New Year's resolutions.
I hate them. You're all gung ho about whatever it is you intend to do better this time around. You set ridiculous lofty goals and have such high expectations of yourself that the February Fail is inevitable and all you've managed is to feel crappy about yourself.
Which brings me to one of my favourite things about CrossFit. I don't need a resolution to motivate me to go! From the awesome people I get to hang out with, to the hit of seratonin after a killer WOD, to the real, tangible results, I'm addicted; CrossFit has fascilitated a complete life overhaul for me. But, there's always room for improvement. So this year, instead of New Year's resolutions, I'm starting a list of Life Resolutions: small, achievable but significant and lasting changes that I think I can make every day.
NEW LIFE RESOLUTION #1: Practice Stuff You Suck At
This one has obvious implications in the gym, but can be applied to any aspect of your life.
Practice stuff you suck at....
...in the gym
Coach Jen tells us this all the time, but it's advice I want to try to follow more often. The first step, I noticed, is to recognize that when I say I hate something (*cough* Burpees), I probably really mean that I'm just not very good at it, and therefore do not enjoy doing it. So, I resolve to do more of those things I hate, until I do not hate them any longer. For instance, by attempting strict pullups every time I found myself standing around (in between each heavy lifting set), I was able to finally get my frist strict pullup after a month or so. Sometimes a more concentrated effort is required, like a full 17 minutes of attempting toes to bar at a certain Crossfit Games Open last year (I only got 2 reps in that time, but the next time I tried I got 5!)
Practice stuff you suck at...
...in the kitchen
All those people you know who are great cooks had to start somewhere! The more recipes you try, the longer the list of meals in your repertoire. And while you're accumulating meal options, you're also learning what flavours work together, discovering new ingredients, and becoming more efficient at the whole process. A few tweaks and suddently you've invented your very own recipe!
Practice stuff you suck at...
...in your mouth?
Er...that is, practice eating more healthfully...
Changing how you eat is very much a mental challenge. You're constantly fighting cravings, habbits, and often laziness (cooking is sometimes difficult when you barely have time in the day to chew your food, let alone make it!). The good news is that the brain is plastic, and it can actually be trained to want healthier foods!
I discovered the truth of this as I progressed through the 10 week challenge. I found that the more greens I ate (collard, kale, and the dreaded broccoli), the less horrible they seemed. Partly because I learned how to cook them without turning them into a squishy mess, but also because my palette has changed completely so that I'm enjoying things I used to hate. I've also noticed that I'm more aware of the flavours in food. Since I eat so much less sugar, for example, fruit tastes sweeter and is more satisfying as a dessert, and I only need a small dab of honey with my hot cocoa (and milk chocolate tastes way too sweet).
A while ago I was watching Biggest Loser on TV (Hi, my name is Jen, and I'm addicted to Biggest Loser) and they had a guest (Dr. David Linden, a neuroscientist and author of The Compass of Pleasure) who shared some really nifty research about brain plasticity and cravings. He explained that the pleasure center responds differently for different people. When an obese and a lean person smell a cheeseburger, the obese person will have a much larger pleasure response (chemically in the brain) than the lean person (thus, they want the cheeseburger more badly). BUT, give both people a cheeseburger to eat, and the lean person will have a much larger pleasure response than the obese person, who will have to eat far more just to feel as good. But it is possible, he said, to rewire our brains with healthful eating in a few weeks or a few months. He did warn though that it only takes a week or so of crappy eating to undo all the re-wiring, so maybe only cheat for part of your vacation, and not the whole time!!
Dr. Linden also shared the trick of eating mindfully (pay attention to what you're eating). If your pleasure center is distracted while you eat by something like a TV show, he says, you're likely to eat more in order to feel satisfied. Maybe that's why I always end up finishing the bag of popcorn at the movie theatre without noticing :S
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