Well, that is the end of 2019 and another decade! Personally, this has been 10 years full of remarkable adventures and challenging times.
I don’t know about you, but I am ready for a fresh start.
Before the new year starts here are some of my 2019 highlights which include some of yours too.
At the beginning of this year, I decided that I would run 1000 KM in 2019 and some of you decided to join me. I also made a personal goal of reading 50 books.
While these seem to be very different goals, they were about the same thing. This past decade I had lost, or maybe misplaced, my focus. I could not get excited about pursuing anything intentionally. It wasn’t about being unmotivated, I simply couldn’t find something to inspire me enough to pursue it. My theme of the last 10 years could be summed up as accidentally, on purpose.
I would like to emphasize that I believe that sometimes just showing up is enough.
Having two goals that required regular action was important. Equally important was that one was physical and one was mentally challenging and they were both inspired by similar events.
First, when I moved to a town that actually had winter… weird this winter thing that can last 8 months, it is easy to not run. I went cross-country skiing, I went to the gym and I even started swimming again. But there were a couple of winters when I did not run, at all.
It is easier to run a little, all the time, than to start again.
My favourite word when it comes to exercise is consistency. So 2019 was about being consistent and if I ran 20 KM a week for 50 weeks that would be consistent and not really that difficult. 4 x 5 KM runs or some variation on that would be pretty easy, without a major injury, to accomplish it. This would also help me reach a goal of some longer trail runs in this upcoming year since you need a good base before increasing the distance if you want to stay injury-free.
As of this Sunday, I have run 1367 KM in 2019.
Thanks, in part to my new friends at RunUphill for the fun Saturday Coffee runs.
I have also read 58 books this year, a split between fiction and non-fiction. Some purely for entertainment and some because I was interested in the author or the subject.
I decided on a reading goal because I realized that I hadn’t read very many books the previous year and this disturbed me… if I wasn’t reading what was I spending time doing? Probably nothing worthwhile. I read pretty fast, so 50 books was another goal that I could reach as long as I was consistent.
If you are interested, at the end of this post, there are three books I would highly recommend and three I wonder how I got through…
Your Success Stories
There were many this year. A few highlights from the past year from some of my clients:
Three of you that joined my plant-based study lost 10 pounds in 3 months, another two people lost 5 pounds and between 5-10 cm off your waist circumference!
Four people in my 8 Weeks Burn your Belly Fat High-Intensity Interval Training program lost 10 cm or 4 inches from their waist circumference.
One person successfully crossed the New York Marathon off their bucket list. Congrats!
One person took almost 30 minutes of their previous triathlon time over the same course – fantastic!
Three clients successfully navigated unexpected health challenges and were able to continue practicing their healthy habits even when circumstances were working against them.
A couple of you improved your bone density. Which is a very good example of consistent practice over time. This doesn’t happen in a couple of months.
More than one of you stated that you didn’t have to think about your new good habits anymore, they were part of your life!
Many of you have reduced or eliminated medications by changing your lifestyle habits reducing blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar medications!
More of you are eating plant-based than ever before even if it is not for every meal, every meal counts.
I started working with the plant-based team of dieticians at Lighter Pro to help you make plant-based menu planning easier and healthier than ever before.
We ran and cycled in the Rockies, some of it in the snow…
The man and I hiked the West Coast Trail, part of it with a broken ankle, his not mine.
Thank you for all your responses to these posts, your thoughts, questions and ideas are always welcome!
And finally, thank you to everyone that filled out my survey. The results were helpful and look for all the upcoming changes in the New Year.
My Top Non- Fiction Books of 2019
This was hard I read a lot of great books this year, but these three are about science and health.
How our perceptions create our own reality bubbles. Ziya takes us on a journey of our 10 biggest blind spots in a thoughtful way. She explores the blind spots we are born with, collective blind spots and intergenerational blind spots with curiosity and enthusiasm for overcoming them together. Creating a positive, enlightening and hopeful view of the world that could be.
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein
Daniel Pink calls this book, “an essential read for bosses, parents, coaches, and anyone who cares about improving performance.”
This book explores successful athletes, artists, inventors, scientists to find that in most fields generalists do better. This is especially true in wicked learning environments, that are complex and unpredictable.
Another book by David Epstein, The Sports Gene is also fascinating and well worth reading.
Lost Connections: Why You’re Depressed and How to Find Hope, by Johann Hari
Johann Hari wants to find out why depression and anxiety rates keep going up and how to solve this worldwide problem. With personal stories, practical solutions and the connections that matter most to our health.
I recommend this book to everyone, especially those who work with people suffering from depression and anxiety, full of hopeful stories and real-world examples of overcoming these challenges.
The Don’t Bother Books
Talking to Strangers, by Malcolm Gladwell.
If I had to give this a one-word review it would be self-absorbed. Malcolm Gladwell manages to take the long-simmering racial tensions in the United States and make them into a tiny moment in history. He thinks that University coaches shouldn’t be held accountable for what could range from pedophilia to seriously bad decision-making abilities. He also believes that if a woman is drunk, consent may be implied. Malcolm Gladwell might be so self-absorbed that he can excuse illegal behaviour as a misunderstanding.
Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer, by Barbara Ehrenreich.
Barbara is an established author and breast cancer survivor in her 70s who decides to forgo any more unnecessary attempts to prolong her life. This includes any type of medical tests or healthy living habits that apparently are all a giant hoax to keep the medical and “wellness” establishments running. Some of that may be true, but to lump it all in together, doesn’t make sense. Her arguments are mostly based on simple, single studies or quotes from one source, some from the 1970s, which in science terms might as well be from another lifetime.
I was hoping for something better. I often find that when clients go to the doctor about their health concerns they become medicalized. They are no longer treated as a person with a symptom, but a symptom looking for a cure that only medicine can bring. This book could have explored this common situation without becoming a diatribe.
Natural Born Heroes: How a Daring Band of Misfits Mastered the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance, by Christopher McDougall
One of my favourite running books is Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run. I reread it whenever I need a little extra motivation to go running.
If you are looking for another inspirational read, this is not that book. This disappoints me because it could have been and his new book is about running with donkeys and I LOVE donkeys. What if Running with Sherman is equally bad… I sincerely hope it is not.
This book tries to be everything and ends up as a meandering story with too many themes. It is hard to keep track of the characters, or the point, there is too much going on. In the end, Chris states, this was going to be two books. That would have been for the best. There are no new training secrets, mostly because the secret to successful training is to just do it.
If you want a book to motivate you to exercise I recommend the audio version of David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me. It got me through 5 weeks of running on the treadmill when it was too cold to go outside and I don’t like running on the treadmill. The audiobook is great because you get personal observations at the end of each chapter from David and the narrator. Warning it contains lots of explicit language and the best part is the ending. It is not what you expect.
Did you read any books you would recommend? Let me know I need a new book to read!
Have a fit and Happy New Year,
Shayla
P.S. When you buy something from the links above I earn a small commission. I only recommend items I believe in.
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