Summer is a Time for Shift
Time for a workout but first some reflection on summer.
I very rarely teach very the summer. The main reason is that I really like to use this time to reflect and plan for the next academic year. I have a bunch of posts in the queue on teaching which I need to get out soon. My shift to coaching other teachers in Flipped Learning and technology in education over the last six months really restricted the time I wanted to use for posting
Healthy Body – Healthy Mind and Soul
I went through a big change in my diet and lifestyle just over three years ago. I’ve written a few posts about primal/paleo diet in the past and some other lifestyle changes such as my office configuration. I don’t think I’ve written about exercise because it is one area that I really have not gotten to a “dialed in” state. In fact, the one thing that dropped off the radar in the last year has been my exercise.
I am a geek and I’ve read many books on exercise since my shift three years ago.”The New Rules of Lifting for Life” by Schuler/Cosgrove was the first read. I followed that up with “The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance” by Phinney/Volek, “Body by Science” by McGuff/Little and that led me to read “High-Intensity Training” by Mentzer/Little. I applied the principals from those books as well as way-too-many blogposts that I’ve read on the subject as well. I made good progress in 2012/2013 and then just dropped weight training with my jump into training others in Flipped Learning a year ago. Now it is time to get back into training.
If you want a couple of great books that combine the paleo/primal lifestyle with exercise check out another two books that I have read and highly recommend: “The Primal Connection” by Sisson and “The Paleo Coach” by Seib.
A New Workout from the Past
I really believe in a high intensity workout and the once-a-week session of 10 to 15 minutes cannot be beat for those with a busy schedule. I actually feel guilty that I didn’t keep that up with such a minimal workout time requirement but I feel fine about that. I needed to reboot my focus last fall on a few things and exercise could take a back seat.
I went from 100kg to just under 70kg over the course of about two years on my quest to get back into shape. Over the last year I’ve put on about another 4kg but weight IS NOT a good measure of health. I can easily see that my body fat composition is much higher than this time last year. The way you look in a mirror, how your clothes fit and how you feel in general are a much better measure of fitness than a bathroom scale.
So I’m going back to basics and applying Dr. Doug McGuff’s “Big Five” protocol. You can read about it here at Mark’s Daily Apple as well as watch a 10 minute session by the doctor himself. He also produced a two part YouTube video series: part one here and part two here.
Your Turn
Many people make a change of diet or exercise at the beginning of the year. Did you make a change? What are your goals going forward for diet and health?
Photo Credit
Photo courtesy of Arya Zaia on @Flickr
