Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Giving thanks for it all!

It is the week of Thanksgiving and all the health blogs are a buzz with ways to avoid overeating this holiday. Want to hear my ideas? If you know me at all, you will know that I support eating habits that don't demonize foods. If you really want a cupcake then share it with someone, or eat the whole thing if you want! Just don't do it all the time, and make sure it's a REALLY good one you know? Make sure it's high quality made with real ingredients; none of these grocery store bakery excuses for baked goods that come from huge plastic vats. Gross. Moderation, as you know, is key.

Anyway back to Thanksgiving. I'm going to give you the back up story so you don't get confused when you hear my advice and misunderstand me. On a regular basis I have a tendency to eat lots of vegetables and beans. I really enjoy my one-pot veggie-bean concoctions! I use one pot because I do not enjoy doing dishes, and I prefer to eat meals from a bowl all mixed together. So it makes sense to make lots of soup-like meals. That's just me though. And I really enjoy eating nutritiously because it tastes great and makes me feel good. So Thanksgiving, for me, is a time when I am presented with a large variety of singular dishes. My mother is a phenomenal cook, so I know that all the dishes will be flavorful and still nutritious; being made from whole foods. So therefore I am excited to try EVERYTHING that she has made.

Without trying too hard I will have my plate loaded with little spoonfuls of all the dishes. I will not clean my plate by any stretch, but I am not going to nit pick my way through my mother's Thanksgiving day dinner either. I will try everything and focus on my favorites. I will also keep in mind that there is delicious pie (made by me) for dessert and no amount or quality of stuffing can be substituted for a slice of quality pumpkin pie.

By the end of the night I will be full and happy. I will not be sick. I will not regret my choices. I will feel satisfied in all regards and will look forward to having leftover brussel sprouts and chestnuts with homemade cranberry-orange relish the next day. I will also be thankful that Thanksgiving meals come only once a year. If it was more often then I thoroughly believe that they would not be nearly so special.

So my advice is this: Eat foods that come from the ground on all days of the year, but on Thanksgiving eat what you like! Don't put yourself into a food coma for God's sake, but eat heartily if that is what you want to do. Just make sure that you return to normal the next day!

Hopefully the weather on Thursday will be nice enough to enable a family walk or hike before or after dinner. Let your body care that you aren't going to let it fall into disrepair because of one meal! Remember to hit your gym or the trail this weekend and maintain your physical activity!

Be thankful for your health, your friends, your family, and simply be thankful for life lived your way! I wish you and your family all the best this Thanksgiving!! Have fun and enjoy!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

You say I'm HOW fat?!!

One of my clients asked me the other day about the scales that measure your body fat. She wanted to know if those were accurate, and then how they compare to the BMI measurement that is always referred to in articles about heart health.
So of course, that sparked a great conversation amongst all us girls.

First, BMI (Body Mass Index) is a measurement used to calculate your Body Mass and therefore the likelihood of weight related risks. But if you have ever Google-d "BMI calculator" you'll have noticed that you also get alot of comments voicing concern. Many people say, "I'm fit, but this says I'm so fat!" You need to keep in mind when you check your BMI that it is NOT the be-all, tell-all about your health. This calculation cannot take into account your muscle-mass. Two men the same height and weight can look very different; one can be a very trim body-builder and the other can be a large couch potato. But they'll have the same BMI.

BMI can be helpful if you need a frame of reference to help view your reality. People that live in very large communities (not a reference to populace)can easily lose track of a healthy-weight reference point. So if you weigh yourself and the number doesn't mean much because you aren't sure of what it should be, then you can calculate your BMI and get a more complete picture.

But to give you an idea, if I calculate my BMI I fall in the high "Normal" range with a 20.7. Then I can go home and use my scale which has the little magic foot spots that enable what's called Bio-Electrical Impedence (measures body fat percentage and hydration level). According to that I got anywhere from 19% to 22.5% Body Fat in a single day. Why? Hydration level. If I measure myself first thing in the morning after I first pee, then my body fat percentage is very low and so is my hydration level. After laying down all night, the water in my body is distributed differently through my body than if I give myself 8 hours of gravity to push and pull it around.

So these are all helping measures, but none of them are gospel. If you really want to know what your real numbers are then you have to get out the big guns. You have to contact a local university or hospital that has a hydrostatic weighing tank.

Now the next thing to discuss are those Caloric expenditure calculators. My advice is stay away. If you know that you're consuming 9,000 calories a day or you have been told that you are seriously obese, then these calculators can give you an IDEA as to how much you probably should be consuming each day. However, these calculations also need to be approached with care.

The main problem I have with them is their Activity Level options. Moderate daily activity includes 'carry a load' and heavy activity includes 'basketball' but nothing about how heavy a load, how intense the game of basketball or anything about duration! So I plugged in my age, weight, and gender, selected 'heavy' (because that option best described what I do each day) and it says I should eat 2894 calories a day!!!
Do you have any idea how much zucchini and kale that is?!

Moral of this story is: Don't stress these numbers! If you're hungry, eat a little nutritious something. If you're not hungry, don't eat. And there's very rarely a bad time to drink water, so take a couple swigs whenever your mouth feels like it should be busy.If you're feeling sluggish, get moving to push your blood around and get a little adrenaline going.
Know yourself. If you're not sure, then use these calculators to give you an idea or maybe to start dialogue with your doctor or personal trainer. Best of health to you!

Friday, November 14, 2008

So much good stuff!

Today is World Diabetes Day, if you aren't already aware! It is a worldwide movement to raise awareness about the warning signs of Diabetes as well as to get support for those diagnosed individuals that cannot easily access care and treatment. This year's them is Children and Adolescents due to the increasing numbers of young people being diagnosed with Diabetes I and II. Most of the information on the website (www.WorldDiabetesDay.com) has to do with Type I. So if you have frequent urination, are losing weight, are excessivly thirsty, and/or have a serious lack of energy, then you may want to check out this website.

My only gripe with the website is that there is no mention of how to manage Diabetes on a daily basis other than with drugs. They infrequently mention "a healthy diet", but as there are so many books in the Diet section of my bookstore I'll wager that there's some confusion as to what that really means. I would think that teaching people to balance their blood sugar and tame insulin spikes would be a worthwhile project. I would think that a food graph showing what is "sugar" and "not sugar" would be helpful. Teaching about meal-balance would be important too I would think; eat protein, some fat, and some fiber with your sugar and it doesn't quite hit so hard. Oh yeah, defining "some" would also be worthwhile. :)

And just so that ALL corners are dusted, check out www.RawFor30Days.com. It's a documentary that follows six Americans that have what their doctors had called "incurable diabetes". Some have Type I and some have Type II, and all had CRAZY improvements in their health. They lost weight, got off their meds, and felt healthy and energized for the first time in God-only-knows how long. It's really an amazing video and they have a very good trailer if you're curious.

Happy and Healthy Eating everyone!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Translation to real life...

So being strong is great right? But having actually work for you is even BETTER! Afterall, lifting dumbbells doesn't help me cook dinner!

So about a month ago I purchased a customized coffee table for myself online. It is one of those rustic log tables, it's just half a log! So when it arrived via mail I had to bring it up to my apartment. Ah yes. So it came in a 4.5' tall box about 2' wide on each side and it weighed about 45 lbs. Yes, this is not terribly heavy but as you know it is substantially more difficult to maneuver an odd shaped weight. Or in this case, something almost the same size as my own self!

To make it more fun? Add 4 flights of narrow stairs! YES! Now we're talking!!

As I tried to get just the right grasp on this thing and get it up the stairs I thanked my workouts for helping me train for real life. That is after the rain dampened cardboard ripped and it went cartwheeling down one flight (I suppose I then had to take a moment to thank foam). So for the 3 flights plus one repeater, I had to wrangle it. But I'm thankful because I'm stubborn and did NOT want to leave the not-heavy box in the foyer for 3 days until my boyfriend came to bring it up. That would have been defeatist thinking and on the whole an unthinkable act.

This way I dont have to ask for help to do things...unless of course it's something car or electric related.

Perseverance. Better than just strength.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Obama's on to something...

Obama was quoted in Men's Health Magazine as saying that fitness is a key to success.
He may be on to something. Afterall, he just won the Presidency!

I could be wrong, but I think now-President Obama is the first candidate to have been on the cover of Men's Health Magazine! I think it's great! In this age of lack-of-healthy-perspiration having our President be a fit role model for the people is phenomenal! So let's give a pause to consider how busy this guy is...on his campaign trail also...whew. Wife, two kids, campaigning for a little office called President of the United States of America...yeah, he might have his hands full. So what does he do? He knows that his fitness is important and not negotiable, so he works out for 45 minutes 6 early-mornings a week. It's not so important to me WHEN he works out just that he does. And that he doesn't compromise his health.

When you're as busy as this man is, do you have time to be ill or under-the-weather? Probably not, productivity falters if you're constantly blowing your nose and your head is pounding right? With all the research (and inherent knowledge given to us by our forefathers) we know that health, fitness, and proper diet go hand in hand and um..hand.

So the more practicing, fit & healthy role models we get onto the streets the better!So are you fit and healthy? Then get out there and flaunt it! Jog where people can see you and be proud!

So yeah. I can tell you that I am very hopeful for good changes in the upcoming years. Especially with all the exercising hotties taking to the streets! :^)

Monday, November 3, 2008

What's the point?!

So one of the MOST commonly asked questions is, "Why are you making me do this?!" Usually it comes in an breathless tone during a rest period during the workout.

We are so accustomed to the globo-gym workout method now that when we are asked to do something real it's both difficult and strange. You can see it at your gym, just watch the person on the leg-extension machine giving funny looks to the dude doing squats. Problem is that the leg-extension machine doesn't train you in context (amongst other inherent problems with the machine, but we'll save that for another time). So if you always train your muscles individually, they are never learning to work together. This is a hugely important distinction and it should be obvious why training muscles in context is more beneficial to our lives and athleticism than is isolation muscle training.

Another thing I hear is, "Why do I need to exercise to do my daily tasks that I can already do?" Alright, valid point...ish. My sister put it best when she said,
It's like always driving your car, from the second you learned to drive, in second gear. You can get around just fine; from point A to point B and back. Driving is good. Then all of a sudden you find you can put your car into 3rd. Oh my God! You never knew the car could work SO well! It's more powerful on hills, it's faster and so much smoother!

That is what this type of exercise program can do for you! Some people notice the difference when they go grocery shopping and realize the 50lb bag of dog food doesn't give them the same trouble it once did. One girl realized it when she out lasted her classmates in her Fencing class; everyone was winded and needed to take a break and she was still standing and ready for more!

Almost immediately you feel a change in your wind and in your strength. Over time your daily tasks become less taxing which ends up making each day less stressful, both on your body and on your mind. It's really so very nice :)