Tag: #goals

Flaxseed

What the Flaxseed?

Leave a comment
Flaxseed

Flaxseed

It reduces your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. It may help protect you against breast cancer, prostate cancer and colon cancer. It helps you lose weight and it helps clean your GI tract. You could add it to pretty much anything that you eat and it doesn’t really taste like anything so you wouldn’t even notice. And it doesn’t cost much. You can find it for less than $4 online or just get it at Trader Joe’s for a little more than that. If those aren’t reason enough to start adding flaxseed to your diet, I’ve added a few facts about it’s three main components (Fiber, Lignans and Omega-3s) below.

FIBER:

There are two types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Flaxseed has both!

  • Soluble fiber is good for us because it attracts water and together they combine to form a gel. This gel helps slow down our digestion which means that we have that feeling of ‘fullness’ for a lot longer. Soluble fiber also helps lower our LDL blood cholesterol levels by interfering with the absorption of dietary cholesterol. LDLs collect in the walls of blood vessels and causes blockages and blood clots that may cause atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in the arteries) which in turn may lead to a heart attack, a stroke or even death.
  • Insoluble fiber is considered ‘gut-healthy’ because it has a laxative effect and prevents constipation. Because it’s insoluble (it doesn’t dissolve in water), it goes through our GI tract and grabs on to all the crap in our body and then we poop it out.
  • How much fiber do we need?
    • 35-40 grams a day for men
    • 25 grams a day for women

Lignans:

Lignans are a chemical compound found in plants and have antioxidant qualities. Just like fiber, lignans help lower our LDL levels. The lignans found in flaxseed help reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke because they have been shown to reduce atherosclerotic plaque buildup by up to 75%.

Omega-3 Fats:

Omega-3s act as an anti-inflammatory by helping block the release of pro-inflammatory agents. This reduction of inflammation associated with plaque buildup in the arteries may be another reason that flaxseed helps reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. And because there is less plaque in our arteries, our heartbeat and blood pressure normalizes.

Give flaxseed a shot! What do you got to lose?

Thinking For A Change

Create Something

Leave a comment
Thinking For A Change

Thinking For A Change

 

Skill #3: Discover the Joy of Creative Thinking

  • “The joy is in creating, not maintaining.” – Vince Lombardi (97)
  • “Originality is the art of concealing your source.” – Thomas Edison (98)
  • “To stay ahead, you must have your next idea waiting in the wings.” – Rosabeth Moss Kanter (99)
  • “The most valuable resource you bring to your work and to your firm is your creativity.” – Annette Moser-Wellman (99)
  • “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” – Pablo Picasso (100)
  • Characteristics that creative thinkers have in common: (1) They value ideas, (2) explore options, (3) embrace ambiguity, (4) celebrate the offbeat, (5) connect the unconnected, and (6) don’t fear failure. (101-104)
  • “Highly creative people are dedicated to ideas. They don’t rely on their talent alone; they rely on their discipline. Their imagination is like a second skin. They know how to manipulate it to its fullest.” – Annette Moser-Wellman (101)
  • “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” – Albert Einstein (101)
  • Creative thinking works something like this: THINK > COLLECT > CREATE >CORRECT > CONNECT
  • An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. (104)
  • “anxiety is the essential condition of intellectual and artistic creation.”(104)
  • Sometimes creative thinking lies along the lines of invention, where you break new ground. Other times it moves along the lines of innovation, which helps you to do old things in a new way. (105)
  • “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use it, the more you have. Sadly, too often creativity is smothered rather than nurtured. There has to be a climate in which new ways of thinking, perceiving, questioning are encouraged.” – Maya Angelou (107)
  • If you cultivate creativity, you will become more attractive to other people, and they will be drawn to you. (107)
  • “Creativity is the joy of not knowing it all.” Ernie Zelinski (108)
  • Creativity is teachability. It’s seeing more solutions than problems. (108)
  • The status quo and creativity are incompatible. (108)
  • Wrong questions shit down the process of creative thinking. (111)
  • “The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes  a creative mind to spot wrong questions. (111)
  • Negative environments kill thousands of great ideas every minute. (112)
  • A creative environment, on the other hand, becomes like a greenhouse where ideas are seeded, sprout up, and flourish. (112)
  • A creative environment: (1) encourages creativity, (2) places a high value on trust among team members and individuality, (3) embraces those who are creative, (4) focuses on innovation, not just invention, (5) places a high value on options, (6) is willing to let people go outside the lines and (7) appreciates the power of a dream. (112-116)
  • “Studies of creativity suggest that the biggest single variable of whether or not employees will be creative is whether they perceive they have permission.” – David Hills (112)
  • Creativity always risks failure. That’s why trust is so important to creative people. (113)
  • “Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.” – Rita Mae Brown (113)
  • Creative people say, “Give me a good idea and I’ll give you a better idea!” (114)
  • Look at more stuff, and think about it harder… That’s the formula all of us can learn to embrace if we want to become more creative people.
Thinking For A Change

Focus, Focus, Focus

Leave a comment
Thinking For A Change

Thinking For A Change

Skill #2: Unleash the Potential of Focused Thinking

  • “He did each thing as if he did nothing else.” – Spoken of Novelist Charles Dickens (77)
  • Focused thinking can do several things for you: (1) Harness energy toward a desired goal, (2) give ideas time to develop, (3) brings clarity to the target, and (4) take you to the next level. (80-82)
  • Focus can bring energy and power to almost anything, whether physical or mental. (80)
  • “To be able to concentrate for a considerable time is essential to difficult achievement.” – Bertrand Russell (80-81)
  • A good idea can become a great idea when it is given focus time. (81)
  • “knowledge is power only if a man knows what facts are not to bother about.” – Robert Lynd (81)
  • One of the most important things about golf is the presence of clear goals. (82)
  • “The immature mind hops from one thing to another; the mature mind seeks to follow through.” – Harry A. Overstreet (82)
  • Be selective, not exhaustive, in your focused thinking. For me, that means dedicating in-depth thinking time for four areas: leadership, creativity, communication and intentional networking. (83)
  • Identify Your Priorities (84)
  • “a conclusion is a place where you get tired of thinking.” – Edward DeBono (84)
  • Discover Your Gifts (84)
  • if you’re going to focus your thinking in your areas of strength, you need to know what they are.” (85)
  • Develop Your Dream ((85)
  • “You will become as small as your controlling desire, as great as your dominant aspiration.” – James Allen (85)
  • “The real path to greatness, it turns out, requires simplicity and diligence. It requires clarity, not instant illumination. It demands each of us focus on what is vital — and to eliminate all of the extraneous distractions.” – Jim Collins (86)
  • Wherever you are… be there! (87)
  • The mind will not focus until it has clear objectives. But the purpose of goals is to focus your attention and give you direction, not to identify a final destination. (89)
  • “If you can’t write your idea on the back of my business card, you don’t have a clear idea.” – David Belasco (89)
Thinking For A Change

Always Think “Big Picture”

Leave a comment
Thinking For A Change

Thinking For A Change

Part I of this book had some really good shtuff in it, but I wasn’t able to make time to write about the key points that stood out to me. I will do a better job for Part II: Eleven Thinking Skills Every Successful Person Needs. I will actually use these types of posts as my “notepad” when I complete the assigned readings for my Leadership & Critical Thinking course. As most of my posts about the books in my “Bookshelf,” I will just report (in bullet form) the more interesting points that I found in each chapter. Hopefully these bullet points serve a purpose for you; whether they be good conversation starters or even serve as “thought provokers.” Definitely, comment on any of these posts with your thoughts and we can have a discussion 🙂 Enjoy!

Skill #1

  • “Where success is concerned, people are not measured in inches, or pounds, or college degrees, or family background; they are measured by the size of their thinking.” – David Schwartz (59)
  • “We all live under the same sky, but we don’t all have the same horizon.” – Konrad Adenauer (61)
  • How many thousands of people had seen what Eratosthenes saw and never made the same connection? (61)
  • When somebody like Jack Welch tells a GE employee that the ongoing relationship with the customer is more important than the sale of an individual product, he’s reminding them of the big picture. (62)
  • Spend time with big-picture thinkers and you’ll find that they: (1) Learn continually, (2) Listen intentionally, (3) Look expansively and (4) Live completely. (63-65)
  • Big-picture thinkers are never satisfied with what they already know…. they often are able to connect the unconnected. They are life-long learners. (63)
  • If I’m going to learn and grow, I must know what questions to ask and know how to apply the answers to my life. (63)
  • Big-picture thinkers recognize that they don’t know lots of things. (64)
  • Big-picture thinkers realize there is a world out there besides their own, and they make an effort to get outside of themselves and see other people’s worlds through their eyes. (64)
  • You can spend your life any way you want, but you can spend it only once. (65)
  • [Big-picture thinkers] experience fewer unwanted surprises, too, because they are more likely to see the many components involved in any given situation: issues, people, relationships, timing and values. They are also, therefore, usually more tolerant of other people and their thinking. (65)
  • Leaders must: (1) See the vision before their people do, (2) Size up situations, taking into account many variables, (3) Sketch a picture of where the team is going, (4) Show how the future connects with the past to make the journey more meaningful, and (5) Seize the moment when the timing is right. (66-67)
  • “He that is everywhere is nowhere.” – Thomas Fuller (67)
  • “You’ve got to think about the ‘big things’ while you’re doing the small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.” – Alvin Toffler (67)
  • One of the most important skills you can develop in human relations is the ability to see things from the other person’s point of view. (68)
  • see what other see… that is a powerful thing. (68)
  • The better the grasp team members have of the big picture, the greater their potential to work together as a team. (68)
  • The person who forgets the ultimate is a slave to the immediate. (69)
  • With preparation, the most important things will be done well. (69)
  • If you want to cultivate the ability to think big picture, then you must get used to embracing and dealing with complex and diverse ideas. (71)
  • Learn from Every Experience: Failing Forward (71)
  • Teachability is an attitude, a mind-set that says, “No matter how much I know (or think I know), I can learn from this situation.” That kind of thinking can help you turn adversity into advantage. It can make you a winner even during the most difficult circumstances.” (71)
  • If you want to be a big-picture thinker, you will have to go against the flow of the world. (73)
8 miles - Lake Merced

“Long Run” Sunday

2 Comments
8 miles - Lake Merced

8 miles – Lake Merced

This was by far the best Lake Merced Run that I’ve ever had. I’ve run 10 miles around Lake Merced before, but this 8-mile run was fast (to my standards) and I felt so damn good after; I wasn’t too tired, I wasn’t breathing hard, nothing was aching, and I just felt gooooood.

And this is the first time that I used the my Garmin to challenge myself. And what I mean by that is, I set my Garmin to a 8:00 minute pace, whereas in the past I wouldn’t set a desired pace and just used the watch to track my current pace, overall distance and overall time. And to be honest, at the start of my run, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to keep up with that pace, but as I mile 2 came along I was feeling good. And after mile 3, I felt the same. By mile 4 I was in the zone! My strides felt good, my breathing felt good and I just felt goooooood. I’m glad that I used that desired pace function because I think it pushed me and challenged me and it showed me that I can absolutely run an 8:00 minute mile (over 8 miles at least). And to be honest, I think I could have gone another mile or 2 at that 8:00-minute (or faster) pace.

This watch is definitely one of the best Christmas gifts I’ve ever received and I’ve thanked my girlfriend every day since I received it.

Well, that was my “Long Run” Sunday. I’m not gonna lie, I don’t think I’ll post my whole week recap anymore. I’ll keep my running updates short and simple like this post. I hope you all have a great week! Cheers!

Uhhh, What New Year’s Resolution?

Leave a comment

Ok, I know I said I would post something every day this year, but this whole Grad School thing is getting in the way, lol.

I’m just kidding, I’m loving this first week of Graduate School! It’s just a whole lot of work. Between working full time at the Y, keeping up with my running schedule (I ran 8 miles today btw), and completing all the reading and writing assignments for my Sport Management Program, I have not MADE time to post something every day. I say MADE time because I know I have time to write a little something every day, I just haven’t gotten used to this new schedule. Once I get a hold of my schedule, I intend to get back to posting something every day. I hope all of you are running and staying healthy! Know that I am doing the same, even though my work and school schedule is chaotic right now. Take care! Cheers!

7 Mile - Lap Times

H.M.T. III – Week 7 Recap

Leave a comment
HMT III: Week 7

HMT III: Week 7

Monday 12/31/12

New Year’s Eve!! I spent New Year’s Eve at my Sister’s place and kept it pretty low key because I had a New Year’s Day 10K the following morning. I did take 3 shots of Henny, but my brother-in-law was kind enough to make them half shots because he knew what I had planned that next morning. I didn’t strengthen this day because I wanted to rest my body for the 10K, BUT I did stretch (somewhat). On my way to my sister’s place, I stopped by a running store and bought this bad boy:

The Stick

The Stick

So I was rolling out my quads, calves and IT Band the whole day. After eating and playing with my nieces, I went to sleep around 9pm and asked my sister to wake me up for the countdown…. she forgot! But she did wake me up right after the countdown and I was able to wish all my family Happy New Year.

Tuesday 01/01/13

Check out my New Year’s Day 10K! post.

Wednesday 01/02/13

I was supposed to run, BUT I was still recovering from my 10K, so I just relaxed this day.

Thursday 01/03/13

I did strengthen my back, shoulder and triceps this day. After resistance training, I hopped on the treadmill for my 4.5-mile run and ended up only running half a mile; my legs still weren’t ready after that 10K (that hill was nuts, for me anyways).

10K Elevation Chart

10K Elevation Chart

Friday 01/04/13

Rest Day!!!! Yes please!!!!

Saturday 01/05/13

My lady and I started off this Saturday by volunteering a food bank with a few of my staff from the Y. It was a great experience and we had a lot of fun doing what we were doing. After the food bank we had lunch and after lunch I KTFO!! My body, my legs still needed some good rest.

Sunday 01/06/13

Today was my 7-miler. I wasn’t too sure how this run would go because I haven’t really ran since my 10K and my legs still felt a little tired. Here’s my run:

Lake Merced

Lake Merced

7 Mile - Lap Times

7 Mile – Lap Times

My legs felt really heavy today and I think its because I have been eating way too much Quinoa! I just started eating that shtuff and I have fallen in love with it. I spoke to my buddy about my run today and he told me that Quinoa definitely makes you feel a little heavier. So after I spoke with him, I went to Chipotle and got me a Chicken Fajita Bowl with EXTRA RICE! I think I haven’t been consuming too much carbs this past week (because of Quinoa) and that’s why this 7-miler was a little tougher than usual.

I you haven’t noticed yet, I have posted something every day this year! This is one of my goals for 2013: to post something on my blog everyday! I hope all of your running is going well! Cheers to 2013!!

New Year’s Day 10K!

1 Comment
New Year's Day 10K

New Year’s Day 10K

 

Brazen New Year’s Day 10K. @chabeez finished 3rd in our age group with a time of 47:01. I finished 5th in our age group with a time of 55:46. I don’t know what it is, but both races I’ve run with Charlie have had some crazy hills! The first 1.5 miles was the same as my 5K on Saturday; it was smooth and easy with a few small hills, but once you get passed that 1.5 mile marker, the course becomes ALL trail. And from mile 2 to mile 3.2 it was all uphill! I tried my hardest to not walk up the hill but half way up I had to. Once you reach the top (the turnaround point) it was all down hill. My big take away from this race: schedule some hill runs into my workout from now on. This race was important to me for a few reasons. The main reason was my momma @ruelyn. She’s been so strong since her diagnosis and she has motivated me to be stronger, better, healthier, and more faithful. No more excuses in 2013. If my momma could fight and stay strong through all this, I should not have any excuses whatsoever. Keep fighting, stay hydrated and remember to take your meds mah! I love you! I also wanted to start the New Year the way I want the whole year to go. I literally want to “RUN” 2013. I want running to be my main thing this year. Ever since my Lola passed, running has been my “escape” and my “therapy,” and I love that I’ve gotten to that point with running. I’m not running to win the race, I’m running just to run; I’m running because it feels so damn good. The medals and the health benefits are just by-products. I share with you my “WHYs” because those are the most important things in life; WHY do you do what you do? Remember your “WHYs” and all the “HOWs” will be easy. If your “WHYs” are powerful enough, you can and will achieve anything and everything. I wish you all a very happy and very blessed New Year! God Bless #ypowr #health #wellness #fitness #run #running #brazen #10K

And check this out:

New Year's Eve Medal

New Year’s Eve Medal

 

New Year's Day Medal

New Year’s Day Medal

 

NYE & NYD Medals combined!

NYE & NYD Medals combined!

 

 

New Year’s Eve (12/29/12) 5K

Leave a comment
New Year's Eve 5K

New Year’s Eve 5K

 

I like to post my post-race pictures on Instagram and write long captions, so I’ll just share with you what I wrote on IG:

Our third 5K in the books. This was a really nice 5K course. It was all paved with small rolling hills and lots of trees. This was by far the coldest I’ve been for any of my races. I felt good throughout the entire race; I didn’t push it too hard at any point because I wanted to run “comfortably.” As I was approaching the halfway/turnaround point, I saw this pack of 5 or 6 kids who were probably 11-12 years old and I immediately thought: PEDs! But anyways, those kids were absolute beasts. No, literally. They had hairy ass arms and legs, which bolsters my assumption that they were on that Melky Cabrera shtuff. I finished 2nd in our age group with a time of 25:52 and @gojwong finished 3rd with a time of 28:12. Another great race with my bro @gojwong. 2013 is going to be awesome bro, we start our “Race in Every State” with @chabeez. #run #running #5K #brazen #lakechabot