Gobble, Gobble

OK kids!  Time to fess up!  Thanksgiving has come and passed - did you stick to your workout plan, or did you revel in rest?  How about your food goals?  Did you make smart choices, indulging in only the "once a year" treats?  Or did you embrace gluttony as though it were a religion?

Me?  I ate well, napped voraciously and enjoyed myself to the fullest. 

Tuesday's Tip, November 24th

"To get the full value of joy, you must have someone to divide it with." - Mark Twain

Unless there's another breaking news story about the hidden dangers of movie food, I'll be taking a breather until Monday, November 30th - when I will return to you (officially) as:

• the old lady
• the better half
• the ball and chain
• the little woman
• the missus
• the battle-axe

and

• an honest woman

 

Hanes Off

6 pack abs, courtesy of a T shirt?

Yes, it's true.  Hell hath frozen over, and the pigs are flying in formation. 

Women have control top and Spanx, and now men have RipTfusion.

Billed as the Tshirt on steroids, RipTfusion (the Torso Enhancing Undershirt) is a:

"body-sculpting undershirt designed to support your core, shave inches off your belly and enhance your posture. Immediately, you will look and feel better in your clothes with a heightened sense of core consciousness.and promises to not only make you feel more confident, but to improve your posture as well".

For only $58.00 plus tax and shipping/handling, you too can hand over your self respect and trade sit-ups and supermen for a girdle.

Is anyone surprised that we're in the midst of an obesity epidemic?

Freaky Friday

Does anyone else find it incredibly amusing that the big news story this week is that movie popcorn is a "nutritional horror"? According to a U.S. study, a medium popcorn and a soft drink is virtually equivalent to eating three McDonald's quarter-pounder burgers topped with a dozen scoops of butter.  Yum.  Around the country, the caloric "cost" for a medium popcorn and a soda averaged 1200 calories and about 60 grams of fat. 

I don't care if you're a Weight Watcher, a Zoner, eat like Grok or follow Paleo guidelines - this should not be shocking news to you! 

"Who expects about 1,500 calories and three days' worth of heart-stopping fat in a popcorn and soda combo? That's the saturated fat of a stick of butter and the calories of two sticks of butter," said Jayne Hurley, (the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest organization's senior nutritionist), in a news release.

Really?  I think any person who is mindful of what they put into their mouth to expect movie theatre snacks to pack a whallop.   Crap food is crap food.  Period.  When you choose to eat it, you know you're making a crap food choice, and you make your peace with that decision.  It's part of the charm.  In and ideal world, no intelligent person walks into a movie theatre and orders a popcorn over a bag of M&Ms thinking that they're making a healthy choice.  But people are strange (remember those Snackwell's Devil's Food cookies - they were fat free, people ate them by the box full and got fat).

While I think it's great that news like this gets out to the public, it strikes me as somewhat insincere that this "news" is being treated as shocking.  It seems as though these health organizations (as well as news outlets) are pandering to the lowest common denominator, buddying up to the public, holding their (virtual) hands and saying "OMG!  I totally didn't realize this was bad for me!  Did you?  How awful!!  They've been tricking us all along!". 

We need to expect people to take an active role in their own health.  We need to expect parents to look at labels, to Google nutritional data and to be make educated choices when feeding their children.  

In today's technological age, there is no excuse for ignorance.  If you don't know, ask. 

Buy your popcorn at the movies, but know that it's a treat.  A once in a while.  Just lay off the damn butter sauce - even if it were fat free, it'd still be nasty....

Milking the Goat

What's your goat? 

In the CrossFit world, a "goat" is a movement or skill that you either a) can't do for diddly, or b) hate with a passion usually reserved for that guy in college who never asked you out, or the girl who wound up dating him.

My goat: gymnastics skills that require lower abdominal strength.  I don't have the strength, and thus I HATE attempting the movements (skin the cat, toes to bar, knees to elbows), because really - who likes to feel inadequate? 

So, saddle on up to the bar and confess your goat. 

Holidaze

It's that time of year again.  The holidays.  For some, it's a time to cherish.  Others spend 10.5 months dreading the time between New Year's and Thanskgiving.

For me, it's a toss up.  I LOVE the extra emphasis put on good times with friends and family.  Not that I ever need an excuse to throw a party or have a good time surrounded by the people I love most - but it's great to know for a fact that those times are lining up like little ducks, one by one, week after week :)  On the other hand - my diet and my training take quite the whallop! 

No matter how mindful I am, it's definitely a month of little splurges and missed workouts. 

(Little splurges x many times) - workouts = increased ICK factor.

What's a girl to do?

The solution is so simple it's almost criminal:  chill out.  Seriously - just relax!  Make good choices (homemade desserts that rock get a thumbs up, if it comes in a box - big no) and sqeeze in some movement whenever and where ever you can.  Walk one way, take the subway back (if you don't have time to walk both directions).  Mini-WODs like half Angie, or 10 minutes of Cindy can do wonders for your psyche.  Remember the Potty Pull Up?  They're back in my rotation.  Handstand holds in the hallway, walking lunges to the restroom - anywhere I can get away with it, I add just a little bit extra to my day.

Never let your diet or your training get in the way of your relationships.  There is always a compromise to be made, but make sure that you err on the side of the human equation.  Trust me - in the long run you'll see that you get more mileage from the extra dinner party than you would from the extra workout and paleo perfect day.

Tuesday's Tip, November 17th

"Victory belongs to the most persevering." - Napolean Bonaparte

Thank You!

A big thank you to everyone who came out to CrossFit LIC this past Sunday in support of Hope For the Warriors. Operation Pull For Hope was an enormous success - with your help, Gillian was able to raise over $50,000 dollars!

It was truly an honor to be there lending a hand (and my voice) for such a worthy cause.

If you have not yet donated, you still can! Simply visit the Hope For The Warriors website at any point in time to make a contribution.

Operation Pull For Hope @ CrossFit LIC

Operation Pull For Hope will be webcast live!  Log on to Gillian Mounsey's website tomorrow (November 14, 2009) at 5 pm to watch the event unfold!

There's still time to donate, and to join in and participate with a muscle-up of your own!

Ah, YouTube...

Entirely too amusing.  Be warned, potty-mouth humor:

Operation Pull For Hope is in 2 days! 

10K a Day

10,000 is a tough number to reach.

Do a Google search for 10K a day, or 10,000 steps a day, and a multitude of websites will pop up with information, training plans and the benefits of movement.  It would seem that 10K is the magic number (about 5 miles) for the average person to shoot for. 

So here's where my eye-opener came in:  Yesterday, I only managed to log in about 7500 steps.  And that was WITH bypassing the subway and walking from midtown manhattan to the lower east side for a meeting.  Rather than hitting the 5 mile mark, I was just shy of 3 miles.  Verdict:  everyday life just doesn't cut it.  In order to meet the 10K most people (unless you're a waitress, nurse, etc) will have to make a concerted effort to add more activity into their daily routine in order to meet their goal.

And the 10K is just a start.  It's a number to use a jumping point, a number for weight and fitness management.  The recommendation is that once you reach and maintain 10K a day you adjust that number as neccessary in order to affect the change you desire.  That means that if, at 10K, you are gaining weight (or holding steady if your goal is to lose weight)- add more steps.  Just as with any exercise program, the idea is to ramp up slowly - adding no more than say, 500-1000 steps per day to your average daily number. 

Granted, in the midst of marathon training you (and I) exceed these recommendations.  But it's a great thing to keep in mind for when you're not firmly ensconced in a training cycle.   If you're anything like me, without a solid training plan in place you tend to do a little bit of this, a little bit of that and a whole lot of nothing.  Instead, make a game of figuring out your magic number.  How many steps a day (or an equivalent movement) do you need to stay fit, healthy and sane?  How do your numbers stack up during your average daily routine?  How many ways can you increase that total without going to the gym?  For you and I, the gym is an easy solution.  But during the off season let's concentrate on including our families - our significant others, our pets, and our friends - the one's we neglect when that goal race is in our sights.

Being physically fit isn't going to the gym, it's going about your life.  That's what makes it sustainable. 

Tuesday's Tip, November 10th

"Go to Hope for the Warriors™ by clicking here and make a donation to Operation Pull for Hope, or the Boogeyman will come and get you." - a concerned citizen.

I told you I was going to be annoying ;)

Pulling On Heartstrings

OK kids!  Operation Pull For Hope is just 6 days away!  If you haven't done so already, I encourage you to check out Gillian's website for details and information, including a short video explaining the charity and all the work they do for our wounded veterans and their families.  And if you're local, please come out in person to support Gillian (and I) - I promise it will be fun!

I warn you, I will sound like a broken record this week - this is a message you'll hear every day :) 

Do as I Say, AND as I Do

So here's the deal - I want my dentist to have nice teeth.  My hairstylist to have good hair.  My financial advisor to be wealthy.  And I want my athletic trainers to be athletic, fit and strong. 

I'm not talking about trainers looking like bodybuilders - but I want my trainer to look FIT.  I want to trainers that look as though they practice what they preach. 

Does that make me shallow?

Picture Books

Questions for today:

1. Would you retain the services of a personal trainer who didn't have a "great body"?
2. Would you hire an athletic coach who wasn't accomplished in that given field (i.e., does a running coach need to be a BQ runner, or have multiple 100M buckles)?

Leave your thoughts in the Comments section, and tomorrow I'll expand on the subject...

Tuesday's Tip, November 3rd

"A goal without a plan is just a wish." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Cheerleading

Congratulations to everyone who ran NYC yesterday! The athlete alert service offered by NYRR sucked - I was still getting alerts this morning. Slight backlog....ever so slight :)