Monthly Archives: January 2012

Motivation Monday

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You are not your best self.

How’s that for motivation, eh?

And I’m not my best self either. BUT there is nothing wrong with that. Because if you were already the best you could be, what the heck would you be doing every day? What would you be working towards?

How do you get to be your best self? There is always work to be done, always something to improve upon from the day before.

So what can you do today?

Smile at one more stranger today.

If this dude can smile, so can you.

Do 1 more rep today. 

Read one more article today. 

Tell one more person you love them today.

Do one more person a favor today. 

Get up and move one more time today. 

No need to go all Kevin Bacon, although a spontaneous dance mid-workday might be pretty awesome.

Make someone ELSE smile one more time today. 

I challenge you to do ONE thing today to become better than you were yesterday. As soon as you think you have done your best, do something more, even if it seems insignificant to you.

If you do one small thing to better yourself every single day, do you know how much that adds up over the next month, the next year?

What will YOU do to make yourself better today? 

Cardio Woes

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I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

 

 

I hate running.

Didn't mean to shock you.

I hate it. I HATE RUNNING. There, I said it. I have spent a good portion of my adult years really trying to become “a runner”. There was actually even a point in time when I did love it, although that only lasted about a year or two. There is something lovely about a good run along the Charles River on a perfectly crisp spring day, but other than that, I think it’s the pits.  And you know what? That’s OK with me.  I have had a love-hate roller coaster with running for about 10 years now, but I believe that I’ve finally come to terms that I fall heavily on the hate side, rather than the love.

And it’s not really the running that I hate, it’s the steady repetition of it all; that feeling of working so hard but moving so. slow.

(Because let’s face it, I’ve never been fast).

Put me on a hill and tell me to do 10 repeats, and I’m all yours. Set the treadmill up to a 10% incline and tell me to do sprint intervals, Heck Yea! Bring me to Harvard Stadium and ask me to run stadium sprints, and I’m on cloud 9.  I’ll run those stadiums until I can hardly stand on my shaking-like-jelly legs. Hill training and HIIT (high intensity interval training) make me happy, which is the  opposite effect of slow, steady-state jogging. Why does this matter?

Most fitness blogs and websites will show a lot of love to HIIT training, including me. The gains that you will get from HIIT are potentially more than you will get from steady state cardio, depending on the intensity, duration, and frequency. However, I think that as in all other things in life, there is a need for balance. Steady state cardio will definitely help you with your  endurance if you do, say, decide to haphazardly sign up for an impromptu road race. Steady state cardio is also a great way to have a recovery day for tired, overworked muscles.

This is my biggest problem. Because I know that I need balance, I do try to do some steady-state cardio at least once per week, although that has proven to be extremely hard for me over the past few months. Take yesterday, for example. I needed some recovery time for my legs after a tough squat day on Monday, so I hopped on the treadmill and was going to do a steady-state recovery jog. After 20 minutes, however, I got so bored that I almost couldn’t take it anymore. Now, I do realize that cardio is NOT meant to entertain me, but I don’t generally enjoy doing things that are pure mental torture.

So, on I went, cranking up that incline after 20 minutes and spending the last 10 minutes doing hill intervals.  Was this bad for me? Ultimately, no, (especially after my ridiculous food intake during the Pats game this weekend) but I do think that I need to just suck it up and keep it slow sometimes, for balance, and to keep my endurance in check.

After all, there is ONE type of running that I love and I do need to train for, if I expect to totally Dominate come June:

Yep, that’s me! New England Warrior Dash 2011

As long as my runs are broken up by fire, cargo nets, mud pits and other obstacles, I’m game. Maybe if I could get someone to plant dangerous obstacles in my path I could get through a run on my own without extreme boredom.

What about you? Does anyone Love Cardio? Does anyone love steady-state but hate HIIT?? How much cardio do you do per week?

The Truth About Fat – Part Deux

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Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a weekend that was as fantastic as mine. Mine was so super-fantastic, that I’m less rested than I was going into the weekend. Ah, such is life. Oh, and can I get a little Hoo-Rah for the Pats, even though they got a wee bit lucky at the end there? Ok, on to today’s post…

After writing this post about a week ago, I realized that I needed to go into more detail about fat, especially concerning the uber-villainized saturated fat, which has gotten so much bad press over the past couple of decades that it has pretty much turned into a bad word. This is completely unfair if you ask me, because saturated fat actually does some pretty great things. No, it doesn’t save kittens from trees, or rescue puppies from burning buildings, but it does have it’s own positive attributes that are definitely worth noting.  Let’s discuss.

When did saturated fat start taking the blame for heart disease? And why? The answer goes back to the 1950s, when Dr. Ancel Keys noticed a correlation between countries that consume more dietary fat and higher risk of coronary artery disease (CAD). However, his research showed exactly that: A correlation. Not a definitive cause-effect relationship. Either way, the thought caught on, the government rolled with it, and as I mentioned in the earlier post, fat instantly became a villain of American Health.  And you know what? His theory still hasn’t been proven. In fact, there are several studies within the past 10 years that have been trying to prove this, but they can’t.

One particularly large study called the Women’s Health Initiative, showed no decrease in heart disease in 20,000 women who consumed a low total-fat and saturated-fat diet for 8 years.  While of course one study is not enough to make a definitive answer, there have been others like it, such as the long-term Framingham Study, which has also failed to prove that saturated fat is directly linked to heart disease. What is known is that heart disease is not caused by one thing alone; it is multifactorial. Diet, lack of exercise, stress, smoking, among other things are all indicators of risk. So with all of these factors, is saturated fat really the biggest enemy?

It has long been thought that eating saturated fats raises your cholesterol levels, and that this is what leads directly to heart disease. The research in the past decade, however, has failed to prove this point entirely. Let’s break it down a little bit.

You have two main types of blood cholesterol that we are concerned about when it comes to heart disease: LDL and HDL. While yes, LDL or “bad” cholesterol contributes to arterial plaque buildup, HDL or “good” cholesterol is thought to help take that buildup away.  What the research has shown us is that it is not so much the levels of LDL that are important in determining risk of CAD, but much more important is the ratio between LDL and HDL (a low LDL:HDL ratio decreases your risk).  It is  true that consuming saturated fat increases your blood cholesterol levels, but what’s really important here is that when you eat a steak (or cheese, or whole milk, etc.) you are raising your levels of LDL but you are also raising your levels of HDL the same amount, if not more.  Now, I’m no math whiz, but when it comes to ratios, doesn’t that mean that you actually come out dead even, or maybe even a little bit on top?

When it comes to heart health, the more HDL cholesterol your body has, the better. And you know what?  HDL comes from eggs, cheese, butter, red meat, and other animal products. All of those things that contain saturated fats and are supposedly bad for you.

Here’s the kicker: It has even been suggested that the heart’s preferred source of fuel is saturated fatty acids.

BOOM! Just blew your mind, didn’t I.

 

So what’s my message here? Surprisingly, it’s not to go out and eat a diet consisting 100% of bacon blue-cheese burgers (although quite delicious). I’m not saying that we should all gorge ourselves on saturated fat in order to keep our hearts healthy, because that’s certainly not the answer either. I’m just saying that Saturated Fat doesn’t have to be the enemy.  The recommended daily amount of saturated fat was recently lowered from 10% to 7% for Americans.  As I see it, research has shown us that this is not completely  necessary, and as long as you keep your macros and daily calorie total in check, then you’ll be all set. Look at it this way: If you follow a low-fat diet full of highly refined carbohydrates, don’t exercise, and smoke a pack a day, you’d better bet that you’d be a better candidate for CAD than someone with a higher fat diet. Now, clearly there are some cases where people who have advanced heart disease need to be more careful with their SF and cholesterol intake. But for most  active, healthy people, saturated fat can absolutely have a place in a healthy, well-rounded diet. It’s all about balance, folks. And that’s the truth.

*Note: Here is a link to a good post by Cassandra Forsyth, summarizing a conference in which this subject was discussed. It’s also the source of one of the photos above :)

A moment of self pity

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I’m a generally healthy person. I eat relatively well, I spend a good amount of quality time in the gym,  and I take care of my overall health pretty well. I have a great job and my life is cruising along pretty smoothly if I do say so myself.  However, there are certain days when my overactive female brain makes me feel like this:

Take this past weekend, for example. While getting dressed for work, I put on a pair of pants and realized that they were just too tight for work. Now, instead of just accepting that   my recent holiday eating habits and 2 weeks away from the gym had resulted in this minor fitting issue, I went into some sort of rage blackout.

Self Portrait.

Before I knew it, 80% of my closet was strewn across the bed and I was 100% convinced that I owned NOTHING that I could wear to work that day. Logically speaking, I am well aware that a small fluctuation in weight (probably a pound or two)  is virtually unnoticeable to others, and also very easily corrected, usually within a week or so. (I’m also aware that I own way too many clothes, and of course I have something to wear). However, in that very moment when my extreme emotional sensitivity kicked in, my brain went through something like this:

WHY DOESNT ANYTHING FIT I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR NOTHING EVER LOOKS GOOD ON ME WHY ARE MY LEGS SO BIG WHERE DID THIS ASS COME FROM F*&% S#%* I HATE EVERYTHING IN MY CLOSET THERE ARE NO PANTS IN THE WORLD THAT WILL EVER FIT ME AGAIN……… and on and on in this vicious self-loathing thought cycle.

Now, luckily I have a very supportive boyfriend who is able to talk me off of the self-pity ledge, but even then, it takes me a couple of days to break out of this sort of thinking once it starts.  And I know I’m not alone here. Why do we, as women, go through this? I am well aware of the multitude of things that can cause my weight to fluctuate a couple of pounds either way: hydration status, hormones, water retention, etc. I’m a health professional for crying out loud. My brain contains a multitude of reasons why my pants may have felt too tight and lots of sensible ways to correct this. Usually when this happens, I can just toss on another pair of pants and head out the door, but every once in a while, it’s like I get sucked into this negative-thought cycle for no good reason.

So what’s the point of this post? Honestly, I have no idea. I just wanted to let you all know that yes, even “healthy living” bloggers go through this type of S— too.  We’re all vulnerable to negative self-thoughts, and as much as I like to think that I have all of the answers, I definitely don’t. I don’t have some magical elixer that will instantly give me my confidence back when something like this happens. So the question is, What do You do? How do you correct your thinking when you’re having a Debbie-Downer, self-pitying, pants-not-fitting day? I need to come up with a game plan here. Maybe next time I’ll go the Stuart Smalley route:

Note: So what DID I do to make myself better? Come Monday morning, I went to the gym and had a killer heavy squat day. Because that is what these legs are for. And Yes, 3 days later, my pants fit just fine. I guess a rage blackout wasn’t needed after all.

Thoughts on Mindful Eating

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It seems like every time I turn around, there’s a new diet plan or diet book that is being pushed in the media as the “next big thing”. In my lifetime, I’ve seen the quick rise (and sometimes fall) of so many of these marketed diets, such as Atkins, South Beach, Zone, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, Paleo, The Cookie Diet (wtf?)… the list goes on and on. Even the government has gotten in on the fun, pushing the all-important food pyramid (or new and improved* MyPlate).

*Some would say new and improved. I’m not one of them.

I’ll admit it — some of these plans do have their merits, and if you’ve found one of these that works for you, that’s great! Weight Watchers has some great aspects to it, and I’ve had friends who have had amazing success with this plan. Dr. Atkins, while a little extreme, did in fact have a good idea when it came to carbs vs. fat. Paleo can be an extremely nutrient filled diet/lifestyle  when done correctly. However, I don’t think there’s one of these plans that can work for every. single. person. And we also have to be careful of those evil marketing scams that are masquerading as “healthy diets” such as the aforementioned Cookie Diet, and anything endorsed by the Kardashians.

I love them. I do! But diet pills are the devil.

So with all of these diet plans, why can’t we all get it right? Why can’t we all just pick one and stick with it? Maybe, and this is a BIG maybe here, it’s because it doesn’t have as much to do with “diet” per se, but more to do with the way that we eat. I came across this article the other day on cnn.com about Mindful Eating. It’s less a diet, and more a style of eating.  What they’re saying is that being mindful of the foods you eat, how full you are, how hungry you are, etc. can help people to stop overeating. Think of the French: the bread-loving, croissant obsessed, cheese fiends across the Atlantic.

Butter! Flaky, buttery pastry! Oui Oui!

Why can the French have a national diet full of butter, cheese, bread and wine, yet they have an 11% obesity rate, compared to our 33%? Some say that it may have something to do with genetics. Methinks that may play some part of it, but the other part of it most likely has to do with the way in which they eat.

Raise your hand if you regularly eat in front of the TV, or in your car, or standing over the sink. (Me Me Me!) OR if you have ever finished a meal, and not really remembered anything about eating it (Me! Pick Me!!)

That, my friends, brings us to the idea of Mindful Eating. The French, and many Europeans in general, are notorious for making food an event; an actual part of their day. Not an I’m-running-out-the-door-with-a-liquid-yogurt-in-my-hand part of their day, but a time where they sit, socialize, and enjoy their meal. They savor. They enjoy flavors, textures, aromas. They enjoy the experience.

On the contrary, many of us in our go-go-go society rarely ever take the time to sit and simply enjoy a meal. Take me, for example. I eat lunch a couple of bites at a time in between seeing patients, because I Don’t Have Time to just sit and enjoy lunch in the middle of a work day. Do you think this allows my body to become satisfied, or my brain to realize that yes, I did in fact, just eat a meal? Probably not.

Yes, the study that is cited in the Mindful Eating article is flawed, but there is something there that warrants further attention by the medical community. Can simply focusing on your food and the sensations that come with it allow you to curb overeating?  When I come home from a stressful day at work and ALL I WANT IS CHOCOLATE,

will being mindful of my emotional state and savoring a small bit of chocolate help to curb the craving and stop me from over eating? Quite possibly, according to the research.  See, I know that I’m a stress-eater, I have been my whole life. It’s just that within the past couple of years, I have learned how to control myself so that I don’t get into that habit of “dazed eating” where stuff is going in, but it could be cardboard for all of the attention I’m paying to it. I’ve learned to be more mindful.

Mindful Eating is something that I have been reading more about lately and have started incorporating into my own lifestyle, but I know that I can work harder at it. What do you guys think about mindfulness?  And I’m not just talking about diet here. If mindful eating can help people to eat healthier, can mindful living allow us to be healthier overall? I think that’s a bigger subject for another post, but in the mean time, I’ll leave you with this because it makes me smile.