Football Epilogue

I went out to dinner with my family last night for my birthday. During the evening we started talking about my son and his standardized testing at school. One part of the conversation focused on his teacher recommending the students get some protein to help keep them through the day. My son then asked me if I could cook some bacon for him this morning. My mom went on to say, "just have some peanut butter, it's better for you". My sister supported, "yeah bacon is all fat which is bad for you". I have some serious disagreements with the last case as I think it's largely been proven that fat doesn't necessarily cause fatness, as opposed to sugar and other carbohydrates. Curious, I thought I'd do a label comparison of each and for kicks throw oatmeal and yogurt and eggs into the mix. Contestant #1: Bacon I selected Hormel black label bacon as it's common, especially up here in MN.  Screenshot from http://www.hormel.com/Brands/Black-Label-Bac...

It's Friday. I thought I'd monkey with my walking data a little more now that I have some more data points. I am even working on an auto-updating graph that will track my steps on this site. In looking at the previous post I'm of the minset that the daily step number may not be the best for tracking long-term progress. The typical periodicity for life seems to be the week. We ask people what they're doing each week, or how their week was. We plan work and vacations on a weekly basis. Weeks reset after a weekend. Most workouts, fitness plans, diets, etc. are based on weeks. It's the 21-day (3 week) Fix. Thus, it makes sense from a social-psychological perspective to look at weekly performance. Daily, is good to make sure you're hitting targets each day, but as a measure of progress the daily satisfaction gets lost in life. That said the measure should also be something that can be conceptualized on a daily basis. Also, like drug testing, I want a measure of my ...

It was cool (low 40s F), it was windy, it was sunny. I needed my 10K steps for the day. I thought I'd try my luck at a run outside. My "Bloomington United" hat My Minnesota Wild windcoat A pair of light gloves, sunglasses and some tunes It's a bit different than on a treadmill That puts the ground under you And my appropriate muscles are feeling it And the rest of me too! But I got it done And I got it in I guess I can tally it In the category of a win! And while on the topic of running, here's a YouTube video on the extra shoelace holes on running shoes. ...and now you know:

This has not been a good week from a healthy living perspective. I've been at a conference and that usually means a lot of walking. I was staying away from the conference center and so I was planning on that being even more the case. I was, however, far enough away to have to take Baltimore's light rail system, which conveniently dropped me off within 100 feet of the conference center. From there, all the talks were close, the restaurants were close. It just didn't add up to high step counts. Add in drinking a ton of coffee and more alcohol than usual and every meal being a "big" meal; I'm now sitting on the plane in dire need of a workout. Getting back into routine then becomes a matter of inertia. My body at rest is now wanting to stay at rest. Hopefully I can get my 10k in today and move upwards from there. One day at a time...

"Red wine?" "Yes, I would love a glass." As I sit in the hotel restaurant enjoying a delicious glass. I started wondering about all the articles over the last decade on the costs/benefits of this "relaxation juice". Some claim a glass is as good as an hour of exercise.  I did a little looking. Some of the reported benefits: It has been shown to reduce risk of heart disease A drink at the end of the day can reduce stress It has antioxidants that reduce inflammation and can help in muscle recovery Obviously it also can have detrimental effects like your best friend telling you to "go home, you're drunk" or the metabolism killing of drinking in excess. As with most things I think red wine falls under the use sparingly category. While there may be benefits, there seem to be equivalent benefits in just trying to eat healthily. Here's a little light reading in case you're interested in probing the subject further. http://...

Here's an article on an interesting story in The New York Times on the amount of exercise one gets and its correspondence to a long life.  Anything can happen in life, but why not improve your odds of being a contributing human for as long as possible. http://nyti.ms/1b2CbSn

Step totals from Feb. 1 until now. Red lines separate the data by week and the black line is a linear fit. I'd like to stay on the upward trajectory. I've been using the Samsung Health(tm) feature on my phone over the last little while to track my steps. Yesterday was an event as I amassed over 17,000 steps!  The error in a lot of these days is pretty big as I often rest my phone on the treadmill at the gym, so a wearable might be in order. Even still, there's lots of room for improvement. Ideally, I'd like hold that coveted 10,000 steps/day goal. I'm also itching to play some golf and this is a good way to start getting warmed up for the courses.

I received this gem of an email the other day. It makes sense given I return about 2/3rds of what I buy from Sports Authority. It doesn't help that walking in you feel like you're in a Toys'R'Us from the 90's with the buzzing fluorescent lights, the smell of plastic and the place just feeling messy. This is in huge contrast to say, Dick's, which I have always loved the atmosphere despite in reality not being all that different. Oh well, I guess that's why I prefer Target to Wal-Mart too. Essentially, you can't pile a bunch of crap into a store and hire part time kids and expect to be successful anymore.