weight loss

Be, Be the Bamboo to Lose Weight and Improve Your Wellness

Don Grier

One of my favorite movies is Caddy Shack.  One of my favorite lines is when Chevy Chase tells Danny his philosophy on life and golf.  He says, “Stop thinking. Let things happen and be, be the ball.”  Chevy then goes on to hit a perfect golf shot blindfolded.  Danny then tries after prodding from Chevy and sends the ball into the pond. Why am I discussing a comedy movie on today’s Change Well podcast?  Like Chevy, I want to pass on some hard-learned lessons using a fitting metaphor.  Hopefully, my metaphor will lead to a successful wellness journey without the need to fish your ball out of a pond.  So, to all the Dannys and Danielles out there, if you want to Change Well, be, be the bamboo.

Why did I pick bamboo, of all things, for my words of wisdom?  Bamboo has many characteristics and traits you should strive for to improve your health and wellness.  Here are a few reasons to be like the bamboo when facing life’s challenges. You can listen to the podcast here

1.  Bend, but don’t break. 

Bamboo, when facing a stiff wind, bends but does not break.  Likewise, when you face a challenge or stressor, you should adapt to the challenge, bending but not falling back to negative behavior such as stress eating.  Practice the resilience of bamboo and be flexible.  If things do not go your way immediately, adapt and go with the flow.  The storm will pass, and you will be stronger when facing the challenge.

2.  Build a robust root system. 

Bamboo is slow-growing.  You do not know the plant is taking root for the first five years.  But during this time, bamboo grows in an extensive root system.  Likewise, a person trying to grow healthy and mentally resilient must nurture a system of habits that will nourish them to become a new, better person.  The first tendrils of wellness may not seem much.  In my case,  my first tentative steps to wellness were small.  I started walking around the block and changing my late afternoon cupful of M&Ms for an apple.  I started with only five minutes of meditating and listening to a poem to nourish my soul. 

But this network of habits built upon each other over time and spread. I tracked the increasing support system of positive, nourishing habits with a phone application called Streaks, which showed growth and consistency.  I went from 5 minutes of meditating to 30 minutes of prayer and 2,000 steps to 10,000.  Like bamboo, the changes from this network of habits were not very noticeable at first but formed a robust root system that nourished explosive growth in wellness over time.

3. Build upon your foundation for explosive growth in wellness.

The five years bamboo spends building roots underground pays off in rapid development.  Once the root system is set, bamboo explodes upward, growing up to thirty-five inches in a single day and thirty meters high overall.  Once you build a network of reinforcing wellness habits, you should seize on it like bamboo and grow to even higher goals.  Once you have your wellness habits set, it is important to keep pressing forward by redefining your goals and changing your why.  Here is an example from my wellness journey. Once I hit my target weight, I pushed on to a new goal of walking fifty miles in one day to support Veterans.  After that, I changed it up, became a certified cycling instructor, and participated in five hours straight in spin classes to raise money for St. Jude’s Hospital.  Having spent all that time and effort building your foundation, be like the bamboo and explode upward, building on each goal using your root system for nourishment.

4.  Adapt to the environment. 

Another fantastic quality of bamboo is that it grows in many different climates. It is resistant to disease and pests and needs little water.  In fact, during hot, dry periods, Bamboo leaves curl up to conserve water.  In a drought, some of the leaves even fall off to self-mulch. 

When you embark on your wellness journey, the adaptability of bamboo provides a powerful example.  If the weather turns cold, like in Des Moines, Iowa, look for an indoor venue to keep your walking habit up.  In my case, I walk around the Des Moines skywalk.  If you are on a work trip out of town, look to the concierge lounge to load up on the vegetable plate instead of having a heavy dinner on an expense count.   You can thrive like bamboo in any environment with some planning and forethought.

5. Strength through simplicity. 

Bamboo’s strength comes from its simplicity.  Unbelievably, bamboo has more compressive strength than concrete and has a comparable strength-to-weight ratio as steel.  This strength is due to its uncomplicated design, a hollow fibrous tube with few leaves or branches.  Likewise, when structuring a strong wellness practice, you should avoid the clutter of fad diets and the latest trends and exercises.  Instead, focus on simple and effective walking practices, sufficient sleep, a well-balanced diet, and quiet time away from stress.  Focusing on the simple and decluttering your life from stressors will strengthen you against life’s challenges. 

The Well-Led Guidelines

Don Grier

PjWe at Wellness Leadership, LLC believe that today’s best-led organizations focus on the wellness of their employees first! Gone are the days when you had to decide between mission and people.  The best way to accomplish the corporate mission is to enable your people to fulfill their purpose! 

Our well-led guidelines operate within the risk management domain.  Every Project Management Professional knows that there are three critical constraints of project management, also known as the Iron Triangle of Project Management: scope, schedule, and budget.  They also are aware of the significant risks that impact these components.  For example, we all know that disagreement among stakeholders over requirements or vision can lead to scope creep and, in turn, impact budget and time.  Likewise, a delay in an external dependency, such as a related project, can impact the schedule and cost.

Yes, the average PMP can rattle off the key risks from the PMI manual and may even be able to come up with a mitigation plan for that risk.  However, in my thirty years of experience running projects and teams, I have seen more projects and organizations go off the rails by inadequately accounting for employee wellness.  Here are just three examples.

  1. A project scheduled its critical initial deployment one week after Diwali.  Consequently, when a problem arose just before the release, the vital resources from the India delivery center needed to be on hand to correct the problem.  The US-based leadership team had addressed the timing for Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks but needed to remember the critical holiday time for most of the resources for their global team.
  2. A key developer and informal project leader needed to trust the underlying architecture and voice his opinion to management.  Instead of discussing and addressing the concern, the project lead indicated that the architecture was used on thousands of projects.  The developer only wanted to make a minor recommendation, but due to the lack of attention, they left the project, taking some critical resources with him.
  3.  A project was pushing toward a tight deadline and shifted to a mandatory work schedule.  The new schedule impacted the employee’s non-work appointments, such as school and daycare pick-up, causing anxiety and resentment.  As a result, absenteeism increased, and productivity decreased, impacting the schedule even more.

I could name many more examples, but it would fill an entire book.  Instead, I have categorized the top fifteen wellness considerations for projects, programs, and organizations, along with approaches to address these considerations

Five Summer Time Tricks To Stay Fit

Don Grier

Summer officially starts tomorrow, June 20, but the heat index has already crept into the 100s in Austin for a few days.   If you want to continue to Change Well with physical activity, we all need a few tricks to stay cool when it is hot.  Here are a few techniques I use to keep active during the doldrums of August. 

1. Sunrise, Sunset.  They say the early bird catches the worm.  But I say the early walker catches the cool breeze. (ok, make that a warm breeze in Texas).  The good news for those working is that the sun rises earlier and sets later in the summer.  That means you don’t need to search for a flashlight to take your walk before or after work.  I always use the early and late sun to walk before or after work (or both).  This way, I catch the morning sunrise or glorious sunset when the temperature is less hot.  You rejuvenate yourself before a busy day or decompress after a stressful one.  Nothing soothes stress better than birdsong carried on a cool morning breeze or seeing the sun touch down over a shimmering pond.   To change up the lyrics a bit from a song from Fiddler on the Roof:

Sunrise, Sunset,
Sunrise, Sunset,
Avoid the heat of day,
Cool breezes fade after the morning,
Turning into a stifling haze.

Sunrise, Sunset,
Sunrise, Sunset,
Wait until the evening comes,
Take a walk with the moon and birdsong,
That way, you can walk extra-long.

2.  Stay Cool In The Pool. Playing in the pool is one way to exercise and avoid heat exhaustion. But what if you are not Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky?  I am assuredly not a great swimmer.  I did not know how to swim until I was a plebe at West Point and never got out of the rock squad (those who sink like a rock).  I still do not know how I passed with a C- since I nearly drowned during the timed swim.   

You can engage in activities in the pool other than swimming, even if you’re not in the best shape.  The one that helped me when I was first beginning my weight loss journey was water aerobics. Weighing in at 350+, I entered the pool because it was the only thing I could do without my joints protesting.  Once I overcame my initial self-consciousness of being the youngest in the class, I found that water aerobics provided a fantastic workout. The best part was that I didn’t need to be overly coordinated.  It was my first step in reclaiming my fitness, and it’s still a reliable exercise option when the weather gets hot. 

For all the young parents out there, playing with your children in the pool is not just a way to beat the heat but also a fun way to stay in shape.  When my oldest daughter was learning to swim (not from me, the Rock, but from classes), we used to have a blast playing a game called Butterfly.  I would lift her and toss her in the pool, singing, “Butterfly, butterfly, how high can you fly?”.  She would then swim 15 feet back to me and respond upon return, “Over the trees and meadows!”.   We sometimes repeated that for about 20 minutes. This is how she learned how to swim, and I got my weightlifting done. The bottom line is to be creative when staying cool in the pool and enjoying precious moments with your children.

3.  Drink and Know Things. One of my favorite lines from Game of Thrones is when Tyrian says, “I drink, and I know things.”   I even have a T-shirt with that saying. This is good advice for the summer as long as, unlike Tyrian, you drink water instead of wine and know when to stop and stay hydrated.  You may be saying that advice is obvious.  I might agree.  But here is something that is not as obvious.  You can drink a lot of water and not remain hydrated.  Here is what I mean.

I went on a Kennedy Walk (50 miles in one day) during a hot day. I kept stopping at water stations along the way and became waterlogged. However, around mile marker 35, my muscles cramped up terribly, and I became woozy.  Then I realized that I had not been taking enough electrolytes and had sweated out most of the salt in my body.  I stumbled to a nearby store and was crestfallen when they ran out of Gatorade.  Luckily, they had some jars of pickles.  So I ate some pickles and drank pickle juice and got better.  The story’s moral is that staying hydrated means also watching your electrolytes.  So drink electrolytes with your water, or you’ll be in a pickle.  Ok, that was corny even for me!

4.  Buddy Up.  I usually walk alone to listen to the latest David Baldacci book.  But in the summer, I know enough to buddy up when hiking.  First, it will keep you motivated.  But more importantly, you can watch out for one another.

If I have to exercise in the heat, I try to find a friend to come with me.  This advice has saved me on several occasions directly and probably a lot more indirectly.  Here is an example.   I enlisted my youngest daughter to come with me on a walk one early fall day.  Even though the place we were walking in was wooded, we unfortunately got a bit lost.  Plus, the temperature, which was supposed to be in the low eighties, jumped into the nineties (never trust a weather report).  We finally found our way out, but it would have been scary if I had been alone in the woods in the heat. 

5.  Switch it up with indoor activities.  Lastly, summer is an excellent time to switch up with some indoor activities.  My go-to exercise will always be hiking in nature.  However, it is time to try something indoors when it is 110 in the shade.   Summer, for me, is an excellent time to take on a new Peloton exercise series or to catch up with some low-impact on YouTube with Paul Eugene. Also, if I want to go on a walk, I can always catch up with the latest stores at the mall or what is happening at Costco.

These are five ways to beat the Summer heat and keep your fitness progressing.  Other recommendations include wearing sunscreen and head covering outdoors, bringing a wet towel to cool off, or, better yet, taking a cool shower after working out.  Lastly, do not forget about your pets when you take them outside.  The first rule of “Sunrise, Sunset” is essential for a dog’s paws.   So take them out before the sidewalk gets too hot.  Remember these rules so you can continue to change well, even in the summer heat!

Four Proven Ways to Fail Forward

Don Grier

One undeniable truth is that life is a roller coaster.   The secret to a fulfilling life is to fail forward, learn from the lows, and keep moving onward. Hardship and mistakes are our greatest teachers. They are often the catalysts that push us out of our comfort zones and into growth.    The most successful individuals have a common thread-they have made numerous mistakes on their journey to success. Take Thomas Edison, for instance. He encountered failure over 1,000 times before creating a working light bulb.  He said, “I have not failed 10,000 times—I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways it will not work.”

I am not saying that everyone should fail 10,000 times before becoming successful! However, I have four approaches to turning a failure into a success.  

1.  Forget the pain, learn, and gain.  Having a setback can be painful, costly, and humbling.  No one sets out to fail or have a hardship.  But the worst thing you can do when you have a failure is to wallow in it.   Going repeatedly in your mind with regret about what went wrong is wasted emotional energy and gets you nowhere.  Instead, take the time to understand where you went wrong dispassionately, document what you will do the next time, and make adjustments and changes to improve the next time.  Remember that no one gets through this life without having a problem.  You are a person born with a specific mission, and this setback may be the one that allows you to course correct to get on the right path.  I believe that St. John Henry Newmann said it best with his Mission Prayer, which I call to mind when I have a setback.

“God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me, which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments. Therefore, I will trust Him. Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.” John Henry Newman

When you fail, don’t let your spirits sink.  Press on to fulfill the mission set forth for you.

2.  Proceed with Faith, Hope, and Charity.  When you fall down, the best way to achieve your mission is to proceed with faith, hope, and, most importantly, charity.  You can have faith that, bit by bit, with every setback and every triumph, you are progressing to your ultimate purpose.   Also, hope will carry you through the dark periods.  Think of Edison.  Many filaments failed, but with each failure, he saw the glint of hope of that first electric light.  But most of all, proceed with charity.  It is sometimes easy to lash out at others when things go wrong.  To blame others either for the circumstances or your mistake.  Instead, try to look at every hardship as a blessing to grow.  Even if a person did wish you ill, look for ways to turn the circumstance around.

3.  They Can Knock You Down, But They Can Never Knock You Out.  My first two suggestions came from things I have learned from my faith journey.  But the saying they can knock you down, but they can never know you out, I learned from my favorite Peloton instructor, Kendall Toole.  Kendall had to deal with mental wellness issues growing up.  What helped her to get through her stress and anxiety was the love of her family.  They reminded her that giving up is the only way to get knocked out.   Life is going to give you some body blows.  We must be persistent and determined to take the first hard steps to get off the mat.  In my case, when I had taken a series of wrong steps on my wellness journey, I was literally knocked out, leaving my IT Delivery Center when I tripped and fell on the step at 3 AM in the morning.  But I did not stay down.  I crawled to the bumper of my car, lifted myself, and the next day changed direction.  You can read more about that incident in my first two podcasts and blogs.  And it is part of my podcast theme song.  I was working 18-hour days, I slipped, and I fell.  At that very moment, I knew I had to Change Well.  Sometimes, we need to be knocked down to bounce back to better things.

4.  Be Patient and Have a Plan.   One thing to remember when digging yourself out of a ditch is that you will not climb out all in one day.  The day after I took the tumble at the delivery center, I did not suddenly drop a hundred and seventy pounds overnight.  I had to be patient, plan a path forward, and not jump at the first fad diet that happened my way.  Take the time to do a retrospective to truly discern the root of your problem and then tackle the issue in small chunks.  For some guidance, I again turn to another favorite prayer of mine, “The Litany of Patience.”    Three of the prayer requests are:

1. Deliver me from rash judgment and haste …

2.  From impulsive decision-making…

3. From the desire to act when I need to be still …

Change without a plan is nothing more than chaos. When you need to change course, take the time to be patient and plan your next move.    Don’t let that check in your path turn into a checkmate.  Take the time to change well.