Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Simple Tips to Motivate Yourself to Exercise
You know you need to work out, but you’re having trouble getting up the enthusiasm. How do you find motivation to exercise when you just don’t feel like getting off your butt? I ask myself this question every now and then, and I have the feeling I’m not the only one.
There are a million ways to motivate yourself to exercise, actually, but these are a few that have worked for me.
* Have fun. If you hate running, don’t go to the track for exercise. Find something you like. The list of different kinds of exercises are nearly endless. The only really important thing is to get your body moving and your heart rate up.
* How you feel after a workout. I always feel great after a good workout. It’s a high. And I let that motivate me the next time.
* Calories burned. If you count calories (and it’s really one of the most effective ways to lose weight), you know that the more you exercise, the more calories you burn — and the bigger your calorie deficit.
* How you’re going to look. Imagine a slimmer, fitter you. Now let that visualization drive you.
* Change it up. Even if you have a routine you enjoy, mix it up from time to time. Try entirely different exercises. You can check out a tape at the library and try yoga or kick boxing for an afternoon. This will not only keep you interested, it will break your muscles out of their routine and help produce better results.
* Get a buddy. Exercising with a friend introduces a positive kind of peer pressure. You will be more likely to go to the gym if you know someone is waiting there for you. Talking and laughing while exercising will also keep you from being bored.
* An exercise log/graph. For some reason, writing it down is extremely important. Really. Do it for a week and you’ll see what I mean.
* Get appropriate clothing. If you don’t have the appropriate clothes for the excercise, it can be irritating, uncomfortable, frustrating, or even unsafe. If you exercise outside after dusk, be sure you have reflective clothing to prevent traffic accidents. Also be sure the clothing looks nice; if you don’t like the way your clothing looks, you may feel uncomfortable, and less likely to exercise.
* Pack Ahead of Time: An iPod, athletic shoes, a towel… whatever. Walking around the house trying to find stuff is a good time to lose your resolve. Put everything together in your gym bag. When you finish working out, take out things that need to be laundered and replace them immediately.
* Have a Goal. What do you want to achieve? Make it specific, make it meaningful, make it obtainable. Be sure to have short-term benchmarks along the way. It’s OK to change your goals if the original plan doesn’t work, but have a goal. Regularly evaluate how you are doing on your goals.
* Success stories. I find the success stories of others incredibly inspirational. If a fitness website has success stories, I’ll almost always read them.
* Reward Yourself. Have a healthy reward when you reach a goal. Buy yourself that cute pair of bike shorts. Go for a weekend hiking tri. Soak in the sauna for your “workout” that day. Buy a new yoga video. Whatever works for you to celebrate in line with your healthy lifestyle!
80 percent of success is showing up
There are a million ways to motivate yourself to exercise, actually, but these are a few that have worked for me.
* Have fun. If you hate running, don’t go to the track for exercise. Find something you like. The list of different kinds of exercises are nearly endless. The only really important thing is to get your body moving and your heart rate up.
* How you feel after a workout. I always feel great after a good workout. It’s a high. And I let that motivate me the next time.
* Calories burned. If you count calories (and it’s really one of the most effective ways to lose weight), you know that the more you exercise, the more calories you burn — and the bigger your calorie deficit.
* How you’re going to look. Imagine a slimmer, fitter you. Now let that visualization drive you.
* Change it up. Even if you have a routine you enjoy, mix it up from time to time. Try entirely different exercises. You can check out a tape at the library and try yoga or kick boxing for an afternoon. This will not only keep you interested, it will break your muscles out of their routine and help produce better results.
* Get a buddy. Exercising with a friend introduces a positive kind of peer pressure. You will be more likely to go to the gym if you know someone is waiting there for you. Talking and laughing while exercising will also keep you from being bored.
* An exercise log/graph. For some reason, writing it down is extremely important. Really. Do it for a week and you’ll see what I mean.
* Get appropriate clothing. If you don’t have the appropriate clothes for the excercise, it can be irritating, uncomfortable, frustrating, or even unsafe. If you exercise outside after dusk, be sure you have reflective clothing to prevent traffic accidents. Also be sure the clothing looks nice; if you don’t like the way your clothing looks, you may feel uncomfortable, and less likely to exercise.
* Pack Ahead of Time: An iPod, athletic shoes, a towel… whatever. Walking around the house trying to find stuff is a good time to lose your resolve. Put everything together in your gym bag. When you finish working out, take out things that need to be laundered and replace them immediately.
* Have a Goal. What do you want to achieve? Make it specific, make it meaningful, make it obtainable. Be sure to have short-term benchmarks along the way. It’s OK to change your goals if the original plan doesn’t work, but have a goal. Regularly evaluate how you are doing on your goals.
* Success stories. I find the success stories of others incredibly inspirational. If a fitness website has success stories, I’ll almost always read them.
* Reward Yourself. Have a healthy reward when you reach a goal. Buy yourself that cute pair of bike shorts. Go for a weekend hiking tri. Soak in the sauna for your “workout” that day. Buy a new yoga video. Whatever works for you to celebrate in line with your healthy lifestyle!
80 percent of success is showing up
Monday, June 23, 2008
How to be lazy
Laziness is the key to success. Here are the rules of being lazy:
# 1. Never do anything. If you wait around long enough, someone else will do it.
# 2. Don't move. Moving is overrated.
# 3. Never run. Running is the worst thing you can do. I had to run once.. big mistake.
# 4. If something is not in your reach, you don't need it. Before you get up to get something across the room next time, think. Do you really want to get up and walk all the way there and all the way back to get it? Yeah, I know. I felt stupid for moving all those times.
# 5. Don't have an opinion. Opinions are thoughts, and thoughts are work.
# 6. Don't work. Working is for suckers. Be a CEO if you can, they never do anything.
# 7. If you have to move, fuss about it. Make it well known that you're pissed off because you have to move. Sigh a lot. Drag your feet and arch your back at 60 degrees (bad posture helps you to conform to the shapes of couches when you sit down, and it makes you look tired).
# 8. Sleep as much as you can. Contrary to common sense and popular belief, sleeping is very productive.
# 9. Don't talk. Talking requires the movement of your jaw.. way too much work.
# 10. If you have to work, do a half-assed job at it. Example: If you have to rake leaves, push them out into the road or into your neighbor's yard. If you have a riding lawn mower, run over them a few times until the pieces are small enough to hide in between blades of grass.
I have more rules, but this is taking more effort than I thought. I'll update this later.. if I'm not too tired.
# 1. Never do anything. If you wait around long enough, someone else will do it.
# 2. Don't move. Moving is overrated.
# 3. Never run. Running is the worst thing you can do. I had to run once.. big mistake.
# 4. If something is not in your reach, you don't need it. Before you get up to get something across the room next time, think. Do you really want to get up and walk all the way there and all the way back to get it? Yeah, I know. I felt stupid for moving all those times.
# 5. Don't have an opinion. Opinions are thoughts, and thoughts are work.
# 6. Don't work. Working is for suckers. Be a CEO if you can, they never do anything.
# 7. If you have to move, fuss about it. Make it well known that you're pissed off because you have to move. Sigh a lot. Drag your feet and arch your back at 60 degrees (bad posture helps you to conform to the shapes of couches when you sit down, and it makes you look tired).
# 8. Sleep as much as you can. Contrary to common sense and popular belief, sleeping is very productive.
# 9. Don't talk. Talking requires the movement of your jaw.. way too much work.
# 10. If you have to work, do a half-assed job at it. Example: If you have to rake leaves, push them out into the road or into your neighbor's yard. If you have a riding lawn mower, run over them a few times until the pieces are small enough to hide in between blades of grass.
I have more rules, but this is taking more effort than I thought. I'll update this later.. if I'm not too tired.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Tips for a Flat Stomach
Developing a lean, flat stomach takes time and patience, especially when it comes to those last few kilograms in those hard to lose places. There is only one way to lose fat in the so-called ’stubborn areas,’ and that is with the correct combination strength training (with a extra focus on mid-section), cardiovascular exercise (short, hard workouts), and stable blood sugar (keeps you from adding additional fat and makes it easier for the body to use body fat for fuel).
Spot Reduction is a Myth - The first thing you need to realize is that it is impossible to ’spot reduce’ fat from one specific part of the body. Fat loss occurs systemically, meaning that you can’t control where the fat comes from. When you burn fat for energy, you will draw it from all areas of the body, and the first place you tend to put it on will be the last place it comes off.
Cardio, cardio, cardio - Doing all the abs exercises in the world will do nothing if you have a layer of fat covering it. Doing strength training, or lifting weights, would help, but not as much as aerobic exercise. If you want to add some ab exercises in after the cardio, that’s great, but be sure to work your whole torso, not just the upper abs — that includes the lower abs, lower back and the muscles that wrap around your sides.
For example, Walking, jogging, bicycling, elliptical exercise and stair climbing are all great fat burners. Most give up early in the workout. During the first 10 minutes of aerobic activity, glycogen (stored carbohydrates) is the primary fuel source. Because you don’t burn significant amounts of fat until glycogen stores are depleted, the key to maximum fat loss is to work out aerobically for 30-60 minutes continuously per session.
Diet - Its best to stay away from fried food and too many sugary desserts. Abdominal fat loss is a 50% exercise, 50% nutrition combination. Regardless of how much you workout, if the number of calories you take in is greater than the amount you burn, you’ll still put on abdominal fat.
Eat Small Meals Regularly - You should try and spread your calories out into five small meals a day instead of 2 or 3 big ones so that you don’t overeat in one feeding.
Give it Time - If you want to have a flat stomach in 3 weeks, forget it. Losing fat takes time, and it’s unhealthy to lose too much weight too fast. Gradual weight loss is healthier, and more likely to be sustained over time. Go for a lifestyle change, something you can live with for the rest of your life, or you will just yo-yo. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Top 7 Tips for Becoming a Better Writer
If you want to learn how to write better where do you go?
Well, you can take a creative writing course.
Or read the books, biographies and studies of men and women hailed as literary geniuses throughout history.
For today, I´ve chosen to take some advice from one the most popular fiction writers of the last few decades: Stephen King.
Now, great sales figures aren’t always an indication of greatness in any field.
But it probably means that the creator knows what s/he is doing and what works. Plus, I have found that that quite a few of Stephen King´s books – like Insomnia, The Long Walkor The Running Man- are really good reads (and sometimes even greater films).
I’ve learned/been reminded about these seven tips by rereading King´s memoir/how-to-write book On Writing - highly recommended for many good insights into writing and a writer’s life - and by a whole bunch of his novels I’ve sacrificed sleep to keep on reading.
Many of these tips can be useful no matter if you are a blogger, writing reports at work/in school or quietly spending your nights secretly working on that great novel that will astonish the world.
1. Get to the point.
Don’t waste your reader’s time with too much back-story, long intros or longer anecdotes about your life. Reduce the noise. Reduce the babbling. In On Writing King gets to his points quickly. Get to your point quickly too before your reader loses patience and moves on.
2. Write a draft. Then let it rest.
King recommends that you crank out a first draft and then put it in your drawer to let it rest. Now, how long you let your text rest may vary. King puts his manuscripts away for several months before rereading and start the editing process.
I often let a post rest for a day or two before I start editing (as I´m sure many other bloggers do from time to time too).
This enables you to get out of the mindset you had when you wrote the draft and get a more detached and clear perspective on the text. It then becomes easier to edit, add and cut in a sometimes kinda ruthless way. The result is most often a better text.
3. Cut down your text.
When you revisit your text it´s time to kill your darlings and remove all the superfluous words and sentences. Removing will declutter your text and often get your message through with more clarity and a bigger emotional punch.
Don´t remove too much text though or you may achieve the opposite effects instead. King got the advice to cut down his texts by 10 percent from an old rejection-letter and has followed this advice for decades. While editing my blog I´ve found that 10 percent seems to be a pretty good figure not just for mammoth-sized books.
4. Be relatable and honest.
King has an honest voice in his fiction and in his memoir. He tells it like it is and makes us relate to him and his characters. Since King´s fiction often is of an odd kind with strange plots that seldom happen to normal people I think one of his strengths as a writer is being able to write relatable content anyway.
One of the keys to doing that is to have an honest voice and honest characters with both bad and good sides to them. People we can relate to with all of their faults, passions, fears, weaknesses and good moments. King´s characters seem human. That creates a strong connection to the reader who starts caring about the characters.
Another key to being honest and relatable is keeping a conversational style. Keeping it simple and using language that isn’t unnecessarily complicated. Using the words that first come to mind.
5. Don´t care too much what others may think.
King admits to being needy about the emotional feedback he gets when he lets his wife read a new story for the first time. He gets a kick out of hearing her laugh so she cries or just cry because something in manuscript really touched her. But he has also gotten tons of mail over the years from people who confuse his sometimes nasty characters with the writer. Or just thinks he should wind up in hell. And King hasn´t always been a favourite among literary critics either.
But from what I gather he just sits down at his desk and keeps writing every morning anyway. If you listen too much to your critics you won´t get much done. Your writing will probably become worse and less fun. And criticism is often not even about you anyway.
6. Read a lot.
When you read you always pick up things. Sometimes it might be reminders about what you know you should be doing while you write. Sometimes it’s some cool idea or just the world and atmosphere the writer is painting. Sometimes it’s something totally new that makes your jaw drop. That one is my favourite. And sometimes you learn what you should avoid doing. There are almost always lessons you can learn.
If you want to be a better writer you need to read a lot to get fresh input, broaden your horizons and deepen your knowledge. And to evolve you need to mix yourself up with new influences and see what happens.
How do you find time to read more? You can cut down on other evening activities like watching TV-shows you don´t care for that much anyway. Or, as King suggests, you can bring a book to waiting rooms, treadmills or toilets. I like to plug in an audiobook while I´m on the bus or walking somewhere.
7. Write a lot.
I’ve saved the most important tip for last. To become a better writer you probably – and not so surprisingly - need to write more.
Many of the best in different fields – Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods - have gone beyond normal limits of practise. And so they reap extraordinary results.
But what do you do when you don´t feel like writing? Waiting for inspiration can become a long wait.
One good way to get around this is to find an effective solution to reduce procrastination. You may have to try a few before you find one that works for you. Another way is well, just to do it. And if you just get going your emotions changes a lot of the time and any initial resistance becomes fun and enthusiasm instead.
Well, you can take a creative writing course.
Or read the books, biographies and studies of men and women hailed as literary geniuses throughout history.
For today, I´ve chosen to take some advice from one the most popular fiction writers of the last few decades: Stephen King.
Now, great sales figures aren’t always an indication of greatness in any field.
But it probably means that the creator knows what s/he is doing and what works. Plus, I have found that that quite a few of Stephen King´s books – like Insomnia, The Long Walkor The Running Man- are really good reads (and sometimes even greater films).
I’ve learned/been reminded about these seven tips by rereading King´s memoir/how-to-write book On Writing - highly recommended for many good insights into writing and a writer’s life - and by a whole bunch of his novels I’ve sacrificed sleep to keep on reading.
Many of these tips can be useful no matter if you are a blogger, writing reports at work/in school or quietly spending your nights secretly working on that great novel that will astonish the world.
1. Get to the point.
Don’t waste your reader’s time with too much back-story, long intros or longer anecdotes about your life. Reduce the noise. Reduce the babbling. In On Writing King gets to his points quickly. Get to your point quickly too before your reader loses patience and moves on.
2. Write a draft. Then let it rest.
King recommends that you crank out a first draft and then put it in your drawer to let it rest. Now, how long you let your text rest may vary. King puts his manuscripts away for several months before rereading and start the editing process.
I often let a post rest for a day or two before I start editing (as I´m sure many other bloggers do from time to time too).
This enables you to get out of the mindset you had when you wrote the draft and get a more detached and clear perspective on the text. It then becomes easier to edit, add and cut in a sometimes kinda ruthless way. The result is most often a better text.
3. Cut down your text.
When you revisit your text it´s time to kill your darlings and remove all the superfluous words and sentences. Removing will declutter your text and often get your message through with more clarity and a bigger emotional punch.
Don´t remove too much text though or you may achieve the opposite effects instead. King got the advice to cut down his texts by 10 percent from an old rejection-letter and has followed this advice for decades. While editing my blog I´ve found that 10 percent seems to be a pretty good figure not just for mammoth-sized books.
4. Be relatable and honest.
King has an honest voice in his fiction and in his memoir. He tells it like it is and makes us relate to him and his characters. Since King´s fiction often is of an odd kind with strange plots that seldom happen to normal people I think one of his strengths as a writer is being able to write relatable content anyway.
One of the keys to doing that is to have an honest voice and honest characters with both bad and good sides to them. People we can relate to with all of their faults, passions, fears, weaknesses and good moments. King´s characters seem human. That creates a strong connection to the reader who starts caring about the characters.
Another key to being honest and relatable is keeping a conversational style. Keeping it simple and using language that isn’t unnecessarily complicated. Using the words that first come to mind.
5. Don´t care too much what others may think.
King admits to being needy about the emotional feedback he gets when he lets his wife read a new story for the first time. He gets a kick out of hearing her laugh so she cries or just cry because something in manuscript really touched her. But he has also gotten tons of mail over the years from people who confuse his sometimes nasty characters with the writer. Or just thinks he should wind up in hell. And King hasn´t always been a favourite among literary critics either.
But from what I gather he just sits down at his desk and keeps writing every morning anyway. If you listen too much to your critics you won´t get much done. Your writing will probably become worse and less fun. And criticism is often not even about you anyway.
6. Read a lot.
When you read you always pick up things. Sometimes it might be reminders about what you know you should be doing while you write. Sometimes it’s some cool idea or just the world and atmosphere the writer is painting. Sometimes it’s something totally new that makes your jaw drop. That one is my favourite. And sometimes you learn what you should avoid doing. There are almost always lessons you can learn.
If you want to be a better writer you need to read a lot to get fresh input, broaden your horizons and deepen your knowledge. And to evolve you need to mix yourself up with new influences and see what happens.
How do you find time to read more? You can cut down on other evening activities like watching TV-shows you don´t care for that much anyway. Or, as King suggests, you can bring a book to waiting rooms, treadmills or toilets. I like to plug in an audiobook while I´m on the bus or walking somewhere.
7. Write a lot.
I’ve saved the most important tip for last. To become a better writer you probably – and not so surprisingly - need to write more.
Many of the best in different fields – Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods - have gone beyond normal limits of practise. And so they reap extraordinary results.
But what do you do when you don´t feel like writing? Waiting for inspiration can become a long wait.
One good way to get around this is to find an effective solution to reduce procrastination. You may have to try a few before you find one that works for you. Another way is well, just to do it. And if you just get going your emotions changes a lot of the time and any initial resistance becomes fun and enthusiasm instead.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Most Famous eye illusion (optical illusions)
Lasik eye surgery can fix your eye, but these eye illusions will still trick on you.
It is quite interesting that all numbers can be created by using only two numerals - 4 and 8.
Is this really a spiral?
There is nothing moving on the picture.
Another static picture.
Motion is just an eye illusion.
Are the horizontal lines parallel? (of course they are)
There is nothing moving below.
Who do you like more - women or saxophone players?
See the face of a soldier and a man that is bending over on the below eye illusion
This impossible object is called "Devil's Fork" or "Schuster's Conundrum"
Try to arrange dices like this.
If you can read the following picture, then you can shout ...
Are there really just flowers?
Beautiful scene. But there is something more to it.
1st Color Blindness Test - can you see a "12" on this plate?
2nd Color Blindness Test - there is a "26" on this plate.
3rd Color Blindness Test - can you trace a line from one "X" to the other?
4th Color Blindness Test - you should see 58 (upper left), 18 (upper right), E (lower left) and 17 (lower right).
Given the wood do you think you could make this?
You may read across and upright.
A-B-C or 12-13-14?
Boats on the picture are not moving. It's just an eye illusion.
Given the wood do you think you could make this?
Or this one?
Another interesting building illusion.
It is quite interesting that all numbers can be created by using only two numerals - 4 and 8.
Is this really a spiral?
There is nothing moving on the picture.
Another static picture.
Motion is just an eye illusion.
Are the horizontal lines parallel? (of course they are)
There is nothing moving below.
Who do you like more - women or saxophone players?
See the face of a soldier and a man that is bending over on the below eye illusion
This impossible object is called "Devil's Fork" or "Schuster's Conundrum"
Try to arrange dices like this.
If you can read the following picture, then you can shout ...
Are there really just flowers?
Beautiful scene. But there is something more to it.
1st Color Blindness Test - can you see a "12" on this plate?
2nd Color Blindness Test - there is a "26" on this plate.
3rd Color Blindness Test - can you trace a line from one "X" to the other?
4th Color Blindness Test - you should see 58 (upper left), 18 (upper right), E (lower left) and 17 (lower right).
Given the wood do you think you could make this?
You may read across and upright.
A-B-C or 12-13-14?
Boats on the picture are not moving. It's just an eye illusion.
Given the wood do you think you could make this?
Or this one?
Another interesting building illusion.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Saturday, June 7, 2008
8 Hilarious Road Signs You Wish You Never Saw
Driving in a new neighborhood? Need directions? You'd better hope you don't see these road signs.
I have been driving for more than 10 years and sometimes what I encounter on the road will really stump the driver whether you are a seasoned driver or a newbie. As it is, you have to concentrate on the road and worse if you are in a strange neighbourhood. If you were driving on the road and looking for directions, what will you do when you encounter these signs? It's worse than getting no help
Turn right like the sign says or turn left like the arrow suggests? Quick make up your mind!
See this sign, make an immediate u-turn, even if it is illegal.
Need not say more here.
The last time I checked, when it rains, there usually is water around! Duh.
Got to have a good company with you when you drive on this road. It's going to be a l-o-n-g journey.
Okay, so which is correct? I don't want to be the driver lost in this neighbourhood.
I hope this is not a tourist attraction site!
Cars can travel on water already? Wow, I want one of those.
I have been driving for more than 10 years and sometimes what I encounter on the road will really stump the driver whether you are a seasoned driver or a newbie. As it is, you have to concentrate on the road and worse if you are in a strange neighbourhood. If you were driving on the road and looking for directions, what will you do when you encounter these signs? It's worse than getting no help
Turn right like the sign says or turn left like the arrow suggests? Quick make up your mind!
See this sign, make an immediate u-turn, even if it is illegal.
Need not say more here.
The last time I checked, when it rains, there usually is water around! Duh.
Got to have a good company with you when you drive on this road. It's going to be a l-o-n-g journey.
Okay, so which is correct? I don't want to be the driver lost in this neighbourhood.
I hope this is not a tourist attraction site!
Cars can travel on water already? Wow, I want one of those.
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