6.8
Whatever things we place a high value on become the most influential things in our lives. Do we truly value our wellness? Do we realize the investment it takes to maintain a healthy pantry, and a level of physical wellness in our bodies?
I'm a fan of the Spartan Race and CrossFit, and appreciate the valuable teachings that come from their programs. One elite CrossFit athlete, a former Navy Seal, has a very insightful view on our health: "we rent our wellness, we don't own it... every day we have to 'pay the man'."
The point to regularly paying up, is to realize that we can invest in great wellness approaches and garner the health those lead to, or we can pay the medical community to keep us alive (although not truly living.) Either way, it is our work to pay up.
If we follow a wellness lifestyle the payment is several hours of physical activity a week. It is shopping in a discerning way to eat whole foods instead of processed foods. It is taking others along with us on our wellness journey, and collectively committing "to live until we die."
The payment is up to us. We can start simple and lose weight, or have a five-mile-a-week walking goal, or cut out all the sugary drinks and sodas. Once we see the value of genuine wellness goals, maybe we get the bug to go further and improve more. Do we run a 10k? Do we join a CrossFit box or schedule a Spartan Race? Do we commit to a Mediterranean diet?
Let's go all in to make our investment in wellness every day, paying the rent on genuine health and wellness. We'll have a better chance of living fully throughout our whole life.
By the Way
Last weekend was the peak of my training for my Spartan Ultra (coming up late April). I did a 28 mile workout run, peppering in burpees, rowing, monkeybars and rope climbs for a great 6 hour investment. And the payoff is, having paid the rent, I'm feeling ready for the Ultra and I'm literally healthier than I've ever been.
6.7
There is great benefit from testing our limits. We are capable of so much more than we think we can do, and all it takes is to be a bit dreamy, and convicted enough to try. Right now I'm training for the NJ Spartan Ultra - a 50k (about 31 miles) obstacle course race on the ski slopes of Mt. Creek Resort in Vernon, NJ.
If you would have asked me 2 or 3 years ago if I would imagine doing something like a Spartan Ultra, I would have said no, I just can't see doing that... yet here I am, about 5 weeks out. Besides the fact that I love Spartan racing (the exertion, the scenic views, and simply enjoying the great outdoors from the trail) I'm realizing that I've developed "obstacle immunity."
If we push a personal limit, and successfully accomplish the goal (or at least finish and don't get injured) all of sudden we've stretched what is personally possible. It may have been completely impossible in our minds just weeks or days prior, but here we are, checking it off our list. The obstacle that previously would have hung us up, is now within our ability - we're immune.
Obstacle immunity is nothing new... I was touring a museum with our family a few weeks ago, and marveled at numerous old suits of armor. One feature that was highlighted on a couple of them was "proofing" marks. When a suit of armor was completed, it was often shot with a live round of ammunition to prove that it would hold up, that it was safe.
Once armor, or our own physical constitution or ability, has been proved, we know that we can proceed and everything should turn out all right. We'll have done what we can to prepare, and figured out the necessary contingencies and then pressed on. The confidence that comes from this process is obstacle immunity. Now you know you can do it, and at least within the bounds of your preparations, you'll be safe.
So today I ran 18 miles, with a bunch of push-ups and monkey bars thrown in. (And that's after a serious driveway workout yesterday, and a 'warehouse' workout at a local Y Friday night.) Needless to say, I'm a bit fried, but I'm feeling more and more prepared for my Spartan Ultra... bring on the ski slopes and obstacles...
How about you? What dreamy goal might you confront today, and then prepare toward and train for? Maybe you'll grow to the point that you've proven you can do it, and you'll benefit from the obstacle immunity that develops in you. Give it a try - you never know where you'll end up.
By the Way
Next weekend is my big training day. I'm shooting for 24 miles with at least 3 obstacle breaks in between. From there I'll 'taper' to the end of April when the big race happens (and run the Garden Spot Village half marathon, and our local Sauder Egg Run during April as well.)
6.6
We live in a time of great information and data-sharing, and the opportunities to self-educate have never been better. As a proponent of healthful living and aligning our diet and physical activity to make our bodies thrive, this access to beneficial information is huge.
If you have tuned in to Power Pantry (or any other healthful living content) in the past few years, you may have seen how-to guidance on cleaning up our pantry, our choices and our eating in general. One of the best content-providers of that guidance is Dr. Josh Axe; his website is the most sought out in the world today, for food and health trends to naturally heal our bodies.
Dr. Axe is a strong proponent that 'food is medicine'. If we will simply get our food choices right, we will set a course to develop health, and reduce inflammation and ill-health, in our bodies and lives.
Check out this great article on improvements we can all make to our pantry and diet to improve our health. Our focus needs to be on natural, whole foods, eliminating processed foods and growing our discernment of what food choices help our bodies thrive.
See the Clean Eating Meal Plan article here.
So make some more strides this week. Find some less-than-healthy foods in your pantry and pitch 'em. Take a few more minutes in the grocery store this week to "shop the perimeter" of the store (where the fresh produce, fresh meats and fresh dairy items are found.) It all starts with making great food choices for our pantry.
Better quality choices lead to a better quality of life. Happy shopping
By the Way
You can sign up for all sorts of beneficial content from Dr. Axe's website, from a Shopping Guide and his e-book to boost healing, to regular content in emails. It's a great opportunity for food and health education.
6.5
Stocking a power pantry can be a challenge. There is plenty of great nutritional information available on the internet, but knowing what to trust, and better yet, what to follow, can be difficult. One ongoing debate is understanding the difference between grains and seeds, and how these affect our bodies nutritionally.
Grains are, technically, from some form of grass. So wheat, corn, barley, oats, rye, rice... all these are a form of 'grass' where there is no formal fruit beyond the head of grain itself. That head of grain will often have a starchy mass with it, which will serve as fuel for the growing plant in the future.
Seeds, on the other hand, are found in or with a formal fruit of some kind. The fuel for the seed to grow is in the mass surrounding the seed (think apple, tomato, pumpkin, berries, etc.) The seed does't have a starchy mass with the seed itself. Nuts are also a form of seed, that specifically come from trees.
Why the concern and distinction? Grains can create irritating gut sensitivities for some people because of the constituents in the grain (like gluten, germ, bran, etc.). Yes, there are nutritional benefits from the grain, but the irritation created turns out to be not worth the benefit.
Seeds tend to be less irritating to a majority of people, and are packed with nutritional benefits as well. We get protein, great minerals like potassium, magnesium and calcium, beneficial Omega-3 oils, and more. Tree nuts are very beneficial as well, although some individuals can have allergic reactions to tree nuts, and need to avoid them.
What kinds of seeds can we enjoy and benefit from? Ancient pseudo-grains like quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, and teff (these are actually seeds). Healthful seeds like sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds, and tree nuts like almonds, pecans, and walnuts.
So take a look at your pantry today, and think about reducing (or replacing altogether) the grains you have stocked, and instead focus on nutritionally valuable seeds and nuts.
By the Way
Refined grains (ie, wheat flour, white rice, and ALL the processed foods with corn ingredients like corn starch and corn sweeteners) can be detrimental to our health, if we don't control our portions. The best thing is to stock seeds and nuts instead.
6.4
By now a majority of resolution-making Americans have bailed on their 2019 intentions. Sometime around the 3rd week of January most New Year's Resolutions are abandoned. Strava, the athletic social media platform, reports that 31.5 million data points from Strava athletes show the date to be January 12th.
I've never been into New Year's Resolutions, but I live with great resolve. Here's why: I've watched loved ones suffer under the blight of cancer, and that has brought great conviction into my life. I now have a friend, who I know from church and business, who was recently diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer... he's in his 50's. His disease process is following the same path that my Dad's lung cancer took back in the early 80's. My father-in-law died of colon cancer several years ago as well. It's a rough journey...
My resolutions sometimes become this visceral commitment to living differently, in the face of a world full of food and lifestyle choices that our bodies don't handle well. I'm not saying that my dad, or my friend, made choices that lead to their cancer. Unfortunately, we are all susceptible to becoming a statistic in one form or another. Chance can happen to anyone.
But for me, and those lives I am honored to speak into, I will do all I can to lead fellow travelers to healthful choices. There are opportunities in all we do and choose, and if there is something in my journey which drags others into healthful choices, I will press on.
And next week, I'll likely approach my workout commitment with another, maybe different resolution. A stretch goal, a change in venue, or maybe honing a new physical skill. I'll rest when I know I've done everything I can reasonably do this week to invest in my wellness.
Look deeply at your wellness journey this week. Find conviction in your choices. Purge your pantry and get your body moving. Visit with your family doctor and seek wise counsel. Make a difference week by week, and let the benefits of healthful choices accrue. The world around you will be thankful for your resolve.
By the Way
I make regular resolutions to break wellness boundaries and bend norms. Last week I ran over 15 miles for my 'long run' on Sunday; today I ran 16 miles. In the back of my mind, I'm fighting for all those who haven't yet felt called into the battle, or those who never really got the chance to fight. My dad, my father-in-law, my friend from church... now I'm running for them.
6.3
"Hard Work Pays Off" is a quote recently made popular by Mat Fraser, CrossFit champion the last three years. He knows the gut-level commitment it takes to make something epic happen... and he truly is one of the greatest of all time. But our hard work doesn't need epic goals to be important. Maybe our hard work is simple, reproducible and right in front of us.
Next weekend is the Super Bowl, and every year I linger on the irony of hundreds of millions of people overeating and passively cheering as the teams battle on the field. A few hundred athletes, representing the two teams in the game, know that it was hard work that got them there. The annual Super Bowl is their payoff. The fans? Some get it; most don't.
What hard work might we be called to this week? This month? For starters, maybe it's the hard work of finally cleaning up our pantry, getting rid of all the faux foods that contribute to metabolic disease world-wide. It's simple, but not easy, to stock our pantry and fridge with real meat, fish, nuts, seeds, veggies and fruits, and ditch the artificial-everything (flavors, preservatives, sweeteners, etc.)
Or if we've made progress in our pantry, maybe our hard work is to get moving, regularly taking a walk, going for a run, a swim or a bike ride. Maybe it's time to get serious about a yoga habit, or martial arts program, or even something like a Planet Fitness membership or CrossFit.
It's hard work. If it was easy, everyone would do it (and I sure wish everyone would.) And then there's a payoff. We invest, we learn, we adjust, we advance. Then one day we wake up as the 'new' person we knew we could be - someone we would not have recognized just years earlier. That's the payoff. We cash in by living into this new life, and never going back to the old ways of poor eating and inactivity.
So make a difference this week. Set a small goal, and start doing some hard work toward it. Change your schedule, make a new habit, find a new wellness tribe to join. Then get to work and don't look back.
By the Way
I'm all for enjoying the Super Bowl! It think it is a great celebration of sport and competition and achievement. And there is nothing wrong with enjoying tables full of snacks, as long as they are whole foods, and our bodies will appreciate the nourishment. If you're having your own party, choose wisely and enjoy. If you're visiting someone else's party, be the one who takes along something healthful.
6.2
This past week I was honored to present a Power Pantry perspective to a group of business leaders in the Lancaster, PA, area. The task was simply to bring some valuable Power Pantry guidance that might help us all launch into a great 2019.
I prepared fundamentals on food, movement, wise counsel and goal setting. I figure those are life skills that I hope to use through my old age, so why not share them with this group of leaders. My Power Pantry foundation has always been that we need real food in our pantries, so my fist encouragement to the group was to "Get Real" in their food choices.
I also shared some direction from CrossFit and Spartan Race guidance. Interestingly, both of these wellness-related industries put a high value on our food choices.
CrossFit has a training and certification series that gives the groundwork of their 'functional fitness' approach, and the base of that work is Nutrition. CrossFit direction on nutrition looks like this:
Eat meat and vegetables
Nuts and seeds
Some fruit
Little starch
No sugar
That's it. Fundamental, and real. No more faux food. Check out this great article that describes the CrossFit Level 1 training, and how some of these fundamentals fit together:
Off the Carbs, Off the Couch
Nutrition is the base of the CrossFit pyramid, and I agree. Real food is the foundation that allows us to overcome our Western lifestyle diseases, and have something to build on for true health and wellness. Start today by reading further on a whole food diet (past Power Pantry posts are a great resource), and purge some faux foods out of your pantry. You'll set the right tone for 2019 and give yourself a great wellness launch.
By the Way
Notice that CrossFit isn't against carbohydrates. There are plenty of carbohydrates in vegetables and fruits. The problem, metabolically, is refined starches (refined grains like wheat, and all the pastas, breads and snacks made from them.) A great diet includes plenty of lean protein, vegetables and fruits (and the carbohydrates that come with them), and naturally-derived fats. Let's work on getting more of those in our pantry and fridge.
