Update
Got back on the exercise path this past week. Besides all the walking at work, I also started walking in the evening. I found a nice pond with a 1/2 mile sidewalk circling it on some … ahem… ‘private’ property. There’s an industrial park near my hotel, so it’s pretty empty when I get there in the evening.
Oh well, all they’ll do is tell me to leave. Anything else would mean paperwork for someone. I count on the world’s laziness when making marginal decisions.
I picked up a lot of meat and not much in the way of carbs at the store this week. Probably 80% of the dollars were spent on protein. It remains to be seen if it goes into my body in the same proportion.
I’m moving to an apartment from my extended-stay hotel this week. So, I’ll have a fitness center. Hopefully I can be more consistent and get some kind of exercise on those evenings when the legs are too tired from work to go walking.
Tags: diet, exercise, fitnessEat the cookie, don’t eat the cookie…
So, with this move to Huntsville, AL coming up, I’ve been giving the diet and exercise a good hard thought. As opposed to a soft thought, I guess.
Anyway, I’m going up about 4 months before my family so the kids can finish school. Sucks for me. But for my diet and exercise, it could be the best thing to happen in a long time, or the worst. It’s been mroe than 10 years since I lived on my own, and I did a decent job of maintaining my weight back then, but things change. Here’s where I see my opportunities and my challenges:
Pros:
- No competition for my time when I get home from work.
- No one asking to go out to a “bad” restaurant.
- No one bringing food into the house that will tempt me.
Cons:
- No one there to hold me accountable.
- No support, no one to cheer the good days.
- No one to remind me about my diet when I try to eat ribs instead of a tomato and mozzarella cheese, dipped in a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
So, yeah, this can swing either way. I’m being honest with myself and acknowledging that there WILL be a change, but it is going to be up to me to work it out.
Tags: diet, exercise, kids, lifeWiiFit just around the corner
I’ve written about how I really like the Wii for a substitute exercise from time to time. Yesterday, Diet-Blog posted about the upcoming WiiFit, which promises to extend the exercise and fitness options to Wii owners.
The base games provided with the Wii is the WiiSports package, which includes tennis, boxing, baseball, golf, and bowling. Most are just fun, but boxing will kick your butt, assuming you do it right - actually ‘throw’ punches, bounce, and duck. It’s something I’ll do on a rainy day, or if I get home late and don’t want to go for a walk in the dark. Plus, it’s just different, which helps body and mind.
I wouldn’t want a video game to replace the exercise options for myself or my kids, but having a tool like this to substitute and shake things up from time to time is a big help. Having more options in WiiFit will help even more. Can’t wait for May to get here!
Tags: diet, exercise, fitness, kids, substitute exercise, WiiFive Bite Diet
Came across this one this evening: Taking several bites out of eating
The crux is, skip breakfast, have five bites of something with protein at lunch, five bites at dinner. Pretty simple. But it sure does risk missing a whole bunch of nutrients.
I don’t think it’s for me.
Update:
Wow, seeing a teenager commenting that she’s going to try it really shook me up. I posted this because I don’t think it’s a good idea. I don’t often recommend against a specific idea (I think Kimkins was the only thing so far), and usually take the passive-aggressive approach like I did above by saying it isn’t for me.
So, let me be clear - it isn’t for YOU, either!
Think about it this way: How many calories can you get into one bite of something moderately healthy - a piece of chicken, maybe? 100, tops? So, 500+500=1000.
That isn’t enough, and isn’t safe for very long! Growing bodies need PROTEIN and VITAMINS and even some CARBS and FAT. Balance it, keep it in moderation, but don’t try this STARVATION diet.
Tags: diet, programsExercise and Kids: Preparing the brain to learn
This one hit my mailbox this morning: Exercise Seen as Priming Pump for Students’ Academic Strides
Seven or eight years ago, studies offered mixed results on the question of whether exercise can boost brain function in children and adolescents. Experts are beginning to contend, however, that the case is getting stronger.
“There’s sort of no question about it now,” said Dr. John J. Ratey, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “The exercise itself doesn’t make you smarter, but it puts the brain of the learners in the optimal position for them to learn.”…
I see this in myself. When I’m exercising, I find I focus better. I haven’t studied it, but I probably ought to - I have a hobby that requires intense concentration and decision-making, and I saw immediate improvements in the past two weeks. Thinking back two years to when I was exercising every day, I was participating in this hobby successfully with some of the best participants in the world.
A couple of you know my hobby. I prefer not to get into THAT over here - this is my diet and exercise blog.
Reading on:
With his university colleague Darla M. Castelli, Mr. Hillman assessed the physical-fitness levels of 239 3rd and 5th graders from four Illinois elementary schools. Their findings, published last year in the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, show that children who got good marks on two measures of physical fitness—those that gauge aerobic fitness and body-mass index—tended also to have higher scores on state exams in reading and mathematics. That relationship also held true regardless of children’s gender or socieconomic differences….
…Another study published last year, involving 163 overweight children in Augusta, Ga., found, in addition, that the cognitive and academic benefits of exercise seemed to increase with the size of the dose.
For that study, a cross-disciplinary research team randomly assigned children to one of three groups. One group received 20 minutes of physical activity every day after school. Another group got a 40-minute daily workout, and the third group got no special exercise sessions.
After 14 weeks, the children who made the greatest improvement, as measured by both a standardized academic test and a test that measured their level of executive function—thinking processes, in other words, that involve planning, organizing, abstract thought, or self-control—were those who spent 40 minutes a day playing tag and taking part in other active games designed by the researchers. The cognitive and academic gains for the 20-minutes-a-day group were half as large.
“I was frankly bowled over by the results,” said Catherine L. Davis, the lead author of the study, a preliminary version of which was published in December in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. “It’s like a staircase, which is considered strong evidence for causation,” added Ms. Davis, who is an associate professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.
So, they’re saying that exercise gets the brain ready to learn. What they didn’t say was that exercise made you smarter. Just like buying a pair of dumbbells doesn’t give you big biceps. It just enables those muscles to becoming stronger through consistent work. Sounds like the same is true for the brain - exercise prepares the brain to process information better.
I’m no scientist, but I think they’re on the right track.
Tags: brain, children, diet, exercise, fitness, kids, learningA good start
Well, I survived the weekend, despite a really bad Saturday - we had my oldest daughter’s birthday party early because of conflicts in March. Something like fifteen 9 year old girls for a Hannah Montana/High School Musical theme party. Can you say pizza and cake?
I couldn’t. My mouth was too full.
But, I rebounded with an awesome Sunday, with over half my calories coming from protein and nice 30-minute walk. Managed to lose another pound by this morning. Down 19 overall, with 14 of it water weight and 5 the hard way.
I averaged a little over 1500 cal/day, so I’m happy. I haven’t been too hungry because I’m making sure I get something to eat every 3 hours or so. We’ll see if I can repeat this week.
Tags: calories, diet, resultsMacarena, Electric Slide, Cha-Cha Boogaloo, and the Chicken Dance - and some walking!
I took my daughter to the Father-Daughter dance last night, and my ass hurts.
Ahem.
What I mean is, the big gluteal muscles are sore. Lots of work for them. The thighs, too.
Damn right it counts. Anytime I wake up this sore, it counts. And to think I left work early to get in my walk. If I’d have thought about it, I could have skipped it.
The diet went extremely well this week. I treated my daughter and myself to a milkshake on the way home. I planned for it in my calories, and did all that extra cardio… 
Dealing with a tough day
I feel pretty good about how I handled yesterday. I didn’t eat enough calories, again (less than 1200), but I only had two and a half hours sleep the night before. Normally, I’d load up on caffeine and sugar, but I listened to my stomach and not my tired brain.
I’m working towards eating smaller meals more often. What I really like about the food diary at MyFitnessPal is that there are 6 “buckets” for entering meals, rather than just a single list or a breakfast-lunch-dinner breakdown. This is helping me think in 3-hour blocks of time, making sure I get a couple hundred calories every couple hours. I’m also working toward getting my carbs in prior to 6 pm, so this tool is helping me with the mental shift required.
Between the exhaustion and a rainstorm, there was no walking yesterday. I had to pick up the little one from dance on my way home from work, so I stopped at the grocery store and picked up a ready-made chicken caesar salad, swapped the creamy dressing for a fat-free balsamic vinaigrette, and grabbed a pack of protein drinks. Ate in the car while waiting for the class to end. Then it was home and in bed by 8 p.m.
Tags: diet, fitness, food journalGood source of information about fiber-rich foods
You may have noticed that weight loss badge in the sidebar - it’s from myfitnesspal.com, where I’m tracking my diet. I am seeing that I eat too little fiber, so I went on a hunt for a list of fiber-rich foods. Found a good one with a couple dozen foods that you’ll find in a grocery store:
The full chart and article explaining it is at WHFoods.
Tags: diet, fiber, fitness, food journal, tipsOk, I’m feeling the flow
I admit it, I have no idea what “feeling the flow” means. I’m a middle-aged white man, and I would sound ridiculous saying it out loud.
That doesn’t stop me from saying “Dude” to younger guys. Dude.
Anyway, I’m feeling good. Meds are squared away, I’m back on the diet, back tracking my food, back walking at night. Feeling motivated. Working hard at work, working hard at blogging.
Tags: diet