Eat like an Adult

January 21st, 2021

Eat like an adult. This was one of the best pieces of advice I have received when it  comes to nutrition. It is understood that food companies make super palatable food for children. Salt and sweet. What kid(or adult) doesn’t like that? Problem is, the nutritional content goes down. As adults, we can make our own choices on what to eat. We will have biases towards certain foods, because that is what we were raised on.  If the majority of your food comes from a box or a bag, it is going to be hard to meet your nutritional needs.  You know what are better choices.  That is what it means to “Eat like an adult”.  There is another way to say it, but with the way social media is today, I don’t want to lose my job. I’ll put it nicely. “Don’t eat like a jerk.” Yes, I like a good beer and some nachos, but if I have it everyday, there is a problem. Ice Cream? Bring it! But If I am slopping through pint after pint, I’m eating like a jerk. “Just eat it in moderation!” I hate that word. I feel it is a cop out. Humans are awful moderators in that sense.  It is a built in excuse for the inability to say no. You want to smash a whole cake? Go ahead, have at it. Don’t make it a regular occurrence. People beat themselves up if they have a bad day, or if they don’t make a workout. So what? Who cares? It becomes a problem if it becomes a habit. Do the best you can with what you have. Buy the highest quality of food you can and eat like an adult, not a 5 year old.

Balance and the basics.

Mini-Sessions

When you take a moment during the day, whether it is 1 or 30 minutes, it can have a lasting impact.  Mindfulness and meditation is a lot like investing. Add a little money here, a little money there and the account grows. If you are just starting out, try adding little 30 sec sessions of mindful breathing. You can do it anywhere. In a meeting, walking up the stairs, driving (just don’t close your eyes!) Personally, I find the more I do this, the better my day goes.  One thing I have really noticed is that I am not as reactive. Meaning, things don’t bother me as much. For example, if I am driving and someone doesn’t use a blinker (common problem here in New England) I don’t get as upset.  Give it a try today by adding a few sessions to get a few mindful breaths in.

Balance and the Basics

The Goldfish

I read this today. “When a goldfish is sick, the first thing you do is change the water it is in.” Little story fits right in with any discussions on the Environment. (I capitalized because it is one of the 5 pillars of health that I talk about). Your environment might be holding you back.  Now, wholesale changes are probably not feasible. (Uprooting your life and moving to the mountains or another country). But there are small things that you can definitely change. If I find someone on social media is CONSTANTLY complaining about things, especially things they can’t control, I usually block them. Sorry, I don’t need to see everything that upsets you. Second thought, no, I’m not sorry… Or there was a time(15+years ago) I used to eat in a teachers cafeteria. The negativity was too much. Of course there are times when you need to vent and go on a rant. Getting it off your chest is good, but don’t let it steer the ship.  Finding like minded people is the best way to improve your environment. Find your tribe.  When I say “like-minded”, I mean people with the same goals. Who support you and encourage you, not bring you down. Look, they are there. You just have to find them.

Teachers have Teachers

If you were going to build a house, what would your plan be? Watch a few YouTube videos and go to Home Depot, buy supplies and get to work? For most of the population, probably not. You would hire someone to do it.  Now the builder will start with a foundation and start to build the first floor and then the second floor. Once the foundation, walls, and roof are up, then the fancy final touches are added.

Our body isn’t any different.  Walk into any gym and you will see many of the clientele walking around aimlessly. Do a little of this, a little of that. No plan, no one showing them what to do.  Working on your movement practice should have a guide.  Sure, you can learn a lot about human movement by watching youtube or reading books. But how do you know that the person you are learning from, knows what they are talking about? Get referrals, and take a good look at the “house”.  Over the years, working with athletes at the gym, they want the “Fancy final touches” before they install the foundation.  Watching what people post on social media, there aren’t enough face palm emojis in the world…..

A lot of progress can be made in any movement practice by hammering the basics.  If you workout in the gym, the basics would be a type of: squat, a hinge, a push, a pull, and some aerobic work.  But even with those movement patterns, there are progressions and you should start at the bottom.  If you were building a house, you would hire a contractor. If your car broke down, you would hire a mechanic. Even teachers have teachers.

Balance and the Basics

Sleep Warm Up

What does your nighttime routine look like? Do you get up from the couch and go right to bed? Or do you have a “warm up”?  Whenever we go to play a sport or exercise, we have a warmup.  The warm up gets you ready to train.  Sleeping should have a “warm up” as well.  Personally, what works for me is a non-caffeinated tea, with some light stretching or foam rolling.  Then I will do my regular bathroom business.  Once I get into bed, I will read for about 20 minutes.  The knockout punch for me is the app “Headspace” (FYI total access is free for educators).  They have a program called “Wind Downs”.  The nice thing is that it gives the mind a little task that keeps your mind from racing.  What is your night time “Warm up”?

Balance and the Basics

How do you eat?

How do you eat?

When you sit down to eat, are you there? Meaning, are you present, or are you on the phone? Watching TV? Alone? Do you eat with your family? How many times do you chew? That last one is probably one you weren’t expecting. Prolonged chewing can do many things for us. First, taking time to chew (between 20-30x) will stimulate the Vagus nerve. The Vagus nerve is along winding nerve that touches many major organs. When stimulated, we relax and shift into a more sympathetic state (rest and digest). Second, the more you break down your food in your mouth, the less work the stomach and intestines need to do. If you are having a glass of ice tea and you drop a huge sugar cube in, it takes a little while to break down and dissolve.  If you break the cube down, it will dissolve much faster.  This allows your body to absorb more nutrients with more efficiency. Last, the longer it takes you to eat, you will fill up faster.  When you have reached maximum capacity, your gut will suppress a hormone called ghrelin which is a chemical that regulates hunger.  Problem is, when the body suppresses it, there is a delay in that signal reaching the brain.  How many times have you eaten too much?(Helllllo Thanksgiving).  Usually we are eating to fast and we will end up eating 5-10 minutes past being full. How much food do you think you can ingest in that time.

Take away- Slow down and chew your food.

Balance and the Basics.

The trouble with worrying.

“We suffer more in imagination, than in reality”-Seneca

100% guilty. I think we all are.  In any situation, we have a knee jerk reaction and ultimately think the worst. Now in 99.9% of the cases, the worst never comes. We make up all the absolute horrors in our mind, and our anxiety goes through the roof. 

Over the loudspeaker- “Mr. Benjamin, can you please call the office?”

Me- “What? Oh no, what did I say to a student? Is a parent pissed at me? Is my house on fire?  Am I getting fired?? Did my family get hit by a comet? Did Obie eat all the tortilla chips??!!! “ AAARRRGGGG!!!!

Oh, I forgot to pick up my paystub………Travesty averted.

When things seem to be a little bit out of the norm, we immediately think the worst and we suffer more in our mind than what is actually happening.  One thing that I always try to remind myself and I fail sometimes, “Worry when you have to worry”.  Yes it is easier said than done.  When faced with uncertainty, take a step back, take a deep breath, and cross that bridge when you get to it.

You can’t pour from an empty cup.

A little clarification on yesterday’s post. It can come off as I’m saying to forget about people. Not exactly. You really can’t expect to help people if you yourself aren’t in a good place. Not being in a good place, or better yet, not where you want to be is what drives us to goals in the first place. If you want to be successful in any endeavour, you need clear cut goals and people to support you, at least not get in the way. The point being, if you have toxicity in your life, you need to cut it out. It will only find its way in. I mentioned, “They may not be ready”.  True learning or acquisition of knowledge and wisdom, only happens when someone truly seeks it. There is much debate on who originally said this, but I believe in it wholeheartedly. “When the student is ready, the master will appear.” That is what I mean, “They may not be ready”. Continue on that path, help each other out. But if people or situations empty your cup, how can you expect to fill anyone else’s?

Balance and the Basics.

Nurturing or Toxic Environment?

A few days ago, I asked about your environment. Is it propelling you forward, or is it holding you back? Your environment can mean many different things. It is your physical environment that you live and work in. It is he environment within your body. It is the relationship between your walking meat suit and the microorganisms that live there. It is the environmental status of your blood work. It is the environment inside your head. What stories are you telling yourself? Are your biases directing your behavior and thoughts that lead to emotional responses? One of our greatest gifts is to be able to choose how we think.

Right now, the external environment is toxic, and for the most part, is outside our control. We can’t go on social media, the news, work, the store etc without some form of negative energy hitting us square in the face. We can choose to turn it off.

I do my best to avoid the news. A. There never seems to be any good news. It’s always about who is doing something wrong. Maybe at the end of the broadcast, you get a 30 second clip of something positive. B. There is a lot of media bias. No matter what network you watch.

If you want to change your environment, you might have to change who you interact with. Sometimes this can be extremely difficult. If people don’t align with your goals, you might need to start distancing yourself. “Birds of a feather, flock together.”

It is said that we are the sum of the 5 people we associate with the most. What does your tribe look like? Are they moving the needle forward? Or are they moving you backwards? If you’re not making progress in any area, maybe its the social circle. “Why are you doing that”? or “Have a bigger piece of cake”. When people make comments that contradict your goal or plan, they are saying it because they don’t think they can do it. Sometimes, people will root for your success, as long as it doesn’t surpass theirs.

So what do you do? Try to elevate them. Bring them along for the ride. But if in time, their goals don’t align with yours, it might be time to move on. They might not be ready.

Balance and the Basics

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Tracking

How are you moving? The benefits to having a movement practice is well documented.  THe health benefits have been studied forever and any argument against it usually falls short. Since we are only about 2 weeks into the new year, how is your movement practice going? Are you monitoring or tracking your progress?  Are you adding slowly, or you making huge jumps? With anything new, you need to slow cook it. Start slowly and increase your volume gradually.  A few weeks we talked about goals. If you want to run a marathon but you never ran more than a couple miles, going out for a 12 miler this weekend is not in your best interest. Same is true in the weightroom. If you have started weight training (which every human should do btw), gradually increasing your weight will be pay dividends in the long run. Once you have made your sets and reps with the same weight, it is time to move it up a little bit. Just like running. If you constantly only run 1 mile, you will plateau quickly. Need to move it up to 1.25 miles. Then after a couple weeks, bump it up to 1.5. Etc.  Now this is a very simplistic view of training and there are many ways to program. This post is more about tracking your movements and gradually increasing.  Are you tracking your movement practice? Weights, running, peloton, steps, yoga, hiking etc?

Balance and the basics.