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Running has been part of my life since I was 12 years old. I’ve always done it. Now, if you therefore assume that I find it exciting or that it comes particularly easy to me (“he must be one of those runner types!”), the answer is surprisingly no.

I had always started my runs where I live. Why would I get into the car and drive somewhere? That would be a waste of time, right!? For that reason, my runs had been on pavement. No big deal. As I was getting older, I realized that my particular running style wasn’t good for my knees, so I made adjustments and switched to mid-foot strike and zero-drop shoes and things were going pretty well.

When COVID-19 hit, a number of my usual exercise options evaporated and I was on the lookout for something new. So I got in the car and drove to local trails that I knew from hiking and tried running them instead.

Ever since then, I’ve made trail running a weekly habit and I really enjoy it. Once I got the hang of it, it...

Not happy with your weight? Welcome to the club! Few people are. And let’s face it: Weight management is tough; weight loss is even tougher!

And getting older sure doesn’t help. On the contrary: New research at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has uncovered why that is: Lipid turnover in the fat tissue decreases during aging and makes it easier to gain weight, even if we don't eat more or exercise less than before. According to US News and World Report, as we get older, we experience muscle loss, hormonal changes, and slowed metabolism, all of which affect our weight. Additionally, we tend to be more sedentary and stressed than in our younger years.

Sure, there are all kinds of diets out there and you might have tried of few of them yourself. Unfortunately, there seems to be a common pattern: You try a diet, make changes to how you eat for a while and stick with it, and you see some improvement. At some point, you either achieve your goal weight (or reach a “good...

I'm excited to share a video related to my recent post.

I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think!

Thanks to Covid-19, many of us are working from home now and we are limited in terms of where we can go and what we can do. It has been tough enough to figure out how to work in a new setting and be productive at home, so staying active and getting regular exercise may be more of an afterthought. And yet, not only do we all know we should be getting exercise, we actually need it to stay healthy, physically and mentally.

Another issue many are experiencing is that working from home with the laptop always in reach and in sight creates another problem: boundaries. Where does work end and the rest of your life begin? It’s easy to see where things can get blurry.

If you followed my writing, you know that I’m a big proponent of building healthy habits. Why? Because habits (activities you do regularly and sometimes even automatically) are the best way to make permanent and sustainable changes in your life.

So I’d like to propose the following: Make it a habit to get...

In case you hadn't noticed, it’s been quiet from me lately. There’s a good reason for it: With Covid-19 raging on the mainland, I’ve had the unique chance to spend a few months in Kauai, which unfortunately also required two weeks of strict don’t-leave-the-house quarantine with regular check-in visits from the National Guard and local police.

However, and more importantly, I’ve finally done it and checked off a major item from my bucket list: Hike the full 11+ miles of the Kalalau Trail, a world-famous, but treacherous, and very challenging hiking trail along the Napali Coast. (For the movie buffs: check out A Perfect Getaway.)

I had been dreaming about this hike for more than 10 years and a photo canvas at the bottom of my stairs at home had been reminding me every day that this trek was waiting for me.

I had been seriously planning and training for this hike for over a year. After several setbacks due to Covid, ... Since posting this, I have created...

The results are in! We asked people what their most common concerns were after hitting 40. Respondents were in their 40s and 50s and evenly distributed between men and women.

The following choices were provided (respondents could select multiple):

• Losing or maintaining weight
• Eating right
• Getting enough exercise
• Staying active
• Fatigue/low energy
• Staying focused
• Keeping up at work
• Competing with younger coworkers
• I feel stressed
• I am anxious
• I have Injuries or physical limitations
• Chronic pain or discomfort
• Disease / illness
• None of the above
• Other

What were the most common issues people were struggling with? Here are the results:

The top 3 items show that people are concerned with weight, physical limitations/injuries, and getting enough exercise, followed by staying focused, active, and eating right.

Weight, physical limitations, and exercise are closely related. If I don’t move enough or have physical issues that prevent me from engaging in exercise, my weight will become...

I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know: You should exercise regularly. Yeah, big surprise. And you probably also know why too: Stuff like burn calories and control weight, decrease the likelihood of disease, sleep better, look better, get more energy and keep up with the kids, reduce your appetite, and, heck, even increase your life expectancy. A pretty compelling case. And the list just keeps going on.

And yet you’re coming up with all kinds of seemingly reasonable excuses: You don’t have time, you’re too busy, it’s hard on your body, you’re too old for this shit, you have an injury or physical limitation, and parts of your body simply hurt when you exercise.

A little disclaimer: I’m no medical professional and if you have an actual injury or illness, have never exercised, or any other health concerns, please do see your doctor. That aside, and I hate to tell you this, but these are all a bunch of excuses. Period. I know...

For most people, there is a magical time of day when, under the right circumstances, they just get stuff done. Some call it a state of flow when they get absorbed by a challenging task, achieve real focus, and things just "click". Others call it being in the zone when they are able to do really deep work and knock out sticky and mentally taxing stuff.

I like to call this time MPT, your Most Productive Time. For me, this time is in the early morning, the quiet first hour after getting ready and before meetings start and messages begin pouring in. That's when my brain is the freshest and able to focus. This is the time when I'm best able to do deep work such as writing, coding, or diving into data analysis. When I use this precious mental clarity, I can leverage it to boost my productivity and get challenging things done in a way that cannot be replicated during the remainder of the day.

(For those interested in learning more about how rhythms...

The coronavirus has certainly done a number on all of our lives. Many of us suddenly find ourselves working remotely and staying at home with our families all day. Even under normal circumstances, it’s not easy to create and maintain healthy habits, but now the situation is even more challenging as our choices with regards to exercise and nutrition suddenly seem very limited.

However, things aren’t as bleak as they seem if we adapt and maintain a positive attitude. Here are a few things I have learned in the process:

Going Virtual

While many of the places we used to visit, e.g. gyms, yoga, and martial arts studio, were forced to close and are no longer available, online and virtual alternatives have popped up pretty quickly as companies extended or pivoted their business models to adapt and stay in business.

Yes, virtual classes aren’t quite the same and require some getting used to, but they also have advantages: Unless you attend a class that’s...

Reluctantly you’ve recently come to the realization that you’re getting older.

Since you passed 40, your waist size hasn’t been what it used to and maybe you’ve chosen to stay away from your scale since the numbers just seem to creep up. Since you had kids, your exercise “routine” has been anywhere between haphazard and non-existent. Working out feels really hard these days and who has the time with all these work and family commitments? Also, weights and treadmills kinda suck anyway.

Your diet is a little out of control, which probably doesn’t help. You drink more often than you used to as well.

Maybe your doctor has started talking about your blood pressure or cholesterol levels and you might even be on medications. The amount of pills and supplements you pop every morning sure has exploded! And yet the number of places in your body that are now hurting most of the time slowly grows.

You don’t sleep as well as you used to. Sometimes...