No need to rush

There are times when procrastinating might be a good idea. Not because you are avoiding doing something – though we are all guilty of that at times. But it can be useful when we are trying to figure out the best course of action in a complex situation, or where we are trying not to make critical errors.

There is a lot of pressure in modern life to respond immediately to requests. Email is constantly with us, social networks like Facebook and Twitter ping us with updates – even when we are trying to sleep unless we are disciplined about switching these functions off (Apple have recognized this and seem poised to add a ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode to the next version of the iPhone operating system). Business supply chains rely upon just-in-time management techniques and delivery windows which do not have much margin for lateness. Fast food chains will give you your fix in under two minutes. Even job contracts are getting shorter and focused upon a core set of deliverables – those and those alone, thank you very much – “Now, go and get on with it, and woe betide you if I catch you fiddling around with anything else when you are supposed to be doing this job.”

All this pressure for immediacy. Yet, we also hear things like ‘act in haste, repent at leisure’. We also see online transactions, or credit contracts that have a ‘cooling-off period’ to help us to take another look in the ‘cold light of day’. Maybe creativity also needs time, and perhaps distraction to enable the fusing of new combinations and ideas. Ernest Hemingway once told a fan that the best way to write a novel was to first clean the fridge. And when you plant a seed, you don’t dig it up every five minutes to see how it is doing. Doing that only damages the process, or at least delays it. Some things operate on a different time scale altogether. Immediacy is not a good fit.

In Wait: The Art and Science of Delay, Frank Partnoy argues that too many people fail to recognise that success depends on knowing when to delay, and for how long. Comedians get this, as do people who make a living through public speaking. Sometimes, doing things right is more important than doing it first. Just ask Apple about the iPad and then see what Microsoft has to say about the Tablet computer they had out years earlier.

Delaying also works where critical errors need to be avoided. Airline pilots and surgeons use checklists, even when they have done the procedure many, many times before. The list slows them down and helps them to work methodologically, avoiding the taking of potentially time-saving shortcuts that could lead to catastrophic error, whilst improving quality and consistency of service at the same time.

The wisdom comes from recognising when to think and act quickly (e.g. delaying paying that credit card bill is probably just going to make things worse), and knowing when to act and think slowly. Partnoy thinks that this is a skill that can be learned, and I agree. It also ties in nicely with my to-do list post here.

Speed for its own sake can lead down dangerous paths. The pleasure gained deciding and executing an action can bring a sense of closure and can even be aesthetically pleasing. But the secret of modern life and how are brains have evolved to function is that we need a combination of fast and slow. Deadlines are useful, but there is value in dawdling too.

Sugary drinks can change your muscles in just one month

That cold soft drink sure tastes good on a hot day, right? Maybe that energy drink hits the spot after a long workout too. But we know that too much sugar isn’t so great for us. You probably know it rots your teeth if you’re not careful. You also probably know that sugary drinks can influence your metabolism so that you could run into trouble with how insulin works in your body, possibly increasing risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

But did you know sugary drink consumption that it can also influence how your muscles function? In this study published in the European Journal of Nutrition, it appears that people given an average of 760mls of sugar sweetened drink (Lucozade Energy) every day for 4 weeks showed significant changes in how their muscles used fuel sources. Specifically, their muscles seemed to be able to sense the high sugar nature of their new environment (the participants were selected because they would not usually drink more than 500ml of sugary drinks per week), and changed their functioning to prefer burning sugar instead of fat. This also seemed to influence future functioning of muscles too.

Although it is quite a technical paper, the authors make a good argument that these changes can lead to a reduced ability of our muscles to burn fat, and instead we gain it. They also argue that the body becomes less able to cope with increases in blood sugar levels. Our body adapts to the new sugary environment it finds itself in which leads to changes in gene expression in our muscles. These are the kinds of unhealthy metabolic alterations seen in people with weight problems and type 2 diabetes.

From a performance point of view, especially for endurance athletes, there’s a warning here about how what we drink can influence how your muscles adapt and perform when you run, bike, kayak or swim. Just 760mls of Lucozade Energy a day over 4 weeks. That’s two bottles. Maybe not everyone is drinking in that much sugar, but perhaps more than we would ideally like – especially if you are exercising regularly (though a previous post gives good reasons as to why you don’t need to drink anything other than water if you’re exercising for less than an hour at a time).

If your muscles change so that they start to prefer sugar over fat, this is going to have an impact on your fueling strategy during events, and on how you feel when your body starts to run out of readily accessible sugars. If your muscles are ‘trained’ out of using fat as a fuel source, I think we could expect to see some serious bonking and inefficiency as those sugars get depleted.

Let me know what you think, especially any nutritionists who happen to read this post.

The key to managing your weight is eating less, not exercising more

New research in a hunter-gatherer community seems to indicate that managing what that you eat is more important than exercise in determining how much weight you gain (or lose).

A study into energetics and obesity in the Hazda people of Tanzania revealed that although physical activity levels were much higher for Hazda men and women than their western counterparts, once size and weight were taken into account their metabolic rates were pretty similar. This was something of a surprise, as most people would expect that Hazda people, and others living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle would burn many more calories than their more sedentary equivalents in more ‘developed’ societies. Energy expenditure looks more complex than a simple linear relationship. But what did become apparent was that although physical activity does seem important in keeping you healthy, it won’t keep the weight off. It looks like we need to stick to eating less to do that.

So, if you’re relying on your workout to give you permission to eat more, think again. If your goal is to lose weight, you’re probably not doing as well as you could be.

Thoughts on “The Truth about Sports Products” on BBC Panorama

Last week, BBC Panorama broadcast a very interesting investigation into the claims behind many of the sports products that we are encouraged to use in our pursuits – from high-tech shoes to performance and recovery drinks. If you are in the UK, you can access this via the Panorama website on the internet, but everyone can see this quick summary and video. The show has provoked some quite heated debate on internet fora, and some defensive media statements from companies associated with the production of these sports products – see GSK’s statement here.

The major points for me seemed to be:

• For most people, performance and recovery drinks (e.g. Powerade etc) are pretty pointless – we don’t exercise for long enough or intensely enough to warrant it. For people exercising over 60 minutes, it may be beneficial, but the evidence is pretty thin at best.
• Forget drinking before you are thirsty. There are more dangers associated with drinking too much than too little. Drink when you are thirsty, and unless you are exercising for a long time, stick to water.
• Again, unless you are an elite athlete, or undertaking some serious endurance activity, other supplements don’t seem to have much evidence backing their use with the exception of creatine and caffeine. Stick to maintaining a well-balanced diet.
• Don’t fall for the marketing of running shoes – there is very little evidence that they help reduce risk of injury. Try some on, and if they feel comfortable, use those. Intensity and time exercising play a bigger role in predicting risk of injury. Focus on your running style and your kinetic chain if you want to improve your running and  / or minimize your risk of injury.
• Buying cool stuff doesn’t make you healthier, fitter or sexier. Eating well and exercising often might.

I tend not to take anything other than water if I am exercising for under 60 minutes. Once I know I will be exercising for more than 60 minutes, I start to take on a little fuel at 45 minutes onwards, and then repeat every 30-45 minutes. But that is for pretty long runs. It seems to work for me.

The most disturbing part of the show to me was the marketing to kids and the influence that seems to have. What did you think of the show?

Habits that help you to manage your weight

I was recently away from home for 10 days, on the Auckland Mayoral Pacific Trade mission – which was a very interesting trip, and a privilege to be on, though I missed my family terribly and it was very, very busy.

One of the challenges that I found in being away was a lot of time sitting around in meetings, on coaches and in planes with relatively little opportunity to exercise. I did get out for a run twice, but on one of those I was chased quite effectively by a dog in Tonga, which meant that I ran a little quicker than my target pace. Another challenge was managing my food. When you’re eating out of your home environment all the time, and also have obligations to try at least a little food several times a day so as not to cause political embarrassment by offending your host (sometimes the Prime Minister), it gets pretty hard to stick to any plan at all, let alone a more structured diet.

I can across an interesting paper that helps to spell out the nature of the links between lifestyle factors that seemed important for success in a group of successful weight losers. Here’s the take home messages:

• Eating meals regularly was associated with greater recent weight loss, and eating more fruit and vegetables
• TV related viewing and eating while you do it was associated with greater BMI and greater fat and sugar intake
• More eating away from home was related to greater fat and sugar intake, eating fewer fruits and vegetables, and less physical activity
• Using weight control strategies was most consistently linked to better weight, diet and physical activity outcomes. These included habits like keeping a written log of amount and type of exercise as well as calorific content of food that you eat, planning meals and exercise to manage weight, and using meal replacements to manage weight (though the latter strategy loaded least strongly on this factor in the analysis presented in the paper).

In general, eating away from home and TV related eating and viewing are more related to negative outcomes, and eating regularly and using weight control strategies are more related to positive benefits.

The paper summarizes by saying that lifestyle patterns (like eating regularly) are more important in predicting diet, physical activity and weight that individual behaviors (like eating breakfast) alone. So, try to see the whole picture when you are trying to manage or lose weight. It seems important  to think and act upon sticking to behavioral clusters rather than seeking false solace in solitary positive behaviors, like thinking that by making sure you that eat breakfast acts as a protective factor that forgives all other ills.

I’m enjoying getting my clusters back into my life. Let me know how you get on.

I’ll be back soon

In case you’re wondering about my blog posts, I’m currently on a business trip in the Pacific with limited internet access to upload any posts. But I’ll be back again soon.