Jason Harrison

Ta-Nehisi (pronounced TAH-nah-HAH-see) Coates won the National Book Award this year for his book “Between the World and Me,” written in the form of a letter to his son. The book is an extraordinary exploration of what it means to be black in the United States of America. As I sat down to write this week’s column, I found myself returning to the text because of Coates’ emphasis on the cumulative effects of racism on the black body.

Coates uses the word body (or its variants) from the opening sentence of the book to the very last paragraph, and the repetition is intentional. He recounts a scene in which his young son is inconsolable following the announcement that the police officer who shot Michael Brown would not face punishment.

“What I told you is what your grandparents tried to tell me: that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” (emphasis mine)

As far as I know, Coates hasn’t devoted much time in his writing to fitness and health in the traditional sense. But this emphasis on the word “body” betrays an intuitive understanding of what it means to be a healthy human being. One of the great things about literature–and art generally–is that we bring our life with us into the piece. So I read “Between the World and Me” as one of the great arguments in favor of holding policymakers accountable for the health of the citizens they lead. And I read it in part as a rebuke to those of us who don’t treat our bodies with the respect they deserve, especially given how easily some people’s bodies can be destroyed in an instant.

Too deep for a fitness blog? Maybe. But I’ve been having a lot of conversations with people lately about their bodies, and I’m disheartened to hear the way many people think and talk about the one body they’ll ever have.

“I don’t have time to cook,” they say.

“Working out feels like a waste of time,” they say.

“Why would anyone work out five days a week?” they’ll ask.

With each statement and each question, my interlocutor suggests that they don’t take their body seriously. They they think the food they put into it is only an afterthought; that ensuring proper movement of the vessel that will carry them along in their existence on this planet is time better spent on other things; that the spreadsheets at work are more important than having the strength and energy to spend quality time with the people that they love.

When I respond to their questions and statements with reason and fact, usually people agree with me. Their body IS important. Nutrition IS important. Movement IS important. So more people share Coates’ intuitive understanding of the human body’s primacy than it would appear given how most of us choose to spend our time. The question becomes, then, how do we close the gap between what we know to be important and the values we exhibit on a daily basis?

I’m not sure I know the answer. I wouldn’t call myself a cynic necessarily, but I know the stubborn tug of job, television, and eating out can be difficult to surmount. I know this because I’ve had the same struggles even while I work as a fitness professional. To say that I’m well-known in certain Oregon District restaurants would be a colossal understatement, for example. I happen to hate our kitchen and the dishwasher we inherited doesn’t appear to have been operational within the last ten years. (It only “sort of” cleans the dishes). So I get it: cooking doesn’t always seem like a fun option. But when I find myself slipping into the abyss, I remind myself of my body. It’s my body.

Normally I’d end a column like this with a numbered list of things you can do starting right now to turn your life around. Today I just want to ask you to do this. Take off all of your clothes. Stand in front of a full-length mirror. Be honest with yourself about what you see–and what you’d like to see.

This is your body. It’s the only one you’ll ever have. Contained within it is your emotional health and memories; contained within it is your ability to interact with the world around you and the people that you love; contained within it is your capacity for expressing the physical manifestation of love. How ought you to treat such an important and impressive vessel? What choices could you make right now to reflect that?

I’m not a registered dietician, but as a fitness and lifestyle coach I’m often in the position of giving general nutrition advice. More often than not, the people who come to me aren’t seeking advice on managing a disease. My clients usually just want to feel and look a little better.

I’ve been trying to do more thinking lately around my process with people and the patterns I see with clients. I realized that when it comes to nutrition, probably the advice I give most often might surprise you.

Eat more.

People are shocked to hear this. They think they can’t “lose weight” because they’re eating too much. “What am I doing wrong?” they’ll ask me. Then they’ll show me a food log that indicates skipped breakfasts, an iceberg salad for lunch, and then a low-carb (or virtually all carb) dinner. And they’re coupling this woefully inadequate amount of food with cardio. Lots and lots of cardio. Sure, this method of starvation and sweating on the treadmill might help them lose weight initially, but usually they’ll plateau. Why?

1.) Don’t try to lose weight

The first problem is that they’re trying lose weight in the first place. A nasty drug habit can help you lose weight. Losing weight shouldn’t be the goal. Strength should be the goal. And if strength is the goal then you need to eat well to be strong.

Starvation means you’re losing body weight, but a lot of it’s going to be muscle. And if you’re a woman this vicious cycle of starvation and cardio could be wreaking havoc on your hormones, ensuring that you retain body fat and work against your goals.

2.) Eat more, but eat well

Eat more. You mean, I can have the donuts?

Not so fast. Eat more, but eat more vegetables, eat more good sources of protein, and more of a variety of foods. If you’re eating for strength, you need nutrient dense foods to ensure your body is functioning properly. If you’re eating for strength, you need to make sure your body has a ready pool of amino acids from which it can draw to build muscle. If you’re eating for strength, you need to be eating at regular intervals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner).

3.) Cardio is for stress relief and heart health, not fat loss

If you like to run, run. But don’t try to run off your excess pounds. The goal with body composition is to change your metabolic environment, which is a complex stew of hormones, tissues, biochemical reactions, and gastrointestinal function. You’re not going to run off that piece of cake you had a Janet’s going away party in the conference room. But you can, with the right combination of strength training, sleep, stress management, nutrition, and conditioning work ensure that the piece of cake won’t make much of a difference in your overall body composition.

4.) It’s difficult to overeat (actually) healthy foods

If you fill more than half your plate with vegetables at every meal, you’re going to have a difficult time eating too much food. This is where a little education goes a long way. I coach people all the time who tell me during our first meeting that they “eat healthy.” And then they proceed to tell me about the healthy spaghetti meal they ate for dinner the night before.

Spaghetti doesn’t seem unhealthy, does it? And since I’m not an advocate of low-carb dieting, I’m not hating on it because of the pasta.

But the way most of us eat pasta is terrible for us from the most basic plate composition standpoint. Few vegetables. Little fiber. Way more starchy carbs than is advisable. Probably not as much protein as we need. See how quickly that healthy spaghetti dinner becomes a starchy sugar bomb with just a little understanding?

If you think you’re eating healthy now, check yourself. Gluten free does not necessarily equal healthy. Low fat does not necessarily equal healthy. Homemade does not necessarily mean that it’s good for you. “All natural” doesn’t mean anything at a all.

So yes, eat more, but make sure you’re eating well with an eye toward strength and fitness. The rest will usually take care of itself–as long as you’re eating your veggies. And lots of them.

I’m filing this column today from New York, a city I’ve always loved and that has always welcomed me as if it were my home. As I sit down to write this for my actual hometown of Dayton, I can’t stop thinking about what the two cities could learn from one another in the area of fitness.

It won’t surprise you to learn that New Yorkers in my training experience are ultra-competitive. Take a yoga class in New York and you’ll see people falling all over themselves to be the “best in the class.” Take a spinning class and you’ll see fights (literally sometimes) over bike assignments and noise. And there’s a nefarious drive for women to be able to wear high-fashion clothes—few of which are designed for people who squat regularly. A number of my female clients told me when I trained here that they wanted me to help them be skinny without any hint of muscle tone.

But the thing New York does have that I’d like to see more of in Dayton is a baseline assumption among working professionals that fitness is a fundamental aspect of life in which it is worth investing both precious time and money. As I suggested above, this isn’t necessarily altogether for positive reasons; people are competing for mates, attention, and status in a city of more than 8 million people. But whatever the reason, I spent less time as a trainer in New York convincing people of the utility of staying fit than I have to in Ohio.

At first glance, this seems strange because our state is a bit of a fitness capital in this country. Just an hour down the road, Columbus hosts the annual Arnold Sports Festival, a fitness-centered exhibition, competition, and learning conference. Columbus also is home to the legendary Louie Simmons Westside Barbell gym. And right here in the Dayton area we have a number of serious facilities like The Dirty Gym on East Second Street. Given our training roots, we seem primed in Dayton to infuse a culture of fitness into the fiber of Gem City culture. But we’re not there yet. Why?

New York City, October 2015

I went to a benefit recently in which I was giving away a free personal training session for people who donated to a worthy cause. The conversations I had that night were fascinating, because most of them centered on the idea that strength training was some mythical thing that bodybuilders and professional athletes do, but not “merely” regular folk with jobs and kids and responsibilities. One person even referred to me as a bodybuilder, which I can only assure you is not a mistake that anyone who knows what a dedicated bodybuilder looks like would ever make.

The issue for Dayton when it comes to fitness, then, despite Ohio’s well-earned reputation for excellence in strength, is that too many of us see fitness as something that other people do. Only fitness “freaks” like bodybuilders would waste time in the gym and paying attention to what they eat. Only a self-centered narcissist would bother hiring a coach to help her achieve her fitness goals.

Fitness isn’t just for freaks and selfish people or fancy pants New Yorkers. It’s for all of us. Gay, straight, young, old, fat, thin. I promise you that your quality of life, the way you feel when you get out of bed every morning, the way you see yourself, the way your lover sees you, all of these things will improve if you get stronger, leaner, and more mobile.

How many hours a week are you currently dedicating to fitness? The data say too many of the people reading this column might be able to answer zero. If you’re one of those people, how would you improve your quality of life measurably if you—

• were stronger.
• were leaner.
• were more mobile.
• had better bone density.
• had better stamina (including in the bedroom)?

So the real question might just be this: why don’t you think you deserve to feel better than you do now?

I read a great Jane Porter piece this week about the importance of solitude that I suspect will have a big impact on the way I talk to my clients about their health. You should read the entire article published in Fast Company online right here.

Before diving into the relevancy of Porter’s argument, a quick reminder about the positive health effect of strong social ties. Researcher, writer, and speaker Kelly McGonigal argues persuasively that we can dramatically alter the negative effects of stress in our lives by simply thinking about it differently. Beyond just thinking about stress differently, however, McGonigal sites research which states that strong social ties can act as a sort of steroid for our resilience.

No music, no radio. Just your thoughts on the open road. No motorcycle? No problem. Just turn off the noise on your next drive.

“…when you reach out to others under stress, either to seek support or to help someone else, you release more of this hormone, your stress response becomes healthier, and you actually recover faster from stress. I find this amazing, that your stress response has a built-in mechanism for stress resilience, and that mechanism is human connection.”

This is profound. And when I first heard this, I immediately began thinking differently about how to make my personal training clients stronger. I talked a lot more about calling friends, writing letters to important people, and taking time to cultivate relationships. And you know what? My success rate at helping people transform their bodies rocketed upward.

Enter Porter’s Fast Company article. Perhaps you’re wondering what a piece about solitude has to do with strong social ties, and thus, our health. Let’s take a look at Porter’s reporting.

She quotes Sherry Turkle, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher, on the link between solitude and human connection.

“How do you get from connection to isolation? You end up isolated if you don’t cultivate the capacity for solitude, the ability to be separate, to gather yourself. Solitude is where you find yourself so that you can reach out to other people and form real attachments. When we don’t have the capacity for solitude, we turn to other people in order to feel less anxious or in order to feel alive. When this happens, we’re not able to appreciate who they are. It’s as though we’re using them as spare parts to support our fragile sense of self.”

My thinking soundtrack for a recent Seattle trip.

As I rapidly approach the age of forty, I find myself valuing “real attachments” with people who share my values. A younger, more insecure version of me sought out relationships with people who allowed me to feel cooler but didn’t share my values. These proved to be empty, and sometimes painful personal experiences. Now that I take more time to understand who I am and what I value, I find myself forming more real attachments. Not coincidentally, I’m also stronger and healthier than I was at any point in my twenties.

This isn’t hocus pocus. It’s not an episode of Oprah. There’s no prize under your seat. This is the softer side of strength and we ignore it to our own detriment.

If the benefits of solitude are real, then what are some concrete measures we can enact to make the most of it?

1. If you travel for work, listen or read instead of watch. I traveled to Seattle this week and came home with a notebook full of ideas for my own business. I resisted the urge to kill time with a movie, and instead let my mind wander along with John Coltrane. Planes are ideal for this type of pondering because we don’t often have the chance to just sit with our own thoughts.
2. Take a walk. Busy people often ignore one of the best exercises they can because they don’t view it as intense. But walking–especially outside–has a whole host of benefits for mind and body.
3. Don’t be afraid of silence. On your next drive to work, don’t turn on the radio. Don’t plug in your iPhone. Just drive. Pay attention to what you’re doing of course, but be alone with your thoughts.
4. “Make an artist date.” This is directly from the Porter piece itself (which again, you should read in its entirety). Essentially this is scheduled time for yourself once a week when you are alone at a museum, on a scenic walk, or anywhere you can experience something new or interesting. I’ve recommended a version of this to executives that I coach who often resist because they view it as a waste of time. Those who have made the time for their version of an artist date, however, report having more space in their brains for strategic, deep thinking. This is something all of us could use, from homemaker to C-Suite mover and shaker.

Traveling for work can be among the most disruptive factors to staying fit because it can introduce variables for which even the most disciplined and organized find it difficult to account. So let’s walk through how to stay well on the road with an eye toward nutrition, fitness, and wellness.

Nutrition

• Good — I trained a client in D.C. who traveled often to the middle of Indiana. Her food options were limited mostly to fast food and a Super Walmart twenty minutes away. I coached her to do the best she could with what was available. That meant approximating to the extent possible a mix of protein, healthy fats, and vegetables at every meal—even using McDonald’s in a pinch. (Think Egg McMuffin with a side salad or fruit cup). Her travel wasn’t ideal, but she was able to do just enough to stay healthy.

• Better — If you’re traveling in a bigger city, your options for food even if you don’t have access to a grocery are often better. Fast food chains like Sweetgreen (D.C., Boston, L.A., New York, Philly) are thriving precisely because they offer health-conscious people affordable, fast, and convenient ways of eating well.

• Best — You’re able to identify a grocery store near where you’re working or staying that has a good selection of fresh fruits, vegetables, and delicatessen. Using a grocery on the road can allow you to mainly stick with a nutrition plan consisting of primarily whole foods and fresh ingredients. Even if your work travel involves command performance dinners, you’ll be able to control your breakfast and lunch by shopping for your food daily.

Stay well even if you have to spend time in the air.

Fitness

• Good — If you’re stuck in a hotel that doesn’t have even a modest gym, you can still maintain some mobility and strength on the road. Search YouTube for videos from people like Neghar Fonooni and Jen Sinkler for bodyweight routines. Another great option on the road that would complement your wellness goals would be downloading a good yoga app and doing some sort of practice daily.

• Better — One of the things about the fittest people you know is that they think about their fitness when planning trips. So, for example, they’ll identify a favorite hotel by how good the gym is. This might take some trial and error, but you too can figure out which hotels have the best gyms for your fitness needs. Stay at those places when you can, use the gym, and maintain or even enhance your fitness on the road.

• Best — Find a local gym convenient to where you’re staying or working. If you belong to a national chain, you often can work out for free when you’re on the road. (I’ve found that even if you’re not a member, many clubs will allow you to work out for free if you just tell them that you’re visiting). You might even treat yourself to a personal training session when you’re traveling. Some folks even have a roster of trainers around the country in the different cities to which they travel.

Wellness

• Good — You’re mindful of how you’re feeling and you do your best to get to bed at a reasonable hour. Just as you might have chosen your hotel for the gym accommodations, you might also be aware of which dwelling on the road has the best blackout shades and temperature controls to allow you to sleep in a cool, dark room. You limit caffeine consumption to the morning, and you don’t drink too late into the evening because alcohol can act as a sleep disrupting stimulant.

• Better — You make it a point not only to sleep well, but to have some experience outside of work during your travel. Given the tight schedules often associated with being on the road for work, this can be difficult. But you can try things like walking a few extra blocks to your first meeting so the route takes you by an interesting building, popping into a photography exhibit for 15 minutes, or researching an interesting restaurant that we don’t have here in Dayton.

• Best — In addition to the above, you develop a wellness friendly routine, or ritual even, that allows you to maximize relaxation and sleep, while also minimizing anxiety and stress. You have a “go bag” ready at all times that you take with you on your business trips. It consists of tea from home, your favorite soaps, and guilty pleasure magazines that you can read to relax before bed. You’ve come to grips with the fact that travel is a part of your professional way of life, so you’ve developed patterns specifically designed to maximize your wellness on the road. Work travel becomes a way of recharging, giving you a welcomed opportunity to do strategic thinking.

One of the mistakes I see often is working professionals pretending that travel is not fundamental to their work life. If you’re on the road every month, then you ought to take some time today to figure out how to stay healthy in hotels, airports, and train stations. Your nutrition, fitness, and wellness options might not be optimal, but with a little planning you can maintain or even enhance your health with travel.