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Feb 28

Lunchtime, Not Screentime

photo by steven lilley, via flickr creative commons

Did you eat lunch at your desk today? I did, and most likely, so did 62% of Americans. And to make matters worse, I wasn’t sitting at my desk reading love poems or the styles section or a novel or anything fun and distracting…I was staring at a screen. I was typing. I might have even had Microsoft Excel open. And to make matters even worse, it’s a beautiful, sunny day outside.

Believe me, I didn’t wake up this morning thinking I’d eat lunch at my desk…it just sort of happened. I didn’t have a lunch date and I wanted to carve out some time to get a workout in later in the day, so I plunked into my chair and mindlessly shoveled curry into my mouth in front of my computer screen, half focused on work and half focused on my curry. Twenty minutes later, I hadn’t gotten much work done and I couldn’t recollect how the curry smelled or tasted.

The same truth I experience every single time I do it was reinforced yet again — eating lunch at my desk isn’t worth it. It never has been, and I don’t believe it ever will be. So why do I keep doing it — especially considering I’m now spending time each day writing a wellness blog (which I’ve also admittedly written during lunch in the past) and should know better? I think it’s driven by an old way of thinking about productivity — the one in which minutes count more than effort and killing two birds with one stone is better than focusing on just one thing. After all, that’s the way we grew up — looking around, more/faster seemed to trump smarter/better.

But our world is different now. People value working smarter and better, doing things differently than in the past, and measuring impact instead of time. Productivity gurus like Tony Schwartz (The Energy Project) espouse the importance of taking breaks. Famous people like Arianna Huffington talk about the body’s need to restore (at Wisdom 2.0 she used the metaphor of the gazelle..running…resting…running…resting…running…resting). And companies are (slowly) learning that it’s important to think about both short-term productivity and long-term sustainability.

So the good news is that we’re in a new era of working smarter and better; but the bad news is that old habits and mental models die hard. We still eat at our desks thinking that it will make it easier or us to leave early or squeeze more into the day. So what’s it going to take to change this habit? Steering clear of the broader topic of habit change (future post) and staying focused on this one little shift (eating lunch at my desk), here are a few ways I’m actively trying to avoid falling into this routine: Read more

Feb 27

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I Run Because I Can

A few months ago, I got a haircut from my mom’s stylist in rural Wisconsin (who definitely gave fancy SF stylists a run for their money, btw). Rather than fashion magazine clips or shiny mirrors, his studio walls were dotted with race photos and medals. I loved this first, because he was proud and passionate wanted to share that; and second, because it gave me a softball topic to talk to him about, eliminating the awkward “so, what did you do this weekend?” banter I dread when someone new cuts my hair. When I told him I was a runner too, his first question was why. I fumbled through a bunch of reasons and then flipped the question back to him. His answer was elegant and simple and awesome: “I run because I can.” Read more

Feb 26

Smiling at the Bus Stop

photo by vox efx via flickr creative commons

In yesterday’s post, I mentioned a guided meditation about standing at a bus stop. This was led by Justin Rosenstein, co-founder of Asana (collaboration start-up), and I thought it was so simple and effective that it was worth including here. Here it is: Read more

Feb 25

7 Comments

Wisdom 2.0

Who would have ever thought the Chairman of Ford would share the stage with Buddhist monk and spiritual guru Jack Kornfield? Or a leader from Twitter would interview Jon Kabat-Zinn about the role mindfulness plays in modern day work and life? Or a start-up leader would stand in front of a few thousand people, share photos of his communal living space, and lead a short, guided meditation about smiling at the bus stop? Or a technologist turned artist would comfortably strut barefoot across a stage at a “business” conference and talk about her journey as a human being? Read more

Feb 22

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In the News This Week: Happiness, Exercise, Food Labels, and WAT-AAH

Napa, California is the Happiest City in America…According to 10 Million Tweets (via The Atlantic)

The Vermont Complex Systems Center created a “hedonometer” – an analysis of 10 million geotagged tweets. The researchers coded each tweet for its happy/sad content, based on the appearance and frequency of specific words (happy = rainbow, love, beauty, hope, wonderful, wine…sad = damn, boo, ugly, smoke, hate, lied). Yes, this method lacks context (i.e., does wine mean happiness or drunkenness), but at this scale, researchers can make reasonable conclusions. There are some other concerns with the study, which The Atlantic does a good job of distilling (check out the article to learn more), but all in all, this is an interesting addition to the host of happiness data out there, and I’ll be excited to see where it goes. If you like this sort of thing, you might also be interested in a friend of mine’s project + beautiful book: We Feel Fine.

WAT-AAH Aims to Make Water Cool for Kids (via PSFK.com)

Mom and former marketing exec Rose Cameron makes a big bet that kids indeed judge a book by its cover. Her new brand WAT-AHH is designed to appeal to kids, giving them a reason to reach for water instead of sugary soda. Everything from the name to the bottle shape to the logo is designed by (her) kids, for kids, giving this a good shot if her hypothesis is true. Her own kids sure think it is: “Honestly, I think that my friends would rather drink a water that looks cooler than soda because it’s all about looking cool, honestly.” My take? Any effort to get kids off soda and onto water is a good one…but I’d also love to see a generation of kids drinking of the tap instead of plastic bottles!

Foods Might Have More Calories Than Food Labels Tell Us (via The Guardian)

Harvard primatologist Richard Wrangham convened a session about calorie measurement at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) this week to voice his concerns that our current system of measuring calories (known as the Atwater system) may be flawed. He’s concerned that the system doesn’t account for the calories in fiber, while it overestimates (by up to 20%) the number of calories in some protein-rich food. Additionally, raw and cooked versions of the same food may have different calorie content. It will be interesting to see where this goes, as the thought of a new labeling system feels overwhelming (to me). In the meantime, this is a good reminder to eat whole, real foods in moderate quantities rather than obsess about calories (unless there is a medical reason we need to)!

Outdoor Exercise Trumps Indoor Workouts (via The New York Times)

As someone who grew up and lived in a cold climate for much of my life, I’ve long wondered whether exercising indoors (on machines) gives us the same benefit as exercising outdoors. Gretchen Reynolds reported this week that there are irreplaceable benefits to exercising outdoors. Here are the key differences she reports: 1) Runners stride differently (more ankle flexion, more variety) and burn more calories when running outdoors versus on a treadmill, 2) cyclists use more energy outside (in large part due to wind drag), 3) walkers reported higher measures of vitality, enthusiasm, pleasure and self-esteem after walking outside versus indoors, and 4) overall, people who exercise outdoors exercised longer and more often than those working out indoors.

At the end of her article, Reyonds quotes Jackqueline Kerr, profession at the University of California, San Diego: “Despite the fitness industry boom, we are not seeing changes in national physical activity levels, so gyms are not the answer.” It’s easy for me to say, now that I’ve escaped frigid Wisconsin for temperate California, but it sounds like the message is clear: LET’S GET OUTSIDE.

Body Chemistry Might Explain Differences Between Couch Potatoes and Exercisers (via The Wall Street Journal)

So it turns out that working out might not just be about motivation and determination after all…biology might play a significant role. According to Panteleimon Ekkekakis, professor of kinesiology at Iowa State, everyone has a different physical capacity for exertion, after which point we start to feel really crummy during exercise. Knowing that we’re not all created equal, Ekkekakis sees people pushing beyond their natural limits too soon, versus trying to boost these limits slowly over time. This huge variance in thresholds might explain why some people exercise easily and stick with it, while others struggle and burn out. So what’s the big takeaway? Make workouts achievable, build slowly, and find ways to make exercise fun + social.

Feb 21

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Looking Outward to Look Inward

photo by dawn ashley via flickr creative commons

In one of my very first posts on this site, I talked about the power of perspective, and I’ve been meaning to return to this theme ever since. The sense of perspective I felt the morning I wrote that post – shortly after hearing about the incomprehensible shooting in Newtown – arrived like a thunderstorm, surrounding and consuming me in a way I couldn’t see coming. While obviously (and thankfully) not with the same intensity I felt it that morning, I think about perspective a lot, particularly as I write about first-world luxuries like juice cleanses and spin classes and choosing to have relationships with people I love. Read more

Feb 21

Does Sweatier = Better?

For years, sweat wasn’t talked up much, unless advertisers were trying to sell Old Spice or wicking t-shirts. But as exercise has become mainstream, sweat somehow feels like a more approachable…and maybe even a sexy topic. Rather than marking hard work in the fields, a sweaty brow reflects workout prowess. In some circles, it’s a badge of honor, as people wring out their towels after Bikram yoga class and drink their smoothies in drenched tank tops. And at endurance races (like the famous Western States 100 ultramarathon), sweat is so matter-of-fact that athletes are weighed at checkpoints to make sure they’re taking in what they’re sweating out. Read more

Feb 19

2 Comments

Bircher Muesli

I just got back from a trip to Australia, where two dear friends exchanged some of the most heartfelt vows I’ve ever heard on a steep cliff overlooking Sydney’s sparkling harbor. It was a spectacular ceremony, and it’s always exciting as a friend to sense a couple’s palpable anticipation of the joy a lifetime of togetherness will bring. But, I think weddings are and should stay very private, so this post isn’t about my friends’ marital bliss…

It’s actually much more basic. It’s about a love affair I had in Sydney with bircher muesli. Sydney is hot and humid this time of year and full of beautiful people walking, running, boxing, training in parks, swimming in oceanside pools, surfing, relaxing in the sunshine on the city’s many spectacular beaches, and eating “real food.” It makes Australia feel like the land of the healthy (and according to the Gates’ Foundation’s 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study, it is, sitting comfortably in the top 10 for life expectancies for both men (#6) and women (#9)).

Good food feels like a daily requirement in Sydney, which makes the appearance of bircher muesli unsurprising, but delightful nonetheless. Some American friends of ours living on one of Paddington’s Victorian-lined streets served it alongside eggs and (yes) kangaroo at a delicious brunch, and I couldn’t get enough of it. I liked it so much that I ordered it the very next day at the famous Bill’s restaurant. Bircher muesli was created at the turn of the 20^th century by a Swiss physician named Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner, an early raw food advocate. And Bill’s has perfected a simple version of it we can all make at home. Here it is (at home, I think I’ll add some nuts to the recipe as well):

Bircher Muesli with Stone Fruit (Source: Bill Granger)

2 cups rolled oats
1 cup apple juice
1 cup coarsely grated apple
1/2 cup natural yogurt
Juice of one lemon
1/2 cup sliced peaches & nectarines
1/4 cup mixed berries
2 Tbsp honey

Directions: Place oats and apple juice in a bowl and soak for 1 hour, or overnight. Add grated apple, yogurt, and lemon juice to oat mixture and mix well. Spoon into serving bowls and top with fruit. Drizzle with honey.

This will now be one of my weekend brunch staples, which will be extra yummy because I think I’ll always associate it dear friends and sun-kissed Sydney. What healthy foods have you discovered while traveling? Have you managed to bring them home as a way to savor the taste and the memories?

Feb 18

Life Design: The Shady Ladies

photo by gollygforce via flickr creative commons

Sean always laughs when he sees “Shady Ladies” written on the calendar, but he doesn’t dare schedule anything that conflicts. “Shady Ladies” (long story re: the name) is code for a dinner I have with two friends every 4-6 weeks. These meetings initially started in an attempt to create a community of practice among four of us (one has since moved to Chicago) with similar professional pursuits. I would still call this a community of practice (work is still definitely a core topic), but it’s evolved beyond that into something even more meaningful: a time to talk (and give each other feedback) about the way we’re designing our lives. Read more

Feb 15

2 Comments

Round-Up: Five Interesting Health Stories From This Week

Marriage Reappraisal –> Marital Satisfaction (via Northwestern University News Center)

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, psychologists from Northwestern and Stanford published a study showing the benefits of relationship reappraisal in protecting marriages. It sounds wonky, but the concept of reappraisal is overwhelmingly simple: it’s the ability to observe a phenomenon as if from a distance or neutral perspective. Here’s the 21-minute (per year) intervention participants did…

Every four months for a year, participants were asked to take seven minutes to think about the biggest disagreement they had experienced with their spouse during the last four months. They were then asked to write about it from three different angles:

Write from the perspective of a neutral and objective third-party who wishes to bring out the best out in the situation
Write about any obstacles they foresee coming up when attempting to take a neutral, third-party stance in disagreements with their partners
Write about how they might best go about adopting this neutral, third-party perspective in future disagreements and how this kind of perspective could help them transform disagreements into more positive experiences

And bingo, study participants reported better feelings of love, intimacy, trust, passion and commitment than their non-reappraising counterparts. Worth 21 minutes a year? I vote yes.

Four Workouts Might Just Be the Magic Number (via The New York Times)

photo by fang guo, via flickr creative commons

Gretchen Reynolds from The New York Times reported on a study published this month in Exercise & Science in Sports & Medicine. The study investigated 72 older, sedentary women and randomly assigned them to three exercise groups: 2 workouts/week, 4 workouts/week, and 6 workouts/week. While all three groups gained strength and endurance and lost body fat, the 4X/week group expended more energy (burned more calories per day) than the 2X/week group and the 6X/week group. Why the difference? Researchers concluded that the 6X/week participants were more likely to spend their non-exercise time sitting and resting than the other groups. So what’s the net takeaway? Exercise as much as you can and want to if you can keep your energy levels high through the day (avoid getting tired or slow). But if you find yourself getting lazy after workouts, it might be worth it to dial back total weekly workouts and walk/bike/move more in your everyday life!

Marcus Antebi Aims to Own Juicing Category (via Well + Good NYC)

photo by plasticrevolver via flickr creative commons

Juicing and cleansing are all the rage right now, and the founder of Juice Press, Marcus Antebi, wants to be out in front. A former Thai boxer, Antebi has expanded from one store in New York City’s East Village in 2010 to what will be 10 by the end of this spring. Beyond opening stores, he’s out preaching about nutrition, “saving New Yorkers from dairy-induced digestion issues and Five Guys food comas,” as Well + Good NYC reported. He’s got big ambitions, but he’s going up against Starbucks’ Evolution Fresh. And at $60/day, the benefits of his juice better be as loud as his marketing campaign if he’s going to own the category.

Mark Parker, CEO of Nike on Body-Controlled Music (via Fast Company)

Fast Company reporter Austin Carr covers Nike’s digital future in this month’s “Most Innovative Companies” issue. Parker shares clues about how Nike will catapult out of apparel to broaden its offerings to include tech, data and services. It’s going to encourage start-ups to build on the Nike+ platform, and if FuelBand usage continues to increase, it will have tons of data to help motivate people wearing the sleek black device. Nike and Parker are dreaming big: “Just imagine if your body could control or change the music that you’re listening to–if your movement could actually change the cadence of the music, the tempo, or the beat.” From my perspective, the coolest part about these goals is the potential for Nike to transform itself from a shoe company to a wellness machine. Time will tell…

Mountain Dew for Breakfast (eeeeeew) (via Huffington Post)

Pepsi pushed the unhealthy breakfast to a new limit Tuesday, announcing a new breakfast drink called Kickstart. It tastes like Mountain Dew but is made with 5 percent juice, vitamins B and C, and caffeine. According to Pepsi’s research, the drink emerged from market research saying that Mountain Dew fans “didn’t see anything that fit their [morning drink] needs.” My take? A little more caffeine in the shape of something real (coffee or tea) beats a can full of chemicals any day. Just when I thought the end of soda might be nearer, it’s positioning itself at the breakfast table. [Sigh]

This is a new type of post I’m trying out, since I find myself coming across too many interesting things during the week to cover them all in depth. I catalogue them as I see them and then write a Friday digest. What do you think of this format? Helpful? Too long? Too short? Too recycled? I’d love any feedback!

Archive for

Lunchtime, Not Screentime

I Run Because I Can

Smiling at the Bus Stop

Wisdom 2.0

In the News This Week: Happiness, Exercise, Food Labels, and WAT-AAH

Looking Outward to Look Inward

Does Sweatier = Better?

Bircher Muesli

Life Design: The Shady Ladies

Round-Up: Five Interesting Health Stories From This Week

Mark Parker, CEO of Nike on Body-Controlled Music (via Fast Company)

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