Category: Health & Wellness

  • Standing desks improve productivity

    I’ll admit it: I’ve been coveting a standing desk for years. The idea of escaping the uncomfortable prison of my 10-year-old desk chair is compelling. But standing desks are prohibitively expensive for many people, and up until recently that included me.

    My new standing deskIt finally got to be too much, though. A few weeks ago I bit the bullet and, after doing extensive research on the various options available, finally settled on the NextDesk Terra. There are many companies that manufacture standing desks, but NextDesk seems to offer the best quality-to-price ratio. I also appreciate the built-in Belkin power strip. And let’s face it, their bamboo desk surfaces are downright gorgeous.

    And the motorized raising and lowering is definitely the “wow” factor. Is it necessary? Not really. I guess the argument could be made that the motor is saving my back from having to manually crank the thing up and down, but this being my first standing desk it’s hard to say how much more difficult a manual lifting mechanism would make things. But I’m happy with the motor.

    How often do I find myself standing now that I have the correct equipment? Almost all the time. I easily spend 80% of my work day standing. What’s nice about leaving the desk in its raised position is that it’s so easy to just walk up to the workstation and get something done. My office is in my converted dining room right next to my kitchen, so I’ll often find myself wandering over to get something done while I’m waiting for some water to boil on the stove, or waiting for the microwave to finish warming a bowl of soup.

    Eliminating the need to sit before using the computer has lowered a psychological threshold that was preventing me from handling small tasks when a few minutes of free time suddenly appeared in my day. When I had to sit, I wouldn’t bother because my brain was telling me it would take longer to perform the action of sitting than it would to get something done once I did sit.

    If you’re considering upgrading to a standing desk, I recommend glancing over this article which was instrumental in my decision. Do you already use a standing desk? Comment below and let me know which model you chose and what you like best about it.

     

  • Dieting, productivity, and the Whole30

    Dieting, productivity, and the Whole30

    Many of you know I’ve been following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for the past 3 months due to some mild GI problems I’ve suffered from since late 2011. Among other things, the SCD controls the types and quantities of certain difficult-to-digest carbohydrates that are common in the modern food supply.

    SCD has been, in a word, amazing. I began seeing improvement in my symptoms almost immediately. My initial goal was to spend 90 days on the diet and evaluate at that point if I wanted to continue. Well, I hit my 90 days on Friday, January 9th and am still doing SCD. Not only have my symptoms improved, but I feel so incredible that I can’t imagine going back to the SAD (Standard American Diet) at this point. I wake up every morning with plenty of energy that lasts through the entire day. I’ve lost weight without even trying. And my productivity at work has soared.

    This eating plan has been a big win. However, I’ve struggled to communicate with my friends about why I’m not eating the way they do any more. Part of this is a marketing problem. The SCD was developed by Elaine Gottschall and explained in her book, Breaking the Vicious Cycle, published in 1994. Now I enjoyed reading her book, but it does have a lot of science in it and frankly, it makes the diet seem very complex. So it’s not a book I find myself recommending very often.

    Not only does it present the SCD as being complex, it doesn’t describe just how darn amazing a person can feel by eating whole, unprocessed foods and focusing on healthy fats and proteins instead of carbohydrates. This is a shame since I didn’t realize how lousy I was feeling eating the SAD until I changed my diet.

    Enter the Whole30. I recently finished reading It Starts with Food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig where they introduce a 30-day plan for eating whole, unprocessed foods. It’s essentially the SCD but with better marketing. Now this is a book I can recommend wholeheartedly! The authors do a great job explaining the science behind the Whole30 in an easy to understand way, and they go even further by describing the myriad benefits of eating this way. They also include plenty of practical advice about how to eat whole foods in a world where processed is the norm.

    Now sure, there are foods like pizza and doughnuts that I find myself longing for at times. But the fact is, there is so much real food that I can eat that doesn’t make me feel lousy, and it’s downright delicious. I was never much of a cook and I worried about having to become one if I changed my diet, but this hasn’t been a problem either. It’s been fun learning a new skill, and it didn’t take long to come up with some basic dishes that I enjoy fixing on a regular basis.

    Saturday has become my big cooking day. I do my shopping early in the morning, cook all my veggies for the week, and stick them in the fridge. I’m usually done by noon. Then all I have left to fix each evening is the meat. I fix a double portion which I use for dinner than night. Leftovers serve as lunch the next day. That way I’m only cooking once a day during the week (excluding breakfast but my breakfast lately has been Bulletproof Coffee which doesn’t require any cooking).

    I can say without reservation that, after experiencing what it’s like to be on a whole foods diet, I will never go back to eating the SAD again. If you’re curious and want to experience these incredible results for yourself, I encourage you to at least read through the book once. You don’t have to follow the plan if it seems silly to you. But at least read the material. I guarantee you’ll learn something you never knew before.

    Have you tried the Whole30 or a similar diet? How did it work for you? I’d enjoy hearing what your experience has been. Please feel free to leave a comment below.

  • 7 days to kick sugar

    I’ve been pondering what my goals in 2015 should be. There are many things I want to accomplish this year. I plan on writing about them next week. But this week I want to highlight a product I began working on over Christmas break. It’s called 7 Days to Kick Sugar.

    I’ve been learning a lot about the damaging effects of sugar in my diet. Dr. Robert Lustig’s book Fat Chance has been an eye opener. Apparently, fructose (found in table sugar, fruit, and 99% of the processed food items you’ll find at the grocery store) is a metabolic poison when over-consumed. It makes the liver sick and fatty and causes metabolic syndrome (obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc). It’s not hard to over-consume fructose either, especially given the overwhelming presence of High Fructose Corn Syrup in the modern American diet.

    Dr. Lustig explores the reasons behind our overconsumption of fructose (besides the fact that is tastes amazing). He also suggests some ways that we as a society can solve this massive problem. One of his recommendations is to only consume fructose in its natural form: whole fruit. Apparently, fiber is critical to “blunt” the impact of fructose on our liver which is why fruit juice is not a healthy option. And even when consumed from fruit, our fructose consumption should be limited to 15g per day or less.

    I’ve been limiting my sugar consumption for the past couple of years. I only consume whole fruit. I never consume HFCS or anything with added sugar. I’ve cut soda and fruit juice out of my diet completely. And I feel fantastic. I wake up each morning full of energy, and this energy sticks around the entire day. I used to get very tired after eating lunch, but this doesn’t happen any more. In short, cutting sugar out of my diet has increased my productivity and my enjoyment of life. And I want others to be able to experience that too.

    That’s why I started building this email course over Christmas. My first few weeks without sugar were pretty rough. It’s an addictive substance and it can be very hard to stop consuming it. I literally had withdrawal symptoms. The intention is for this course to provide a daily dose of encouragement, as well as a single actionable step you can take that day to eliminate sugar. By the end of the week, you’ll be feeling amazing.

    I’m roughly 50% finished writing the course. The pre-launch page live. I’d very much appreciate feedback on the content. Additionally, if you sign-up to be notified when the course launches, you’ll receive a free infographic listing 56 different names for sugar that often appear in ingredient lists. It’s going to be a fun ride. I hope you’ll join me.