Happiness is....

Happiness is....

Good health, meaningful work and love.

What everyday actions are you doing to lead you closer to these things?

The Hand We're Dealt

The Following passage was written by renowned strength and conditioning coach Shawn Philips.

Its a true story and has a wonderful message - so I thought I would share it with you.

We were sitting in a sandwich shop in my home town of Golden--my kids, Nathanial and Lilly, my mom and her lifelong friend Susi--when I looked out the window to see a father with his son, about the same age as my boy, taking a rest in the shade.

The father sat down, looking exhausted. Took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes and yawned. His boy was already sitting... in a very elaborate wheel chair.

This father's boy was unable to lift his head, could not control his body or movements. Cerebral Palsy? Maybe... we could guess but it didn't matter.

What I saw was a dad who was dealt a hand he didn't ask for. Who clearly loved his son and was doing what any dad would do. Stepping up. Doing his best and loving his boy.

I thought about all that he missed. All that would never be. What it would feel like to see other kids run and play.

I asked both my kids to look out.. and pointed out that his boy has challenges. Obstacles that we don't have. We are very lucky. We are blessed and lest we ever forget it.

(My son has many life threatening food-allergies but I like to
make sure we call them "Inconveniances for some kids and
families have real problems, like this.)

Then I asked my kids if they thought other kids ever approached this boy or just talked to him. Said, "Hi?" They said, "No." So, I asked them, would you go out and just make contact?

Will you say "Hi!" to him?

They looked scared but willing. "Yes, dad."

They were excited that maybe they could make a difference. We had a bite of our food and turned and they were gone. We walked out front, looked left and right... even around the corner and they were gone. Like the wind.

I am sorry we missed the opportunity not just for the kids to say, "Hi," but for me to say, "Nice work, Dad!" and just to give an acknowledging nod to this strong man.

Next time you think you can't, the weights are to big or you're just not strong enough to take the next step towards the finish line, think of the Strength some mothers and fathers live into every day.

You are asking for, calling forth your Strength. These men and women are being called forth. They didn't ask for but were called upon.

Life isn't fair. True. But it's not about fair it's about playing the next best shot with the lay you've got. It's about taking the next step with clarity and intention. It's about loving the hand your dealt like it's the one you wanted with all your soul.

Now, stand up, and get out there and give it your real FULL STRENGTH...and make sure to acknowledge others who are doing the same.  It's through the whole, the connection, the support of "us" that we all grow Stronger.

Chemical S*#t Storm

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking....If you could please return to your seats and ensure they are in the upright position...your cabin crew is now serving lunch and you're about to fly through a chemical sh#%t storm....."  This should have been the announcement on a recent Qantas flight from Brisbane to Sydney.  Instead 'lunch' was being served by the friendly staff unaware that their seemingly healthy alternative - a ham and mayonnaise sandwich - contained more chemicals than your average backyard swimming pool.

The chemicals (along with their corresponding classification number) contained in lunch were as follows:

Emulsifiers - used in the mayonnaise to prevent it from separating into oil and water and prevent mould from forming.

Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate (481)

Diacetyltartaric (472e)

Mineral Salts - used as a bread enhancer.

Triphosphates (451)

Pyrophosphates (450)

Polyphosphates (452)

Flavour Enhancers - as the title suggests - chemical substances with flavouring properties.

Monosodium L-glutamate (621) - a salt of glutamate, one of the building blocks that make up animal and vegetable protein.  The jury is still out on whether this well known additive in Chinese take away is harmful or not.  

Antioxidants - substances which prevent food from turning rancid in order to extend their shelf life.   

Sodium Erythorbate (316)

Preservatives - substances which reduce the growth of microbes which, if not prevented, can lead to, dangerous level of toxins in the food. 

Sodium Nitrite (250) - mainly added to processed meats ie ham, bacon, hot dogs etc to preserve the colour of the meat (it keeps it pink rather than grey even after cooking) and to inhibit the lethal botulism bacteria. Sodium nitrate (a type of salt) is a naturally occurring mineral present in all kinds of root vegetables ie carrots and leafy greens.  This is because anything out of the ground draws sodium nitrate out of the soil. When we eat these foods the sodium nitrate is converted to sodium nitrite by our digestive process.

Potassium Sorbate (202) - used to inhibit moulds and yeast in many foods including cheese, wine, yogurt, soft drinks, fruit drinks and baked goods.

The bread, leg ham, mayonnaise and mustard all contained sugar or derivatives of sugar (dextrose, glucose) as well as honey.

The Australian Standards on food additives advocate against high intake of MSG, Sodium Nitrite and Potassium Sorbate, however, I found articles advocating both positive and negative for each additive I researched.  The way I see it, we all have a moral tolerance to what we'll eat and what we won't in order to enjoy a healthy diet...it's up to you to know what that is.  

So did I eat the ham and mayo sandwich?  Of course not.  Did I go without lunch? Wrong again.  I know airline food is chocked full of salt, sugar and saturated fat, so before leaving home I made my own ham and salad sanger and popped it in a chill bag.  

Lunch...without the chemicals....and turbulence. 

My Qantas lunch

Fitness - Aldi Style!

Aldi was doing my head in. It was only two dollars but come hell or high water, I was getting it back. Have you ever noticed the trolley bay at an Aldi supermarket?  It's chock-a-block full - trolleys always at the ready.  Contrast to say, a Coles supermarket, whose trolley bay is always, you guessed it, half empty.  

Aldi has this system whereby you insert a gold coin in the trolley handle 'lock and key' mechanism to break it free from the trolley in front.  The coin stays in the trolley handle bar until you return it to the bay and your money is refunded.  It's an ingenious way of ensuring the supermarket car park is not littered with random trolleys.  Inevitably the trolley is always returned...why? because you want your refund...even if it's only $2 measly bucks! By investing UPFRONT you're sufficiently motivated to carry out your part of the contract by returning the trolley...break the contract and you lose your cash. This is why a Coles' trolley ends up in the local creek - there's no upfront contract, and therefore no motivation to return it - in fact Coles employ staff to collect your trolley and take it back for you!

When it comes to our health we can learn a lot from Aldi's strategy.  Here are some ways to 'upfront' your behaviour to help you follow through on your health improvement promises:

• Upfront gym fees - pay six months in advance - better still, a year.
• Pay upfront for 10 sessions with a personal trainer. 
• Tell people upfront that you're eating healthier and that you've begun exercising - I guarantee you'll think twice about backing out to save face.
• Pay a photographer upfront - after six months of exercising and eating well you'll have a nice 'before/after' photo portfolio.
• Buy your next season's wardrobe a size smaller.
• Enter a fun run, triathlon or ride upfront and then begin training - you'll know on competition day whether you've done enough work.
• Get a training partner - turn up on training day so you don't disappoint them.
• Buy a home gym...you'll think twice about throwing it out.
• Buy a weeks groceries other than every other day.

There's many other ways, but whatever you choose, feel the power of investing upfront and locking in your commitment to be healthier.  I guarantee your payoff will be more than a few bucks.

ALDI trolley bay

Coles trolley bay

My Little Bag of Pills

Recently my wife and I spent a relaxing weekend in Stanthorpe - a popular wine growing destination south west of Brisbane.  We stayed in a beautiful Bed & Breakfast (B&B) on the fringe of a picturesque winery.  

On Sunday morning in the main dining room, we were enjoying the company of a chatty couple in their mid-sixties from Roma (lets call them the 'Romas') who were in town to attending a wedding and a pleasant family from Sydney (let's call them Mum, Dad, Daughter and Son-in-Law).  

Dad and Son-in-Law didn't say much - most of their words being doused by Mum and Daughter. Inevitably, the conversation turned to food - which is pretty easy as the region is renowned for its quality cellar doors and restaurants. 

As breakfast was served we all noticed that Daughter wasn't eating. 

"Aren't you eating?" asked the Romas. 

"No way, I've had too many carbs last night at dinner" replied Daughter.

"What wrong with carbs?" I asked.

"They're evil" she exclaimed. 

"There's carbs and there's carbs" I said. "The goods ones keep you alive"

"Most of them just make me fat" she replied.

At that point Mum added "They do nothing for me either".

If I was keeping score I'd say that's one point for marketing hype and zero points for common sense nutrition!

Now let's pause for a moment and let me share my observations.   

Mum was morbidly obese with a BMI of over 40.  She began tucking into her breakfast of fried eggs, sausages and a hash brown. When she finished she pulled out a clear zip-tie bag containing 20 or so bottles of pills or what she called 'medication'. 

She held the bag up slightly, almost proudly.  I had visions of Pete Sampras holding his Wimbledon cup aloft for the seventh time. She then gave the bag a big once-only shake, as if calling the room to attention.  

She got what she wanted. 

The Romas, my wife and I were all startled by the contents of the bag and I had a raft of questions that immediately sprung to my mind: 

What does all that stuff do? How long does it take to swallow all those pills? How many days, months or years has this daily ritual played out? ..and the biggy....is there an alternative solution to this enduring pill-popping?

Dad became agitated and....well....embarrassed. 

"Why don't you take them in your room?" he asked.

Without even hearing him she gestured towards the glass water bottle in the middle of the table.

"I'll just take these now...it won't take me long" she said.

The way I see it, this little bag of pills was her big bag of excuses....her 'winnings' from a life she lost control of long ago - her trophy of sorts. She didn't have to explain why she was the way she was....she was sick, and she had a 1,0000 little pills to prove it.  Hiding behind her pills was safe, comfortable and justifiable. 

I began to think about what it would take for this woman to turn her health around - free from restrictions, excuses and blame.  I couldn't help but wonder that, sadly, it was the beginning of the end for her.  Aging with obesity will create its own complications including the onset of heart disease, diabetes and stroke.  Not to mention the increasing reliance on others as the ability to move about freely or recover from injuries becomes slow imprisonment. The fact is that it didn't have to be this way.  No one sets out to be overweight or obese no more than anyone sets out to be depressed or lonely.  Equally, no one ends up obese behind their own backs either.  

The good news is that her road to better health is more within reach than what she thinks.  It starts with a large dose of self awareness and self responsibility - the ability to take charge and move from an unhealthy point A to a healthier point B. The next step, is by far the most challenging and in all cases defines why people succeed or fail in making healthy, long-lasting change.  

In my experience those who succeed are able to move from knowing WHAT to do.....to DOING what they know.  It's all about putting KNOWLEDGE into ACTION. This is where the rubber hits the road and where the incremental changes are made. Small changes, day after day is what matters.  

I hope mum is able to regain control of her life and ACT before it's too late.  I can't help but think taking all those pills every day would be far worse than taking her first step towards a healthier life.  

Second Chance Roulette

Dr Tony Rafter is a leading cardiologist in Brisbane, who I had the pleasure in sharing a coffee with this month.  I met with him to find out the latest trends in heart disease at the 'coal-face' - what he experiences in dealing with over a 1,000 patients a year.  While I knew about "someone in Australia dies every 10 minutes of cardio-vascular disease" - what I didn't know was alarming and down-right irresponsible - heart attack survivors are gambling with death - refusing to quit smoking, cut cholesterol or even take preventative medicine.

Each year 5000 die as a result of failing to take control of their health and its costing the Australian health system $1.4 billion. 

A damning new study by the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute (an on line survey of 1047 patients) found two in three heart attack survivors struggled to make lifestyle changes. More than one in 10 continue to smoke, 58 per cent don't eat a healthy diet and just one in three exercise regularly. 

Four out of 10 heart attack patients don't follow their GP's instructions and one in three forget to take their medicine.

Heart attacks are the nation's biggest killer, claiming the lives of more than 10,000 Australians a year and 5,300 of these are repeat events.  

Dr Rafter told me of a 58 yr old patient who went back to drinking and his stressful job and never showed any evidence of dietary change.  Seven years later his second heart attack hit that permanently damaged his heart muscle. He survived but can't work more than 10 hours a week or do many of the things he used to. This episode scared him enough to begin making changes including losing 17kg.

These stories remind me of the saying "most people are willing to change....as long as they can keep on doing exactly what they've always done".  It seems that most of us dig in our heels if we believe the mental and physical payoff of change won't exceed our expectations.  We're pulled back to our bad habits like some strange gravitational force.  Most of us wait until its too late.  An example of natural selection some would say.

The way I see it, change only happens in two ways....either through inspiration or desperation.  It saddens me to think that even after a desperate situation such as a heart attack people aren't willing to make positive change. 

In my experience most inspirational change is preceded by a drastic rise in self responsibility - the realization that if I don't take charge of my health - who will? 

Dr Tony Rafter 

What would you do if faced with change - if your life depended on it? 

Keeping the Crocs at Bay

I have a friend who, only just recently, began smoking again after a two year break. I asked him what made him return back to his 'old friends'? He said that it was a string of crappy events which individually would have sailed past his 'why me' radar, but collectively sent the whole control tower crashing down.  He broke up with his partner, his dad was diagnosed with cancer, his tenants were suing him and business was slow.  

Fair enough I thought.  

I remembered a trip I once took to the Northern Territory.  I saw lots of really big crocs. Amazing creatures.  They lie motionless underwater with their two eyes just breaking the surface.  They wait and wait with precision patience until their next meal is within striking range and then with a breathtaking snap of their powerful jaws....bam! 

Bad habits are never really shed from our lives.....they just wait under our skin surface and when things turn bad - at our weakest moments - they strike. We've all been there.  Eating too much, drinking too much, buying too many shoes.......

All habits have three common elements - a cue, a routine and a reward.  The fact is that our bad habits don't define us and we can alter them and regain control.  Research reveals that in all habits the cue (what 'brings on' the habit ie sight, smell, feel etc) and the reward (feeling as a result of following through the habit) is difficult to change.  They are the constants in this little viscous triangle.  What we do have control over is the routine: the series of actions which when pursued finishes at the reward.

Back to my friend.  As a result of his catastrophic chain of events (cue) his smoking habit was back with gusto and was again part of his life.  He felt embarrassed and beaten.  We spoke about the cue-routine-reward loop and discussed ways in which he could begin to change his routine.

A strategy which worked for him in the past was incorporating activity to warn off the craving.  When cravings were strong he used diversion tactics - called a friend, played the piano, wrote.  The thing which worked best was physical activity - a short brisk walk, step ups....anything which allowed more oxygen to the body and brain.   Next thing he knew the cravings had eased and he'd won the tiny inner battle - until next time (you didn't think it was that easy did you?).  Win enough battles and you'll win the war. Guaranteed. 

Its my belief that you can - with willpower and a plan - change bad habits to good. however, the next step up - addiction - is a serious condition which needs professional intervention.  If you feel that your bad habits are out of control you owe it to yourself to seek treatment.

Incorporate activity into your habit-busting plan
to keep the crocs at bay

So if you are struggling with a bad habit that you just can't seem to shake, incorporate physical activity when the cravings come knocking and you'll be sure to keep the crocs from snapping at your heels.