The Fit Nation

https://ift.tt/HODRPUM http://www.Amazon.com/books I’ve talked about the mental aspects of healthy eating in the past. Recently I’ve backslid a little on indulging in junk food, so when I did my annual physical at the Doc (“wellness visit”, in Medicare parlance), my weight had crept up a bit. I’ll be seeing her for a follow up in August so this is a good opportunity to be stricter for 3 months. I had an interesting chat with Gemini about things like mindful eating and what to do when the voice of temptation whispers sweetly in my ear. I shared the chat here . I asked for suggested reading and Gemini told me about the book “The Craving Mind” by Dr.  Jud Brewer. Good tip, it was an excellent and fascinating  book. It is not specifically about eating but about cravings in general, but the neuroscience of various cravings has a great deal of overlap. Dr. Brewer improved his own mental health and happiness by diligently doing ...

https://ift.tt/ZFitbd3 I had some nice rides every day last week along with a couple of strength training sessions in the garage. If have footage from my group ride on Tuesday and Friday’s ride. Tuesday we did some hills West of town then went around Chesbro and Uvas Reservoirs. The gang in the parking lot , the fog hasn’t burned off yet Getting out of the parking lot at the start, always the trickiest part of the ride Heading Up Sycamore Ave West of Town Past the old Machado School Approaching Paradise Valley Climbing LLagas Road Back in the flat part of Llagas on the other side of the hill Climbing Willow Springs. This was steep on my recumbent, next time I’ll ask for more electric assist Past the end of Chesbro reservoir on Oak Glen Ave Friday was a solo cruise around town and a little to the South. I Had an interesting experience on this little off-road path next to Watsonville. I looked over at my left hand and had a ...

https://ift.tt/rQgF4U2 We’ve had better luck with sunshine the past several days, with some gloomy mornings mixed in. On Tuesday my group did our “Taco Tuesday ride” out and back to Metcalf Park and then to Rosie’s downtown. Wednesday I did a 2 1/2 hour ride at a brisk pace with some on-bike strength training and intervals at the end. Afterwards I did my upper body strength training. This was my hardest recent session and was well-tolerated. I did a shorter recovery ride on Thursday and another longer brisk ride on Friday. Yesterday I recovered again, throwing in some indoor kayak exercises. I am encouraged that I seem to be able to go longer and at a faster pace without feeling badly later in the day. I had my yearly wellness check-up (we used to call them “physicals”) with my GP on Thursday and all was well. She did think a mole on my face needs further examination so I’ll see a skin doc about that in June. The big check I’m waiting...

https://ift.tt/Cpwln85 I have been doing well in meditation lately, achieving an important first step of “calming the default mode network” (which I discussed here ). But something seemed missing. I would sometimes feel calm and quiet but a bit dull or empty. I had seen meditation teachers talking about linking the mind and the heart, and thought that might be what’s missing, but had not make much progress on it. I got some tips on it from the book “The Heart of Centering Prayer” by Cynthia Borgeault. I’ll discuss that book a bit more later. But the breakthrough for me was when Cynthia discussed neuroscience ramifications of the mind/heart connection. I had often thought “heart” was meant metaphorically in this connection, but she insisted that is was physical. The book was written in 2016 so neuroscience research on this was sparse but still compelling. It has since exploded, and there is now a whole field of “neurocardiology...