Comments (43)

By kilax, March 15, 2010 4:52 am

According to a survey in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise people are more likely to work out harder if they’re alone.

It’s easier to push yourself when you don’t have to worry about someone else’s agenda or pace, explains lead author Genevieve Dunton, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the University of Southern California.

But fitness friendships do have proven perks: People work out twice as long with a friend, Dunton says. (Chalk it up to that “time flying/having fun” thing.)

You know, I think working out with someone can go either way.

You might end up working out harder if:

• You want to impress the friend you are with
• You are having so much fun you end up running faster (or equivalent exercise)
• Your friend has a faster pace and you run with them to push yourself on purpose
• You are participating in a high-intensity group class

And you might end up not pushing yourself that hard if:

• Like the article said, you are worried about their agenda or pace
• Your friend is a beginner and you are doing something you are experienced in
• Your friend is more out of shape than you
• You are distracted by the conversation

I think there is a time and place for both types of workouts. Sometimes, you might need to do a lower-intensity workout, so do those runs with your friend that is a bit slower, and just beginning to run (or whichever exercise it may be). And when you want to do a hardcore workout with a friend, do it with the friend you know will push you.

In in the long run, each and every workout is what you make of it. Just discuss your workout goals with each other so you both get what you want out of it!

I am usually following a training program, and do a lot of solitary workouts. I enjoy the change in actually working out with someone, so I am not that worried if I get off-pace/don’t run as far/whatever! I welcome the variety. Sometimes, working out with someone might be better for my mental health than physical health, but that is okay with me.

Do you work out harder when you are alone? Do you prefer to work out alone or with someone?

Comments (45)

By kilax, March 6, 2010 9:31 am

Why is it that I can go a whole year without having any soda at all and not miss it – but I can’t seem to go through a day without craving a sugary treat? Aren’t these two items in the same category, brain? The category of things loaded with sugar that I shouldn’t eat/drink?

I suppose actually eating something is more satisfying that drinking something for me, which is why it has been easy to stay away from soda.

Now, I want it to be as easy to stay away from sugary treats. Despite telling you guys about how white sugar affects your body, I have not been able limit my intake very well, even though I want to. When I get a between-meals craving, it is for something sugary. Then if I do have something sugary, I am so overloaded with sugar, that I get a craving for something salty. Ugh. It is time for all of those sugary treats to just be fruit. I don’t feel like I can handle anything else right now.

Do you get in-between meal (“snacky”) cravings? What kinds of foods to do you crave?

I tried to write some shorter posts this week. I tend to get a bit “blah blah blah” and drag things out longer than I should. And I think that we are all pressed for time, and writing posts like that just lends to skimming, which is actually why I put my little bold question at the end of the post – so you get the gist of it. At the same time though, I would love to know more about your thoughts on blog post length, and what leads you to skimming. It’s something I have been thinking about lately as I have not had much time to read!

Please answer my polls below!

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Comments (2)

By kilax, March 3, 2010 4:27 am

Ignore the two whiny posts sandwiching this one… and check out my guest post over at Life After Bagels!

Morgan is traveling this week, so I wrote a little post talking about how I try to fit in exercise when I travel. What do you think my little trick is? You will have to click over to find out…

(Yes, I know I am being cheesy. But I am having a crappy week and writing that kind of made me laugh.)

Comments (27)

By kilax, February 27, 2010 5:47 am

There was a surprisingly* good article in the February issue of Fitness about interconnected injuries. You know…

• If you’ve got weak hips, it could lead to knee pain.
• If you’ve got shin splits, it could lead to stress fractures.
• If you’ve got sore abs, it could lead to lower back pain.
• If you’ve got plantar fasciitis, it could lead to achilles tendinitis.
• If you’ve got rotator cuff pain, it could lead to tennis elbow.

This happens because injuries force surrounding muscles to work in ways they aren’t designed for – resulting in further injury.

Of course, you don’t have to have one injury to lead to the other! The article was just pointing out how often doctors see clients with both issues. I wish I could find the article online to share with you – there were great tips on injury prevention for each area I mentioned above.

What I found even more helpful was advice on how to workout if you do have slight pain, or what you think might be an injury. The article explained four stages of an overuse** injury and how to react to them:

1. Stage 1: You feel pain within an hour of your workout and it goes away an hour or two later but returns each day after you exercise. Adjust your exercise by scaling back what you do by 10 percent that week.
2. Stage 2: The pain appears sooner and sooner after each workout until it is present near the end of activity and afterward, but doesn’t affect performance. Adjust your exercise by scaling back what you do that week by 25 percent.
3. Stage 3: The pain comes on during activity and affects performance. Running gets worse or you feel fatigued in the middle of working out when you used to feel fine. Adjust your exercise by scaling back what you do that week by 50-75 percent.
4. Stage 4: The pain is debilitating. It’s there as soon as your start and during daily activities (for example, limping when you walk). Adjust your exercise by suspending it until you see a doctor to see if you have a stress fracture or equivalent.

They didn’t say how to go between stages – but I assume  you follow the advice to cut your exercise back for each stage (for example, going from stage 3 to 1) until you feel no pain.

Have you experienced any of the interconnected injuries? Do you think the stages of an overuse injury and how to react to them are helpful?

Where was this article last year when I was running on my sore shin? I didn’t cut back at first, when I should have, and did end up with what the doctor thought was a stress fracture (couldn’t afford the MRI) and wasted a lot of time not being able to workout at all. It did start out at Stage 1 and definitely ended in Stage 4. I was limping so bad, it took me almost twice as long to walk six blocks to work.

I know that this may be boring to some of you, but I felt like I found a little treasure when I stumbled upon this article, so I thought I would share. I am going to follow the signs of the four stages if I am unlucky enough to experience what I think might be an injury.

*I have subscribed on and off to Fitness for years. After reading Women’s Health and SELF, I felt like the Fitness articles were just fluff in comparison so I didn’t renew my subscription. But they sent me a great deal ($5 for a year) and I like to have stuff to read on the bike, so I re-subscribed. I was pleasantly surprised with the first issue I received.
**Too much too soon or too much intensity, too soon.

Comments (2)

By kilax, February 25, 2010 4:54 am

Do you feel like yoga complements running?

Do you want to hear my take on it? Head on over to gemfit’s Staying on Course and read my guest post about how I have finally (!!!) embraced yoga and how I feel it helps me as a runner.

Let gemfit know your history with yoga, and if you were resistant toward it at first, like me!

Comments (62)

By kilax, February 17, 2010 6:00 am

This is part of a series of thoughts and reviews of Alicia Silverstone’s book, The Kind Diet. The first three parts of the series are the General Review, The Importance of Putting Yourself First and How Well Do You Chew Your Food?

Last year for “Lent”* I gave up “sweets” – 40 days without cookies, candies, chocolate, muffins, my beloved Dots… you get the idea. I still ate fruit, granola bars and sports beans, but that was it. No indulgent baking at home (which you know we love to do).

Yeah, it was a little difficult at first, but then I started to feel wonderful, and saying no to an after-dinner sweet was no big deal. At the end of the 40 days I was nervous about adding sweets back in to my diet. I saved a sugar cookie for myself to eat, and remember eating it, thinking it didn’t taste so great.

Then I eventually built my sugar tolerance back up and forgot all about it. What a waste, right?

I am still trying to decide if “No Sweets” is something I will pursue again this year. It worked really well for me, and I didn’t have many feelings of restriction. But it’s just… kind of easy, because there already aren’t many sweets I can eat, being vegan. What I would love to do is 40 days without processed foods. We just aren’t prepared right now. We would have to make our own bread and cereal, which I am sure we can do, but haven’t been experimenting with.

Oops, I am babbling! And that is one thing that is annoying me big time in my life right now (other people babbling… get to the effin’ point!). So, I would like to share some of the discussion on white sugar from The Kind Diet.

As I mentioned in the General Review, Alicia Silverstone devotes an entire chapter to White Sugar and Processed Foods. She points out that while they are not as harmful to animals or the environment as meat and dairy, they still wreak havoc on your body.

She recommends cutting out white sugar, high fructose corn syrup, organic evaporated cane juice, and honey, and replacing them with brown rice sugar, barely malt, agave syrup, molasses and fruit.

So, what is so “wrong” with white sugar anyway?

• It’s highly processed – when we eat foods that have had bits and pieces of them removed during processing, our bodies get stressed out and try to make up for the missing elements, creating an imbalance in the body.
• It steals vitamins and minerals from you – to make up for the “imbalance” and process white sugar, our bodies attempt to fill in the missing vitamins and minerals. But by diverting this vitamins and minerals from other parts of the body, we get tooth decay, bone loss, weak blood and depression.
• It suppresses your immune system – when you eat something very sugary, your blood sugar soars, so your pancreas releases insulin to handle all the extra sugar and bring your blood sugar level back down. Once all of the sugar has been metabolized though, the extra insulin remains, creating an imbalance in your hormones and immune system. Sugar also overworks the liver, as it takes on toxins during processing, which the liver deposits in your system, also weakening your immunity.
• It puts you on a roller coaster – the extreme peaks in blood sugar cause nausea, headaches, and fatigue, and as the sugar wears off, it can bring on irritability, anxiety, heart palpitations, crying and depression.
• It’s linked to cancer – the extra insulin produced to handle the high amounts of white sugar promotes the growth of certain types of cancer cells.
• It makes you fat – excess refined sugar converts to fat.
• It contributes to insulin resistance and diabetes – if you are constantly eating sugar, and your pancreas is working in overload to create insulin, the insulin will lose its effectiveness, creating insulin resistance. Your blood sugar remains high, but your cells are starving, so the body craves more sugar. If the pancreas stops working, you could get diabetes.
• It’s not animal-friendly – Silverstone didn’t mention it in this section, but most white sugar is processed on bone char.

Whoa, that is a lot of information to process. I’ll admit, some of these points seems a bit extreme to me, but then again, I can completely relate to the feelings in the “roller coaster” point.

Silverstone is recommending cutting back on white sugar, and replacing it when possible, which I think is very reasonable. The scary thing is, most people probably don’t realize just how much sugar is added to almost everything processed. When they think of sugar, they think back on their day and say “I didn’t add sugar to anything!” But, it is already in so much. I suspect that is a huge contributor to Type II Diabetes and Child Obesity – but I am not well-versed on those topics.

What do you think about white sugar’s affect on your body? Can you relate to the “white sugar” roller coaster? Do you try to limit your white sugar intake?

Do you participate in Lent at all? What do you “give up” or how to you “give back” to the community?

I have to give a call out to my buddy sizzle – our conversation yesterday inspired me to finally write this!

*That’s Lent in quotation marks because I am not Catholic, nor do I follow a specific religion, but can appreciate the theory behind giving up something.

Comments (61)

By kilax, February 16, 2010 4:56 am

Last week, someone was preaching to me about the benefits of fasting. This particular person fasts for health and religious reasons, and told me they do it 2-3 (consecutive) days a week.

Of course, I was skeptical, especially after the person cited references to fasting testing done on worms. Sure, worms may live longer if they fast, but how long do they live anyway? And aren’t our digestive systems just a teeny bit different?!

The person preaching to me couldn’t give me any answers (of course), so I did a bit of research with my good buddy wikipedia, and am here to ask you your thoughts. Note, this is just about fasting for health reasons, not religious reasons.

What is fasting?

Fasting is the act of abstaining from all food and drink for a period of time. There are different types of fasts – certain ones allow water, raw food, or a very limited calorie intake. I am discussing a fast where you only drink water for a day or more.

What happens to your body when you fast?

Glucose is the body’s primary fuel source. When you fast for 4-8 hours, your body converts glycogen from your liver into glucose to use for fuel. Your body also uses protein to supplement the glycogen. This fuel will last for up to 12 hours, then your body will turn to muscle for glycogen. If glycogen is unavailable, the body will turn to fat as a fuel source. The body will continue to use fat until it is unavailable, at which point the body will switch to using protein for fuel, and will be in a state of starvation (fasts are normally broken before this point).

What are the benefits of fasting?

According to Dr. Mark P. Mattson*, fasting every other day (known as Intermittent Fasting) shows beneficial effects as strong as those in caloric-restriction diets (I would hope so…).

Other possible benefits:

• increased life span
• reduced risk of cancer, Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, insulin resistance, and immune disorders
• stress resistance
• increased insulin sensitivity
• reduced morbidity
• detoxification – there is no evidence supporting this, and our bodies are naturally designed to remove toxins through our skin (sweating) and liver, colon and kidneys, but this is what the person was preaching to me

What are the dangers of fasting?

Intermittent fasting (eating every other day, typically) causes lowered blood sugar and blood pressure, which can lead to dizziness and blackouts. Oh yeah, and it makes you possibly feel weaker and CRANKY.

As you fast, your body lowers its metabolism to conserve energy; when you go back to your normal diet, your lowered metabolism may cause you to store more energy – a possibility of gaining weight.

If you fast for too long, your body will lack a variety of vitamins, minerals and nutrients, which can lead to symptoms such as fatigue, dizziness, constipation, dehydration, gallstones, and cold intolerance. Fasting for too long also causes your body to go into a starvation mode. From wikipedia: “Medical complications associated with fast-induced starvation include electrolyte imbalances, thinning hair, lanugo, cardiac arrhythmia and renal failure.” Also, what distinguishes fasting from essentially starving yourself? Is there a risk of it getting out of control?

Will I try fasting?

Probably not. As I told the person who was preaching this to me – I eat every 3-4 hours now, or I get a headache and feel unwell. They assured me that I could build up to fasting – similar to how I told them they could build up to running, slowly. But, I just don’t think this is something I need to get in to. As someone who prefers to participate in endurance activities and exercise regularly, I prefer to be “fueled.” (Although some say it is fine to exercise when fasting… not sure that is for me).

Sometimes, I do a lighter diet for a day, sort of a “detox” to get myself back on track. I guess that is the closest I will get to fasting.

What do you think about fasting? Have you ever tried it? Do you think it could be beneficial? Do you think it’s a load of crap?

Side Note #1: Don’t forget to enter my Love to Run Pendant Giveaway!

Side Note #2: If you voted yes to read my Training Week 17 poo story (18 out of 21 did!), it has been updated here.

*Chief of the laboratory of neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging

Comments (60)

By kilax, February 10, 2010 5:50 am

Sometimes, no matter what you do, you feel like it is never enough.

It’s not enough to…

• eat quaker oats for breakfast, it should be steel cut oats
• use pre-milled flaxseed, you should mill it yourself
• drink enough water to stay hydrated, you should be drinking filtered water
• make your own homemade wheat thins, if they still have sugar in them
• try to limit your sugar intake, if you are still eating regular sugar
• try to eat a healthy diet, you should also be fasting
• sprout your own beans, if you aren’t sprouting the right ones
• eat produce, if it’s not organic

(No, this isn’t about other bloggers.)

I do what I can. I am not perfect or trying to pretend I am. I eat processed foods. I struggle with overeating. I think I ate 20 oreos when I got to Iowa on Monday. I am pretty sure I will be eating my way through this sadness over my grandpa’s death.

But with all of that being said… I don’t feel bad about who I am. I am trying. I am trying to live a healthy lifestyle. It’s a bumpy journey. It’s even bumpier when you try to share it with people* who only want to tell you what you should be doing differently.

It’s funny. I am around people who don’t think about this stuff at all (they don’t exercise or watch what they eat) but I am the one getting all of these “suggestions.” Why talk to me? Why not talk to someone who is not doing ANYTHING?

And the thing is, if someone lectures me for a long time, basically telling me how to live my life, I’m not really going to buy into anything they are saying if they can’t back it up. I’m not. So, a tip – know what the hell you are talking about.

So what if I like cock soup?! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!
(Just kidding… it has chicken fat in it)

*Not everyone reacts the way I am describing, obviously.

Comments (32)

By kilax, February 9, 2010 5:09 am

You may recall that I don’t have a very good history with yoga – I have struggled with balance and breathing (and especially those downward dogs!) every time I have tried yoga in the past. BUT, they say it is SO GOOD for runners, so I keep wanting to try it!

I was really excited when ExerciseTV offered to send me three YogaWorks DVDs (Beginners AM/PM, Body Slim and Fit Abs) to review! ExerciseTV and YogaWorks have partnered and offer these workouts free online and OnDemand (available through Time Warner, Bresnan or Comcast). I didn’t realize it until well after I received these, but we have OnDemand at home, and sure enough, these workouts are on there! I highly encourage you to check them out. Steven and I tried them all (a few times) and loved them! If you don’t have OnDemand, you can get to them through exercisetv.tv.

We preferred Beginners AM/PM for relaxation, Body Slim for an invigorating workout, and Fit Abs for stretching. Each DVD has an instructor (a different one for each DVD) with a few students, including one “beginner” student who does modified, easier versions of the poses for beginners.

I think Beginners AM/PM is the best DVD to start with, then move on to Fit Abs, then Body Slim. Read below to hear more about each!

Do you do yoga? Do you prefer studio classes or DVDs?

Continue reading 'YogaWorks DVDs Review'»

Comments (38)

By kilax, February 3, 2010 5:10 am

This is part of a series of thoughts and reviews of Alicia Silverstone’s book, The Kind Diet.  The  first two parts of the series are the General Review, and The Importance of Putting Yourself  First.

There is a section in The Kind Diet about the importance of chewing your food. When I first saw it, I thought, “Ha ha! That is so silly! Who doesn’t chew their food?”

Then I thought about it, and realized – ME. I chew my food maybe three times, then swallow it, in a hurry to get to the next bite. So, along with being a fast eater, I am a bad chewer as well!

Silverstone talks about how chewing breaks down our food and the benefits of chewing your food well:

You come equipped with flat molars, a jaw that moves in little circles for grinding, and a special enzyme in your saliva, called ptylin, that breaks down complex carbs into glucose. When this glucose travels to your brain, it gives you the most amazing feeling of satisfaction. You will feel nourished and centered, and your brain will be free to generate happy thoughts.*

Silverstone recommends chewing each bite of food about 30 times, but admits herself that she sometimes forgets, so she gives some chewing tips:

Eat your meals alone

Put your fork down between bites

Really taste the food

Your jaw may hurt – your jaw may hurt from chewing so much, but it will perform much better after you start chewing more

I know this seems a bit silly, but after I read this, and thought about my meals for the following couple of weeks, I realized that not chewing enough my be a huge contributor to my problem with eating too fast. And the faster you eat, the more you eat until you finally feel full. So, I have been working on being a better “chewer.” What have I noticed?

• I’ve been taking too large of bites! That is part of the reason I was swallowing so quickly – you cannot chew that much food at once. I’ve been trying to take smaller bites.
• Chewing each bite of food 30 times is really hard
• I’ve been enjoying my food much more!

How well do you chew your food? Do you notice any difference when you chew slower/faster? Do you think this is a bunch of baloney?

*Huh?