Month: May 2016

fitness

The biggest losers just did it the wrong way! They lost the weight too quickly!

Sam B2 Comments

That’s the line I hear most often in response to the Biggest Loser study.  They lost the weight the WRONG WAY.

The person continues: The study doesn’t show that sustained weight loss is impossible, just that speedy weight loss cannot be sustained. Who on earth would have thought that starvation style boot camp is the way to go? All the study shows is that fast weight loss that comes about through harsh means isn’t sustainable.

(Want more information about the study, read Savita’s post here and then there’s Tracy post on why we even care about size here.)

Yay. There’s still hope, say people (like me) who’d like to weigh less.

Come buy our program, say weight loss companies, we’ll show you the right way.

While I like the idea that moderately achieved weight loss is more likely to be sustained, the facts don’t seem to bear that out. Not everything that sounds true, is true. Not everything we’d like to be true, is true. Sadly.

Here’s Gina Kolata in the Globe and Mail answering hard questions about weight loss:

Are you more likely to maintain weight loss if you lose weight slowly?

That is the advice dieters often get, but studies have not found that to be the case. For example, a recent Australian study, funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council and the Sir Edward Dunlop Medical Research Foundation, randomly assigned 204 obese people to subsist on just 450 to 800 calories a day for 12 weeks, or to cut a more modest 400 to 500 calories a day from their diets over 36 weeks. The goal for both groups was a 15-per-cent weight loss. Three years after the study began, almost everyone had regained the weight they lost, despite counselling on diet and exercise. There was also no difference in levels of two hormones, leptin and ghrelin, that drive hunger. The main difference between the groups was that more people in the rapid weight loss group lost at least 12.5 per cent of their weight (80 per cent as compared with 50 per cent in the slow loss group) and fewer dropped out (3 per cent as compared with 18 per cent).

I’ve written too about slow versus speedy weight loss.

And about the claim that gradual weight loss is no better than fast weight loss when it comes to sustaining the new lower weight.

More later about the traits people who do sustain weight loss have in common. Warning: It’s also not good news.

diets · Guest Post · weight loss

Extreme Dieting and Metabolic Adaptation: The “Biggest Loser” Dataset (Guest Post)

savita13 Comments

Let me start by stating that I am NOT a fan of the reality show, “The Biggest Loser”. The idea of sentencing obese people to 30 weeks’ hard labour and extreme food restriction under intense public scrutiny in the name of losing weight is basically torture for entertainment.

I saw some of them on a trip to southern Utah some years ago. While my husband and I were hiking in the magnificent desert of Snow Canyon State Park, these poor souls were marching along the road, heads down, sweating, panting, and really not having fun.

But was it worth it in the end? Did their strict 30-week regimen instill in them the discipline to maintain their now lean and mean bodies? Surely their metabolism had improved, and they were now fat-burning machines as a result of the 5 hour/day intense exercise.

A recent paper in the journal Obesity (Fothergill et al 2016 Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after “The Biggest Loser” competition”) addressed that very question. The authors conducted a very interesting study in which 14 of the 16 original “Biggest Losers” were recruited for follow-up studies on their metabolism and body composition. They had collected data from these subjects at three time points: before the competition, immediately after the competition, and 6 years after the competition.

Here are what I think are the most interesting findings of the study:

  1. While the subjects did regain weight, there was a mean weight loss of about 12% of body weight, and 8 out of the 14 participants in the study (57%) maintained at least 10% weight loss over the 6 years. That’s actually a pretty great outcome compared to most weight loss programs, where most people regain all of the weight within 1 year. 10% is really important, because some metabolic parameters can greatly improve after that kind of weight loss. In other words, it’s a very meaningful and significant weight loss outcome.
  2. The subjects maintained their high levels of physical activity. This is important, because….
  3. ….their Resting Metabolic Rates (RMRs) dramatically decreased at the end of the competition, and did not go back up, even after 6 years of maintaining their exercise regimen. This is called “metabolic adaptation”. The more weight the subjects lost, the slower their RMRs became.
  4. The most surprising finding was that metabolic adaptation did not correlate with weight regain. In other words, despite regaining weight, their RMRs remaining low, meaning that these subjects would probably have a low RMR permanently.
  5. Finally, the decrease in RMR did not correlate with changes in hormones and metabolites. Much has been made about changes in the circulating levels of the hormone Leptin. By the end of the competition, plasma leptin levels dropped dramatically (from 41 ng/ml to 3 ng/ml), but by 6 years, levels were up to 28 ng/ml; not quite normal, but it was increasing. Leptin is a hormone made by adipose tissue, and is secreted to tell the brain that the body has had enough to eat (what we call a “satiety signal”). Other metabolic hormones, such as thyroid hormone, did not change from baseline, and cholesterol levels did not change.

So, to summarize, these people did maintain some weight loss, but at the cost of their resting metabolic rate. Their metabolism has been permanently altered. Or, as Dr. Yoni Freedhoff says, destroyed. http://www.weightymatters.ca/2016/05/the-lasting-damage-of-biggest-loser_3.html

This study also showed that exercise does NOT have much impact on RMR. So all that exercise did not alter their body weights’ “set point” value.

However, these subjects clearly showed that they had a tremendous amount of discipline in maintaining their exercise regimen, probably because they were under intense public scrutiny. And most of them did maintain a 10% weight loss over the long term. So perhaps “biology is NOT destiny”, and a disciplined approach to lifestyle changes really can result in sustained weight loss.

So if exercise doesn’t increase RMR, what about diet? It was expected that the RMRs would reset back to their original values once the weight was regained, but that didn’t happen. So the lowering of RMR after that kind of dramatic weight loss is persistent, and may be permanent. The implications are that the subjects would have to eat far less than the recommended 2500 calories per day in order to maintain their original degree of weight loss. You’ve heard that some subjects had an “800 calorie handicap”, meaning that they would have to consume no more than 1700 calories per day just to maintain their weight loss. That would mean that these people would literally be hungry all the time. That is the direct result of a persistently damaged metabolism.

My take on this is that is it far, far better to simply exercise and get healthy and strong no matter what your weight. The scorched earth policy of The Biggest Loser will result in some weight loss, but at the cost of a permanently damaged metabolism.

savita (1)

Savita is a scientist and professor in London, Ontario. When she’s not in the lab investigating the causes of diabetes, she’s in the pool trying to keep up with her Masters swim teammates, or in a nice downtown restaurant enjoying local food and craft beer.

fitness · running · yoga

Yoga for Runners?

Tracy I6 Comments

When I first took up yoga sixteen years ago running was not a part of my world. In my view then, runners were always nursing injuries. We had a few runners in our yoga class, and I remember clearly when one of them asked a senior Iyengar instructor who had come to do an intensive workshop with us about running. The student was having some hamstring issues and wondered what she could do to address them. The senior teacher said, “Stop running.”

But now I love running, and I’ve reconnected with yoga. So when a promotion from my hot yoga studio showed up in my inbox advertising a “Yoga for Runners” workshop, I was on it faster than you can say, “warrior series, anyone?” I recruited Anita to attend the Saturday afternoon workshop with me.

It was one of those cold days in early spring, so a couple of hours in the hot room felt welcome.  We got there a bit early, with time to do my favourite thing–some minutes of quiet savasana (corpse pose, often spilling over into a nap) on the mat before class.

The session started with the instructor giving us an overview of his running history. For a young guy, he had quite a few marathons behind him already. He told a credible story about how yoga had helped him with his running, much of it having to do with mental focus.

My real curiosity was: what does yoga for runners actually look like? Is it any different from yoga for non-runners? We did some familiar poses: “runner’s lunge,” the warrior series, downward dog, pigeon. But in the end, and I’m not sure why I thought it would be otherwise, I didn’t learn anything new about yoga and its specific application to running.

That’s not to fault the workshop. If a runner who had never done yoga before attended the workshop, then it might have opened them up to a new way of conditioning the body, opening the hips, being present through discomfort, paying attention to your body, and so on.

There are all sorts of good reasons for runners to do yoga. It’s a popular topic on running blogs. For example: “Why Runners Should Do Yoga”; “25 yoga poses that will make you a better runner”; “How yoga can help your running”; and “The benefits and effects of yoga for runners.”

So it’s not as if yoga for runners is a new idea (despite what my senior Iyengar teacher had to say). The articles just cited list all sorts of benefits runners can gain through yoga:

  • reduce stress
  • ease pain
  • build strength and flexibility in the core, quads, and hip flexors
  • build tenacity and learn to manage uncomfortable emotions
  • reducing risk of repetitive strain by lengthening muscles that running tends to shorten over time
  • injury prevention
  • total body conditioning
  • boost mental acuity and body awareness
  • increase range of motion
  • improve balance and stablity
  • learn to practice conscious breathing

I don’t deny those benefits. And I felt great after the workshop.

But the idea of yoga specifically for runners is misleading. Yes, runners can get a lot out of yoga. Just about anyone can gain something from yoga. So if you’re a runner and you haven’t tried yoga, go for it. No need to wait for a special workshop.

 

 

fitness

Battling axes at the end of the semester

Sam B

axe

Axe throwing isn’t new to this blog. Sarah has written about axe throwing before. See Livin’ on the Edge(s). She did great a job of explaining what it’s all about and she’s good at it too. Sarah made it sound like so much fun that I wanted to go too. So when a mutual friend announced she was organizing a group to go, I chimed in, “me too, me too.”

pickme

The day we went, Sarah won our championship. You can tell because she’s front and center, holding the big axe.

But it’s new to me. And I’m not so good at it. I still had a lot of fun so this is the perspective of someone who isn’t talented at throwing sharp things at targets. If you’re picking people for your zombie apocalypse survival team, you want Sarah not me. If you’re going for fun and laughs, then maybe I’m the axe thrower you want. Okay, it’s probably a toss up.

So some thoughts about axe throwing…

First, there is something satisfying about the thud as the axe sinks into the wood. That’s a very nice sound. Not so nice is the sound of the axe bouncing off the wood and clattering on the floor. It’s hard not to do the skittish “dance of disappointment” when that happens. Even the toughest of us did it.

Second, the skill level required to get the occasional axe on the target isn’t that high. I think most people are good enough to have fun. It’s kind of like my fave card game, Wizard, that way. Almost anyone can play. Our kids started when they were 8 or so. But the game is hard enough to interest people who are actually good at cards. Ditto axe throwing as a physical activity. Once you’re consistently hitting the wood, you can focus on the bull’s eye. (I got two!)

Here’s one:

img_3457.jpg

Third, I don’t know if it’s just because it’s the end of the term and I’m dealing with student grade appeals and my own overdue writing deadlines. Or because it’s been a really rough past six months, really rough past two years but it felt very good to throw axes. One of us even used the phrase “profoundly satisfying.”

I suggested we might imagine aiming at difficult people in our lives but one of us thought that was too violent, that it wouldn’t work for her. Trump’s name might have come up in this context. Someone else volunteered that she would do better aiming at positive things like goals for the coming year. I’m not sure I could imagine throwing axes at specific people but “take that, patriarchy” worked well for me.

Fourth, take a big group. I can’t imagine that it would be anywhere near as much fun with just two or three other people. You need enough people to have play-offs and to chat and eat snacks between axe throwing. (It’s bring your own snacks. No alcohol allowed and that suited me just fine. Drunken axe throwing does seem like a risky idea.) There were all different sorts of groups there. My friends saw a bridal shower there. It would work well for work groups as a team building outing too.

Fifth, the instructors were cheerful and patient and had great throwing tips. My guess is that they’ve seen lots of different people come through their doors and they’re gotten really good at teaching and at encouraging people. We liked Bruce, our instructor in the photo below, a lot. Thanks Bruce! I’ll be back!

 

 

Guest Post

The Curse of Karen Carpenter (Guest Post)

Sam B2 Comments

 

by Sarah Millin

Some months ago I was having a big dim sum lunch with an old friend. I love eating with my friend Suzette. It’s not just that we both eat slowly. I know when I eat with her there is no judgement about how much we’re eating.

We were both quite petite in our university years and now we’re older and plumper. We were reflecting about how pleasant is not getting the comments about our weight anymore.

“Those women that always felt compelled to say to your face “You’re so skinny I hate you” I remembered.

Or accused you of being anorexic, Suzette said.

Yes, I thought. Anorexic: the curse of Karen Carpenter.

I had almost forgotten about her. Recently the new extension in the Pacific Centre mall in Vancouver starting playing 70s music in an attempt to open people’s wallets to the sounds of the oldies and I heard an old Carpenter tune. It’s yesterday once more.

In the early 70s you couldn’t escape hearing the Carpenters on AM radio, Karen Carpenter’s contralto voice, described by her friend Petula Clark as mysterious and yearning, her brother Richard Carpenter’s complicated arrangements. A bit vanilla for my taste but as Paul Williams (who co-wrote the Carpenters’ second big hit We’ve Only Just begun) said “but what an exquisite flavour of vanilla.”

No one knew much about anorexia until Karen Carpenter died at age 33 in 1983 from a heart attack brought on by years of anorexia and laxatives and other medications. And then anorexia was all over the news, the magazines, the radio.

Thereafter every skinny woman in North America suffered from the accusation of being anorexic like Karen Carpenter.

Now that I no longer get the curse of anorexic comments I could go back and look at Karen Carpenter again.

She started dieting at age 17 as they started their music career in jazz. There’s a short clip of their first tv performance in 1966 before she started dieting. I watched it and couldn’t believe that anyone would think that she needed to diet.

1st tv performance

She was 5’4 and in 1973 she weighed 120 lbs. By 1975 she weighed 91 lbs. 1981 she was down to 84 lbs. In early 1983 she went into hospital, was fed by intravenous drip and gained 30 lbs. in just eight weeks.

And throughout it all Karen Carpenter thought she was the right weight. That is one of the curiosities and curses of anorexia: the sufferer does not see their real weight, their real appearance.

I wondered what that did to her voice, to her career. And then I knew exactly which friend to ask.

My friend Carolyn was a professional opera singer for years performing in Europe and North America.

“Do you think the weight loss was what ruined Maria Callas’ voice?” I asked her.

I love opera and I love Maria Callas. Callas started out her controversial opera career weighing about 200 lbs and then lost 80 lbs. in 6 months between 1953 and 1954. By 1965 her voice was gone. She died of a heart attack at age 53 in 1977, a heart attack that has been attributed to years of dieting.

Callas felt she had to lose weight to accurately portray the characters she was singing like Medea and Violetta in La Traviata.  Traditionally in opera the singers are bigger.

Opera nuts have debated for years about whether her weight loss damaged her voice. There’s even a weight loss section in her Wikipedia entry along with another section about her vocal decline that goes on further about her weight loss. Despite the weight loss controversy, Callas is still the best selling soprano of all time.

“I think her spending all that time with Aristotle Onassis had more to do with it” Carolyn quipped. Callas’ long time love affair with Onassis was another Callas controversy.

I pressed her. What would the weight loss do to the voice? Carolyn said she noticed when she was thinner the sound was different, thinner through the chest.

Here’s a video of Maria Callas singing the aria Sempre Libera from La Traviata at La Scala in 1955. In Sempre Libera the character Violetta is torn between her love and her career. Warning: you either love her voice or you hate it.

But back to Karen Carpenter.

“What would it be like to be really self-conscious of your weight and forcing yourself to perform in front of large crowds?” I asked.

“It depends on how strong you are mentally” Carolyn replied. And then she said “Karen Carpenter was a drummer?”

People forget or don’t know Karen Carpenter was a great drummer, she always called herself a drummer who also sang. She was convinced to move out from behind the drums to the front of the stage so the audience could see her better. That move to the front of the stage occurred in 1973.

I wonder what would have happened if Karen Carpenter had never dieted and stayed behind the drums.  She recorded a solo record the year before she died (sadly it was disco era) but what might she achieved after that.

Among the many youtube videos of the Carpenters, I found one that stripped out most of the overdubbing and overarranging of one of their classic hits. What could have been…

 

About Sarah: When not listening to opera,  I operate a small business technology support enterprise and write about technology (http://makeitworkcomputersolutions.ca/blog/ ).

 

athletes · Guest Post · Olympics · running · training

A morning with Mara Yamauchi – Part One (Guest post)

kai_morgan3 Comments

File:Mara Yamauchi 2 new.jpg
 

I recently attended a Project 500 Networking Day for female sports coaches called: Women in Sport – The next steps.

(Project 500 is an initiative to address the imbalance of female to male coaches in England – you can read more below, or on their website).

A major highlight of the event was the opportunity to hear a presentation by guest speaker Mara Yamauchi.

Just ahead of Mara’s presentation, the day opened with a screening of the new Project 500 More Women Better Coaching promotion. This powerful video was launched on 30 March 2016, and you can watch it here

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGoazqDUBq0?rel=0%5D

The message of the video is that many women are using coaching skills anyway (at home and/or at work) – so why not extend that to sports coaching . . . ?

Presentation from Mara Yamauchi

Mara is a retired British long-distance track and road running athlete, and the second fastest British woman over the marathon ever.  She spoke to us about her experiences as a female athlete, and her more recent move into coaching.

Mara’s background

We heard about Mara’s exciting childhood in Kenya and Oxford (where she was always outside and playing sports!) and her entry into serious athletics training once she started university.

After graduating, Mara joined the civil service (working in both the UK and Japan) for ten years, while training in her spare time, whenever she could fit it in. However, since she was a little girl, she’d always really dreamed of competing in the Olympics. Around the age of 30, Mara realised that time was passing her by, and that she had to pursue her dream – or lose it forever. She therefore dropped down to part-time hours in her job – and went for it.

Mara didn’t make the GB team for the 2004 Athens Olympics, but she kept at it, and in 2008 she came sixth in the Beijing Olympic Marathon. Her dream of being an Olympian had come true!

In 2009, Mara also achieved Runner-up in the London Marathon in 2:23:12. This is still the second fastest marathon time ever by a British woman

Lessons learned

Mara retired from professional running in 2013 and decided to use her talents and experience as a coach. She shared with us what it felt like to go from being an elite athlete, to being quite a “beginner” in the field of coaching, and some of the lessons she has learned along the way.

For example, she’s come to question the popular belief that to be a great coach, you have to have been a great athlete. In fact, Mara explained that in her view, coaching requires a completely different skillset.

As an athlete, your life can be very regimented, and you’re “told what to do” a lot of the time. But Mara has found being a coach completely different. It’s more creative and personal, and takes a lot of “softer” skills such as motivating and engaging people.

Mara has also discovered through coaching, that people’s motivations for doing sport are really diverse – and can be surprising. Often, they are nothing to do with the sport itself, but are more to do with relaxation and escapism from a stressful job, or a demanding family life.

Culture and social support structures are really important. Mara has no doubt that an important factor in her success was because she lived in Japan. Japan has a rich, gender-balanced marathon scene, with up to several thousand athletes training full-time at any given time, as opposed to just a handful in the UK.

This means that runners can access a lot of mutual support, and opportunities to share knowledge on training regimes, diet and so on.

After Mara’s presentation, she led a group discussion on ways to engage more women in sport. Watch out for part two of this post, which outlines the topics we covered . . .

_____________________

About Project 500: Project 500 started life in 2013 as an exciting initiative in the South East of England, to help address the imbalance of female to male coaches by recruiting, developing, deploying and retaining 500 female coaches.

Research from sports coach UK shows that just 30% of sports coaches are female and of newly qualified coaches each year, only 17% are women.

The initial two-year pilot was really successful, and recruited and retained over 530 female coaches across a variety of sports.

In celebration of this – and with an eye to the future – Coaching Hampshire and Active Surrey held a women-only networking day on 13 March 2016, which I attended on behalf of my dojo. Mara’s presentation was part of the day’ programme.

_____________________

Kai Morgan is a martial arts blogger. You can read more of her stories and articles at www.budo-inochi.com, or follow her Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/kaimorg

______________________

Image credit: Mara Yamauchi at Mile 24 and a half of the 2009 London Marathon, along Mid Temple right by Temple Place. By Mara_Yamauchi_2.jpg: SNappa2006 derivative work: Omarcheeseboro [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Dancing · fitness

The joy of being a dancing fool: thanks, Mom

catherine w2 Comments

This week I went to hear a band I’ve loved since the early 80s– the English Beat. I last saw them in 1983, when they played at my university student center ballroom.  Another good band opened for them.  You may have heard of them–  REM.

Back to the present day— looking around the concert venue at this week’s show, just about everyone I saw was in their 50s or so (like me).  That wasn’t too surprising– this band was at their most popular when people around my age were in college.  And everyone was having a whale of a time– the English Beat are a ska band (one of my favorite genres for dancing), so their music is about as danceable as it gets.  If you doubt me, listen here…

The whole crowd was grooving and swaying, and my friends and I were dancing the whole time, jumping up and down, sweating, singing, shouting, waving arms, enjoying ourselves to our fullest capacities, expending all available energy.  The drive home was a bit tiring, the next morning a little slower-moving than usual, but the evening was completely worth it.

Today is Mother’s Day, and this week’s dancing episode reminded me of how my mother always enjoyed (and still enjoys) dancing and music.  We had music playing all the time in my house and on the radio.  In those days in South Carolina it was a lot of Motown– R&B and Soul.  In the 70s we welcomed in the funk, and my mom took me to see Earth, Wind and Fire.  Check them out here.

Her favorite song to dance to with my dad was Sixty Minute Man, by Billy Ward and the Dominoes.  They were experts at dancing the shag (apologies to English readers– it doesn’t mean the same thing here in the US), a dance still popular in the Carolinas.  It’s a lazy-tempo dance, but with interesting footwork.  You can see it in action here.

Jimmy Fallon got a lot of attention and laughs with his now-infamous Evolution of Mom Dancing collaboration with First Lady Michelle Obama.  And it’s funny.  But let’s not kid ourselves– Michelle Obama can move.  So can my mom.

So thanks to my mom and all the moms for dancing with us, playing that funky music, and helping us discover joy in musical movement.

Happy Mother’s Day!  (And if you like, you can still order Mom some swag from our website here.)

 

 

 

food

Manly granola and other weirdly gendered foods

Sam B1 Comment

 

 

I came across this recently while shopping for toppings for a common breakfast in my house: yogurt, fruit and granola. I bought it, but really, men’s energy mix? Women don’t eat nuts and seeds? I’ve argued before that gender specific anything is usually a bad idea. Often what it means is code for smaller but some women are bigger and some men are smaller. Why not just say “large” and “small”?

And not here, but over at the Feminist Philosophers blog, I’ve written about gendered foods before including pink princess goldfish crackers, bread for men, and macho cupcakes (think whiskey and bacon). Tracy has written at this blog about Luna bars and their gendered marketing. (I’ve offered one to a guy before on a bike ride only to have the men nervously chuckle and make jokes about growing breasts or getting PMS. Sigh. They’re just small energy bars.)

For an answer to the question of why we should care about pointlessly gendered products (as opposed to just laughing at them) Lisa Wade’s Five Reasons Why Gendered Products are a Problem is worth a read.

My favourite (as in most loved) of the manly foods was New Zealand’s yoghurt for men which said right on it, “This is men’s yoghurt and you are a man.” See Yoghurt for real men. No more teenie tiny tubs!

For some reason all of these remind me of that classic Irish Spring ad from the 80s!

Sat with Nat · Uncategorized

Fitness as speedy recovery from injury?

natalieh (she/her)3 Comments

This Wednesday I played another pre-season game with my soccer team. I got to meet a few more folks and it was a gorgeous evening. We were playing against the same team as the week before. 

We decided some warm up passes, shots on net and stretching should be part of our pre-game routine. During the first half I noticed we were all moving a little slower than the week before, keeping effort in the 60-80% rather than the all out 100% peaks. 

Near the end of the first half I pulled my left calf and it snarled into a visible knot. I joined another teammate who had pulled his groin, we were both feeling grumpy about being injured and on the sidelines. 

I tried stretching it out, massaging and got to the point I could walk a bit but there was no way for me to get back I the game. I left early feeling pretty bummed out. In the shower I tried some static calf stretches and I could feel the knot starting to unfurl. 

I read up on cramping and, of course, it’s due to demanding more than what my muscles can do. The solution, more activity!

The next day I hobbled the 2 km walk into work, gingerly exploring the edge of my range of mobility. It hurt but wasn’t debilitating. I didn’t take the stairs. That night I walked home, put a hot water bottle on the knot then rolled it out with a narrow roller. 

tools of injury recovery: A535 rub, spikey red ball, narrow roller and large foam roller.

Friday morning my gait had smoothed out, with just a mild limp. I could do the stairs. I stretched when I thought of it. It occurred to me that while cycling, walking, gardening, yoga and sometimes running are not specific enough to the movements in soccer to prevent injury they certainly have meant a speedy recovery. 

There’s a risk inherent to any activity. I think the couple days of discomfort are nothing compared to the suffering associated with not being active (like chronic pain,heart disease and type 2 diabetes).

It’s pretty amazing how easily I can get hurt AND recover, bodies are amazing. 

fitness

When I Say I’m Busy (Guest Post)

Susan Tarshis6 Comments

It’s uncontroversial to say there is an epidemic of “busyness” in this society. I’ve noticed that lots of the people I hang out with are having a struggle with all the things. So, I am putting my thoughts down about the experience I have had and am still having over the last month or so, as all my obligations cascade into a singularity and appear to suck my life up with them.

Before I continue I want to acknowledge that many, even most people don’t have the luxury of contemplating what their “busy” means or is. If you have 3 minimum wage jobs and are taking care of a family on 4.5 hours sleep per day. That’s busy. It’s also a tragic failing of our communal responsibility that something like that is necessary to survive. If you are working shift and maxing out your overtime to meet your financial obligations, that is also busy. It’s the kind of busy that really is beyond your control. It’s worth complaining about.

I caught myself today, in a moment of *omgimsobusyidontknowwhattodo*. You might say I took a mindful look at what that really meant. My work is pretty intense when it’s client time and tedious when it’s admin time. I have a paper I’m struggling to finish. I have to walk the dog. I have to train for the Bike Rally. I have to pay some attention to my partner and I have to pay some mind to my children (who are in a shared custody arrangement and are pretty well behaved teens). What I realized quickly was that my panic busy comes when I don’t have enough time to do nothing at all. In the moment that it happened, I was having lunch and slowly finishing my coffee while reading an interesting article. I knew I wanted to go for a run and I knew I had to see 4 more clients, redraft a letter, write this blog, organize some files and plan my kids summer activities. I felt judgmental toward myself that I should be doing all that instead of my 1 hr of eating and nothing. I finished my coffee and my article and decided to try to stop panicking.

I just don’t do well when I careen from thing to thing to thing, even if it’s seamless coordinated careening. I know people who seem to thrive on this. I know people who pretend to thrive on this. I know people who think they should be thriving on this. I am not any of those people.

I’m still busy but my busy includes doing absolutely nothing productive at intervals to counteract all the flim-flam productivity the rest of the day. It’s how I keep my physical and mental health and we should all be entitled to this as humans in a modern age.

coffee drinker
Me with a coffee post run. . .want this mug? Order below. . .T-shirts too! Net proceeds to the Friends For Life Bike Rally

 

 

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