run – Page 5 – The Conscious Pilgrim

getting granular

“I choose to get granular. I know what the bigger picture is for my health journey and I know how it’s going. It’s good to ‘zoom out’ and acknowledge how far you’ve come as a way of encouraging yourself, or rather myself – but fine-tuning your practice and measuring results requires a detailed perspective… that extra couple reps, that extra few minutes of meditation, that faster lap, that extra page of writing, and extra half hour earlier you wake up…”

We’re all doing our best. I have to believe that and this is not the first time I’ve espoused such a notion. Even those people you disagree with that seem to be waiting in the shadows of the internet; ever ready to pounce on your good vibes are doing their best. Their best what? Beats me – but they truly believe they’re making a difference in their world, just as I do, and although I may disagree with the tactics they use and the viewpoint they broadcast, we do have that little shred of commonality.

I know I can’t change those people’s minds, and I know they won’t change mine. I can only change my perception of them, and the method by which I react – and if they have nothing but negative talk for me then I must acknowledge this:

“You will never find a hater that works harder than you” – David Goggins.

As much as David Goggins is liable to record himself reciting the hateful rhetoric of his online critics and listen to them while he works out, (and I am not going to do that) I will say that he has chosen how to react in his way, and I choose how to react in mine.

I choose to get granular. I know what the bigger picture is for my health journey and I know how it’s going. It’s good to ‘zoom out’ and acknowledge how far you’ve come as a way of encouraging yourself, or rather myself – but fine-tuning your practice and measuring results requires a detailed perspective… that extra couple reps, that extra few minutes of meditation, that faster lap, that extra page of writing, and extra half hour earlier you wake up…

I find that the number one criticism I receive; while fully acknowledging that it’s only criticism if I decide I’m being criticized, is people saying ‘that’s too extreme’ or that I should ‘take a break’. What I know now – today – is that I’ll take a break when I deem it appropriate, and that ‘extreme’ is a relative term. I can’t be measured by anyone’s yardstick but my own, and I seek satisfaction in knowing that I’m pushing myself to be better. There’s a more-than-good chance that I’m being encouraged to ingest some sort of chill pill; not because I need one, but because my efforts are making other people question their own discipline, and rather than intensifying their game, they’d prefer to see me de-tensify mine. That’s their struggle, I guess – but it doesn’t have to be mine.

So I’ll tell you right now:
If you want to weigh your food in order to track calories or macros better, do it. If you want to build muscle, do it.
If you want to run longer, do it.
If you want to be more mindful, do it.
If you want to eat cleaner, do it.

The world is full of people who carry their regrets of a misspent youth around with them, but taking action means you can leave those regrets in the rear view.

That means a being better athlete, a better writer, a better singer, a better guitar player, a better friend, a better mentor, a better partner, a better father, a better worker… I might be extreme compared to some people, but certainly not compared to others. For all I know, you could be looking at me thinking I’m not doing enough.

Just try to remember, everyone’s out here doing their best.
Me included.

This week has been solid. I’ve been pushing my speed on the track, and some heavy weights on the bench, and it’s been great. These hard workouts are a means to justify some weekend rest time, because aside from the workouts, I’m in a new position at work now and my brain has been pan-seared by the end of the week, and in need of some artistic expression.

So it’s been 4 intense days, with some calorie cutting and dietary fine-tuning, and some much needed attention to some other matters around the house that will set me up for success in the future.

Once it’s the snow melts and we’re back outside, there’ll be a 5th day for trail running. Can’t wait.

longer days

“We’re not there yet, and thus we can’t live there yet – but this IS a time of preparation and I am ready to enjoy that preparation as well. We live here, in this preparation time, and it’s okay for you to love it. It’s only going to happen once.”

December 21st is the shortest day of the year, and it’s starting to become a little more obvious now that despite brief sucker-punches of bone-chilling weather, spring is coming. I know it’ll be the middle of May before anything really comes close to being dependable in the forecast but seeing that sun come up and stay up a little longer makes me think about what’s to come.

I’m 6 weeks out from a new album release and we have a single being tracked throughout Canada, which means the phone is starting to ring and the inbox is filling up with booking opportunities. Hopefully you’re hearing the new single and seeing it in your algorithm wherever you are… and if you’re not, perhaps you will, and if you don’t perhaps you’ll experience the next single which is due to come out on the 6th of April.

I’m grateful for the still-dark early mornings that remain mine. I only share them with the other early morning gym rats who have no idea who I am outside of that facility and I like it that way. A few people there know I play music but most don’t, and that’s okay. The gym is not a social club, at least not at 6am when I am arriving there.

It’s time to finish up a few projects on my 1962 Ford Fairlane 500 and prepare for the driving season. I aim to maximize my time in the driver’s seat of that car this year, as I’ve got some lost time to make up for with that car. The most special part of that is seeing the hard work I’ve put in over the winter pay off. For all I know at this point, I’ll sell that car this year – I mean, I have no plan to, but I try to stay fluid with these things, and honestly that kind of cash injection could really make a difference in another old car. That all remains to be seen.

All this to say that there are seasons to life, and we’re rounding one out – one that’s hard and busy, and it’s leading us into the spring & summer when the days get longer and we play outdoors, drive cool cars, and enjoy what life has to offer.

We’re not there yet, and thus we can’t live there yet – but this IS a time of preparation and I am ready to enjoy that preparation as well. We live here, in this preparation time, and it’s okay for you to love it. It’s only going to happen once.

room for the miracle

“Personally I love this notion. If I have a plan and I need to change it in order to navigate the terrain of a tumultuous day, I can do so. It’s when I don’t have a plan at all that this change becomes a massive disruption.”

I like to have a plan.

I didn’t always like to have a plan, but then again I didn’t always get everything done that needed doing. In truth, the first positive thing I ever got a grip on was my health, and even then it was a loose grip in the beginning – but slowly & surely I made bigger progress followed by smaller regress… 2 steps forward, 1 step back until I learned enough about myself to optimize things.

It took me the better part of a decade to get done what I set out to do, and the most successful part of that (almost) decade was the fall of 2018 leading all the way through 2019 and into the pandemic. I consistently lost 1-2 lbs for a year & a half.

I’ve also been able to apply the principals of that weight loss to other aspects of my life, everything from home improvement projects to artistic output. I’ll spare a lot of the rhetoric and sum it up: Do the work.

Doing the work is methodical and consistent more than anything, but the work requires rest and periodic analysis, too – and it’s within that rest and analysis that we can take a step back and figure out what’s working and what’s not, and how to make things move more efficiently in the direction we want them to. Now, the term isn’t mine, but the concept of ‘making room for the miracle‘ has been pretty constant in my life as of late. The idea that having a plan is great, and knowing that plans change.

Personally I love this notion. If I have a plan and I need to change it in order to navigate the terrain of a tumultuous day, I can do so. It’s when I don’t have a plan at all that this change becomes a massive disruption.

In the context of songwriting, songs show up in my whenever they please… but if I don’t have a guitar and a pen on hand with some regularity then those moments are sure to be further and fewer between – even less so if I insist on exclusively working on scales and rudiments without allowing for any experimentation. Similarly if I want to develop muscle, I’m going to have to spend some time in the gym – and consider trying a new sport or game. If I want to lose some weight then I’m going to have to put some effort into selecting nutrient dense foods, but it’s bound to be more exciting to try some new recipes.

It’s important to stay consistent without being too precious about the action because it can be easy to lose sight of the goal, in the ‘can’t see the forest when you’re looking at the trees‘ sort of way.

When I did my first vegetable juice fast in 2014, I wasn’t thinking about triathlon, or home ownership, or my musical trajectory – but all of those things were ultimately set in motion at that time.

Training this week, has been exactly as written above. The week started out well, but since I’m out traveling and playing shows from Wednesday to Sunday, working out and running have been challenging. I am doing what I can when I can, and through some measure of magic I’ve been able to do a little more than I’d anticipated.

And ill be back on track in no time.

meditation

I’ve had a meditation practice in play for a couple years – however at times it’s felt haphazard to a point that I might have called it a seasonal practice at some point, because with the advent of long runs (meditative as they can be) a few things took a back seat to a few extra minutes of running time. This practice for me has regained it’s priority status as of late and it’s made a significant impact on my life.

When the snow so abruptly arrived to the Edmonton area, I attempted to regain my morning routine from the previous winter – but with an aim to improve. A few changes in my schedule made this difficult, but I do aspire to maintain it even when it feels like I’m running to catch up to it.

Anyway… It just so happens that a popular podcaster and well-known scientist, Andrew Huberman, compiled some data and spit if out in (mostly) a language I can understand. That episode is right here and I recommend it.

I’m in no way affiliated with Andrew Huberman,
but he does some excellent deep-dives into some great topics…
some of which I just can’t ignore.

A few things that resonated with me include the difference & merits of interoception vs exteroception which is the difference between focusing inward (your heart beat, third eye, breathing, etc.) or focusing on something external (the horizon or any other singular object). He mentions that in order to get the full benefits of meditation, your practice can be as little as a few minutes per day – BUT that whether your focus is internal or external might be determined by the situation.

For me; a person who spends a lot of time in his own head, I’d likely benefit more from focusing on something outside of my body, like an object in the room. This is because focusing inward is not much of a challenge, and I’m less likely to hone my meditative skill. However, when I am feeling overwhelmed by a lot of commotion, such as when I’m sitting in a food court in the busiest mall in the city, introspection will help me center myself, as opposed to focusing on the commotion that is causing me to be overwhelmed.

The other thing – and it’s a big one – is the issue of distraction. He outlines that distraction is a given. In fact, that’s how the practice is strengthened – by course-correcting your thoughts back to your singular focus, and away from your work day or how hungry you are, etc.

Champion level meditators are not free of distraction. In fact, they become so adept at redirecting their attention back to their meditative practice from the myriad of distractions around us all the time that they seldom even register the shift. Essentially, what may seem like tuning out the outside world completely is the opposite, because the most experienced meditators are actually MORE aware of their surroundings than those of us who feel easily distracted.

In fact, if we shift our attention to the location of our ‘third eye’ (which is behind the front of our forehead) we’re bound to have random thoughts and emotions creep in, because that is the part of the brain responsible for perception – so to focus that part of the brain on itself is to remove all physical distraction, thereby opening the pathway from emotions, feelings, and thoughts to enter our minds and THUS providing us with something to shift our meditative focus away from – which; again, strengthens our practice.

It’s pretty heady stuff, and I’m not sure I’m doing it justice in my laymen explanations, honestly – but I did feel a massive boost in confidence in regards to my meditative practice, and I’m optimistic that you will as well if you throw a couple hours at this video. This is big particularly in this time of the year when there’s so much focus on improving ourselves.

It’s also bound to help those of us fighting off seasonal depression this time of year.

Training is seeing some changes. I’m opting for – you guessed it – more endurance time. This is not because I need more frequency, but because I need more long sessions with an elevated heartrate, so I know go for 80-90 minutes in Zone 2 on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday, with a 45 minute session on Friday. Weightlifting happens on Tuesday and Friday and rest days are Wednesday and Sunday.

These changes are always punishing in their infancy, but well warranted in the end. I know I have a few months before I can be back outside with any regularity but I don’t want to skip a beat when that day comes. I’m anticipating a fairly busy year, travel-wise and I look forward to it, but it will bring it’s workout-related challenges. I look forward to mastering this, as well. THAT SAID – if you’re reading this and you’re in the Grande Prairie area, consider swinging by the great northern casino to see Robin Kelly’s Elvis tribute act. I’ll be playing guitar for that.

I also have some pretty lofty goals this year… physically, artistically, and financially. One day at a time.

living in the future: permission to dream

“Traditionally we set unrealistic goals and then berate ourselves for not holding them up despite the fact that this is the hardest time of year to do anything. We’re exhausted from the poor sleep and poor food choices of the past week, family visits tend to take an emotional toll – but a similar toll is felt by people with nobody to celebrate with. So we’re ready to commit to anything that will make us feel better than we currently do.”

As a supplementary post to last week’s post about living in the past, I thought it’d be nice to give myself permission to dream.

New Years is one of those times that is so marked with tradition that we tend to be able to recall previous years with ease, but our thoughts tend to trend toward the idea that “this year will be different” and – well, of course it will be.

Traditionally we set unrealistic goals and then berate ourselves for not holding them up despite the fact that this is the hardest time of year to do anything. We’re exhausted from the poor sleep and poor food choices of the past week, family visits tend to take an emotional toll – but a similar toll is felt by people with nobody to celebrate with. So we’re ready to commit to anything that will make us feel better than we currently do.

The gyms will be fraught with new enrollment, and sadly attendance will taper off gradually over the next couple of months. Cigarette and booze sales will decline for a bit, but only for a bit. I’m not speaking this over anyone, so much as observing a pattern.

It’s a hard time of year… But…

Dreaming is allowed. I encourage you to not only dream, but to sort out what the steps are to get there. I promise you that you’re not going to just wake up one day and run a marathon – not without paying for it in one way or another – but if that’s a dream, you can certainly realize it if you put a plan together.

I sincerely hope to see people make the best of their time and really set themselves in motion.

Training this week has been a bit lighter. We took a few days to chill but by Thursday and Friday it was time get get into Zone 2 and start lifting weights. Saturday was a Zone 2 bike/run for an hour – and tonight I play a New Years Eve show at The Black Dog in Edmonton and I’m happy to be fresh for that.

The new year is here… and the plan; for me, is to throw down hard. My music, my job, and my workout regimen won’t even see me coming. The restful holiday time spent gathering with loved ones and reminiscing are over; and frankly, I’ve got some serious shit to do. I’ve got a new record coming out in April, the pre-orders for which will formally be open in a couple of weeks, and I’ve got work to do on that front as well as booking shows, and writing songs for the next one. I’ve got some fitness goals that need some attention that will require me to squeeze every ounce out of my current 6.5-7.0 hours per week I spend training… and… did I mention I also have a job and a family?

I’m not concerned about time constraints. I get up pretty early, so a lot of what I need to take care of gets taken care of before most people are awake – the primary concern is effort and efficiency.

I don’t expect anyone to do what I do to the degree to which I do it… but I hope people push their limits and achieve their goals. I love seeing that.

Between a conscious decision to take it easy this week, which I made back at the beginning of November, and an emergency tooth extraction and a round of antibiotics – I gotta say it feels really good to be back at it in the gym this week. I started back in on Thursday with 90 minutes of endurance / Zone 2 training and Friday with a 45 minutes of cycling and a 45 minute weight workout that consisted primarily of compound exercises – I wanted to hit all my muscle groups since it had been a spell without any serious lifting.

As this is being posted, I’m likely out the door and spending the morning of New Years Eve doing a bike/run with my girlfriend, easily the best way to start the new year. I’m disinclined to really punish myself because I’ve got a long night ahead of me, as my band Confusionaires is performing at The Black Dog in Edmonton tonight.

January is a busy month for me as a performer, and has historically been so. You wouldn’t think it would be that way, but I’ll be traversing this frozen province a couple times before the end of the month, both with Confusionaires and with Robin Kelly, and Elvis Presley tribute artist I play guitar with.

Happy New Year Everyone!

veganism vs wfpb

“I’ve been an aggressive, jealous, and angry person in my life and although we all have our moments, I can say that changing how I was nourishing myself as well as changing how I think about food and my place in my environment has flushed a lot of that animosity out of my body and allowed me to be more the person I was meant to be.”

Lu and I became vegan at the outset of Covid-19, meaning that we are encroaching on our third ‘veganniversary‘ a while back. It’s been a driving force, and a real game changer in our health journeys and I’d recommend anyone try it for 3 weeks. You can eat anything for 21 days, we know this because you can literally eat nothing for 21 days.

We’re not just vegan. We’re also Whole Food Plant Based, and there’s a difference in technique and motivating factors between the two, though they’re not at odds. not for us, anyway.

Veganism entails living in abstinence from the exploitation of animals. It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly a massive step in the right direction, and it’s never been easier than right now to become vegan, thanks to numerous consumer products available.

The Whole Food Plant Based crowd tends to abstain from animal products for personal health reasons, which then extends to things that are not whole foods including extracts and oils. It’s difficult to be strict about extracts, particularly if you take any supplements such as pea protein or other vitamins, but cooking oil-free and largely salt-free presents no real challenge.

We’re both. We’re stewards of the animals and the environment, and we nourish ourselves with the best whole food plant sources we can. The perpetuated concept that you can only be one or the other is very narrow-minded.

On a whole other level, one of the things I’ve noticed in myself is a lack of animosity. I’ve been an aggressive, jealous, and angry person in my life and although we all have our moments, I can say that changing how I was nourishing myself as well as changing how I think about food and my place in my environment has flushed a lot of that animosity out of my body and allowed me to be more the person I was meant to be.

Furthermore, I believe there is a karmic debt that is owed for the way we live, and the decisions we passively make when we choose what to eat, and where that food comes from. Ask most people what they think of factory farming and/or slaughterhouses, and they’ll tell you they’re terrible – but grocery stores still regularly run out of meat, and the fast food drive-thru is still lined up several cars deep. Something’s gotta change.

Living this way has also had amazing results with overall health, and athletic recovery.

Without getting too ‘Christmasy‘ about it, I feel that these topics need to be raised because we’re all staring down some holiday meals that are laden; if not polluted with, butter, cream, meat, egg, cheese, oil, excess salt, and all manner of things that many of us eschew. Many people are going to be eating in ways that will raise questions about how we want to live for the next year or longer and I’d like to take this opportunity to mention that you can make this decision BEFORE this heavy-eating time in our lives. It’s never been a better time to be attentive to what you’re eating and why.

At this point, I’ve dedicated some blog entries to each of the main macronutrients, if you’re at all interested in those, I’ll link them here:
PROTEIN // CARBOHYDRATES // FATS
There are also some amazing documentaries, such as Forks Over Knives, The Game Changers, They’re Trying To Kill Us, Seaspiracy, and many others.

Thanks for checking in as always.

Training this week has been good. Monday, despite the onslaught of deep fried food from a company Christmas party the night before, was a success w/ a 45 minute bike ride and a 45 minute chest/biceps session, and Tuesday saw some calisthenics at home between songs I’m charting for some upcoming performances.
Wednesday was a well-needed rest day. Thursday was a full on endurance session, 90 minutes each, and Friday was 20 minutes of rowing, 20 minutes on the bike, and 45 minutes of triceps and back work.

Saturday was fraught with Santa-business, and Sunday, my other rest day, is set to be my extended family Christmas lunch/dinner, for which I hope I am well behaved enough to meet my Monday workout with the enthusiasm it deserves. I’ll need to decide what that means in advance of that meal, but I already know it means a lot of vegan cheese and salt… so I’ll need to make sure there’s enough water flowing!

I keep telling myself (as I’m sure we all do): It’s only once a year.

your own advice

“To live a full life is to be immersed in these joy-bringing and purpose-driven activities without the distractions I regularly supply myself with. I’m a creator and I need to be immersed in creativity in order to really be fruitful.”

I think a lot about a lot.

I genuinely put a good effort into these weekly posts and I’m pretty proud of the consistency that’s been maintained here. I give a lot of guidance by way of personal revelation but I recently blew my own mind as I was once again obsessing about weight-loss, calories, and macronutrients when Lu; my favorite person to receive earth-shaking revelations from, fed me some of my own rhetoric.

Her exact words don’t come to mind as I craft this, but suffice it to say that it’s word-for-word written in the back pages of this blog. It pertains to my fixation on living in the moment, thereby being happy where I am (as opposed to living in the past, or thinking too far into the future).

I spend a lot of time thinking about fitness. Saying that I spend more time thinking about working out than I do actually working out is an easy statement to make. The same can be said about my diet – I think about food for WAY more time than I do actually eating; and although these are great and important things, the truth of the matter is that these are distractions.

I plan my meals. I plan my workouts. There’s really nothing to think about – but that doesn’t seem to stop me from thinking about them. Really, when I’m doing anything, I should be focused on what’s happening in that moment. I need to be more present with the people around me, and with the other things that enrich my life, such as writing and performing music… working on my car… walking my dog…

These are the things that make me rich. I live a lifestyle that sounds like a dream to most people but it is that way on purpose. I live like a successful person, so I am one. That might sound like it’s too simple to be true but it’s really is that easy.

To live a full life is to be immersed in these joy-bringing and purpose-driven activities without the distractions I regularly supply myself with. I’m a creator and I need to be immersed in creativity in order to really be fruitful.

I believe they call this type of action “focus“

All that said… the start to he week was challenging. The drop in temperatures have made everything – particularly transportation, take longer than expected. I’m also contending with a different work schedule that involves longer days on account of the amount of traveling I’m anticipating doing this year for music. I also had a banger of a show on the weekend that took some time to recover and reflect.

I’ll preface this by saying I don’t intend to come across as complaining. Really I’m attempting to just be real about things.

All that to say – I didn’t swim on Monday as planned, and Tuesday‘s 75-minute bike ride and chest/biceps workout was pretty taxing as well.
Wednesday remains a rest day and I was thankful for it, meaning that Thursday‘s 30-minute run & 10-minute stair climb were especially therapeutic. Now… Friday‘s session had to change. 45 minutes on the bike and a back/triceps workout are too much for my morning now that my work schedule has changed. This week I’ve resolved to do my back/triceps workout first, and then I’d intended to round out my gym time with the rowing machine, which is an endurance machine I enjoy but have not spent much time with lately. I spent zero minutes on the rowing machine, but I have a plan to rectify this for next week.
Saturday is a bike/run combo that I may or may not being doing at the precise moment this gets posted (technology is wild). This week it’s 45 minutes on the bike and a 30 minute run.

My day job is funny. My schedule is whatever I want it to be (within reason). I need to maintain an average number of hours logged to compensate for time taken to play music, which is not because I need the money but because my job requires a certain amount of attention in order to be done properly. Since I can’t handle staying later than my current 6pm end time, I go in an hour early every day I’m scheduled… which cuts into gym time. I’m unsure of how I’ll be able to maintain this over the year but I have to try.

I do need this job.

So this is my solution for now, and should get me through the winter. Springtime will bring it’s own training challenges, I’m sure – but at least I shouldn’t have to contend with the weather in such an aggressive manor.

So if my biggest issue is that I don’t have enough spare time to physically devastate myself a couple o’ days per week… well, I’m doing ok.