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Tag: habits

  • A More Active Environment If you played sports in school or had regular physical training in the military, you got a good start building a fitness base, but sometimes after leaving those settings it’s hard to stick with it. As valuable as coached and other structured activities are, once you’re out, it’s hard to form…

  • Visualization, Negative Self-talk, and Self-efficacy

    I am critical of negative self-talk — I encourage people to forgive themselves for failures and focus on getting back on track — but I also don’t care for “visualization,” at least of the “power of positive thinking” stripe. I’ve seen first hand that daydreaming and detailed discussions of a hoped-for future can become a…

  • Happy Halloween! This is a detail from a Halloween Candy infographic at Livestrong.com. It makes and intriguing point! But Swiss people also walk close to twice as many steps as Americans, on average, and I’m sure there are other differences, too. (Why don’t we walk more, anyway? A series in Slate magazine a couple of…

  • Going Beyond Butt In Chair Writers know that the only way to be productive is to write. Not just think about what you’re going to write, and definitely don’t just talk about it with other people. Put your butt in the chair, put your hands on the keyboard, and write. But if sitting might be…

  • 10 Miles a Day It’s not really killing him — it’s doing him a lot of good (although it is a big time outlay)! A mile takes about 15 to 20 minutes to walk, once you’ve got some practice (which, at his rate, he definitely has), and it doesn’t require much in the way of…

  • Frozen Food for a Quick, Hot Meal! You’re running late from work, and the temptation to grab prepared food on the way home is huge — rotisserie chicken is good for you, right? And at many groceries it costs no more than a chicken you cook yourself. So you can use some of those virtuous…

  • It’s Not Enough to “Eat Less” Here is some food for thought: — Do you know anyone who grew up with good, concrete information about food, the nutrition different foods contain, and how much of which are healthful amounts? — Do you sleep enough? — Do you get the CDC recommended levels of exercise? — Do…

  • How Does Your Fitness Tracker Work? Fitness trackers are a category of small, simple, wearable computers that expand on old-school pedometers. Fitbit, Jawbone Up, and Nike Fuelband are some well-known examples. I tested a Nike Fuelband a couple of years ago, and was amused by how many steps it told me I’d taken in my…

  • Active Commuting Has Many Benefits This stencil by Peter Drew, an Australia-based street artist, pulls no punches. An active commute does make it easier to manage your weight. It can also improve your quality of life in general — and, independently, a car commute can reduce your happiness. When drivers decided to switch to walking…