Comments (26)

By kilax, December 31, 2009 5:33 am

We all want to know – how much exercise do we really need each week? How little can we get away with?

There was an interesting (although VERY confusing) article on the Well blog covering this topic yesterday.  The article stemmed from a study done in Scotland that concluded you only need 20 minutes of exercise a week to increase your contentment. Okay, but how much do you need to be healthy?

That’s more difficult to define. The article went into a discussion about “MET” minutes, which are “Metabolic Equivalent of Task” minutes. Huh? Apparently  you need 500 of those as week, and they vary based on what you are doing for exercise and how intense it is. For example, running at 6 mph is a 10-MET activity. So if you run for 60 minutes, that is 600 MET minutes. So, you’re done for the week then? Confusing…

Has anyone heard of this MET mumbo-jumbo before? How do you decide how much to exercise a week? Do you have any exercise goals for 2010?

I aim for at least 30 minutes a day, but usually go by how I feel. If I am in the groove, I will keep going! If I feel like crap, I won’t work out at all.

A few other interesting points from the article (repetitive, but interesting):

According to the Physical Activity Guidelines report, “It has been estimated that people who are physically active for approximately seven hours a week have a 40 percent lower risk of dying early than those who are active for less than 30 minutes a week.”

Interestingly, they did not find that exercise beyond a certain point conferred significant additional health benefits. Instead, the “dose response” for exercise, the committee found, is “curvilinear.” In other words, people who are the least active to start with get the most health benefit from starting to exercise. People who already are fit don’t necessarily get a big additional health benefit from adding more workout time to their regimens.

You do not necessarily have to divide your exercise time into daily allotments, either. Existing “scientific evidence does not allow researchers to say, for example, whether the health benefits of 30 minutes on five days a week are any different from the health benefits of 50 minutes on three days a week,” according to the activity guidelines. Do what suits your schedule.

Meme time! Leah, Gelareh and Holly have all tagged me for the “7 Random Things About Me” meme. Thanks, ladies! Click “more” to read on…

And of course, Happy New Years Eve! Enjoy your evening and be safe!

Continue reading 'How little exercise can you get away with? / 7 Random Things About Me meme'»

Comments (32)

By kilax, December 1, 2009 5:26 am

When we were done painting the guest bedroom, we decided not to put the dresser back in there because it takes up too much space. Instead, we put some shelves up where the dresser was, and are temporarily storing the dresser in our room. We now have three dressers in our room that are not being used – and this new one which doesn’t even match the others! Ha ha. Our long term plan is to re-finish the dresser we just brought into our room and its match in the guest bedroom, and get rid of the two in our room now. Anyway.

The Lone Dresser. Data likes to run across the room and jump onto it, then on to the treadmill.

On Saturday night, Steven and I were discussing the design of the dresser, and how it’s silly that it looks like it has small drawers on the top, but it really doesn’t. We started to open the drawers to look at how it is built and…

… we found a drawer full of STUFF!!! Holiday stuff!* Stockings filled with goodies and other treats! My mother must have hid them in there when she visited two weekends ago!**

The loot!

Of course, we went through everything right away. I am not sure when we were supposed to find the stockings, but it was so exciting to find a holiday gifts so early!

My mother is so thoughtful. She is constantly thinking of how other people feel, and how her actions affect other people. I think this is a wonderful characteristic, and wish I knew more people like her.

Do you know anyone who is super caring, thoughtful and considerate? How do they inspire you?

I like to think a bit of this rubbed off on me, because I do seem to be hyper-aware of how other people are feeling, and I try to do thoughtful “out-of-the-blue” things for them. Of course, my budget doesn’t always allow it!

Besides this drawer full of goodies, my mom sends me cards throughout the year, and even surprise gifts! Two Decembers ago, I was telling Steven how I really wanted the game Apples to Apples, and it just appeared on my doorstep the next night – from my mother! She also sent me the book Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life this past October, as a surprise, just because she knew I wanted it (watch for an upcoming review of the book).

And I really shouldn’t leave my dad out – I’m sure he was a part of all that. I know he was in charge of sending me my care packages (scroll down to 2/23 post) when I lived in Rome!

I know some people don’t like surprises, but to me, it always feels good when I know someone went above and beyond because they were thinking about me.

Here’s a better question, how do you plan on being thoughtful this holiday season?

Side Note: Don’t forget to enter my Eating Animals Giveaway!

*Because I am crazy, I thought I had hid all of this stuff in there for a split second.
**Ha ha ha. I didn’t have the opportunity to talk to my mom about this until yesterday. But I tricked her and told her we had Salvation Army come up and pick up all the dressers. Ha ha! She freaked out for a minute. “I thought you were going to keep them!” “You said you were going to paint them!” “You said you were going to get rid of the other one.” I’m SO MEAN. She told me she hid the stockings there when I was running the Friday night they visited. Everyone told her not to hide them there (that we would find them) but she said, “Kim said she doesn’t use her dressers!” I don’t use them – it was completely by chance that we opened them. My poor mom. I ruined her surprise! She was going to call us Christmas morning and tell us to look in the dresser. What a thoughtful idea. She said on the phone “Did Data see them too?!” He did. “No one will be surprised!” But I let her know she made my day!

Comments (18)

By kilax, October 23, 2009 8:40 am

If you could open your own store, what merchandise or service would  you sell?

I’ve always thought it would be neat to be a tour guide. So, maybe it would be neat to have my own little tour guide company. Here, or anywhere! I love learning things about the city I live in and sharing it with visitors. I had a lot of fun when Steven and my family came to visit me in Italy. We traveled all over, to cities I had never visited, but I did a lot of research so we would know where to go. And when we came back to Rome, I gave them a tour of the city, based on all of the favorite places I had discovered living there, and of course, the very popular tourist spots as well.

A must visit in Rome is Giolitti, the famous Gelateria! You can read more about our Italy adventures on this page, the 3/13-3/24 entries.

Have you heard about City Running Tours? I just read about it on Melanie’s blog, because she won one in Chicago! She got to go on a guided running tour of Chicago, at the pace she preferred! What a neat idea! I think that would be a fun job.

Comments (11)

By kilax, October 20, 2009 12:35 pm

Every work day, I walk past the little dining section of Union Station. At the early hour, the tables and chairs are more likely to be used by tired travelers and homeless people, than people dining.

Every time I pass that area, I look for the lady with the cat. She sits with all of her bags around the table, but always has a special bag on the chair next to her, that has her cat sitting in it. He’s a big tiger cat, with mangy fur. She’s usually talking to him. And he’s usually looking right at her.

I wish I had an actual picture of the cat, but I will use this Simon’s Cat pic instead.

For some reason, it really intrigues me that a homeless person has a CAT. Does this cat follow her around all day? Does she carry it around in an open top bag all day?

Yes, these are my deep thoughts this particular Tuesday.

Every time I see her, I think about all of the homeless people in Rome who had dogs. Most of them did. They use pets to gain sympathy from tourists (like how this cat is catching my attention) but most don’t actually treat the animals very well. In fact, Rome officials encouraged people not to give money to the homeless who had dogs, because the dogs are so abused.

I’m so cynical/bitchy/jaded/unsympathetic, that when I see a homeless person here, I don’t give it a second thought. I don’t feel any sorrow or remorse for them. Especially because I see the same people, every day I’m downtown, in the same spots. Of course, I keep thinking about that cat. Is he well fed? Is he happy? Is he healthy? What is wrong with me? See, this is why they have pets… because of saps like me.

I would really like to understand the homeless problem better. I would like to not be so cynical/bitchy/jaded/unsympathetic. I remember taking a sociology class in college, and learning a lot of interesting facts about why people are homeless. Of course, I don’t remember what any of those are…

Comments (17)

By kilax, July 10, 2009 6:58 am

If you could take a ride in a hot air balloon over any city, what city would you choose?

Definitely Rome. That seems like a silly answer since I lived there for so long, right? Well, it’s because I am so familiar with the area that I would love to travel over it. I would love to see the city streets from above and relive all of my adventures (in memory) during the ride. I would just have to make sure the ride was in the spring or fall – hot air balloon rides are, well, hot! And it is SUPER hot in Italy over the summer.

I’ve never been on a hot air balloon ride, but I would love to one day, over ANY city. And I would love to go to one of those hot air balloon festivals. The balloons are just so beautiful and fascinating!

Side Note: I would love to hear my family’s answers on this – who wants to go on a hot air balloon ride with me? I know they have them in Galena! And I would love to hear stories from people who have gone!

Comments (6)

By kilax, June 27, 2009 9:13 am

Alright, it’s the big question! CourtneyInControl asked, “What made you decide you want to go vegan?”

Disclaimer: My intent is not to convert you to veganism, just to share my feelings on the subject!

I’ve been a vegetarian for over 8 years. The idea of becoming vegan (not eating milk or egg products) did not become intriguing to me until I lived in Rome, in 2006. I volunteered at an animal shelter with a lot of vegans who shared information with me about the lifestyle. I believed in the cause, as well as the health benefits of the diet, but honestly, I was NOT ready to make the change yet. I didn’t want to spend time worrying or caring about what was in  my food, especially when living in Rome! I wanted to be carefree and eat as much pasta and gelato as I could fit in in 7 months (rest assured, I accomplished that)! I didn’t want to go to the trouble of learning even more of the Italian language to read food labels, and ask waiters in Italian, “Does that have dairy or egg in it?” I was just lazy.

Since then though, I made a somewhat conscious decision to cut back on dairy and egg products. I didn’t eat them that often. When I lived by myself, I didn’t even keep those things in my apartment. BUT, I did enjoy the occasional slice of pizza, bowl of ice cream, or scrambled eggs.

Since then, I’ve constantly run across information on factory farming and animal exploitation. Honestly, I do NOT search this information out, because I cannot stomach it. If I read/see/hear something cruel, I CANNOT get it out of my mind. It makes me feel sick.

But since I kept finding myself running into this information, I did force myself to think about it, and came to the conclusion that I must use my actions to voice what I believe:

I believe that animals should not be exploited for our gain. I believe they are sentient beings, who should have the basic right of living a free life. I believe they should not be used for food, clothing, research, or entertainment, even if there is no unnecessary suffering.

I feel like cutting out dairy and eggs is one small step for me. Animals are used for more than just food. There are many ways they are exploited that I do not agree with. But I honestly cannot go on a rampage through my house throwing away all of my leather products, glue, the tires off my car, etc. I can only make small steps towards a more compassionate lifestyle.

I really want to share some of the awful things I’ve learned about animal exploitation, but I don’t want to ruin your day, if you are like me and cannot get the images out of your head, so I am going to share some links below.

Thanks for reading with an open mind.

Continue reading 'Vegan Saturday II | Why go vegan?'»

Comments (15)

By kilax, June 4, 2009 12:59 pm

I have a reoccuring dream that I am on a plane to Rome, feeling extremely guilty because I have “left”* Steven to pursue my own interests.**

This morning the dream was a bit different. I was sitting next to a classmate on the plane, when I looked down into my luggae (why I had it with me, who knows) and realized I didn’t pack ANY of my running gear.

I started to panick and my classmate assured me it would be okay and I could buy running gear in Rome.

“But I didn’t even bring my Garmin! How will I know how far I’ve gone?!”

Oh jeez. This has gone too far.

But after I woke up, I thought, it would have been FUN to run in Rome! I never did. It would be dangerous with the way people drive there, but it would be so neat to run by all of the old, unique buildings. And I know some of my classmates were running when we were there. Maybe someday I’ll get an opportunity to run there again.

Is there any really cool place you like to run? Or do you have a dream run like this? Right now, I love running in the forest preserve, when I am not getting attacked by birds!

*Not “left” as in divorced, but “left” as in “left behind (for awhile).
**I think I have these dreams because I did chose to extend my winter 2006 stay in Rome into the summer ( I stayed to work for an Italian Architect) when Steven and I were engaged. I only saw him twice in seven months.