Dogma and Dog Treats

There's a lot of stuff bouncing around the internet right now (in the fitness genre, anyway) on scientific evidence vs anecdotal evidence, education vs experience, wisdom vs expertise, etc.
Everyone seems to have a pretty strong opinion about one side being better than the other, and it's gotten me thinking. I made a bad mistake a couple of weeks ago when I read what I thought was a really poorly written article (on a well-respected, usually legit website) and graced the comments section below it with my opinion...and was then subjected to a barrage of criticisms and insults.

I took away three messages from that experience:

1. As a general rule my skin is too thin. Clearly I need to either keep my opinions off the internet (not likely!) or put my Wonder Woman panties on and stop letting it ruin my day and destroy my confidence when someone I've never met implies that I am a simpleton.

2. I need to practice writing clear, polite, but appropriately barbed rebuttals when I come across ignorant articles based on bro science. Daniel Dennett puts it best:

• You should attempt to re-express your target's position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says "Thanks, I wish I'd thought of putting it that way." 
• You should list any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement). 
• You should mention anything you have learned from your target. 
• Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.

3. There will always be people who I disagree with, and who will disagree heartily with me. And that's ok. From a professional standpoint, it's even a good thing since not every trainer is right for every client. And when you're considering pretty major lifestyle overhauls, it's well worth it to take the time to find someone that you connect with on a personal level. Big habit changes more often than not involve some serious excavation and reflection if the changes you want to effect are going to stick over the long term, so it's important to have a coach in your corner that you're comfortable talking to about anything. Which leads me right to today's discussion point:

Dogma or There's More Than One Way to Skin a Cat

 See what I did right there? Hahaha. So I've already used this space to gripe about the people who open their articles with proclamations of 'expertise' so I won't go on and on, I promise. Just beware of those people because if they have decided they are 'experts' then all sorts of logical fallacies have started snowballing in their tiny little brains. One such fallacy is that what they know (or think they know) has gone from lovely squishy soft science and hardened into dogma. Ladies and gentleman, beware of any fitness professional who says it's their way or the highway. Who asks you to sign a contract stating that you will change the way you live, all at once, starting now. Who has decided that there is ONE WAY to get from point A to point B.

Behaviour change has to be a fluid concept because everyone is different; we all got to where we are for different reasons, different things motivate us, and we want different outcomes. Sure, there are commonalities and patterns that repeat themselves in human behaviour, but a good coach can recognize when to switch gears if something's not working.

Speaking of switching gears...

Something happened in our family almost one year ago that changed all of our lives for the better: we adopted our dog on May 8, 2013. Valley has been such a perfect addition to our family and brought us so much joy that clearly this anniversary has to be celebrated with appropriate grandeur...so I am marking the occasion by experimenting with homemade dog treats.

As of yet I have only made one batch, and they um...don't look amazing. The recipe needs tweaking so I won't post it just yet, but I can only assume that they taste pretty good because V-dog has taken to following me around licking her chops whenever I set foot near the dog treat cupboard! Stay tuned; I hope to have that recipe ready for testing by next week. Sign up here for my weekly newsletter!

No Going Back

You can't ever go back. That sounds kind of sad, doesn't it? And I guess it could be if you're inclined to see things that way, but really what I want to talk about today is why that's always a good thing.

Yes, I said ALWAYS. 

I hear a lot of people talk about when they were thinner, stronger, faster, more mobile, ten feet tall, able to poop out rainbows, etc. The goal that they inevitably state when asked is always to 'get back to that body they used to have', or 'get back to Xlbs. I hear this from new moms in the gym all the time - 'must get back to my pre-pregnancy weight!'  -  and women who are bombarded with media which measures our worth by whether or not we fit into our wedding dresses at age 40 or whatever. Or for the dudes - if I had a loonie (not to be confused with looney, careful) for every working guy juggling the demands of career, family life, etc. who mournfully looks at his protruding gut and says 'I used to be an athlete/in shape/have a six-pack/eat whatever I wanted and never gain weight' I'd never have to work again. But I still would, in case any of you were wondering. 

Going back to a previous state sounds reasonable. I mean hell, if ever there was a non-threatening goal that's it; you know it's well within the realm of the possible because it happened already! Just the other day I even caught myself wistfully fantasizing about the body I had six months ago and thinking 'I just want to go back to where my clothes fit me again...' 

And then I literally dropped what I was doing on the floor out of shock (it was just laundry, nothing got broken) and gave myself an attitude adjustment on the spot.

I have to tell you a story. It's a little bit personal and may be TMI but bear with me for a minute.

Last year was a really really bad year. Lots of life-changing, traumatic events happened and my world view will be a little different forever because of it. Without getting into the grisly details of all that stuff, because my story for today is about after all that mess, when the ashes started floating down to the ground and it was time to try and gain some sense of normality, I began to notice that normality was not the only thing I was gaining. My work uniform started to feel constricting. My pants were shrinking. I tried to ignore it - I was still working out, still doing everything the way I had always done...but pretty soon I couldn't ignore it any more and I remember very clearly the day I finally stepped on the scale in order to quantify the damage.

I had gained 32.6lbs in three months.

The upshot of all this is that after a series of doctors' appointments and tests and blood work, it was finally established that I had suffered a considerable hormone 'crash', partly due to stress and partly due to a previously diagnosed condition. So, now there is a treatment plan in place, but because the laws of physics are some mean bitches I still have to create an energy deficit and use sensible nutrition and exercise in order to get past this.

Ha. Notice how I did NOT say 'get back to where I was?' Yes, I would like very much for my clothes to fit again, but whether or not I get back to my previous weight, I will be different. My body will be different. Every mile, every rep, every experience changes us and changes our bodies as well. I could gain and lose 40lbs any number of times and it would be different every time. There's no going backward.

Only forward. 

And that's a good thing.

Perfect Practice Produces Proper Payoffs!

Hahaha. And if you don't know who that is, take a couple of hours one day and watch Mr Popper's Penguins - it's worth it just for her. And penguins are always cute; even CG ones have the potential to make your day better!

On a more serious note, I was clubbed over the head with something brilliant the other day which I've been mulling over. The source of said brilliance is a musician friend, but what applies to musical mastery applies almost universally to any kind of endeavor where the goal is lifelong habit change: sport performance, art, business, LIFE...you get the idea. And the only possible thing to do when one is clubbed on the head with brilliance is to steal the bludgeoning tool and club more people on the head. Are you ready? Hold still...

DETERMINATION VS. DISCIPLINE

Determination

Whenever anyone starts a new project, or is even enthusiastic about an ongoing one, determination is present. Determination is awesome because it is what gets you going every day. It is the driving force behind everything that is worth working for. The decision to go to the gym, to sit down in a practice room, to spend your Sunday afternoon cooking for the week, or to do anything else that's worth doing but takes some effort - that's determination.

But.

Determination can bite you on the ass if you aren't careful. Ever set out to do something and spend a few weeks or a few months trying really hard at it but don't see the results you're looking for and feel like you deserve? We've all been there, right? The problem there is (you guessed it)

Discipline

Discipline is the tough part to get control over. It's working smarter, not harder. Discipline is the will to do it RIGHT - every damn time. Ever hear the saying that 'practice makes perfect'? It's baloney. You can practice something a million times, for hours on end. You can go through the motions while you're watching TV, while you're driving, while you're thinking about what you're going to do this weekend...and it'll never be perfect. You know why? Cause you practiced it kinda half-assed. And now you have a really rock-solid habit of doing a half-assed job.

DISCIPLINE IS THE ART OF DOING IT WITH YOUR WHOLE ASS. 

Have you had enough of asses?  Good, me too.

So what to do? Show of hands, please: who has heard the saying "perfect practice makes perfect"? Whoever came up with that one nailed it. For example, take a relatively healthy person who'd like to lose 10 or 20lbs. They start out all enthusiastic and determined and ready to get the job done. For the next three months they go to the gym every day that they feel like it. They eat as clean as Tosca Reno - during the week. (Hey, on the weekends you can afford to cut loose, right?) They take bathroom mirror selfies and start a fitness blog about their journey. They think about it all the time and talk about their newfound fitness incessantly. And after three months, they're down 5lbs. And they quit because something must just be wrong, cause there's no way they should have been working that hard and only seen miniscule results. And a month later they're back where they were. What was missing? It wasn't determination. It was the discipline to get to the gym even when they felt tired or down or had a cold. To stick with eating good, nutritious food in moderation on the weekends. Now, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with eating well most of the time and working out sporadically; in fact if you do that you're doing pretty well. But if you want something amazing to happen, there has to be discipline.

Demolition Ninja

 Damn, I love Mondays.

Top ten reasons why today is awesome (in no particular order):

1. Gonna start re-doing my bathroom after yesterday's demolition (and to everyone who suggested that I come help do theirs? I'd be happy to but so far I have no clue how to do anything except destroy the existing decor so maybe hold off on that until you see the after pictures!) This project is not only for the benefit of a spiffy new water closet; it's part of something much bigger that's been on my mind for years: I am going to get HANDY. I will stop feeling stupid and helpless whenever anything in my house breaks; instead I will confidently slip into my Wonder Woman panties - yes, I actually have some - and tool belt and FIX it.

2. After a three-month layoff that followed almost immediately after a six-month layoff, I get to start back to taekwondo tonight!! I'm so excited I could pee! Maybe I've had too much coffee but today has been a long time coming and it feels like Christmas.

3. Push Ups! Today marks day one of that ridiculous 6-weeks-to-100-pushups program that is floating around the internets. I've tried it a couple of times but always on top of whatever other programs I was working on, which of course meant that nothing got finished because it all became too much. Not this time.

Why do I care about doing 100 Push Ups, you ask? Well...I don't. It seems to me like a CrossFit-esque ego-based goal where people get down and do a hundred shitty push ups in thirty seconds then jump up and show off all their overuse injuries. Those CrossFit douchebags are the same people that strutted around grade school telling us nerdy kids to punch them in the stomach as hard as we could. I don't give a rat's ass about being able to do 100 reps of anything. What I would like to do is learn to love push ups in the interest of my ever-present fitness goal which is, obviously, to GET STRONGER!! ROAR!!!

 4. It's finally spring and the sun is shining and the snow is melting! 

5. I love everything about mornings, no matter what day it is, especially coffee. COFFEE.

6. Kids are going back to school today after a week off. Now, don't get me wrong, I totally love having my kiddies at home. Really I do. And this spring break was awesome - we did a little road trip to Fernie to visit my brother and sis-in-law, we played outside, we celebrated a family milestone...but daughter #1 spent the day yesterday alternately lying on the living room floor loudly bemoaning how bored she was and asking for more video game time. TIME TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL. 

7. I took most of spring break off to hang with my kids and I have that ants-in-my-pants feeling like it's time to get back to work. I'm excited! Which is pretty cool I think - I mean, how lucky am I that I get to be excited about working?

8. I have an appointment this week with a Dr. I've been waiting months to see, and I'm looking forward to getting some answers and straightening out my severely wonked endocrine system. More on that later this week, but another reason why this week feels like Christmas.

9. My dog. Every morning the first thing I do after I get out of bed is give her a tummy rub. I defy anyone to get up and stay in a bad mood after rubbing a fuzzy tummy. And it's ALMOST light enough for us to start running in the mornings again! Next week maybe...'cause I am not one of those hard-core runners who goes out and does it no matter what. Sorry - it's only fun if it's light outside and above zero. Hey, there are boundaries to my insanity - who knew?

 10. Whatever else the week has in store that I don't know about yet! Part of why I love Mondays, which I think I mentioned last week, is that they are full of possibility - a chance for a fresh start. What's not to love about that?