Continuing from last week’s blog on why it’s so hard to go to the gym, we explore the topic of willpower. As mentioned last week, the ego depletion theory has been challenged numerous times to the point now where I no longer believe it to be true. I must admit, that at one point I did believe in it. It made sense and had some studies done by psychologists that support the theory. But
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We all want to have the six-pack abs or the round firm butt. We all want to feel healthy and have more energy and be more focused at work. If only intention alone, was enough to get the the results we wanted, life would be so much easier. Unfortunately, we don’t do what is good for us; we do what is easy. So even if you know what to do in the gym, or you
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Entering China, lululemon style You may be surprised to hear that lululemon’s Unroll China event is their main event to showcase to the world that they’ve officially entered the China market. That’s because they’ve been very slowly, but deliberately planting the seeds of their core values in Shanghai and Beijing for the last four years! I remember that early beginning very distinctly because they reached out to me before they even had a store, a
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It is inevitable that we will all encounter some hardships in our lives. Even Buddhist philosophy claims that life is suffering in the Four Noble Truths. Sometimes, life gets a little harder and other times life can get a lot harder. What is certain is that you will undoubtedly experience many more hardships to come. And they come in many different forms. It can come from voluntary means like choosing to eat the healthier meal
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Welcome back from Chinese New Year holidays! We continue from our last blog about the powers of mindfulness. Hopefully, you are now convinced of its usefulness in your life. I’m sure spending Chinese New Years with your family has given you plenty of opportunities to practice mindfulness; especially when handling provocative questions from family members on the status of your love life! So, let’s get started. The training tool we will use to become more
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Are you mindful? Recently, there has been a huge focus on the word mindfulness. Why is it such a big deal? Is it really that useful or is it just another one of those hippie, healthy fads from California that will come and go? Here’s Olive Branch’s take on mindfulness. It’s a superpower. Except that it isn’t a modern thing. It’s been around for ages as described in the earliest literatures of Buddhism, which existed
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With less than a week to go before the the debut of Tough Mudder in China, Team Olive Branch is ready to take to the obstacle course and test what they’re made of. It’s only fitting that this week’s blog post be centered around being ‘tough’. So what does it mean to be tough anyways? From Merriam-Webster Dictionary: physically and emotionally strong : able to do hard work, to deal with harsh conditions, etc. Sounds
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Don't want to build muscle? This is a very common question that I get asked especially by women when I suggest that they add some strength training into their routine. From my experience, it’s very hard to convince many women to build muscle. This may be related to a mild stigma in society against women building muscle for fear of looking “butch”. But another reason many women hesitate
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The Psychology of High Intensity Training Following my previous blog entry on Attitude, I am continuing on this theme of the mental aspect of training by writing this blog post on the psychology of high intensity training. Notice, I am specific here in that I’m only talking about high intensity training and not other forms of training as the psychology involved in high intensity training is different than say doing a 100km trail hike
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