Photo by tobo

I have just taken part in a Myers-Briggs exercise at work (INTJ in case you were wondering) and this got me thinking about how my personality dictates my approach to exercise and dieting – particularly dieting.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, Myers-Briggs is a system for identifying your personality type, based on the work of Carl Jung. A simple test (free version here) establishes your four-letter type. There are sixteen types altogether and you can read a pretty good explanation of the types here.

Personality in dieting

Nutritionists or psychologists out there will be able to say much more about this topic than I can but it is clear even to a lay person like me that there is much more to food and eating than just fuelling up.

The aptly-named Donna Fish, a social worker specialising in eating issues, explains:

“Just like we have different temperamental traits, genetic endowment with body type, different hair and eye color, we can have different ‘food personalties’. Some of us like to eat small meals all day long, some of us can go for hours without eating. Some of us hate to eat breakfast despite hearing that it is the most important meal of the day, and some can’t stop eating past dinnertime.”

We have an emotional relationship with food that starts with how we obtain it (from growing your own to purchasing habits and food choices) to how, when and why we eat (body composition goals, eating disorders, social rituals) and how we deal with the consequences of this process.

I believe that your personality type dictates to a large extent which dieting strategies will work best for you. Roberta Schwartz Wennik has written a book on this very topic, Your Personality Prescription, which I haven’t read but the idea makes perfect sense to me. I can see for example how calorie counting could appeal very well to certain personalities but put other people off completely. In the latter category it is not because these people are too lazy or uncommitted to count calories, it is more that their personality doesn’t respond well to that strategy.

Types of dieters

I am sure there are many official ways of categorising dieters but I have my own classification of types based on years of observation, particularly in the office environment! How many of these do you recognise?

The Planner
Plans meals, counts calories, takes a very organised approach to dieting. Can be quite self critical and if motivation is lost or a slip up is made, it can all go wrong very quickly. This type of person has an emotional relationship with food and is trying to control it by being very organised. Develops good knowledge about nutrition but can become a bit of a diet bore, obsessed with macronutrient splits and so on. Can also be rather intolerant of other types of dieters, believing that their way is the most effective.

The Disciple
Likes to follow a diet that has been planned out for them to the last detail. Has a tendency to believe that they have found the One True Way and follow it with almost religious fervour, proselytising to friends about their amazing discovery. Often successful because they are able to follow the diet to the letter, have good discipline and are not easily distracted.

The Special K dieter
Often a comfort eater like the Planner but tries to control it through a punishment-reward system rather than by a plan, for instance by not eating for hours and then ‘rewarding’ themselves with a slice of cake. Not often successful in the long term because they will not fundamentally change their approach or behaviour. Will tend to seek solutions that don’t require them to take responsibility, such eating foods advertised as healthy or low fat without trying to find out for themselves. Vulnerable to advertising, celeb or fad diets.

The Laid Back dieter
Will make simple modifications such as cutting down on junk food and alcohol, getting their 5-a-day and so on, but won’t follow a strict diet. They respond well to a few simple rules or guidelines which don’t require much preparation or time. This tactic can sometimes deliver the results they want, especially if they are quite active, not too overweight and not too bothered about looking buff. This easygoing type doesn’t have a particularly emotional relationship with food and sometimes has trouble understanding those who have. Can be rather dismissive of people who take dieting more seriously.

The Eco Eater
Sustainable, organic, free range: the eco eater likes to be ahead of the crowd where moral and political issues are concerned. Thinks about the wider ramifications of diet and food but can sometimes be smug about it. Somewhat ascetic, this dieter finds it relatively easy to avoid over indulgence and is attracted by vegetarianism or veganism. Most other diet types find them a bit irritating but a lot of this is jealousy!

You can take all of those with a pinch of salt – I realise that there are some sweeping generalisations in there. I actually slot into one of those types myself (I’m pretty sure you can guess which one) and I come across many of these on the internet and in real life.

How does your personality affect the way you eat? Have you found your ideal dieting strategy? Are you one of these types?

More like this:

• Zone diet episode 1
• Dieting rules of thumb
• Good habits
• How do workouts make you feel?
• Donna Fish – eating styles (for kids but relevant to adults)

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First, a shout out to some grappling girls I’m very fond of! The Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship was this past weekend in California. My online and real-life friends Jen W, Jen F, Addie, Hillary, Lisa, Rachel and Val competed and tool home medals. I hear the divisions were HUGE this year – blue belt lightweight had something like 22 women! Congrats to the gals mentioned above, as well as to everybody who got out there and did their thang.

Yesterday was the last day of my initial four-week training cycle. I ended my first cycle with an average of a little over 2 lbs of fat loss every week. I start my second four week program today with a moderate intensity week… moderate by my standards, pretty hard for most people’s, I think. I’m training about 11 hours total, but there are no conditioning or interval workouts, and minimal strength work.

Reasons this moderate week is well timed:

• I’m experiencing adrenal fatigue, which is pretty normal given my training volume. This has apparently led to an insane craving for salt, so bad that I took to eating Hawaiian Sea Salt straight from the little container.
• I started my new job today, which means my life is a-number-with-several-zeroes-behind-it less stressful than it has been.
• I am competing at the Copa Ontario this weekend. It’s a gi tournament, so I’m not particularly looking forward to it, but whatever. I don’t even know if I’m going to have somebody to fight. Anyhoo, if I compete then it’s good to take it easy in the week leading up to the tournament, so this relaxing week is just what I need.

Do you want to know what I’ve learned so far? Here are some details and observations, in no particular order.

• I have lost 10 lbs, John measured me last Tuesday at 15.7% bodyfat. When I started, Geoff measured me at at 21.7% bodyfat. I think both were relatively low, which means I think my absolute lean mass number is probably lower than it looks, but the proportion of fat vs LBM lost is still striking. People in the gym are already seeing a difference. The fat loss/LBM retention on this program is quite impressive.
• I am able to sustain a very high volume and intensity of training, as long as my training and nutrition is periodized well.
• The biggest reason for my success with this nutrition plan was that I always had food with me. If there are no other rules you follow in your diet, follow this one: prepare your food. Because I spent 20 minutes every morning building my meals for the day, I always had exactly the food I needed to have. I had my regular meals, my post-workout meals, my supplements, and written notes on anything else I was supposed to do (like how much water or tea I needed to have). I put all of this in containers and carried them with me when I left the house.
• I had almost no injuries. At the end of last week I had some swelling in my lower back and a tight psoas and rectus, but two acupuncture treatments and two ART treatments later I’m all better. This afternoon my doctor proclaimed my recovery “miraculous”.
• I experienced minimal increased hunger for the first three weeks; in fact, I rarely felt the need to eat more, and it never drove me crazy. This last week–the highest training volume week–was definitely worse than any of the other weeks, but still manageable. (I did go a bit medieval on some rutabaga and yam frites yesterday. By medieval I mean I ate most of a large yam and probably pretty much a whole rutabaga.)
• I am significantly stronger than I was when I started with Geoff. The guys I am rolling with have noticed it and started commenting on it. Oh, and last week I beat my previous barbell bench press record by one rep – 3 reps at 135 lbs!

Before I started this program, if you had asked me if you could get stronger, leaner and better conditioned all at the same time, without drugs, I would have said no. Now it’s obvious that you can, and even do it at a rate of weight loss that’s over 2 lbs/week.

How did this happen? Well, the details are for John and Geoff to explain, but here comes the lecture anyway.

This was not some innate skill or gift that I have for getting lean and fit. I was never an athlete at all. Two years ago I was over 200 lbs. I got the short ends of the genetic and personal history sticks, with my apple shape and my upbringing in the deep fried, high sugar, pre-packaged industrial food culture of the southern US. I had food habits that would make Ronald McDonald cringe.

My results so far are from a combination of science and enthusiasm. I got smart people to review my life and my goals, and to give me a plan to meet them. I reviewed that plan, asked clarifying questions, and listened to the answers that the smart people gave me.

Next… this is the super secret key to success that I’ll share with you…

I did exactly what they said.

I didn’t second guess them. I didn’t argue. I didn’t negotiate. I did exactly what they said. And you know what? It worked.

I followed the plan they gave me for a simple reason: it was clear that I couldn’t get to where I wanted to be by doing what I had been doing. How do I know that? Because what I was doing was not being a lean, incredibly strong 132 lbs. If I had known what to do, I would have done it. “I don’t know; will you help me?” is just about the most powerful and life-changing sentence I have ever uttered.

To celebrate my departure from the corporate world, I dyed my hair pink.

“What are you thinking?” she asked me.

“Pink”, I said. “I’ll trust you to decide what that means.”

And so she did. With her kids screaming downtairs, Miranda went at  me with scizzors, a razor and a fantastic permanent hair colour. Two hours later I looked in the mirror and the drab gotta-grow-my-hair-long mane became a fabulous multi-toned, face-framing, bright pink celebration of freedom and joy. Booya.

Watch me relate this story to the rest of my post: Miranda is an expert. If I had sat in her chair with a definite idea of what I wanted my hair to look like, it would probably be yet another boring style, because I know even less about hair than I do about nutrition and strength training.

Now I have the kind of hair that makes people stop me on the street to ask me where I got my it done. I’m well ahead of my body composition goals, I’m happy, I’m strong, and I’m able to sustain a training intensity that would make baby Jesus cry. Why? Because I said, “I don’t know. Will you help me?”

By Kris Hansen

This question is the one most often asked since the inception of the pick-up artist community.

“So there’s “this one girl” I have a huge crush on. How do I make her like me as more than a friend?”

My normal answer (and most other peoples’ answer) is a pretty dismissive “You don’t.” This art is more like napalm than a laser-beam; you don’t get That One Girl/Guy, you get a bunch of girls/guys and figure out which ones you like the best. Or I’ll hit the old fall-back of “Go fuck ten other women, come back and let me know if the shine’s still on her.”

I’ve realized, though, that I owe you guys a real answer. The “fuck ten other women” answer isn’t going to happen for months or years (keep in mind that only 7% of men in North America have slept with more than 20 women in their _lifetime_). And “You don’t,” is a bald-faced lie. People do it all the time.
[For the sake of brevity, we're going to call "this one girl" (or guy, or horse, or whatever) "Tog."]

So. How _do_ you get Tog?

First thing’s first, you need to work on some damage control. Understand that up until you started looking for an answer on how to get Tog, (s)he viewed you as an unattractive individual, someone in whom she had little or no interest. That could be for a variety of reasons, but the most simple answer usually being the right one, it is likely because you are an unattractive individual as-is. You will need to change that.

There are two culprits when it comes to being unattractive: first is attitude, second is appearance. Appearance is easier to fix, though, so let’s talk about that for a moment. I’m sure you’ve noticed that there are entire sections of forums devoted to the idea of hygiene, grooming, and fashion. There are few, if any, on the topic of plastic surgery. Chances are, you are not ugly. Very few people are. But you can increase your chances of being seen as an attractive person by taking steps to improve your hygiene, grooming and fashion. I won’t recap what all of those threads say here, but understand that this is a necessity.

An attractive attitude is all about confidence. I don’t personally subscribe to the Alpha Male bullshit I see spewed all about the forums, but the concept of confidence being attractive in a man (and a woman) is very true. Confidence means a few things: you say what you want to say when you want to say it, in a clear voice without hesitation. Your body language implies that you are comfortable wherever you happen to be. Most importantly, you are not deferential; you make decisions and stick to those decisions, and are capable of bringing others with you to see the decision through. All of this is talked about in nearly every facet of the forums, so peruse and take what you will from it.

Understand also that if you continue doing things the way you are doing them, you will continue to get what you’ve always gotten. In this case, if you do not accept that things about you will need to change somewhat, you will not get Tog, or any other target of quality. If change is something you are uncomfortable with to the point that you cannot perform such necessary changes to get the person you are interested in, you obviously don’t care _that_ much.

The above concepts are very general to the core concepts of “game.” When it comes to the specifics of getting Tog to like you, you need to go a bit further in regards to damage control.

You will need to be out of her life for a bit, or at least far more distant from it than you are at the moment. This will give her time to solidify in her head the concept she has of the “old you,” while you work on making the “new you.”

(S)he has already categorized you in his/her mind as a person with whom (s)he does not want to have a sexual or romantic relationship. This means you will need to present Tog with a new version of yourself, incorporating the above, with things that would be completely alien to how you typically do things. It doesn’t need to be something weird, but it does need to be something weird for _you_. You need to hit the metaphorical “Reset Button” in Tog’s head, refreshing his/her view of you, and providing you with a blank slate from which to work.

You will need to hit all of the attraction switches that you would normally need to hit with a target you approached cold. You will need to show that you are preselected, that you have options should you choose to take them. You will need to show that you are capable of protecting and/or nurturing your loved ones. You will need to show that you have grown into a leadership role, and are capable of having others do what you want. Zip’s students are working on a set of attraction switches unique to men, and I cannot yet speak for homosexual attraction switches, but these are the classics, so they’re what I’m going with. ^_^

You will need to make statements of intent and interest, and they will need to completely lack vagueness. You should prepare a few of these ahead of time, things you will say that will make it impossible for Tog to misinterpret your intentions.

A Good Example: I think we should date.
A Bad Example: I love you.

I’ve field-tested both (and actually field tested both before I started pick-up) and the latter is far too strong. I haven’t spoken to the second Tog since I told her. I went out with the first for a year. ^_^

You will need to be prepared to deal with objections. Typically, when you’re selling something (even yourself) your potential buyer will have a list of concerns that you will need to deal with before you make the sale. These things are seldom actual reasons for not buying, they are more like requests for you, the salesperson, to show them why those concerns are not actually concerns. A couple of ways you can deal with objections would be to treat those objections like a question, or find ways that the objection itself is a reason for the two of you to be together. You will need to be a damned fine salesperson and sell your ass. I’ll be writing a longer post on objections in dating some time in the future.

Most importantly, you will need to be willing to lose Tog, as both a romantic partner and a friend. An outward display of sexual and romantic interest in a truly uninterested party can strain friendly relationships to the point of breaking. Either that person is going to become your new partner, or you will never speak to that person again. Sometimes, this is not true, and it is great to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst and understand that your relationship with this person may never be fixed after the damage of a failed romantic approach.

I hope this helps some of you, and I honestly hope that it does not encourage you to stop working on your dating and pick-up skills. While this guide can sometimes help you get your own Tog, you will have far more success with napalm than trying to find a laser-beam.

Kelly Clarkson. Hook Up.
Featured on the Adidas Originals Playlist.

This song is a great addition to a running playlist – the type where you enjoy the beat, but the lyrics grab you. Buy it on iTunes or Amazon.com.

As you can tell from the lack of training log updates last week – it was not one where I exercised a lot. I think I only got 3 days in. The boyfriend and I were LAZY all week, although, I stripped the wallpaper from our dining room on Saturday and it took me 5 hours! Does that count as an arm workout? I would love to count it – but I’m sure it doesn’t.

Well, it’s a new week. The boyfriend went to work early this morning for his 24 hour shift (he’s a fireman) and I was going to slack off today on working out because I have a MOUNTAIN of laundry and a house to CLEAN from top to bottom AND I’m behind on work,. But as I was checking updates from my favorite bloggers (that counts as work right?!), I came across Roni’s blog post: A Sensational Run Recap. She did 9 miles and she didn’t even feel like running that day. Well, ya know what?! I got my butt in gear and put my workout clothes on immediately!

I didn’t have enough time to make it to the gym and back before the little one returned from school (he only goes for 1/2 a day), so I ran OUTSIDE. It was windy and a little cold (I’m from Jamaica – if it’s not 75 – it’s cold), but I did 2.28 miles in 24.36 minutes – there were lots of HILLS – ummm … I don’t do hills on the treadmill so I must admit I walked a few times. It was not a spectacular run by any means, but I feel psyched to work out for the rest of the week.

Challenge Yourself. Since I couldn’t make the run around my neighborhood without walking, my April Challenge is to be able to run the entire distance by the end of the month – hills and all!

I also started the 30 Day Shred by Jillian Michaels. I have done it on and off before, but I’m going to be consistent and do it every night before bed. Thanks Dori for the motivation for this.

Musically. This is the last time you’ll see this – I promise. Since this was an impromptu run I didn’t want to try anything new – so I put on … Diplo vs SantoGold Top Ranking Mix. I think I’ve played this too many times, so I am retiring it.

This playlist is available on iTunes where you can buy the entire mix or just your favorite songs! And don’t forget to rate our playlists on iTunes.