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, fitnessAdjusting to life in Huntsville
Well, I’m back, none the worse for wear.
I started my new job in Huntsville last week. I’m pretty homesick and missing my family, and yes, there has been some emotional eating. Luckily, this has been offset by a huge increase in physical activity due simply to the size of the plant. The walk from the parking lot to my office takes about 6 minutes, around a 1/4 mile. The cafeteria is on the opposite side of the plant and takes about 5 minutes to reach. Along with normal pit stops and chasing people down for face time, it has all added up to some pretty sore legs and feet. I’m going to need to evaluate getting some new shoes for work soon.
I actually put my gps on some of these walks to get some accurate measurements, and it looks like I get between two and three miles of walking in each day at work. One of my coworkers estimates she gets in 4-5 miles a day. That will probably increase and be more consistent as I ramp up my responsibilities.
I’m also exercising when I get back to my hotel each night. It’s a cheap-o extended-stay place so there’s no fitness center, unless you count holding your breath and sprinting in the hallways to reduce your exposure to the fumes from the meth labs.
Ahem. I keed, I keed..
But, I found a nice pond with a sidewalk circling it, nearby. And I’m doing my core exercises a couple times per week. Unfotunately, I left the scale at home, so it will be a few weeks before I get an update on the weight.
Tags: exercise, fitness, huntsville, life, workEat 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, WiiNow on to something completely different
So what was stressing me out earlier this week?
A frustrating negotiation around the terms of a relocation agreement. But, it’s all wrapped up now, better than I expected, and we’ll be moving. We’re in Jacksonville, Florida, home of the Jaguars, and we’re moving to Huntsville, AL, home of… something, I’m sure. 
So, it will be a different kind of stress in the coming months, along with personal and professional opportunities. On the personal front, my family will not join me until school gets out this summer. But, there’s an opportunity in this arrangement that will allow me to spend my alone-time getting plenty of exercise without the competition for time from my family, to whom I can never say “No” when it comes to my time.
Tags: exercise, life, time, workExercise 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, learningSqueezing it in any way I can
Long day working, doing the day job then hitting the library for some peace and quiet and an internet connection that doesn’t crap out every time I try to see a video. Knocked out a week’s worth of video posts for another blog I have (no, not porn… well, mostly… ;-) ) and planned to change in the restroom and get my walk in before going home.
When I got in the restroom, however, somebody was in the process of polluting the place. I got out of there as fast as possible. But when I got outside I found it had cooled down considerably. Since I wear very comfortable shoes at work, I decided to just take an evening stroll in the work clothes. Got in my 20+ minutes, and felt pretty good about the day.
Tags: exercise, workMacarena, 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…
Back on the job
Caroline left a comment in yesterday’s post reminding me not to be so hard on myself. You’re absolutely right, Caroline. Negative thinking just exacerbates the problem and makes it easier to say, “Oh, what’s another day/donut at this point…”
I’m coming down with cold now, thanks to a coworker that prefers to use her personal time to leave work early a couple days a week instead of staying home when she’s sick and not infecting the rest of us. Who wants to waste sick time being sick, right?
Grrrrrr…
But, even though I felt like I was run over by a truck, I dragged myself out in the yard with the dog and did core exercises. Lots of air squats, 2-legged, 1-legged, slow-motion kicks to the side, front, and back for balance and strength, just worked on variety and hitting the muscles from a lot of different angles. I always need to work the core for a day or two before walking to help my back, and yesterday’s exercises helped me re-energize a bit so I could do some side work into the evening.
So, the benefits already begin.
Today, Dad’s taxi service is back on the job, with dance pickups and drop-offs right after work. I don’t know when I’ll have time to exercise, but I wore the walking shoes to work today so I’ll be able to squeeze it in at some point. Hopefully, I get to the dance studio in time to get in 20 minutes of walking before the oldest daughter finishes class. If not, as soon as I get home.
Tags: exerciseYes, I’m still here, and I still suck
Real life is killing me right now, but that’s no excuse. I’m doing ok with regard to food, still bringing lunches to work. Mostly, it’s been lean cuisine supplemented with a side salad that I make myself. But exercise?
It hasn’t been happening. I admit it. I’m going to get back out today and try to rebuild a new habit. I hate walking in the dark because of my tendency to sprain ankles. Since the time change, I haven’t wanted to go out at all. I’m going to start going to parts of town that are better lit, but it’s tough to keep that commitment when I get home from work and there’s kids waiting to show me their schoolwork, dishes to clean after dinner, activities that kids need to be shuttled to, and side work that needs to be done. I don’t know how you all do it, but I could use some encouragement!
Tags: exercise, kids