www.MichaelReid.ca

I am still here

I confess, I have been very sporadic with posts these last 4 months.

I find that I am still transitioning into being a stay at home Dad and doing all the other things that I want to do.

I certainly have a much greater appreciation for stay at home parents who get "stuff" done while also caring for their children.

As I write this, my 9 month old son is having his morning nap which should last about 90 minutes.

My plan during these morning naps is to get my training accomplished. Regarding training, I am currently using only body weight exercises and kettlebells.  I also have a spiral stair case in my apartment where I use one of the steps for pull ups.

You see by the pictures that we are still unpacking and getting things set up in our new apartment.  I have kind of stagnated since we first moved in almost a month ago.  The first week was very hectic with lots of things getting done but after we were initially settled I just needed a period of relaxation and a chance to reflect on what to do next.

As you can tell by the pics, I am still reflecting! Although I am very happy with the stair Pull Ups.

Be Well,
Michael Reid
www.michaelreid.ca
www.waterpolotraining.net

Kneeling Deadlift

OK, not really. 

This is my 9 month old son having some fun with my 24kg Kettlebell.

He sees his Dad and Mom training all the time so he wanted to see what these big things were all about.

It looks like he's having fun.

Be Well,
Michael Reid
www.michaelreid.ca
www.waterpolotraining.net

If it's in your House ...

Image via Wikipedia

Quick nutrition tip.

If an undesirable food is in your home, then you or someone you love will end up eating it.

Cleaning out your kitchen of crap food is a very important step to eating healthier. 

When you are at home and you need to snack if there are cookies and chips there, you will eat them. 

Don't give yourself the choice, just eliminate them from your home.

I am a perfect example of this.  In my home, I do not have any of that stuff and therefore do not eat it but this past summer I was back in Canada for a visit and it was abundant in the homes I was staying at.

Guess what?  I ate a lot of potato chips.

Now that I am back in Europe, I haven't had any and it will probably stay that way for the rest of the year or till the next time I am back in Canada.

To recap: If an undesirable food is in your home, then you or someone you love will end up eating it.

Be Well,

Michael Reid
www.michaelreid.ca
www.waterpolotraining.net

Who Lives the Longest?

The simple answer are the people that move the most on a daily basis.  

But if you want to know what country, it is the residents of Andorra who live to an average age of 85 years.  

Why is that?  Is it exercise, diet, lifestyle, low taxes (apparently Andorra is a "tax haven").

The simple answer is yes, all the above.  But I will place my bet on the daily movement.

Andorra is located in the Pyrenees Mountains, so essentially if you walk anywhere you are always going up and down mountains.

Image by Jaume Meneses via Flickr

When I first moved to Sweden (I am living in Denmark now), I lived in a house on top of a fairly large hill with a very steep road up to it.  It was a training session just going up that hill and steep enough to have to walk my bike up.

After being there a few months, one of the locals said "people who live here, live a long time."

As long as you do not have a car, you must trek ~10-15 minutes to the closet bus stop just to get to the grocery store.  Then you must carry the groceries back up!

I am kind of living in a similar situation in Denmark.  I am on the 5th floor of my apartment building, no elevator and a total of 80 steps up.

Actually most of the apartment buildings in Denmark do not have elevators and maybe this is one of the reasons you see very few obese people here when compared to North America.

On a slightly different note, has anyone else noticed that when you are training on a regular basis that you eat better?  I totally find this with myself.  If I am on a solid regime of daily exercise I gravitate to eating a healthy diet.  If for what ever reason I spend several days or even a couple of weeks with no training I tend to start eating more junk.

Could this be part of the equation of the Andorrans long life expectancy?

Be Well,
Michael Reid
www.michaelreid.ca
www.waterpolotraining.net

reference:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/23/andorra.life.expectancy/index.html