Posts from — January 2010

photo by migraine chick

Happy Friday!

You know those weeks when time seems to accelerate into warp speed? The ones where you wake up Friday morning and wonder how it can be the weekend so soon? Yeah, this was not one of those weeks for me. Thanks to the yo-yoing weather here, I’ve had some kind of a headache for more than three days. It took all my might not to shut my eyes at my desk this morning. I restrained myself (because that’s how you get fired, folks) but I really, really, really wanted to silence the pounding behind my eyes.

As much as I’d like to say I have wild and crazy plans for the weekend, right about now my mind is daydreaming about taking a nap. Before I pass out take a nap, I thought I’d leave you with some good reads.

Next time you’re trying to remember something really important—say, a speech or a wedding toast—take a break. Researchers found that letting the mind rest (but not sleep) after memorization helped people retain information.

If you’re a runner, check out this article on the Nike iPod sensor and Adidas’ new addition to the running gadget market.

What you eat post-workout makes a difference. A study found that snacking on a low-carb meal after an aerobic workout increased the body’s sensitivity to insulin. Insulin sensitivity is important because insulin resistance can lead to type 2 diabetes.

Maybe it’s just a quirk The Man and I share, but our household is borderline obsessed with expiration dates. (I think we both grew up with great fear of drinking sour milk. Thanks a lot Michael J. Fox in Life With Mikey.) This article explains the difference between “sell by” and “use by” dates plus when you should trash expired food.

It may look a little goofy, but I will definitely be trying this stretch ASAP.

Anyone else a stuffed-up mess thanks to indoor allergens like dust and pet dander? Check out this article for tips on controlling allergens in your home.

Before I drown my headache in a bottle of Excedrin sweat my headache off at the gym, tell me: What are your weekend plans?

photo by 802

The first time I heard about barefoot running, I wondered what type of crazy person would trade running shoes for roughed-up heels. It wasn’t just vanity talking (though, OK, my desire for soft, smooth heels did play a role in my skepticism). It was my concern for the general well-being of these runners—especially the city folk.

Bare feet + concrete + shards of glass + a hypodermic needle here and there does not = safe running. Still, over the past year or so I’ve read a lot of firsthand stories saying barefoot running is to exercise what eating locally is to nutrition. Or something like that.

Well, today a study was published that says, “Not so fast. Running sans shoes may be better after all.” In today’s issue of the journal Nature, Harvard researchers who studied runners’ gaits report that 75 percent of people who run in shoes land on their heels first. People who run barefoot strike the ground with the balls of their feet first, which generates less force on impact. According to the researchers, all of this is important because more than 30 percent of runners are injured every year—and those injuries arise thanks to problems in the foot or lower leg.

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photo by tomas

This morning I woke up 20 minutes before I needed to. Nope, I’m not becoming a morning person; the towel hook in my bathroom finally unstuck itself. I woke up to an echoing ka-plunk at 6:15 a.m. and, naturally, the first thing I thought was that someone was breaking into my apartment. Of course.

(In my defense, in an apartment building I lived in about a year ago, my neighbors across the hall were beaten with a hammer when their apartment was broken in to. Yes, they were OK. No, we no longer live there. Thus explains my anxiety.)

After checking the place, shaking myself out of early morning grogginess, and realizing our weak little towel hook was to blame, I slid back under the warm covers.

“This would be the perfect time to do some early-morning yoga,” I thought. I always envy those people who can wake up early to exercise and stretch before the day begins. They seem so awake, so centered, so fit.

And then I fell back asleep.

So far, the research hasn’t chosen a side in the workout debate. Some people claim morning exercisers are more likely to stick to their fitness plan. Once the day gets going, we’re more likely to let other tasks, chores, or distractions come between us and our workout. Others say muscles perform better in the late afternoon or early evening. And still others say exercise is best whenever you can fit it in—during the wee hours of the morning (that’s anywhere from 4 to 9 a.m. to me), afternoon, evening, or night.

I’ve never been to the gym before 9 a.m. but I’d like to wager that most people are like me, the squeeze-it-in-after-work-and-before-your-stomach-eats-itself-for-dinner type. I believe this because the gym is packed like a Jonas Brothers concert every night at 5 or 6 p.m.

Still, I have a nagging desire to become this crazy morning person who wakes up at 4 a.m., does some yoga, maybe cardio and strength training every other day, eats breakfast while reading the news, does a little cleaning, and gets ready for the day. All before I’d normally be pressing snooze for the fifth time. (Sigh.)

All right folks, this tired blogger is signing off. It’s time to whip up a quick dinner before I bake some oatmeal breakfast cookies. (Apparently these have escaped my oatmeal boredom.) I cribbed liberally from The Fitnessista’s recipe, though I cool mine in the fridge, roll them into balls, then bake in the oven until they’re crisp. I make a batch that lasts half a week. This week’s add-ins to the oats/milk/protein powder mix: almond butter (of course) with a few chocolate chips, and apples and cinnamon.

Before you go, lemme know: When do you like to exercise? Does the time of day you exercise make a difference to how hard you work out or what type of exercise you do?

photo by hckyso

What a day. As you can tell—hello 9:30 p.m. post—it’s been a crazy day. Since I’m running on empty (and ready a clinical study right now sounds about as fun as poking my eye with toothpicks) I’ve decided to give you the speed reader version of my day. I promise I’ll be back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow, so in the mean time I hope you enjoy. And when I say that, I mean I hope you’re not wildly disappointed with me.

Without further ado, here are seven things you should know about me:

1. I still have a case of the Mondays. And it’s Tuesday. It all started yesterday when the fluctuating temperatures set off a massive headache. I felt it in my eyes some time around lunchtime and didn’t get rid of it until I fell asleep.

2. A week ago, I was the only blogger in all of the Internet that had never tried almond butter. I’m sure of it. But thanks to a giant jar from Costco I’ve not only tried it but I’ve also become addicted. I’ve yet to try it in every single meal (what do you expect, it’s only been a week!) but I’m working my way up. Your recipe suggestions are welcome. Hint. Hint.

3. I’m a biking machine. I’ve been ridiculously focused while biking lately. No TV. No distractions. I just slide in my earplugs, focus on my legs’ motion, and try to keep the pace as high as I can. What do you all do on the bike, treadmill, or elliptical—read, watch TV, or focus on your movement?

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photo from bosu

Before my last round of physical therapy, I had never used a Bosu ball. I had seen them littering the gym’s weight room from time to time, but I assumed they were glorified steps. And I’m not a step aerobics kinda girl.

Halfway through my PT tour, my therapist brought out the Bosu and forced me to do all sorts of crazy things on it. I say crazy because any exercise that involves coordination is crazy to me. (Yep, I’m a clutz.) But improving my balance is one of the keys to my rehab, so I complied.

And wouldn’t ya know it was quite challenging. Instead of doing one-legged squats on a step, I did them on the Bosu and engaged all of my leg’s muscles—plus my core. I learned that exercises on the Bosu better emulate how our muscles are used in real life. Oh, and I also learned that doing anything on the Bosu is about 10 times harder.

When I joined my gym last summer I was excited to see they stockpiled Bosu balls. Maybe they are for a Bosu revolution. Maybe people at my gym are really unbalanced. I don’t know. Either way, I’ve been using it regularly, and I can see my balance improving. Sure, I still stub my toes constantly and walk into walls, yelling, “Who put that there!?” Baby steps.

Well, now that the whole New Year’s Resolution club has taken over my gym, I’ve been missing out on my Bosu activities. And then The Man did something crazy.

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photo by greekadman

Strangers are underrated. Hear me out.

Sure, they drive slow when you’re late for work, cut to the front of a long line when you’ve been waiting for 20 minutes, and forget to say thanks when you hold the door for them. (You know who you are.) But sometimes they surprise you.

The other day at the gym, I decided to try a new exercise I saw on ESPN.

(If you know me, you probably think I’m joking right now. I spend most of my time begging The Man to switch it to any other channel. But it was on, and the station was running some footage of an athlete—see, I don’t even know what sport he plays!—doing physical therapy for a knee injury. So I rewound it and watched him do the move again. So there you have it. Me + ESPN.)

Anyhow, the other day I wanted to try the move. It’s a modified version of the assisted squat I do with an exercise ball. Usually I just sandwich the ball between my back and a wall then use a single leg to squat down. ESPN squats (I just coined that. Watch for the trademark) use a resistance band looped like a figure eight around the calves for extra resistance. The normal one-legged squats were getting a bit too easy for me anyhow, so I thought it was a good time to switch things up.

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Photo by it’s life
Put a sweater on that girl!

Ah, winter. The season of inconvenient snowstorms, whipping winds, and booger icicles on all the good little boys and girls. What’s not to love?

Hmm, lemme try: A record snowfall killed my pre-Christmas holiday plans with The Man’s family. The air is so cold it makes my eyes water and keeps me locked up indoors like Rapunzel. The sun sets before I ever leave work for the day. Oh, and my knuckles look like I got in a fight with a concrete wall. (Wall: 1; Me: 0)

Yep, I’m talking about dry winter skin. If you don’t have it, you spend the months of December to April somewhere annoyingly warm and sunny like Arizona, California, Hawaii, or anywhere in the Caribbean. (No, I’m not jealous. Really. Swear.)

For the rest of us, icy air + forced heat = red, flaky, sandpaper skin. Sounds sexy, huh? Here are a few ways to fight back:

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photo by Andrew Gombert/EPA; Jason Merritt/Getty Images via t magazine blog

Ever have one of those moments where you think you’re taking crazy pills but you realize those were just your vitamins and, yes, you’re really going insane? That’s kind of how I felt today when I read this post from the New York Times magazine blog:

Maybe it’s just me, but I could have sworn that some of the ladies who showed up at the Golden Globes on Sunday had put on a little weight. It’s almost criminal to name names, because the very actresses whose body-mass indexes have been the subject of endless tabloid speculation are the very ones now sporting sexier curves. You could definitely see the difference if you concentrated solely on the upper arms. Instead of a Barbie-doll circumference, there was suddenly, amazingly, a womanly roundness to their frames. More Marilyn than Twiggy, that’s for sure.

As for those unmentionable actresses, I can’t be certain exactly who she was talking about. But she did have a photo of Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, and Courtney Cox above the post. Right, they’re downright hefty. That’s usually what comes to mind when I think of Jennifer Aniston. In fact, just the other day I saw her in a magazine the other day, and I thought, “Boy, I’m glad I don’t look like that!”

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Photo by lululemon athletica

I always knew there was a good, scientific reason I should get back into yoga. Not just because it’s a darn good workout that’ll make you sweat and shake. Not because it stretches out too-tight muscles. And not because it makes you lean and lithe like Gwyneth Paltrow. Those don’t hurt.

But there’s another incentive. A study published in the most recent issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine found that regular yoga practice may reduce blood levels of a compound that causes inflammation. Let me back up…

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photo by pedrosimoes7

This morning I woke up, just like every other morning, exhausted and cursing the rising sun. I need a lot of sleep, and that doesn’t really jibe with the whole 9-to-5 thing going on at work. Still, even though I can’t get the nine (or more) hours my body says it needs, I try to at least snooze for seven or eight.

Well, a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says getting sleep may do more than help you put a coherent sentence together before 10 a.m. German researchers who studied the eating and sleeping habits of 15 men learned that after a couple nights of getting four hours of sleep, the men were less physically active—and worked out at a lower intensity—than they did when they logged eight hours. The finding that shocked the researchers: the tired men didn’t eat more.

Personally, I don’t think sleep affects how much I move around during the day or whether I give my all during a workout. Eating like absolute crap, on the other hand, tends to have an effect on my physical activity. It’s kind of like this: I’ll eat an unhealthy lunch. Then I’ll give in to a major sugar craving. Then I’ll whine and moan about going to the gym. I put it off till tomorrow. Open bag of chips. Dig in.

When I’m eating healthier, I’m more likely to stick to my gym mission. Now, whether I eat less healthy on days when I’m exhausted and groggy…? That’s another study for another group of Germans.

How about you: Does sleep affect your activity level? Or, like me, does something else?