Coach Ian – Week in Review 01/17/2021:
What I’m Reading:
A Promised Land – Barack Obama
Products I’m Trying:
Magic Spoon – A keto cereal with 3 grams of net carbs and 11 grams of protein. Between this and Catalina Crunch, I definitely like Magic Spoon better. Another brand I tried out this week was Schoolyard Snacks, which is also really good. But Schoolyard Snacks comes in these small bags of 100 calories per pack, so it comes out to be quite a bit more expensive.
Táche Pistachio Milk – Another plant-based milk alternative. I’d probably stick with Almond Milk, but this is worth a try!
Bloodwork:
I’ve noted previously that I get my bloodwork tested regularly. I argue that if you take the time to track your macros, body fat percentage, marathon times, or various strength tests, it would be beneficial to also take the same approach towards your own health. After all, often times your original goal (lowering your body fat percentage, running your first 5K, etc.) was rooted in health to begin with.
While I take advantage of my annual physical and get my bloodwork then, I also request my bloodwork surrounding the periods of time where I have an upcoming physical event or when I’ve experimented with my diet. In this case, it’s the latter as I’ve been upping my intake of grass-finished or pastured raised meats from Butcher Box and Crowd Cow.
On one hand, I’ve eliminated variables such as refined grains, unstable vegetable oils, and processed foods. On the other hand, I’ve upped my meat intake (while still eating a ton of vegetables). I’m expecting to see high HDL, low triglycerides, and high LDL, with a low particle count. While LDL cholesterol was once considered a villain, we now know we can distinguish between good LDL and bad LDL that contributes to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. It’s important to have an optimal type of LDL cholesterol, the pattern A cholesterol as opposed to the small and dense pattern B, which are more likely to be recycled in the body until settling in an artery wall. It’s also better to have a lower particle count..
I’ll be getting my test through WellnessFX. I’ll be re-testing as part of my annual physical in the summer, with a less meat intensive diet in between Feburary-June.
Biological Age Test:
Previously, I tried taking a Teloyears test, which determines your biological age based on the length of your telomeres. Telomeres are the protective cap at the end of each strand of your DNA. As you age and expose yourself to environmental factors (stress, an unhealthy diet, etc.), your telomeres shorten. Teloyears takes the length of your telomeres to determine your “biological age”.
I’ll be retesting with Teloyears and also trying the Elysium tests, which measure biological age by looking at specific sites along the genome to see which proportion of cells are marked with DNA methylation.
Share of the Week:
#Newnormal: The 50 Hour Family Work Week
Last week, I shared a similar post on how I balance a 50-hour work week with 20 hours of training and the rest of my schedule. This week, I saw a similar article shared on Fred Wilson’s post on how the shift to working from home has changed our work-life balance. The original author, Tom Evslin, argues that a 25-hour work-from-home schedule is equivalent to the 50-hour workweek in the office because of the following:
- Given a nine-to five schedule with an hour for lunch, the 40 hour work week was only 35 to begin with.
- As an ex-CEO, I think that at least ten hours of each workweek go to socialization, surfing the internet, checking with the spouse or checking up on the children, chatting on smartphones etc. (Mary thinks only five).
- Meetings and travel to meetings waste a huge amount of time and money. One reason that Zooming appears not to have reduced productivity is that many of the meetings weren’t productive to begin with.
- Office space and often parking are expenses to the employer but they are not income to the worker. If office space and all its attendant costs can be drastically reduced, employers can afford to pay more dollars in salary for the same productivity.
- Commuting expense including perhaps even the second car, daycare, clothing and dry-cleaning bills, and paid before and after school activities whose purpose is to supervise school age kids are all expenses which go away when parents can work from home. Even if the WFH employee has less gross taxable income, he or she will have more cash at the end of each month.
I’ve experienced a lot of the same efficiencies in working from home. For one, I used to spend an hour commuting to work in the mornings, and my evenings in traffic as well, and commuting between gyms. I made good use of the time listening to audiobooks, but now that I’ve cut that time I see how much more I can get done in a day.
On the flip side, some of the points above speak more to the culture of the office and inefficiencies of some workplace cultures. Not all meetings are necessary and, while having strong relationships with co-workers is important, the level of socialization noted above (10 hours) takes away from the equally important hours to foster relationships with those outside work.
It’ll be interesting to see how we adapt to working in the office again, once we are allowed to do so. Hopefully some of our behavioral changes are permanent (less commute, more efficient meetings, a thoughtful mix of time working-from-home and in the office to contribute to a lower carbon footprint and less time spent in traffic, etc.)
This Week at Dreamland Boxing:
The big news is that Dreamland Boxing has re-opened for outdoor classes starting this week. Classes will be capped and there will be no waitlist for classes.
Also, I have continued to host our virtual boxing sessions. Thank you to our members for keeping your memberships active and continuing to support our gym during this time. And I’m personally glad to have been able to aid in your boxing development all year!
Our practices this week featured the following:
- Range Drills: Moving in and out of range
- Range Drills: Adding in lateral movement
- What I like about this drill, and what I don’t agree with in the drill
- Mittwork: We had a fun section on how to hold mitts, and the differences between holding mitts as a fighter and as a coach
- Mittwork: Breaking down Roger Mayweather’s mitt routines
- Body weight circuits
- Kettlebell Single-Arm Swings and Turkish Get-Ups
- And more!
You can find a full list of drills if you are a current Dreamland Boxing member in the Premium Drills section of my website.
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