Stuff Worth Noting, Again

February 11, 2010 @ 12:02 pm

More articles, news, stories, things of note from around the web and other blogs I've saved recently.

News & Science 

Couple Accused of Starving Baby So She Doesn't Get Fat (Faux News)
People are stupid. That's all I'm really going to say around this one.

Food Deserts Could Bloom if City Hall Helps (Gotham Gazette)
i should finish reading this one .

Spam E-Mail Appeals to Young, Overweight (NYT)
As a web technology practitioner, I will never understand why so many people actually click on spam. But apparently, college-aged overweight people are more apt to click on spam that promises the next great weight loss solution. My armchair psychology degree wonders if the same instant-gratification culture that helps lead to the obesity problem encourages college kids to try to instantly gratify they're desire to be thin. If Only.

Are Childhood Obesity Screening Guidelines Misguided (Dr Sharma)
We need to be careful how we address child obesity. These kids get enough humiliation everyday at school, they don't need it to be institutionalized as well. Nevertheless, we need to do something.

Mayor challenges citizens to lose weight, get fit, in town-wide Biggest Loser competition (Pasadena Star-News)
I used to live next door to Duarte - it's a beautiful little town with big sidewalks, perfect for walking around town to get fit. I hope this is a success and a model for more towns.

Tips & Tricks

What You Eat After Working Out Matters (WebMD)
Your body needs fuel after a work out or it will freak out and shut down. It needs to know that despite the fact you just ran for your life from the tiger, you don't actually need to conserve energy for future runs. But what's the best thing to eat just after working out? Not carbs. Low-carbs are best, so avoid breads and shoot for nuts or vegetables.

Inspiration

Kepa is No Longer Obese (TFLB)
Many congrats to Kepa at The Fat Lazy Guy's blog who has been trucking along in his intrepid journey to lose weight and live fit - and he just passed through the barrier between obese and overweight. Inspiration to know it is indeed possible.

1 comment | Topics: inspiration, news, stuff worth noting, tips

Dealing with Chafing

February 2, 2010 @ 01:09 pm

I'm a big guy (for now) with big thighs, a big butt, and an overhanging gut. I gots me some skin, and lots of it. And moving this 300-pound body takes no small amount of energy, and it generally results in a lot of jiggling and friction. Because I have so much fat in certain areas, I it tends to rub together. And when I'm exercising or just being active in general, I sweat. Altogether, it makes for chafing. And chafing is unpleasant and threatens to derail any weight-loss effort.

For the record, chafing is the irritation of the skin - even a downright open sore - that is most often caused by constantly rubbing something against wet skin. Most often, when we sweat (and us big guys sweat) it creates the perfect environment for wrecking the skin. And anything can cause chafing - from your thunder thighs to your pants waist or belt.

I've had a long battle with chafing since the earliest days of starting to work out (what, 3+ years ago now?). Of course for me, just walking through Central Park can result in some nasty pain. It's not fun. It kills work outs. It's a big demotivator. So over the years I've learned ways to deal with it, minimize it and not let it affect my weight-loss efforts.

Wear the Right Underwear

Clothes fit everyone differently and as our bodies change shape, this item will change for you as well. But the right underwear is crucial for ensuring a comfortable under-shorts experience. Experiment with different cuts to see what works and more importantly, what doesn't just rub against your skin non-stop. For me, boxer-briefs have been a godsend in helping to prevent the kind of thigh-rubbing that was hurting me most. And I make sure they're snug - downright near-wedgy - to make sure I'm properly covered.

But even if boxer-briefs ain't your thing, consider some spandex shorts under your normal workout clothes (please, wear something else over the spadex). The key thing here is that you don't want your skin rubbing against itself, and you don't want loose damp clothing to rub against your skin (or between your legs) either.

Try a Waxy Lubricant, and Stay Dry with Baby Powder

Occasionally if my chafing problem is particularly bad (especially in the summer) and I'm going for a walk or out to a party or some social function, I use Body Glide. It's basically a waxy lubricant that comes in a deodorant-stick and puts a thin coating to protect the skin. It does help, just don't use too much because it can build up in a weird way. But it's gotten me through a bunch of summer functions where I would otherwise not have been able to walk well. I also use baby powder on occasion to help keep certain nether regions dryer. It's worked with limited success. 

Change Out of Your Gym Clothes

Don't sit around in your sweaty undies and clothes. All you'll be doing is keeping that wet, irritating cloth against your skin when your skin really needs to dry out and breathe. When I go to the gym I always bring a fresh pair of undies, no matter how much I sweat that day. And while you're at it, always be as dry as possible before putting on fresh underwear. Dryness is key here. Dry, Dry, Dry.

Stay Clean

After a work out, immediately shower and soap up, and be sure to soap up parts where the sun don't shine - like where your gut hangs down (if you're anything like me).  Remember that chafing is a skin irritation that can quickly become an open sore. There's a bunch of bacteria all over you and when you sweat and work out, you're more apt to get that bacteria onto or into your chafe, which will just prolong the sore. I've found that when I soap up areas that feel like they're chafing, it goes a long way to nip it in the bud and I don't have a problem.

Alter Your Workout

If you sense you have a chafing problem coming on, try something else in your work out until it goes away. A chafing problem properly dealt with early on will disappear in a day or so. So if you're a cardio fiend, switch to a little strength training for a day and keep your cardio lighter.

0 comments | Topics: tips

Food Logging - Honestly and Integrally

January 26, 2010 @ 01:35 pm

Since starting this journey a few years ago I've heard tell of food-logging. Many swear by the importance of writing down what they eat. I ignored them. First off, there was no easy way to do that. I don't carry a notebook with me everywhere, which means I have to remember later what I ate. That turned out to be kind of hard (a problem in and of itself). What's worse, after writing down what I ate, I had to figure out what that meant in numerical terms.  Calories. Weight Watchers Points. Whatever.

I was on Weight Watchers for a while and found good success with it. I think it's a great program. I eventually unsubscribed because I just wasn't using it or being healthy at all. The fact is, I don't want to run to the computer every time I eat, log into a website, look up the points, record it, and stare at it.  They didn't really have an iPhone application at the time I was actively using their program (now they do, and it's probably great). So part of the problem is that I have to find a convenient way to record what I'm eating, and the other part of the problem is finding the actual health quantities for what I'm eating (i.e. calories).

Right now, I'm focusing on eating healthy. I'm focusing on eating a good balance of nutrients - protein, carbohydrate, omega-3 and other healthy fats. I actually don't care about calories right now. I just want to eat right. I want to eat whole, natural foods. I'm cutting out as much processed stuff as I can. And that solves the second part of the problem - if I don't care about calories, I don't need to track them.

Enter Twitter, Stage Right.

The easiest way for me to track what I'm eating is Twitter.  I have it handy on my computer, I have it handy on my iPhone, and my iPhone is always in my pocket. I created a new Twitter account - @LWDFoodLog - which I can easily post what I eat right when I eat it. I just whip out my phone, jot it down real quick, put phone away. Voila! Food logging!

For an extra-special level of accountability, I make my food log public. You can follow the Twitter account (though why you would want to, I don't know). I also have a little computer doodad that goes out and grabs that Twitter feed and publishes it right here on my site for all to see. And it's working.

I've been sticking with it for a couple of weeks, and I'm pretty happy with it. I'm happy with my progress. I'm happy to look back over the days and see that I've largely eaten well. Almost no High Fructose Corn Syrup, very little sugar - just healthy, natural, live foods rich in good stuffs. But there are mistakes too, there are times I binge, times I go a little crazy eating anything I can find. And that's the key to food logging - being 100% forthright with everything you eat.

I log everything that goes into my mouth that isn't water (well ...). Occasionally I screw up. I log those too. If I didn't log everything, there would be no integrity to the food log and I might as well log nothing. Because if I can't actually see what I'm eating, I'll never learn. If I don't honestly record what I eat, any doctor or nutritionist I enlist to help me down the road won't have all the facts. And practicing these levels of honesty and integrity with something so simple as food logging teach me to be honest with myself in every area of my health.

0 comments | Topics: food and eating, tips, weight loss tools

Stuff Worth Noting

January 26, 2010 @ 09:10 am

As I read and study up on obesity and learn all I can to enrich my weight loss journey, I find a few key things I want to remember. Every so often I'll post them up here to share and remember down the line.

News & Science

Eating Junk Food Will Spoil Your Mood (Diet Blog)
Writing in The British Journal of Psychiatry, experts found that consuming a lot of processed food--such as desserts, fried food, refined grains, processed meat, and high-fat dairy--actually raised the likelihood of depression. It's more than sugar highs and lows or crashing - it's the chemicals that go into the processing of food, turning it from something wholesome and fresh to something preserved. I'm not sure we really know what we're doing to ourselves.

Play, Then Eat: Shift May Bring Gains At School (NYT)
Schools that rearrange recess to be before lunch see marked increase in attention, better eating habits. Could this be another tool to systematically beat back child obesity?

Obesity System Influence Diagram
Just in case you thought obesity was a simple matter of being too lazy. An attempt to chart the various influences and feedback loops that trap so many in this plight.

After a Year of Learning, the First Lady Seeks Out A Legacy (NYT)
And that legacy will be child obesity prevention and reduction. Finally some attention from the White House on a major issue affecting the health care issues they value so highly.

American Obesity Rates have Plateaued (NYT)
Likely because we've hit the limit of those genetically predisposed to obesity, not because of any good effort to educate and improve health.

Tips & Tricks

Super Slow Weight Training (MizFit)
MizFit discovers strength training very slowly (10 seconds up, 10 seconds down) makes her workouts faster and more effective. Because her muscles mutiny sooner.

Inspiration

Kepa & Mary went bungee jumping! Hoooly crap. I don't even do ladders well - I don't think there's any chance of getting me to jump off a perfectly good platform, no matter how skinny I am. But seriously you two, rock on.

Weight Loss Success Story: Max Fargotstein
Dieting here, exercising there, but never simultaneously, nor with any results, Fargotstein had all but thrown in the towel. While celebrating the Super Bowl last year, a friend's father showed up minus his spare tire ... That was enough to inspire him to give it another shot, this time combining new eating habits with regular exercise at the gym twice a week.

0 comments | Topics: inspiration, news, stuff worth noting, tips

How I Choose a Gym

January 23, 2010 @ 01:00 pm

I first tried losing weight in college, where I had free access to a weight room and cardio equipment ... and never ever went. I was scared. I hated the idea of being in a space where I was the fattest in the room. I thought I would feel like I looked the desperate blob haplessly struggling against the weight, like a cartoon or a joke. I sabotaged myself before I even started. So instead I tried to run laps around a darkened parking lot after the sun went down (it was California ... never got cold).

Fast forward to New York and I found myself ridiculous. I had to bite the bullet and sign up with a real gym. So I weighed my options and ended up at an Equinox near my office.  Ultimately, though, The Beau and I moved into a nice apartment building that had it's own very-well-equipped fitness center and I didn't have to go to a public gym anymore. But then we moved again and it was time to sign up for a new place to work out.

Finding a place to work out is a tricky thing for someone like me. For starters, the gym still makes me nervous. I feel exposed, I feel vulnerable, and there are a lot of fit people about while I'm waddling from the locker room to an elliptical (I dont' really waddle, but I feel like it sometimes).  So here's the kinds of things I look for when I join a gym.

Variety of Cardio Equipment

Treadmills are about the most boring piece of equipment on the planet. Plus they're hard on the knees and shins. I actually don't use them very often so I prefer to see what other equipment the gym has. Having plenty of elliptical machines is key, plus other stranger equipment that works the body in other ways. I haven't explored all the options at my gym, but I will.

Weight-Floors vs. Assisted Strength Training Machines

There are two basic kinds of strength training set-ups. One is the kind of equipment that involves weight-plates and a lot of clanging and banging and muscleheads change around the equipment. These things are usually all grouped together on a weight-floor and populated by fitter people than I. They make me self conscious, but I need strength training. So I look for a gym that has a complement of assisted strength training machines preferably somewhere else in the gym. These machines are the ones where the weights are built into the machine and you can change the resistance by moving a pin. My gym has two sets of these away from the main weight-floor, which makes it a little more comfortable for me to strength train.

Crazy Amounts of Mirrors

If I ever meet someone who designs gym interiors (yeah, that's a gay-guy's way of saying it) ... I'm going to smack them in the head.  And I'm going to do it in front of a mirror. Because they freaking love mirrors. It's one thing to have a mirror where one strength trains supposedly to check for good form while weight-lifting (and pure vanity, don't kid yourselves). But there is no reason to line every square inch of a gym with a mirror. No 300+lb obese person wants to watch themselves waddle on a treadmill when they already know what they look like. Mirrors like those are superfluous. So I try to find a gym that doesn't have too many mirrors. My current one totally fails this, by the way. They even have mirrors on the stairwell. What the hell?

Cardio Distractions

Because there are so many damn mirrors I need a good distraction while I'm working out on the cardio machines. So I look for a gym with televisions and head-phone jacks on the machines. And not just those TV's that hang above everyone so you have to watch Days of Our Lives, or whatever. Now a lot of gyms have individual "CardioTheatre" setups where each machine gets it's own little TV and tuner. Perfect! And a must-have.

Locker Room Layout

So as if being out on the gym equipment didn't make me feel vulnerable enough, the locker room cinches the deal. So I look for a gym who's locker room at least offers the illusion of privacy while I'm changing with nooks and crannies to hide in. And private shower stalls. And a decently-sized steam room (which has nothing to do with privacy but at least is something nice to have).

Price

You'll have a budget of some sort, probably, but be aware you get what you pay for. When I was a member of Equinox one of the things that sold me on the chain was that each specific club tries to cap the number of members they have, to keep it from getting crazy-crowded and unpleasant. That, of course, meant a higher price. On the other side of things the discount gyms that you see on TV most often make money in the volume of members, and they're equipment might not be as good or might be old. So I went with a medium-grade gym this time, and have been happy with it so far.

Others' Reviews

This is the Internet-era where everyone comments about everything online. So don't pick a gym without seeing what other people have to say about it. There are reviews on Google Maps or Yelp - or just search for the name and location of your gym with the words "reviews." When I moved to Manhattan I had the options of about 4 gyms. The closest had terrible reviews online so I skipped it. Another was a very nice gym, but the reviews made it sound like a trainers' gym - or one that die hard fitness pro's went to - and said it had small locker rooms, so I skipped it. The gym I chose - NY Sports Clubs - is a chain, but when I searched for my specific location the reviews were great, saying its one of the best NYSC in the city. Bingo.


So those are some the various things that I think about when I go gym-shopping as a self-conscious, private worker-outter. I'd love to hear what you look for, or what kinds of things you've found when you're trying out a new place to get fit.

0 comments | Topics: gym, tips