Biggest Diet and Exercise Mistake You Can Make

This is something you already know, but perhaps you need reminding:

In order to succeed at any worthwhile long-term health goal (exercise, diet, stress reduction, whatever) you have to Give up on Being Perfect.

Duh, right? But somehow we all keep forgetting this.

The Pursuit of Perfection, and the all-or-nothing thinking that follows from this delusional quest, is one of the two most lethal motivational mistakes you can make. (The other is Not Actually Giving a Crap--this is what happens when you embark on a self-improvement program because someone else thinks it's a good idea. They may be right! Still, it ain't gonna work).

But unless you come to grips with your perfectionism early and often, you're doomed. You may start off making great progress but you won't be able to maintain it for more than a few weeks or months.

Why not?

Because long-term success in any endeavor is about Mastering the Self-Improvement Process, not about how many calories you ate or how many miles you ran or how many dollars you earned or how many words you wrote on a particular day. You can have a "perfect" record for months, but if you're not learning how to cope with the imperfect days, the first few that come along can derail you completely.

It's a simple idea (that you've heard a bunch of times before) but the implications of this are really powerful. It means that for the long haul, it doesn't matter if you ran a marathon today or stayed in bed with the flu. Whether you ate 1500 calories or 5,000 calories.

What matters is that you did what you needed to do to Stay On Track.

Staying On Track is the most important thing. Over time, if you Stay on Track, there will be good days and bad days but the good days will eventually predominate. Healthy living is still a pain in the ass. But the longer you keep doing it? The less of a pain it is. It will probably never, however, be completely easy and fun. You will always be tempted to Slack. Thus you need to know how to Stay on Track for the rest of your life.

For Life. It blows but it's really important.

So what are some of the essential components of Staying on Track?

1. Staying Accountable and being Honest with yourself.

2. Acknowledging your Achievements and not just taking them for granted.

3. Trying your best but refusing to get all Punitive and Self-Hating when you inevitably screw up.

4. And so Not Quitting in self-disgust because you screwed up.

5. Then Starting Over if you do happen to quit in self-disgust despite being told Not To.

6. Setting Realistic goals and making positive changes Gradually and Steadily.

7. Accepting that while "All" may be nice, "Some" is better than "None" when it comes to good behavior.

8. Analyzing the Triggers for bad behavior and planning to Avoid them or Minimize their Impact in the future.

9. There are Lots more but this is starting to get Boring.

Note one important thing about all of these items (except for #9): They Are All Impossible if You Insist on Perfection!

You will find yourself lying to yourself if your goals are lofty and become inviolable rules in your own mind. You will "forget" to write things down; you will fudge and cheat and you will be psychologically Off Track no matter how well you are actually doing. You will frequently feel disappointed in yourself even when you are objectively doing good things. You won't praise yourself for your good days because they're ALL supposed to be good days. You will feel easily discouraged and tempted to just go off the wagon in a Big Way, because it's just too hard to be good. And you won't learn how to minimize problem behaviors if you're not admitting to them or accepting them as natural and inevitable and part of the process. Blah blah blah, you get the idea.

Enough Theory? Here is a practical example! This is an Actual Conversation that occurred in Crabby's brain several days ago.

Crabby: I know it's getting to be time for the gym but I don't think I'll go today. I hate the gym.

Crabby's Conscience: Just go.

Crabby: But I don't wannnnna. I go to the gym plenty. Leave me alone.

Crabby's Conscience: You're due for aerobics today. A long one, remember you said? And you're way way overdue for weights. You haven't done them since Monday. You can't skip out again.

Crabby: F*ck off. Go away.

Crabby: Are you gone?

Crabby: Good.

(A minute or so later):

Crabby's Conscience: OK, now it's really time to go. Your caffeine will wear off.

Crabby: Shut up!

Crabby's Conscience: You'll be so happy once you're done.

Crabby: But I'll be so MISERABLE while I'm doing it! I'll go for a walk later. Scram!

(A few more minutes later)

Crabby's Conscience: So here's an idea.

Crabby: WTF? I said go away!

Crabby's Conscience: Suppose you just go to the gym and do a little of everything. A really quick aerobics. Only half your weights.

Crabby: But I'm supposed to do a long aerobics! And what about the other half of the weights? I can't do just part of a workout!

Crabby's Conscience: It's better than no workout. C'mon. Think of it as "fun sized." An "express" trip to the gym.

Crabby: Hmmm, "fun sized"... that does sound oddly less miserable that a regular workout...

Epilogue:

And so dear readers, Crabby indeed went to the gym. She did only half a workout. (Some days when she bargains like this she goes on do what she'd normally do anyway, but this time, she really didn't feel like it.) She gave herself Full Credit Anyway and felt very happy and pleased with herself. She returned to the gym two days later, because she was Still On Track! And that time, she did every damn thing on the list and lived Happily Ever After. At least so far.)

Behind the Scenes at Cranky Fitness

Since we had Leah kindly supplying actual Health-Related Content today, Crabby is free to bring you a few updates from the always busy and bustling Product Development Laboratories at Cranky Fitness!

And boy are they busy back there. Completely imaginary Dedicated workers, thousands of them, are toiling away night and day to update this site and bring you the easiest to find without even Googling latest, most important updates in health and fitness news! And it's not just up-to-the minute content, either. Cranky Fitness plans to keep Screwing around with the Sidebar Optimizing its' User Interface continuously in order to try to make a few bucks someday enhance your browsing experience!

Can you tell Crabby recently discovered how to do Strike-Through Type? She promises to cut it out. Soon. Probably. Eventually. Her recent infatuation has probably officially killed it. All the hip bloggers will move on to something new tomorrow. Check back here in about three years to find out what it is and Crabby will kill it again.

Anyway. So, changes. Innovations.

You may have noticed there are new ads again! Hopefully these will acquire some variety over time. Or maybe you will always be taunted by Snack Chips. Crabby herself found herself craving crunchy snack-foods last time she was at the store, and wonders if all the Blogher bloggers are throwing all kinds of crackers and chips and pretzels and other tempting carbs in their carts all of a sudden without even knowing why.

But the Blogher people somehow seem Way more likable as ad partners than the Google Alternative. So Crabby will just eat her snack chips and shut up about it until they get a few more sponsors going. And a cool thing about the Blogher ad process: they highlight posts from other member blogs. Perhaps you have seen these.

The downside: more clutter on the sidebar. The upside: some days, Cranky Fitness gets to clutter up the sidebars of other blogs! Crabby hopes new people will come and subliminally confuse Cranky Fitness with Snack Chips and think the blog is Tasty and Healthy and Addictive and Convenient and Brightly Packaged!

In other blog news, Cranky Fitness made A European List of the top English Language Health Blogs. How did Cranky Fitness manage to make the list at all, despite being too new for a google page rank, not very big, and weird? Well, partly it was because the blog gets so many comments! So thank you, Commenters! We came in at #79, beating out, for example, a blog called UroStream.

(Crabby didn't check to see whether UroStream was about, well, exactly what it sounds like. Who knows? Maybe it's another way of spelling Euro-Stream and its mission is highlight the important health benefits of European-style rowing. Perhaps they're immensely popular and they've got tasty photos spreads of buffed Continental crew teams with tousled hair and glistening bodies. Crabby prefers to think this, actually.)

Cranky Fitness is also now a Blogburst contributor! Blogburst is a syndicator that actual News Outlets sometimes use. So far, they haven't found anything normal enough here to pick up and distribute to the masses, but it has only been a few days. Crabby may experiment every now and then with trying to sound more like a regular health blog in hopes of getting Noticed. So if sudden Normalcy should attack the blog, do not be alarmed! It will be sporadic and temporary.

***Important Update! Cranky Fitness has now moved up to #17 on the European Guy's Top Health Blog List! Why? Who the hell knows, and it's probably a mistake, but Crabby's pleased! Also, she checked out UroStream and it's actually really cute. It's a blog written by a urologist with a sense of humor, though unfortunately it features no photo-spreads of muscular rowers.

So that's all for now, but stay tuned! Crabby is working hard to realize her dreams of making Cranky Fitness one of the very best, most informative silliest but nonetheless weirdly popular health blogs on the Net!

Guest Post: Leah on Savory, the "Bean Herb"

Leah J. Utas, of The Goat's Lunch Pail, was one of the very first Cranky Fitness commenters ever, and is a frequent and much beloved contributor here. So Cranky Fitness pleased to bring you her guest post. She has actual practical information on a Very Helpful Herb you may not be acquainted with. And since Leah has graciously taken care of Content for the day, there may be another post later today just about Blog Things. Now... here's Leah.



Savory, like so many other herbs and spices doesn’t get a lot of press.

Savory is good. It’s a tasty addition to meat marinades and it’s easy to grow. But best of all, and possibly least known, is Satureja hortensis is the bean herb.

The humble bean is good for us. It’s cheap, versatile, healthy, easy to cook, and easy to store. However, beans have a rather unfortunate anti-social side effect that has kept them on the sidelines.

The good news is beans need only a little help from savory in order to get over this social awkwardness.

Savory is the bean herb because it aids us in digesting them.

Add it to the cooking water. I add it to the soaking water too, usually about a tablespoon of the dried herb to a cup of beans.

It works with navy beans, lima, kidney, and pinto alike that I have personally tested, and I’ve even used in the cooking water of black-eyed peas. It also works with canned beans.

A tablespoon may be more than needed, but I grow my own and have a lot of it.

I add about a teaspoon more to the cooking water. It’s an extra kick to the digestive system and I like the flavor.

If you’re not familiar with this herb it’s a good idea to chew a wee bit of it first to get to know it.

If you don’t like, maybe just use it in the soaking water. You can cover any lasting flavor with other spices later on.

Savory can be made into a tea to help with upset stomach and assorted intestinal disorders. John Lust in “The Herb Book” noted this includes “…cramps, nausea, indigestion, and lack of appetite.”

He adds that the tea is also used as a gargle for a sore throat.

To make a tea use two to four teaspoons per cup of water. Lust’s book doesn’t say how long to steep it, but the general rule for herb or spice teas is between five and 10 minutes.

Winter Savory (Satureja Montana) has the same properties as Summer Savory. I’ve grown both and they taste the same to me.

So why not give savory a try?

Borrowing "Cool": For Smokers, the Debt Comes Due

So yet another new study has just come out reminding us of the damage cigarette smoking can do to the human body.

One has to wonder: is there any possible Horrible Consequence that might make a difference to a young person deciding whether or not to smoke?

Typical Teenager or College Student has already heard thousands of times that smoking is addictive, that it can cause heart disease and cancer and emphysema, and will eventually choke the life out anyone who chooses to take it up. Fortunately, that does stop a lot of kids. But plenty of others go right ahead.

This recent headline might be slightly more helpful: "Smokers' Skin Is More Wrinkled, Even In Areas Shielded From Sunlight." But it would probably need to say "Smoking will Cause Huge Green Volcanic Pimples To Appear on Your Face Permanently--Starting Tomorrow Morning," to even register.

However, the study did at least put the focus where it should be when addressing the important factors a young person weighs when deciding whether to smoke: how will it make me look?

Anti-smoking campaigns can't change the fact that smoking will make a young person cool. Only young people themselves can change that, and why would they?

It's the easiest possible way for teens to rebel. Smoking won't get you thrown in jail, pregnant, exposed to AIDS, or so wrecked you can't remember where you live. You don't even have to visit a "bad" neighborhood to score. Plus it's a much more convincing "f**ck-it-all" statement than a simple tattoo or nose piercing.

And it works! You can indeed "borrow" coolness you don't actually own yourself. If you are of tender years, your social status will be likely elevated if you take up this toxic but glamorous habit. You will look more suave, more adventurous, more "up for anything." At least through much of your twenties.

But sorry, it's all downhill after that. No one looks at 36-year-old Brian from Accounting and thinks, wow, he's so sophisticated--he smokes! Just keep watch at any downtown office building where actual grown-ups work. Wait for break time. See those people huddled there in the doorways in the the snow, the hundred degree heat? Are those the "cool" people?

Oddly enough, there seems to be almost an inverse relationship between hipness and these folks. There's an air of depression and defeat about these gatherings. No one would mistake this for the "in crowd."

What's truly amazing is the number of young adults who still make this clueless bargain--who don't even need to! (Some of us geeky types who took a few experimental puffs back in the day, but decided the price was too high--we could have really used the help). Evening strolls through the trendy neighborhoods of Washington D.C. recently revealed hordes of twenty-somethings who looked rich, attractive, well-dressed, pampered, and ready to step into privileged lives--with cigarettes dangling from their lips.

Perhaps it was the air of smugness about some of them that brought on an emotion that wasn't, well, pity. You could almost hear them: "Can't you see how awesome we look? Don't you wish you were us?"

Yep, dude, sure enough--you do look awesome. But no. Absolutely no wish to be you.

Out Having Fun?

(Photo courtesy of The Smitten Image)

Crabby hopes you're Out and About, if you live somewhere this particular holiday is celebrated. And if you're at work, try to have some fun anyway! You could start a water fight at the company water cooler! Er, maybe not.

Do people actually hang out at the "Water Cooler" anymore and discuss things? This seems unlikely. Crabby has not worked at an Office Job in a long time.

(All she remembers about Water Coolers was that it was a huge pain in the ass to put the new bottle on. Naturally everyone kept avoiding it, and so thirsty Crabby would often be the one to take it upon herself to do it. She'd open the huge water jug, hoist all 150lbs of it (well it seemed that big) into the air, and then tip it upside down, madly circling the tiny hole of the dispenser trying to center the jug as gallons and gallons of water were spilling all over the break room. Why did they make the jugs so big, the cooler so high, the hole so small? For their own amusement? Crabby hopes water dispensing technology has improved a lot since those days).

Anyway, for those of you at work who want to pretend you're taking a nice walk through the park and appreciating the natural beauty and diversity of your community, our good friend Hilary can take you on a virtual photo tour. (Hers is the picture above). She has a great accompanying essay too and lots more pictures!

And is anyone off traveling in foreign countries? Of course you couldn't wait to get back home to read Cranky Fitness so you're probably huddled at an internet cafe right now. (OK, perhaps not. In fact if you are Cut it Out and Go outside!) Anyway, anyone who's had a recent lousy Passport Photo taken will appreciate this amusing post over at Gadling. And who's that woman brave enough to display her own less-than-optimal results? Why it's our friend Martha! (If you click on her name you'll discover Martha is actually a hottie, so we won't feel too sorry for her).

So that's it for the holiday and Crabby will be back tomorrow. If you have any thoughts about your weekend, the End of Summer, Water Fights, Passports, or Anything At All, feel free to share!