SXSW 2008 Body Optimization

"Body Optimization: Why Stop at Health & Fitness?" (Body Optimization) is one of several SXSW2008Sessions.

Panelists

Tantek Çelik (moderator, framing the problem, what is body optimization)
Sean Bonner (topics: veganism & personal transform)
Noelle Murata (topics: longer term consistency, yoga)
Kathryn Myronuk (topics: life extension e.g. Ray Kurzweil's work)

Details

TItle: Body Optimization: Why Stop at Health & Fitness?
SXSW Description Page: Body Optimization: Why Stop at Health & Fitness?
When: Saturday, March 8th, 3:30pm-4:30pm (Panelists please report to The Green Room at 2:30pm)
Where: Austin Convention Center Level 1, Ballroom C

20-WORD DESCRIPTION (for the SXSW Interactive Program Book, will be shown below the title, and above the list of participants)

How can you realize your physical health and fitness potential? Panelists will share experiences, thoughts, techniques both immediate and longterm.

SPEAKERS: Tantek Çelik (tantek.com), Sean Bonner (seanbonner.com), Noelle Murata (ninjapixie.net), Kathryn Myronuk (ksml.com)

Description

LONGER DESCRIPTION FOR WEBSITE. (Longer means up to 200 words.)

What can you do to make yourself not just healthy, but as healthy as possible, and not just fit, but as fit as possible? How can you realize your maximally optimal physical potential?

Whether you want better mental alertness, health, fitness, physical capabilities, or even longer life, there are changes you can make both immediately during SXSW and longer term.

Appreciate personal progress rather than seeking out an arbitrary goal post. Set realistic expectations. Make incremental changes to resting, dietary, and exercise habits.

Learn how to critique and question the media messages, attitudes, and techniques about our bodies that are based more in myth, marketing and sales rather than objective studies and science.

Figure out what is optimal for you. Use passive and active metrics to measure yourself. Learn a variety techniques you can incrementally apply to optimize yourself per those metrics.

How do you respond to challenges such as being too busy, stress from personal situations, travel, peer pressure, and still make at least some progress (or hold steady) on your body optimization?

Panelists will share a broad variety of experiences, perspectives and methods from short term improvements to life extension techniques that you can compare and contrast.

Panelist tips

http://2008.sxsw.com/interactive/programming/speaker_faq/

Outline

Very much rough and in progress, panelists, feel free to edit/add to this.
(Will also reincorporate thoughts from here into BodyOptimization to have that as a resource/reference).

Goals: mental alertness, health, fitness, longer life, appearance, above average physical capabilities
Secondary goals. Changing the world starts with you. Set a good example. Inspire your friends and lovers.
Incremental behavioral changes: make a small change, develop reminders for it, get used to it, have it become second nature, incorporate it into your identity, repeat.
How to rest while at SXSW

Sleep Dep Calculator

How to eat while at SXSW
How to exercise while at SXSW
Advanced :

alter culture

incorporate healthy food habits into cultural norms
incorporate exercise-friendly/enabling attitudes/positions into work (no meetings before lunch), frequent walks/breaks, bicycling enablement/encouragement (secure parking / storage, shower/changing room, even laundry services) - also helps with skating, running, and other human powered transport options.
healthy food presence at work, healthy snacks, energy bars, fruit, no cornsyrup products/drinks etc., whole wheat (no bleached wheat), baked not fried etc.

previously

potential panelists

Unable to make it:

Joi Ito (status: invited 2007-12-01, can't make it as of 2008-02-04, topics: veganism & personal transform)

Booked up on other panels:

Tim Ferriss (apparently according to Hugh he is already on 2 panels and thus booked up.)
Leah Culver (she is already on another panel)

tantek