Brian McNitt's Blog » Health

Registered for 2010 LA Marathon

Brian McNitt — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:19:59 +0000

In an effort to get back in shape after holiday indulgences, today I registered for the 2010 Los Angeles Marathon. Course map and promo videos below. See you soon, LA. Can’t wait!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Registered for the 2009 Chicago Marathon

Brian McNitt — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 03:01:59 +0000

It’s official — I registered for the 2009 Chicago Marathon on October 11, 2009. It will be my second marathon. w00t! My plan is to train with the San Francisco Road Runners Club and suggest friends in the Chicago area look into training with the Chicago Area Runners Association (CARA). Registration for the Chicago Marathon is expected to sell-out soon, so if interested sign-up now!

If you are new to running and are looking for inspiration, check out the Spirit of the Marathon movie (available on Netflix) which follows five individuals training for the event.

Also, good luck to everyone running in the Boston Marathon on April 19 — only ten days away!

How-To: Increase Happiness, Good Times in Life

Brian McNitt — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 06:21:51 +0000

Where does happiness come from? How does one minimize dissatisfaction and create the greatest number of happy moments in life? Last night a friend asked, “Looking back on your life to date, at what points were you the happiest?” A simple enough question, I thought of a list of happy moments, some general time periods in life, some specific events. For me, most included big adventures like moving across the country, starting a new job, completing a first marathon or triathlon, studying music, meditation periods, taking dance lessons, etc. After the conversation I continued to think about the question and my list of things and wondered if there was something common to all of the moments? What about these times made them more satisfying than others? Thinking it through and applying a bit of Zen, the following occurred to me.

It seems that people are happiest when they are either fully committed in “attention” or in “action” in response to the present, and dissatisfaction arises when one sits somewhere in the middle of the two. As such, attention and action can be seen as existing as endpoints on a continuum.

As an example, dissatisfaction often exists when one simply thinks or talks about problems in a shallow way but doesn’t do anything about them (for example, complaining). Yet, if one is truly skillful in thinking through issues, applying insight and full attention to an issue at hand (i.e. – talking with friends to achieve deeper clarity, meditating on them, etc.) then satisfaction can arise in the midst of this. Furthermore, with insight into a problem, one can shoot past dissatisfaction by transforming insight into committed action.

On the other end of the continuum, happiness in fully committed action (e.g. – “being in the moment”) is easy to observe. When a person is fully engaged in an activity (i.e. – playing a sport, performing music, dancing, etc.) is difficult for them to think or be anywhere other than the present moment. In this sense, it seems attention and action are closely related or can be seen as the same thing, potentially closing the diagram above into a circle.

Given the above, one approach to creating increased happiness might be to look at dissatisfaction in the present and ask, “Am I fully committed in either attention or action to the issue at hand?” If not, perhaps therein lies an opportunity to transform an unsatisfactory situation and create more happiness.

Wondering what you think?

5 Health Things to Blog (if I had time)

Brian McNitt — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 20:14:30 +0000

1. Marathon. Signed up and training for my first marathon (Dec. 2).
2. Veggie experiment. First two weeks eating vegetarian. What it’s like.
3. Learning Vipassana. (Meditation). Podcast-curious to first sitting.
4. No coffee, tea. Two weeks trading the bean for green tea.
5. Ironman in 2008. Yes, no, maybe?

Why Americans Keep Getting Fatter

Brian McNitt — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 04:23:07 +0000

“The USDA grossly underfunds the healthiest foods while pouring billions into a farm bill that supports many of the foods its dietary recommendations warn against.”

An interesting perspective on the USDA 2007 Farm Bill by Scott Kahan of The Baltimore Sun. Read the complete article, “Why Americans Keep Getting Fatter”, at AlterNet

Turn OFF Your TV & Turn On a Healthy Lifestyle!

Brian McNitt — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 18:08:03 +0000

A great sign I saw on the bus today. “Turn OFF Your TV & Turn On a Healthy Lifestyle!” The San Francisco MUNI Community Health bus poster features three drawings, one by a Presidio Middle School 7th Grader, one by a Chinese Education Center 5th Grader, and one by an Ida B. Wells High School 11th Grader.

Yes, that’s the spirit!

Will see if I can get a better picture of it.