So what exactly is a Pomodoro?

July 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Well a pomodoro is actually a tomato, but the Pomodoro Technique is a time management process developed by Fancesco Cirillo in the 1980’s.  Using a clicking timer, the pomodoro practitioner works in a focused fashion for 25 minutes and then takes a 5 minute break where you do nothing.  The cycle repeats itself for 3-4 “pomodoro‘s” and then you take a longer 20 minute break.  When trying to master this technique there are 6 objectives.  Two that I have found helpful so far;  learning to better estimate how long it will take you to accomplish a task, and learning to manage interruptions.  My productivity increased within days of starting to use this technique.  Most enlightening has been an awareness how often I interrupt myself : )

 If you are challenged with trying to get more done with less, I strongly encourage you to give this technique a try.  Don’t just go by the description above, take the time to actually learn the particulars of the technique by downloading a pdf of the process here:  “The Pomodoro Technique“.  In addition, I would suggest that you visit the founder’s website where you can find more information.  Its not for everyone, but for me, it has been very helpful.

Filed Under: 4 Social Fitness, News

Time vs. Energy: What should I manage?

June 23, 2012 by 1 Comment

Over the past several weeks I have been feeling tired, drained, and not sure why.  In the midst of this challenge, a friend (who maybe an angel sent to watch over me : )  suggested that I review some material about managing my energy.  They did not suggest it because of expressed concerns for my energy, as I never mentioned it.  They just made the recommendation because they thought it was good information and wanted to share it.  They had no idea how timely this information was for me.  Another one of those strange coincidences that affirms that there is a force that watches over me, over us.

The information was in the form of a podcast published on YouTube.  In a presentation moderated by Liz Morris with Working Families,  she states the reasons why it makes more sense to manage your energy, lists the  five domains of were our energy comes from, provide a brief survey to allow anyone to assess their energy, and then concludes with 10 tips on how to better manage your energy.

After taking the survey, I realized that poor energy management could be my issue.  I then wrote out a brief plan for better managing my energy, and I must say that after a week of implementing some changes, I feel much better (hence the new blog entry, which was the suggestion of another “friend”). You can watch the entire podcast by following the hyper link here: “Manage Your Energy and Not Your Time”.  This information seems to be based on the writings of Tony Schwartz, who published The Way We’re Working isn’t Working.  There is also a website to learn more about these concepts called “The Energy Project”.

Here is the survey.  Be concerned anytime you check off 2 in a grouping:

To assess your Body’s Energy, check off the number that are true:

[] I don’t regular get at least seven to eight hours of sleep, and I often wake up feeling tired.

[] I frequently skip breakfast, of settle for something that is not nutritious.

[] I don’t work out enough (meaning cardiovascular training at least three times per week, and strength training at least once a week).

[] I don’t take regular breaks during the day to truly renew and recharge, or I often eat lunch at my desk, if I eat it at all.

To assess your Mind’s Energy, check off the number that are true:

[] I have difficulty focusing on one thing at a time, and I am easily distracted during the day, especially by e-mail.

[] I spend much of my day reacting to immediate crises, and demands rather than focusing on activities with longer-term value and high leverage.

[] I don’t take enough time for reflection, strategizing , and creative thinking.

[] I work in the evenings or on weekends, and I almost never take an e-mail free vacation.

 To assess your Emotional Energy, check off the number that are true:

[] I frequently find myself feeling irritable, impatient, or anxious at work, especially when work is demanding.

[] I don’t have enough time with my family and loved ones, and when I’m with them, I’m not really with them.

[] I have too little time for the activities that I most deeply enjoy.

[] I don’t stop frequently enough to express my appreciation to others or to savor my accomplishments and blessings.

To assess your Spiritual Energy, check off the number that are true:

[] I don’t spend enough time at work doing what I do best and enjoy most.

[] There are significant gaps between what I say is mort important to me in my life and how I actually allocate my time and energy.

[] My decisions at work are more often influenced by external demands than by a strong, clear sense of my own purpose.

[] I don’t invest enough time and energy in making a positive difference to others or to the world

To assess your Environmental Energy, check off the number that are true:

[] I find it hard to concentrate because of constant interruptions and noise.

[] I feel physically uncomfortable at work.

[] I have no place to unwind or take a break.

[] I feel it hard to concentrate because the work environment is physically restrictive.

It is interesting to me that these issues are all addressed to some extent in the SMARTsteps program.  The survey does however make me aware of areas where improvements can be made.  I am thankful for those at Working Families who put together this thoughtful podcast and published it on YouTube.

I will share my whole plan in another writing, but below are a couple of changes that I have made to my life:

  1. Make at least 3 and preferably 5 entries into my gratitude journal every night.  As of today, I will begin to use the Citizen Report Card as a template for things to look for and write about.
  2. To help control the noise in my environment, I have begun to use noise canceling headphones, with very pleasant music playing.
  3. Try to keep healthy snacks at my fingertips at all time, and especially those that have omega 3 fatty acids, like walnuts.
  4. Get to bed by 10:00 pm
  5. Use the Pomodoro Technique at work

I am so grateful for “friends” who share with me helpful information (without force feeding : ), and help to keep me on my path to a better me.  These are true friends indeed.

 

Filed Under: 1 Mental Fitness

Toxic Sugar??? All Sugar Not The Same!

April 13, 2012 by 1 Comment

Background:

There was a recent 60 Minutes program done by Dr. Sanjay Gupta suggesting that sugar is toxic.  Leading this charge was Dr. Robert Lustig (UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology), who feels that all sugar is toxic and responsible for a host of chronic diseases to include obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer.  He has a  lecture on youtube called Sugar: The Bitter Truth (please watch this, please), which has had over 2 million hits, and over 16,000 likes (and 300 dislikes ; )

The Research:

Much of the comments on the 60 Minutes program surrounded the work of  Dr Kimber Stanhope, a molecular biologist at the University of California Davis.   In March of 2009 she published a paper where she observed outcomes in two groups of overweight subjects who only differed in the amount of fructose or glucose that they drank.  The glucose or fructose beverage made up 25% of their total calories, and total carbs were 55% of total calories.  She found  that the fructose group gained more fat around their stomach, experienced a worse lipid profile (risk factors for heart disease) and developed greater insulin insensitivity (risk factor for diabetes).  Basically, this study suggests that not all sugar is the same.  It turns out that fructose does not affect insulin levels (only insulin insensitivity), is metabolized principally by the liver, and  is easily converted to fat.  In fact, its the sugar that acts like a fat, and goes right to your stomach.  This is not the fate of glucose, which is a sugar that acts like a sugar.   This caused me to look further into the notion of sugar being toxic.

My Reflections:

I won’t bore you with all of the details of my investigation, and just highlight a couple of impressions:

1) Sucrose, which is table sugar is a combination of fructose and glucose (the good linked to the bad).  This is also the main form of sugar found in honey.  While these sugars (sucrose) can be found in whole foods, the amounts are less, and the toxic effects of the fructose are lessened by the presense of fiber.

2) We get more sugar into our diet than we should and this is not good.  For most, much of the sugar that we consume comes in the form of sweetened beverages, and most of that is fructose.   As an example a large coke at McDonald’s has 84 grams of carbohydrate vs the Big Mac sandwich which has 45 grams of carbohydrate.  And here is another important point, the carbs in the drink is all sugar, vs the sandwich where only 9 grams represent sugar.  Pay attention to the amount of  “sugar”, as this may be more important than the total carbs!?!?  Also pay attention to the amount of fiber, more being better.

3) Fructose in excess has a greater negative consequence on our bodies because of  where the fat shows up, and the effects on our lipid profiles, which changes them in a manner that increases our risk of heart disease.  There is also suggestion that fructose is bad for our joints, causing pain and impairment in a fashion similar to gout (because  it increases uric acid).

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1) Limit your consumption of sugar containing beverages (pop, juice, etc).

2) Try to limit the amount of foods that are high in fructose.  I did find one website that list foods by the amount of fructose that they contain.  The website is called SelfNutritionData. It helps that you can filter the foods by category.  Try to migrate your diet toward foods that are lower in fructose.

3) If you find that this strategy helps to take inches off of your belly, and your joints no longer bother you,  LET Me.US KNOW!!! (you can also let me know if you think this is a lot of nonsense : )

Filed Under: 1 BMI, 2 Health - Index Finger, 2 Nutritional Fitness, News

Automaticity, Behavior Change Made Easy?

March 12, 2012 by 1 Comment

There is a concept in behavioral research known as automaticity.  The general concept is that there are behaviors that can occur without actual conscious choice, without thinking.  There is also some suggestion that we can influence selected behaviors to become automatic.  Wouldn’t it be nice if simple behaviors such as getting enough rest, eating right, and getting regular exercise could be programmed through the process of automaticity?

I have seen some research that automaticity could be induced by exposure to words.  The first experiment that I became aware of involved students who were asked to unscramble sentences, picking four of five given words.  As an example a student was given  “she, him, at, worried, always”, which could become “she worried him always”.  The students thought this was the experiment, but the real interest was observing what happened next.

They were asked to go down the hall to ask another professor for instruction.  When they got to the professor, the professor was to be talking to another student, and they were never going to stop talking to each other.  The question was how long did it take for the student who just unscrambled the sentence to interrupt.  Unknown to the students, there were two groups of sentences that were being unscrambled.  One group was given all positive words, like kind, tolerant, patient etc.  The second group was given all negative words to work with like,  impatient, unkind, angry etc.  The act of unscrambling the words was called priming.  What the researchers found was that those students who were “primed” with the negative words interrupted sooner than those students who were primed with the positive words.  This suggest that words that we are exposed to consciously can have an effect on our behavior subconsciously automatically.  Hmmm???

So this got me thinking; in a digital age that require passwords all day (like our phones) that we can set ourselves…  Why not use words that would set positive intentions.  That way as we use passwords they would be bathing our consciousness with words that would encourage positive or desired behaviors.  Repeating words such as diligent, courage, health, success, order, can’t hurt and there could be a big payoff.  In fact we should be paying closer attention to our “word diet” over the course of the day.  We may find that we are often planting words that are not helping us.  Just some food for thought : )  Time to change my passwords…

Filed Under: 1 Mental Fitness, 2 Nutritional Fitness, 3 Physical Fitness, 4 Social Fitness, SMARTsteps

1 Minute? Really? That I can do : )

March 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Historically, we have been taught that  for health benefits you need anywhere from 40-60 minutes of exercise most days of the week.  This changed a bit to say that it does not have to be formal exercise but any type of “physical activity” that gets your heart rate going.  Well, there seems to be another change developing.  Some researchers have published studies that suggest that if you exercise for 1 minute at 80% of your maximal heart rate (220 minus your age), rest for a minute, and then repeat this for a total of 10, 1 minute sessions, that this is equivalent to working out for 40 minutes.  This is really good news, especially for those who find it hard to get in 40 minutes of exercise in the course of the day.  This was talked about in a recent New York Times article.  Its called High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).

Hearing (reading) this info, I decided to take this a little further.  Knowing other research that states that your don’t have to do your exercise (40 minutes) all at one time, I wondered what would be the benefits of exercising for 1 minute per hour over the course of the work day.  I tried it one day, only doing 3 sessions (my legs were hurting too much from the dynamic squats which was my chosen exercise), and I think there is great potential.  I could do this in my work clothes, did not sweat, and the brief mental break helped me maintain focus on my work.  This strategy could also be of benefit for all of the women that have trouble working out because of concerns for their hair.

I am going to stick with this strategy until my legs build up for me to tolerate the activity over the course of the day, and report back.  For those reading this, why don’t you give it a try and let me know what happens.  Of course those who have concern for their heart need to start an exercise program gradually.  Also, its always a good idea to share such plans with your doctor.

Filed Under: 1 BMI, 1 Personal, 2 Health - Index Finger, 3 Physical Fitness