Uitwaaien, Fartleks, and Building Healthy Habits

Bodhi stops at a recently deposited pile and inhales deeply. But he longs to experience this more fully, so he gulps some down before his owner can yank him away. “Bad dog, that’s disgusting, Bodhi!” The excrement makes its way through Bodhi’s system and is eventually deposited again, doubly digested. That’s about how shitty 2020 was.

It was a tragic year in both the physical and mental toll it took across the globe. But in spite of egregious missteps and political malfeasance, the big story was of worldwide cooperation and solidarity, scientifically and socially. This kind of massive mobilization of human ingenuity and collaboration is what will be needed as we increasingly face the consequences of climate change. I am hopeful that, despite all our differences, facts and reason and justice will win out and spur us toward urgent action.

My wife and I are incredibly fortunate, both health- and wealth-wise. The pandemic did not upend our lives the way it did for billions on the planet. In keeping with my goal to begin devoting more time and resources toward volunteer work, I was even able to spend a plurality of my working hours in 2020 volunteering for a local nonprofit advocating for a rapid transition to 100% renewable energy. Still, 2020 unexpectedly posed some of the largest challenges I’ve faced in my life. The stress and anxiety that accompanied these challenges exacerbated some of my baser tendencies when it comes to my health. In short, I let myself go.

Granted, in a relative sense, I was still a fairly healthy person, but I wasn’t eating well or exercising enough, and I was drinking too much (this seems to be a theme for many during the pandemic). In November I began a remodel project which at least kept me on my feet more, and began priming me for what would be a larger shift in my habits in the new year.

It is of course cliché to make New Year’s resolutions (and then invariably break them). But the idea of continually creating new goals and challenges fits well with being an eclectic – trying new things and hoping that some of them stick. It’s that sticking part that is tricky. One difference in my approach this year is working on the mental aspects of habits.

MEDS

My brother Zac had begun un-roly polying himself last year. He built a gym and actually used it. He was working on eating better, exercising more, sleeping better, and – not to be overlooked – pulling it all together through meditation and mindfulness. He called it MEDS: Meditation, Exercise, Diet, Sleep. I jumped on board, and the M part of that equation is the big difference for me this time – Zac even found an aid in the form of the Healthy Minds app, put together by some researchers at the University of Wisconsin.

I have been a mindfulness skeptic in the past, even promoting the practice of mindlessness. But my distractedness has undoubtedly had detrimental impacts in my life. My wife has been working on mindfulness and meditation for a couple years now, and it has been incredibly helpful for her. So I downloaded the app and I’ve been listening to the soothing tones of Cort’s voice almost daily for over a month now.

By working on my awareness and being more connected to the world around me, I’m hopeful that I will become better at establishing and sticking with healthier habits. I’m looking at these new habits not from a standpoint of deprivation (you never get those drinking days back, as a friend says) but from one of florescence – opportunities to deepen my appreciation of the world.

As an aside, I was beginning to think that I might be exceptionally good at this whole meditation thing the other night: I woke up in the middle of the night and I thought, well, now that I’m so good at letting my mind relax I will easily be able to go back to sleep soon. In fact, damn, look how good I am at just focusing on my breathing. Cort would be proud. Maybe I would be one of his better students. Maybe I should write a paper about how good I am at this. Speaking of which, I should really write another blog post. It’s been too long since I’ve written a post. It’d be nice to have something new up before the podcast. What else do I need to do to prepare for the podcast? And how about the trip to New Orleans? Wonder if we’ll be able to swing that. It’ll be helpful if the house sale goes well. I hope they don’t come back at me with inspection contingencies – I should get in touch with that other realtor and try to secure a backup offer…. I fell asleep a couple hours later.

Diet-wise, I have written about what it takes to lose weight and eat more healthfully. I generally know what to do, I often just don’t do it very well. Being more mindful of my habits has helped. I dropped about ten pounds in January, but my carb cheating has increased into February. Will mindfulness promote vigilance?

I’ve enjoyed teetotaling most nights with my wife (we didn’t cut off the spigot completely), sitting in the living room reading or working on puzzles, enjoying a mocktail together, hanging out with the kids, interacting more, watching less screen time. And even though we’ve been pretty loosey goosey about this, it feels like we’re developing a sustainable path.

What the hell is uitwaiien?

To kick our new plan off, we gathered some friends for a polar plunge on New Year’s Day – a symbolic cleansing.

The Germans probably have a word for the feeling you get after you immerse yourself in freezing water. It’s the opposite of weltschmerz – it’s an invigorated awareness and appreciation of the world, and you carry this feeling with you for hours, if not days, after the plunge.

A slightly more tepid, but more actionable, method for achieving this feeling of invigoration is the Dutch practice of uitwaiien (out-vahyn), which involves going for a walk in the brisk wind to refresh and clear one’s mind. For a while now, I’ve had the idea of running the nearby golf course in the mornings before it opens; the spongy feeling of the nicely manicured fairways is a heavenly way to run. My plan was to sprint (ish) for 50-100 yards on each of six holes and jog out the rest. This is what the Swedish call fartleks, which is another way of saying high interval intensity training (HIIT).

Maybe we could combine the elements of fartleks, uitwaiien, and anti-weltschmerz into our own compound word: mindfulcise. I’ve been mindfulcising with our dog, Zula, at the golf course about twice a week since the beginning of the new year. I also do a mini session (two holes) almost every morning with Zula, sometimes in subzero temps (Zula, by the way, is a fartlek master). This is invigorating stuff – the Dutch and Swedes are onto something.

Additionally, about once a week I’ve been heading to the local high school stadium with my son, where we’ll play soccer and football, and knock out some occasional wind sprints or a flaccid 400-yard “dash” (I run the latter slower than decent marathoners run each 400 of an entire marathon, but I’m getting better, thanks to the fartleks). And I’m slowly getting back into weightlifting and stretching.

What I’m working on is, without being too rigid, developing a healthier lifestyle. This involves working on the self: self-awareness, self-reflection, self-encouragement. Lots of selfs, but all this self-help should also redound to the benefit of others: If you feel better, you do better.

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Addendum: A Doc Friend’s List for Healthier Living

• Processed foods/sugars are the root of most people’s problems.
• Paleo is decent mental framework to consider what to eat.
• Fasting can be powerful.
• Time-restricted eating is a great maintenance tool and a bridge to longer fasts.
• Don’t eat in the few hours before bed.
• Eat organic when possible.
• Eat 10+ servings a day of fruits/veggies, and eight or nine of those should be veggies. Make a giant smoothie and drink it throughout the day.
• Eat so that you are full and satisfied or you’ll give into cravings and binge anyway.
• You are probably deficient in vitamin D and magnesium (and vitamin D from the sun is the best, but take supplements, too).
• You are probably relatively deficient in all other vitamins, too.
• Take a high-dose omega 3 supplement. If you can afford it, “Nordic naturals” is really high quality. Most are very oxidized (that’s what gives them a fishy-taste) and there is some question whether the oxidized version is counter-productive.
• Consider getting a glucometer to measure your glucose throughout the day – it’s not hard to be “pre-diabetic” even if your doctor says your numbers are fine.
• Go to bed earlier. Not getting enough sleep before your natural cortisol surge in the morning will create an uphill battle.
• Sitting is evil.
• Zone 2 exercise pretty much every day of your life.
• Practice high interval intensity training 1-2 days a week.
• Get stronger.
• Incorporate mindfulness/meditation into your routine to help solidify healthy habits [from Zac].