Archive for January, 2008
January 30, 2008 at 5:34 pm · Filed under Better Health
More from the world of medical research:
Increased Fitness Associated With 50% to 70% Reductions in All-Cause Mortality
Sure, yes, we all know exercise is good for you, but perhaps some people need to hear just how good it can be for one’s longevity.
January 23, 2008 — One of the largest studies ever to link exercise capacity to mortality risk should motivate physicians to pay as much attention to patients’ exercise capacity as they do other major risk factors, researchers say [1]. Their study of older male veterans suggests that the adjusted risk of dying was reduced by 13% for every 1 metabolic equivalent (MET) increase in exercise capacity; men with the greatest exercise capacity reduced their mortality risk by 70%.
“For a little bit of investment you get a lot of a return,” lead author on the study, Dr Peter Kokkinos (Veterans Affairs [VA] Medical Center, Washington, DC) told heartwire. “In a time where health insurance in this country is going through the roof, we could do something like walk for thirty minutes a day and reap major benefits.
The study involved did focus on older male veterans, so perhaps the copious benefits of vigorous exercise only apply to them, but I have my doubts.
Favorite quote from the article:
“For god’s sake, if we could walk on the moon we can certainly walk on earth.”
Dr. Kokkinos, we have people who will circle a parking lot for five minutes to find a close spot rather than having to hoof it an extra 50 steps. These folks probably wish it was the moon so that walking would be 1/6 easier - hell, maybe they could just bounce their way to the doors of the Food Court in that case. And eat six times the normal weight of Cinnabuns.
People need to do more. They know they need to do more. They choose not to do more, because it would require effort and be an admission that they have failed in some manner. I know, because I was turning into a fat slug who thought that bacon cheeseburgers, beer, and watching movies on the couch was a fine way to live - and then, well, you know, things changed.
If news like “you will live a lot longer” doesn’t motivate someone to take better care of themselves, there’s not much any of us can do - even on the Moon.
January 30, 2008 at 5:01 pm · Filed under Better Health
Happy happy joy joy news for those among us who exercise and enjoy a frosty amber/brown beverage* on a somewhat regular basis:
Staying Active and Drinking Moderately Is Key to a Long Life
Woot! Hooray! Woot woot!
January 11, 2008 — Both physical activity and a moderate alcohol intake are important to lower the risk of fatal ischemic heart disease (IHD) and all-cause mortality, a new study shows.
The study, published online in the European Heart Journal on January 9, 2008, shows that people who drink moderate amounts of alcohol and are physically active have a lower risk of death from heart disease and other causes than people who don’t drink at all, and that people who neither drink alcohol nor exercise have a 30% to 49% higher risk of heart disease than those who either drink, exercise, or do both.
I will post about it soon, but as part of my new healthy approach, I decided to get a physical.
Based on results from a few years ago, I expected to find high cholesterol and high blood pressure on the list of what ails me. Happily, my cholesterol came in under the high level and I have now twice received comments from nurses on how good my blood pressure has been.
Given that I was drinking probably a little more than was good for me in the past, I can only imagine that there’s been a rapid improvement from reducing beer consumption and greatly increasing my physical activity. Too bad I didn’t have a physical before deciding on a change, as I am curious just how rapidly the body can begin to remedy things when given the impetus to do so.
If nothing else, we can all tell our teetotaling friends, athletic or not, that they are killing themselves.
For the love of God, man, have a beer!
Do you want to die?!
* Try as I might, I just can’t consider the pale yellow yuckiness of Bud, Coors, or other domestic swill to be beer. Sorry. You’re welcome to it - look at it this way, that’s more leftover for you!
January 29, 2008 at 9:28 pm · Filed under Relationships
In his book, The Power of an Hour: Building Life Mastery in One Hour a Week, author Dave Lakhani presents a method for achieving what he calls “fearsome focus” – stop giggling, really! – which is spending one hour of intense, directed thought on a specific personal or professional issue.
To be concise, I found the book tried to cover too much, too quickly, without enough depth, and that it set unrealistic expectations for solving some problems. In my opinion, while an hour spent analyzing obstacles in your path to achieving a set goal might be reasonable, it’s not nearly enough to revitalize an organization’s sales department or redesign a process with proper attention to all aspects of the issue.
Perhaps I am wrong, and Lakhani really can achieve massive gains in a mere sixty minutes. If so, I hope he bills by the project and not by the hour!
Read the rest of this entry »
January 29, 2008 at 6:04 pm · Filed under About, BTYA
Flash forward to a few months ago, one night before bed.
There I was, standing in the bathroom of our master bath, looking at myself in the mirror (you may choose to imagine me without clothing, although when you read a bit further, you really going to wish you took the with-clothing option).
“Dude,” I said, “you have turned into one damned fat slug.”
Not that I was ever “curiously gay GQ model” thin or “Terminator” bulked up, but this was just pitiful. If it was a hundred years ago, I could have inspired Franz Kafka to literary greatness.
Somehow in the four years since the birth of my first child, I had let myself go more or less completely - and I’m the father!
Each additional child seemed to compound things (or at least served as convenient excuses for me not to change, because, really, who has time with these kids and this job and that other thing and… and.. and…). I had learned to love good beer and happy hour far too much and too often, while giving exercise and healthy eating the opposite treatment. I spent my days as a desk jockey and my nights as a couch potato. I went from being rather fit in 2003 to being this guy: too fat, too bored, and probably borderline depressed, caught up in a cliched downward spiral.
Things simply had to change, and no one could do that but me.
Which brings us to the present… I wish I had taken a before photo, because I look a fair bit different now than I did three months ago. Imagine a fat slug in boxer shorts standing there thinking how much it sucks to be sluggy.
You’re right, probably best I don’t have that photo to post.
Now I work out five days a week and have been eating considerably better. I’ve banished beer to the weekends, except for allowing myself the odd happy hour after work to keep up the social connections and as a reward of sorts for good behavior. Mmmm, beer.
I’ve already gone from 5 foot 7 and 3/4 (shorter people know just how tall they are, see) and 198 pounds to, well, the same height but 182 pounds. Pants I used to have to fight my way into fresh out of the dryer now slip right on (and even start to fall off without a belt). I can see muscles I thought had packed up and let. Yet, I’ve got further to go.
But it’s not just my physical shape (formerly sluggy and somewhat like half a pear on two fat sticks) that has changed; I’m happier now. More focused. More intent on changing all else that needs to be changed in my life. More unwilling to settle for less than what I truly want.
I’ll be documenting the rest of the journey right here, or that’s the plan anyway. It could be something about finances or career, a link to a book I found motivational or informative, or maybe just something that made me laugh. It might be a post about a new skill, or something I am doing to improve an old one.
Hell, it could be just about anything that I think is helping make me better than I am.
You’re welcome to join in, looking for ways to be better than you are, and sharing with the rest of us (which, as of right now, amounts to me, random Googlers, and baby P sitting next to me on the bed). Maybe that’s all it will ever be, but I think putting it all down on this site will keep me motivated.
I’ll get things started by reposting some of the items from the old incarnation, the few posts I thought might still be relevant.
See you soon.
January 29, 2008 at 5:33 pm · Filed under About, BTYA
About a year ago, I got the idea to start a blog that tied-in with my career expertise: process improvement.
I was interested in how I could apply my years of experience in the field not just to business, but also to personal improvement, to financial improvement, to all around improvement really. Surely it could be done, and - if not - well, I was only out $15 for the domain name.
Ah, yes, the name. I needed a name. I thought on it for a couple of weeks and then it came to me: “better than you are.” Being somewhat* fond of myself, I found the multiple meanings inherent in the phrase, allowed to float alone, amusing (even if only to myself, because - see - I am fond of me).
Was it “better than you are?” No, no. That was an insult, not a call to improvement.
It should be read: “better than you are.”
So, I had a name I thought was cute and clever, hosting I picked for reliability and price, and a vague idea of what I wanted the site to become. I got off to a crackin’ start, writing a post on relationships, some linking to financial info, and then the first in a series on how to write a great resume (finding the “next big thing” career-wise is a good improvement). Things were well underway.
And then…
I stopped.
I have no idea why, other than life got busy, work got busy, and I discovered that vague ideas for sites do not translate well into commitment toward running them.
But now - and at least for now! - all that has changed.
Part 2
* OK, rather. Quite, even.
