comfort – Serenity Through Sweat

Quality Adjusted Life Year

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. With COVID-19 numbers flaring up in many places around the country, a return to “normal” still seems a ways off. As we all adjust to a new “normal” I wanted to dig in to Quality of life or QOL and Quality Adjusted Life Years or QALY.

Quality of life is a term that gets kicked around they pilot group a lot. It is an extremely broad reaching term with very individualized metrics. I’m it’s most simplistic terms, QOL is the standard of health, comfort, and happiness experienced by an individual or group.

Up close and personal with “scoopy” the excavator on our morning run.

Qualify adjusted life year is an economic term. It is used to quantify disease and treatment in terms of both quantity and quality of life saved. QALY gives us a metric by which we can evaluate decisions about our health and well being for the future.

The two terms have some common ground, but the differences are important. For example QALY is measured on a scale from 0-1. 0 being dead, and 1 being a single year of perfect health. Quality of life on the other hand, encompasses not only health, but happiness and comfort. In other words, you could have a perfect quality adjusted life year (healthy) with lack luster quality of life (stressed, grieving, generally unhappy, etc…)

Covid-19, brings with it some pretty drastic negative consequences, but it also gives us a unique opportunity that otherwise wouldn’t have ever materialized for most of us. The opportunity to completely rewrite our daily routines from scratch while reevaluating our priorities in order to maximize our QOL and our QALYs.

It is easier said than done, and change is never easy especially in times of great uncertainty. The first step is to identify priorities, and realign around them. Ideal QOL is going to look different for everyone because there is no one size fits all for things like happiness and comfort, but health and general well-being is pretty universal. (And a favorite taking point of this particular blog)

Speedy starting to interact more

Personally, uncertainty around my job status as Covid-19 continues to ravage the travel sector, has thrown my stress levels out of whack. But sleep, diet and exercise (with the exception of a new baby) are largely within my control.

My pre Covid routine included a lot of Jiu Jitsu, but that isn’t an option for me and my family right now. Instead I’ve leaned in to what I do have available, kettlebells, sandbags, running shoes and a jogging stroller. Since I do most of the cooking in the house I can prioritize fresh produce and balanced home cooked meals (most of which are even toddler approved). On the sleep side, Speedy has started to put together reliable seven hour stretches giving me wife and I a chance to recharge.

A hot Monday afternoon run during the kid’s naptime. FL summer is here.

How much of our pre Covid routine was helping us live a better QOL and have more QALYs? How much of it was adding stress, reducing sleep, limiting options for healthy habits in diet and exercise? I would wager the average American routine pre Covid was way out of balance in those four key factors (stress, sleep, diet, and exercise).

This is a complex issue, and everyone’s situation is different. If you find yourself working multiple jobs to put a roof over your head and food on the table, there are natural challenges to prioritizing well-being. However, a lot of us have significant down time around a 40 hour work week, and even more if we find ourselves working from home when we used to commute, or are working reduced hours.

As a fitness enthusiast I want to always be in shape for whatever challenge may come. As a father of two young boys I want to have as many QALYs as I can, where I can not only be there with them, but push them mentally and physically. As a pilot who has to leave his family behind on a regular basis I’m constantly adjusting to family needs to balance work with QOL.

First layover run in a long time and I couldn’t have agreed for a better day

Your priorities, your ideas on wellness, happiness, and comfort, can be realigned at any time, and there is no time like the present. There is always room for better choices, better QOL, more QALYs, and some SerenityThroughSweat.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Peaceful Vs. Harmless

Thanks for joining me here at the SerenityThroughSweat blog, this is the third of a three post series that all kind of ties together. The previous posts (Finding Calm in the Chaos, and Fostering Comfort) are available here, and set the stage for today’s post.

To summarize, finding calm in the chaos is a mental skill of being able to relax within ourselves when things start going crazy. The only way to do that is to actively put ourselves in uncomfortable situations and develop a level of comfort there. In today’s post we will talk about testing those theories so they can be managed and improved.

Most of us probably have a friend, family member, or co-worker, who we can describe as calm. But what does that mean, and how does it help us on our way to serenity? The following quote from Stefan Grant got me thinking about our calm and comfort discussion, “you cannot truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of great violence, if you aren’t capable of violence, you aren’t peaceful you’re harmless, important distinction”

As a martial artist and a lifelong grappler, this speaks volumes to me, and it is a paradigm that I believe most martial artists have, often times without realizing it. When practicing any technique that has the potential to harm a training partner or an opponent, a certain level of restraint and personal mastery is required. Those that lack this restraint are generally weeded out entirely or exist only on the fringes. This is the heart of the case for being peaceful instead of harmless. Skilled practitioners who are able to continue training without hurting their partners/opponents, are capable of violence, but are also capable of harnessing that violence into a peaceful practice.

I believe the same mindset applies to calm and comfort. If you haven’t fostered your comfort or calm from a place of discomfort, you aren’t comfortable, you are complacent. Only by fostering a sense of comfort through times of discomfort, whether naturally occurring or manufactured, can we truly be comfortable. Just like a man can only be brave when he is afraid, he can only be comfortable and calm when amidst chaos. This is the measure by which we can test ourselves.

I think it is a fair assumption to say that calm, comfortable, and peaceful are all desirable qualities. So in turn, managed and risk assessed, violence, chaos, and discomfort, should be embraced as learning tools and opportunities. I should point out this IS NOT me advocating for violence or chaos in a classical sense. But, it is possible to describe lifting weights in a controlled but violent manner. You can have a training roll or wrestling match that is chaotic. You can have large portions of workouts that are both physically and mentally uncomfortable. All of these can also describe family or professional situations. How many times could you have described your work day as chaotic? These words (violence, chaos, discomfort) are merely descriptors, and can take on different connotations based on contextual intentions.

The path to Serenity through Sweat is paved with uncomfortable, chaotic, and violent scenarios. And navigating that path requires us to find our calm, foster our comfort and maintain a peaceful practice. Luckily for us, the path is long and the opportunities are many.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

Today’s Serenity through Sweat, 10 miles on the Buffalo Bayou trail and then some mobility work for the #14daymobility challenge.

Fostering Comfort

Thanks for joining me for the second of a three part post. The previous post (Finding Calm in the Chaos) talks about the mental space required to push through when we start feeling overwhelmed, this post will talk a little about how we can build that skill.

There is a line in the first chapter of the first book of game of thrones where Ned Stark lays down some serious wisdom to his young son Bran. Bran is about to watch his first execution “bran thought about it, ‘Can a man still be brave if he is afraid?’. ‘That is the only time he can be brave’ his father told him.”

The lesson here is something that transcends literature and the father son dynamic. The true accomplishment worthy of recognition, is the overcoming of the obstacle, being brave when you are afraid. Being brave absent of fear is uneducated bravado, but overcoming fear in spite of the knowledge and understanding of it, is worthy of praise. The same can be said for fostering comfort in uncomfortable situations. It is only an accomplishment to cultivate a sense of comfort in an otherwise uncomfortable situation.

One of the things that I appreciate having wrestled and grappled for the majority of my life is the plethora of opportunity to foster comfort in uncomfortable situations. Not that this is a skill that is easy to develop, but grappling, especially during formative years provides plenty of opportunity to develop the skill.

It is also a skill that largely defines the arena of triathlon. The argument can be made that a grappler can find success because of his/her ability to be more comfortable than the opponent, or because of technical advantage. In triathlon, most competitors are on the same technical playing field when it comes to running, cycling, and swimming, or at least close enough to not make a huge difference, especially in the long courses. So often times the difference comes down to who can be the most comfortable when pushing into that uncomfortable zone.

Being comfortable in uncomfortable positions can be bit of an ambiguous idea, so I’ll define what it means to me. The ability to maintain composure, deescalate breathing and heart rate, and think tactically while under some form of duress, are critical skills in both sport and life. This is also a skill that can only be improved within itself.

For example if you want to run faster you obviously have to run, but you might also stretch, lift, or do plyometrics. The skill of running faster can be improved outside of running, by different forms of cross training. There is no cross training for being uncomfortable. Learning how to be comfortable, can only happen by repeatedly being exposed to uncomfortable situations.

Being comfortable in uncomfortable situations is a skill that builds on itself, meaning, the better you get at it, the more you can do it. The greater ability you have to remain calm under pressure, the longer you can stay under pressure and still perform. Similar to swimming, the better you are at it, the faster you can go with less effort. This is also a skill that can translate to your personal and professional life as well.

Maybe it is a group project at work with some interpersonal friction that is causing an uncomfortable situation. Or it could be a tricky parenting decision, but either way, maintaining composure and thinking tactically (finding comfort) is the key to navigating these uncomfortable situations.

Next time you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation, try to dig in and embrace it. Maintain to your composure and appreciate the opportunity to grow the skill of fostering comfort. Once you’ve got that down you can start to manufacture your own discomfort to improve your adaptation response (similar to what we talked about in smooth seas). Being comfortable in uncomfortable situations can help us all on the journey towards Serenity.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.