Posts filed under 'Uncategorized'
December 9th, 2008
Lucky us. We’ve gotten our third — or is it fourth, already — blast of snow, and enough cold weather to make sure there is plenty of ice to go along with it.
This can put a real chill on outdoor workouts unless you don’t mind adapting to the conditions. And outdoor activities in winter can burn some serious calories while doing wonders for shaping and strengthening legs and glutes.
Here are some examples of calorie expenditures per hour for winter activities using a calculator found at www.fitday.com/webfit/exerciseinfopage.html and my information of 5-foot-9, 185 pounds and 60 years of age:
Ice skating (general) 423
Cross-country skiing (moderate speed 4-4.9 MPH and effort) 494
Downhill skiing (moderate effort) 353
Sledding, tobogganing, bobsledding or luging 423
Snowshoeing 494
Moving an ice house (including setup and drilling) 353
Snowmobiling 176
Of course, running and maybe even bicycling aren’t impossible in the snow. You could think of winter activities as seasonal cross-training.
November 19th, 2008
I’ve recently become a fan of audio-book adaptations of novels by James Patterson.
In one of them — it might be Roses are Red — he quotes a character as saying something to the effect that the properly prepared white meat of a turkey is too good to be enjoyed only twice a year. I agree and here are some facts about that bird you’re about to dig into on Thursday.
Four ounces of turkey — a serving slightly larger than a deck of cards — has about 214 calories and provides about 65 percent of the recommended daily value for protein with about half the saturated fat of red meat. It’s also a good source of selenium, niacin, vitamin B6 and phosphorous.
It’s also an excellent source of tryptophan, which other than overstuffing yourself, may explain why Thanksgiving dinner makes you sleepy.
Enjoy.
November 1st, 2008
Partly because they have what must be the best public relations plan in the universe, it was pretty hard to miss that October was National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Of course, it was also American Pharmacy, Health Literacy, Dental Hygiene, Vegetarian Awareness and 13 other health-related awareness months.
November is, for the sake of making a point, 12 different kinds of health awareness months but two of the biggies — Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness and American Diabetes Awareness — have something very much in common. That would be more and more evidence that they are tied in with increased obesity.
Tips for avoiding both diseases are practically identical. They include eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, particularly greens and orange vegetables; avoiding saturated and trans fats; eating foods high in Omega-3 oils; eating more whole grains and legumes, and avoiding too much sugar, among other things.
At least for this month, then, maybe you could think about cutting back to avoid these diseases.
Cutting 250 calories per day (the equivalent of a couple of cookies, a bagel or one and a half cans of sugared soda) out of your diet per day would save 1,750 calories per week. Add a brisk half-hour walk to burn about another 250 calories per day and you could be looking at a four-pound weight loss by the time December rolls around. Â
October 24th, 2008
You’d never know to watch me do it, but dancing is one of my favorite forms of exercise.
My wife and I have taken lessons (more or less successfully) all over town, but now we — and you, if you’re a member of the YMCA of Rock River Valley — have a new place to dance. The YMCA’s downtown branch will be holding swing and ballroom dance lessons for seven Friday nights from  Nov. 7 through Dec. 19.
Swing runs from 7 to 8 p.m. and ballroom goes from 8 to 9 p.m.
Lynne Istad, the Y’s adult health and fitness director, is organizing the class and will be among the students, along with her husband Mike. She’s excited to be offering a somewhat different exercise program — especially since dancing can burn up to about 200 calories an hour for a 150-pound person.
“Dance is an awesome exercise and it’s so much fun,” Istad said. “You work on coordination but also body awareness, spacing and posture. It challenges you in a cardiovascular way without having to put on sweatpants and sneakers.”
The classes will be taught by Marla Kols and Paul Marek who, Istad said, “get paid big bucks all over town to teach, so we’re very lucky to have them.”
The cost for the seven-week class is $70 per couple and registration is required. Istad said registration will be available online at www.rockfordymca.org and the Y takes telephone registrations at 815-489-1252.
 Call 815-489-1290 for more information.
October 15th, 2008
Ben Rubendall, a former business editor here at the Register Star, once offered the opinion that people in our newsroom would eat anything.
Actually, what he said was, “You could leave a plate of lightly salted cow chips out in the newsroom and people would eat them.”
I thought of Ben’s assertion when I was covering a story about raw food preparation as part of a healthy eating lifestyle. The subject of the story, Brenda Richter, was kind enough to prepare four dishes — much more than I asked for to be able to write the story — and insisted on offering samples.
I tried some of each dish — a soup with cucumbers, spinach, avocado, cilantro, orange juice, garlic and other spices; a kale salad with raisins and pine nuts; zucchini with marinara sauce, and a flourless chocolate cake — and, while I wasn’t used to all of the combinations, they were dishes I would eat again. But, as someone who went through the CHIP program and who will still follow an all or mostly vegetarian diet once or twice a week, I wasn’t the best test for Brenda’s fare.
I decided that the people Ben Rubendall said would eat anything (their successors anyway) were a far better test. I mean our newsroom actually has a table designated as “the donut desk”, the site of an almost endless succession of cakes, cookies, candies and, yes, the Friday Morning Donut Club’s offerings.
So I put Brenda’s food on the donut desk — it didn’t collapse from the totally foreign fare — and asked samplers to tell me what they thought.
Here are some of the responses:
“Soup: Depite the off-putting Christmas-tree color, the cilantro flavor in the soup triumphs, and it’s got a welcome bit of a zing to it. The consistency is too smooth. Would rather have bit into the cucumbers and avocados, instead of drinking those veggies down.”
“The cake tastes kind of wheat-y at first, but you can tell it’s supposed to be chocolate. The texture was more brownie or torte than cake – but I like it! Any idea what’s in it?”Â
“The veggie was bland. The chocolate cake was OK. I like the zucchini.”
“I vote thumbs up on all but the green soup.”
Now, remember, these are people whose four main food groups are fat, sugar, grease and chips, so I’d say Brenda came off pretty well against a pretty tough audience.
The story comes out next week. Give it a look if you’re interested in getting more veggies in your diet.
  Â
October 9th, 2008
It was kind of like old home week for me a couple of days ago when I covered an event at the Comprehensive Heart Improvement Project (CHIP) office.
I went through the CHIP program for the purpose of writing stories and my health — a heart scan had revealed a serious plaque burden in my arteries a few months earlier — back in 2000 and it was nice to hear the stories of reductions in risks for heart attack, diabetes and other killer diseases again.
CHIP has had great success promoting a vegan diet — I can’t tell you the number of times during the four-week course that I actually dreamed that I was eating a steak, and then there was the time I almost grabbed a concession-stand hamburger out of a guy’s hand while I was covering a Lightning game — so I was surprised and pleased when Dr. Roger Greenlaw, one of the people responsible for bringing CHIP to Rockford, sort of strayed from the program’s straight and narrow during his presentation that day.
“I don’t personally feel that a person has to be vegan to be optimally healthy,” Greenlaw said, “but what I do believe is that we have, on the one extreme, is nachos, cheese and soda as a diet and vegan at the other extreme. People have to go as far as they need to go (between the extremes) to get healthy.”
I liked this idea because, while I don’t adhere strictly to CHIP anymore, I do still try to consume a lot of fruits and vegetables almost every day and most of my favorite recipes are vegetarian — something that makes me less than popular at the Register Star’s holiday potlucks.
The idea also fits in with something we were talking about here during a healthyrockford.com story meeting — which is that, keeping in mind that it’s not a diet but a lifestyle, a person should eat for the way they feel comfortable living.
If they want to eat anything they want when they want it, that’s fine as long as they are willing to live with the consequences, whether that is something as serious as a diminished quality of life or just realizing that they won’t be relishing the onset of swimsuit season. If they want razor-clean arteries, less chance of having a heart attack than the Cubs and White Sox squaring off in a World Series and a trimmer physique, then CHIP has a proven track record along those lines.
But, wherever a person falls between Dr. Greenlaw’s diet extremes, it should be the spot where they are happy.
September 23rd, 2008
It’s the first full day of fall, a time of year I like a lot more now that I no longer live on a three-quarter acre lot crowded with mature oaks and elms.
The motion of raking leaves isn’t very different from the push-pulls you would perform if you were doing a chest and lats workout in the gym. In addition, a pile of leaves, especially wet ones, can be surprisingly heavy so some warm-up stretches might be in order to keep falling leaves from dropping you on the doctor’s doorstep.
Start by slowly rotating your shoulders in a windmilling fashion, kind of like an old-time pitcher winding up or one of those flying duck yard ornaments. Rotate in both directions. Follow this up by reaching across your chest — right hand as far across to the left as you can, left hand as far as possible to the right.
Stretch your hamstrings and lower back by placing one foot against a low step, keeping the knee straight but not locked out and reaching forward to touch the toe, if possible. Switch feet and repeat.
If you’re going to be lifting heavy loads, you should squat down — not bend over at the waist — bring the load as close to you as necessary to get a good grip on it and then stand up with the load.
Pay attention to keeping yourself safe and a weekend on the lawn shouldn’t leave you aching when you return to the desk job on Monday morning.
September 19th, 2008
Rockford runners and cyclists are fortunate to have a pretty good system of recreation paths that provide them with limited exposure to vehicular traffic while they exercise.
But, as daylight gets shorter again, more of our runs and rides — not to mention bicycle commutes to work — are going to be done in the dark. So it’s a good idea to give drivers at least an even shot at seeing us before we become a hood ornament.
Get lit — Light up your workout with reflective clothing — virtually every major manufacturer makes it — front and back. You could also pin cheap reflectors that you can get at any hardward store to your workout gear. If nothing else, wear white or light-colored clothing or you could carry a small flashlight. I noticed a cyclist wearing a clip-on light on his headgear this morning.
Be appropriate for traffic — Pedestrians are supposed to face oncoming traffic, so run in the left lane facing the cars. Cyclists are subject to the Illinois Rules of the Road, the same as an automobile, and should ride on the right.
Can the music — I like my iPod, but if I’m running in the dark in a place where I need to be alert for cars, it stays on the charger. Yours should too.
Find a partner — Not only is having a partner good for motivation when dark also means cold and nasty, but it means an extra pair of eyes to keep alert for traffic.
The Rockford Road Runners circuit already has two races devoted to the memories of former members who were hit by cars. They don’t need a third.
September 15th, 2008
I’ll probably never get this “appearing on TV” thing down, but my attempt to illustrate a golf conditioning exercise during Monday night’s 5 o’clock news was particularly wretched.
So, if you were subjected to it, one, I apologize and, two, here is what I meant to say.
The golf swing, like any other sports performance, is a matter of balance, strength and flexibility. To break it down simply, it’s a shoulder rotation around a stable head.
Almost every muscle in the body plays some role in the golf swing, but the power comes mostly from the core muscles — rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, and obliques.
One of my favorite golf conditioning exercises — and you’d never guess from Monday’s disaster that I actually have a certification as a golf conditioning specialist – is a simple ball toss to a wall.
To perform it, you hold a ball in front of you as if it were your golf club and take your normal golf stance. Stand at a 90-degree angle to a wall and imitate your full golf swing, from backswing to follow through, letting the ball go at the time in your swing that you would be striking a golf ball. The ball should hit the wall and bounce back to you.
Perform a set of about 10 to 12 repetitions and then turn around and do the exercise in reverse (if you’re a right-handed golfer, turn around and perform it as if you were a left-handed golfer).
If you’re not already a regular exerciser, you could start with a volleyball or a soccer ball (deflate it a little so it doesn’t come rebounding off the wall and smack you in the face, you just want it to bounce once or twice before you catch it). After you progress, you will want to use a small medicine ball — you shouldn’t need anything heavier than a four to six-pound ball.
Perform three to four sets of 10 to 12 repetitions in each direction two to three times a week in the off-season and you should see an improvement next year.
One more thing, make sure the wall is something strong like cement or brick unless you need another home repair project.
August 26th, 2008
Several of my friends have recently gotten into the habit of doing all their training while wearing heart-rate monitors.
This allows them to make sure they are training at a safe level and to push themselves to a great workout at the same time. Generally, effective training takes place between 55 percent and 90 percent of one’s maximum heart rate, depending on your objective. But training at the high end, say in the 75 to 90 percent range, all the time would break down even the toughest exercisers fairly quickly.
The easiest way to figure your maximum heart rate (there are more complicated and more precise ones) is to subtract your age from 220. For a 50-year-old, that’s a maximum heart rate of 170.
Knowing their maximum heart rate, then, allows them to find a percentage of that number and train at a level that allows them to train for long periods of time while still making fitness gains. They use the monitor to keep themselves at that level.
As their body adapts over time and their fitness improves, they will be faster and stronger but that heart rate will stay just about the same and they will have less chance of injury.
Next Posts
Previous Posts
