Strength for Life

Tim Russert: Big Man, Big Loss (and 1 in Half a Million)

As you know by now, we lost Tim Russert last week. A sudden, tragic and painful loss, he will be missed by his family, friends and so many millions.

Tim was a brilliant man with a huge heart whose authenticity and values were clear to see. I appreciated him, along with millions of others, for who he was and the job he did for all of us.

Like all lives, it’s sad when they end but Tim’s passing is further reaching than most for he impacted so many. The good news is he made a difference the bad news is that means all the more people will feel the loss.

[As tragic as Tim’s passing is, it’s important to note what Dr. Oz said: “Of the 450,000 people a year who die of heart attacks in this country, probably half of them never knew they were at risk of a heart attack.” That means Tim, as special as he was in many ways was just 1 in nearly half a million each year who die from heart disease. That seems like too many to me.]

In every major life event, such as death, there are life-lessons to be learned: Allow me to share a few that come to mind in this case.

The first and most obvious is you never know how long you have. Thus it’s wise to avoid things that lesson your odds of seeing tomorrow—like ignoring your health and wellbeing.

Walking the Tightrope of Health?

When Good Companies Do Bad Bars

Nutrition bar. These two words together get me thinking of old joke about Military Intelligence being an oxymoron.

I don't eat nutrition bars, I don't make them and I don't suggest others consume them either. I can hardly begin to count the number of people whom I've talked to who have told me "I can't seem to loose this excess weight..." who I later discovered were replacing meals with nutrition or energy bars.

The problem is it's hard to balance the need people have for these bars to taste like a candy bar with any reasonable level of nutrition quality. And then, of course, you throw on the profit issue and it's like tossing gas on the fire.

Here's another great example of why they're are for the most part a bad choice: WIRED magazines look at the PowerBar Protein Plus bar.

If you have to have a bar--and believe me there are times when they are convenient--here are a few guidelines:

1. Make sure it's really a serious need not just a reaction to be too lazy to invest 2 minutes blending a rich, nutrition shake, like Full Strength. I'm talking some travel situations and more often long biking or hiking sessions, etc.

2. Choose a better bar which means your likely not going to get one as a primary protein source--accept that they are likely and best used for carbs. This is why I prefer something in the CLIF line or a natural version with Larabar... which is much smaller but can work at times.

3. Don't make a habit out of these things... use them like you'd use a crescent wrench, now and then when it's the right tool for the job.

Here's to your strength and freedom.

Shawn

Why We Struggle with Fitness

Summer is near. And you know what that means… time to push the “get fit” panic button for ‘tis the bathing suit and beach season. Even if you don’t do the beach, it’s nice to feel good about wearing some seasonal appropriate clothes.

This has me thinking this morning about why so many of us are inclined towards a fair-weather relationship with fitness. The pattern is to go through stretches where fitness is on the back-burner then suddenly, it’s full tilt fitness! We’ve got to get fit and we want results now.

Fit is generally something we’re “trying to get.” It’s an endless struggle, a mountain that is always being climbed but rarely being summitted (I know, that’s not technically a word but you get the drift. It’s a little of my mountain climbing speak coming through).

Why do we keep buying into the new diets, reaching for the latest, greatest next fitness hope?

There’s a lot going on here; the way we run our lives, our motivation, our commitment, our true intention, etc. These all play a role. But there’s something else, an aspect of our relationship with fitness, with ourselves, which underlies and transcends all these.