win. You don’t need to wait for a bunch of pounds lost or other results — you get instant results because you’re enjoying the change. I find activities I enjoy, I join challenges or races to make exercise fun, I enjoy a conversation with a friend during a run, I eat healthy foods that are delicious (berries — yum!) and focus on savoring those foods. Focus on the enjoyment, and don’t make the habit change a big sacrifice.

Many people set fitness goals for the year. I’ve done it myself, but lately I’ve found that I can get fit without them. For one thing, when you set goals, they are often arbitrary, and so you are spending all your effort working towards a basically meaningless number. And then if you don’t achieve it, you feel like you failed, even if the number was arbitrary to start with.

You can create habits without goals — I define goals as a predefined outcome that you’re striving for, not activities that you just want to do. So is creating a habit a goal? It can be, or you can approach it with the attitude of “it doesn’t matter what the outcome of this habit change is, but I want to enjoy the change as I do it”.

So enjoy the habit change, in the moment, and don’t worry what the outcome of the activity is. The outcome matters very little, if you enjoy the journey.

The journey to fitness can have an infinite number of paths, and setting your path in advance by setting goals is limiting. Allow yourself to change course on a whim, without guilt of not achieving a goal, and you’ll find new paths you’d never have anticipated when you set out.

But the most important step of the journey is the first one. After that, the most important step is the one you’re presently taking. So take that step, and enjoy it.

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Four Simple Fitness Fundamentals

Health and Fitness have always been meaningful to me as I work in the industry and have always been fascinated by the topic. Nowadays I see too many people push themselves too hard, use bad form and quite simply overdo it with exercise or trying to be healthy in the quest to be fit.

We also have a tendency to make health and fitness much too complicated …

From this I came to think about a few fundamentals – things I find really important in living a healthy lifestyle. I came up with just four, sure there are others but these are the ones I feel everyone who wants to live a healthier lifestyle or be fitter should know.

Bodyweight is King. The Squat and Pushup should be mastered before you move onto other weighted exercises or doing resistance training using weights. This is something I have learnt in my years personal training – the majority of people cannot do a bodyweight squat with good form or weight distribution. As for pushups few people can do 10-15 with good form – these two movements are the starting point and should be practiced and strengthened before doing anything else.

The best thing is amazing workouts can be made up of just running, squats and pushups.

Cardio is Great. Not Essential. Some people love to run, others don’t. Some like to go on long bike rides to release stress others don’t. We are all different and this is most true when it comes to cardiovascular fitness and training – some of us love it and find it to be a great tension and stress reliever, while others find it boring, monotonous and strenuous.

Learn to love and live with yourself. If you love doing cardio (running, jogging, crosstrainer etc etc) then do it, if you don’t there are plenty of other ways to stay fit – whether it be bodyweight intervals or playing sports with friends. Find what you are into – the truth is that there are many many ways to gain cardiovascular fitness. Pick what works for you.

Walk Everyday. Find Rhythm. Walking gives rhythm to our lives – it helps us think, re-aligns the body and limbers up the knees and hips. If you live in a city walking should be your main form of transport, I always say that if the distance is walkable do it by foot.

If you live somewhere more remote walking can be harder as it is sometimes hard to gather motivation to walk without a real purpose. Try listening to a podcast or music while walking – this helps time pass by and gives you a time to listen to what you want without distractions.

For optimal health I always say the two most essential things are walking and stretching – neither are to be obsessed over but if you can fit in at least 20 minutes of walking everyday and start or end your day with a good total body stretch out you are on the right path.

Live an Invigorating Life. Last but not least – living an invigorating life is probably the most essential thing when it comes to health and fitness. This means living a life that we get strength or energy from – something that gives us a reason to be active and move.

Whether this energy comes from doing a job you love, being around people you have fun with, travelling or just doing stuff you love. We need something in our lives to gain strength from. Excitement and passion change things up and gives us the motivation to exercise, eat well and most importantly makes us feel good.

I would even go as far as saying one of the best ways to stay fit is just to live life – be active, play with your kids, play tennis, touch football or whatever sports you enjoy, do some bodyweight exercises in the morning, walk lots and eat lots of wholesome food. In all honesty that is how most of the healthiest people I know live.

Integrate the fundamentals then go from there.

Of course it is great to take things to the next level but first gain a foothold on your health by doing the basics right.

Chris is the author of ‘All About Fitness’ and writes about staying fit while living life at Zen to Fitness.

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A Simple Fitness Plan for Travelers

‘A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise.’ ~A.A. Milne

I’m on vacation in London right now, and will be in Paris this afternoon — a three-week trip that has messed up all my fitness routines.

And yet I’m still getting fitter every day.

Vacations have a horrible way of messing up our routines — we eat a ton of rich food, are too busy to go to the gym, and it’s easy to let workouts fall to the wayside.

That said, I have no intention of letting travel beat me. I can be fit anywhere. I’ll share some of my tips here, in hopes of helping fellow travelers.

Walk, walk, and walk. I never rent a car when we travel. Eva and I walk everywhere, taking the occasional subway train. We’ve covered an amazing amount of ground in London — walking is the best way to see a city. We’ve walked for hours and hours every day, mixing the meandering, lazy stroll with a hard paced walk. Walking is one of the best exercises ever.

Bodyweight is the right weight. I’m a huge fan of bodyweight exercises, and on the road, they’re the best thing. In our little apartment, I wake up and do short bursts of bodyweight exercises as I get going for the day, before we head out to see the sights. I like to mix it up, but some of my favorites: pushups, squats, lunges, pullups, burpees, planks, jump squats, and shadow boxing.

Runs are wonderful. I haven’t run much here in London but when I have, it’s beautiful. I love early morning runs when Eva is sleeping and the city is just waking. They don’t have to be long — just a couple miles of fast-paced tempo running is good. Or a casual jog along the river and across gorgeous bridges.

Eat vegetarian. It’s easy to eat badly when you travel. I tend to seek out vegetarian/vegan restaurants, and London has been no exception. Of course vegetarian doesn’t necessarily mean healthy, but I find that it’s usually healthier than the fat-laden fried meats and sugary carbs most people tend to eat while traveling. It’s also delicious — we’ve had some amazing vegetarian meals (Saf, Zilli Green, Mildred’s, Vanilla Black).

Eat in moderation. No need to stuff yourself. Eat delicious foods, but in reasonable portions. Eat them slowly, savor them, and then head out to walk off the calories. I tend to skip drinks with calories, except for red wines. I eat dessert but just a few bites, slowly.

Use the city as a playground. Londoners seem to find it weird when I sprint up a long flight of stairs coming out of the underground, or up the long spiral of stairs to the top of the Monument (I did these stairs twice just for fun). Jump on top of things. Sprint when you feel like it. Skip and hop. Ignore the funny looks.

This simple plan, by the way, works in everyday life as well … whether you’re traveling or not.

—
Tweetle-dee

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Keep Your Brain Alive: 83 Neurobic Exercises to Help Prevent Memory Loss and Increase Mental Fitness

Keep Your Brain Alive No more punch lines that just slipped away. No more names on the tip of your tongue. No more senior moments Drawing on cuttingedge neurological research, how to keep your brain alive 83 neurobic exercises brings help to everyone whose memory is starting to slip. Devised by Dr. Lawrence Katz, a professor of neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center, and Manning Rubin, author of 60 Ways to Relieve Stress in 60 Seconds, here is a regimen of mental crosstraining that can be done anywhere, by anyone, at any time of day. The premise is simple When you exercise the brain, you release natural growth factors called neurotrophins, which in turn enhance the brains level of fitness. And nothing so easily stimulates the brain as breaking routines and using the five senses in new and unexpected ways. So if youre righthanded, wake up tomorrow and brush your teeth with your left hand. Or close your eyes before you get into the car and then get the key into the ignition. Every time you open a new circuit in your brain, its like doing a round of mental situps, without the pain. 

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Audio Fitness: Creating Love

Audio Fitness: Creating Love! Audio CD!

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How I Train: Fitness for the Everyperson

I don’t train to lose weight or look good. I don’t train to beat anyone or impress anyone. I don’t train for bigger muscles or a six-pack.

I train because I love it. And because it’s my life.

As I said last week: I am in the best shape in my life. That’s not impressive — while I’m fitter than most of the population there are a ton of people who are way fitter than me. They can run faster and longer; lift more and do more intense workouts; ride and swim much much better; play any sport better than me.

But I’m pretty fit. I can run for a couple hours if I want or hike all day. I can do a reasonable amount of pushups and pullups. I can sprint and jump. Best of all: I can play with my kids and keep up with them and challenge them to keep up with me (I usually win).

I say this not to brag but only to show that it’s possible. Because just five years ago I was in terrible shape: I was 65 pounds heavier and couldn’t run for more than 10 minutes. I was a smoker and ate junk food and never exercised. The most activity I got was lifting a beer to my mouth or walking to the fridge.

I’ve turned it around — and if you too are a couch potato with more than a couple pounds to lose then so can you. I’m no superhuman — I’m a regular guy with a megaton of kids (6) and a wife. How did I do it? Read on. This is a brief guide not for those who want to walk exactly in my footsteps but for those looking for useful information.

Last week I wrote about my diet. This week I’ll share my exercise program.

I’m generally a minimalist and a maximalist when it comes to exercise. A minimalist in that I don’t believe you need much (or any) equipment to get fit; a maximalist in that I’ll do almost anything and everything.

So a bodybuilder might scoff at runners who run long and slow and have no muscle and a runner might scoff at a bodybuilder who lifts iron every day but has a big gut. A Crossfitter might scoff at others who don’t go as intense as they do while a triathlete might sneer at those who can’t go as long.

I agree with all of them except I don’t scoff at anyone.

I run but I also bike (and used to swim a bit but haven’t recently). I will lift weights but I’ll also do intense bodyweight exercise. I walk a very lot. I’ll throw sandbags around; do pullups from tree branches; do sprints; race my kids up hills; hike on trails; push sleds; do a pushup challenge (100 pushups in 5 minutes is a good one) or a jumping lunge challenge (see how fast you can do 300); swing kettlebells; play basketball or soccer; or just generally play with my kids.

I’ve also run several marathons and have done short triathlons. I’ve run many shorter races: half marathons and 10Ks and 5Ks and some crazy stuff in between.

So if you’re looking for a specific program from me … I don’t have one. I make it up as I go and just have fun doing it.

But some general tips:

The most important thing for me is to have fun.Next is that I stay active on most days.Third is that I rest whenever I need it and not feel guilty — rest is good.I will often make fitness a social activity: hike with a friend or do Crossfit with another friend or do a Bodyrock.tv workout with my wife Eva (the videos are … wonderful).Challenges are also fun. Find a challenge online and give it a try. Do a challenge with your friend or spouse or a group.I like to mix it up. If I only do one kind of activity then I only have one kind of fitness. Also only doing one thing gets boring for me.

If you like you can checkout my automatically updated workout log (and by “automatically updated” I mean that I change the html document by hand coding it and then manually upload it to my server).

In January I joined my friend Scott Dinsmore in doing workouts with San Francisco Crossfit. We took a basics course three days a week for two weeks and that was tough. Then we did two weeks of the regular Crossfit classes and that was killer!

If you’re not familiar with Crossfit: they are crazy. They do intense short workouts of functional movements — burpees and barbell thrusters and pullups and sled pushing and running 400 meters and box jumps and throwing a medicine ball up against a wall and barbell deadlifts and kettlebell swings and any other crazy things the coach can think of.

It’s not for the faint of heart. I loved it. We’ll probably do more classes but I plan to mix other things in as well.

I am doing workouts now that I couldn’t have done five years ago. If you haven’t been working out regularly I don’t recommend you do them. Start out easy.

I started by running for half a mile. It was hard. But I did it every other day for a couple of weeks and soon I could do a mile then two miles. And soon I began to enjoy it.

That’s the key: get your shoes on and get out the door. Then focus on the parts that are enjoyable.

If it’s not enjoyable: find a friend to do it with and have a conversation. All you have to do is walk briskly or play a sport you enjoy. You don’t have to run. If you enjoy swimming or soccer then do those. Find a challenge and do that with friends.Start small. If you kill yourself in the beginning then you’ll dread doing it and you’ll eventually quit. If you make it easy then you’ll have no excuse.Build gradually. After starting small you can slowly increase your time exercised or intensity. Don’t do both at the same time. You might get enthusiastic and want to increase quickly — that’s a newbie mistake and often leads to overtraining or injury. You’re in this for the long haul.Don’t forget to rest. Recovery from training is a huge component of training. Most people (myself included) tend to overtrain and rest too little. Again: that leads to overtraining and injury. I’ve done it and it sucks.Log your progress. This is not absolutely necessary but … well actually it is. If you don’t log your progress you won’t see the progress. It’s hugely motivating to look back on your workout log and see how far you’ve come. If you stick with it for a few months or longer you’ll see tremendous improvement. That feels amazing. You’ll also be able to see what you’ve done wrong — if you’ve overtrained then the logs will make that obvious.

If you’re a beginner: I recommend you follow the advice in the above section. Start small and increase gradually and make it enjoyable and social. Watch yourself make progress.

After that I suggest you mix it up and challenge yourself in new ways all the time. Fitness can be incredibly fun. Do a race or join a class or do a group challenge. Find a variety of workout partners and enjoy the conversation and competition.

Some of my favorite resources:

Bodyrock.tv: Great workouts and beautiful videos.Crossfit: Intense stuff. I recommend you use the “Brand X Scaled Workouts” in the “Start Here” section in the sidebar of the site. This is a forum where each workout of the day (WOD) is scaled to different levels. Start at the lower level and move up gradually.Ross Training: Excellent all-around fitness as well as instructions for making homemade cheap workout equipment.Mark’s Daily Apple: I don’t agree with all of his nutrition info but his workout advice is excellent.

—
le tweet

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The Simplest Diet for Lean Fitness

I’m in the best shape in my life.

I’m incredibly happy to say that. For years (as many of you know) I was in terrible health — I was overweight and sedentary and addicted to junk food and a smoker and overworked.

Today after more than five years of living healthy I am about 65 pounds lighter. I’m leaner than I’ve been since probably high school with the same pants size as I had in high school (32) — while being much stronger than I was back then. More importantly I am fitter: I can run and play sports and hike and do activities of all kinds better than ever before.

How have I achieved all of this? Slow change. I’ve done no fad diets or quick weight loss. I’ve done nothing extreme. Everything is about living healthier and eating whole foods and being active most days. And about enjoying the journey.

Today I thought I’d share a bit about how I eat. It’s not meant to be copied exactly but to inform others trying to make a similar journey. Next week I’ll talk about my exercise.

My general philosophy of eating:

I don’t go for anything extreme. I’ve made small changes to my diet over the years and have found this works best: if you try for drastic changes you’ll hate it and won’t stick to it for long. But add a few extra fruits and veggies and it’s not hard. Change soda to water next month and it’s not deprivation.I eat slowly. OK … not always but most of the time. Eating slowly allows me to fully savor the taste of the healthy food I eat and at the same time eat less while still feeling satiated (not stuffed).I eat real foods. I try for veggies and fruits and raw nuts and seeds and beans and some whole grains. Sometimes my food is processed but mostly it’s just the stuff you’ll find in the produce and bulk sections of a supermarket (or farmer’s market).I eat plants. I do that mostly for reasons of compassion (killing animals for pleasure doesn’t feel right to me) but I’ve found it’s also an extremely healthy way to eat. Sure it’s possible to be vegan and unhealthy (eat processed fake meats and sweets) but if you’re a whole-food vegan it’s hard to go wrong. And yes it’s easy to get protein as a vegan.I enjoy myself. I look for healthy foods I love — berries for example — and savor them. I’ll eat sweets now and then but in small portions and truly enjoy the few bites I have. I have red wine and love it. I drink beer sometimes and it’s wonderful. I have pizza about once a week and it’s delicious. Eating healthy isn’t about deprivation but about finding ways to enjoy yourself while living a healthy life.

This month I’ve cut my less healthy choices down to Saturdays — as inspired by Tim Ferriss’s book The 4-Hour Body. That means I only eat pasta and pizza and sweets and beer and French fries on Saturdays. This has gotten me even leaner and I recommend this way of living.

The rest of the week I eat my own version of Tim’s Slow Carb Diet — the Leo version. That means I eat a little fruit and a few whole grains and I don’t eat the meat. I don’t eat fried foods or drink calories (other than red wine at dinner) or eat white carbs (pasta bread rice potatoes pizza).

What I eat:

Beans – lentils and black beans and kidney beans and pintos and soybeans.Nuts and seeds – raw almonds and walnuts and seeds and olive oil and avocadoes.Veggies – lots of greens like kale and spinach and chard and broccoli. Carrots and various bell peppers and sprouts and so on.Fruits – berries and apples and oranges and a little dried fruits like raisins. In moderation.Whole grains – steel-cut oats and Ezekiel flourless sprouted-grains bread and quinoa (not technically a grain). That’s about it — I don’t eat pastas or whole-grain muffins or the like.

My typical day usually goes like this:

Breakfast: Every day I eat steel-cut oats for breakfast late in the morning (usually between 10:30 and 11:30). I cook it and then mix it with flaxseeds and cinnamon and blueberries and raw almonds and a few raisins and maybe a small amount of banana or raspberries.Lunch: Typically a big-ass salad with kale and spinach and sprouts and avocados and beans and raw nuts and a little fruit with balsamic vinegar. Sometimes I’ll eat a tofu stir-fry with greens.Snack: If I’m hungry in the afternoon I’ll eat some raw nuts and dried fruit or veggies and hummus.Dinner: Beans and veggies or a tofu-stir fry or veggie chili with beans. This meal varies. Sometimes the beans will be Indian style or Mexican style. Usually the veggies will be greens like kale or broccoli or chard. Sometimes I’ll have quinoa. Red wine with dinner.

And that’s about it. Over time I’ve found I need less food than I used to. Eat slowly and you’ll find yourself full on less food.

I used to spread my “cheats” throughout the week — a whole-grain muffin here and some pizza there and beer more than I’d like to admit. But putting everything on Saturdays has helped me be honest the rest of the week.

I honestly enjoy eating whole foods. I enjoy being lighter and leaner. I’ve gained muscle eating these foods though I might focus on building more muscle later in the year.

I run faster than ever. I can do more intense workouts than ever before. I was tested for various health indicators recently and everything was perfect. Eating this way has absolutely changed my life.

A couple notes to answer potential questions:

Soy is not unhealthy. You might have read various scare articles on the Internet about soy (usually based on misleading articles from the Weston A. Price Foundation) but they’re misinterpretations of science. I eat soy in moderation and try for whole soy in natural forms (tofu, tempeh, edamame, some natural soy milk). I don’t have man boobs and I’m absolutely healthy. Instead of pointing to “scientific” explanations of why soy is unhealthy show me the actual peer-reviewed studies that show that moderate amounts of natural soy (not soy protein isolate) have caused health problems.You can absolutely get enough protein and calcium and iron on a vegan diet if you eat whole foods and not junk.Sugar is junk and that includes white flour pasta and breads and French fries. It’s worthless calories. Whole grains in moderation provide nutrients and fiber.A little meat in moderation is not unhealthy — especially if you choose grass fed and free range. Most people eat unhealthy amounts of meat and eggs and dairy. Those foods in any amount are unethical in my opinion — even if they’re grass fed and free range. Exploitation of animals as objects and their suffering for our pleasure is not compassionate. We don’t need animal products to live healthy lives — as my example shows — so the only reason to eat them is for our pleasure (we like the taste).

—
el Tweeto

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Keep Your Brain Alive: 83 Neurobic Exercises to Help Prevent Memory Loss and Increase Mental Fitness

Keep Your Brain Alive No more punch lines that just slipped away. No more names on the tip of your tongue. No more senior moments Drawing on cuttingedge neurological research, how to keep your brain alive 83 neurobic exercises brings help to everyone whose memory is starting to slip. Devised by Dr. Lawrence Katz, a professor of neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center, and Manning Rubin, author of 60 Ways to Relieve Stress in 60 Seconds, here is a regimen of mental crosstraining that can be done anywhere, by anyone, at any time of day. The premise is simple When you exercise the brain, you release natural growth factors called neurotrophins, which in turn enhance the brains level of fitness. And nothing so easily stimulates the brain as breaking routines and using the five senses in new and unexpected ways. So if youre righthanded, wake up tomorrow and brush your teeth with your left hand. Or close your eyes before you get into the car and then get the key into the ignition. Every time you open a new circuit in your brain, its like doing a round of mental situps, without the pain. 

Price: $8.95

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