The Quarter Life Overhaul

Sensory Deprivation

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 22:39:00 -0400

Even if things get heavy, we’ll all float on -Modest Mouse

There is something about a novel challenge that I can’t resist. I’ll participate in things like Warrior Dash, because kids and grandparents seem to find hurdling over fire-logs the bee’s knees. However, the ultimate goal is to take on Tough Mudder and even the Death Race. After swimming with sharks, skydiving and a one-armed rock climb, I’ve been on the lookout for anything that will push me way outside of my comfort zone, and that is when I found the Float Tank.

Although it’s not a physical challenge, the float tank is the only earthly vehicle that removes all external stimuli and leaves you with nothing but the sponge between your ears to take over. Literally, the depths of your mind take the steering wheel and “you” are somewhat out of “control”, depending on how well you can handle your imagination. I think they call this an “enhanced interrogation technique” in some cases but this experience is completely voluntary and very eye-opening.

As far as I know, floating isn’t the big to-do right now and I believe that hipsters haven’t even caught on to this one yet; however, there was one phrase associated with it that compelled me to hunt a tank down:

Limitless Brain Power

Since I always get asked how this works, I’ll give you the skinny. This light and sound proof tank is not quite big enough to hold a NBA center, contains 2 and a half feet of water mixed with 800 pounds of epsom salt; making me completely buoyant. The water is raised to the temperature of my skin so that once completely still, I cannot tell the difference between the air above me and the water below, which equates to zero gravity.

Oh, and I’m naked. Let’s recap:

No sound
No light
No touch
No gravity

Let the games begin

I shut the lid to the tank and laid myself back in the water. I knew that it was best to relax and submerge my ears, so I did just that. It took around 20 seconds to completely lose my depth perception and only a few minutes to be unsure if my eyes were open or closed. All of the sudden, it felt as if I had a mile between myself and the walls in every direction. It creeped me out and I bumped into the sides of the tank a few times. I focused on deep breathing with my eyes partially closed and became relaxed enough to lie completely still.

Then, all hell broke loose.

Houston, we have a problem

Let me tell you something about yourself that you do not know: You have no clue what is going on in the depths of your mind when it doesn’t have to process any input whatsoever (like, sitting in a chair). I never could have guessed that I had subconsciously locked away emotional baggage until my other senses shut down while floating. In a matter of minutes, I was faced with two damaging memories; Both of which I knew were long resolved… or at least I thought that they were.

When the memories first surfaced, my brain immediately went into defense mode. Heavy distractions ranging from music to my calendar obligations began to intrude, nearly preventing me from getting anything accomplished. I spontaneously said the word “stop”. The sound reverberated in the tank so intensely that I still don’t know if I said it out loud or imagined it, but what happened next blew me away. The “images” of the memories lined up like a slide-show on a reel to reel. I was able to pull them into a full screen view or discard them by flipping it to the side as if they were on an iPad.

I kept maneuvering through each bad experience associated with these two memories, finally seeing them for exactly what they were, until everything went “dark” again. I’ve never had such clarity and objectivity during any kind of concentration, especially regarding bad memories. It was as if I gave them a handshake to say “farewell… thanks for stopping in… deuces”.

A complete 180 degree turn

Now, I’m worry-free, chillin’ in the tank. I let my mind wander and began to have intense goal visualizations. Physical fitness, professional projects, dating (and its irrelevancy) and past, inspirational conversations all came into a clear focus that I have found to be unachievable in the regular world. Unless you are the Dalai Lama, I’m more or less guaranteeing that you’re not hitting these mental wavelengths. I’m not a pro at meditation by any means, so anything is possible… but my guess is that you would have to spend years practicing cross-legged mindfulness and concentration to reach what I did in my first 20 minutes in sensory deprivation. I wandered through these goals being unaware of anything else, including my state of consciousness until my time was complete.

Un-Prepared for landing

When the knock at the door came to let me know that my time was up, it was more disorienting than any hangover rouse I have encountered. I could not tell if the knock was real, if I were alive or dead, or if I had been asleep the whole time. I was sure that my time couldn’t have been up because it didn’t seem as though I had been floating for very long, but sure enough, an hour and fifteen minutes had passed. I stepped out of the tank and into the adjacent shower and tried to process what just happened. I could not. The only thing that I could comprehend was the feel and sound of the water rushing over me and the sensation of my feet touching the floor. That is what mindfulness is supposed to be like.

I didn’t know it right away, but this was a challenge of peace and quiet. I never turn my iPhone off, typically fall asleep with it in my hand, I’m always connected, on the go, and my calendar looks like an advanced game of Tetris. Even though I somewhat prefer it that way, I never realized how distracting it really was until I stepped out of the tank. I used to scoff at my small town family for questioning my tolerance for all of the “big city” noise. I never understood it until I took a stroll through my small hometown late at night, shortly after floating. I had a moment of panic when I literally thought I went deaf because I couldn’t hear anything, but it was just that quiet. I made myself stop to appreciate the calm and happened to get some quality thinking done.

Serenity is something that most of us are not privy to anymore, so I encourage you to seek it out. Whether it is floating, sitting in a cave during a hike, staying in my hometown where AT&T phone service is nill, or hanging out on a remote island - find a place to completely disconnect every once in awhile, and appreciate the feeling that arises when your brain literally resets itself.

Recommended:

Joe Rogan & Tim Ferriss discussing the tank: Video

Global Registry of Float Tanks

History: Wikipedia

io9 article: Sensory Deprivation

Whiskey & Sharks

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:28:00 -0400

If you want to learn to swim, jump into the water. On dry land, no frame of mind is ever going to help you -Bruce Lee

(North of Oahu, Pacific Ocean … yes, I took the picture)

During my quest to be limitless, I admitted to you that I didn’t like heights and felt that it was necessary to go skydiving. Now, let me tell you about how I had a fear of deep water and couldn’t swim. I’ll briefly qualify these points by saying that I am also amazed that I ever had girlfriends too… but, moving on.

If I were a normal person, I would have attempted to conquer my deeply-rooted fear of water by wading out past the ropes at a clean city pool, where a nice person who wears red shorts is watching over me. Since that is not the case, I chose to “swim” with roughly two dozen sharks in an open-top cage, five miles off of the coast of Hawaii before I knew how to do anything but hold my breath. So how did this all come about?

Whiskey:

After a long day of being a beach bum with a constant drink in hand, one tends to have what scientists call “liquid courage”. When you are struck with said diagnosis, you find that talking to girls, doing the Bernie and lighting shots on fire all come with an unparallelled confidence. Similarly, any tourist pamphlet with a great white shark on it seems like the sure way to score an A+ on the manhood test. So, I called up North Shore Shark Adventures and gave them my credit card number. I now had two days to figure out how to snorkel before this goes down.

The first stop in the snorkel test is Waimea Bay. In the summer, the tide is pretty calm which was supposed to make for a great initial practice session. Turns out, that when you have a fear of water dating back to diapers, diving under and breathing though a tube is a real pain in the ass. While my friends Mike and Johnny are rock running, I’m bobbing up and down out of the water gasping for air, looking like a half pasty / half burned piece of bait. Fail.

My second test was at Shark’s Cove, which sounded like a death sentence. However, with a little good advice and a lot of will, I was floating around with neon fish and checked out an underwater cave called the blue door within a short amount of time. Things were looking less like I was going to die, so it was time to focus on zero hour.

Sharks:

Once I was on the boat, I was feeling pretty good about the situation. The sun is coming up, the boat is cruising away from the shore and then Captain Jack starts explaining to you how they piss the sharks off. Before the shark tour boat takes their swimmers out at dawn, the crab fisherman go to the “drop zone” in an identical boat and toss out chum, but not enough for everyone. When our boat’s diesel engine starts idling in the exact same spot a couple of hours later, the sharks rise to the surface expecting to get fed… and probably aren’t delighted to see a couple of gangly white dudes hopping into the water.

When twenty or so sharks start circling your boat, you come to the conclusion that shit just got real and that $120 really isn’t that important anymore. Before I could finish any select four letter words, the captain looked at me and said “get in”.

I planned to go underwater as soon as I dropped down into the cage, so I took a deep breath and plunged. The moment that I opened my eyes, I was face to face with some galapagos sharks. Snorkel training doesn’t prepare you for that, and I started hyperventilating in my mask to the amusement of everyone on the boat. After some trash talking back and forth to the deck, I got my bearings and spent the next 40 minutes taking awesome pictures and conquering a little piece of the Pacific Ocean.

Fear:

Looking fear in the eyes is hard enough as it is, but adding intense variables and plowing in head-first changes you. I still don’t have a very good breast stroke, but this was one of those experiences that took everything I knew about a fear, flipped it, and ultimately remodeled my entire belief system. I had forgotten what it was like to have an insatiable appetite for challenge, and now I’m constantly hungry. Granted, I do some really stupid things because I can’t turn down a good challenge; however, I started going to my job looking for them as a professional, and that was the moment when I realized that I did something bigger than I originally knew.

There’s a great quote from Chuck Palahniuk (I can’t pronounce it either): “Find out what you’re afraid of and go live there”. Uncovering our fears can be the hardest part because it forces us to acknowledge our vulnerabilities and even exposes them. Once fear is staring you in the face, you have a choice: you can suppress, ignore, and pretend as if the fear isn’t real, or you can go live inside that raw, emotional place that is void of safety. You’ll spend far more time suppressing and ignoring it (in my case, two decades) than living in an intense moment (40 minutes) that changes how you forever step to adversity.

Choose wisely, conquer your fear, and be limitless.

Being Limitless

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 21:24:00 -0400

“There is no teacher, no pupil, there is no leader. There’s no guru, no master, no savior. You are the teacher, the master. You are the guru, you are the leader. You are everything. To understand, is to transform what is” – Jiddu Krishnamurti

“I can’t do that” is a phrase I used to say all too often. I can’t get up early, I can’t swim, I can’t climb that, I can’t be two places at once, and I can’t handle this many tasks. It was a long time coming to start conquering my fears (read: self-imposed limits), and there was no better time than when I set out to overhaul nearly everything about myself.

As much as it is critical to never accept a streak of misfortune as your status-quo, it is equally important to evaluate what your personal status-quo is, and how it may be limiting you. The spectrum of limitations that you can impose on yourself is pretty wide, so start with the obvious ones. I still hate admitting this, but I had a long running fear of heights. Even though I kept it close to the chest, it bothered me every time that I had to face it.

Since unconventional and overboard are two of my better known attributes, it shouldn’t be a surprise that I opted to skydive to conquer this for good. If you would like to follow my logic, it was:

I’m not comfortable at 100 feet in the air.

I’m going to jump out of an airplane at 13,500 feet and stop being such a pansy.

Identifying your limits can be a little depressing, but it’s a necessary evil if you’re trying to shake down your acceptance of what is actually hindering your growth. Feel lethargic? Evaluate your nutrition (stop eating garbage), increase your water intake, or if it’s that bad – get some blood work done to look for deficiencies, and then supplement. Can’t exercise because you don’t have time? Calculate your REM cycle, get up early and keep a programmable pot of coffee on deck. On vacation with a recently separated collar bone? F*ck it, go free climbing. The point: Take action and stop buying into a habitual belief system that is working against you, rather than for you.

Ok, so the climbing thing isn’t the most responsible thing I’ve ever done… but when in Rome. To qualify this, I was determined to scale a vertical cliff three weeks after severing the 3 ligaments that keep my right collar bone in place. Knowing that I couldn’t damage what already wasn’t there, I went balls-to-the-wall and have a good story.

For everything that isn’t in the moment, I have to settle for a lifelong work-in-progress by refusing to accept the constraints that I inadvertently place upon myself. Being calculated and dedicated to overcoming your limits isn’t sexy when it comes to things like waking up early to lift weights (I get wicked bed head), but it is positive reinforcement for those times when you can capitalize on a bigger moment.

For every boundary that you negotiate and overcome, you gain a little more confidence and swagger. For being a guy who used to get nervous, say no, and make excuses; I have become a person that is willing to take advantage of just about any challenging opportunity. A Yes-Man, if you will.

Only a few days before the rock climb, I stumbled across a speed eating competition with two vacant spots. There was a crowd full of people staring blankly at the stage, and all I could think was “why the hell is no one doing this?”. I’m aware that spontaneous gluttony isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s way more fun being able to tell people that I dominated the competition instead of watching from the sidelines (note: hiking 11 miles the next day proved to be another limit-testing affair for my insides, if you get my drift). However, the point is that by challenging myself in small ways, I learned how to ignore self-doubt and reservation at random times when it counts or is straight up awesome. This weekend, when you see a hot chick/dude on the rooftop patio of your favorite watering hole, tell them how damn good looking they are and ask for their number. Then, go do some crazy shit that scares you half to death and try this scenario again… There’s going to be a big difference in you.

I certainly haven’t conquered it all and am not 100% limitless, considering that I haven’t quit my job, moved to paradise and get paid to change the world. But, work in progress, right? In the next two posts, I’ll describe the dumbest thing, then the most enlightening thing I’ve ever done in my quarter life overhaul, while trying to be limitless. Both challenges changed me permanently, and I hope they inspire you to do the same. Until then, analyze what is holding you back from achieving your potential and get excited to dominate it.

Hedging Your Karmic Bets

Tue, 10 May 2011 20:44:00 -0400

“I’d wish you good luck, but you’ve already got 4 horseshoes shoved up your ass” –Josh V.

(Photo via Anguished Repose)

I can’t pinpoint the exact moment I began looking at life as an input/output equation, but once I did, everything began to look a little different. People talk about Karma often, but it’s usually in light of “what goes around, comes around”, or more specifically: “I hope LeBron James cries on live television while the Heat lose in the playoffs”. Although I do in fact believe that a puppy is born every time the Miami Heat lose a game, I realized that viewing Karma as cycle of negativity has a poor effect on my perspective. Rather than finding satisfaction in the universe’s payback system, I began experimenting with hacking it. Meanwhile, I found out what kind of impact it has on mindfulness.

If there is in fact a system of “returned favors” embedded into this short stint at life, why not hedge your bets? For a moment, consider your life as a bank account with a rewards program, in which, the more points that you accumulate, the higher the trade-in value. In this system, the impact that you have upon others will generate your points. However, like most things, there is a catch: If you leave a crappy impact, you reap what you sow.

On the bright side, you are creating your own luck.

Say Cheese

There is a broad spectrum of things that you can do to leave an impact, but conveniently, one of the most meaningful is also the easiest to do, and that is to smile. Every day, I walk past my dry cleaner’s glass storefront to get to work. The manager, Kim, is always at the front counter and since it is early there are usually no customers. We smile and wave to each other every single day and at one point, we agreed that it makes our morning. Let it be clear that I am typically not functional until I have my coffee in the office, so I’m not one of those chipper, early bird types either.

It sounds cheesy (pun intended), but smiles are infectious, even when the recipient is having a bad day. It may simply make you feel better or you might get a free side dish at the deli, but as you begin to notice what you personally gain in return from acknowledging others, it becomes habitual. You find yourself engaged in people that you would otherwise ignore, while inadvertently becoming part of their network. If you don’t know by now that it’s “who you know”, you’re crazy, so this network is pretty important.

Payment Plan

Among the best things I took away from Ohio State other than student football tickets, was the indoctrination into the Pay it Forward society. In this clan, you must live by a (mis)quote from the storied coach, Woody Hayes:

”You can never pay back, so you should always try to pay forward”

In trying to abide by Woody’s words, I began volunteering for a crisis hotline. What I never expected in return from this commitment was life-changing perspective. People go through unimaginable hardships, work terrible jobs to get by, and have psychological issues that socially marginalize them. I do apologize that this isn’t sunshine and rainbows, but it’s something that must be kept in mind. You don’t necessarily have to work a hotline to help these people, but know that they’re out there interacting with you every single day, so you need to make a difference in their lives. Smile, hold the door, tip well, let people into your lane, courtesy flush and give compliments that don’t involve boobs. You can still rock a lot of swagger acting as a gentleman, I promise.

Perspective – Judgment + Mindfulness = Fulfillment

In this relentless pursuit to create your own Karma, you end up with a lot of perspective along the way, which is where the de-stressing & mindfulness part kicks in. People begin to open up to you and share their experiences, good or bad. Actively listen to them, console when necessary, or at least shake your head a few times. After a while, you start to realize that you gain more in helping people talk through, or resolve their issues than you ever could whining about your own.

You may or may not believe that there’s some higher universal power, but you can’t deny social currency. If you’re constantly demonstrating a valuable impact on those around you, you become socially wealthy. In everyday life, we remember two types of people: those that are really nice and total dickheads (for you MTV-ers, this might be why The Buried Life and Jersey Shore were simultaneously popular). I’m not saying that I haven’t been the latter at various times, but I’ll go ahead and assume that short of some twisted relationship, always trying to help people is the way to be remembered (and avoid getting your ass handed to you when you mess up).

Those who have been in those dark moments of life can agree that the simplest act of kindness can go a long way. It’s unfortunate to know that there are people out there that dedicate their life to others and still seem to fall into consistent misfortune. I recently met someone on a string of bad luck, who skipped college to help provide for her family, taking care of her brother and mother, while still finding time to volunteer. I’ve been humbled by her dedication and perseverance, as well as her intelligence and cheery attitude. I question whether or not I could maintain this entire post’s message in her shoes, and my answer is always: “I doubt it”.

Even though there are a lot of things you can do to create your own luck, hard times can always be lurking around the corner. It becomes even more important when it hits the fan to never give in to misfortune as the status-quo. Rather than manifesting and seeking out everyday annoyances, use volunteering and relentlessly helping others to hedge your karmic bets and you’ll find the remedy toward fulfillment along the way.

Recommended Organizations:

Columbus:

Suicide Prevention Services

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

A Kid Again

Komen Young Professionals

Harmony Project

Flying Horse Farms

National Alliance On Mental Illness

CHOICES

Grace Haven House

Mid Ohio Food Bank

National:

Volunteer Match

Kitchen Sink Meditation

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 10:26:00 -0400

“The act of non doing is the most important thing you can do in your life. My parents were always like: You’re so lazy. Turns out, I’m a Buddhist” -Daniel Tosh

On my quest to eliminate stress from my life, I started to learn about mindfulness and meditation during my sophomore year of college. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, and I fell asleep a lot. I learned later that I was trying to force relaxation while pretending to ignore distraction, which to no surprise was very counter-intuitive. Fortunately, I discovered Jon Kabat-Zinn and Thich Nhat Hanh and I was on my way to becoming an Enlightened Bastard.

There are two components to everyday meditation and those are Breathing & Mindfulness.

As discussed in Anger, breathing is often taken for granted because most people do it through their chest, ignoring the abdomen, which is incorrect. You can’t fill the top half of a pint of beer before the bottom, right? Imagine your abdomen and chest as the pint glass, and fill ‘er up. Breathing should be done deeply in one of two ways:

Imaginatively fill the lower and middle abdomen with air first, then the chest cavity.
Intently focus on the abdominal muscles. Contract when inhaling and expand when exhaling.

The same wise uncle from the last post informed me that this second technique actually “centers” an individual by the movement of subtle energies. By first focusing on the pelvic floor with your inhales and exhales, then allowing your focus to steadily rise, you awaken the life force energy within, causing it to also rise. This energy is sometimes referred to as the kundalini. Having a guru in the family is legit, isn’t it?

Once you become savvy at breathing, the next step is to become more mindful. Have you ever walked downstairs the morning after a fuzzy night out at the bar, and ask yourself “where the hell did all of this come from?” Yeah, me too. Believe it or not, that simple question is a small part of enlightenment and you’re already doing it hungover. Thoughtful observation and recognition are very much a part of being mindful in whatever it is that you are doing (Warning: I’m about to get weird and philosophical again).

For example, I’m drinking a beer as I write this post. How did this beer come to be? There was a field where wheat and barley grew, someone harvested, another processed, some genius brewed the ingredients, logistics get involved, and I enjoy the delicious result. This is a lot to process, and being that I don’t live in the mountains of Tibet, I don’t have time to be this analytical 24 hours a day. However, I apply this tactic as often as I can because it is a core component of meditation.

More important than considering the nature of your adult beverage, is to be intimately involved in the experience of whatever it is that you are doing at any given moment. The Hanh analogy always comes back to washing the dishes. If I ever have to wash the dishes by hand (thankfully that’s not often), I rush to get them done, only thinking about what is next. Being mindful is to wash the dishes and live in that very moment. Breathe deeply while noticing the running water, the weight of the object, the texture of the sponge and the sensation that all of these things provide independently of each other. To be mindful while doing something mundane is uncomfortable at first, but embrace that discomfort and carry on.

You are now meditating at the kitchen sink.

I blur the line between “meditation” and “mindfulness” because mindfulness, in essence, is a meditative state. I aim to be mindful most of the time and recognize all sensory inputs even if they are distracting. This kind of “compartmentalization”, if you will, is perfect for the full body scan. In this guided meditation technique, you lie on your back and focus on one body part at a time while recognizing the distractions of the floor, foreign sounds, and your wandering mind. Kabat-Zinn acknowledges that you cannot control the random thoughts that come and go, particularly emotional ones. It is your duty then, to acknowledge their existence and continue on with your concentrated and mindful state once you can move past them.

Being mindful then, is essentially a heightened level of awareness comprised of what Hanh calls the Five Aggregates, or “Dharmas”:

Bodily & Physical Forms
Feelings
Perceptions
Mental Functioning
Consciousness

The fifth aggregate, Consciousness, is the sum of the other four categories and is the basis for their existence. The interdependence of these Dharmas is what makes any one thing real in nature. Let’s go back to my beer, which is now getting warm:

I pick up the 1/3^rd full glass of goodness, knowing there is a history to the content and container to make it exist.

If you haven’t picked up that what is in this glass makes me feel happy, then you’re not paying attention.

I recognize my own and other people’s perceptions about the beer, and that it’s 2pm (it’s officially patio season, don’t judge).

I take in the sensory inputs from all sources, including the distraction of the wasted Swedish guy behind me yelling: “I am not an ass-hole… I am an ice-hole”.

This is being quite mindful while trying to write; However, the same principles apply to meditation. To mediate is to relax your mind in a relatively controlled environment and similarly “break down” whatever may come to your conscious. The examples that I gave are an intense version of an “everyday kind of mindfulness”, which seems more practical to most than sitting cross-legged under an almond tree. However, if you want to get started on the controlled environment stuff, use meditative aids such as relaxing music, sound-scapes, or guided meditation audio.

Why be mindful or meditate in your quarter life? Because it can change your relationship with the world around you, and the relationship you have with yourself. Practicing everyday mindfulness has radically changed how I interact with people. If the beer that I’m drinking has a complex timeline, consider the history of a human being. You become much more apt to consider a person’s circumstance or history before judging them, which in turn enables you to respond to people thoughtfully. For once having a short fuse, I graduated into The Cooler by way of mindfulness.

Also, researchers report: those who meditated for 30 minutes a day over eight weeks had measurable changes in gray-matter density in areas of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. Sounds to me like a sure-fire way to get rid of those damn Columbus, Ohio winter blues that we Midwesterners know all too well. Moreover, the skill of being able to compartmentalize your thoughts and distractions is incredibly useful for a heightened level of concentration, particularly when trying to write a blog near drunken Swedes.

Recommended Resources:

Hanh: The Miracle of Mindfulness

Kabat-Zinn: Any of his work

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana: Mindfulness in Plain English

Meditation: Body Scan

Eliminating Anger

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 22:38:00 -0400

“Anger has an energy that cannot be avoided altogether” -Robert Thurman

I mentioned in my Minimalism post that stress is the most damaging form of internal clutter. The root of stress is different for everyone, but my goal is to share some personal experiences and general theories that will bring you a bit of mindfulness. We’ll kick off with the most potent of them all: Anger.

At the age of 20 I knew everything there was to know. I was a guru, because by this time I had already taken three Business Calculus courses and Eastern Asian Philosophy. Clearly, I know math and who Siddhartha Gautama is; therefore, I am classy and know all things, right? False. I was in for a shock, due to what I thought were unforeseeable circumstances in my personal life, and I was angry. So angry that I ended up with a busted fist, yelled at people who cared, and all of those other things we do when we feel that life has flushed our perfect perception of the world down the toilet. I called up a wise Uncle who told me two things:

“Life can be like walking through a pile of shit sometimes…. so wear boots”.

As I was whining: “… it is what it is”.

The first one is so Forrest Gump, I suppose it speaks for itself. “Man up a little” was the undertone and motivated me to listen to the rest. More importantly, the second quote forced me to think about acceptance. Accepting things for what they are has taken me all of the last 5 years to get to the very basic level of mindfulness, to which I currently am.

I’m stuck in traffic…
I got a parking ticket…
(S)he is late again…
That date really sucked…
(S)he is the biggest flake, ever…
You are really pissing me off…

Although I see people fly off the handle for all of these reasons, that last one is key. Taking something so personally, aside from blatant intent to harm, is a bit like being a vampire… (I’ll feed you, baby birds)… as it is like looking into the mirror and not seeing a reflection. Being angry with others is often a direct reflection of what is inside of us, rather than what is in someone else. People are late, rude, clueless, abrasive, get drunk and try to pick fights all of the time. It’s our personal judgement of these individuals that allow us to become angry. To this, I was recommended to detach oneself… to simply observe, in the hope that I could see things more objectively. In theory, this permits your sense of pride to take a back seat, rather than sit behind the wheel and stomp on the gas pedal - ultimately escalating the situation.

So how do you start detaching oneself? You breathe. There is damn good reason that “take ten deep breaths” is thrown around as advice. Right this moment, stop and take 3 deep breaths in and out… then go back to reading. You’ll notice as you continue to read this very sentence that your breaths are quite shallow and not nearly as fulfilling as those first few. I’m going to sound like someone from a monastery, but being mindful of your own breath is the core of our entire being - so it’s kind of a shame that we don’t appreciate it more. Paying attention to your breath (not like, how garlicky it is) is by far the most simple path to meditation as well. Meditation can be as simple as matching your stride to your breath while walking, washing the dishes, or a full body scan… which surprisingly does not involve a look up and down someone’s backside.

When something starts to make you boil, the best question to ask oneself is “why?”. I often find that what I come up with is superficial, and need to take a peek at what is underneath. Say for example that you are angry because your significant other is late arriving for dinner. You ask yourself “why?” and come up with the answer “because (s)he’s always late”. Now, to look at what is underneath: either being late for dinner has a butterfly effect on the universe at large, or you are very timely and are offended when others do not match your internal expectation. I’m no psychologist, but I’m going to drop the “your anger is a reflection of yourself” card again. Fact of the matter is, that if you like this person enough - getting angry at them over expectations of yourself is silly, no?

This theory doesn’t exactly apply when you’re stuck on a bus in traffic and need to pee, or get robbed stumbling home from the bar. These kind of instances are so far out of your control that you just kind of have to shrug your shoulders (or focus on not peeing your pants) and recognize that the crappy things in life happen. It isn’t easy, but it does make you much more mentally tough when you can take unfortunate circumstances in stride. Chicks dig a cool headed guy too, so there’s extra motivation.

There is one bright side of anger, if used correctly. Gym Junkies call it The Dark Side of Motivation… [which] is the real Darth Vader, dark-side shit like anger, frustration, jealousy, envy, and pain that fuels training intensity of other-worldly levels. If someone or something gets under my skin so badly that I’m ready to bust heads, you can guarantee that I’m cranking up the Deftones, and it is in the front of my mind mid-lift or during an all out sprint. By the time I reach my apartment, it’s like I left the problems in the weight room or down the street and I can go back to doing all of the things that I pretend are productive.

The point is not to let people walk all over you, but to let things roll off of your back unless absolutely necessary to react otherwise. As Patrick Swayze would say (I can’t help it, I was a bouncer once) : “I want you to be nice… until it’s time to not be nice”. That’s Buddha.

Simplifying Life: Minimalism

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:02:00 -0500

“Eliminate physical clutter. More importantly, eliminate spiritual clutter” -D.H. Mondfleur

(Contemplating leaving everything I own in Ohio, and staying in Hale’iwa)

The concept of living like a minimalist is centered on waste, or the lack thereof. In its most strict practice, anything that is not necessity is luxury, therefore wasteful (hipster talk, I know). However, the beauty of minimalism is that it is consistently tied with frugality, primal living and being green. Mnmlist.com describes it as a way of eschewing the non-essential in order to focus on what’s truly important, what gives our lives meaning, what gives us joy and value. Sounds similar to that Italian dude, no?

We can break down my non-ascetic version of minimalism into 2 parts:

De-cluttering your crap

Reducing your intake materially and mindfully

De-cluttering:

Clothes: Flip every hanger of your hung clothes so that the open part of the hook faces out of your closet. Anything worn gets turned back the normal way and anything still hung the odd way after X number of weeks gets tossed. If it’s not hung, just be rational and get rid of things not worn.

Technology/ Media: Recycle all of your old mobile phones, iPods, computers, and cameras that don’t get used. Sell or give away books and DVDs you “swear” you’re going look at again, but you are clearly not.

Stuff: Just get rid of items that you don’t use. There are only so many reasons (read: none) to keep many of the things that take up space and do not have utility or deep rooted value to it.

Reducing Materially:

Music: I feel this doesn’t need to be said in 2011, but just in case… Get rid of all CDs and stick to an iPod.

Movies: Instead of buying or renting DVDs, use a Netflix box or Apple TV.

Books: Go to the library (it helps keep them running) or use an e-reader.

Mail: Go paperless with everything, and attempt to contact junk mailers to be removed from their list.

Gifts: Ever heard “it’s the thought that counts”? Then you’ve probably given or received a shitty gift. Try to do something more intimate and minimalist like take someone to dinner or buy them a growler of their favorite beer.

Everything else: See if you can go without. If you want to buy something, first ask yourself if it is a need; then ask yourself if that need is artificial or essential. I’ve been wanting to buy a car and a new home theater system for awhile, but the ones I have still work fine for now.

The most difficult part about this transition is detaching oneself from our varying levels of consumerism and hoarding. I’m just as guilty as anyone for buying ridiculous things because I think that I need them in the moment. Hell, if I go to the grocery store hungry I come back with food I’ll never eat. Be wise and remove those artificial attachments and needs from your decision making.

Reducing Internally:

Most of our internal clutter is self induced. On a boring day I check my gmail, twitter, facebook and other feeds 100 times. I don’t gain anything from it, but because they are always at my iPhone-loving fingertips, I succumb to the availability. Whether it’s coming from our wallet or our forebrain, we seem to indulge on things that are readily available without hesitation. Put a bottle of Jameson in front of me and boom, it’s gone. Did I need to drink it? No, but… Well, moving on.

The message there is that when you’re constantly distracted by status updates about your friends’ kids taking a deuce, you miss out on unique experiences. For example, Joshua Bell (one of the most acclaimed classical musicians on the planet) played Bach on a 3.5 million dollar violin in a DC Metro subway station for 45 minutes. Even though he collected 32 bucks, most people were busy, distracted and so caught up in their routine that they hardly noticed him playing one of history’s masterpieces. I’d give credence to the fact that the lack of interest stemmed from him not playing any Black Eyed Peas, but that’s an entirely separate issue.

The next and most damaging form of internal clutter is stress. If you can deflect and dodge everyday stress, you can keep your mind clear for important things like learning how to Dougie. If you’re asking, “Dan, but how?”… I try to find humor in events that would otherwise cause stress, because I’d be cracking up if it was happening to someone else. Missing an exit on the highway, blowing a tire, being forced to hear gossip, long lines, and questioning your decision making ability on Friday night will happen to everyone. Therefore, save your energy and your friends’ attention span for those instances when it really hits the fan.

Jerry Springer’s Final Thought:

Before irony sets in and my post on minimalism becomes my longest, let’s wrap this up. Although I didn’t go into detail - you may have picked up on minimalism’s assumed relationship with primal dieting, frugality and tree hugging. One ingredient foods, conscious spending and reducing your carbon footprint are all facets of living minimally. The overarching principle is to put in effort at the beginning, so that living more ‘simply’ is a breeze. Once you reduce your internal and external distractions, you can begin to appreciate those things that may have gone unnoticed and fully embrace what is most important to you.

If you have read the “Choice” and “Pareto” posts, all three of these principles should now begin to sync. Avoiding frustration over choices, finding the power of your 20%, and eliminating your clutter will ideally lead to a moment of clarity that is rather unique. The commonality is that they guide you away from the white noise of every day life (while reminding you that white noise is not worth any stress), so that you can make those lasting changes from within. It’s much easier to be introspective and discover what kind of person you wish to be when that moment arrives.

Links:

How to de-clutter fast: http://onethingless.com/296/declutter-fast/

Living as a minimalist: http://mnmlist.com/

Free stuff: http://freecycle.org

Minimalism in steps: http://mnmlist.com/minimalism-steps/

Everything you need for clarity: http://zenhabits.net/archives/

Central Ohio Mobile Phone donation for domestic violence victims: http://www.actionohio.org/cellphone_collection.htm

Simplifying Life: The Power of Pareto

Sat, 25 Dec 2010 14:21:00 -0500

“Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts” -Soren Kierkegaard

With Pareto’s Principle, we will continue the journey from my last post and further our ability to avoid analysis paralysis by way of reducing distraction. If you are unfamiliar with Vilfredo Pareto, you obviously didn’t grow up in 1906 Italy nor had a vested interest in the country’s land ownership at the time. Pareto made the economic observation that 80% of Italy’s land was owned by 20% of its population. A similar economic analysis was made, and to no surprise - 80% of the nation’s wealth was owned by 20% of the citizens. This fascinated him so much that he played in his garden and further observed that 80% of his peas came from 20% of his pods. The business management industry has anchored on this principle for years. Examples that are often noted are:

20% of your customers often account for 80% of your sales.
20% of a company’s products ——> 80% of profits.
20% of daily tasks ——> 80% of productivity.
20% of errors/bugs/mistakes ——> 80% of complaints.

I’m not going to bore you with the actual equation that has been perfected over the course of a century, but by doing some investigating it becomes clear that many systems in industrial society and even nature have a sort of “perfect imbalance” matching the 80-20 rule. But what the hell does this have to do with preventing a quarter life crisis? I’m glad that you asked….

What if you can use Pareto’s 80-20 to qualitatively start changing your life? I believe that you can, simply by observing everything you do throughout the course of the day while figuring out what your “20%” is. If you think about it, the 20% should get the majority of your focus if it is producing 80% of your return. In my work, I had a lot of decisions and consulting to make on a one million dollar project. This being my first gig out of college, I ended up over analyzing the blueprints, the product management and the hardware specifications. I over analyzed it so much that only later did I realize that the end user had no where to sit where the actual equipment was placed. I was so caught up in the relatively unimportant details, that I missed a very simple but important factor. Had I known sooner about the 80-20 rule, I would have started my focus with the end user because they are clearly in the 20%.

As far as lifestyle goes, I could listen and respond to office drama, then determine the “best” 17 exercises for biceps or chest, observe the effectiveness of balancing a perfect carbohydrate, fat, protein, sodium ratio - then read my entire Facebook news feed which is full of people who’s posts annoy me, whom I never speak to. I see a lot outside of the 20% here, so what would I change?

For God’s sake, never acknowledge office drama (smile & nod, smile & nod).
Focus on a few complex weight training exercises that hit all major muscle groups (dead-lifts, squats, presses, sprints, etc).
Don’t eat shit from a box.
Spend an hour determining the 20% of x number of friends which you enjoy reading from or care about, then delete the rest from your news feed.

Through this kind of simplification, the picture only becomes more clear and you ultimately start to feel quite happy that you get it, when most people do not. It is taking into account the big picture with all of its intricacies, and reducing it down to the core components. The 20% is unique to every person, so you have to be a little insightful to start determining what has the strongest impact in your daily life (personal or professional). The fun begins when you start to realize that 20% of your efforts create 80% of the effect in things like dating, sex, cooking, and gift-buying. I’d drop some bullet points that provide examples of all the above, but I wouldn’t want to go and spoil that awesome “light bulb just went off” moment for you. Take it one day at a time, consult your inner 1906 Italian land owner, and you’ll be on the path to a stronger focus in no time.

Choosing Wisely

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 12:24:00 -0500

“We can try to avoid making choices by doing nothing, but even that is a decision” -Gary Collins

(Too distracted to notice that their picture was creepily being taken in the store?)

I’ve had a few friends who not only would be bothered about the options in front of them; they would also fret over the un-chosen options after making up their minds. I somehow managed to be an enabler with this while letting it frustrate me, so I wrote it in my agenda for the Quarter Life Overhaul.

It makes some sense that people are increasingly stressed over routine decisions. Living in modern society provides us with a constant barrage of options ranging from types of skim milk, plain American cheeses, and an infinite number of choices in stock options. Barry Schwartz outlines this theory brilliantly in “The Paradox of Choice” which is truly the foundation of this post. If it had never manifested itself right in front of me, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it and just judged chicks for being silly when trying to choose a shade of red for hand towels. But what if there weren’t 147 shades of red towels at Target? Suppose there were only one shade of each general color of the rainbow, and you only had one brand of cheese, milk, yoghurt, and ground beef. How much time of your life would you get back without distraction from these “necessary” decisions? I kind of discovered this when shopping at Aldi, where there is literally only one choice of everything. I’d tell you that shopping there was an experiment for this post but let’s be honest: I was broke in college, and shopping there brought home a lot of canned tuna and frozen pizzas.

The conundrum begins with our desire to maximize personalization and efficiency through the freedom of choice. Although innovation in the 20^th and 21^st century has improved nearly every aspect of life, it has also created endless decisions that we need to face 24 hours a day. I can’t believe how long it took me to research my options when purchasing a flat screen TV last year. I researched size, native pixel resolution based on size, scaling, contrast ratio, tuner and connection ports… (I’ll stop before I lose you). By the time I sorted through the 10 shipping options and finally had my TV, my excitement had diminished and I was more relieved that I had snagged the most efficient product. Is relief what we’re supposed to get out of choice? I thought the maximization of choices was supposed to be about happiness. Granted, when you’re making big purchases this can be a necessary evil – but make sure you check yourself when making less meaningful decisions.

Lately, while grocery shopping at the “big kid” stores I have found myself choosing the cheapest option first, and if it tastes like Elmer’s Glue I’ll make a mental note and go a step up next time. I’ve had some really crappy cocktail sauce and hummus in my day, but I’ve eliminated attractive options based on price while trying to be frugal, and I get a few seconds of my life back from staring blankly at product labels. If you rigidly stick to the “I know what I like” and adhere to that, this paragraph is probably irrelevant and you think that I am ridiculous. However, if you’re like me and are inclined to constantly evaluate decisions: settle down and be happy with decisions that do not impact your life or your pocketbook on a large scale.

Another unintentional consequence of the maximization of choice is “decision paralysis” or “analysis paralysis”. A study done of approximately one million US employees and 2,000 companies showed that for every additional ten investment fund options offered, it resulted in a 2% decrease in overall participation. Schwartz mentions this as an example of a decision being “too damn hard”, so we “put it off” day after day, but in actuality they are suffering from decision paralysis. Unfortunately, these people are worse off in terms of happiness having made no decision at all. If they had faced the difficult options and even chose a less lucrative option, they at least made some return on their investment rather than zero.

I’ll give you one last anecdotal observation. I’m from a very small rural county in Ohio, but live 100 miles away in the city of Columbus. When I ask friends or family back home: “where do you want to eat tonight?” I almost immediately get an answer of a restaurant. In the city, if I ask the same question – it’s a much more complex process because you can break it down in to the two people’s ethnic food preferences, lack of interest in chain restaurants, upscale vs. hole in the wall, and the inclination to try something new over a favorite establishment. You can see the mental exhaustion set in after about 10 minutes of watching someone put the pressure on themselves to make the sole decision. You just don’t see this paralysis in a rural area, because you’re essentially choosing between pizza, burgers, or wings for the most part.

The moral of the story is to avoid being consumed in day-to-day decisions that take up precious time and distract you from more important and fun matters. Once you make up your mind, be happy that you did not allow yourself to stew over the options longer than necessary, while using any less-fulfilling choice as a learning experience. Don’t look back once a decision is made, and know that you did your best at the time.

For further reading, look in to The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz, or check out some of his work online.

Cardio: The Devil

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 04:37:00 -0400

“We’re meant to alternate periods of kicking back with periods of kicking ass” -Nate Miyaki

(Yours truly in my first 10k, looking skinny fat and running off of my heels)

I’ll keep this short and sweet since it is typically argued back and forth in excruciating detail in the fitness community. I previously mentioned that a lot of research comes out unfounded, but people buy into it anyway. There is one recent forum of research that I’m buying into because it makes sense. As long as something at its core makes my inner common sense go “duh”, I’ll roll with it. The facts in this case argue that doing steady state cardio (running at the same speed for a pre-determined distance) does little for those trying to gain lean body mass and drop fat. Does it burn calories? Sure it does, but so does sex and you don’t do that half-assed, I hope. What works better and has a longer lasting calorie-burn is Sprinting or High Intensity Interval Training.

The classic comparison of these two types of training is the Olympic Marathon Runner vs. the Olympic Sprinter. Consider how different these two body types are. Many of the world’s best marathoners are very skinny with little mass (fat or muscle). A sprinter often has incredible body mass and physique with single digit body fat. Granted, the types of training are wildly different so you’re likely to see different results; however, the point is that most people just “run” rather than structure their running to get prime results.

In a high intensity interval session, you’d alternate between maximum effort and rest or minimal effort. For example, starting out would look something like this:

5 minute warm up
Sprint 30 seconds at maximum effort
Walk 60 seconds
Sprint 30 seconds at maximum effort
Walk 60 seconds
You’re catching on, aren’t you?

Again, this is pretty simple. If you’re wondering how many cycles you should do, I suggest you listen to your body. Don’t listen to your mind, because it’ll be all like “dude, you’re sprinting… this is crazy … you should probably stop that since there’s no rhinoceros behind you”. Instead, listen to your body as it will genuinely let you know when it’s time to quit. Remember to breathe deeply while inhaling in through the nose and out through the mouth during both phases of the cycle. Try to stay consistent with your breaths, because it will allow you to focus on your stride so that you don’t fall down and make people laugh at you (or concerned if you fall hard enough I suppose).

So next time you plan on going for a “run” around town be sure to switch it up and take a digital watch along with you. Don’t forget to breathe, and warm yourself up properly. If you are weight training as well, I took the approach of doing a short session of HIIT after lifting. I wasn’t able to do a very long HIIT session, but it made sense for two reasons:

1) HIIT is supposed to be short and sweet since it’s taxing out your system.

2) It gave me an entire day of recovery.

Good luck, and message me if you have questions! I’ll either answer them personally, or direct you to an expert.

Lifting Heavy Stuff

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 22:30:00 -0400

“What the hell is the point of having a six pack if you don’t have an ice chest to put it in?” –Mark Rippetoe

Toney Freeman (Arnold Sports Classic, Columbus Ohio 2010)

I’ve fluctuated in appearance a lot since high school. I gained a lot of weight when sports ended, then turned it into bulk. I lost my bulk after some surgery, and then got fat. Recently, I was under the very misguided understanding that I could lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously. Many “experts” claim this is possible, but in reality you’re going to lose some mass if you’re going on a major cut. Some of it is water retention, some of it is fat throughout the body, and unfortunately I lost a good deal of muscle mass while having only diet to focus on during some shoulder rehab. There are some exceptions, which StrongLiftsoutlines very concisely.

I’ll tell you this regarding the fluctuation: when I let myself go, my confidence was in the shitter, I was a little too jealous in relationships, and I let myself get sad too easily. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that physical exercise is the magic bullet, but it kind of is. There are plenty of studies discussing how exercise can improve your life all around, including research done by the Mayo Clinic.

I started out in the gym with High Intensity Training. If you haven’t done it, it’s basically an ass-kicking that is required to last no more than 1 hour. You will hit as many muscle groups as possible, and only do your routines 3 times per week. This is a great way to push yourself to your limit (more on that later).

Basically, with HIT you don’t focus on the number of reps. You take your time, you feel the burn, and your last rep in many of the exercises is the point of “failure”. If you’re going until failure, you MUST have a partner. If you don’t know what “to failure” means, you need a personal trainer. Really, you should have a personal trainer or experienced partner every once in awhile anyway. It’s critical to use good form and the only way to get an objective opinion is to have someone to tell you if you are doing it right. But I digress…

At the moment, I’m doing body weight workouts in preparation to hit the gym once again. The body weight stuff is a good precursor to any routine if you haven’t lifted weights in awhile. It makes for a much more smooth transition, and it gets your blood pumping if you want to keep doing a shortened version for a warm-up. My current body weight circuit is as follows (inspired by a Nate Green travel workout):

Prisoner Squats

Pushups

Bulgarian Split Squats

Burpees

Mountain Climbers

Planks

I do this circuit the whole way through about 3 times, doing each exercise until failure. After I complete planks, I take a 2-3 minute rest and then start back with prisoner squats. As far as warm-up goes, I just do a simple stretch of all major muscle groups and a couple minutes of speed rope (my speed rope actually snapped in half yesterday, hitting me right in the face).

Next, lets focus on getting stronger with weights. There isn’t much of a point in isolating muscles from the get-go, because you will want to be as symmetrically strong as possible before you go and try to make your biceps pop. My personal rule of thumb is to begin with complex movements that hit as many muscle groups as possible. The routine I stick with for at least 2 months, at a frequency of 3x per week is a StrongLifts 5x5 program:

Deadlifts 3x5

Squats 5x5

Chest Press 5x5

Bent Over or Inverted Rows 5x5

Overhead press or Pull Ups 5x5

Once you get these exercises mastered, you will notice a significant increase in overall strength and endurance. It’s a very practical routine based on push/pull motions intended to get you ready for the next step.

Now, on to High Intensity Training! My bible for HIT is “The New High Intensity Training” by Ellington Darden, PhD. I’ve had it for a few years, and use the back of the book to structure my routines. I’ll parallel an example out of that book for a beginner HIT workout for 2-3x per week:

Squat with Barbell

Straight arm pullover with one dumbbell

Deadlift with Barbell

Lateral raise with dumbbells

Chest Press with dumbbells

Shoulder shrug with dumbbells (don’t roll your shoulders)

Bent-arm Fly with dumbbells

Triceps extension with on dumbbell

Bicep curl with barbell

Wrist curl with barbell

Planks

In a scenario like this, you can obviously do a lot of manipulation between barbells and dumbbells and what kind of exercises you choose to do until failure. Squats? Obviously not a great choice for failure if you want to have nice lower lumbar discs. Bicep curls? Great choice for failure as well as negatives. If you’re not familiar with positive/ negatives, here’s the skinny:

In an exercise like bicep curls, you have the concentric/positive motion (curling the weight toward your body), and the eccentric/ negative motion (letting the weight descend back toward the starting position). Focusing on this negative motion, while a partner lifts the positive weight, can have tremendous results and provide a burn you have never felt before. Watch yourself when going until failure on exercises that isolate joints. For example, bent-arm flyes put a lot of stress on your shoulder at the end of the negative motion, and nobody likes a stinging rotator cuff!

If you are going to experiment with negatives and/or reps to failure, just be careful. You don’t need to do it every time you work out, but it is a great change-up to incorporate every once in a awhile. Definitely have a trusted partner with you to make sure you don’t smash your pretty face with a barbell, or like yours truly: suffer a shoulder subluxation while doing military dumbbell press because I didn’t have a partner.

If you’re interested in exercise for any reason at all, you don’t need me to tell you how important it is to overall health. My resources that I’ve used in this regard are as follows:

‘The New High Intensity Training’ by Ellington Darden, PhD

www.t-nation.com (I can’t believe these guys give away priceless info for free)

www.musclehack.com (Mark has many freebies, and discusses failure often)

www.stronglifts.com (Good articles, little BS)

www.leangains.com (great research done by the author)

Lastly, a friend from high school who I used to train with in my glory days of reverse-dunks and alley-oops is doing some great things with online personal training and nutrition. He does structured plans for men and women. Hit him up at mikestullfitness@gmail.com and tell him your buddy Dan from Columbus recommended you.

Getting Lean and Mean

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 21:51:00 -0400

“A recent study suggests that most recent studies are full of shit.”

The Thurmanator (Thurman’s Cafe - Columbus, Ohio)

When my last girlfriend and I broke up, I realized how much of a ‘Love Gut’ I had. I’m going to tell you upfront that my reason for getting back in shape in 2009 was initially vain. I knew that the way I was eating and living would end up as a downward spiral into a lot of lonely Friday nights. I’ll also be upfront that I am in no way an expert. Talk to a doc about any diet overhaul you’re trying to make, and do it safely based on their recommendations. What worked for me based on my goals, may not work for you and yours.

In my humble opinion, we have lost our common sense when it comes to being healthy. We’ll buy and believe nearly anything that people sell as long as a televised doctor or celebrity give it a green light. What it tells me is that corporations and fitness journals are quickly running out of new ideas to sell us, so they have begun putting outrageous products and strategies on the market that are not only dangerous to our bodies, but also to our pocketbooks (we’ll get into frugality eventually).

I’ll start with diet since that’s one of the worst markets out there. You can listen to experts all day argue about low carb, low fat, and organic ingredients, but it’s really an information overload. Carbohydrates, fats, and organic ingredients are all good for you if they are coming from the right places and your overall calories are low. What are these “right” places? I’m glad you asked….

Combining three philosophies of food, and how I staged them:

Phase 1: It’s so easy, a caveman already did it

When I first learned of “Primal Living”, I really thought it was going to be some hippy movement telling me to eat twigs and berries. To my surprise, this guy named Mark Sisson has a common sense approach to how we’re evolved to eat. I’m not going to do this near the justice he deserves, but it’s along these lines:

Eat one ingredient foods (Meat, Fruit, Vegetables, Nuts)

Keep carbohydrates low (~150 grams or below)

Stay active (move often, sprint sometimes)

Lift heavy things

I’ve noticed over time that Sisson’s followers are far crazier than he is. The hardcore fans seem to stress too much over living more like our ancestors who didn’t have anything available to them. I for one will never give up Chipotle, Jameson Whiskey, or beer… and Sisson fully supports that. What’s important in terms of dieting is to stop eating Hungry Man’s and Lean Cuisines, and get in the kitchen with real, one ingredient foods and start playing with spices you’ve never heard of. You don’t need to do this every single day, but fruits and vegetables should be the staple of all meals along with meat. Forget bread and pasta as the primary focus of what’s on your plate (I really don’t care if it’s whole wheat, 12-grain). If it’s processed: eliminate it, then limit it. If it’s high in carbohydrate content: moderate it.

Even using this method, you’ll be surprised in how many calories you consume. I used www.fitday.com to track all of my nutritional content and made adjustments from there. I recently had a friend named Kate apply basic Primal Dieting to the website, and she’s quickly reaching her goals. She agrees with me that after a few weeks of using fitday, you just start remembering how many calories you eat, and where you need to supplement (my diet often leaves me short in proper vitamin D). Once you stop forgetting that there are X amount of calories in your weekly foods, you’ll use the site less and less. I saw great initial results from making this adjustment and have felt great ever since.

I will warn you that many people hit a wall with the adjustment to a lack of carbs. I had incredible cravings from eliminating ALL processed carbs from my diet for a few months. I had hit a plateau anyway, and by doing a little research I learned how to adapt my eating patterns toward cheating, fasting, while still eating mostly primal.

Second and Third Phase: Intermittent Fasting, Carbohydrate Cycling

This is far from manorexia, folks. If you’re anything like me, you needed to create quite a large calorie deficit in a short amount of time so that you’re carrying a six-pack on the beach instead of a keg. Intermittent fasting is based on the concept that you have your usual days of healthy, calorie-deficit eating followed by a nice fat 3-meal blitz day which spikes your Leptin levels. This hormone is the proverbial furnace for fat burning. If you’re constantly dieting, it’s believed that your body will in fact go in to starvation mode and slow your metabolism down (from an evolutionary standpoint, our bodies are all about preservation of fat so we’re working against the grain). When you indulge in pizza, burgers, and wings, your leptin level spikes and your body is primed for fat burning. Follow that with a 24 hour fast, and you’ve just started to burn some body fat! It takes roughly a 3,500 calorie deficit to lose a pound of that love-blubber, so keep at it.

From my endless research, the experts in this area are Brad Pilon and Martin Berkhan. They are absolute no B.S. kind of guys and I like that. They don’t sell gimmicks and each provides a lot of information for free. Pilon does have a more guided program that you have to pay for… but really, that’s fair considering you spent hundreds of dollars on college classes that you never showed up for, right? The take home messages from these two are:

You can always make up for your disgustingly delicious indulgences.

Commit to a 16 – 24 hour fast during the “make up” phase (Lots of H20).

Think of your calorie deficit in weekly terms.

Eat clean on your normal days of the week.

Be Awesome.

Work Out.

I’ll be honest, I’m a skeptical guy and I genuinely like what Brad and Martin post. Do your homework on intermittent fasting, and you will not be disappointed.

Next is Carbohydrate Cycling. There isn’t a great deal out there on this, but Joel Marion outlines it in detail in his X-treme Fat Loss program. I don’t like everything about his writing and his presentation, but the program got me through my second plateau. The concept is along the lines of this for a 5-day program for a short period of time:

Day 1: Cheat Day (3 meals of glory)

Day 2: Fast Day (you get the idea)

Day 3: Protein based, low calorie, low carb day

Day 4: Moderate Carbohydrate day (Primal proteins, fats, carbs)

Day 5: Carbohydrate depletion (preparing for that big Leptin spike)

I personally extended this to my needs over a 7 day program. I basically had 2-3 moderate carbohydrate days since that fit my needs better, and it was still sandwiched by two zero carb days.

So let’s recap here:

Eat fruits, vegetables, nuts and meats most days of the week. If it’s in a box or a bag (exception is frozen veggies)… leave it in the frozen food section. It requires a lot more cooking, but the outcome is tremendous. From my heaviest moment to my lightest, I lost 60 pounds. I lost the last 20 during a period of rehabilitation which I could not work out, so let it be clear that diet is absolutely the number one factor in fat loss. We’ll move on to exercise next time, but until then figure out your goals and do your reading!

What is the Quarter Life Overhaul?

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 01:02:00 -0400

“If you have a college degree you can be absolutely sure of one thing…. you have a college degree.”

The Quarter Life Overhaul has become a post-college journey into maximizing the human potential. From altering physique, to overcoming fears - this blog is the foundation for a young professional’s conquest to defeat many conventional constraints that we tend to place on ourselves.

This blog is one of milestones. I will only post when something has been accomplished and when I can fully honor it in my everyday life. That doesn’t always happen on a weekly basis, so although my posting is infrequent; It helps keep it meaningful.

About Dan

I was born in 1986, and plan to see 2086. I graduated from The Ohio State University, work in Columbus, Ohio and will likely never be a full-time writer. Although, I never expected to be on the radio, either.