You’ve heard them before.  Bill Phillips “Body-for- LIFE” (12 weeks), Dax Moy’s “The Magic Hundred” (100 days of course), Lee Labrada’s Lean Body Challenge” (12 weeks), Shawn Phillips “Strength for Life” (12 weeks), P90X (90 days), “Beach Body – 90 Day Shape Up”.

What is the deal with 3 months ( or 12-13 weeks or 90-100 days)?

According to those smart guys (you know who you are), it takes 28 days to create a new habit.  Link a few of these and you have a ritual.  The more positive rituals we can develop, the more “free space” between our ears we can be creative and productive with. 

But you can’t just dump all the desired behaviors into the hopper and expect to have them all line up.  You must work only one to several behaviors at a time and weave them into a ritual that you just “do”.  Like brushing your teeth.

What is a ritual?  It’s just a series of behaviors or actions that are intentional but have been developed so they happen without conscious intervention or at least a minimum of thinking. 

Example:  You take out your key, put it into the car door lock, unlock the door, get into the car, put the key in the ignition, start the car, put on your seat belt, look around, release the parking brake, put the car into gear and pull away.  Or do you put the seat belt on first?  Or do you put you purse or briefcase into the back seat first?  The point is, you don’t think about all of those steps individually.  You have a ritual. You just “do it”.

4 weeks doesn’t give you the time to build more than one or maybe two rituals.  It also doesn’t have any breathing room to screw up and make adjustments. 

6 months would be great if it didn’t seem like such a loooong time. 

Three months gives you a reasonable time frame to develop 3 or more positive rituals.  It gives you the space to try something and if it doesn’t work as planned, you can tweak it or even scrap it and try something else without losing a lot of momentum or motivation.  Results in 12 to 13 weeks are usually pretty dramatic and motivating, especially if your doing a before and after comparison.  With tangible results, and the with the accompanying motivation, you are ready for the next 12 to 13 week adventure.

Click on the article to take you to the page, then click on the text to zoom.

Look Inside >> June 2009

“I’m in Texas. People smoke here. Cigarettes! In 2009! Even knowing that 1 cigarette takes 11 minutes off your life. Go figure.”

 That was my last message or “tweet”, on Twitter.  

I’m getting a lot of feedback from the usual suspects in my crowd.  You know, triathletes, Highland gamers, powerlifters, martial artists.  

The group it was intended for is very silent.  The people that I care about who still smoke.  The word “tobacco” is on my fathers death certificate.  

I heard a Native American shaman speak regarding tobacco.  He said that tobacco was one of the “friendliest” plants.  That’s why they include it in ceremony.  He also said  that for as much illness and damage related to tobacco use,  it had to be very much abused.  

Whatever.  

I’ve heard all the stories.  Like cancer rates are directly related to the quantity of sugar in the cure.  That’s like getting to choose which size bus is going to run you down.

Please,

.

.

.

Live long.  Live well.  We need you.

CAF Spokesperson - Cody McCasland to be Featured on 
Dateline NBC , Sunday, May 17
(San Diego Listing: 7 pm PST, check your local listings)

Tune into Dateline NBC on Sunday, May 17 at 7 pm PST (check you local listings here) for an incredibly special show.  Keith Morrison will share the inspiring story of CAF Spokesperson, Cody McCasland, a seven-year-old double above-knee amputee of Colleyville, Texas.  The show to consist of two segments highlighting his involvement with our injured military personnel, including inspiring members of Team Operation Rebound Ironman 70.3 California, a reunion with injured marine Kevin McCloskey, a special CAF presentation of Ossur running feet and more.  It’s sure to make a splash, so set your recorder or sit down with your family and watch.

Read Cody’s bio here: http://www.challengedathletes.org/athletes_stories/CodyMcCasland.htm

Challenged Athletes, Inc.
Tax ID #33-0739596
P.O. Box 910769
San Diego, CA 92191
Phone: (858) 866-0959
Fax: (858) 866-0958
www.challengedathletes.org

The book.

Skinny Bitch in the Kitch?  (the cookbook)

Skinny Jeans, Skinny Chef, Skinny Water, The Skinny Cow®, Lifesyles of the Rich and Skinny (I’m not kidding, Google it), Skinny Bastard (Skinny Bitch for men) and on and on.

What is going on here?  What is so appealing about “skinny”?  It is not just the opposite of “fat” as a descriptor, it’s a negative descriptor as well!

“Skinny”, as a marketing tool is not only disengenuous, but potentially harmful.  Most of the contents and products mentioned are actually helpful, beneficial and useful.  It’s the message that is the problem.   

“Skinny” is NOT optimal.  OPTIMAL is optimal.  What is optimal?  It depends.   It depends on your genetics, your body frame, what your vocation is and what your avocation is.  It is also what YOU are comfortable with within the parameters of health standards.  Not a Madison Avenue ad agency’s decision about what you should be comfortable with.  There are body composition statistics that I could refer to, but that isn’t what this article is about.  It’s about body image, goals, anxiety, and health.  A theme that my regular readers are no doubt familiar with are the two questions:

 ”Are you in the best physical conditions that your genetics and environment allow?”

“Why not?”

This isn’t to imply that there aren’t real reasons why not, but to get an internal dialog going to distinguish the real reasons from the excuses.  There may be one or the other, but my experience tells me that it’s probably a combination of both.   Sometimes we use a legitimate reason for lagging progress as an excuse to do nothing at all, or worse, regress.

Some people who are overweight are deluding themselves with the help of the same marketers with the other extreme.  There is a fine line between marketing to people who are larger than the norm, and coddling them into the complacent idea that it’s OK to be “full figured” or “big and tall”.  It’s not healthy, it’s not comfortable, it’s not convenient and it’s not OK.  Sometimes it’s even dangerous.  

There are many reasons and circumstances that get in the way of reaching “optimal”.  Some of them absolutely valid.  Everyone needs to set their own priorities.  Don’t confuse that with disregarding your physiology on a permanent basis.   Don’t make the mistake that so many people make by thinking that WORRYING about it is the same thing as DOING something about it.  Anxiety just starts a physiological fight/flight response that produces a hormone cascade that is very detrimental.  Not to mention the psychological implications from long term anxiety.       

What’s worse than someone who is overweight that has anxieties about getting “skinny”?  The person who is already at a normal body composition that has anxieties about getting “skinny”!  And what’s worse than that?  The person who is already skinny that has the same anxieties!  Now we’re into something pathological.  Don’t go there.   This is the only body that you have.  Be nice to it.   Please?  Don’t stuff it.  Don’t starve it.  Don’t beat it up.  Eat well.  Move your body.  Set a goal.  Write it down. Develop an action plan to implement your goal.  Then take action.  Every day.  We need you.