Month: December 2021

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Happy New Year! Now Please Step Away From that New Year’s Resolution

New Year’s Eve, 2021

Happy New Year!

Now stop right there, and take a step away from that new year’s resolution. I know what you’re thinking. You’ll use the new year as a jumping off point to change things. You’ll become a new person. For good this time.

Pick a topic. Exercise. Diet. Money. Smoking. Time management. These represent the most common new year’s resolutions.

“Starting tomorrow,” many of us say, “I’m going to exercise every day.” “From January 1 onward, I resolve to lose the extra twenty pounds I’ve been living with.” Or “No more smoking as of the first day of the new year.” Or “I’m going to start saving $100 a week starting at the beginning of the year.”

But here’s the thing about new year’s resolutions. 80% of new year’s resolutions fail by the time February rolls around.

Why is that?

Too Much Emotion, Not Enough Logic

Partly, it’s because, when we make new year’s resolutions we are committing to changing our habits based strictly on emotion. New year’s resolutions are romantic and dramatic. They’re fun to make and to say because the emotion of the moment is charged and electric. That’s a good thing but it’s also part of the problem.

That electricity, that high emotion, won’t last throughout the year, or even long enough to sustain the habit change. In fact, in most cases, the emotion that inspired the resolution will die out within a month. The resolution fades. The habit change doesn’t stick. We’re back where we started before that triumphant moment of declaring the resolution.

Another problem with most new year’s resolutions is that they are temporary. They’re linked to the new year, and too many of these resolutions are declared without long-term thought, though it’s long-term goals and results that we are aiming for.

Resolutions can be declared any day of the year, not necessarily on December 31.

It’s Not About New Year’s

To be clear, I’m not altogether against new year’s resolutions. Nor, for that matter, am I against resolutions at any time of the year, on any eve, whether it’s December 31, March 8 or October 13. The date doesn’t matter.

Part of my issue with new year’s resolutions is that they are declaring and insisting that we will change because the calendar flips to another day.

But the day is arbitrary. The calendar is a construct, an invention by humans to measure the passage of time. The changing of one year to the next doesn’t demarcate any real extrinsic changes. It only means we have collectively decided that we will all agree that a new year has begun. Nothing more.

Setting Goals

When we make a new year’s resolution, we’re setting a goal to change personally in some way. That’s not easily done, as many a failed resolution might evidence. Making personal habit changes might start with an emotional mindset. But in order to be successful, at some point the endeavor requires a measure of practical thinking as well.

When you make a resolution, new year’s or otherwise, go ahead and start with the big, romantic declaration, “I’m going to lose weight,” “I’m going to cut down on drinking,” “I’m going to bench press 200 pounds.”

But follow it up by chunking it down and setting real, practical goals. If you’re planning to lose weight, great. Make that statement, then get real. Decide, first of all, how much weight you’re going to lose overall. Then how much you’re going to lose per week to reach that overarching goal. Now set a realistic time frame for when you will shed that weight.

Mark the ultimate weight-loss goal on the calendar, then work it backwards. Break it down further into one-week goals. Then decide each day how your goal will work into your life, what you will change to reach your short-term and long-term goals, and add as much detail as you can. Eat less than 2,000 calories a day? Increase your bench press weight by 10 pounds a week? Add 10 reps a week? Restrict yourself to no more than two cocktails a week?

When it comes to resolutions, more specificity equals a better chance for success.

And importantly, be aware when you make a resolution that you are deciding to make a permanent habit change. It’s not about reaching a weight-loss goal and then stopping and putting the weight back on. You wouldn’t decide to quit smoking as your goal and then start again once you’ve decided you’ve succeeded.

Rather, a resolution is about life change, about the way you want to become, for good. To do that, you need to make habitual changes to your daily routine, so that your goal becomes your new way of life. Ideally, after a while you don’t even think about it, it’s now who you are. A person who doesn’t smoke. A person who works out three times a week. A person who wears size 36 jeans. Whatever.

Go Ahead, Make That Resolution

It’s not about the new year.

Setting goals can be done any time on any day of the year. No need to wait for the new year to arrive. If you believe your goal is worth setting, then the time to start is now, today, whenever that happens to be. If you missed the new year and it’s a week into January, no problem. You didn’t miss an opportunity. If you find yourself wanting to set a goal a week before the new year, why wait?

And if it does happen to be December 31 when you decide to declare and set a big goal, that’s fine. Just, perhaps, don’t think of it as a new year’s resolution. It’s a goal you are setting to change your life, and you happen to be committing to it today, which happens to be December 31.

Or February 22. Or June 18. The date doesn’t matter. What matters is your commitment to your goal. So go ahead. Declare, resolve and get started.

The opportunity to make the resolution and act on it is today.

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10 Tips on How to Eat Holiday Treats Without Feeling Guilty

Food and eating are essential components of adventure. And adventure is significantly impacted by what we eat.

Not only can preparing, cooking and eating a meal or snack be an adventure in itself. But any adventure we take (unless, I suppose, it’s an adventure about fasting, which is sort of about food – the absence of it – too) includes food as a necessary and often appreciated companion.

So for us adventurists, giving thought to food as the fuel with which we propel our adventures is an important part of planning and maintenance.

Sweets Everywhere

The problem is, this time of year, smart and healthy eating – the kind that is optimal for adventuring and aging – becomes threatened, or at least more difficult. Because, starting at around Halloween and running nearly half a year all the way to Easter, we’re inundated with sweets and treats, delectable desserts and scrumptious confectionaries that wreak havoc on our waistlines and steal away our energy. Kids bring home shopping bags’ worth of candy bars, sugary pieces, sweetened assortments and saccharine niblets.

A few weeks later Thanksgiving arrives, the one day of the year when gluttony is celebrated. (Pumpkin and pecan pie!) Then the assorted holiday cookies and goodies start to arrive. And there’s Valentine’s Day and Easter treats, all conspiring to thicken us up, slow us down and make us crave the couch, a blanket and Netflix.

Smart Ways to Eat Sweets

Look, the treats aren’t going away, and neither are our natural appetites for yummy eats like cookies, chocolate, pie, cake and other pastries. No one I know is perfect, and few people are able to resist these fattening temptations one hundred percent of the time.

But sampling these irresistible food options doesn’t have to result in guilt and self-flagellation. There are ways to have it all, to partake in eating sugary goodies and enjoying them while remaining physically healthy and retaining your adventurous, ready-for-action mindset.

Here are 10 tips for eating those holiday treats without the resultant guilt and lethargy.

  1. Give yourself permission. You know you’re going to eat that treat. It’s sitting right in front of you. You might as well try it. But before you do, grant yourself permission to eat it, and decide you are not going to judge yourself or feel bad because you do. You are going to enjoy it to the fullest.
  2. Eat it slowly. Instead of wolfing down that bonbon or that slice of cake, slow down and savor every bite. Eating sweets is enjoyable, so make it last a while. Make yourself chew it longer than you normally would – at least 20 chews for each bite. And set down your fork or spoon or the uneaten morsel between bites.
  3. Focus. This is related to #1. As you slowly chew that treat, focus your attention on the way it tastes, the joy of the sweet flavor concoction dancing on your tongue. Feel the textures and notice the consistency of the bite, how it changes as you savor it and how it satisfies when you swallow it.
  4. Document how it feels. This is a good practice in general. But when you have a treat, make a note of how it feels to eat it, and how you feel right afterward. Then set a timer for half an hour later and jot down again how you feel. No judgment, just an honest documentation of how you were affected by eating that treat. What do you notice? What do you learn from this exercise?
  5. Be grateful. Once you’ve finished enjoying that delicious consumable, and even while you’re enjoying it, be mindful of the joy it’s bringing to you. Be aware of how lucky you are to have the privilege of eating this sugary gift. You could even say “Thank you” aloud or express your gratitude in other ways. It will enhance your experience.
  6. Move. Have your treat and enjoy it. When you’re finished enjoying it, make a plan to move. Outside or around the house, it doesn’t matter. It also doesn’t have to be a lot. Some yoga stretches. Some light calisthenics. Maybe a quick game of Twister with the kids. Engage in some kind of movement to encourage digestion and blood flow, and start to burn some of the sugar you just consumed.
  7. Count it. Eating sweets is one of the joys of life. But over-indulging on sweets, or anything, is rarely a good choice. Many of these tips will help you avoid over-indulging without noticing it, but to push the point, count the treats you eat so that you are aware of the quantity. If you want to be disciplined while enjoying holiday treats, set a quota ahead of time. Allow yourself a certain number of treats per month, say, or per week. I’ll leave the number up to you, but try to stick to the number you’ve set. (Even if you don’t stick to it, that’s fine; just counting will likely help you cut down and avoid over-indulgence.)
  8. Balance. You’ve just taken in a high dose of sugar. Ideally, the best way to help digest that sugar is to have eaten a snack of protein and fiber before the treat to offset the effects on your body of the sugar and avoid a blood sugar crash. If not a healthy meal, try a handful of nuts, especially pistachios, an apple or a hard-boiled egg.
  9. Drink water. During and after indulging in sweets, it’s important to flush the sugar through your system, convert the excess into fat and avoid a dump of insulin to re-stabilize your blood sugar. Too much sugar in your blood can over stress your nerves and brain. Drinking water can also help remove sugar caught in your teeth and gums and prevent tooth decay. The worst thing you can do is wash down a sugary sweet with a sugary drink!
  10. Time it wisely. If you’re going to eat something sugary, the best time to do so is after having eaten a healthy meal with protein and fiber. Sugar in limited amounts can help give us energy and assist us through a droopy afternoon. Taking sugar after a workout can help restock muscle. Eating sugary snacks (ice cream anyone?) late at night is a common but not advisable practice. It can interrupt good sleep and contribute to an upset stomach that’s working overtime to process the sugar. It can also lead to acid reflux, another potential sleep disrupter.

Go ahead, enjoy that dessert. Just do so wisely, mindfully and with a few practices that won’t allow your sugary indulgence to make you feel lousy and douse your energy for adventure.

Bon appetit.

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How to Stay Calm in Rough Seas Filled with Large Sharks

Black tip reef shark

I’ve been scuba diving for about 20 years. Most of my dives have been in the calm, tropical waters of the Caribbean, on the massive reef running alongside the coast of the Yucatan peninsula near Cozumel, Mexico.

For several years I made an annual dive trip and fell in love with Cozumel and the Palancar Reef. Ideal for diving. Visibility for a hundred feet. A full rainbow of colorful coral and fish, and warm, relaxing water. Currents can be strong but they’re usually steady. And in my experience, the sharks have been small – mostly nurse sharks no more than four feet in length, and keeping their distance.

On Thanksgiving Day of 2021, I got a different diving perspective when I dived a couple of tanks with my son, Elliot, off the coast of Big Pine Key, Florida. We boated about an hour south from land to check out the Looe Key Reef. The sun was shining but the wind was blowing, making for a rough, undulating, bucking ride out to the dive site on our 18-foot catamaran-style boat.

The water’s surface was frothy and choppy as we dropped the six feet into the sea off the side of the boat and did our checks before submerging. More challenging, the strong current was fitful, like the wind. Strong splashy waves followed by a couple of weak laps, so that you let down your guard a bit. Then another, stronger wave splashing seawater in your face.

Salt water slopped into our eyes and noses as we checked on each other, our heads bobbing just above the surface. It was time to get down. We bit on our regulators, took a couple breaths of air-gas mixture, then deflated our buoyancy compensator vests and descended under water.

As we dropped to 10 feet, then 20, clearing our ear pressure, the surface current eased and we got a clear view of the billions of gallons of ocean spreading another 20 feet beneath us. This would not be a particularly deep dive, 40 feet at the deepest. But that’s plenty of depth in which to float and flit along with the fish.

The Largest Shark I’ve Ever Seen

After about 10 minutes of floating and swimming through and over coral mounds, enjoying the plethora of vivid colors and fish – parrot fish, lion fish, barracudas, groupers – I spotted the largest shark I’d ever seen while diving. He or she circled about 20 feet away. Nurse shark, we figured, but larger than those I was used to seeing in Mexico. This one at least 6 feet.

Our shark maintained its perimeter but continued circling, a large 180 around us. I kept my eye on it, not because I was alarmed or worried about an unlikely attack, but because I was mesmerized. These ancient creatures are the kings of the sea. They’ve adapted over 450 million years to become a relatively intelligent predator at the top of the food chain. And as long as you don’t threaten them or their offspring, they are not likely to attack.

We floated for a while longer when Elliot pointed off to our 3 o’clock. I looked and peered through the dim haze of water and saw nothing. I looked back at Elliot and he pointed again. Again I looked and saw nothing. I gave him a big shrug, letting go of the moment. We turned and continued swimming.

Then I saw it. At least eight feet long. And fat. About five feet below me, a Black Tip Reef shark (we determined this later). It was hovering against the sea bottom, then suddenly curled on itself and swam away from us.

Now I got it. He was pointing at this sizable shark. And despite the unlikelihood of a shark attack on a diver, I would not have come so nonchalantly close to this beast if I had seen it. One doesn’t want to spook them.

Astronomical Odds

A few statistics learned over the years helped me stay calm so close to a shark that outweighed me by more than 150 pounds.

For one thing, even if a shark decides to come after you, there’s little you can do to avoid it if you’re in open water. It definitely won’t help you to panic and try to swim away, that may be the worst thing you can do because it might prompt the shark to pursue. In the event a shark does show signs of aggression, it’s better to hold still and maintain eye contact, or better yet, start swimming toward it. At that point it will likely swim away.

More importantly: A scuba diver’s chance of getting bitten by a shark is one in 136 million. It almost never happens. Sharks are curious to check out divers, but once they see these floating, bubbling animals they move on to less threatening prey.

Sharks primarily eat smaller fish and invertebrates. Some larger sharks may prey on seals, sea lions and other mammals. In other words, sharks don’t want a fight, and they’re not looking to eat humans.

Surfers, and to a lesser extent, snorkelers, are more likely to be attacked by a shark because the shark mistakes these surface splashing creatures for seals, one of their favorite meals. Still, the odds of anyone getting attacked by a shark remain low – about one in 17 million. And we humans are much more likely to die of heart disease (one in five), cancer (one in seven) or stroke (one in 24) than from a shark attack.

Comforting, I know.

A perfect Thanksgiving sea rainbow spotted on our way back from diving.

A Long, Wet Slog

I regard encounters with sharks as I do run ins with bears, snakes, moose, drug kingpins and other predatory animals. Keep your head down and move on. Most likely, these animals are not interested in attacking you unless they are threatened.

A while after our shark encounter, Elliot and I emerged on the surface and spotted our boat a good five hundred feet in the distance. We had a long, slow swim against the current to get back, and our air was running short.

Back on the boat, headed for shore, we agreed: that last slog to the boat, fighting the strong current the whole way, was more harrowing than anything we saw under water…including 8-foot sharks.