Chapter 16

 The beasts in the Marukami's walls book - the word itself shows the generalization of them and not domesticated or treated as differenct species but clubbed together, and no shadow.

"We walked down hill for a time, and the clear-cut road peterd out, replaced by an indistinct, overgrown footpath" reminds me of a hiking starting point here. 

"Even on the slopes that rendered me breathless, you walked on casually, your steps calm and even, with your healthy young legs and heart, and it was all I could do to keep up" reminds me of a place that is a  steep mountain and a good cardio workout.

When do you know a language, when you read something in it and it takes you elsewhere like this? 

The narrator's curiosity about the city - is it only because of the connection to her? about its rules/town hall and who made the rules? not as a cartogrpaher wanting to know its boundaries/population.?

pg 83 - there was a time when there was no wall

I am able to go to the Japanese book and find the sentences I like.

That pool is the sea no? Questioning the earth as a city?

what happens if the beasts are not burnt? they have to deal with it, bcause the city dwellers cant go out of the city? question our origin stories like the town's with contradictions.

pg 88

Theme park - back from sea world.

We derive hope from nature, continuing on in the face of adversity. 

loneliness longing and love

yet to come across this line-- “The wall is there to protect you from the world. But who will protect you from the wall?”

Workout today

 I did 12 surya namaskara today with about 10s of hanging bar exercise after every 2 suryanamskara.

Did 20 min of day 26 full body workout yesterday. Will finish up the rest (done).

Did this yoga for flexibility yesterday. Do want to get back to some poses. I used to be able to do halasana. 

I can tell my core/strength and flexibility are increasing. I was able to lift my head in the chakrasana.

My lunges are getting deeper.

Use recency bias in your favor

 the brain accords more weight to recent information about the world when making predictions

By reading about different ways of reaching your goal,, you increase the likelihood of your brain thinking that you are on the path to success of following the goal in front of you. This is conditioning your brain into making habits, into believing that the workout today is going to be part of the weeks ahead increased activity.

In the last 5 weeks my activity has doubled. Once in a while I prime my brain on reading about things I want to accomplish. The literature helps. 

What is the best way to motivate your significant other to workout without making them feel fat?

 

Love Me Slender: How Smart Couples Team Up to Lose Weight, Exercise More, and Stay Healthy Together seems like a good book.

As a couple, do the Odyssey Plan and see what you come up with for health aspect. From there, you can see how you can support your significant other in reaching their goal with common activities.

Odyssey Planning: Re-framing the ‘Five Year Plan’

How do you get motivation to go to the gym when you are tired?

 It is hard to do anything when you are tired, even if it is something you like to do.

Manage your energy levels first. Whatever is your healthy pick up drink, have that first and then decide how you are going to get this thing done today. Get all your vitamins in healthy range. Vitamin D, B12.

I usually mark lunch time for gym/exercise, but the above strategy works for me when I have to do house chores.

Energy, Enthusiasm and Flow - Be on the lookout for how these are changing with each of your activities in a day. And remember and recall the lovely feeling after a workout. What wouldn’t you do for that? Every workout begins with the first minute.

How do I motivate myself to start exercise and keep doing it regularly?

How do you carve an elephant out of wood? You remove what is not an elephant. Similarly, envision how doing workout regularly would mean. Have all the frequency, duration, schedule planned out. Initially you will find many obstacles of not being able to workout as you would like. Stick with it and keep making your environment friendly to your goals.

For beginners, active wear can put you in the zone.

Find out from regulars, what works for them, how they got there.

Why can’t I find the motivation to lose weight?

 It is possible that you have found and tried some ways and they didnt workout for you. Only when we believe that we can move the needle, do we want to spend the efforts. That is why when we see proof that something worked for others, do we get inspired to try it out. And once you start seeing the results of your efforts, you will never stop. So the greatest effort needed is that time you will take to that first half pound loss. So make that your goal. It is achievable. After that the winning momentum, will make you stick to it.

How can I stick to a diet and workout plan? I have bad experience with dieting and I want to do it right this time, but it’s very hard for me to go through the day without overeating.

The following authors and their books will make you understand the reason behind our choice of food making us overeat. You can look at their videos on youtube or Dr Eric Berg’s to understand how you can get rid of snacking by adding protein and healthy fats to your main meal. I recently found that adding crunchy or foods that need to be chewed like pomegranate seeds, you give your body time to send the full signal. You slow down and feel the satiety.

Always Hungry?: Conquer Cravings, Retrain Your Fat Cells, and Lose Weight Permanently by David Ludwig

The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat by Stephan Guyenet

How do I become more disciplined, and what are some ways to build it up?

Lamare Habit Tracker - Inspirational Habit Tracking Journal with Spiral Binding - Beautiful Habit Tracker and Goal Planner - Motivational Weekly Action Pad for Habits & Accountability

Look at an aspect of your life, where you are already showing lots of discipline. This will give you a chance of learning about your self and how you are able to do things in a consistent manner.

If you dont have any consistent ones yet, thats ok.

Once you identify a habit that you want to take on, start tracking it. If it is something like workout, a smartphone app can be very helpful. If for example, working out daily is a habit you want to work on, you can look at the monthly calendar and see how many rings you got. You want to be leaning towards more doing than skipping. Talk to people who think they are consistent about something in life and how often they do it or miss it. In a conversation about someone introduced to yoga at a young age, he summed it as, “Its not that I do it everyday, but its not like I left it.” You want to get to a stage where you can tell the difference between how you feel on the days you dont follow the habit and plan to get back to it. Things happen and you will not follow your discipline everyday. But tend towards it barring situations that are not in your control.

You can use Lamare Habit Tracker. 

Why is it that even though I'm going to the gym 4 times a week for 3 hours a day, I'm still not confident?

 I am assuming this is about body confidence. Congratulations on doing such an important thing for yourself. You are probably doing a week’s worth of exercise in a day. Also at the end of the workout, say thank you to your body for being a good partner in the workout. Try an inward approach too in knowing your interests and likes. Spend time with yourself. Be kind to yourself in the process.

7 steps to body confidence

How do I get the motivation to exercise after school? I always come home feeling depressed and tired of school. How can I exercise despite this?

 Does your school have a gym or student recreation center? During college, we would fit in 1 hour of exercise in the gym between classes and homeworks.

Do you get a break during the day for a 20–30 min workout? That might power you through the rest of the day. 

How do I manage to work out when I have school, a job, house responsibilities, and homework?

If you have a step tracker, you will be able to check how many steps you get in a day, when you wear so many hats. Your active responsibilities might make your NEAT higher than others. If you are not able to allocate 30 min at once in a day, 5 min of heartrate increasing activities during snatches of breaks that you find can help too. A smartwatch counts every time your heartrate goes into the workout zone.

“NEAT is the energy expenditure that we do not typically consider and it includes the energy expended maintaining and changing posture (laying, standing, walking, stair climbing, spontaneous muscle contraction, fidgeting, cleaning), singing, and other activities of daily living. “

Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT): a component of total daily energy expenditure

How do some people find fitness easy while others find it hard?

When I was a high school kid beginning to gain weight, my dad used to ask me to join his yoga session. What I didnt realise was it was him slowing down from his exercise regimen of running and other exercises, so I could get interested in working out.

I never complained about walking, that came easy to me. Seeing my dad exercise regularly always inspires me. He shares how he maintains his regular workout. He makes it his priority and misses it if he cant do the exercise as planned.

I got some of my exercise views from him. It has now become a habit as he refers to as ‘like brushing everyday’. I enjoy exercise. I love to challenge myself with exercises. Sometimes looking at some exercise videos, I am inspired to try out and see how much of it can I do.

To keep continuously doing exercises, if we see changes in strength in our body or stamina, we get more inspired to continue doing the good work.

How do I get motivated every single day?

 With all things happening around you, see which area of your life can you improve. Go with the flow but also as you plan. Find buddies for things you want to get good at. One day may be your study buddy is free, then finish off school/work. If an exercise buddy is free, get together and workout. Be flexible. Enjoy the serendipity. If plans cant happen, have alternate plans.

Why is it important to have a strong core if you are not an athlete?

Having a strong core is a sekf-fulfilling thing. If you have a strong core, you can exercise more. You have to exercise more working on the core area to get a stronger core. You can even walk faster with a strong core and with a better posture. Tony Horton of P90x has a core workout which will have you sweating by the end of it. This is a secret you can share with beginners next time.

I read on Reddit that if you have been overweight your whole life, you are likely to be obese in your 30s. Even if you lose the weight now. Is this true?

 I have been overweight from the age of 13 to 22. I have been exercising regularly since age 21. During 23–24, I lost lots of weight. Initially as astudent, i didnt find time to exercise but after that it became my priority. I even made my environment work for me. When office provided food, I would only eat chapathis so that it is easy to count. I had also achieved a good relationship with food. There will always be changes in body weight due to hormones and other factors. But the best gift that we can give ourselves is the knowledge of nutrition and movement and sticking to it through the thick and thin of life.

It is possible to maintain a good healthy weight if nutrition, exercise, sleep are all taken care of.

My initital weight loss was from 1 and half hour of walking up and down to office each day. I have never crossed that weight other than during pregnancy. Ingrain good habits into your life. Maintain a healthy relationship with food with mindful eating practises. If you cook your own food, then you will crave less of the fancy foods as you know how to make them as well as learn more about what goes into each food.

After that I started working out on the elliptical. Between 21–23, I used to still workout for 30 min at the gym. A friend introduced me to the elliptical. I started with the usual 30 min but one day I saw the machine was at 1 hour done by a previous exerciser. I could not believe that the exercise could be done for an hour. Thats it, in the next 3 months I lost so much weight. It was like a fat melting machine. After I reached a maintenance weight I would alternate with 30min gym and 30 min yoga.

You have a good chance of making a good gift for yourselves that grows with each year, making you stronger and healthier. 

I know other people who were overweight in their teens and now learn weightlifting and go to competitions.

The little engine that could

 Today wasnt the best day in terms of energy, but I still pressed on. Just moving along with Tony Horton and team for the legs and back workout and walking after that, made me feel good.

Feel Better in 5: Your Daily Plan to Feel Great for Life

 

Feel Better in 5: Your Daily Plan to Feel Great for Life by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee

The 5 minute kitchen workout, right when i was doing the press ups listening to the podcast.

Small victory

 Yesterday and day before I felt so energetic, back to my old self. About 3 months in with vitamin D replenishment, 2 months of levo, healthy eating, intermittent fasting, I am at a healthier weight and great energy. Just a week ago, i couldnt entertain the thought of increasing weights during strength training.

Yesterday I was able to go to 10lbs dumbbell pairs for full body workout. Long time ago I would work with 20 too. Long way to get there. But adding vitamin B12 since a week and all other changes make me feel so good now.

Slow down to recover. Have healthy food. Get good sleep and exercise. Wishing you all energetic days.

The Largest Fragrance-Free Laundry Detergent Sheets

 

The Largest Fragrance-Free Laundry Detergent Sheets/Strip Plastic Free Eco-Friendly Hypoallergenic Safe For Sensitive Skin Earth Friendly And Easy To Use 50 Loads Great On Workout Clothes

How to reduce single use plastics

From grocery bins to bamboo toothbrushes. Even concrete is getting some bacteria to reduce carbon emission.

I tried laundry detergent sheets to substitute laundry pods. Here's how it went