2011 New Years Resolutions

(Redirected from 2010 New Years Resolutions)

I don’t generally do New Year's Resolutions, not because I don’t believe in the approach, but because I make my resolutions all year round. It just happened that The 4 Hour Body was released just before Christmas 2011, and it prompted me to make a number of commitments and changes.

• Add muscle to get my body weight over 140 (currently ~136).
• Reduce abdominal skin fold thickness from 8mm to 4mm.
• Experiment with running three times per week rather than four.
  • This should reduce my running mileage significantly.
  • Run focusing on the downhill once per week.
  • Interval training once per week. This may be uphill intervals, Broken 5K or other short intervals.
  • One long run of generally 25-40 miles.
  • Bike for cross training.
    • Aim for biking on 3-4 non-running days, but consider doing the bike on the shorter run days as well.
    • Include a Tabata on the bike.
    • Keep the bike short, 30-60 minutes. Experiment with minimal workouts; just a warm-up and a Tabata.
• Use the ideas from 4HB's slow carb diet, which is close to my current diet already.
  • Eat more beans, which are a great source of slow carbs.
  • Eat more eggs, especially before bedtime. This may help improve testosterone levels.
  • Avoid grains more strictly than I have been.
  • Eat more spinach, which has the potential to increase muscle synthesis. (See http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf073059z)
  • Try out 4HB binging once a week. This seems counter-intuitive, but I understand the principles.
  • Try out the PAGG/AGG stack of Policosanol, Alpha-lipoic acid, Green tea flavanols, and Garlic extract. More details at The 4 Hour Body
• Restart abdominal training using 4HB exercises. Previously I’ve found abdominal exercises to be ineffective and time consuming. The 4HB has two exercises that are repeated twice a week, which is minimal effort, and they seem to be far more effective than any other abdominal workouts I’ve tried. The chapter on abdominal exercises can be found online at http://gizmodo.com/5709916/4+hour-body-+-six-minute-abs
• Try the running stretches in 4HB, which are quite different to others I’ve used. I’m not a believer in stretching for runners, but I’m always looking to prove myself wrong. The 4HB running stretches seem to address some tightness in the core, so I’ll see how things go.
• The 4HB recommends cold exposure as a way of increasing brown fat for fat loss. I’m hoping that cold exposure will also lead to greater cold tolerance. I’m finding myself increasingly sensitive to the cold, especially when tired or hungry, which is most of the time.