Monday morning motivation

"A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools." - Spanish proverb

I made Stir Fried Cabbage with Cumin Seeds for dinner tonight with some leftover purple cabbage.  Turned out much better than I feared.

I was able to way down on the oil by using a non-stick cast iron skillet and an oil sprayer.  Usually I use non-stick cooking spray, but occasionally it doesn't work as well as just a bit of oil.  I was able to use maybe 2 tablespoons of oil instead of the recommended 6.

We can change!

I recently read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.  I highly recommend any books by him.  I don't have the book in front of me, so I'm making this point from memory.  Please forgive me for the inevitable mistakes in details.

Anyway, about 3/4 of the way through the book Gladwell talks about how for a period of time in the 80's or early 90's when Korean airlines had an amazingly high crash rate.  The pilots and crew were all well trained, the planes were all well maintained, and there was no apparent reason as to why so many Korean planes ended up in emergency situations.

So, some researchers went and listened to cockpit recordings and recordings between pilots and the air traffic controllers of planes that had gone down.  They discovered that there were huge communication issues within Korean airline crews and then more communication issues between the crews and the tower.

Korea has a very reverential culture.  You do not overstep the bounds of your position.  You also never insult the intelligence or capabilities of a superior by suggesting that they aren't fully aware of a situation.  So, if a flight attendant sees fuel leaking out of a wing, it would be supremely rude for the flight attendant to mention it to a pilot.  If the first mate sees something askew with a meter, they must never directly point it out to the captain.  That would be insulting the captain's position.   The captain would never confront a New York City air traffic controller by saying, "We're running low on fuel.  I need to land now!  Put me at the front of the line!"  That's just shockingly rude and inappropriate!  Akin to spitting on someone's grandmother.

See the problem?  There are all these societal cues that one has to learn to navigate Korean society successfully.  They're crucial rules if you want to be part of life in Korea.  But those rules don't work when a Korean pilot is faced with a plane in distress and an air traffic controller from Laguardia.

As some say (or threaten) in the South, "Y'all don't get above yur raisin'."  Or, "Don't step out of the bounds of what you've been taught.  Don't try to be different than the people you come from."

But, Gladwell goes on to say that the Korean flight crews did learn how to deal with this specific situation of being on a plane.  They needed to protect their passengers and themselves and learn a completely new way of communication that they could use in that context.  So the researchers started putting Korean flight crews through a communication boot camp.

The flight crews accomplished one of the hardest things for a person to do: go against ingrained patterns from family, friends, society at large, and personal experience to cultivate new patterns of behavior.

And it was hard as hell.  But they were motivated and over time they were able to do it.  Korean flight crews learned to be pushy as appropriate and the number of crashes went down. 

I hate it when people think they can't change.  I hate it more when "experts" imply that people can't change.  Yes, people can.  But it takes strong motivation and discipline and support.  To be fit and healthy we've got to fight against all sorts of ingrained patterns: from family, from friends, from personal history.  And it's not easy.  But we're the pilots of our planes.  There are people that depend on us to show up and stay healthy.  When I go home to visit my parents in SC and they give me grief about getting up early to exercise.  I've got to push back.  When I go to family events and try my hardest to avoid deep fried goodies and massive servings of dessert, I've got to be motivated to change that pattern of piling my plate high.  It's hard, but it's not impossible.

We've got to find what it is that motivates us, build support networks, and realize that we can change!

The glories of milk

I'm African American and I'm not lactose intolerant yet.   Later onset intolerance happened to my uncle and I think it's happening to my Dad.  But, I'm not a big milk drinker.  Ice cream and cheese-yes, yogurt-yes, but not so much the liquid milk.

Growing up I'd have a bowl of cereal every morning and wonder if I could put anything other than cow's milk in the bowl.  I actually love eating oatmeal in the morning because I can get my bowl of cereal and not worry about soaking something in milk.  These days, when I go on a cold cereal jag, I'll often use soy milk.

Anyway, I was catching up on some podcasts while walking Lika and heard an interview on Fresh Air with food historian Anne Mendelson talking about artisanal milk - nonhomogonized, batch pasteurized and all that.

Very interesting.  And I agree with her on the organic stuff - it's a word that has no official meaning in most states.  It can be helpful with some items, but only if you're using a specific organic standard.

You must

You must do the thing you think you cannot do. - Eleanor Roosevelt

Michael Pollan and Stephen Colbert

I can't embed this video with two guys I dig, so

here's a link.

3T - Totally Tubular Turbo

Just did 3T from the Turbo Jam Advanced+ Rotation.  I'm still 2 days behind on my workouts, but I'm getting slowly caught up.

I always forget how hard this workout is.  By the last couple of upper body reps, my arms are on fire!  Those bands are deceptively hard!

Eat Well = $$$?

Why does crap, processed food cost less than good, from-the-earth food?

Really, it does.  Go into any neighborhood store - especially in a neighborhood in the middle of a food desert - and try to eat decently for $2.  You can find biggie bags of chips and gallons of soda for 70¢ each.  But if there's any fruit, it'll be spotty, sketchy, probably less-than-fresh, and more expensive.

It shouldn't be more expensive to eat in a healthy way.  I don't necessarily mean even organic or fair trade or sustainable.  It seems amazingly crazy from a public health standpoint that it's hard to get healthy food in the hands of people that need it.

People often wonder why poor folks are fat.  But as income goes up, people typically spend a lower percentage of their overall income on food.  Thus, richer folks can shop at Whole Foods without doing the percentage damage to their wallets that poorer folks do just trying to buy at Aldi.  Add in the fact that various factors combine to make processed food cheaper (can you say corn subsidies?) than actual whole foods, and you have the triple wallop of poor + malnourished + obesity.

Yes, there is a lot of personal agency and choice involved in what we put on our plates, but it's not right that the most vulnerable among us - kids living in poverty - have the deck sooo stacked against them from the start.

Year 30 Goals

Since I turn 30 in 14 days, I figure I should write out the goals I want to accomplish for my 30^th Year

• Do 3 pull-ups before I’m 31 (or better – do 30 pull-ups!)
  
•  Run a 10 Mile or 15K Race
  
• Finish 2 rounds of P90X
  
• Do a round of ChaLEAN Extreme and/or Intensity (I can’t wait for that workout – no equipment and all body weight!)

Those are the fitness goals.  Other goals are

• Pay off at least half of my credit card debt – ideally by Dec 2009
  
• Memorize “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” on guitar – also ideally by Dec 2009
  
• Learn to drive a stick shift
  
• Learn to swim
  
• Donate 10% of my income to my church and 10 hours a month to charity/community development

So, I feel like those are doable in a year.  The credit cards and playing guitar ones might be a little harder to do by December ’09, but if I apply myself I think it’ll happen.

I’ve noticed that when I’m putting energy into my fitness goals, I’ve got a heckuva lot more energy and drive to put into my other goals.  So, I’m gonna focus a lot on the first 4 and hopefully that’ll help me get the next 5 into place.

Since we’re 5 months into 2009, it’s likely your New Years Resolutions might have fallen by the wayside.  So, do y’all have any Mid Years Resolutions?

Thursday, May 14 workouts

I’m not a runner – not by a long shot.  But I like the idea of putting myself through some physical challenges.  I read some article about “Things to do before you turn 30” that said you should do something difficult with your body and you should do it outside.  The world should not begin and end with your couch.  I ran the Indianapolis 500 mini-marathon back in Spring 2007.  I ran very slowly, but I did it.

My current goal is to run a 10 K sometime around the weekend of Sunday, June 7.  I’m not signed up for an official race; it’ll just be me and my Nike+iPod. 

Also, I’m doing an Advanced Rotation of Turbo Jam.  I’m doing that to help get me back into the swing of working out every day before I try to attack P90X again.

I’m a bit behind with the Turbo Jam rotation, but I just finished Cardio Party 3, then I did a windsprint+recovery run for 20 minutes.  The run was a free Nike podcast featuring The All American Rejects.  It went pretty well!  I'm shocked. 

This evening I’ll do 3T – Totally Tubular Turbo.

Starting Out - About Me

Hi all!  I’m Lisa P., a native of South Carolina.  Go Gamecocks!  I transplanted to Chicago in 2001, started seminary in 2003 thinking I was going to be a Lutheran pastor.  Then I changed my mind.  Now I’m working on an MBA.  I really like school, apparently.

 

I turn 30 in 14 days – go Geminis!  And it’s time for a change.  Everyone’s warned me that it gets harder to get your fitness groove on once you hit 30.  If you don’t have trouble finding time between work and family and friends, then just body changes make it hard.  I’m single and I don’t have kids.  I need to get fit now while my life is less complicated.

 

I’m continuing the slow journey of being more fit as a 30-year-old than I was in high school.  Granted that wouldn’t be hard.  I’m 5 foot 8 and was around 220 lbs in high school with no stamina.  Clothes shopping was a nightmare!

 

I was a always chubby kid, oldest of 3 girls.  We grew up in a typical Black Southern family where gravy was a food group.  Once my sisters and I moved out, we finally learned that we could drink fat-free milk and not deep fry all our veggies.

 

I love to cook and bake.  I eat a lot of meatless meals, but I like my steaks medium rare.  I veer between making healthy, balanced meals or deep-frying Twinkies.  If I’m gonna eat crap, I try to make it spectacular crap.  No just eating any fast food burger because it’s convenient.  If I really want a burger, I go to some specific burger joints and get a true gut-buster that I’ll loooove.

 

I’ve worked out sporadically since the middle of high school.  Hitting 220 pounds scared the dickens out of me.  Especially considering my family has a history of Type II Diabetes and every heart/vascular system ailment known to humanity.

 

I’ve used The Firm – originally started in my home state – holla! And various individual cardio dvds.  Now I primarily use programs from Beachbody.  I like that Beachbody makes complete programs with eating plans, cardio, and resistance training.  Less thinking for me!  Some of the more advanced programs also include balance and flexibility, which I really appreciate.

 

So, let’s jump in and get a little fitter today than we were yesterday.