Welcome to Friday, All!
It is again, that time of the week where we all rush to accomplish our tasks all the while not desiring to do much more than get through the day so we can get home to family and friends for a few days of respite. Several years ago a young Timothy Ferriss realized that he never accomplished more than when he was under a drastic deadline. Forming the hypothesis that it was possible to get more done in less time while preserving the rest of the day for personal ventures he set out to refine his theory. The book “The 4-Hour Workweek” is the result of this experiment. In a nutshell – imagine that you only had four hours to accomplish today’s tasks. That’s half of your normal workday (unless you’re a salary employee around here and then it’s a third! wink, wink). If your boss came in and said that you could go home every day at noon (or ten depending on when you come in) but you had to accomplish your normal task list – would you even consider it? I would! Just think how many less conversations you would have with your cube mate about this weekend’s plans or how many fewer trite emails you would send or fewer mundane tasks you would be involved in. You’re leaving in four hours! But everything needs to be done. So get to it, right? Exactly.
We have introduced this to you before in the terms of kurtosis and high intensity fitness training. You have also been encouraged to do nothing and rest often. Our bodies react very well to this constant variability. Long periods of rest and recovery interrupted by a few moments of high intensity activity. If you own a pet – you know how this works first hand. Cats, dogs, and pretty much every animal on the planet practice this with a vengeance. Those who are not cooped up and domesticated on un-natural diets (sorry, but Purina is not a natural diet for anyone even if the name Science is in its’ name) are healthy, lean, fit, and ready for action at any time. They rest often and play really hard! We all get a kick out of the dog that suddenly jumps up and runs circles around the table for no apparent reason. What happens next? They calm down, come close for some attention, and settle back into a restful state. How novel! Maybe we should try the same…
Today – do a little experiment. Take a section of your task list – on that usually takes a few hours to complete. Create an imaginary deadline that is half of that expected completion time and dedicate your whole self to getting it done. Tell yourself that you’ll get to go home early. See how productive you are. This takes practice! And as Ferriss will tell you – start small and reward your effort. This weekend, try it at home. You will probably be more successful if you know that when you finish you’ll get to go out shopping or watch the big game. Come back on Monday and share with everyone how you did!
You can check out Ferriss’ work here and here (blocked at CNH).
We have new members! Today, let’s welcome Erika to the our team! Erika is an extremely talented Kitchen and Bath Designer who works locally and is an accomplished athlete at CrossFit Collective. She has recently converted to our whole foods eating plan to increase her athletic performance and overall health. Welcome!
Several weeks ago, very quietly, Brian joined our group. He is another talented design engineer on the Flagship Combines and works on campus. He started his own journey to better health through nutrition and activity on 15 September of 2010 and reported yesterday that he has successfully lost 52 pounds! Congratulations, Brian and a belated Welcome from all of us!
I would like to take a moment to send a nod over to my Dad – another Mike – who a couple weeks ago came out to help me with preparing my new house for inspections. A professional engineer, he takes his time in taking on any change in the norm. For years he ate decently well and was, for the most part, very similar to eating per our suggestions. The one tip that had always stuck with me from many years ago was that you should only eat when hungry and only until you’re full. On this recent trip, he was talking with me about many recent suggestions that he has tried and the first was a big deal. He had given up diet soda. That alone has dropped some weight, gave him more energy, and his sleep is better. The second was for those of you who can’t seem to get past the no-bread thing. Try sprouted-grain bread. It still has a lot of excess sugar (so continue to follow the Zone rule of ½ slice equals 1 block carbs) but the various toxins and anti-nutrients have been removed due to the sprouting process so it will have less of an effect on your system. The plant proteins such as gluten and lectin are still present so I recommend this ONLY as a transitional crutch. Thanks for the tips, Dad!
There have been many emails this week to share in the joys of home ownership and the TREMENDOUS successes our group is having! It is truly inspiring to read these! Please, when you send me one let me know if it is okay to share with the group.
Also, there have been a few by our concerned members who are not seeing exactly the results they had hoped for. Do not fret! We are here to support and help you. For anyone who is not achieving their goals and all of our newest members – I am available to meet with you one-on-one or in small groups ANY day that suits you best. I can come over to your location or we can do it over the phone. Just let me know! I don’t hold all the answers or any special keys. But we have a lot of tools and just need to find the right one for you. Keep plugging away and we’ll make your breakthrough together!
Exciting news has come over the recipe side of things. If you have visited the CNH Nutrition Blog then you have seen the Foodee Project widget that is located on the right side of the home page. This widget, which has featured our own Bonnie of The Naked Kitchen, gives you a new recipe EVERY DAY! Pull it up each day and I’m sure you’ll find at least ONE recipe a week to try. Also, the Foodee Project has an awesome new tool found at thefoodee.co in which you can browse their extensive recipe collection, select the meals you want to eat, then email yourself the shopping list for them! You don’t even need to put it together – the system does it automatically! How cool is that? And we are an official supporter of the project so check it out and share your experience with us!
We have a meeting today! Our topic will be inflammation and we will be getting caught up with everyone’s questions over the last two weeks. I look forward to seeing everyone who can attend. Remember, everyone is invited – including your friends and family who don’t work on our campus. The more, the healthier!
Next week I will be sending out a getting-started email for all of our new members as well as a good reminder for our long-term ones. Any tips you think would be good to include are welcome. Send them my way at either address: mike.kizis@cnh.com or coackmkcfc@gmail.com.
To working hard and resting well.
Mike.
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