Health and Fitness

For all of the years I lived in Massachusetts and was a morning runner, which I count as 18 or 19 – Patriots Day would mark the time when people would come out of hibernation and either start exercising or take the exercise routines outdoors. As I have noted, I keep running outdoors in pretty much any weather, this winter contending with wind chills around -25. But for those who mark the Boston Marathon as ‘oh crap I made a resolution and we are four months into the year I better get my butt outdoors’ time, there is a bit…

Today being April 1st, you can expect to spend the day regaled by all sorts of ‘witty’ fake ads, fake ‘news’ items and so on – we have already seen Google out with a ‘YouTube closure’ and others, and it is easy to predict that many others will follow for Apple, Microsoft and more. Over at the Greatist they have a parody article about getting ‘six-pack abs in a day’ – and it is worth reading for a laugh. But as many wind down from a day of excessive ham, bacon and chocolate, it is worth remembering that your health…

‘Monkey Mind’ is the term used to describe the background chatter that happens in our mind, giving voice to the things that stress or worry or otherwise weigh on our minds. For many, going out for a run or working out in the gym is a time to think about everything – groceries, schedules, priorities, stuff going on at work, school, home and so on. In fact, having ‘monkey mind’ is a part of being human – but it can be counter-productive to getting things done. In fact, while it might seem like the perfect time to let your mind…

I have talked about things that can keep you from working out, such as being sick, very cold or icy weather, or just ‘not feeling it’. But recently I have had to deal with another challenge to getting in my daily run – I have been traveling out of state to work on a major project at one of my company’s other locations. It is a large and important effort, and while it comes with high prestige and visibility it also has the downsides of taking me away from home and sticking me in the normal array of chain hotels….

Way back around the start of the New Year, I commented that we should be setting goals, not making resolutions. The reasoning was that resolutions tend to be soft and vague, whereas goals have a number of elements that fall in line with the SMART system – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-based. If you are hoping to do something, the importance of setting goals cannot be overstated. So let’s take a look at how you can do it, and some results you might expect. 1. Pick a goal: It can be to qualify for the Boston Marathon, to compete…

Did I miss the irony that my schedule precluded me getting this done in a timely fashion? Not it did not. When it comes to any runner, athlete, musician, parent, employee, or person in general … we have one thing in common: there are some days when we are ‘just not feeling it’. By that I mean that we don’t want to get out of bed, don’t want to brave the winter cold for that run, make the trek to the gym, head to school or work, or tackle that project. But what triggered the phrase in my head was…

Despite running for about 24 years now, it is only in the last year that I have become a ‘RUNNER’. And in doing so I have discovered the nearly obsessive relationship between runners and their weight. Because I was losing weight at the time, I had concerns about running and eating to prepare for half- and full-marathons while losing weight. Searches turned up loads of resources that basically said the same thing – Losing Weight Will Make Me Run Faster. You don’t have to go too far to find these articles – look here, here, here, here, or here. And these…