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angelatiu-blog · 6 years

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Summer in London means people are more motivated to go out and be active.

Or so one would think.

Operating theatre staff are notorious for being reclusive and exclusive (even though in reality we really are a nice and sociable bunch). Tucked away in some hidden corner of the hospital, we probably see more blood than sunshine (morbid, much?), so as some kind of team building activity, I thought it would be a great idea for us to join the annual run organised by the Institute of Sports, Exercise and Health.

As you can imagine, when I raised this during the daily team brief I was met with reactions that ranged from skeptical to downright scornful. Team building for most people means having a sit-down dinner and maybe having a few rounds of beer afterwards, preferably sponsored by surgeons and anaesthetists. But. You can do that on any ordinary day. This activity is actually a chance to get everyone out in the sun and running for charity. Think of the health benefits!

But no dice. People heard the word running and they literally ran away from the idea. So I had to get creative (and manipulative) and think about how I can generate enthusiasm for my idea. I thought if I could just get 30 people to sign up, I’d consider that a good turnout. This was about two months ago. Here we are 60 days later, the event has just finished and I managed to get ONE HUNDRED people from the department to run the race.

How did I do it? I honestly have no clue. I had several moments these past couple of weeks as I was sorting out bundles of registration forms and actually collecting money in the form of COINS when I thought to myself, what in the world was I thinking? The whole thing had totally run away from me (see what I did there?) and I was petrified that I would fail to organise this properly now that its turned into such a large-scale activity.

But we did it. And a good day was had by all. Looking back I think there were six key things that really made all the difference. And I thought I’d share it with everyone just in case you’re thinking of getting your own department to do something active, and also I want everyone in my department to take note so someone else can organise this next year! Lol

Plan a picnic

I think food is the fulcrum around which all of society spins. Its not love or money that makes the world go round, its booze (haha). So when my team and I said that there will be a picnic afterwards, people became more enthusiastic about the whole thing. We told people to bring food and drinks potluck-style, and my colleague Joanne volunteered to head the food committee. Instant attendance-booster.

Appeal to everyone’s naturally competitive nature

I don’t know about other departments, but our theatre team consists of some of the most competitive bunch of individuals I know. So we made a competition within the race, telling people to get into teams, and the idea was that the first group to get all five people within their team to the finish line wins a prize. Suddenly everyone was coming up with team names, printing their own t-shirts, motivating each other to train and of course, ragging each other about whose team is going to win (mine won, by the way, JUST SAYING).

Team Head and Neck

Say aaaah

The bosses…they will overrun. Lol

Team Ortho Represent

The winning team!

Representing Pride :p

Open it up to family and friends

Look, we already work five out of seven days in the hospital. Its really difficult to get people to voluntarily come on a Sunday; for free I might add. So we made sure to encourage people to bring their family and friends and turn it into some kind of Family Day so that those with kids can be persuaded to come. It was good to see people mingling and having the kids play with each other.

I often think that seeing someone in a social situation allows you to relate better with someone. In a stressful environment such as the operating theatres, there are a hundred and one ways for people to end up in some kind of argument. There’s also a hierarchy, and in some ways that hierarchy is there for a reason, but it also makes it easy for people to forget that at the end of the day, we’re all human. We have more in common than we think.

Okay, I got a little bit sidetracked there. I was just really chuffed to see families interacting. It really warms the heart.

Un-complicate the process

I’d like to think that I have good insight and people skills. I have a sort of innate understanding about how people think and how to best get them to cooperate. And I know that in order for everyone to stay enthusiastic, I should take out as much of the administrative work as I can (and inevitably, have them fall on my shoulders).

So I asked ISEH if there was any way we could register as a group (this was back when I thought I would have at most 30 runners) and they were so great at helping me find a way to make it easy for people to sign up.

Of course, I did spend the last three weeks collecting registration forms, chasing people for payment, counting change and putting names on an Excel spreadsheet, but I looked around the number of happy, smiling faces today and I have to say, it was worth it.

Make running less intimidating

Honestly, when I first started running I never thought I could even finish a 3k, let alone a 10k (which is the longest run I’ve ever done to date). And I think most people feel that way. They think running is just for the fittest of individuals and that they’re too slow to participate.

Every time someone came up to me who was hesitant about joining the run, I told them, look, its not about finishing first or finishing within a certain time. The point is to do it, and even if you finish behind everyone else, even if you finish last, you still finish. That is an achievement in and of itself because on a Sunday, half the population of England are on their couches (or in a pub somewhere watching the Football World Cup).

Even if you choose to walk a 5k, that is literally 15,000 steps. It can be done in like an hour and a bit, which is still a good time for finishing a 5k run especially if you don’t run regularly or you’ve not trained. Also, it was good of ISEH to have a 2.5k option – especially for the kids – because that’s really what the majority of the our team chose to do.

It takes a village

The idea might have been mine, and I may have done the leg work, but this would never have been organised if I hadn’t had help from my team and if people didn’t embrace the idea. I’m really thankful for my bosses who were so supportive, and who actually came and ran themselves. It was also great of them to buy medals so we can have our own awarding ceremony. I’m thankful to everyone that came, period. I think everyone deserves a round of applause at this point.

At the end of the day, we were all there to support each other and have a good time. I lost track of the number of people who passed by me and took the time to slow down and give me encouraging words or a thumbs up sign. One of our theatre leads actually crossed the finish line AND THEN went back to encourage and motivate the rest of his team, it was awesome.

My co-organiser!

Leading by example 🙂

My forever running mate

I’m realistic enough to realise that all the problems of the world, and the NHS and our department in particular, will not be solved by one little fun run. But i genuinely hope, at the risk of sounding too corny or maudlin, that we can keep the momentum going and be able to see work a little better with each other than we did before this run.

And if not, well, there’s always next year.

Thank you everyone for your support! 🙂

How To Get 100 People To Run In Six Easy Steps Summer in London means people are more motivated to go out and be active. Or so one would think.

#iseh #liveloverun #running #sports

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techspots-blog1 · 7 years

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Ars does Soylent, Day 3: Moderation prompts real, for-genuine delight By just really eating when I'm ravenous, Soylent turns out to be pretty awesome.

Three days back, Senior Reviews Editor Lee Hutchinson took a pledge to spend seven days eating only Soylent, a nutritiously finish supper substitution made by architect and business visionary Rob Rhinehart. He's recording his flexibility from strong nourishment by day. Perused about Day 2 here.In our last scene...

Soylent Day 2 finished with me pulling my overstuffed Soylent-rounded body out for a 5k run. The run really didn't end all that seriously—not awesome, but rather not horrendous either. The Gulf Coast warmth and dampness are keeping my per-mile parts in what I call the "Mid year Twelves," where they tend to drop each and every year. Running on Soylent didn't effectively enhance my circumstances, however it didn't bring down them any. I had some light stomach cramping amid the run, like how I feel on the off chance that I pursue too early eating an especially huge dinner.

The principal taste of super cold post-run water sprinkled cool in my stomach—a shockingly exhaust stomach, given how overwhelming regardless I felt. As I gulped, despite everything it felt like there was a touch of Soylent coarseness in my throat, and that condemned green pitcher still agonized when I supplanted the water container in the ice chest. I gave it the finger, then went to shower.

Nightfall pulled its shroud over the world and I drank more Soylent. My significant other and I viewed another scene of The Wire. She ate before she returned home from work, however I wouldn't have been enticed by her sustenance. I wasn't in a place right then where nourishment truly appeared to matter. I kissed her and she dismissed her face, saying that she cherishes me yet that I tasted truly bizarre. I grinned and gestured. It's the Soylent. She kissed my temple rather and took her cool medication and Kleenex boxes to resign to the visitor room once more.

I sat on the lounge chair and perused for some time. It was a help to not need to eat any more. The minutes extended, and I lost myself in Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, which I have perused ordinarily some time recently. It is an arrangement that prizes re-perusing; a rich and thick story told by a problematic storyteller who has an eidetic memory—a quality which, incidentally enough, is the wellspring of a great part of the inconsistency.

Trodding the well-worn ways of memory and reexamining questions in the plot that I've considered many circumstances throughout the years was consoling, relieving. I felt superior to I'd felt anytime in the previous 48 hours. At that point, a bit before midnight, I got a couple of messages from two of the people at Soylent, one from originator Rob Rhinehart and one from client benefit VP Julio Miles. "We urge Soylent beta analyzers to choose the amount Soylent they require in a day," he said. Rhinehart had a comparative message. They both reveal to me that I don't need to really eat the whole pack of Soylent.

As I read this, a weight tumbled from my shoulders. Tomorrow all of a sudden looked a considerable measure brighter.

Day 3, 09:00—The breakfast of champions

My morning espresso is mind blowing, similar to it came straight from Gale Boetticher's lab. It smells indefinably great and poses a flavor like rich enchantment. It can't be simply the espresso—it's the same Keurig-prepared Green Mountain "Sumatran Reserve" I've been drinking for a considerable length of time. Must be the Soylent. At long last, on Day 3, I'm starting to taste things more.

It's astonishing how much mental state of mind and standpoint influences physical things like hunger. Since the heaviness of really eating through the whole Soylent proportion in one day is lifted, I feel in reality quite damn great—I'm anticipating having the capacity to just down the amounts I need, and that is cleaned up an entire pack of mental table-space I can use to concentrate on really getting some stuff composed today.

A fast Twitter survey uncovered that you all need to see me eat purple Soylent next; this requires a considerable amount of fiddling with red and blue sustenance shading. The outcomes are in reality more plum-toned—kind of purple tinged with Soylent's characteristic natural shading. I at the end of the day include vanilla, staying with the proportion from yesterday, which tasted very fine.I'm getting the blending procedure down quite well, and I'm happy with the outcomes out of the blender, yet the Soylent folks are sending me a blending pitcher that should give me a chance to expel the compelling Blendtec from the photo altogether, which should change my creation and utilization picture to improve things.

Soylent purple tastes a ton like Soylent green—a pleasantly swoon note of vanilla over chalk. Really, the flavor isn't the thing that is shielding me from adoring Soylent—it's the riverbed residue surface.

My bit for breakfast fills the espresso mug, and I really complete it without acknowledging—I lift my glass to taste and it's gone. I feel fine, which lifts my spirits. Following thirty minutes, my gut stays serene and agreeable.Poop log, Day 3 (HA SEE WHAT I DID THERE)

Morning lavatory times are much similar to yesterday's. Beside the underlying assault of gas that would have cut down a multitude of UN monitors if my guts were a country state, Soylent hasn't done anything shocking to my internal parts. I didn't detonate like a suicide crap aircraft yesterday, and I don't today either.

All things considered, OK, there is one noteworthy contrast in today's morning can journey. Um. How best to portray this? Approve, all in all, guardians, have you at any point given your children a cake with, similar to, Oscar the Grouch or Godzilla on it? You know, something with a great deal of green nourishment shading blended in? All things considered, that Soylent from yesterday had a great deal of green nourishment shading blended in.

I will never have the capacity to un-see what I observed toward the beginning of today. In case I'm steadily confronting down Roy Batty on a future-noir stormy Los Angeles apartment housetop and he tries to break out his "I've seen things you individuals wouldn't trust" discourse, I will set up my hand, settle his stark blue look with my own, and show him what it genuinely intends to stand stripped in stunningness and fear before the immense and mysterious profundities of the universe.What's taken care of?

Rhinehart is keeping the correct equation for Soylent under wraps—and in addition, it's constantly advancing as they close generation. Be that as it may, the fixings rundown is normal learning. Here's the instructional PDF that touched base with my Soylent test, indicating what precisely is inside those gleaming plastic pockets:

v0.89 Ingredients

Maltodextrin (carbs)

Oat Powder (carbs, fiber, protein, fat) Rice Protein

Pea Protein

Grapeseed Oil (fat)

Potassium Gluconate

Salt (sodium)

Magnesium Gluconate

Monosodium Phosphate

Calcium Carbonate Methylsulfonylmethane (Sulfur) Creatine

Powdered Soy Lecithin

Choline Bitartrate

Ferrous Gluconate (Iron)

Vitamin blend

Those are the greater part of the significant fixings (the grapeseed oil isn't quite the pocket—as specified, it arrives in a different little vial), in addition to the different fish oil containers. Presently, the particular amounts of every segment aren't recorded, however that is just a transitory thing. Once the Soylent recipe is completely finished and underway, Rhinehart will make it openly accessible. Soylent will be libre (however not, without a doubt, free).

Day 3, 11:30—Eating when hungry is amazing

A standard-sized breakfast and no re-Soylenting at 10am prompts genuine for-genuine craving around my typical lunch time. As senseless as it might sound, appetite can be a wonderful thing. Not to downplay individuals starving, but rather typical first-world craving and the suspicion of satiation can rest easy, particularly following two days of eating more than I needed to eat.

I snatch my Purple Drank and pour a sound serving, on the grounds that, hello, I'm eager! The taste is met not with disobedience, as it has been in earlier days. Rather there's an a great deal more typical feeling surge of let's-kick this-eating-party-off spit and a pleasurable little endorphin surge. I need nourishment! I need Soylent! Placed it in my face!

It's such an odd feeling to be amped up for drinking the stuff, and the serving goes before long—I'm half-done before I sit down at the PC to resume work. Whatever remains of the glass just takes me one more moment or so to thump back. After thirty minutes, my gut begins up with an a great deal more curbed adaptation of its standard Soylent thunderings. There's a touch of gas, yet I am no longer a risk to myself as well as other people. I fall rapidly once more into the work schedule.

Day 3, 14:30—Hunger! Favored appetite!

I can finally relax. I'm not creating superpowers or anything—not yet, at any rate, however there's dependably trust—but rather I don't feel anything even remotely like the torpidity and crappiness of yesterday. The fogginess of the previous evening is completely gone, and I feel significantly more like myself. I feel focused.

The mug-sized servings of Soylent I've been assaulting appear to give satiety to a few hours, and I begin to feel perceptibly hungry again in the mid-evening. It's a commonplace craving as well, since I more often than not crunch on something at around this time. I've been feeling some more augmented gut thunderings, yet it's no place close yesterday.

Another measure of Soylent down the bring forth, and it has returned to work, tricking colleagues by texting them with poisonous unicode strings, which oh my goodness, is genuinely silly.

Day 3, 17:30—Consumption

As the work day finishes and I log off of the Ars IRC channel, I continue cheerfully to the kitchen and pour another little glass of Soylent. Today has, in any event up until this point, been a crushing achievement. I feel very great, and I evaluate that I'm around 40 percent finished with the pitcher of Soylent.

I've likewise been drinking more water today with an end goal to guarantee the mail continues moving, as it were. Two full liters of Soylent carries with it a lot of water, and for as long as two days I've just had the periodic little glass of water to drink. Today, however, with the diminished measure of Soylent I'm drinking, I need to ensure I'm additionally drinking enough liquid for my greatly examined entrails to have the capacity to carry out their occupation successfully.

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