All in Health

Man vs Sea Elephant - Unlocking the Secret of my Slowness Part III

Man vs Sea Elephant - Unlocking the Secret of my Slowness Part III

Fabian
Health

The quest to understand the roots of my appalling running performance is an ongoing topic of this blog. In two previous Life-Sparring rounds I looked at possible reasons like age and weight and my running form. In this article I dive deeper, literally going more than just skin-deep, doing a professional athletic fitness assessment at the Institute of Human Performance of the University of Hong Kong. If you are a regular reader, you can imagine that it was a humbling experience with a lot of insights.

Going all Keto: Week One - Five Insights of a Keto Beginner

Going all Keto: Week One - Five Insights of a Keto Beginner

Fabian
Health

Tired of gaining weight despite a high level of physical activity, I decided to pull the nuclear option and go on a full-blown ketogenic diet. As there are a lot of useful resources on ketosis, but not many detailed jargon-free reports for beginners, I tried, to sum up the experience of my first week on the keto diet in this article. Enjoy!

Older, Fatter, Faster? – 50 km of Joy, Pain, and Mindfulness on the Hong Kong Trail

Older, Fatter, Faster? – 50 km of Joy, Pain, and Mindfulness on the Hong Kong Trail

Fabian
Health

While I enjoy running in general, it constantly and painfully reminds me of my physical limits. Despite my almost life-long relationship with running, I am embarrassingly slow and technically bad.

As the stubborn and competitive person that I am, being slow and bad at running does not stop me from occasionally reaching for the sky. My recent participation in the Green Power Hike, a 50km trail running race over the full length of the Hong Kong trail, across the rocky backbone of the island was an example for me testing my limits. The 24th edition of the iconic trail running event was my fourth participation. How would my lack of training, five years of age, and five kilogram body weight since my personal best in 2012 affect my performance?

Aiming for the Streak – Three Apps to Track Your Habits

Aiming for the Streak – Three Apps to Track Your Habits

Fabian
Productivity, Life, Health

After chasing big and lofty goals in 2016, the focus in 2017 is on habit setting. Using a strategy called "Mini Habits", I try to set small but very regular tasks to establish healthy habits that bring me closer to my ambitious goals, with much less stress. To make sure that I am not forgetting my daily goals, I was experimenting finding the perfect mobile up to nudge me at the right time. Which of the contenders Irunurun, Nozbe or Strides proofs to be best suited to keep me on track over the year?

Big Goals and Mini Habits – A New Take on a New Year’s Resolution

Big Goals and Mini Habits – A New Take on a New Year’s Resolution

Fabian
Life, Happiness, Health, Productivity

Despite the bad reputation of New Year’s Resolutions in the scientific world and my mixed record with meeting my annual goals in the past, I continue to make resolutions year after year. New Year's Eve would just not feel the same without good intentions and lofty goals.

After going all S.M.A.R.T. in 2016, this year it's about going small, taking a page or two out of Stephen Guise's book Mini Habits.

Quarterly Lederhosen Report Q3 2016 - Checking in on my New Year's Resolution

Quarterly Lederhosen Report Q3 2016 - Checking in on my New Year's Resolution

Fabian
Happiness, Health, Life

This is the third quarterly check-in on the goals from my New Year's resolution. Just as a reminder, the idea was to choose targets that fulfill the S.M.A.R.T criteria: being specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-related. By making my goals public and checking-in regularly with you out there, I hoped to keep me motivated over the year to achieve all goals for 2016. And just in case this is not enough, I added a punishment on top, promising to go to work in original Bavarian Lederhosen on the first working day in 2017 if I miss more than one of the six goals for the year. Still pretty scary! 

Why don’t I run faster? – Unlocking the Secret of my Slowness (Part I)

Why don’t I run faster? – Unlocking the Secret of my Slowness (Part I)

Fabian
Health, Life

I love running for the almost meditative effects that it has on me. At the same time, I hate that I run so depressingly slow.

In my twenties my times were actually not too bad. Not enough for competitive ambitions but not too shabby either. A mere decade later my running times have deteriorated massively, and just getting below the 1h for 10km again was a massive battle. In past years I often wondered what exactly caused the breakdown of my running abilities. So let's take a look.

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