Well, this is pretty funny — what can I say, Tony cracks me up — so I thought I’d post it here.
What’s your fitness motivator?
Everyone needs motivation, especially when it comes to working out and staying fit. I’m not talking about a personal trainer — although that’s nice if you can afford it — but something more internal. Real motivation is an inner drive that helps us get things done.
I have to tell you that I’m really not sure what my motivator is.
Shaun T says during one of the Insanity videos that he works out because “I wanna look good”. And he does look good. But that’s not what motivates me. Well, not primarily, anyway. Looking good is a nice by-product, no doubt, but I am not trying to sculpt my body.
The thing that keeps me trying to stay fit is my health. I really enjoy being healthy.
Yes, I know there is a difference between fitness and health. Jim Fixx is a famous example of that. Fixx had a big hand in starting the fitness revolution in the United States. He was a runner, a very fit guy, but … he dropped dead of a heart attack at the age of 52. Atherosclerosis. What are you gonna do about that? Diseases can get you, no matter how much you work out.
That’s where diet comes into play, and, because my motivator is health, I also am pretty strict about my diet.
Some people have events as motivators. Wedding days. Reunions. A marathon.
Those are all good motivators, but how many of us know a bride who lost a shitton of weight to look great on her wedding day, and then — uh oh — she is hardly recognizable 6 months later?
Some people’s motivator is a past event, such as a heart attack. That’ll wake you up, right?
But, you know, the further removed we get from that brush with death, the less real it seems. We start feeling good, and we reason that it’s okay to have just one bowl of ice cream. And it is! It really is okay to have one bowl of ice cream! But that one bowl often provides a slippery slope, and the next thing you know, we are back to our old habits.
The key to any motivator is longevity — it has to last a lifetime.
Besides “health”, another key motivator for me — and it’s certainly linked to health — is “no medications”.
I like that one, because health is so variable and difficult to measure, but I surely know when my doctor wants me to take a pill. (The other day a specialist apologized to me that there is no pill for tinnitus. No apology necessary, doc.)
“No meds” is what really what keeps me going. In fact, yeah, I think that “no meds” is probably my primary motivator, now that I think about it. I have an internal drive to stay off meds.
When I was on 2 blood pressure and 1 cholesterol medication back in 2007, my need to take those things with me and make sure I got them every day while on a cruise vacation made me go, “Hmmmmmm….” Then, when I looked at the vacation photos and saw how fat I really was, that put me over the edge and got me started down the path to fitness.
The fatness got me going, but the internal desire to stay off meds keeps me going. Right? If that were not true, once I was no longer fat, I’d lose my motivation, and … let the yo-yo’ing begin.
So, then, what is your motivator? Is it a short-term fix or is your motivator in it for the long haul? If you can find a motivator that lasts a lifetime, that’s the one that will keep you and your fitness goals on track.
Les Mills Combat – A review after one week
I started Les Mills Combat a couple weeks ago, but succumbed to a cold on Day 3, so I had to suspend that activity for a while. I still have a bit of a nagging cough, but, unable to sit still any longer, I started the program again at the beginning of this week.
I really cannot describe how much I enjoy it, and this is coming from someone who is not a fan of Les Mills Pump. I like Combat so much, in fact, that I ordered the DVDs with the additional workouts.
I was pretty sure I’d enjoy Combat, because when I was doing P90X, I really liked Kenpo X, and also Kenpo Cardio from the P90X Plus series. I think that doing Tony Horton’s kenpo — which I am sure martial arts purists would poo-poo (pu-pu?) as “not the real thing”, but, whatever — makes me feel as if I am learning a useful skill. Hey, I do spend a lot of time in bars and clubs, so there might come a time when I need to mix it up, right?
(Okay, so maybe I only know enough to get my own ass kicked, but at least psychologically, I feel a little better prepared for a fight. I guess it’s like owning a gun — the most likely person to get shot with it is probably yourself….)
Les Mills Combat bases its moves on a variety of martial arts, including boxing, karate, tae kwon do, capoeira, kickboxing, and jiu jitsu. As you might guess, there is a lot of punching and kicking, and my heart rate stays in the target zone for about the entire workout. I kinda wish now that I’d bought the package with the weighted gloves, which would add intensity to the workouts, but I didn’t.
The only caution I need to take is to ensure I stay back when I am in a squat stance, which is somewhat often during straight punching sequences. I tend to stay up on my toes, instead of farther back on my heels, and that will manifest itself as low-grade knee pain the next day.
I know I am only one week into it, but I’ve done all the workouts, and the only one I found a bit boring was the Combat 45: Power Kata. I didn’t have a hard time getting through it — it was not booooooooring — but I did find myself looking at the clock a couple times. Maybe I do need to get those weighted gloves, or at least add some weight to my hands to keep things more intense.
The instructors are only a little annoying. Dan and Rachael — they are in the advert to the right — are the primary gurus. They say stupid shit, of course — that’s the standard, right? — and Dan tends to get a bit overzealous, you know, making his eyes bug out, and acting a bit on the crazy side. However, all in all, these instructors do a good job keeping things flowing without getting too annoying.
At only around $60, Les Mills Combat is a great deal. You get a 60-day workout plan, and, while I say I’ve done all the workouts the first week, they seem difficult enough that I won’t be bored. That is to say, I really need to build my coordination and get these things right! Remember, though, I did say up top that I’d ordered the 4 additional workouts, because I like to keep things fresh as possible. I remember that as I approached the end of P90X, I knew I wanted to continue the workouts, but not necessarily those workouts, so I ordered other Tony Horton workouts. Ordering the extra Combat DVDs is a pre-emptive strike against that, and I’ll be able to integrate them into my 60-day program whenever I feel like it.
If you are already into fighting or mixed martial arts, these workouts may seem a bit pedestrian to you, but if you are curious about those things, and want to learn some moves, or if you just want a workout program that requires little to no equipment — dumbbells are used during some of the workouts — then you will find Les Mills Combat to be a really good way to either get into, or stay in, shape. As I said above, at only around $60, Les Mills Combat is a great deal!
Why eat right?
I can’t help but get just a bit upset when I see posts and articles about the latest diet craze or this week’s go-to superfood. There are no silver bullets.
The authors of such articles are right about one thing, though. They all imply that you are what you eat, and that’s right. Your body composition is 75% to 80% determined by what you eat, not by how much you work out.
So the answer to many of our health woes is to simply eat right.
But … but … but … what is right?
That’s a tough one, and you can probably find a proponent of any diet you want to adopt as your lifestyle. Low carb, low fat, meat based, plant based, whole foods only, all processed foods. You name it, you can find people advocating it.
I can honestly say I’ve been through just about all of them, and the one that makes the most sense to me is a primarily whole food, plant-based diet.
According to T. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study, and a leading proponent of a whole-food, plant-based diet, if you add up all the deaths directly attributable to poor nutrition — 67% of cancers, 90% of heart diseases, 80% of strokes and diabetes — you end up with more than a million deaths a year, and that easily makes poor nutrition the #1 cause of death in the US.
Campbell entered into his research many years ago with an agenda to get more animal protein into the mouths of nutritionally starved third-world people. However, he discovered along the way, via others and, eventually, his own extensive study into the effects of animal protein on rodents, that animal protein is a tremendous promoter of cancer.
He was even able to turn cancer on and off by adding and removing animal protein from his experimental subjects’ diets.
From an interview with Campbell here:
What is your most important nutrition-based finding?
Studying animal protein has occupied most of my medical research career. For me, it was an evolution in thinking, and what I learned flew in the face of existing, dogmatic views about nutrition. One finding was that we can turn on and turn off cancer cells from animal protein. If you get animal protein in excess of what’s needed, you turn on cancer. If you replace it with plant protein, that doesn’t turn it on. That is a shocking concept.
My personal experience with what is now 7 months of a 99% vegan diet (I have incidental dairy every once in a while when dining out), with about 75% whole foods (I also eat breads and pastas), are that:
- My eyes are whiter and don’t burn like they used to.
- My skin is softer, which is especially noticeable in my hands and feet. I used to have to put moisturizer on my feet and that is no longer necessary.
- My weight has been level.
- I feel emotionally better about what I am eating.
- I don’t miss animal protein in general, but I have a desire for eggs and raw fish from time to time, so I may incorporate them back into my diet on a limited basis at some point.
If you have a lot of weight to lose, choose a diet — any sensible diet — and stick with it, because you will experience many health benefits from simply losing the fat. Once you get to the point where you are fine-tuning, though, you may want to settle on a primarily whole food, plant-based diet.
Ultimately, to get as fit and healthy as possible, you should also exercise. After all, exercise can raise your HDL (good cholesterol), lower your blood pressure, boost your energy, and help you sleep better, among a host of other things. What’s not to like about that?
I’m sick
Yes, I am sick. And not in a good way. (“Sick” is good these days, right?)
It’s such a shock for me to have a cold, because I literally cannot remember the last time I had one. It is, in fact, annoying as hell to have a cold.
It seriously cramps my style.
I have to admit, when I went to what I considered to be a less-than-savory music venue last Saturday evening, I wondered how things would shake out. I had a feeling. But, again, it had been so long since I’d had a cold that I was beginning to think I was untouchable by that nasty rhinovirus.
WRONG!
I felt okay Sunday.
Monday came around, and I felt a touch of something, but I just figured it was allergies. Anyway, I was starting Les Mills Combat, and I didn’t want to postpone it. I did the 35-minute introductory video, which was not too strenuous, because it just teaches the basic moves. I also did the Combat 30 Kick Start workout, which was pretty intense.
By Tuesday was fairly sure something was wrong, but I felt mostly okay, and I reasoned that it could still be just allergies, so I did the Combat 45 Power Kata, which I don’t think was the right DVD according to the prescribed sequence, but that’s beside the point. It wore me out. Good workout!
Wednesday, I knew I was sick, and Thursday, I made it through a business lunch before collapsing upon returning to the office. I laid on the floor for a few hours, listening to XM Fantasy Football Radio, and tried to feel better. I remained zombie-like for the rest of Thursday, went to sleep at 10, woke up at 2:30, back to sleep at 5:30, back up at 8:00 on Friday morning.
When I awoke Friday, I felt so much better. I went out for another business lunch, and stayed fairly productive all day.
So, Thursday seems to have been the worst of it. I hope so, anyway. I am recovering now, but all I can think about is, “How can I prevent this from happening again?”
I almost always have my hand cleanser with me. I didn’t haven’t it last Saturday, even though it was in the car, and I could easily have put it into my pocket. I had gotten a bit lax, apparently, so it’s time to step up the vigilance.
I remember back in the day, I used to get colds fairly often. I would treat the symptoms with the various OTC drugs. My favorite was Alka-Seltzer Cold Plus.
This time I was caught unaware and unprepared, but that didn’t make much difference, because I am not willing to take any of those OTC medications anyway. After all, I need my nose to run. I need to sneeze and cough. That’s my body getting the bad stuff out, right?
So, anyway, long story short: I’m sick.
I’m glad the NFL playoffs are on, because I’m not going anywhere.
I am eager to get back to Les Mills Combat. It mixes a lot of boxing and martial arts moves, which I find interesting and enjoyable, and — judging from the 2 workouts I did — it burns a whole lot of calories, really gets the heart pumping, and pushes the muscles to extremes. The instructors are weird, but not weird like they were in Les Mills Pump. In Pump they are fake-smiley-fitness-club-instructor weird. In Combat they are I-may-come-through-the-screen-and-kill-you weird. I much prefer the latter.
Here’s hoping you survive the cold and flu season better than I did. I read that the average adult gets a cold two or three times a year. Seriously? How do people do it? I am miserable….