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Socializing Without Eating: Is it Really Possible?

July 27, 2011 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

I hadn’t seen her in years even though we live in the same town.

You know how it is, I’m busy, so is he. Time got away from us. It’s not like we had a disagreement, or we didn’t want to see each other; it’s just that, well, life kicked in…

I answered the phone, “Hey Scott,” says she, “I just realized that we haven’t gotten together in a long time and we’ve got so much to catch up on. I thought we could schedule a time.”

“Sounds great,” I replied, “I can do lunch next Thursday. If that doesn’t work, we could get coffee in the afternoon, or, on Wednesday, we could meet early and grab a bagel. Where would you like to go?”

She responded, “You know the park with the duck pond?”

“Yes, the one with all the trails?”

“Yeah, that one. What about Thursday at noon?”

“Sure, that works for me. But I’m not familiar with any restaurants there.”

“There aren’t any. I’ve been trying to get in shape, and I know you’re always watching your weight, so I thought we could walk and talk. It would be nice to catch up outside.”

And so we did. But, can I be honest? It felt really weird; kind of like wearing someone else’s clothes. It seems normal enough at first glance, but you just can’t get comfortable.

I mean, think about it, what’s one of the first questions we ask when we decide to meet up with someone: Lunch or coffee? If you really wanted to crash our economy, ban meetings in restaurants or coffee houses.

[Read more…]

How to Correctly Use the Food Pyramid’s Replacement When Stressed

June 7, 2011 by Scott "Q" Marcus

As you might know, Michelle Obama, greatly concerned with childhood obesity (and rightly so), has recently revised the food pyramid. Personally, I thought the original food pyramid was pretty easy to understand, but a few years ago, they decided to update it.

The older version looked like this:

I thought that made a lot of sense and was pretty simple to follow. However, I don’t make the rules, I just play with them. So, The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) changed the food pyramid in spring 2005 because they wanted to convey a better example of how to eat healthier. The “new and improved” (?) pyramid was based on the best available scientific facts concerning links between diet and good health and addressed flaws in the original food pyramid. The intent was laudable. The results? You decide:

In my humble opinion, it’s a mess. But, maybe that’s just me.

So fast forward to last week when Mrs. Obama decides to change it to make it easier for children (and those of us who are wrinkled children) to understand. The whole “pyramid” concept is dropped in favor of a plate, which makes sense.

Here’s the latest:

Actually, I think it’s simple and easy to understand. It also looks quite contemporary.

There’s just one problem.

It doesn’t address real life. I mean, after a stress-filled, running-all-over town kind of day, are you really going to come home to an exciting meal where the main components are Kale and Bulgar? I don’t think so. So, with that in mind, I proudly announce the “choose my plate” model for stressful days. [Read more…]

Breaking the Eating Cycle: Why Bad Habits Trigger Bad Habits

May 5, 2011 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

It’s important to understand that bad habits trigger bad habits.

I call it “The Eating Cycle.”

In a nutshell, here’s how it works.

Something “happens.” We react to the “something” with a variety of feelings (listed under reaction to the event). Our way of dealing with those feelings is to eat. When we eat too much, we gain weight. Because we do not like gaining weight, we have a reaction to the weight gain, which is usually one of those listed. That triggers us to eat, which causes us to gain weight. You can see the cycle goes on and on.

How to break the cycle?

If we eat too much, we’ll gain weight; there is no way around that. So, we can only break the cycle by reacting differently to the weight gain. In other words, reminding ourselves “it could have been worse,” or “we don’t do it as often as we used to,” or “realizing on the grand scale of things, a minor weight gain is not the end of the world.” That will minimize the urge to eat.

The other option is that we learn how to handle our reactions differently. So, if we’re frustrated, we call a friend (instead of eat). If we’re depressed, we take a walk (instead of eat). If we’re angry, we do some activity to work it out (instead of eat). We don’t have to do it very long, just for a few minutes, long enough to break the cycle.

Remember, you cannot drop a habit, you replace it with a different habit. What will you do to fill the void left by changing your habit? (If you need help, I’m here.)

Are We Having Fun Yet?

April 28, 2011 by Featured Author Leave a Comment

First, allow me to apologize for not posting recently! No excuses, just a new goal to post at least two times per week. Now for this week’s post…

“He who laughs, lasts!”
~Mary Pettibone Poole

“I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!”
~Louise Bogan

I began running about 2 1/2 years ago. I never, ever thought of myself as a runner. I walked everyday, and I loved it. An online friend turned me on to fast walking and I got fantastic results from it. It was low impact and easy and fun to do, so that was my exercise of choice. Then, one day as I was walking my six-mile course, something snapped like an over-stretched rubber band. I’d torn a hip flexor muscle and it hurt – a lot. The short of it is, walking was never the same again. It hurt, and that sucked all the fun out of it. In addition, before the injury, I noticed that I had to walk further and further to work up a sweat and get my heart rate up. I was already walking for 75 minutes a day, and didn’t know how I was going to keep carving more and more time out for my walks. I started looking around for something else to do. Someone suggested running, and my first thought was, “Only masochists run.”

Me Before Race Time

After all, running is painful, and it’s really, really hard. Why would anyone do it unless they are being chased by large, carnivorous animals? But as I continued to search for a new activity to replace walking, I kept coming back around to running. I loved my bicycle, but the bike path in this town is fairly short so I was bored with the scenery already, and taking to the streets means taking your life in your hands (please, motorists, be kind to cyclists). Aerobics? Please. Workout tapes and treadmills and ellipticals were out, because I longed to be outdoors and quickly got bored with them. And suddenly I asked myself, “Just what are you afraid of?” I immediately came up with a list: I was afraid of injury, of how much pain I’d be in from the impact on my joints, the burning in my lungs, the cramps in my side (I clearly remembered these from gym classes past), the blisters on my feet. And then, once the list of fears was out there, I decided that none of them was really so terrible, and I was intrigued by the challenge of it. I was determined not to let fear dictate what I would and wouldn’t attempt. So, I strapped on some shoes and decided to run a mile.

The first time I did it, I hated it. It took me longer to jog than to fast-walk a mile! And I was hot and sweaty, my feet hurt, and I felt really out of shape – huffing and puffing down the bike bath like a 100 year-old steam engine. It took me a while to even attempt it again. But boredom and a plateau in my weight loss got me pounding the pavement. When I re-visited running I did it with a goal in mind – a friend had invited me to run a 5K for charity – that’s 3.12 miles. I felt it was do-able with a little training, so I set out to train. I had 12 weeks, and was determined to do it. I got myself an iPod, some proper running gear – including cheap, new shoes; I caution you against this. If you are seriously considering becoming a runner, make shoes your first priority, not your last. Anyway, in 12 weeks, I learned to love running. The first 2-3 minutes are miserable, but then your body warms up and gets used to the pace, and you’re off! With my favorite music in my ears, and the endorphins coursing through my veins, I am never happier than when I’m running and I’m in ‘the Zone.’ It’s bliss. The only thing to top it is running in a new locale and taking in spectacular scenery.

(More great pictures & inspiration follow the jump… ) [Read more…]

Keep Moving

April 25, 2011 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

Small steps taken regularly generate more results than large steps done periodically.

In other words, it’s better to promise to walk a block and actually do it than to promise to run a mile and sleep in.

Most of the time that we fail to accomplish our goals, it’s because we made the process too cumbersome, unrealistic, or large. Since it would involve rearranging vast portions of an-already busy life, we choose to avoid the task, remaining in place.

Pick something smaller when you’re stuck and move forward on that. Any movement is better than stagnation.

Note: Every Monday, a new motivational memo is posted. Subscribers to ThisTimeIMeanIt.com’s coaching service get this – and many more benefits – sent to them directly. If you’d like to know more, follow this link.

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