Compilation

FYI:
There will be no session this FRIDAY 4/13. The track is occupied by an event along with Wilson Plaza, Janns Steps, and other places. Instead, you are all welcome to come to the JWC or go check out KREC on Kinross ave. Thanks.


Greatest Hits Album:
So with another on ramp matriculating by the end of this week, we will have a nice influx of new friends to exercise with. Unfortunately they have not had the privilege to follow this blog before and as such have been lacking the vast amounts of information dropped on them. The incoming cohort is going to be in the same excited state that all of you have been in before and will probably want to know a lot of the same things that all of you did. Questions like: "I know this wasn't really a weight-loss program but I didn't lose any weight and I actually gained a couple pounds (but I look and feel better), why and how do I lose weight?" Or: "Why am I more hungry than ever before?" Or: "What can I do on off days?" See where I'm going with this?

I'm not about to start rewriting all of the musings we've already move far past as a group, but it might be fun to compile a sort-of "Greatest Hits Album" of posts or links that you all found especially helpful or that resonated with you. So if you could do that, that would be great and I too will go through and scour through them. This way I can just put together a list of links to the posts in some sort of hierarchical order and we can move forward. Post the links in the comment thread.


Parenting advice:
I saw a billboard yesterday that said something like: "How do I talk to my 13 year old about alcohol?" That made me laugh. The reality is, you don't. There is nothing you can tell a kid that will magically inspire them not to want to do what the others are doing. Absolutely nothing. Not even the threat of a good beating helps. Trust me on this one.

As parents, your job is to inspire and lead. Chastising and admonishing will work very temporarily. If you want to facilitate some sort of positive "good" behavior or character in your younger generations, you might want to be that way yourself and make it look easy. Parents worry about their kids fitness and weight.. Well, when junior sees his dad scarfing down donuts, twinkies, and doritos, no amount of coercion will prevent him from following in those footsteps. It's inevitable. Your kids see you being a turd and whining and complaining over the most minute and petty things; being lazy and complacent; cutting corners, cheating, shirking work, being malevolent they're probably going to follow in those footsteps.

Kids emulate their leaders/; it's their job. To a kid, a parent is bigger than superman. Every boy talks about how strong and awesome their dad is to the other kids. Boys have to admire their fathers as do girls their mothers. It is up to the parents to personify the characters that they want their kids to grow into. Otherwise, it's a lesson in futility and impending dissapointment for both.

I am lucky, in a way. I grew up in an adversity-forged family of a couple generations of people who are more resilient and withstanding than any other I've met. I'm not going to get into too much detail about this, but my parents and my grandparents had it rough. As a kid, I watched as my parents did the right things and learned from my grandparents about their lives as well. I knew what was right and wrong based on what my elders did, not what they told me. Every time I did something wrong, I knew exactly what I was doing without exception. But at the end of the day, I still had to walk down the path that they paved for me.

So if you want your kids to grow up healthy, hard-working, tenecious, perserverant, unrelenting, and strong. If you want your kids to be success-oriented, to have good work ethic, and excellent, then constant pressure and bribes and punishment might work for a while. Being those things yourself might work better. Especially when it comes to health and "fitness".


Read:
Why Runners Should be Rowers

Normal Plasma Cholesterol in an 88-Year-Old Man Who Eats 25 Eggs a Day — Mechanisms of Adaptation