Happy Friday!!!
I hope you’ve been having a most excellent week :-)
My own has flown by, with yesterday and today off from work for Thanksgiving.
While I expected Monday through Wednesday to be slow, as the days leading up to a holiday often are, my projects actually had a fair amount going on.
This likely played a role in time going by a bit more quickly than I’d anticipated.
I used yesterday to rest and relax around the apartment and do many of my typical weekend chores.
It wasn’t anything exciting, just laundry, grocery shopping, etc.
I wanted to knock this stuff out before heading up to Blacksburg this morning to spend the weekend with family.
We are doing our Thanksgiving lunch this afternoon, as we often celebrate Thanksgiving the following Friday.
Classes were pretty chill this week, with neither of the two I’m taking introducing any new material.
I used the time to study up on what we’ve covered so far, in preparation for upcoming tests on recent material and comprehensive final exams.
Training is going well, and I’ve decided to go ahead and reset my training loads for all my main lifts.
I’m actually not resetting bench press or deadlift all that much.
Front squat, however, I’m dialing back quite a bit.
I’ll also be increasing my loads with front squat a bit more conservatively moving forward.
Sleep has been pretty good, although I’ve admittedly been slacking off on my bedtime routine.
More specifically, I’ve spent more time messing around after work, at the gym, making dinner, and pretty much all parts of the evening.
A minute here and a minute there have really added up.
I’ve been getting to bed about 15-20 minutes later than I had been, so I’d like to get back to my normal routine.
Anyways, that just about does it for this week.
Time to enjoy a few days up in VA.
Whatever you do this weekend, I hope it fills your cup.
I appreciate you.
Here are this week's most excellent resources for a most excellent life…
18 Things to Do When You're Feeling Lonely, According to Experts, Adele Jackson-Gibson
“If you're feeling isolated, know that there are many ways to reclaim connection.”
How to protect your mental health during the stressful holiday season, Esmy Jimenez
“Above all else, if you’re nervous about the upcoming holidays, know you’re not alone. Many people are in similar situations and there are resources to help.”
Effects of Facial Muscles Exercise on Mental Health: A Systematic Review, Okamoto et al.
“The results of this systematic review suggested that voluntary facial muscles exercise may help improve depressive symptoms, mood, and reduce level of chronic stress.”
Managing conversations when you disagree politically, American Psychological Association
“Helpful tips to guide conversations about sensitive topics in a more positive direction.”
The Effects of Acute Resistance Exercise Among Young Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Gordon et al.
“Acute anxiety and worry symptom responses were not changed following eight weeks of guidelines-based RET, even though the overall intervention significantly improved anxiety and worry symptoms.”
“Our findings support an association between moderate coffee and tea consumption and risk of stroke and dementia. However, whether the provision of such information can improve stroke and dementia outcomes remains to be determined.”
Impact of 12-week exercise program on biomarkers of gut barrier integrity in patients with coronary artery disease, Feng et al.
"Our findings indicate that an increase in cardiorespiratory fitness during a 12-week exercise program resulted in a relative improvement in a biomarker of gut barrier integrity. This indicates a potential mechanism by which longer term exercise may improve gut barrier integrity."
“Our findings provide compelling evidence that the pattern of intensity of effort and volume during endurance exercise (i.e., IT vs MICT) has minimal influence on longitudinal changes in fat mass and FFM, which are likely to minimal anyway.”
How do overweight people dropout of a weight loss diet? A qualitative study, Bazrafkan et al.
"Moreover, paying attention to personalized diets, characteristics of diets, and familial and social support is suggested for formulating an efficient weight management diet."
The utility of this suggestion is not exclusive to assisting others :-)
Fat-to-muscle Ratio: A New Indicator for Coronary Artery Disease in Healthy Adults, Eun et al.
“In this study, a high FMR was significantly associated with CAC. A large-scale prospective study on the association with FMR and cardiovascular diseases is necessary to confirm this relationship.”
Where do cravings come from?, Stephen Guyanet, PhD
“Since cravings are driven by food-related sensory cues such as the sight and smell of tempting foods, the most straightforward way to beat them is to avoid exposing yourself to those cues. If tempting, unhealthy foods aren’t available in your personal surroundings, not only will they be harder to eat, but you’ll be less likely to crave them.”
A Low-Carbohydrate Diet Realizes Medication Withdrawal: A Possible Opportunity to Effective Glycemic Control, Han et al.
“The LCD diet can decrease body weight, glycemic levels, MES and lipid-lowering agents more than the LFD diet, thus decreasing cost burden in Chinese patients with T2DM.”
I’ll leave you with this...
Our insecurities can, at times, drive our own dissatisfaction and discontent.
We attribute to malice what might simply be a result of ignorance.
The worst-case scenario becomes our default assumption.
Practice asking what's true and how you know.
Don't hurt your own feelings.
You’ve got this.