Today I got a reminder on my phone telling me that it’s been 1,000 days since I started regularly using “Lose It!” (http://www.loseit.com), a smartphone application that allows people to track what they eat. No diets, no restrictions, simply consume the right amount of calories that the body daily needs with some goals in mind (reaching a specific weight is the most common one). To me, this was similar to balancing our family budget (don’t spend more money than what you earn), so the concept was easy to understand and follow. I didn’t have to assign a specific hour of the day to enter this information, since using some *ahem, ahem* addicting apps was already part of my routine (I love trivia games, in case you were wondering). In other words, I didn’t create a habit, and rather replaced an old one… but more on this later.
Now, this isolated personal milestone doesn’t tell the full story about my journey to become a better and happier person. Back in 2017, I was bouncing back from a deep case of the winter blues, not following the advice from local friend to take supplements due to the lack of sun in the Pacific Northwest. It didn’t happen right away, but in the words of Ernest Hemingway when asked how he went bankrupt: “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly”. The seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is very real and shouldn’t be ignored. Do yourself a favor and talk to a specialist if you experience any of its symptoms (lethargy, sadness, hopelessness, anxiety and social withdrawal), particularly if you live in a place where daylight hours are short.
After leveling up my vitamin numbers, I realized that taking these supplements was not going to be enough to become the best version of me. I suffered many years from back pain, stress from work was starting to significantly affect my personal life, and inspiration to write, exercise, tinker, give presentations, code and ultimately be creative was difficult to find. I was not happy, and I had no one to blame other than myself. So, where to start?
I apologize if this another repeat of what everybody talks about during January every year, but the reality is that there’s no secret, other than improving in four areas: sleep well, eat well, exercise regularly and think positively. As simply as it sounds, this was a tremendous challenge for me. I was convinced that my hours of inspiration and creativity only happened after 11:00 pm. Work meetings started as early as 6:00 am. Exercising required a trip to the gym, or taking my bicycle to the mountains… so no time for that. I had accomplished all my personal and professional accolades thanks to this pattern, why change it?
Well, because it was killing me…
“What got you here will not take you to the next level”
I talked to many people and read many books about happiness, self-improvement and emotional balance during this period of my life, but there are a few that stand out, particularly those with practical advice.
First, I needed to understand how to change or acquire new habits. If I wanted to improve my life, this was a critical skill to learn. The following is the book that got me on the right track:
“The Power of Habit: why we do what we do in life and business” by Charles Duhigg. You can read a good summary / review of the book here: https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-power-of-habit-nicely-dissects-how-and-why-we-do-things
In addition to multiple examples on why building and acting out of – good – habits is important, the main takeaway for me was understanding that leveraging existing habits to build new ones is critical to make them last. As I explained before, I used my habit of using smartphone game apps to start tracking the food that I was eating. The pattern was very similar, and I accomplished two goals: less games, better eating.
The second skill that I needed to acquire was being able to jump from activity to activity without needing much time to refocus my mind. This was particularly difficult with all the digital distractions that we have on this day and age. The person that helped me the most in this particular area was Sara Harvey Yao and her book: “Get Present: Simple Strategies to Get Out of Your Head and Lead More Powerfully”.
I had the great opportunity – thanks to my manager at Microsoft – to have a few private sessions with Sara. She helped me in multiple ways with great advice and thought provoking quotes, but the one that I always remember is the title for this section: “What got you here will not get you to the next level”. Her book includes easy but highly applicable recommendations on how to resist the urge to multi-task, which saturates our mind with random thoughts that create more stress and make us less productive. I keep going back to my personal notes and this book when I feel that my creativity and clarity of mind is not at the levels that make me feel happier. You can find more about her work and services here: http://www.yaoconsulting.com.
There are some additional books that I read during this process (such as “The happy brain: where happiness comes from, and why” by Dean Burnett), but the two above were the foundation for starting my journey. Now it was time to start measuring, monitoring and improving.
Eating well (or pass the pasta)
As I already mentioned, I use the smartphone app “Lose It!” to track my eating habits. I ran into it after observing that my wife started losing weight (extra points!) and she shared her secret with me. To be honest, I had tried to use other similar apps in the past with no success. For some reason, the visual elements of “Lose It!” and the way the app is structured made it more attractive and easier to use than the rest for me. One of the lessons that I have learned during this process is that small details can make a huge difference when trying to replace old habits. As an example, I had failed multiple times trying to find the best replacement for chips when watching TV, but I finally did: grapes.
According to different sources and methodologies, I initially decided that a healthy weight for my age and height was around 165 lbs, which meant that I had to lose close to 18. “Lose It!” did all the calculations for me based on the velocity that I chose… and then it was a matter of not eating more than 2,100 calories per day. Easy peasy lemon squeezy (sorry, not a baby boomer, but still from the 70s). The problem is that nobody told me that a glass of wine represents almost 200 calories, or that the banana bread loaf that I used to eat in the morning was close to 400. It took me roughly 6 months to reach my weight goal, significantly reducing my back pain… which made sense when I realized that 20 lbs is similar to carrying two average watermelons with you during the whole day. However, the most important consequence of this effort was that the application made me smarter about food and nutrition. After 1,000 days I don’t need to check labels, since it’s all in my mind… and I can make the right choices with my 2,100 daily calories and the recommended percentage of nutrients that we should eat every day.
This is all good on paper, but the reality is that I like pasta, chocolate cake and ice cream. I can always incorporate them into my calories intake, but then I would starve for the rest of the day. Similar to our family budget when trying to splurge on a nice vacation, I had to find a way to raise the bar and increase the spending limit. Enter exercise…
Exercise regularly (to eat more pasta)
I have been active my whole life, but the reality is that when I was young(er) I never had the opportunity to properly measure and monitor my performance. Heart rate monitors became commercially available in the early 90s, and I remember spending a fortune to get my first one. The old adage of “you can’t improve what you don’t measure” is true, and my highly competitive spirit would get disappointed when I couldn’t see the results of my efforts. Cycling has always been one of my favorite activities, but riding during the weekend was not enough to get in shape and improve my fitness. After many years of looking for a system that I could use at home and would keep me motivated, I even wrote a Silverlight application that randomly would choose a song with a beat that corresponded to the indoor bicycle resistance, paired with YouTube videos. Not enough to keep me motivated.
It was not until 2016 that my friends Gus and Mauro introduced me to what eventually would change my exercise routine: the Zwift platform (http://www.zwift.com). Now, before jumping into this topic, keep in mind that I’ve been a gamer for a long time. My love for computers and technology started when I was a 10-year-old kid, saving all his money for an Atari 2600. If you remember what I wrote before, it’s much easier to replace habits than building them from scratch, so I leveraged my love for playing FIFA on the XBox, and switched it to racing in virtual worlds with cyclists from all over the world. Instead of using one controller to score goals, now I had to improve two of them to unlock new achievements: my legs. Zwift is a subscription based multi-player game available in multiple platforms, that can be used for basic structured workouts, or to race during several days for a spot at one of the – real world – professional teams. I have met many friends there, and I actually look forward to waking up in the morning (5:30 to 6:30 am depending on the event) to participate in these virtual group rides.
Performance progress for cyclists is based on a metric called FTP (functional threshold power), which is the average power that a rider can produce during one hour. Having access to multiple sensors on my bicycle, trainer and body (we are living in the future), I can easily track how the workouts are affecting my fitness, not only suggesting the type of workout that I need for the day, but also if my body is coping well or not with my current training program. Even though Zwift includes structured routines, I’ve been recently using a platform called Xert (http://www.xertonline.com), which allows me to enter an event on a specific date, and based on my current FTP, suggest a workout for the day. At some point I created my own PowerBI dashboard (that I still use), but Xert includes a larger library of workouts that I can directly use on Zwift.
To make sure that I’m not over stressing my body, I also daily use another smartphone application called HRV4 training, which by analyzing my heartbeat, can tell me how ready I am for the day ahead of me. It uses a measure called “recovery points” (rMSSD), helping me understand how different stressors (sickness, weather, food, work) affect me. The process is very simple: as soon as I wake up, I place my finger over the smartphone camera, which measures my heartbeat during one minute and asks me a few questions. I’ve been tracking this data for over 900 days now, and I’m starting to use some models to better understand it. More information about HRV4 and how it tracks recovery points can be found here: https://www.hrv4training.com/quickstart-guide.html.
The best part about training on Zwift is that my fitness level allows me to participate in almost any type of outdoor cycling event or activity. In addition to my weekly ride with a group of local friends (http://www.seattlebikeride.com), I always reserve one or two days during my business or personal trips to discover new cities on a bicycle. In the last 1,000 days I had a chance to ride in New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Israel, Spain, England, Denmark, Italy, Israel, Mexico, Canada and different cities in the USA. It is the best way to clear my mind and be ready to meet new partners or truly enjoy quality time with my family. Next destination this summer: L’Etape by Le Tour de France (https://www.letapebyletourdefrance.com).
I will reserve time to write another article about the training and riding equipment that I use and the process of putting it together. I’m currently going through the 4th iteration, using a gaming PC, the Wahoo Kickr and Climb trainers, along with a wide screen TV. I also have built and currently provide maintenance to my two road bicycles, which has been a great way to tinker with new technologies and keep my mechanical skills up to date.
So… has it been worth the effort?
If you notice, I didn’t touch on my sleeping or thinking habits. Suffice to say, I have found that labeling yourself as a “morning” or “night” person is exactly that, just a label. I used to think that my most productive hour of the day was after 11:00 pm, just to find out that some of my most recent and best work happened during lunch time. I keep working on this area, but with healthy eating and exercising comes clarity of mind, which enables my creativity. All of them are connected, and it’s almost impossible to improve them in isolation.
Has it been worth the effort? Absolutely. I have a much better and happier life surrounded by people that I love and respect. I can cope with “stressors” much better both at work and my personal life. I’m not afraid to take new risks, because I know that with proper planning and perseverance anything is possible, such as riding 206 miles on your bicycle in one day, or climbing 9,000 ft during 9 hours. It is a personal journey, built by me and for me, ready to put my talents and skills to the service of others… and this the most rewarding activity when it comes to happiness.