Findings from my health journey so far

It's been three weeks since I made a commitment to improving my health, and I think it's time to reflect and share what I've learned. I've focused on two things - running and dietary changes.

Running: In terms of overall pace, I improved from an 8'46" average pace for my first run on August 7th to a personal best 6'37" average pace on August 25th. Some findings:

Having a clear goal was critical

The math is simple - I knew I needed to have an average pace of under 7 minutes per km to run 10km in 70 minutes. With this pace (7'00" per km) emblazoned in my mind, I found the willpower to push towards it.

My Apple Watch, despite being super old, was a critical tool for reminding me to run or otherwise move. I remember feeling a sense of pride when I achieved my first week of closing the Activity ring on all seven days. This turned out to be important. Tonight, the fact that I hadn't closed my Activity ring yet was the single most important factor in motivating me to go on a run despite getting home relatively late and not having written my blog post for the day yet.

The fact that I have a pact with my friend regarding my running goal and that I share my health data with my wife (who also has an Apple Watch, so we can see each others' progress) were likely invisible motivators as well.

I have to say that the "sense of achievement" fades quickly. I found out today that I moved double the number of daily steps this month than last month, but my excitement about this lasted only for a few minutes. The journey itself, however, has been continuously interesting.

Breathe

One simple physical adjustment had the biggest impact on my running performance. I started to breathe consciously, inhaling and exhaling deliberately (and loudly) without regard for other pedestrians who turned their heads to look at me as I passed.

Focusing on my breathing helped me to maintain an aerobic exercise state (rather than slip into an anaerobic exercise state), which is important if I want to build the endurance necessary to run 10km.

Diet: I've successfully cut most "white" carbohydrates (eg. white rice, pasta, and potatoes). I eat beans legumes every morning. However, unlike the Slow Carb diet, I still consume some whole wheat bread, multigrain rice, and buckwheat noodles. Some findings:

Start slowly with simple changes

Pre-ordering set lunch/dinner meals was very effective. A commitment to beans and at least one egg every morning was as well. The simplest changes to my diet were the easiest to sustain.

What didn't happen: eating spinach every day; avoiding all fruit.

Since spinach is a fresh vegetable, it proved difficult for me to get into the habit of buying some every day. (Beans and eggs only need to be bought about once a week.) Sometimes, fruit just shows up in a set meal and is therefore unavoidable since I'm not about to throw them out.

Breakfast is hard

Boiled beans aren't that tasty. I haven't found egg white cartons in Shanghai, so I tend to have just one egg in the morning (I'm not comfortable with wasting egg yolks). Protein shakes are not an option because they tax my liver, which is already in bad shape.

I'm still looking for a better solution. Ideally, I think something like an egg white omelet with vegetables and a side of beans would be great.

Cooking is even harder

I'm very busy these days, and I can say without hesitation that prepping and cooking takes far too much time. This was partially my fault over the past two weeks; I went to Xintiandi twice (two hours round-trip) to buy pulled pork as my protein of choice because my mother in law doesn't eat chicken or beef.

One bright spot: tomato salsa is amazing and quite easy to make. If only beans and salsa were a complete meal... (though if we consider carefully, it almost is).

All of the above, boiled down into three actionable pieces of advice:

1. Get a smartwatch (eg. an Apple Watch) to monitor health data and notify you with daily exercise-related reminders. Use this data to set and pursue clear goals.
2. While running, focus on your breathing to sustain aerobic exercise.
3. When starting out, make the easiest-to-follow diet plan you can think of. Don't trust yourself to cook (breakfast or any other meal) as it's likely to fail.