Tag: Documentaries

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Weight Loss Exercise

Make Little Bets, Failing Fast


If you have followed me for any length of time you will know that I am always experimenting. I find that the best way to learn how to get healthier and to live a better life is to be always changing and trying new things. I heard a couple of weeks ago about a concept that was explained to me as making little bets.

What Are Little Bets?

The idea of little bets is that we can take small chances that are a bit of an experiment every time. Most of the time we don’t like to make huge changes in our lives because normally we are worried about change, and we also don’t want to look foolish if we fail.

So a little bet is just a way to make a small change, or a change that is not too significant, just as a test. This opens up the idea of making changes in our life very often and to see what works for us and what doesn’t

Lets take running for an example. If running was the perfect pastime for everyone then we would all be running to work everyday. As we all know this is not the norm. If you have never been a runner you would be expected to go all in, buy expensive shoes, take a class, run everyday, maybe twice everyday. Of course you would also be reading books and watching documentaries about running and would have the perfect app for tracking your training schedule.

I don’t know about you but that sounds super unrealistic to me.

What you can do instead is decide that every morning you will get up 5 minutes early, get some shorts and a tshirt on and run around the block one time. Then you will come in and have your shower and get to work. Maybe this works out, maybe it doesn’t but the idea is that there is not much commitment and you don’t have to worry about the big lifestyle change. You are just trying it out.

Living a Lifestyle Of Little Bets

I didn’t really think of this myself but I have been trying these little bets for years. Just in the last year I have changed my sleeping times and patterns a few times, tried drinking apple cider vinegar in the morning, drinking lemon juice in the morning, taking Chlorella supplements right now, walking as a regular exercise, 5 different workout plans, changed my eating a dozen times.

I think my wife thinks of all the little changes that I make as being flighty but to me I know where I am today and how I want to be more healthy tomorrow. I know that as I learn more about diet, exercise, and psychology that I can get better and better at living a more fulfilled life and to this end these little bets have always been paying off for me. I have learned lots of things that work for me and just as many things that don’t. This does not take much of a commitment at anytime but just testing things out is a great way to make real and lasting change in your life.


Related Blogs

  • Related Blogs on Fitness
Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

Make Little Bets, Failing Fast


If you have followed me for any length of time you will know that I am always experimenting. I find that the best way to learn how to get healthier and to live a better life is to be always changing and trying new things. I heard a couple of weeks ago about a concept that was explained to me as making little bets.

What Are Little Bets?

The idea of little bets is that we can take small chances that are a bit of an experiment every time. Most of the time we don’t like to make huge changes in our lives because normally we are worried about change, and we also don’t want to look foolish if we fail.

So a little bet is just a way to make a small change, or a change that is not too significant, just as a test. This opens up the idea of making changes in our life very often and to see what works for us and what doesn’t

Lets take running for an example. If running was the perfect pastime for everyone then we would all be running to work everyday. As we all know this is not the norm. If you have never been a runner you would be expected to go all in, buy expensive shoes, take a class, run everyday, maybe twice everyday. Of course you would also be reading books and watching documentaries about running and would have the perfect app for tracking your training schedule.

I don’t know about you but that sounds super unrealistic to me.

What you can do instead is decide that every morning you will get up 5 minutes early, get some shorts and a tshirt on and run around the block one time. Then you will come in and have your shower and get to work. Maybe this works out, maybe it doesn’t but the idea is that there is not much commitment and you don’t have to worry about the big lifestyle change. You are just trying it out.

Living a Lifestyle Of Little Bets

I didn’t really think of this myself but I have been trying these little bets for years. Just in the last year I have changed my sleeping times and patterns a few times, tried drinking apple cider vinegar in the morning, drinking lemon juice in the morning, taking Chlorella supplements right now, walking as a regular exercise, 5 different workout plans, changed my eating a dozen times.

I think my wife thinks of all the little changes that I make as being flighty but to me I know where I am today and how I want to be more healthy tomorrow. I know that as I learn more about diet, exercise, and psychology that I can get better and better at living a more fulfilled life and to this end these little bets have always been paying off for me. I have learned lots of things that work for me and just as many things that don’t. This does not take much of a commitment at anytime but just testing things out is a great way to make real and lasting change in your life.


Related Blogs

  • Related Blogs on Fitness
Categories
General Weight Loss Tips

Food History: The Founding Foodies

Since our trip to Monticello a week and a half ago, I’ve been a little consumed with all things Thomas Jefferson. I’ve watched two documentaries (though I’ve fallen asleep- a habit of mine), and am now reading The Founding Foodies by Dave DeWitt.


I’m very interested and slightly obsessed with knowing how and what people ate. Did food taste the same? Where did they get their food? I know that Thomas Jefferson was a big fan of ice cream, wine (and making wine jelly), macaroni and cheese and ate more vegetables than meat. During colonial times pigs, followed by fish were the main sources of protein.

I’m not someone who believes that we should eat exactly like our ancestors (yes, another contradiction) mainly because food wasn’t regarded as it is today. They ate what they had access to and just didn’t have the information that we have today. Food history, like all history, is complex. It weaves and turns and sometimes, like now, it just doesn’t always make sense. Though, I will say that I’m even more convinced that the modern overeating/fat issue derives from having too much convenience food. It’s easier now to pack away the food than it was a hundred or more years ago.

I don’t believe that history makes something authentic. It’s easy to get caught up in the “good ol’ days” mentality. That unless people were doing it, listening to it, or eating it a hundred years ago means we should be doing the exact same things today. I wouldn’t trade my modern freedoms for the past, but I will happily pick and choose lessons from another time.

Before, if you wanted ice cream you had to find a source of cream which wasn’t always available. Then you had to find sugar which was heavily taxed at certain points in history. And then you had to churn it (or in Jefferson’s case, have it churned for you) with a hand crank. And then after all that, you probably didn’t have a whole gallon to yourself.  There were guests, and children who were vying for a scoop too. It’s not ice cream that is the problem. It’s the abundance and ease to which ice cream comes today. I could plop down $5 at my local grocer and get a decent pint, or gallon of ice cream depending on my mood. And if there’s  a sale, I could buy one and get one free.

Not to mention that most of the cheaper varieties come from abused and medicated cows. The sugar is replaced with corn (did you know that Benjamin Franklin loved corn and may have started the corn crop popularity in America? He often made beer from corn sugar among other things.)

This is what Michael Pollen means, in Food Rules, when he says if you want junk food, make it yourself. This is why I’ve often said to people what you see me eat, isn’t the reason for my weight. A normal portion of pretty much anything won’t make you fat. My excess weight comes from the indulgences you don’t see. The abundance that is hard to control. Because it is so easy to just eat and eat and eat. It’s cheap.

What if we had to source the ingredients for all the food that we overeat today? What if I had to kill a cow and clean it every time I wanted a burger? What if I had to grow the potatoes, harvest them, cut them, fry them every time I wanted a french fry?  Or milk a cow, skim the cream, find the sugar, hand churn the ice cream? It would take real work and maybe a better appreciation for food when actual work is involved with consumption.

Taking a peak into history helps shift my perspective. And I’m left wondering how I can apply some of these principles to my modern life? Leave some of the stuff in the past, like heavy drinking, because I know better, but picking up the extra work involved with eating.

*************

Other updates. I finally lost my water weight and am thinking I’m going to add another 2-3 pound loss this week. I’ve gotten better at moderation, even with a couple of days off on the weekends. I’ve found that I can have moderate, portioned treats on the weekend without feeling guilty or totally derailing my efforts. More on all of this time come.

I’m going through a few personal/career changes, that are all very good at the moment. This means that I won’t be able to post or analyze my food and exercise consumption like I would like in the next month. This could be a good thing! I will still post when I can, and update my weight losses, but I won’t be able to document every time I exercise or eat eggs for breakfast. Just know that I’m still around doing what I need to do, I just have a little less internet time until things settle in around September.