Your September Monthly Dose
Health comes in many forms. By understanding what matters most and engaging in your health I believe you can live a full life.
Mental health: Building upon a topic I introduced last month I want to dig further into a stop doing list. A lack of time to do what we enjoy can be an incredible strain on your mental health. Taking the time to do a mental inventory of all your weekly tasks and actions can be an informative exercise. Make a list of every task you do each week. Once the list is compiled consider stopping the low return activities. In a couple weeks reflect again, have you truly cut something out? Has it given you more time? Can you successfully do more of something you enjoy? What is on my chopping block...surfing twitter:(
Exercise: one of the most difficult aspects of getting in shape is adhering to a program. Let us imagine you are adhering well to a program, what is the next step to making gains? A common mistake for anyone unfamiliar with strength exercise is the lack of progressive challenge. I think most people are comfortable increasing how much and how fast they run but far few people are comfortable making these progressions in the gym. Just as in running, strength training must get progressively harder. The total volume of weight lifted should increase from week to week. For most novice lifters an increase in weekly volume should be expected. Don’t be scared to increase the weights you lift or the number of sets you do. If have you more questions on this, reach out!
Sleep: I love this simple concept from a prolific sleep researcher. The best trick to get a better sleep? Shoot for 8.5 hours. I harp on this a lot but if your kids are sleeping well and you believe sleep is an important and worthwhile endeavour cut fluff and get in bed for 8.5 hours of sleep!
Grub: I came across Stephan Guyenet for the first time this month. He is a researcher and dietary critic. We all have a lot of questions about low carb and low fat diets. Much like the 80s craze of low fat, low carb is no different. The ever increasing rates of obesity have less do with what we eat and more to do with how much we eat and how often we move. Pick a diet that suits your lifestyle, move regularly, and sleep well. Check out this graph and subsequent twitter conversation.
Thanks as always. I am coming up on one year of newsletters so new ideas are welcome:)
Dave
Reading list.
Stephen Guyenet.
Get a better sleep in just 30 minutes.
Seth Godin’s stop doing list
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