Posts Tagged ‘exercise’

Day 35- 70 Day Challenge- The Collapse and Getting Right Back Up

Posted: March 18, 2012 in 70 day challenge, Affad Shaikh, fitness, Health, health and fitness, lifestyle, obesity
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I am a bit confounded that its been 23 days since I lasted posted on the 70 Day Challenge I stared 35 days ago.  But here is the link to the 70 Day Challenge and the link where you can find the links for all my days- hold me accountable at youtube, pinterest, and twitter.

I haven’t failed at the challenge- not all together, at least- but rather failed at the blogging aspect.  Where I did fail was the past week.  I admit I did not go to the gym or do any sort of physical activity beyond getting up to go to the kitchen and bringing back food to my bed.  Even while I was in the midst of my appellate brief drafting, midterm prepping, resume sending, Houston interview prepping I actually managed to sneak off to the gym and get my manly sweat on.  It was the trip to Houston that done that in.  First I sat for hours, sleep deprived, at LAX.  Then I sat on a plane for four hours.  Then I sat in a hotel room for hours.  Then I sat I stood in lines at Bush International, then sat for a few hours in the terminal all the while looking forward to sitting some more on the plane.  Then I drove a few hours in my car from LAX to my parents home and then from their back to my home.  By the time I got to the gym on Monday my muscles were numb from all the sitting.  My normal warm up mile resulted in severe back pain.  I landed firmly in the confines of my bed alongside Mr. Tiger Balm, Tylenol extra strength pain reliever pills and two whole garbage bags worth of carbohydrate and pure white glucose (the other white powder…) worth of goodies.

A good 10 days worth of time that makes up what I call “THE GREAT COLLAPSE” adding to that whole spiel is the fact that I haven’t blogged about the challenge.  So I promise to get my act together by back filling while simultaneously keeping up to date on present posts.  I know it’s a tall order, especially since I am no James Franco, but I made this promise and I do intend to keep to it like tar and feathers, or a kid and chocolate in a candy store.

Day 9- 70 Day Challenge- Super Fly Soft Americans

Posted: February 19, 2012 in 70 day challenge, diet, Health, health and fitness, Uncategorized
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Checking in for Day 9 on my 70 Day Challenge- hold me accountable at youtube, pinterest, and twitter. I recovering from my 8-mile ordeal…funny how it was incredibly amazing yesterday and today its not feeling wonderful.

Ever wonder why all the Speedo advertisements have these super lean in-shape people sporting their goods, or for that matter any clothing brand out there?  Besides the image and body issues that the fashion industry and music, Hollywood and magazines push on us, they utilize our inner sense of beauty- symmetry and health.  You will never find Speedo using the above graphic to advertise their product nor their brand.

Like I mentioned before, throwing aside all the negativity that comes with what is being pushed on us today in the Hollywood-Fashion-Industry-complex the essence of the marketing suggest that society defines fitness as something in particular.  When we see those images its meant to tug at the perception that a person needs to  control, being in control also mean being in control of their body, and by extension in control of your health.

David Zinczenko says that “you’re telling the world that you’re a disciplined, motivated, confident, and healthy person—and hence a desirable partner.”  (The Abs Diet, Kindle Locations 249-250)

I don’t want to promote the idea that I support the current advertising, because I don’t.  Let me be clear the advertising has created some of the worst sorts of psychological problems for kids- eating disorders, depression, anxiety to name just a few.  Social pressure and bullying based on the notions of fashion and advertising have created a monster of a challenge when it comes to the way we need to teach kids about health and fitness, versus the images of health and fitness are used to (hyper) sexualize, dehumanize and deconstruct social norms and behaviors that are for the most part necessary for a vibrant society. There definitely is a tension and I am not ignoring that at all when I am posting this.

How do you balance the two?  I don’t have an answer for that, but I do know that society and cultures over the span of history and geography have approached being fat differently.  As I mentioned in my earlier post, at one time being fat meant that you had reached an elite status in nobility; in certain parts of Africa, being fat is a means of showing off ones wealth even today.  The problem is with so much obesity, diseases that were once regulated to the “wealthy” few are much more wide spread, with even greater impact.  A parents lifestyle choices- and by extension their health issues/challenges- are inherited by their children, not through genetic disposition but merely by being socialized to a unhealthy lifestyle.  Normalization of bad health choices is the linchpin to hurting our national security.

You know me, I always find ways of politicizing everything, and  surprisingly enough I ran across a quote in a biography I was reading about President Kennedy who wrote back in his 1960′s Sports Illustrated article titled “The Soft American” that “[o]ur growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.”  According to President Kennedy “[p]hysical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.”

President Kennedy was writing this at a time when the GREATEST GENERATION OF AMERICANS ever to have come along were making their mark on history.  We are talking about President Kennedy, who shortly after this speech launched the “New Frontiers” initiative that took us to the moon among other achievements.  Imagine what that means if he were to look at us now.  We aren’t “soft Americans”, he wouldn’t recognize us today, he would consider us to be “SAD FAT (OBESE) Americans.”  I find that President Kennedy was spot on in terms of connecting the nations national security with the health and fitness of its citizens.

Day 6- 70 Day Challenge- 5 Things I Do To Keep Myself Motivated

Posted: February 17, 2012 in 70 day challenge, Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, Health, obesity
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What motivates you to keep up the regiment of healthy living?  I tell myself and validate the reality, but sometimes its just this funk I get into that seems like its not possible, or worse, that the end goal is not likely to occur.

This past week I didn’t live up to my physical hour of power and pain plan.  I allowed the initial disappointment to let me get into a funk about how I am not serious about this 70 day challenge.  Its only day 6!!!

Then I did my weight check in- which resulted in a finding that I gained a pound rather lost one!!!  To which I reminded myself that there are all sorts of body process that might have resulted in that 1 pound gain and that the weight is really a plus/minus 1.5 pound situation.

This whole process is a larger journey, so I tell myself that there will be all sorts of loses and wins, that for every loss as long as I was making some movement forward, it would be all the worthwhile because its better then where I was a year ago.  So that is what I tell myself.

Besides these self motivational conversations, I thought I would share the top five things that I do to keep myself motivated on this 70 day challenge and further more on the whole living healthy process; but in return it would be awesome to get some feedback on other things that you might think might help me.

  1. The Healthy Eating:  I keep myself from eating what my heart desires six days out of the week, but on one day, I give myself that day to eat one to two meals without thinking about how or what it will do to my body.  I won’t eat lasagna and bread and salad drenched with Ranch dressing and a bowl of ice cream topped with all sorts of goodies all throughout the week, but one day, as a treat to myself, I will sit down and eat it to my hearts desire.  Or chicken wings, fries, bread sticks and ranch dressing along with a pazookie- you name the delightful treat and the thousands of calories that go with it, I won’t keep myself from it because I know my body, spirit and heart crave it, so rather than abstinence, I approach with moderation and measured indulgence.
  2. Exercise: I go out of my way to tell myself not to construct obstructions to going and doing my physical hour of power and pain.  I always feel like I need a specific mind frame to go work out.  I need my clothes and I need my special running shoes.  I need my iPod along with my favorite headphones.  All these obstructionist items that make it easy to skip out on the hour or make the hour go by smoothly.  But the thing is I don’t need the gym- the world is my gym.  So the two days I didn’t do my hour, I spent time doing sit ups and push ups along with stretches.  Another day I didn’t feel like going to the gym so I went for a run around the block and then did lunges and other “calisthenics” (do people still use this term?).  The point is that I am freeing myself of the notion that I need these things to have a meaningful workout.  I realize I don’t so I just DO IT- most of the time.
  3. See the Results- There used to be  a time where I would weigh myself everyday.  That has to be one of the most depressing things I experienced.  Not seeing the results on a day-to-day basis was not a pleasant thought.  I wanted to see results and not seeing the results undermined my resolve, but far worse from that feeling was the feeling that I gained weight… So now I don’t emphasize on the “weight”- I look at body fat, I look at waist-to-hip ratio, I use waist size along with the “weight” part in conjunction with my time running a mile, or swimming the mile.  I look at other measures over the course of the week.  Each one I do once a week so that way I see results of some sort.  I think numbers are important but when its not coupled with some positive change, we feel disappointment because we like to see progress and immediate reward for our efforts.  So to keep myself out of the funk I approach the metrics aspect from this angle.  (The fact that I can fit into certain pants I bought five years ago, or my wetsuit…how exciting is that?  I feel like its the Progresso soup commercial and you all just don’t get it!)
  4. Eyes on the Prize- When you have statistics, you obviously need milestones and goals.  I ran a mile in 10 minutes and 45 seconds- WONDERFUL, especially since the earlier time was 12 minutes and 55 seconds.  My goal is to get to running a mile at 8 minutes and 35 seconds by Day 30- hypothetically.  I will feel like I have a sense of direction and an end goal to get to, and by accomplishing a milestone I am catapulted toward the goal and when I get to my goal I have a great sense of empowerment that hopefully will push me to do better.  In that way I am motivated to keep my eyes on the prize!  So set goals and realistic milestones, no matter how slow they might be, you never know you might end up surprising yourself!
  5. The Company You Keep- I am in law school, so the company I keep is quite limited.  I try to follow folks on social media that will drop good vibes on working out.  The picture is from tubmlr and stuff like that keeps things in perspective for me.  There are a whole bunch of people who will help keep you motivated, I guess that’s why you are reading this blog, I hope I can support you toward your goal as you read about my progress toward mine.  Also, I keep a subscription to Men’s Health, they have some great stories of guys who got their lives together and shed loads of pounds.  They also have visuals to keep you motivated and little nifty facts that tell you why staying in shape will not only make you look good but do some “other” wonders in your life.  Also, if you go to a gym find a partner who is more motivated then you are, not someone less motivated because you might end up supporting each others bad tendencies and not promoting good ones.

So those are my 5 tips on things I do to keep myself motivated.  I would add that another thing I do is I don’t limit my physical hour of power and pain to just your traditional regimented exercises.  I spice it up by going on hikes or going and playing my with kid cousins a game of hide-and-go-seek.  Stuff that varies from the monotonous gym experience keeps me motivated as well!

 

Day 2- 70 Day Challenge- Get Up Off That ‘thaang!

Posted: February 13, 2012 in 70 day challenge, Affad Shaikh, American Muslim, Asian American, diabetes, Health, heart disease, obesity, Social, Strategy
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Checking in for Day 2 on my 70 Day Challenge- hold me accountable at youtube, pinterest, and twitter.

Some thoughts to reflect on, especially if it pertains to you:

The average American man’s waist size is a ponderous 38.8 inches, up from 37.5 in 1988, according to the journal Obesity Research. (David Zinczenko, The Abs Diet, Kindle Locations 263-264)

Physicians’ Health Study that has tracked 22,701 male physicians since 1982, they found that men whose waists measured more than 36.8 inches had a significantly elevated risk for myocardial infarction, or heart attack, in which an area of the heart muscle dies or is permanently damaged by a lack of bloodflow. (id. Kindle Location 261-263)

The National Diabetes Education Program suggests that there is a direct correlation between heart disease and diabetes.  They suggest that 65% of people diagnosed with diabetes die from from heart disease related issues- 65%!  Diabetes in essence increases the chances of creating more problems for Americans when it comes to heart issues and complications.  Whats even scarier is that year after year an average of 13 million Americans have been diagnosed with adult-onset diabetes, the most recent being Paula Deen from Food Network.  So while Americans don’t like being told what to do- or what to eat- and we don’t like being told how to live- more specifically, what to not eat (i.e. diets)- we definitely value our lives, but unfortunately, the culture of consumption in this country is killing us.  All those advances in allowing us to live longer, get nutritious foods and live healthy lives are being destroyed by our waist sizes.

My goal is to go from a waist size 36 to a waist size of 32.  Currently I am at 35, so just by exerting a whole lot of energy over two days- including crunches and push ups at night and in the morning- controlling my diet, mainly being very cognizant of the amount of food intake, I cut back an inch- yaay for results!  I love the VW commercial because it shows that if a dog can “get up off that ‘thaang” to do what it loves, so can I!

An this is a epidemic in the US, especially amongst kids.  Obsiety is literally sapping away our youth into a world of diseases that to me seem worse than polio or influenza, in that the cure lies in the habits and education of individuals; no flu shot or vaccination will make diabetes or heart disease disappear off the face of the planet.  The First Lady has an initiative that you should check out, called “Lets Move“, where I found this report, which to me is quite startling:

Over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled, and today, nearly one in three children in America are overweight or obese. The numbers are even higher in African American and Hispanic communities, where nearly 40% of the children are overweight or obese. If we don’t solve this problem, one third of all children born in 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives. Many others will face chronic obesity-related health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma.

You can check out the report for yourself here.  One of the key recommendation is for kids, and families, to do 40-60 minutes of physical activity a day!  Having seen the recommendation now over and over again from various health institutes, initiatives, doctors and remembering back to how much I hated that 1 hour of Physical Education I had to do in elementary, middle and high school- I realize that it really was keeping me healthy, and what I need today is 1 hour every day to do something physical.  It doesn’t have to be the gym, or lifting weights, but 1 hour of continuous activity that pushes your body and builds a sweat is critical to stay healthy!