Respect Your Body

A big theme of this blog is to take awareness that we have cultivated during meditation and apply it to different senses, different experiences, and different actions. In truth, you can take any sense and use it as an object of meditation. And this includes our sense of balance.

I was messing around in my backyard the other day and I discovered a brick and a plank of wood. I laid down the brick on its side and then put the wood on top of it. Then, I stood on top of my new apparatus and tried to maintain my balance.

I became really focused on how difficult it was for me to keep a still posture. And as I became more aware, I noticed the subtleties of my weight shifting across the board. From one side to the other, and back again. I noticed when my feet were closer together it was easier for me to keep my composure, but when they were further apart it became more difficult. I kept experimenting, exploring, and discovering new aspects of my body and muscle control.

It fascinates me how taking our awareness and applying it to something as simple as balance can reveal new complexities about our conscious experience. I usually take my balance for granted. I get up everyday, walk around, and hardly ever think about how my weight is distributed throughout my body or how my body and muscles work together to keep me upright. But this is hugely important for someone who practices yoga, gymnastics, likes to skateboard, or maybe someone who is getting older and more clumsy.

Being more aware of our balance and practicing balance can have health and fitness benefits like:

• Improving muscle control.
• Improving posture.
• Improving blood flow.

It can also strengthen our mind-body connection by:

• Increasing concentration.
• Increasing body awareness.

It’s a really simple and easy thing to practice. It’s not hard to just come up with some kind of “balancing apparatus” and begin playing with it. I personally find it really fun and a good exercise in self-awareness. I recommend giving it a go.

For some reason when I first started thinking about “balancing meditation” I didn’t make the connection that it was in fact a kind of yoga practice. Haha. Either way, this is something I want to keep practicing and integrating into my health routine. Being able to hold my body more still and calmly (and improving my muscle control) seems like a really desirable trait for long-run health and fitness. It also requires an interesting one-pointedness between both mind and body.

I believe that unless I can integrate a healthy attitude long-term, there is no point in pursuing a healthy lifestyle. How many people do you know who literally work their butts off to lose weight, but then have trouble keeping it off? What happened is they overcompensated in order to meet a short-term goal, but they ultimately tired themselves out. They aimed for short-term gratification over long-term growth and sustainability. Thus, the results of their efforts didn’t last.

This is one pitfall of making any health-related goal that aims to meet a certain deadline. Sure it may motivate us up until a point (it’s an external motivator), but it may not instill the internal motivation we need to become a truly healthier person over the course of our lives. I find that health isn’t so much about a gym membership, or joining a sports league, or buying a treadmill, but an attitude we create about our bodies, one which greatly influences our habits.

In this post I am going to go over the bare essentials toward cultivating a healthier lifestyle. In the second half, I will go over some of the ways I apply these skills, as well as a couple material possessions I think will greatly aid any workout.

Bare Essentials of My Minimalist Workout

Awareness

Yes, awareness is important. If not for any other reason then because it is the one constant in all conscious action and decision-making. The more aware you are of your body, the more attune you are to its needs and demands. When I go extended amounts of time without exercising, I feel and notice my body getting weaker and having less stamina. On the other hand, when I am working out on a frequent basis, my body feels stronger and my stamina increases. This is just one example of how your body sometimes signals whether or not you are treating it right. Eventually, you’ll notice more subtle things. After sitting at the computer for an hour or two, you’ll notice your muscles begin to ache because they want you to move around. The more aware of my body, the more I know when its a good time to get up, go for a walk, or do some stretching.

Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is just another word for drive, passion, or intrinsic motivation. It’s commonsense: if we are going to commit ourselves to something, then we need to have the desire to do it. It is much easier to stick to an activity when we don’t think of it as a chore or obligation, but it is something we derive joy just from doing it all on its own. You can integrate enthusiasm into your health life in a number of ways. First, you can identify physical activities you already know you love – maybe you like nature walks or a particular sport you used to play a lot as a child. Secondly, you can create your own fun activities: maybe you can challenge someone to a competition, or make a game out of your work-out routine. You can also instill enthusiasm by listening to music that pumps you up (studies show this can work) or finding a workout environment that inspires you. Find ways to make health fun and it’ll become second-nature.

Exploration

I imagine that because we are all unique in different ways, we each should have a slightly different workout routine. Some people like running in the mornings, others at night. Some like team sports, others like going solo. Other preferences may include outdoors/indoors, what exercises to do, what machines to use, how often to work-out, how long is each workout, etc. You can’t go into your healthy lifestyle with a predetermined blueprint of how you should act; you need to explore these options on your own, find what works and what motivates you personally. Take suggestions from your friends, family,coaches, and fitness gurus, but experiment with advice before making it a fixed part of your routine.

Boundary Pushing

This is related to exploration, because you should always be testing your limitations and working to overcoming them. All the hurdles and obstacles you encounter help define your path toward improvement; don’t be discouraged when you find your abilities limited, instead use that limitation as a measuring stick for growth. When you overcome it, you know you are putting in the right work.

My Application

I think if you get these 4 attitudes down in regards to health: awareness, enthusiasm, exploration and boundary pushing, then you are well on your way to living a healthier lifestyle. Over time, you will cultivate new habits, see the costs and benefits, and know what works best for you. Most importantly, you will be in it for the long haul.

Some of my personal applications of these tools include:

Mindful Stretching/Yoga – This is one of the best ways to start increasing awareness of your body. When you stretch, you automatically turn your awareness to your muscles, joints, tendons, and posture. You’ll be able to identify the boundaries of your stretching, and over time notice yourself becoming more flexible and fit. With some exploration, you’ll discover stretches you never knew you were capable of, so be ready to experiment, but don’t do anything that causes too much pain or discomfort. Start with the main muscles and go lightly, then as you become more stretched out explore your boundaries. I prefer to stretch every morning to help wake myself up and get the blood flowing. When I do, I am usually more aware of my body throughout the day as well.

Use your body weight – You really don’t need much more than your body and some space to start working out. Pushups, crunches, planks, side planks, knee bends, squats, lunges, etc. Find ways to use your weight and gravity to work out different muscles. Here is one really inspiring video of some exercises this guy does with just his body and a living room. You can tell he knows how to have fun and be enthusiastic about his practice:

Use stuff around the house – I bet you I can choose almost any furniture in the house and come up with 3-5 exercises. I know it sounds silly, but we really don’t need to go to Sports Authority to pick up an exercise machine if we want to start building strength. Some common things I use are: chairs, backpacks, stairs, jugs of water, etc. It takes a bit of creativity and exploration, but you can come up with a full body workout if you put your mind to it.

Use anything else available to you – As I said at the beginning, my approach to minimalism is essentially “optimize what you have.” If there is a track a couple blocks by your house, use it to run on during the weekends. Or, if you are like these guys, you can use a local playground to do some serious muscle-building.

I like sharing videos like these because I think fitness is something we can all be more innovative about.

Isometric exercises – These are certain kinds of exercises involving the static contraction of a muscle without any visible movement in the angle of the joint. You can do many of them with just your own body, or you can do them against a wall. Here is one example of an isometric exercise designed to tone your chest. Here are some other isometrics you can do in your car at a stop sign or red light. You can find many more of these by searching on YouTube or Google.

Physical things

Although this article is mainly about optimizing your fitness without the use of weights or machines, I think there is a lot of diverse stuff you can do with just 2 or 3 sets of dumbbells. Here is a great resource that shows over 75 exercises you can do, including exercises for your shoulders, biceps, triceps, back, legs, and more.

In addition, I like having hand grips around, just because they are so easy to do while surfing the internet, or reading, or watching TV.

I also highly recommend working out where there is a full-length mirror (if you don’t have one, I would suggest picking one up). This is crucial if you work out alone (like me) because it’ll help you correct your posture and body awareness.

Your application

Now that you’ve found out a little about what I do (and some others), it’s time you start cultivating your own fitness practice. If you are someone who already goes to the gym several times a week or plays sports, you can add some of these ideas into your day to help bring your fitness to another level. If you are someone who has very limited experience with fitness, these are some great starting points.

Now I’m under the impression that anyone who has the capacity to write should take advantage of this gift. Both the mental and physical benefits from writing about your life, such as in a diary or a blog, are paramount to optimizing health and well-being.

Different forms of writing have shown to improve learning, ease anxiety, cope with trauma, improve physical health, as well as improve social and behavioral outcomes.

Writing and learning

On January 21st a research article was published in Science testing different study methods when students prepared for an exam. The students were told to read a short passage and then they were separated into three different groups. The first group studied by reading and re-reading the article, the second group studied by creating a concept map, and the third group studied by spending 10 minutes writing a free-form essay about the passage. A week later the students were given a short-answer test on what they remembered, researchers found that those who wrote essays performed the best.

Implications: Writing is an effective way to engage our minds in the material we are trying to learn. When students put down their textbooks and try recalling information in their own words, it helps solidify their understanding with greater context, rather than just regurgitating facts. Having students become more active and participatory with the curriculum can lead to a better and more practical understanding of what they aim to learn, and writing is one of the most trusted ways of doing this.

Writing and anxiety

Another study published in the January 14th issue of Science found that when students wrote about their anxieties before an exam they were shown to improve their grades. Researchers tested this by giving two math exams. On the first test students were told to just do their best. However, before the second test the researchers created a situation that produced stress, by saying students who performed well would receive money and that other students were depending on their performance as part of a team effort.

At this point in the experiment the participants were separated into two groups: Group 1 was given 10 minutes to write expressively about the upcoming exam and Group 2 was told to sit quietly. Researchers found that “control participants ‘choked under pressure,’ showing a 12 percent accuracy drop from pre-test to post-test, whereas students who expressed their thoughts before the high-pressure test showed a significant 5 percent math accuracy improvement.”

Implications: Researchers believe that increased anxiety and stress can take a toll on our working memory and inhibit us from using mental resources at their full capacity. By writing about our anxieties, we can alleviate these worries and free up our working memory so that we can focus more on a certain task (and therefore perform better). Beilock, who led the research in this study, said: “In fact, we think this type of writing will help people perform their best in variety of pressure-filled situations — whether it is a big presentation to a client, a speech to an audience or even a job interview.”

Writing and trauma

Over the past 20 years there has been a growing body of research demonstrating the positive effects of writing when coping with trauma. In a 1986 study, researchers had college students write for 15 minutes on 4 consecutive days about “the most traumatic or upsetting experience” of their entire lives. They found that participants who wrote about their thoughts and feelings about these events showed benefits in both objectively assessed and self-reported health 4 months later (Pennebaker & Beall, 1986).

This writing exercise has since been duplicated in several other studies (Pennebaker, 1994, 1997a, 1997b; Smyth & Pennebaker, 1999). The exercise is usually presented to the participants as such:

Typical writing instructions

“For the next 4 days, I would like you to write your very deepest thoughts and feelings about the most traumatic experience of your entire life or an extremely important emotional issue that has affected you and your life. In your writing, I’d like you to really let go and explore your deepest emotions and thoughts. You might tie your topic to your relationships with others, including parents, lovers, friends or relatives; to your past, your present or your future; or to who you have been, who you would like to be or who you are now. You may write about the same general issues or experiences on all days of writing or about different topics each day. All of your writing will be completely confidential.

Don’t worry about spelling, grammar or sentence structure. The only rule is that once you begin writing, you continue until the time is up.”

As it turns out, this kind of rumination can have significant emotional benefits. According to different studies, expressive writing can show long-term effects in:

• Improved mood/affect. (Pennebaker et al, 1988; Páez et al, 1999)
• Psychological well-being (Park & Blumberg, 2002)
• Reduced depressive symptoms (Lepore, 1997)
• Fewer post-traumatic intrusion and avoidance symptoms (Klein & Boals, 2001)
• A decrease in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology (Schoutrop et al, 1997, 2002; Sloan & Marx, 2004a)

As a warning however, I should mention that not all studies showed benefits. Expressive writing has sometimes been shown to be detrimental for adult survivors of childhood abuse (Batten et al, 2002) and for a small sample of eight Vietnam veterans with PTSD (Gidron et al, 1996).

“Our review of the literature shows that psychological health benefits tend to be more often found when participants’ traumas and/or symptoms are clinically more severe, although results are inconsistent. One explanation for this inconsistency may be that many of the studies with null findings instructed participants to write about the specific traumatic event they were selected for, rather than using the standard instructions (see “Typical Writing Instructions” above).”

Implications: Researchers theorize that this kind of expressive writing can be beneficial for a couple of reasons. First, writing about traumatic events can help confront previously inhibited emotions, which can be a burden on our bodies and minds when we try to suppress or ignore these feelings. Secondly, expressive writing can lead to a more coherent narrative about past events, which can help to “reorganize and structure traumatic memories, resulting in a more adaptive internal schema.”

Writing and physical health

Expressive writing has also shown to have some robust effects in physical health. Using a similar writing exercise as the one described above (“Typical Writing Instructions”), researchers have found some health benefits regarding:

• Fewer stress-related visits to the doctor
• Improved immune system functioning
• Reduced blood pressure
• Improved lung function
• Improved liver function
• Fewer days in hospital

Specifically, when compared to controls, expressive writing has shown to have some medical benefits for lung-functioning in those who have asthma, disease severity in rheumatoid arthritis, pain and physical health in cancer, immune response in HIV infection, hospitalizations for cystic fibrosis, pain intensity in women with chronic pelvic pain, sleep-onset latency in poor sleepers, and post-operative recovery.

Implications: Obviously, if you have a serious medical condition, you should never stop seeing a doctor or getting professional treatment. However, it’s nice to know that writing can possibly play a positive role in increasing our physical health. Try asking your doctor to see if he or she knows how expressive writing can help your condition. And, for those without serious medical conditions, writing is still a great tool for alleviating stresses in the body and improving your immune system as a whole.

Writing and social and behavioral outcomes

Similar to the first two sections, writing has shown to help increase academic performance, sports performance, job performance, as well as other behavioral and social interactions.

Imagine taking what we learned from the “writing and anxiety” study and then applying that to social anxiety, such as approaching a gorgeous girl (or boy), or the anxiety felt before we deliver a public speech. Expressive writing can help us alleviate some of our worries, free up our working memory, and allow us to perform better in a variety of different social situations. Through writing, we let our thoughts and feelings express themselves, and thus we can move on more easily by no longer getting so wrapped up in them.

In sports, writing can be a similar modifier when examining an athlete’s negative self-talk or performance anxiety. Adding a writing component to a player’s warm might therefore help “get their head in the game,” and sports psychologists are often trained to help athletes overcome these mental obstacles so that they can re-focus their efforts back on the actions they need to perform well and win games.

Many sports psychologists also use a performance diary to help a player keep track of their progress and goals. The same can be said for other forms of goal-making, writing a diary can help us keep our mind on track, organize our thoughts, and create an elaborate mental schema about what it takes to achieve our goals.

Exercise: Write 15 minutes a day for a week.

If you don’t already write on a frequent basis then try spending 15 minutes a day writing for one whole week.

Write about any anxieties, worries, and concerns you might be experiencing. Write about any issues you are going through and how they might be overcome.

Try writing the full 15 minutes without taking a break, and then revisit some of your writings at the very end of the week. Spend the last day writing a summary of your writing experience and whether or not you experienced any benefits. If you find this to be a beneficial exercise – keep doing it!

Quarter Cup of Quinoa 160 CALORIES
6 GRAMS OF PROTEIN

Quinoa can be served as a great high-protein breakfast food. Try mixing it with honey, almonds, or berries.

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One Cup of 1% Lowfat Milk 110 CALORIES
8 GRAMS OF PROTEIN

Want a quick source of protein? Pour yourself a glass of milk and chug it like a baby.

Half Cup of Kidney Beans 120 CALORIES
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Two Servings of Cashews, Almonds & Pecans
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Quarter Cup of Hemp Seed 160 CALORIES
11 GRAMS OF PROTEIN

Grab a handful or add some to your salad. Very protein to calorie efficient.

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Quarter Cup of Lentils
160 CALORIES
12 GRAMS OF PROTEIN

Both lentil and couscous are great sources of protein for vegetarians and vegans. Try incorporating more of them in your diet if you don’t already.

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12 GRAMS OF PROTEIN

Fry ‘em. Scramble ‘em. Or you could hard boil a bunch and save them for a post-workout snack?

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Jessica Simpson’s favorite kind of chicken, what more needs to be said.

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102 CALORIES
16 GRAMS OF PROTEIN

All cheeses are rich sources of protein, but cottage cheese seems to outshine the others. It only has two grams of fat and it goes good with many different types of fruits and vegetables.

Greek Yogurt
130 CALORIES
23 GRAMS OF PROTEIN

This single container of greek yogurt remarkably contains 23g of yogurt and only 130 calories. I think the numbers speak for themselves. My friends tell me it is very tasty too.

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