Sweet Peace #35: Cardio can be fun

Early morning light

(Thanks for joining me on this 52-week journey toward peace which began with sugar and food and now reaches out to every aspect of my path. May it sweeten your own journey. -- Joyce Wycoff)

150 minutes … that seems to be the standard recommendation for the minimum number of minutes of cardio exercise per week. So, what is cardio exercise?

Verywellfit.com provides a simple answer: any exercise that gets your heart rate up. It is, of course, slightly more complicated since it needs to get you into a specific cardio zone of 70% to 80% of your maximum heart rate. There’s a ton of internet information to help you figure out your own numbers … or you can depend on Fitbit or other devices that will track your cardio minutes for you. 

I’ve been wearing a Fitbit for about five years and never paid attention to the cardio minutes until recently when I kept hearing the 150 minutes number repeated in several places. So I decided to make it one of the metrics I track. For the month of July, I had 403 cardio minutes … and 152 of those were related to three long walks. Not exactly meeting the recommendation of 675 for four and a half months.

    The same pattern continued into this month and I realized that my normal, two+ mile daily walks were NOT getting me into cardio. If I was going to take the cardio recommendation seriously, I needed a different approach. I could power walk but that would interfere with the pleasure of walking and the joy photography. I immediately ruled out gyms … I hate gyms and most types of weight training and have donated too much money to underused gyms already.

Two things happened that changed everything. First, I discovered Flow Rope … a simple, easy movement of ropes that involves no jumping. (see YouTube instruction) I have a very small apartment, but I can turn on music and do flow rope for 10-15 minutes and most of that will be cardio. Turns out that raising and moving your arms is great for these lesser exercised parts of our bodies and creates more cardio-worthy minutes.

The second discovery came in a side door. I’m a huge fan of Andrew Huberman’s neuroscience podcasts and I’ve heard him talking about the value of getting morning sunshine for the past year. However, after listening to a recent podcast about the value of morning sunshine viewing to sleep quality, I decided to try it. The recommendation is to get 5 minutes of direct morning sun viewing, outside without sunglasses, but not in a way that harms your eyes and best done within the first hour after waking up.

I decided to pair it with a mile and a half early morning walk. After returning home and checking my numbers, I was shocked … 23 of the 30 minutes were cardio. It was a brisk walk but definitely not power walking. The next morning showed similar results. Additionally, my energy level throughout the day improved noticeably.

While I’m only a few days into this new routine, I am amazed at the changes in energy and sleep and plan to continue.

Notes:

Huberman Lab podcasts are long form, generally averaging 2 hours. I have summarized his latest episode on sleep and will be happy to send you a copy if you send an email request to info@gratitudemojo.com

Flow Ropes can be pricey, but I ordered a regular rope with nice handles from amazon for about $20. You may already have one in your garage. Watch the YouTube for length and basic forms.

If you’re serious about your health, I highly recommend Fitbit, Apple watches, or any other device that helps you track exercise, heart rate, and sleep.

If you’re hesitating because of age, I’m 76. Make allowances for your own health condition.

Sweet Peace #15: Learning Opportunities Galore!

   

Cider Fizz

    I’m in Santa Barbara, working on a project I believe in, enjoying time with a dear friend, and away from my daily routines. Niggling below these lovely days is a frustration: this is day 23 of a sugar fast, however, my blood glucose is seriously elevated. This is confusing as I try to figure out what I’m doing wrong.

    The sugar fast is actually going well, I even managed to make it through a birthday party which featured an excess of cookies, candy and champagne. The search for a bubbly and champagne-looking, non-sugar and non-alcoholic drink resulted in Cider Fizz … club soda and apple cider vinegar … which is amazingly refreshing, especially when sporting a strawberry as shown above.

Somehow, though, my blood glucose doesn't seem to have gotten the word that I’m not doing sugar. Logically, I’m still consuming too much sugar in the other things I’m eating so I’m doing a food diary to see if I can identify the hidden-sugar culprits. The obvious carbohydrates have already been eliminated, so there’s something else going on.

Another factor is that, it has been rainy so I haven’t had a real walk for a couple of days. Today looks sunny so we will see how that changes the equation. I’m thinking about ordering a constant glucose monitoring device to see if I can fine tune which foods are the source of the issue.

In the meantime, the study of the complex system of appetite, hunger, and metabolism continues to fascinate me. Fortunately, there are amazing sources of science-based information and terms like dopamine, grehlin, leptin, insulin and cholecystokinin (CCK) are gradually making sense. One of my favorite information sources right now is Andrew Huberman’s podcast. He manages to make complex information understandable and focuses on what we can do to have better results in mental and physical health and performance.

So ... off to another week of learning and loving life. I am so grateful to be healthy and energetic as I explore ways to be healthy and energetic. ;-)

Sweet Peace #13: My BMW Lesson

Turn My Ship Around

    Yesterday, in a conversation with a dear friend, she noticed that we pronounced BMW differently. Hers ended with a “you” sound and mind ended with an “uh” sound. She is a California girl; I’m from the Midwest. We’re both language oriented, careful about words and grammar; she perhaps more of a stickler than I am. She’s the only person I know who can say, “It is I.” Both of us were raised in poor, under-schooled families and being “educated” was important to us.

The point of all of this is that when she noted my “accent,” a minor flood of emotion swept through me. I was offended and instantly defensive. My immediate efforts to “be right” surprised me. Fortunately, our relationship is such that we unpacked it and wound up laughing about backgrounds and how we got here. (And, by the way, there is actually a 24-second YouTube video on the proper pronunciation … and, as is usually the case, my friend was right.)

The surprising reaction, however, stayed with me. Where did that feeling come from? What triggered that flash of not being perfect, of being attacked? In general, where do emotions come from?

Recently, I’ve been on an intriguing journey into the chemistry of bodymind, assisted by the amazing podcasts from the Huberman Lab and LifeSpan with David Sinclair. While they both do an amazing job of simplifying the complex world of biochemistry, I’m still just scratching the surface of understanding how all of this works. 

However, it’s clear that our emotions create molecules which go racing through our bodies creating all sorts of reactions. After my BMW experience, I started wondering what starts the process, what creates emotion? I found this definition from the Behavioral Research Blog:

Different networks in the brain can create the same emotion. And yes, emotions are created by our brain. It is the way our brain gives meaning to bodily sensations based on past experience. Different core networks all contribute at different levels to feelings such as happiness, surprise, sadness and anger.

So, if I have this right, I heard a comment about the way I pronounced a word and my brain interpreted it as a personal attack and generated a mild form of anger. Remember, I was completely safe, sitting in my own comfy chair talking on the phone to a friend, still my brain was picking up danger signals.

Of course, “the brain” isn’t simply one thing like our tonsils, conveniently located at the back of our throats for easy removal (at least in my day). The brain is more like a city with endless streets and alleyways connecting all the buildings and structures that make up the operation. There are a zillion people running this way and that, cleaning up, rebuilding, carrying messages, many operating on memos sent out a hundred thousand years ago, more or less.

I no longer think I’m running the show. It feels more like I’m a fan sitting in the bleachers watching a basketball game, waving my hand and saying, “May I make a suggestion?” That may be an understatement, maybe I’m more like the coach who can call time, motion the players into a huddle, and offer encouragement and a new play.

And what, pray tell, does any of this have to do with Sweet Peace as we approach the end of the first quarter of this 52-week game? It’s clear that I’m trying to tweak a long established, highly complex, not particularly interested in changing, system. It’s a bit befuddling because “I” am the one trying to change the system and also the one fighting for status quo, i.e. the comfort zone of safety.

These are fresh thoughts and I don’t have answers. However, I do have increased respect for the complexity of my brain systems and why changing them seems to be such a difficult task. My brain has been doing its job pretty darn well for many years. It’s set in its ways and grumbles when I ask it to change. 

The question for the next quarter is how to find gentle ways to work with it, make it feel safe. Maybe it’s time to redefine Sweet Peace:

The Sweet Peace I’m looking for is a loving and gentle relationship with my body, respecting its health and strength, willingly nourishing it with health-promoting foods and activities, listening to its needs, and trusting its incredible ability to heal itself, and accepting it unconditionally, grateful for the life it has given me.

Sweet Peace #12: The power of foreshadowing failure

   

Manzanita in spring snow

 Over the past week, I’ve spent about 12 hours driving to and from Santa Barbara, mostly in the company of Andrew Huberman through his neuroscience-related podcast Huberman Lab. I’m definitely in over my head but he does a great job of presenting the information clearly without going too far into the weeds. I appreciate his approach of tying everything back to real world issues.

Dr. Andrew Huberman is a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine and the almost two-hour podcast that has stimulated many more hours of contemplation is Episode #55 The Science of Setting & Achieving Goals. 

Huberman’s lens is neurobiology and the sea of chemicals running through and running our bodies much more than I ever imagined. Much of what we read in personal development and management literature has been studied to see what’s actually going on at the biological level. A great deal of time the biology and the behavioral recommendations are in sync; however, occasionally they’re not. And that’s where it gets interesting.