“Need For Speed”, Eating As a Canvas, and Getting Older | Notes On Self 003 | 11.29.22
In this edition we explore getting older, “superfoods”, good reads, and why I think marathons are overrated. If you need to catch up with 001 or edition 002 they can be found by clicking on previous links.
“Notes on Self” is a condensed version of what I have been up to and providing links and resources from the lessons I’ve learned to actually make them applicable to you, instead of just “consuming content” from me. I want you to act, learn, and challenge convention even if you don’t fully agree with me.
If you feel this might be helpful, please feel free to forward to a friend :)
I’m sorry! It’s been a while. Life is the ultimate excuse for writers block but we can’t succumb to that.
So without any more delay let’s get into it but first here are a few random thoughts.
On my Mind
On Age
I’ve noticed that what I eat, sleep, emotional regulation etc really starts to matter more in my early 30s. I FEEL IT. I know I’ve been saying it for years but it does truly help illustrate the point to me– before you’re 40, get used to doing the basics. It will save you so much time. The body has a memory and it will always be easier to get healthy if you’ve been (to some extent) healthy. Older than 40 and just starting? Who cares, better late than never. This guy might inspire you if you’re just starting out. Or maybe her.
I am not getting any younger. None of us are. But that really is half the fun, why we keep going to see what we can do right? I call this the “aging athlete”. We are living in a time where 1.) many people have been exercising formally for most of their life or 2.) are picking it up at a later age since it is becoming culturally relevant. This is exciting to me and unprecedented. New goals. This is part of the reason why I am focusing on getting faster and going shorter distances. But more on training and all that in a second, let’s keep with the random musings.
Follow The Money
Everyone likes to rail on the pharmaceutical industry and how it is just there to make money by just making us “sicker”, but guess what? The health and wellness industry is worth 3x the amount of the pharm industry. TRIPLE. So if that is the case, what the hell does it all mean? Another industry to just make us feel bad about ourselves, sell products, but not actually make us healthier or just increase the gap between the health “haves” and the “have-nots”? Or perhaps is this the first time in modern US history we can make money off of making people healthier and thus it will happen?
I hope, of course, the latter.
We need to stop always looking for “monsters”. Yes, there is a lot wrong in the world but don’t let such an apocalyptic and nefarious view taint you from acting. Don’t think that there is some underhanded plot to make you sick. It likely is really just to make money. And even if there is a plan to make us sick, then revolt by taking control of your own health!
Another Day, Another Chance
I stumbled upon the 2021 Emmy award speech from Michaela Coel when she won for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for HBO’s I May Destroy You. It was an off chance from an article about what happened to this woman who quit Instagram for a year, which I feel like we all want to do.
Anyway, in the opening, Coel remarked about how she came into her greatness by finding solace in self. Letting the thoughts come to the surface.
In a world that entices us to browse through the lives of others to help us better determine how we feel about ourselves, and to, in turn, feel the need to be constantly visible, for visibility these days seems to somehow equate to success. Do not be afraid to disappear, from it, from us, for a while, and see what comes to you in the silence.”
There’s that dance when isolation goes from solitude to isolation and loneliness. Remember, we need each other, but you also need yourself. Each day we have the opportunity to be still and be with ourselves. You might be surprised the gifts that bubble up when you allow that.
Training Log
Marathons will always hold a special place in my heart. I’ve run 5. NYC twice. As expected, as a Northeast kid (raised in Jersey, college in Philly, and living in Brooklyn) that course is my favorite. I think though, as of late, marathons have become a bit overrated.
Bear with me here. I’m not trying to be bombastic. Everyone should do a marathon at least once if they can. But the infatuation with going far, 26.2 miles, may have the unintended effect of turning people off from running. At least the “non-elites”. Or the super avid runners.
When people think running many just think jogging and long distance, often a marathon. But there is so much more to running than the marathon. There’s room for everyone and I hope everyone joins cause the running community is special.
You can sprint. You can do tempos. You can even start by just walking!
You have 5ks, 8ks, 10ks. The list is expansive. Quick pause. Before we go any further, if you yourself want to start getting into running, start here, here, and here with my GQ articles. Then download the Nike Running App, pick a plan, and start running.
With that out of the way, let’s continue
Some reasons below why I am deciding to explore the “speed” side of running.
1.) Speed declines as you age. Your endurance will remain but that top speed will for sure suffer. I don’t want to let me speed go without seeing how fast I can push.
2.) My body isn’t made for marathons. I’m a 6’3 male who ebbs between 195–200 lbs. I grew up playing football, basketball, and track. Both from a structural and learned perspective, marathons just wear a bit on my body and I’m not “naturally” inclined for.
3.) You can’t hide when you race the clock, even if it is just you vs you. Candidly, many try to hide behind the distance of a marathon. They come up with stories to explain a subpar performance. If you run a marathon, no one is going to check you on the time. You ran 26.2 miles! But that doesn’t mean you did it well. And if we are, as one of my favorite books Four Thousand Weeks puts it, “nothing but time” why not challenge yourself to go fast for you? It is literally just you vs you when it comes to running! I want that challenge as I get older. No more hiding. No more stories.
4.) It hurts in a special way. I miss that burn. That just full foot on the pedal from the start burn. There’s no logic for desiring the pain…maybe. Although we know at very least there are health benefits that only sprinting and high intensity work provide.
So I call this phase in my training “Need For Speed”. I’m going to explore shorter distances, eventually working down to a mile, and the different training regimens that go along with that.
Anyway, my first race was in Philly during their marathon weekend festivities on 11.19.22. It was an 8k (5 miles) to get my feet underneath me again. I hit my goal time of sub 31 minutes (6:10 pace). Course conditions weren’t the best, and it was absolutely freezing, but the boys had fun.
Training for shorter and faster races is definitely different than a marathon. We will get more into the nitty gritty of the training regimen as we move forward, and the “science” behind it, but first wanted to share why I am doing it. Next race is in a couple weeks. A 10k. Excited to see if I can hold the same pace I did for the 8k or a little faster over the course of a longer distance.
Workouts For You
If you want a couple workouts to keep you moving, have adde some to the YouTube Channel as well as Exercise Snacks Instagram. More coming this week, stay tuned.
Diet/Nutrition
Still on my circadian rhythm eating. I personally don’t consider this intermittent fasting, although I guess it is time restricted feeding. A lot of buzzwords here. Basically, I just eat according to my sleep wake cycles and focus on my digestion. I try not to eat immediately upon waking and instead focus on hydration and a little bit of movement to stimulate my digestive system. This naturally pushes my first meal back about an hour. I then just try not to eat 2–3 hours before bed time, which has helped improve my sleep. This ends up being a 10–12 hour eating window.
The premise is pretty simple–let your body digest what you eat, consume calories during your more active windows (during the day), and allow your body to properly rest and recover during sleep instead of working to digest a meal just consumed. Recent research tends to back this up. Many who eat close to bed end up having slower metabolism the next day and often impaired sleep.
For what I’m eating, I’m exploring simple additions to my pantry that might have outsized impact. Nutrient dense foods often presented as “superfoods” that help round out otherwise solid eating habits. An example of this is like adding milled chia seeds and hemp seeds to one’s oatmeal. Oatmeal (non-instant) is all around a solid food. But then I think of how I can upgrade it. Polyphenol rich blueberries? Omega 3 and fiber rich hemp and chia seeds? This is the lens that I am looking at my food– as a canvas — where I have the ability to get more out of my nutrition with simple upgrades that don’t take much work. Just a little additional thought.
Next food I am interesting exploring is Himalayan Tartary Buckwheat. See if it lives up to the hype cause you know your boy been cooking!
I’ll have some updates on supplement regimens that I have been trying out soon. They’ve been working for my emotional well-being. More in a bit.
Learning / Good Reads
It’s been a year since Virgil passed. What a guy. Legend. Here’s a reminder that his archive still exists on the internet and there is so much you can learn from him whether you are in fashion or not. Stay curious. Long Live V.
On that note, here are some things that I’ve been learning about and reading that you can find value in.
Book
I haven’t finished yet but have been applying its findings. I live by the motto “read a little, apply a lot”. Just make sure you read enough so you get the whole picture though. Don’t want to look foolish.
Gendlin in this book posits that therapy doesn’t work because of actual therapy but instead it unlocks a skill that you already have. You can do this yourself by what he calls “focusing”. It is based on his learnings at the University of Chicago.
It goes back to helping us understand the feedback our body is giving us and not ignoring the innate and highly attuned knowledge that our body actually has. Interoception, which I have talked about before, is a component of this. Gendlin believes we can unlock much of our potential not just through our minds but by listening to our bodies and learning to understand what it is actually saying. Quick read and worth it.
Internet Read
“How Much Protein Do You Really Need”
This article is sure to ruffle feathers but is worth the read. Explores the role protein has in our diet and why the plant-based movement may be a little too overzealous from a nutrition standpoint without planning.
Internet Watch
Eliud Kicpchoge, the man to break the 2 hour mark in the marathon, sits down to discuss running and so much more with Dr Rangan Chatterjee. The convo is a little long but worth the listen, even if just playing in the background. Kipchoge of course talks about running but also shares philosophies and insights anyone can use regardless if they are an avid runner or not.
Closing Note
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