I believe myself to be rather lucky. A few posts ago, I wrote about an interaction I had with a doctor that influenced my day to day. If you missed that post (go back and read it.... seriously.. that's why I write), basically I had lost motivation to read and learn as much as possible. In one sentence, the doctor showed me the importance of staying informed and being well read. After all, at the end of the day, knowledge is everything. It is the foundation of growth, the keystone of planning and the foundation of problem solving.
Before I go any further, I should explain something. I believe that you can learn something in every single interaction/experience. It could be a conversation you are having, it could be a game you are playing, a book you are reading, and yes, despite what your parents tell you, the show or movie you are watching. Actually, on this last point, I am also a very big proponent of the idea that you can learn a lot from video games, especially as an injured athlete (I have personally used FIFA to better my skill at goalkeeping in soccer - I wrote an article on this way back in the day). This isn't to say the item of learning is always a positive, meaning something in the form of "I should add this to my life" or a piece of knowledge you didn't have before like learning how to best cook a dish you like. Sometimes these nuggets come in the form of warnings, usually because you watched someone else do it. Don't lick the cold street lamp in the winter. Don't pretend to teach someone on a topic when you don't have proper knowledge of it and you don't know their academic background (yes, this has happened to me.... especially when I used to go to public gyms); so on and so forth. Yet, either way, good or bad, there is something to learn all the time.
I expect interactions like the one with the doctor to be rare. True nuggets of knowledge that are behaviour changing are not common and most of the time, these nuggets are little facts or hobby specific things. Yet, here I was, with another opportunity to learn a true nugget of wisdom for the second time in just as many months. And, as usually is the case, I was not expecting it.
So, what happened already? I'm getting there, but as usual I'm a little long winded. A couple weeks ago, I went to go see someone I respected. It was the first time I had the chance to sit down with him one on one in a long time and I was looking forward to it. The conversation, as I expected, was pretty informative. Philosophical discussion, a little bit about fitness, but then he turned to me and said, "I wrote an essay and would like to go through it with you." Of course I was intrigued. Now, all I will say about the content of the essay is that it was inline with what he does for work (not my essay, not my work, not my place to elaborate and you will see why in a minute). I read the essay and we discussed it paragraph by paragraph. It was fascinating. Yet, what surprised me even more was when I asked if he had written other essays on similar topics and his reply was, "yes." My friend then went into a drawer and pulled out at least another five essays and said he had at least another twenty written. I proceeded to ask him why he wrote them. Will he be distributing them on a site or in a book. His answer was an emphatic "NO!" He did not want to deal with the questions and any pushback to his ideas (they weren't controversial but I can understand). I was told he wrote because he enjoyed to and he didn't care if anyone else read his essays. It got me thinking...
There was nothing my friend said specifically. However, just the very fact that he was writing because he enjoyed it gave me the push I think I need to move forward with something I had planned for a few months now. For the last little bit I have been writing, myself. Not just the blog as I usually do (everyone sees this), but writing in a more scientific way. I have been taking notes of the literature I have been reading on a variety of topics and doing almost a literature review type write up. I've also been writing up my most recent training programs in a scientific way. Yes, this is probably a really nerdy thing to do but it has two purposes. The first, it gives me practice for my PhD for when I need to write my publishable papers for my thesis. Secondly, and probably most importantly, I just enjoy writing in this way. I enjoy doing "experiments" and analyzing the data I have collected on myself. I know what I'm doing and how to go about the write up. I've also dreamt of having my own research centre one day to be able to conduct my own research. In this fashion, I get to do mini experiments with an n of one (me) and write it up to monitor my own progress and practice.
Now, the literature review type stuff I had always planned to release although I didn't know how to do it. The training program stuff, that was a new idea to actually put it out there. Well, after I had met with my friend, I've been determined to publish this stuff. So, hear me out. Here is my plan, just recognize that these things aren't produced quickly so they won't be out as often as blog posts. The plan is to finally start the podcast (name to be released shortly) and on that podcast I will have episodes dedicated to the literature findings that I write up. This way I can try and make them fun and exciting for everyone. These reviews will cover a range of topics. Everything from chronic disease, physical activity, supplements and substances, and really anything of interest that I am looking up in the literature. The podcast won't just be that though. I plan on having on some guests for fascinating discussions and a little bit of my own story sprinkled in there. First up for content will be the association between physical activity and inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease). Other topics I have circulating for after include fitness associated topics, creatine monohydrate use, coffee and it's affects on health, and many more!
As for the training program write ups, you will see those soon on the site. Like I said, don't expect these to come quickly, but I will put them out there once finished. Just to give you an idea, my most recent training routine is on week 8 of 10. I have to finish these last couple weeks, then analyze the data and do the write up before its released. It is a process after all. But nonetheless, I'll release these. And lastly, I plan on creating my own type of journal sort of speak. This journal will contain the write up of both the training programs and the reviews I do. Eventually, I would like to open it up for submission (but remember, it's not an academic journal, just for fun).
These are all things on my radar. I have a few more, but not ready to say anything about it yet. Either way, I'm interested in your feedback. If you read the new content, excellent! If you don't, well it is there for later or just for someone else. The blog posts will continue regardless! And with that said, I'm ending it there for now. I'll be back with more regular blog posts from here on out. So stay tuned! Chat soon!
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