15 Minute Fitness

The post below was originally published on September 26th, 2014 on my other site 15 Minutes of Change. I’ll be writing an update soon and wanted to publish this post on gregsroche.com

Whenever I think of things that people talk about starting, but never do, the first thing that comes to mind is getting in shape.

I believe that the biggest obstacle is getting started. If you've haven't been working out, you tend to focus on how long the workout will be, how you have to go to the gym, how sweaty and tired you will be.

All of these thoughts drain your willpower. The key to getting over these barriers in your mind is: focus on the start instead of the end.

The main theme in 15 Minutes of Change is small steps leading to big changes.

- Lao Tzu

The smallest step you can take on the 1000 mile fitness journey is to get started.

Today.

No excuses why you can't. No "I don't have time" statements. 15 Minutes is about making time.

You don't even have to workout for 15 minutes. You don't even have to do it for 5 minutes. A few minutes a day.

Start today by walking. Then walk some more. If you want to get stronger, do one push up. Tomorrow do two.

No matter what you do, make a few minutes to do something today that you didn't do yesterday.

Don't think, just start

Who am I to tell you to get started?

Great question! I don't have a degree in any medical field. I'm not a certified trainer or registered dietitian. I don't run a gym, I'm not a professional athlete, and since my 6th grade field day, I haven't won any races in which I've participated.

But I have been where you are, and I have taken that first step. I started in 2007. The picture at the top of the page is of me with my daughter Gabby.

It was 2007.

I weighed about 180 lbs. My waist size was 36. I had frequent heartburn, that I attributed to stress. I wasn't unhealthy, but if things didn't change, I would get that way pretty quickly.

Seven years later, this is me in the Spartan Race last May.

It's not a before and after picture so the differences may not be so apparent, but I use this picture for two reasons:

1. I look like an animal. Covered in mud, up to my waist in cold, dirty water, with a look of intensity on my face that lets you know I am doing something cool.
2. In 2007, I could have never imagined doing this race.

Today, I weigh around 160 lbs. My waist size is 32. All my stats - blood pressure, cholesterol, BMI, and glucose are all in normal ranges. I never have heartburn despite being in work situations that I consider to be exponentially more stressful than any I encountered in 2007. As of today, I can do 50 push-ups in a row, 50 sit-ups in a row, 15 pull ups in a row. I bench 1 1/4 my body weight.  I squat and dead lift more than 1 1/2 times my body weight.

I'm not listing my stats to brag, I am listing them because in 2007, I had no idea I would ever know or care about any of of them. None of them were important to me, and I couldn't have ever imagined being able to accomplish any of them. I don't think I could have pulled myself up and over one of the 8-foot walls you have to scale in a Spartan Race.

How did I get from there to here?

It took 7 years of small lifestyle changes. I didn't radically change my diet. I didn't go Paleo or Atkins or South Beach. I didn't buy a program. I didn't go on two week cleanse. I didn't do any of the get-it-done quick fitness or diet routines. I have spent the last 7 years modifying my lifestyle, making small, sustainable changes in my health.

I did two things:

1. I exercised
2. I ate better

Thing One - Exercise The credit for my start goes to my wife. After our second child, Gabby, was born, she started running to get in shape. I started running because she was running. Short distances at first - 5ks, 7ks, 10ks, eventually a half-marathon.

For the record, I am not a fan of running, but when I started, that seemed like the way to get into shape. I think a lot of people feel the same way, which is why they never start. They think fitness is about running, they hate running, so they don't start. It took me awhile to move past running to things I enjoyed doing more.

I moved on to triathlons. Short ones - just sprint distances. That required two things: swimming and a bike.

I was a lifeguard in high school, but only because it was fun summer job. I never really liked to swim. When I started swimming for triathlons, I used a technique called Total Immersion (TI) to improve my stroke.

I got a bike from my cousin and started riding it.

After a few triathlons, I moved onto road biking in rides like the MS 150. I moved on to the obstacle races, mainly because they break up the monotony of running.

At the same time, I started lifting weights using the concepts in Starting Strength. All of the cardio from the different types of races helped me lose weight, but it was when I started lifting weights that I and, as importantly, people around me began to notice a difference in my appearance.

I don't get too fixated on the numbers on the scale. It's important to check in and make sure you aren't going the other way, but how I feel and look are more important. The numbers on my belt mean more to me than the ones on the scale.

That makes me sound superficial and concerned with appearances, but as they say at NerdFitness: appearance is a consequence of fitness.

If I look fit, I am fit. When people who haven't seen you for awhile tell you that you look good, all the numbers become less important. In addition, when people tell you that you look fit, it becomes part of your identity. It becomes something about you that you want to keep. It motivates you to maintain your lifestyle. Going to the gym is part of who I am now.

I try to work out 4 days per week. I also try to walk more everyday. I wear a FitBit and am conscious about how many steps I take each day. I look for opportunities to walk or take the stairs.

These are the minimum amounts of activity each day for me.

All of these changes took time, but none of them would have occurred if I hadn't just started.

Thing Two - Diet Like I said, I didn't do anything radical to my diet. Over time, I reduced the bad stuff I was eating. I used to eat a bagel with butter every morning for breakfast. At some point, I traded the butter for cream cheese, and eventually moved from a bagel to yogurt with granola.

One of the biggest things I eliminated was soda. I used to have one every day. As part of a New Year resolution a few years ago, I decided to give it up and was able to break the habit. Somewhere along the way, I stopped have heartburn. I can't remember when it went away, but every once in awhile, I remember that I forgot about heartburn.

Over time, I have looked for small ways to improve my diet: less sugar, less bread, more fruit, more vegetables.  Really simple stuff, in really small increments of change.

On my journey, I can't remember all the milestones. I don't remember the 170s at all. I was in the high 160s for awhile. Lifting weights helped me get down to 160 and into the 150s. This past year, I went down to 155 and have come back up to 160 as I have started focusing adding more weight to my lifts. Even as I have gone up, my waist has stayed the same and I still feel good in all my clothes.

That's my journey. It may or may not work for you. Everyone is different and has to follow a different path.

But, you can't follow a path until you take that first step.

Where do you start?

Here's a couple tips:

1. Get your mind right. This is a lifestyle change. This will not be quick. There is no end to this program. There is only a start. If you need to change you health quickly you need to go somewhere else to fail.
2. Do the shortest, simplest activity you can think of. Go for a walk. Go for 5 minutes or less. When you figure out the simplest thing to do, make it simpler. Make it so simple and short that you feel ridiculous doing it. Then instead of thinking why you can't do it, you will guilt yourself into thinking that you can.
3. Lie to yourself. Your brain will think of a million reasons why you can't do this: I don't have time. It hurts. I need to do laundry. It won't work. You need to tell the part of your brain that provides that resistance that you aren't going to work out, you are just going for a walk to look around the neighborhood. Once you get started, the resistance will go away and you can enjoy your walk.
4. Add a tiny bit more every day. When my wife started running, she would run for a little bit, then walk. Then she would try to run a little bit farther, and walk a little less. Then she got to the point where she didn't have to walk. The most important thing was to do just a little bit more every day. Not a lot more, just a little bit.
5. You are not competing with others, you are competing with yourself. This is an easy competition to win. Every day, be a little better than you were the day before.

I use these tips every week:

Some days, I need to work out at 5AM.  I don't think about working out when the alarm goes off. Instead, I lie to/tell myself that all I have to do is put on my clothes and drive to the gym. I actually say it aloud to myself.  Sometimes, I tell my wife who is still asleep.  I don't think about what the workout is or how long I am going to workout. I put on the clothes that I left on the floor next to the bed the night before and drive to the gym. If I do that shortest/simplest thing, I have achieved the goal. Once I am in the parking lot at the gym, I'm not going to drive home. I might as well go inside and workout. This is known as the Braveheart Technique and comes from NerdFitness.

I lift weights. I'm currently working on adding to my bench, squat, and deadlift. I am doing small reps, heavy weight. On week 1, I do one rep of my max weight on each of these exercises. Next week, I do two reps of the same weight. Week three, I do three reps. Then I add five pounds to the weight and start with one rep. This is another one I got from NerdFitness. I progress at the tiny amount of 5 pounds every three weeks. That sounds painfully slow, and believe me it is. It takes me longer to load and unload the weight than it does to lift it. But that's ok. Right now I am lifting more weight than I ever have. If you think about seventeen 5 lb. increases in the course of a year, that adds up to an 85 lb. gain in all of my lifts.  (Don't worry, I do other exercises while I am at the gym.)

Once you take that first step, a couple things will happen:

1. You will hate it as much as you have ever hated working out and you will stop - that's ok, because you are no worse off than you are if you never started. Try something else and start again.
2. You may find out you actually don't mind it as much as you thought, and you will show up again tomorrow.

Get your mind right, then take small steps, and keep moving forward.

Here's some ways to take those steps. All of these will not work for you. Just try one. Don't argue about why it won't work. Don't over think it.

Websites:

If you haven't already noticed, I believe one of the best sites for starting your fitness journey is NerdFitness. Steve Kamb runs that site and has all the resources that you need to get started.

Here's one specifically for getting started: Struggling to Start: Pick A Quest

There are plenty of other sites out there, but there are a lot of them that will get you started for free.  If you are just starting, there is no need to pay for a program.  Use the free stuff first.

Apps:

• Gym Goal: Tracks workouts. It's a paid app, but it allows me to keep track of all my exercises and lifts. I can track weight and reps. It keeps the history for me so I can see my progress. For me, it is important to see this progress to determine if I am staying on track.
• Tabata Timer - Free App - I do Tabata at the end of my workout.  If you've never heard of it, it is a type of interval workout.  It only takes 4 minutes, but will get you sweating and breathing hard. Your heart will beat faster for about 10 minutes after it - that's the after burn. You get an elevated heart rate and your body keeps burning calories without doing anything in those 10 minutes. This app just counts down 20 seconds and then 10 seconds for 8 intervals and frees you from having to manage the timer while you are doing the exercise.
• Quick 4 - A tabata/interval workout that gives you eight different exercises and counts down for you. The base app is free with paid upgrades. Awesome for giving you the exercises and the timer all in one.
• Deck of Cards Paid app where each suit is a different exercise that you can change. You figure out which four exercises you are going to do, then you tap the screen, a timer starts, and a card comes up. You do that exercise and the number of reps based on the number on the card. If hearts are push-ups and you get the 8 of hearts, you do 8 pushups, then tap the screen to move to the next one. Take as long as you need to finish the whole deck. Next time try to do it faster. If you still have a clam shell flip phone or can't afford the $1.99 the app will cost you, just get a regular deck of cards and do the same thing.

The last three can be used at home and without any equipment.

Equipment: If you want to get one piece of workout equipment, get a pull up bar. Don't buy a treadmill or a Bowmaster or anything else that they sell on Saturday afternoon on TV. Just get a pull up bar. I own this one and bought it to successfully complete the PLP challenge. Put it in the door way of your closet and every time you go in the closet, do a pull up. If you can't do a pull up, work up to it. Flex your arms and hang as long as you can. Once you can do one. Try to do two.

If you want to track steps, you know I recommend a FitBit. There are alternatives you can use as well, but I have found this to be a useful tool for seeing how active I have been every day. It keeps you conscious of moving, especially if you have a job where you sit down all day.

These are the things I use.

One or more of them may be useful for you or you may find something completely different, but keep trying until you find the thing that works best for you.

Ok, you got going - now what?

Take the next step. Don't think about how much weight you want to lose. Don't think about how many days a week or how many minutes each week you did.

Just take the next step.

I use this approach to get to the top of a mountain. I use it to add weight to my lifts. I use it to train for Spartan Races and Tough Mudders. I use it to stay in better shape at 40 than I was at 30.

It may take longer than you expect, but if you keep going, a little bit each day, you will change your life.

Details

Every week at Jiu-Jitsu, I learn something new.

But one thing stays the same: details determine success.

Going for a choke or an armbar and not getting it is frustrating.  What's more frustrating is realizing you were about a centimeter from finishing the move and getting the tap.

During a break in the action, the professor or coach comes over and tells you why you weren't successful. 

99% of the time, it's a tiny detail.  

Reaching a little deeper into the collar of the gi to get the choke. Sliding your hips to one side to get the right leverage. Keeping your hips low so you don't get rolled.

When it's explained, it's not only a small thing, it's completely obvious.

Every week I feel stupid for what I didn't see.

At the same time, I'm encouraged. The details are small and obvious, but also simple. Knowing the difference between success and failure is a small detail means it's possible to get better at this Jiu Jitsu thing.

It's possible to learn the small details each week.  It's possible to keep showing up and work on being successful at the small things so I'm successful at the whole thing.

Consistently doing the small things.  Consistently executing the details.

It's easy to lose focus and to try to do big things.  It's easy to get distracted by new things, popular things.  Something shiny syndrome (SSS).

When you go for the SSS, you forget the details.  

Of course, it takes years to get good at the details. It takes time to build the habits that help you execute on the details.

First, you have to learn what the details are.  In Jiu-Jitsu, it means trying and failing and having someone show you what they are.  You can watch a million videos about Jiu-Jitsu or read about the moves, but unless you get on the mat and experience the feeling, you can't know how far you'll need to reach on that underhook or how much force you're going to need to apply to that cross collar choke in order to get the other person to tap.  You also need to be the one who is getting choked to understand what it feels like. 

In life, you don't get a dedicated hour two or three times a week to try out the moves.  The world is the mat and you have to get on it every day and figure out the small details that are going to make you successful. 

But, tapping out in life can impact your life more than tapping out in class. 

Or can it?  Is it more impactful?  What does tapping out in real life look like? 

In class, it's just an acknowledgment your partner got you into an uncomfortable and potentially harmful position.  It gives you a chance to say, "You got me. Let's start again."  Most coaches will tell you to tap early and often when you get started in Jiu-Jitsu.  Every one gets tapped out.  There's no shame in it.  

So in life, is there a parallel? Do we have chances in life to tap out and say, "You got me. Let's start again."  This sounds like accountability and humility.  It sounds like admitting your mistakes. It sounds like learning from life.

People who are willing to tap quickly get more reps.  There’s no sense in struggling when you get in a bad position. 

When you get in a bad position, just say, "I'm tapping out."  

Are there times when you can't do this?  I would think people might say you can't tap out when you’re fighting for survival. When it’s life and death and there isn't another chance if you fail. 

How often does that happen every day to any of us?

Usually, we are stubborn about something at work or at home.  It's a difference of opinion or a problem that doesn't threaten our survival.

How many people get into these bad positions and feel like they can't tap because it will hurt their pride.  They don't want to walk away with a bruised ego.  They want to do whatever it takes to come out of it looking good or at least not looking bad,

What if they just tapped? What if they said, "You got me."  How much less drama would there be in their lives?

These are simple details. 

Jiu-Jitsu isn't the only place to learn this lesson.

But for me, it's where I am exercising this thought.

It's where I am making this idea a part of who I am.

How I Grew My Network And Landed The Job

This article was originally published as a guest post in 2016 for another site. That site is no longer in existence so I republished it below.

“I’m making some changes to the department. I’m eliminating your position”

Those were the words that came out of my boss’s mouth after she sat down in my office on the afternoon of October 9th, 2012. I was a VP of Human Resources at a multi-family real estate company in Denver, CO.

I had started at the company 9 years earlier and had worked my way up from an independent contract position in operations to one step below the Head of Human Resources.

During those years, I focused on my work and moving up. I had explored other job offers during that time when recruiters had called me, but I never thought about what I would do if I suddenly lost my job.

Just like that, I needed to find a new job. I had was a resume. That was it.

I had no leads and no network.

Before I go any further, I want to shift the metaphor.

We talk about networks in terms of things we build, comparing them to computer networks with nodes and connections.

I prefer to think of my network as a garden.

Each conversation I have with someone is a seed. If I build a relationship with that person, I am taking care of the seed, and over time, it grows.

When I plant the seed, I am not sure whether it will bear fruit or not, but I know that if I don’t care for it, it definitely will not.

That’s ok. It simply reinforces a fact about growing a network: You need to plant a lot of seeds.

When I started my job search in 2012, I thought I didn’t have any seeds to put in the ground.

I had a few friends at other companies. I knew some recruiters. I did what everyone else who is looking for a job does: I looked online for open positions.

I don’t think online job ads are a complete waste of time, but I think that the reason most people look online for jobs is a waste of time.

As someone who has been in HR for over a decade, I can tell you that applying for a job online is the least likely way to get hired.

My networking garden started with people I knew. These were people I had worked with before. They were friends of mine from my old company.

As I talked to them and they asked me who I had gotten in touch with, I quickly realized there was a source of networking seeds that I hadn’t really thought of: company alumni.

This seems obvious, but what surprised me when I wrote down a list of names of all of the people I had worked with over the past 9 years was how long the list had become.

I used LinkedIn and looked for people who had my old company’s name in the profile and the list got longer. I had not remembered some people, but when I saw the LI search results, I said, “Oh yeah! I remember him/her.”

I am an introvert.

The thought of cold-calling someone and asking them for help is counter to my nature. It’s why I refuse to go to networking events and usually spend most of the day at conferences standing in the corner trying to think of a way to strike up a conversation.

But when I thought of the people I had worked with before, it wasn’t scary to think about sending them a simple email saying, “How have you been? I wanted to let you know I moved on from, and that I would love to talk to you about what you are doing now.”

This was the first step to cultivating my networking garden. Some of these emails and LinkedIn messages were never answered. These seeds never sprouted, but many of them did, and I started to grow relationships with people with whom I had lost contact.

As I started connecting with these people, I was wrapping up my job at my old company. Part of the transition process was letting some of my vendor partners know who their contact would be in my place.

As I was letting these vendors know I would no longer be at Aimco any more, many of them asked what they could do to help. That was when I realized another untapped source of networking seeds: vendors.

I found vendors were very knowledgeable about which companies had openings or were thinking about expanding their teams. They also had some knowledge about organizations and what the people were like inside those organizations.

As I contacted vendors with the intent to inquire about who I should meet, I tried to keep one thing in mind: If a vendor partner of mine introduces me to an organization where I land, I should reciprocate by considering their services in the future. With that thought in my brain, I made sure the vendors I was reaching to were ones I would want to partner with in the future.

My job search continued and as I met more people, I planted more networking seeds.

In a few short months, several of those seeds grew into plants and started to bear fruit.

One day in January, a former colleague of mine sent me an email that said, “Hey, have you seen this job? It sounds like it might be right for you.” He knew that I was looking for a job because we had gotten together and had lunch.

We had lunch because I had sent him an email asking to go to lunch. No secret networking technique here. Just a simple email to someone I knew. It was one of many that I sent. One of the many seeds I had been planting.

I applied to the job online. This is where a lot of people stop. Then, they never hear from anyone.

When you are applying for a job, you have to mobilize every tool in the arsenal. In my case, the company I applied to was a healthcare company. I thought of all the people in my networking garden that I knew in healthcare, even ones who didn’t live in my city, and asked them if they knew anyone at this company.

One guy, a family acquaintance, knew the Chief Medical Officer. I wasn’t applying for a medical-related position (I’m an HR guy), but I figured anyone with a Chief in their title was a good person to know.

My friend sent an email telling the CMO I had applied and asked who I should get in touch with and included my resume. Within a couple of days, I was contacted by a recruiter for an interview. The CMO had simply passed my resume to the HR team.

Again, as someone who has been in HR for over 10 years, when someone with a Chief in their title sends your resume to recruiting, they call you for an interview. It is a professional courtesy. It’s your ticket in the door; however, once you get in the door, it’s up to you to dance.

Because they are not specific to networking, I’ll leave out all the other parts about the interviewing process, except one.

During my interviews, my future boss asked which vendors I had worked with at my other jobs. I gave her the names and the interview ended. I went home and immediately received an email from one of these vendors saying the company I was interviewing with had called him asking about me. We had a good relationship and he knew I was interviewing so he was happy to give me a good recommendation.

I got the job.

My friend who sent me the job posting. My friend who passed my resume along to the CMO. My vendor friend who gave me a good recommendation. All of these happened because I had planted networking seeds along the way.

As I started my new job, I realized how valuable my networking garden had become. Unlike my previous position where I let my garden lie fallow, I promised myself I would keep cultivating my network.

Over the next three years, I continued to network. I would send a few emails a week to former colleagues and people I knew. I would look for people who were in the same circles in terms of industry and job title and reach out to them. I looked for ways I could connect with other people.

The more I did this, the more I learned about opportunities that no one else knew about. I learned about people who were doing interesting things. People approached me asking for help and I was able to assist them.

One of the biggest challenges I had during my networking was keeping track of all of my contacts. I didn’t need a fancy system to catalog and track everyone. I just needed a place to keep people’s names, contact info, and the last time I talked to them. I managed it through a system of emails and EverNote, but I am always on the lookout for a better way to keep track of everyone.

It’s easy to go to work and simply do your job.

It’s easy to focus on whatever projects you are working on and forget about your networking garden.

That’s what most people do.

At the same time, you never know when your boss is going to walk into your office and tell you the department is changing and you have been eliminated. Maybe the company is merging and the headquarters is moving to another state. Maybe the company isn’t doing well and there will be layoffs.

When these things happen to you, putting the networking seeds in the ground means it will take some time for them to grow.

Why not get ahead and start putting them in the ground now?