Making fitness a priority

I have decided to make fitness a priority. 

Not just because of the sweet, sweet gains. Not because I’m vain and want mirrors to shatter on the edges of my startlingly chiseled rectus abdominis, and certainly not because I have too much time to kill.

The reality is I am making it a priority because I know it has the potential to supplement, power, and drive all other aspects of my life. Steve Kamb, author of the fitness/health website Nerd Fitness, recently published an article talking about this very topic and his personal experience with it: Why You Need to BeSelfish And Put Fitness First (contains some adult language). I highly recommend Nerd Fitness to anyone wanting to get fit, and especially those that are nerds at heart like me, and enjoy thinking of things in the context of our nerdom. In brief, he relates how he has put fitness first the past 13 months, and seen remarkable changes in his life, not just physically, but in all aspects. Some of the key points:

•  Simply, if you put fitness first, you will get fit.
• "Not today" or "I can’t" are not even options.
• You will be forced to be efficient to make time for your health.
• At work, at home, everywhere. And you’ll have the energy to do it!
•  You will save money in the long run (efficiency is key)
• You will realize that you have more time than you thought.
• You will find what has been taking your time and what isn’t a priority to you.

Sure, it sounds all well and good. But you actually have to do it. So many of us are convinced that there just isn’t the time or means to do it. But there is! Our lives feel packed to the brim and overflowing, but a lot of that is perception and a lot of that is unnecessary (hardest word to spell ever) garbage that doesn’t reflect what we truly want out of our lives or for ourselves. There is a way to do it. We could complain all year long about how we wish we could stick with it/be healthier/start eating better, or we could make the commitment and necessary sacrifices to do it. One point of advice that was particularly helpful to me from the Nerd Fitness article was to stop thinking about fitness in terms of days and weeks, and think about it in terms of months and years. It’s about months and years. This is a lifestyle, with real benefits, but you have to live it.

In my personal experience, and I would expect many people can relate, I would work out consistently for a few months, and feel the best I’ve ever felt. I would say things like “I just feel so much better when I’m working out!” or “I know that when I’m working out and getting enough sleep I am at my best: positive, energized, confident - I need to keep this up!” Then, inevitably, the late night study session or sleepy mid-week-workout-wimp-out occurs, and I’m off my game. One thing leads to the next, and before I know it I’m sitting at my computer 4 months later wondering where all the time has gone, and resembling the chair-bound blimp people in the movie WALL-E. I can no longer accept “I just want to relax” or “I need to skip the gym to get this work done” as excuses for not being committed to my health. If I ever do accept these things, then I will never get to where I want to be.

This all of course is in the context of being the healthiest I can. So, in case of an injury or medical situation, I will obviously do what I need to and limit what I need in order to get better and keep making progress. That brings us back to thinking in terms of years, not weeks.

Lastly, I will say that this has much more to do with my being as a whole than my physical body. If I want to succeed and excel in the physical realm I need to interact with it in an optimal and efficient way. By making fitness a priority, it begins to filter out the excess garbage (as Steve Kamb says, "yes, you’ll probably need to give up a few crappy TV shows"), builds discipline, and clears my mind and only facilitates my conversations in my spirit. When I think about my body ‘as a temple’, I don’t think about it all religious-y with the idea that I have to make it pretty for Jesus to come live inside. But instead, it makes much more sense to think about it in the context of 1) yes a temple should be beautiful and well maintained, but mainly 2) if things are supposed to get done and business is supposed to be taken care of, the temple must be clean and efficient and able to move. It makes me think of Howl’s moving castle, but more elegant of a machine perhaps.

What are your thoughts about making fitness a priority? What are your reasons for not being able to? I am trying to convince you that you should care about it, why aren’t you convinced? Why are you convinced?

Live long and prosper,

A Little About Michael

Another welcome to THWB! Now, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Michael Ball, and I am graduate student at Dartmouth College studying tumor immunology; specifically the function and regulation of tumor associated macrophages within solid tumors, such as breast tumors. These cells are an integral part of your immune system which, in a healthy context, engulf pathogens (bugs), activate your adaptive immune system (antibodies and cells that kill other cells!), and produce many factors with a wide variety of inflammatory effects (ice until the swelling goes down). Conversely, they also play a pivotal role in immune-suppression so as to prevent autoimmunity (for example), dead cell removal, wound healing, and the development of new blood vessels.

The mighty macrophage, valliantly overthrowing

a tiny pez-worm regime! I think.. ::squints:: ... trust me. I'm a scientist.

This varietal, and even antithetical, repertoire of functions macrophages possess is critical for your body’s homeostasis. In the tumor, macrophages are tricked to believe there is a wound to heal and normal self-tissue to protect, and set about dampening immune responses that would otherwise get rid of the caner, encouraging new vessel growth that provides nutrients and oxygen needed for tumor growth, and even assist in destabilizing the extra-cellular matrix holding the tumor together allowing for potential metastases. My research is looking at reversing the role of these macrophages, convincing them engage in a more appropriate reaction to their surrounding environment. Macrophages that would enter the other potential activation state of inflammation and initiating an adaptive immune response would be detrimental to the cancer cells of most solid tumors. I personally believe that we, like the multifaceted macrophage (objectively the most important cell-type in the entire world), have such a capacity to interact with life and the universe. There is no strict dichotomy with regards to macrophages, i.e. pro- versus anti-inflammatory, but instead they exist along a spectrum of activation states, modifying their response via cues from, and interactions with their environment. We do it too. And sometimes, we don’t quite get our response right. And sometimes, we get it completely wrong, or are tricked by what’s around us that we are interacting with to perform in a manner entirely detrimental to the body.

Part of my desire in writing THWB is to address the reality that there are aspects of my life, each instance to the next, that I can react in much, even much much, dare I say much³, better. Not all of them need to be addressed, but then again, one can live a very long time with a host of ailments. Grand analogy/ research tie-in aside, the way we treat our bodies and what we put in them has remarkable consequences for our health. For example, research done in the United Kingdom suggests that 32% of the most common cancers in the UK are entirely preventable by lifestyle choices such as diet and exercise, not smoking/ reduced alcohol intake[1]. Overweight and obesity is a category that as of 2008, accounts for 68% of our adult population here in the USA[2] (obesity accounts for over one third of the US population, or 35%[3]). The stats for ages 2-20 year olds isn’t much better. There is a host of diseases associated with overweight and obesity alone, including heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and different cancers. And those listed are some of the main causes of preventable death. For a list of some of the cancers currently known to have attributable risk associated with overweight and obesity and some information in regards to the research, you can look at the National Cancer Institute’s website[2] cancer.gov (albeit a little outdated in my opinion). In reality though, talking about overweight and obesity only acknowledges the symptom of many changeable life-style choices. I’m not making a point of writing about this in order to condemn anybody or even myself. Instead, to me, this is some of the most hopeful information available in the news these days. I know I can make a difference in my own life, and not just decrease my chances of a slew of diseases (a nice effect though), but increase my ability to experience life and all that I am capable of; all that I was created to do. I’m not so foolish as to believe I won’t get sick if I work out constantly, or even that I’ll attain enlightenment from eating a Paleolithic diet, but I am equally not so foolish as to believe that simply because I have a relationship with my Creator that I can forgo the realities of his creation. If anything, those realities and necessities of life are part of what make it worth living, and what hone us and shape us into what is our true nature. Some people might think they don’t need medicine, to pay attention to what they eat, to exercise, because they want to enjoy life and because God will protect them. To that I would just say, paying attention to what goes into my body (oh man do I need to work on this!) and exercise only enhances how I enjoy life, and I do feel protected, but for some reason I still have to sleep, eat, and breathe. And that’s just the easy stuff.

Oh right, so about me. I am a graduate student, a musician, I’m learning to snowboard, and I want to be fit. 

My stats currently:

• 6 feet ::read 5'  113/4''::
• 170 lbs
• Probably about 15% body fat (I will be posting about this later)
• Work out 3-4 days a week (ideally)
• At the moment eating whatever

My goals: 

• Gain 1/4" in height ::deletes heading titled, "I can dream..."::
• Gain 10 lbs while maintaining 15% BF or less (or whatever I'm at, better estimates to come)
• Be conscious of what I'm eating, understand it
• Make fitness a priority (some adult language)

I want you to be fit, too. I really do. I’d like you to get fit and to get fit with you! Let’s not just talk about what we’re going to do, let’s talk about what we did and what we are doing. Ask yourself, “am I going to workout/ eat a small dinner/ drink plenty of water today?” The answer is either yes or no. Pick one, and nothing in between. That’s how we build.

1. http://www.wcrf-uk.org/uk/preventing-cancer/cancer-preventability-statistics

2. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/obesity

3. http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

Welcome

Welcome to That's How We Build, a blog about exercise, fitness, health, and et cetera! Before this fitness/progress/health science/pumped up kicks/opinion blog, I attempted something similar several years ago that quickly became my online food diary and then quickly died. Food diaries are a great and useful tool when trying to control your food intake, and I highly recommend doing it. If you take a picture of every meal you eat with your smart phone and let your eyes feast upon your gallery of gorging at the end of the day, a pretty profound realization of how much one actually consumes sets in. Regardless, I never intended that to become the entire focus on my blog HoldStronger, but nevertheless it did. What I was after was a place that I could use for delving into whatever health related topic I was on, keep track of my progress to hold myself accountable, and would essentially be an expression of the multifaceted reality of what it means to be healthy - and maybe even help someone looking for that same thing. It's a lot to keep track of, and the reality is no less daunting for each one of us that is trying to better ourselves. It is possible however, and I intend to see myself become all that I can be, mind and body. Today we begin again, not on my own this time but bolstered anew by my co-blogger and greatest of friends Seth Bosch, who thoroughly understands what it means to say "that's how you build!" A very real inspiration to me.

I'm not sure what form this blog will end up taking on as it develops, but I'm excited to see.  I have a feeling Seth and I can put together a mean blog. Feel free to join us on this adventure, message us, disagree with us, get fit with us! If there's a personal story you would like to share or something you would like us to look into, let us know. There are literally thousands of exercise blogs and health web sites that have tips, tricks, and topics galore, so what you'll find here is our exploration through all of that information, in search of truth and health and happiness and the elusive pump.

That pump.

Thank you for reading, and we hope your journey leads you to success in all you need to accomplish.

"I will persevere until I hold in my hand the dream I hold in my heart." ~ Apostle F. Nolan Ball