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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!

Harness Four Powerful Wellness Concepts To Be Fully Engaged

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Our recent podcast and blog series on the body and soul connection recalled two books.  I am reading He Leadeth Me by Father Walter Ciszek now, and one that helped spur me on during my initial efforts to change well is The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.  Both books discuss the importance of practicing engagement in all directions and four wellness concepts.  Let’s see what that looks like.

I am going to start first with He Leadeth Me.   If you have the Hallow application, which I spoke about in the previous podcast on Body and Soul routine combos, there is a 40-day Lenten discussion using excerpts from the book.  The book is a memoir of Father Walter Ciszek and his survival in a Soviet prison and later a Siberian Gulag after being falsely accused of crimes.  The book is a powerful spiritual testament to surviving the harshest conditions if you trust God and have a purpose beyond yourself.  It also showed how the stress of the prison camp and Gulag helped Father Ciszek become more spiritually alive.  It is a fantastic book for many reasons, and I recommend it to anyone, even if they are not Christian.    But the point I want to focus on today is Father Ciszek’s quote on the connection between body and soul and the impact each has on the other.  Also, how the stress that he previously put on his body conditioned him physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually to deal with his over twenty years in captivity. Here are two pertinent excerpts from the book that will ever remain etched in my mind and heart:

“During my early years in religious life, I had even tried to outdo the legends of the saints in fastings and penances of every sort. But I did it, not so much to punish the body or attain perfection as to prove to the world and to myself how tough I was. Yet it was only now, when each day ended with exhaustion and the body cried out for every extra minute of rest, every little respite from work, every extra crumb of food, that i really came to appreciate the marvelous gift of life god had given man in the resources of the human body. The intimacy that exists between soul and body is a marvel of creation and a mystery of human existence.”

“The mysterious interplay of body and soul is an essential characteristic of our human nature. If the body is sick or sore, tired or hungry or otherwise distressed, it affects the spirit, affects our judgment, changes our personality. So slight a thing as a headache can affect our relations with those around us. It is through the body that we express and experience love and kindness and comfort. We excuse our snappish, petty, ill-mannered conduct to one another on the grounds that the body is having a bad day. We are constantly, day in and day out, hour after hour, under the influence of these mysterious workings of soul on body and body on soul.”

                He Leadeth Me by Walter J. Ciszek with Daniel L. Flaherty, 99

Father Ciszek points out that he could not have kept his soul and emotions intact if he had not trained himself physically.  He also discusses in the book how his spiritual well-being and purpose helped him to drive on even when it appeared physically impossible.

The Power of Full Engagement

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz in The Power of Full Engagement make a similar connection, albeit from a secular viewpoint.  This book was instrumental in starting my wellness journey, and I have referenced some of its four wellness concepts in developing my practice.  The fundamental premise is to become a fully engaged, effective person and leader, you should focus on managing energy rather than time.  The second key idea is that there are four dimensions of energy, the capacity of which you need to increase and manage to be fully engaged and high-performing.  These are:

  1. Physical energy, which focuses on the quantity of energy;
  2. Emotional energy, which defines the quality of energy (for example, compare  the impact of negative talk to positive affirmation on your well-being);
  3. Mental energy, which defines the direction of energy (focused versus distracted);
  4. Spiritual energy, which defines the power and impact of the energy (energy and effort not aligned with spiritual being and vision is wasted)

The third of the wellness concepts is the best way to build up energy in all four quadrants is to train like an athlete with intervals of stress and rest.  If there is too much stress and insufficient rest in any quadrant, you become tired and disheartened.  Alternatively, too much rest without the stress of a challenge leads to complacency and, in extreme cases, sloth. 

The last of these wellness concepts is that the most fundamental energy source is physical; the most significant that guides our vision and purpose is spiritual.  The underlying capacity of our physical energy impacts all other quadrants.  When we are tired, unhealthy, and hyped up on too many all-nighters of pizza and soda, we are often cranky and short with others.  Lack of sleep impacts our ability to focus on our work, and we become distracted. 

On the other hand, without stores of spiritual energy, we can dissipate our energy on the wrong things and forego the purpose for which we were put on this earth.  To refer back to our initial quote from Father Ciszek, if you do not have the physical capacity, you will not have the energy to be led to your ultimate purpose. And if you do not have the spiritual backbone and purpose for living, you will be led in the wrong direction.

I highly recommend that you take the time to read both books.  I cannot underestimate the impact that both have had on my life.  My blogs and podcasts focus on how I used the wellness concepts of these books to change my life.  If you have not had the time, check out Episode 2, which covers techniques in all four energy quadrants, Episode 4, Waking Up to Your Why about the spiritual component, and Episode 7, THINK Yourself to a New You, for ideas on Emotional and Mental Energy.  The podcasts each have links to the associated blogs for a deeper dive into wellness concepts.  In conclusion, let me close by paraphrasing St Francis De Sales.  Within every period of desolation lies the seeds of consolation.  The opposite is also true.  To best build our capacity in all four quadrants of our humanity – physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual – we must learn how to harness the ebb and flow of stress and relaxation to become fully engaged, fully human, and to change well!

Slow Down You Move too Fast

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One of my favorite songs is Simon and Garfunkel’s “Feeling Groovy” and nothing makes me feel groovier than taking a slow walk Saturday around Lady Bird Lake in Austin. The song goes something like this with apologies for some modifications:

“Slow down you move to fast,

Got to make the Saturday last,

Just kicking down Lady Bird Lake,

Austin is great and feeling groovy.”

Here is a picture I snapped last weekend during my weekly trek.  These turtles sure know how to Slow Down, bask in the sun, and feel groovy.

While the word Groovy may have been out of vogue since the Seventies, slowing down to regroup is still key to a better life.  Even more so in this time of constant noise and nuisance.  Nothing restores the soul and the spirit then a good podcast, a crisp wind and nature all around.

Slowing down is the key to the healthy and happy life.  I seldom miss a Slow Walk Saturday for the following three reasons:

1.  Time to reflect and adjust.  When we are running from one task to the other, there is seldom time to reflect, learn from experiences, and adjust.  I find that when I slow down and quiet my mind that I come up with the answer that I need.  Proof point?  I have been so busy with work and life that I have been having writer’s block.  A few minutes and miles and I had ten new ideas when I had been stuck for at least a week.  Sometimes the best thing when you are struggling for a solution is slow down, quiet your mind and be thankful for the nature all around you. 

2.  Destress and feel blessed.  Nothing stokes compassion and soothes the soul than to experience nature.  It is hard to feel hassled when you see 20 turtles sunning on a log or see a bird take flight.  It is a wonder this world! Our role is to revel and reflect the love of God in his creation.  Not to strive and stifle.  Slowing down makes us thankful for the pauses and pleasures that are in each day!

3.  Listen and learn.  When you are alone with your thoughts and those of a good book, you learn new things about yourself and your place in the world.  I recommend to everyone the library application Libby which provides audio books for free if you have a library card.  I have learned so much while walking and listening from how Changing your Habit can Change Your Life  to  How to be 10% Happier.  Truly my Slowdown Saturdays have made me a better person!

Life is not a sprint. It a slow walk to the better angels of our nature. So, take the time to slow down and feel groovy.

Go Big to Get Small – The Art of Improbable Goals

Don Grier3 Comments

For the followers of my blog, this is the short form of this blog.  The longer form is here. Long Form

My son Kyle turned me on to Tim Ferriss, the podcast king, a few years back.  What I love about Tim and the stories he tells is he always strives to do something new, something impossible.  Just to name two of the incredible things he has done is teach himself to swim a mile in one week and to become Jujitsu World Champ in a few months!  You can listen to more of Tim here! Tim Blog

Another one of my favorite podcasters is Father Mike Schmitz.  Recently he did a series on the definition and examples of courage.  According to Father Mike, “Fear is not taken away, courage is given!”  To paraphrase, you cannot be truly courageous without fear.  Courage is striking out even when you have that dry pit in your stomach.   Indeed, being fearless is a bit of a misnomer.  You must drive through your fears to become a better person, a better you.

To be like Mike and to take on Tim, I started the practice a few years back to declare improbable goals and then set out a plan to accomplish them.  I used these goals and the efforts to reach them to overcome fear, gain confidence, and lose weight.  The best example of this is finishing a Kennedy Walk – 50 miles in 20 hours or less.

When I started my weight loss journey in 2015, walking 50 yards was hard enough.  I was 358 lbs. with a distinct fear of throwing out my back even walking around the block.  I tell you all this to understand just how impossible this goal seemed at the time.   To me, it was just short of climbing Mt. Everest.

I needed something big to compel me forward, something with my back history was just a bit scary.  I wanted to walk a long distance.  I started to research on the internet what was equivalent to a marathon but for walkers.  And I found it –  the Kennedy Walk.  The Kennedy walk was established by John F. Kennedy to demonstrate the fitness of the Armed Forces.  It must be completed in 20 hours.  Bobby Kennedy famously completed the walk one winter’s day in his loafers walking along the Potomac.

One key element for establishing a large goal was done, I now had the target.  But I needed a second element – a reason.  The reason in this case was more important than the goal.  I wanted to honor a former colleague in the Army who was lost while serving this country in Afghanistan – Richard McEvoy and to raise money for returning vets.  Dick was KIA in Afghanistan on August 22nd, 2015 while training the Afghani police. He was a contractor after serving 28 years in the service. Col McEvoy (then Captain) and I served together in the 3-60 Infantry Battalion. He was the epitome of the USMA motto: Duty, Honor, and Country. In honor of Dick, the walk served as a fund raiser for the Merivis Foundation, a non-profit that trains returning veterans in Austin for the IT industry and the Young Marines, a service group in Austin.

With a worthy cause and a goal firmly established, I set out to complete a 50 mile walk in 20 hours or less.  But I could not do it all at once.  So, I broke it out in sizeable chunks.  I also picked a venue – the Lady Bird Lake trail in Austin – that could be walked 5 times to equal 50 miles.   So, in the spring of 2016, I started to train for the first Annual McEvoy Memorial Kennedy Walk.

Every Saturday, I took an increasingly longer walk.   Lady Bird Lake trail was the perfect venue.  It is shaded much of the way, had adequate rest rooms and water and the city was immediately reachable.   I started breaking up some of my longer walks by stopping at a restaurant or store to eat some healthy food/snacks (and ok a beer).  Slowly, I went from 3 to 5 to 10 to 30 miles!  I was ready.

I finished the 50 miles, McEvoy Memorial, Kennedy Walk on Nov. 5, 1986.  Here is a video of me introducing it.  Kennedy Walk

Here is me at the finish.

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I made it in approximately 16 and a half hours.  The drive to finish the walk gave me the impetus to reach the Lifetime distinction at Weight Watchers.  As I walked along the path, I thought about how striving for big goals helped me to serve a great cause and to become smaller in weight and more confident in my health.  I came up with these three major elements that commend the art of setting improbable goals.

  1. Compelling Purpose to Move Forward – Setting a major goal that seems improbable gives you added motivation to stick with the day to day difficulty of staying on track.  Once I set the goal, I could not let myself, the Veterans, and the memory of my colleague down.  Life is indeed 90% perspiration, but you need the 10% of inspiration to compel you forward to a better you.
  2. Decomposable into Smaller Chunks – You cannot achieve monumental goals in a day or a week (unless you are Tim Ferris who makes a living out of it).  For ordinary people such as myself, the only way to achieve something big is to plan to break it down into smaller chunks.  In this case, the selection of the Lady Bird Lake loop was the perfect venue.
  3. A Cause Worthy of the Effort – When you are selecting an improbable goal, it is important to back it with a worthy cause. In this case, the cause was worthier that the effort.  Our Veterans, both the fallen and the living, protect us and sacrifice for a greater purpose themselves – the freedom and liberty of the United States.  50 miles is not nearly enough to walk for sacrifices they have given.

On Memorial Day, I will do a five-part sequel to this blog with the words that I spoke at each 10-mile mark in 2016.  Never forget our soldiers and service people this Memorial Day.