Category: Eat, Drink, and Move That Body!

On Good Habits

Today’s question:

Do you have any good habits that were hard to start but you’re happy you worked to build them?

Well yes, I have a lot of habits that were hard to start. For example, it was very hard to get started working out regularly. Sadly, it’s much more fun to hit the snooze button than to get up and sweat. It’s more fun to go out to breakfast than to go to yoga class when you’re starting. But you know what? I’m stronger and more flexible than I was the day I graduated high school.

I also had a hard time getting in the habit of keeping my nails polished. Let’s face reality, I’m not one of those naturally-girly girls but rather one who has to work at it. So finding the time to give myself a manicure (and a pedicure) is something I do in the name of feeling more feminine. Sure, I could pay somebody to make this happen, but this way it happens on my schedule.

So yes, good habits are worth developing.

In Closing: New antibiotic; calorie myths; a pound of fat a day; ok I promise my last weight link of the day; wasting no time. See everybody tomorrow.

Exercise is a Good Habit too

Did you know that regular exercise is associated with a lower risk of cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and being overweight? You probably did. Did you also know it can prevent bone loss as you get older? Maybe you just don’t know how to get started without spending a lot of money on one of those exercise programs advertised on late night television.

Well, thank heaven that Google turns up a lot of good places you can start without necessarily buying a gym membership or some expensive videos. Just remember: whatever you do, keep doing something. Remember that this is a habit that’s going to take some time to do right (and even longer if you do it wrong). But all the research says it’s worth it.

Edit: Yet another study says exercise is good for you. Of course, If you started printing out these studies, you might go broke just buying paper.

In Closing: Ted is right; Schneier on doxing; sounds good to me; Mrs. Quimby would probably be in big trouble; the answer is blowing in the wind (and the sun too).

Ok, Let’s Talk about Food

You know what would be a really good habit for 2015? Eating a better diet. Most of us could stand to do better. Furthermore, the cold hard reality is that 2 out of every 3 Americans need to lose some weight; one out of three needs to lose a lot of weight.

There are a handful of diet and nutrition tips that the overwhelming majority of experts agree on:

  • Fruits and veggies are good for you and most of us could stand to be eating more of them. Deep fried veggies don’t count. Come on, even these guys agree on this much.
  • Water is one of the best things you can possibly drink; green tea comes in second.
  • If you eat more calories than you burn, you’ll gain weight (and that’s easy to do).
  • Too much refined sugar is not good for you.
  • Olive oil is pretty good stuff.

I’m going to close with what 2000 calories looks like and what 200 calories looks like. Oh yeah, and these guys may have some useful information (come on, the Food Pyramid was retired quite a while back). Whatever you decide to make for dinner, be safe.

Update! Here’s a “study” showing that fast food portion sizes haven’t actually changed that much between 1996 and 2013. Well, just based on this reporting of the “study”, I see at least two problems. First, much of the portion size creep started long long before 1996. Heck, I remember how the 20 oz. drink at Wendy’s seemed absolutely huge when I was a kid, and now I think they call that size a small. Second, the items that researchers compared included “2 oz. and 4 oz. cheeseburgers.” Well alert the media, 4 ounces is still 4 ounces. Never mind that these days, there may well be a 6 ounce and an 8 ounce burger on the menu! In short, it is possible to eat moderate portion sizes at a fast food restaurant, but you’re going to have to read all those little calorie count numbers carefully.

Hello 2015

Like many people, I was happy to see 2014 go and I’m looking forward to a great 2015. This is a time of year when many people are working on habits: getting rid of bad ones, starting good ones. As you can see from the nice banner at the side, I’ll be talking quite a bit about habits this month. Be sure to check out some of the other nice people who will be doing likewise.

Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be sure to talk about the economy and politics and the freakin NSA from time to time too!

My plan is to keep it short and sweet and useful. Let’s start with a little talk about goals. Yeah I know, I beat up on goals just last week. But here’s the thing: if you don’t try, you’ll never ever succeed. Even though what Mr. Venuto says about goals is tailored to a health and fitness community, the fact is that most of what he says can be applied to any goal — and that includes habit related goals!

In Closing: Health insurance does you no good if you can’t afford to use it; slowdown; the injustice system.

Huh, maybe the old fashioned way that used to work still does work.

The other day, results from a study on diets for diabetics were published. In short, it said that the low fat diets that have been recommended for many years don’t work very well to control diabetes, but the low carbohydrate diets that came before them did:

The authors point to the specific failure of the prevailing low-fat diets to improve obesity, cardiovascular risk or general health, and to the persistent reports of serious side effects of commonly prescribed diabetes medications. By comparison, the authors refer to the continued success of low-carbohydrate diets in the treatment of diabetes and metabolic syndrome without significant side effects.

“Diabetes is a disease of carbohydrate intolerance,” said Barbara Gower, Ph.D., professor and vice chair for research in the UAB Department of Nutrition Sciences and one of the study authors. “Reducing carbohydrates is the obvious treatment. It was the standard approach before insulin was discovered and is, in fact, practiced with good results in many institutions. The resistance of government and private health agencies is very hard to understand.”

Emphasis added.

This summary goes on to point out not just one or two, but twelve research-backed facts to support their point of view. Go ahead and read them for yourself. Although these points include the fact that dietary intervention doesn’t have side effects the way drugs do, they did not include that food is relatively cheap compared to medicine. Nor did they point out that metabolically, complex carbohydrates are little more than chains of sugars.

 

In closing: NSA, War on the NSA, War on Terror, War on Brown People, War on Schools that Work, War on Marksmanship, War on the Middle Class, War on the Working Class, War on the Palestinians, Here a War, There a War, Everywhere a War on War. Old MacDonald had a War, EIEIO. Cosigning is a bad idea. Kids will eventually eat what they are served. And let’s close with friendly Satanists.

Need new workout clothes?

I am not getting paid a dime to say this, but I like Champion workout clothing. Let me tell you why.

I was sold on the original Champion JogBra years ago. It has since been replaced by higher-tech even-lower-bounce products. In certain activities, it’s very important that The Girls don’t move around too much. Some of the new models even have double layers for more support — and there’s space between the layers for your gym locker key or armor or something. But my love of Champion goes much further than just bras.

These products are durable. I have a couple items that are about 5 years old and still going strong. The only reason to replace them is to keep from getting bored wearing the same old thing. You just aren’t going to get that kind of wear out of the stuff you find at the local discount store.

Now I like fashion as well as the next person. Champion manages to have both “new hip styles” and classics that you will always be able to wear to the gym. Come on, a modestly cut pair of navy blue workout shorts isn’t going out of style. Fine, pair it with a workout shirt in the latest “in” color.

For those that are plus sized, Champion absolutely has larger sizes. I can’t imagine how demoralizing it must be to know you need to work out to lose weight, yet  have a hard time finding exercise clothes that fit properly. At the risk of a really bad pun, they’ve got big girls covered.

Champion products are also very reasonably priced. I’m a clearance rack junkie, personally, but I can get an entire outfit of stuff (sometimes two) for what one premium bra from Lululemon costs — and I don’t have to think about wearing something called a Ta Ta Tamer or supporting a company with questionable values.

And finally, this may seem like a silly point. It is clear that orders are processed and packed by a human being. I know this because when I order a bunch of stuff, my items are packed into “outfits.” Say I have two bras, two shirts, a pair of shorts, and a pair of capris? They will be in two envelopes, one top/bra/bottom in each, color coordinated. Personally, I think that’s pretty cool!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some new workout clothes to toss in the washing machine.

In Closing: one young lady’s solution to child marriage; blah blah Snowden NSA privacy snooping et cetera; Her Majesty; fighting among ourselves?. See you all next time.

A Weighty Subject

Ok, I know it’s February. Those of you that are sticking to your plans to do something towards making yourself healthier this year, good on you.

Somebody accidentally put The Truth in a research article:

The risk of cardiovascular disease death increases exponentially as you increase your consumption of added sugar.

Here’s the abstract; here’s related commentary. Among the findings are that 71% of American adults get more than 10% of their calories from added sugars and about 10% of American adults get 25% of their calories from added sugars — not naturally occurring sugars like you’d find in a wide variety of foods, but added sugar that is only there because somebody put it there. All this sugar “has been linked to the development of high blood pressure, increased triglycerides (blood fats), low HDL (good) cholesterol, fatty liver problems, as well as making insulin less effective in lowering blood sugar.” Further, in the words of one of the authors, “Added sugars do one of two things — they either displace nutritious foods in the diet or add empty calories.”

Now what is that thing I’ve said before? Oh yes: “every weight loss diet that works demands that you sharply limit — if not completely eliminate — added sugars from your diet.”

Gee, do you suppose this could at least partly explain the obesity epidemic?

Unfortunately, this isn’t the only weighty research that’s come out this week. It turns out that many parents don’t see overweight children for what they are! In fact, some of them think their normal weight boys are too skinny! This is actually a “review article“, which means they looked at the results of a whole bunch of other research studies (69 of them, in this case). It doesn’t take yet one more study to show that if Mom and Dad don’t see Junior’s weight as a problem, they aren’t going to do anything about it.

Cut the sugar: don’t even buy candy, cookies, cake, or sugary sodas. Take a realistic look at your kids, and then yourself. Maybe it’s time for more veggies and less of everything else.

In Closing: Affordable Care Act; Plague; your dose of NSA, privacy, spying, Snowden, and related links; Stray Dog Strut; $0.77; I think they like the status quo of cheap exploitable workers who will never be able to vote against them; poverty; and preventing unwanted pregnancy prevents abortions. Who knew!

Spinal Reflexes and Brain Dead People

In a recent post, I mentioned having learned that “There’s an area of your brain that handles a reflex to turn your head and look before you even form the question ‘What was that streak of orange and roaring noise?'” While this is true, it’s a relatively complicated reflex. There are some reflexes so important that they are completed before any message is sent to the brain at all! A good example of this is pulling back from something that hurts you. You’ve already reacted to the hot pan in your hand or the LEGO you stepped on in the dark before you ever think “Ow!”

One way this was demonstrated in lab was with a short film of a frog that had been “pithed.” It used to be done commonly in some science classes but by watching the film, it didn’t have to be repeated in every lab, every semester. The college saves money, fewer frogs die, we still learn. This procedure does render the frog brain dead: the parts of the frog that say “Heart, beat!” or “Lungs, breathe!” still work; the parts that say “I’m hungry” or “I like lily pads” or “Ow!” are gone. Over the course of this short film, we watched the frog react to painful stimuli using nothing more than spinal reflexes (regrettably, I can’t find a Youtube clip in English that demonstrates well). We were reminded by the narrator several times that the frog is not feeling anything, is not “trying” to do anything. The parts of the brain that feel or try were gone. It’s just reflexes.

At the end, the lab instructor — an older lady who had initially trained as a nurse in Brittain’s Army — told us that we needed to remember this film because those of us going into patient care were likely to someday encounter brain dead patients and their families, and their families would be desperate to attribute reflex movements to improvement in their condition. In fact, she remembers that the first time she saw these reflexes in person, “It scared the bejabbers out of me!”

And this brings me to the sad story of Jahi McMath. Last month, tonsil surgery went wrong for Jahi. She experienced severe bleeding, cardiac arrest, and brain death. She is currently on a ventilator — the part of her brain that would say “Lungs, breathe!” doesn’t work anymore either. The brain death was confirmed by no fewer than 5 licensed physicians, 3 of whom were selected by the girl’s family. She’s actually been declared dead. Nevertheless, the family has hopes that she will get better and wants her transferred to another facility. One doctor says he thinks the girl is not brain dead because “he visited Jahi’s bedside and observed her responding to her grandmother’s voice and touch with a squirming movement.”

Now, I’m not a neurologist, but I think I’ll take the word of multiple neurologists and other doctors over the word of one pediatrician who thinks he saw something that can be explained by simple spinal reflexes.

Talks to allow transfer this unfortunate young lady to another facility are ongoing at this moment. In the highly emotional words of the hospital’s lawyer: “It’s horrible that this child has died. It’s also horrible that it’s so difficult for her family to accept that death.”

In Closing: pre-employment credit checks; college education; sequestration; “reality” TV; deliberately hard maybe?; “Hi guys!”; Bill!; and doge.

 

An apology and explanation, of sorts

A few weeks ago, I needed to buy cat food and cat litter. I was in a little bit of a hurry that particular day, so when I found there were no carts inside the pet supply store, I did not return to the parking lot to search for one. I casually picked up a 30 pound bag of cat litter, placed a 5 pound bag of cat food on top, and briskly walked to the check-out stand.

Now, if you like humor, think about this mental image: a 4’11” redhead in full airport-walking mode carrying two heavy, bulky objects.

I didn’t think a thing of it until the cashier asked if I would like help out to my car.

So this is my apology. I’m sorry that I forget not everybody can do that. I forget that not everybody can hike themselves around 6 miles of hilly sidewalks and still be ready to do it again the next day. Unless I have house-guests to remind me, I forget that many people consider my almost-daily workouts to be “extreme” if not “crazy.” I forget that most of my classmates take the elevators up to third floor classrooms — or avoid classes in those rooms altogether! — instead of taking the stairs.

But here’s why I say it’s only an apology of sorts. I firmly believe that most people can get in pretty good shape too. In fact, almost everybody can engage in some new behavior that will at least let them be healthier next year, as long as you are actually conscious. I was not born with somehow superior genetics, I was not thin and athletic as a child. I can do many things today that I could not when I was younger because I worked at it. This is where you might say “oh sure, she must spend 3 hours a day at the gym!” Not true. Sure, I do some workout most days a week, but it does average out to less than an hour a day and most of it is in the comfort of my own home.

New Years is a time when a lot of people make empty promises to themselves to engage in new, healthier habits. I know that the overwhelming majority of these promises are empty and soon to be broken, because if it were really important, you wouldn’t wait until some magic date on the calendar. However, you’ve got a much better shot at a modest goal or three than a huge change of lifestyle so keep that in mind if you want to make changes for the better.

That said, I will still share some items that I hope will help you be healthier at the end of 2014 than you are today:

  • “If you’re a woman who thinks it’s okay to tell a skinny woman that she needs to eat a sandwich, I hope you don’t mind when that skinny woman tells you that you’re a fat ass.  Because that’s exactly the sort of shaming you’re giving her.” Don’t feel so “good” about yourself that you have to put others down.
  • If you’re going to get busy in the gym, don’t forget flexibility training. Even football players benefit from yoga. That’s right, I linked to the sports section and the world didn’t end.
  • You do have the time to cook good food, if you plan ahead.
  • Two from Tom Venuto: on attitude and predictions.
  • I still stand behind these two posts on diet and exercise.

Good luck next year. We could all use it.

In Closing: I didn’t know legless land fish existed; more researchers under the delusion that people can shop around for a hospital; another crappy ruling from another judge who doesn’t understand security vs liberty; that oughta work!; you don’t suppose income inequality and NAFTA could be related, do you?; new crypto; and a few pictures.