Healthy Choices at Schools

I also read this article from the Oregonian which I thought offered a very healthful approach of encouraging healthy habits by offering buffet-style fruit carts and walking buses. They also offered cooking classes for parents and kids. This to me is the best way--instead of saying "no" to junk food, give them other options.

Overweight...

I recently read this article from the San Jose Mercury News about a new study requiring an hour of exercise for women as they get older to maintain a healthy weight. What got me is that they didn't say one word about the risks of being overweight. I'm not sure it's even a risk. I read one book that found several studies saying that women in the overweight category of BMI actually lived longer than their normal counterparts. So what's the big deal?

The one redeeming aspect of this article were two small sections at the end:

"Still, Lee emphasized that the benefits of exercise extend beyond what you see in the mirror, helping keep the heart healthy and protecting against chronic disease even if you don't get enough activity to lose weight.

"I think an hour a day is hard, but I think you can do it if it's for your health," said Beth Orso, 45, of San Jose. "As it is, I squeeze in what I can five days a week, and it's certainly not for an hour. I hope to just be active and feel good."

These two non-weight focused sections follow the FunFitFoodie philosophy. The rest are too focused on weight on for me to be intrigued. What do you think?

Once a Week Exercising is Not Enough

After exercising at least four days a week in Chile--three days biking to the top of cerro san cristobal, two days at the gym (yes I know it's five but normally I miss one of these somehow)--not exercising as much comes with some serious side effects.

I went to a three hour dance class/rehearsal last Saturday which was beautiful and fun. But I was sore, sore, sore all week long after. Then this week, I skipped the class but went running and same thing--sore, sore, sore.

Plus, my ability to emotionally handle some hard decisions that are coming my way (do I stay in the US or go back to Chile?) seem insurmountable when I haven't exercised. When I have exercised, they seem difficult but not overwhelming (and here's the other thing, walking which used to help doesn't anymore--it's got to be a hard workout!).

Why do I take off these weeks from exercising if I KNOW that I emotionally I'm a wreck without exercising?

Cuz I'm human. And humans aren't robots. They don't always follow schedules. They don't always do what they're supposed to do.

So, I guess my lesson today is to be a human. If you'll feel better exercising, do it. If you won't today, don't. Be human. Don't be a robot.

Fitness Tests for Home

I have to admit, I'm a sucker for health tests. Really, I want statistics to show that I am a healthy individual.

This article on simple health tests you can do at home is really interesting because it reveals the risks of having a poor result for each of the tests. Even though it doesn't offer many solutions if you do get a poor result, I'm going to offer you one big solution: move more. Find an activity you really like to do, and do it more often.

You may not be able to change how you look on the outside, but you can change how you feel on the inside.

Good luck!

Cerro San Cristobal

I have recently begun biking up the hill here in Santiago, with a goal of three times a week. Not because I think it's good for me (I do) but because I love it. Somewhere beneath my heavy breathing and pounding heart, after I pass through that threshold of ten minutes of suffering, it feels, how can I say it, if not good, it feels right. It feels like medicine.

Check out what I wrote about it at my other blog.

Vacations--Death to Workouts

Vacations are essential. Essential to your mental health, and I believe physical health, too. If you work fourty hours, or have kids, or are basically alive, you probably aren't getting the amount of sleep you really need. Having vacation to finally sleep in for more than two days in a row can be a livesaver.

But...vacation can also interrupt your workout and movement routines. We go on vacation with the best intentions: we'll workout every day, or every other day. But vacations are for relaxing and for getting away from your normal life. Certainly you'll benefit from moving, but since you're taking a break from your normal life, take a break from exercising too...or at least the way you normally exercise.

I recently went to the beach for two weeks. I took my exercise mat and foam roller, thinking I would workout every day. I worked out once in two weeks. It just didn't happen.

I did take my bike and every day rode for a half hour to an hour--not because I felt I had to, but because I love biking, and my absolutely favorite is biking by the ocean. So I biked because I wanted to, and because it was the most convenient way to get to the little town by the beach where all the cinammon ice cream was.

So maybe instead of going on vacation with the best intentions, we should go on vacation with realistic intentions: that we're not going to do what we normally do, but that, when we want to, we'll move our bodies. It certainly beats feeling guilty about something we weren't ever going to do.

Fat Thighs are Good

Check out this article. All fats are not made equal.