Happy New Year to everyone. We all have an opportunity for a fresh start; to reflect on what we are grateful for from 2018, and to strategically forget what didn’t go so well last year. Give yourself some time to sit down and think about what big plans you have for this year: a new work project, and cool vacation, an exercise or nutrition goal. 

Move:

• There is no shortage of inspiring stories on the internet, but this one about one person trekking solo on skis across Antarctica really stands out. Colin O’Brady pulled a 400lb sled (220lb food, 30lb fuel, and other supplies) for 932 miles, sometimes using only a compass during whiteouts. The journey is documented on Instagram.
• This article posts multiple photos, the coolest of which might be O’Brady throwing boiling water in the air at -18 deg and it turning to ice.
• When we don’t have the energy to stop for some movement at the gym or park on the way home from work, we can think about this guy who covered the last 80 miles in 32.5 hours nonstop. 

Rest: 

• The NYTimes covered research on workplace hour adjustments based on chronotypes. …If you are curious about your chonotype, the scientific way to determine it is to avoid all stimulants (including light at night) and depressants for a 1-2 week vacation. The rhythm you settle into, when you go to bed and wake up, will become consistent. You look at the sleep onset time and wake time, then go to the midpoint. The most common midpoint is 4am (12a-8a sleep). Rarely do any of us have time to try this experiment, but you can get a ballpark by looking at your weekends or vacations. Chronotypes are genetic and very difficult to change with behaviors, through they do change with age. Early rising toddlers become night owl teens, who then gradually go back to early rising as they progress to late adulthood… 
• Back to the article. They cite Till Roenneberg, a researcher in Munich who has an awesome book. They estimate 1% of GDP in the US and Germany lost due to poor sleep, and that 80% of workers have schedules that clash with their internal clocks. Several companies are moving to a chronotype based schedule, letting the night owls work later and the early birds go in early. This can increase productivity and the health of the employees.
• They also linked to an interesting article that looked at how if your boss is an early bird, she might judge you if you come in to work later. But if she is a night owl like you, she might not. Employees are often judged simply by their arrival time (when hours are flexible) even if productivity is equal to or greater than peers.
• What can you do with this information? Choose your job wisely, try to redesign your job to allow for work hours that fit your natural circadian rhythm, and always get as much sleep as you can. 

Nutrition:

• Ranch dressing. According to my numbers, ranch is singlehandedly responsible for 50% of protein and 95% of vegetable intake in small children. Most ranch from the bottle is essentially toxic, made mostly from soybean oil. Even the canola oil alternatives are suspect, though safer if you do not heat them.
• But, you can make your own “healthy” ranch. Pick up a ranch packet from the store dressing aisle, then add two cups of liquid. This is where you can use some creativity. Options are buttermilk, sour cream, greek yogurt, mayonnaise (use 100% avocado oil mayonnaise, there are now a handful of brands), cottage cheese (highly recommend), olive oil, or any other healthy fat. Whisk it all together and store in the fridge for a few weeks. 

Wisdom/Community:

• In the very powerful book The Coming, Daniel Black recounts the narrative of the capture and journey of slaves from Africa to America. He writes short, cutting lines, with many parallel sentences to drive points home. This book is difficult to read, and not for children. But with the misery he recounts, Black also makes vivid the strength and the diverse beauty of the individuals who went through what we can’t really even imagine today. He weaves in many other themes: the difference between pain and agony; the innocence and humanity (and therefore superior wisdom) of a child; spirituality in despair; the different but essential wisdoms among people at different phases of life. Overall a book that will make you reflect on how lucky we are to be alive today, and to realize the potential for incredible strength, sometimes unlocked by horrific adversity. 

Quote:

“Beware! Seek not the thing you do not need. Greed destroys wisdom. Let justenough be enough.”
Daniel Black (The Coming)