#013 | Happy New Year! It's All About 🎯 Consistency... And Also 🐈⬛ Cats, The Unexpected Workout Buddy?
Happy New Year From Lisbon!!
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Happy New Year From Lisbon!!
Consistency
It’s a new year and some of you might have put together some resolutions. I usually like to think about some things that I’d like to focus on for the coming year. This year I’d like to get my meditation practice back on track. For a few years I was consistent with meditating for 20 minutes every morning. Then, last year, for whatever reason, I fell off. Little by little the habit deteriorated. This is funny because you’d think if I were consistent for a few years, that it would become a lifelong habit. However, this isn’t the way things work. I’m sure you can think back on your life and remember some healthy things that you were dedicated to in the past, but have since gone by the wayside. This reveals a fact of life - healthy habits take consistent effort. Forever. Until the end.
With this in mind, it’s probably worthwhile to sit and think about what’s important to you in life, what habits support those things, and then how to be consistent with those habits. This way you’re living a life aligned with your values. But HOW do you stay consistent? This is the sixty four thousand dollar question and I’m sorry to say that I don’t have the answer - or rather, I don’t think there’s one answer that works for everyone. I think it really depends on individual circumstances and people’s personalities and there’s no one size fits all approach
There are plenty of theories out there regarding how to form habits or how to stay consistent with something like meditation or exercise. There are theories about forming an identity around habits or tips and tricks about how to pair habits or make them easier to fit into your schedule or focusing on the process rather than the outcomes. And I think there are some gems in all this. One that stands out to me in particular is the idea of being flexible.
What do I mean by flexible? I mean don’t be too rigid with the structure of your habits. If you want to stay consistent, then you’re going to have to allow some wiggle room. This is because there are factors in life that are outside our control and there’s no way around that. So, saying you’re going to do something 100% of the time is setting yourself up to fail. Instead you should have contingency plans to account for those moments that something goes against the plan. Let’s take my example of meditation. I want to meditate for 20 min every morning, which is great until I have an early flight one morning that totally disrupts my typical morning routine. In this case a contingency plan could be to reduce the meditation time of that morning, but keep the habit of doing it in the morning - so I meditate for 10 minutes that morning. Or I could put off my meditation for that day until I’m on the plane and get the full 20 minutes of meditation then. Either way I’m making some changes to my planned routine, but still keeping up with the habit. Keeping that habit is probably the hardest part, so keeping that going is most important and then when conditions are optimal again, the prescribed practice can be the focus.
For the last month a contingency plan has been in effect for all my workouts. There are some big life changes afoot that have been pretty overwhelming and stressful and therefore my energy for workouts hasn’t been at its peak. However, I’ve kept my workouts consistent by adjusting their intensity. I’ve put together workouts that are less exhausting and focus on things that I enjoy more. So my strength training has been full of exercises that make me feel good and don’t overburden my system. This has allowed me to keep consistent and also mitigate some of the effects of the stress through exercise. I know that once we get over this hump, I can go back to pushing myself harder and I’ll be much more ready to do so than if I had taken this time off.
Now of course, I’m not saying you should never take time off. Sometimes it’s important or even necessary, as in the case of sickness or injury. But my opinion is that generally, doing something is better than nothing and keeping the consistency of a habit, even if it isn’t optimal, is going to set you up better in the long run. Remember, this is forever and ever and you can’t expect yourself to go all or nothing and remain consistent for the rest of your life. Therefore, give yourself some grace and adjust accordingly. And when you do a 20 min workout instead of an hour long one or meditate for 5 minutes rather than 20, pat yourself on the back for keeping consistent. After all, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Consistency
If there’s one thing that a lot of us have learned over the last few years, it’s that exercise can be done anywhere. A gym is nice, but not necessary.
This is great news because it means that consistency with exercise isn’t dependent on going to a gym. This also means that when you travel for work or vacation or adventure or the holidays, you don’t have to miss your workouts. Unless of course you want to - which is appropriate (and dare I say even healthy) on occasion. Either way, now you have the choice.
Over these last few years, with all the travel and moving around Natasha and I have done, we’ve been able to keep consistent with our workouts because we’ve figured out how to workout wherever we are. Indoors or outdoors, in a hotel or at home. We have our equipment that we travel with and a framework that makes it easy to put together workouts for any location or environment. This has been a huge step in helping us stay consistent, which is a big relief because it makes travel more practical.
I’ve always loved to travel, but I remember coming back from trips just absolutely wrecked because I couldn’t keep consistent with my healthy habits. I was always excited by travel, but also dreaded the fact that my workouts and nutrition would suffer so much as a result of not knowing how to workout or eat right while away from home. To have this part of things figured out really makes travel more desirable because I now have the confidence and know how to keep up with the things that make me feel good.
However, this took practice, in addition to a background in exercise and nutrition. It was an evolution that grew from circumstances and I’ve been fortunate enough to get plenty of experience figuring out how to eat and exercise when not at home. To keep with the theme of consistency, I highly recommend honing the ability to workout and eat right when you’re away from home. Especially if you travel often. This way no matter what, you can keep up with those practices that help you feel good and you don’t have to limit yourself by saying no to travel and adventures.
I recently got interested in cross country skiing after reading that these folks exhibited some of the highest levels of Vo2 Max of any athlete. Remember, Vo2 Max is the body's ability to take in and utilize oxygen and is the best predictor of cardiorespiratory fitness. Higher Vo2 Max not only correlates with increased aerobic fitness, but also reduces the risk of all cause mortality. Meaning high Vo2 Max makes you less likely to die and “elite performance was associated with an 80% reduction in mortality risk.” A significant statistic and a great reason to focus on improving your Vo2 Max to help increase longevity.
I took note of this fact, and with my already present interest in cross country skiing, decided to do a little research into how to go about it. I don’t know if I’ll ever actually go cross country skiing, but I enjoyed watching some clips of races and I thought about how fun it’d be to glide across a snow covered meadow on a crisp sunny day. While watching those videos, I came across this one from British Pathé. With winters getting less cold and snowy, I might want to take up roller skiing instead.
Source : Mandsager K, Harb S, Cremer P, Phelan D, Nissen SE, Jaber W. Association of Cardiorespiratory Fitness With Long-term Mortality Among Adults Undergoing Exercise Treadmill Testing. JAMA Netw Open. 2018;1(6):e183605. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.3605
cats rule everything around me (c.r.e.a.m.)
kitty kitty boops, y’all
I’ve got kitty fever! TBH, I’m always dreaming of little pink noses and triangle ears but lately, I’ve got it bad. (see image below lol - my instagram algorithm is dialed in)
And since I vow to be a very present, engaged, and supportive person to my future 2-3 cats (when the time is right), I’ve decided to share some cat-centric designs/technologies that I have come across (read: been targeted with on instagram) lately that I cannot stop thinking about and might have saved in a very curated folder for future reference.
1. Travel carrier that locks securely into place for car trips
It has plenty of room for standing and sitting!
2. A handmade, ceiling-height scratchy/climbing pole for cats to launch themselves onto like a crazed squirrel
3. The equivelant of a treadmill for cats
4. As a former dollhouse/barbie dreamhouse owner, this struck a chord for me. I don’t really know how I feel about it, but the cat sure seems to enjoy having her own private condo in the walls.
5. I stand by the notion that cats are the 🫧cleanest🫧 of the domesticated house pets (except for a fish, maybe), but having an AI-powered, self-flushing litter box could only further contribute to that reputation. (requires a water hook up - WORTH IT)
6. This maximalist gem of a cat tree
7. Lastly, this cutie, monogrammed pet pillow <3
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So I started off the new year with a cold ... it was a fun party, New Year’s eve, but it must have been the coup de gras for all of my fun holiday indulgences. Having lost two of my workouts to body aches and a miserable stuffy, sneezy head, I decided to get my CONSISTENCY back by not missing my third workout but modifying it. To be sure, I wasn’t thinking about consistency, but I just had to move, so I leashed up the dogs and we walked slowly up the hill that my house sits on. Upon returning I definitely felt better, had a better attitude and the dogs finally settled into the morning. So thank you for putting your good advice out there to back me up. It’s good to read/realize that a bit “smaller but consistent” is a real life option!