TEDxManhattan

Due to a snow storm, I was unable to attend TEDxManhattan last week. The local viewing party was cancelled due ot the snow as well. Instead, we all had a beautiful, cozy snow day.

Feel free to find out more about the event and watch streaming video of the conference here.

Cross Training

When I was younger, and coaches would have us cross train, we’d all just do it. It was simply what one did, not what one thought about beyond how heavy the weights could be or some other measure of endurance.

When I began working out on my own in my 20s and 30s, I didn’t bother consciously cross training. Different exercise classes were fun, so we’d try those out. Running was something to be endured on the treadmills of the world to try to keep the weight off or train for a 5K. Yoga was new and exciting, as was Pilates. But nothing stuck, per se; cross training always seemed a lark.

I hadn’t truly thought about the implications of mindful cross training until recently, upon signing up to run a half marathon in April. I’ve known and openly discussed with others that my lats begin to ache at around mile 5 whenever I run long distances. Everything else feels fine, it’s pretty much my back that hurts. In reviewing different half marathon training plans, they all suggest (but to not require) cross training, which includes core and upper body work outs, as well as stretching.   I figured, what the heck…I need something to help me and my lats get through the second 10K of the half marathon in order to finish.

So for the past couple of weeks, as discussed here, I’ve been mindfully including yoga, core and upper body workouts, as well as additional cross training through walking. The intention is to get this 40+ year old body in some semblance of shape to be able to finish the 13.2 miles of a half marathon by April 2012. From what all the plans say, it does seem possible if one is mindful about one’s training schedule.

I’m not positive that it’s working, but on my last 10K (6.1 mile) long run, my back ached LESS than it had in the past. I feel that that is some sort of achievement in itself. G-d willing, additional cross training will only improve the outcomes.

Do you routinely cross train? If so, email me and let me know what you do and how it helps your performance!

Toddler Books

Cover via Amazon

As folks who know us know, we read quite a bit in my family: books, scholarly papers, newspapers, magazines, laws, legislation, and blogs, to name a few media. The extent of such reading can be partially grasped by seeing our home, where evidence of such is, quite literally, everywhere.

My daughter has had her own library since birth, and cherishes her books. Sometimes a bit too much, and we need to remind her once in a while that they’re not to be used for teething.

We generally read together a couple of hours per day. We all enjoy the time together, and will also play different games with her using her books as tools, like identifying the different letters in a word in a book and identifying another word for that letter.

Example: GEORGE

G is for Grape

E is for Every

O is for Orange

R is for Rainbow

G is for Grape again

E is for Every again

Her latest fad is choosing one book to take to bed. She doesn’t like “reading” the same book in bed twice in a row.

Recently, some folks have asked for book recommendations, either because their child is looking for something new, or they’re looking for something new for their child. Parents often swap ideas for toys, classes, books and pretty much everything else under the sun. I’m generally flummoxed when asked about books on short notice, because I tend to get lost in the magnitude of possible suggestions.

Here are just a few ideas to check out on Amazon. It’s not meant to be exhaustive, and you may already have these books. If you have other suggestions, please let me know, because we’re constantly buying new material and take out 20 or so books for her from the library every week.

Whenever we’re at the library, we look for more of the books in these ten series. They all have permanent places in our home. This list is not exhaustive. Rather, it’s a sampling to move the conversation forward:

Dr. Seuss – We all know his work. Most of us read the stuff when we were kids. It still works today. We just read The Eye Book before today’s nap.

Maisy – Maisy is a mouse. She and her friends (and teddy bear) get into all sorts of fun adventures with great pictures that allow the books to be used in many additional learning games. She’s snoozing with Maisy’s Big Book right now.

Franklin – He is most definitely a turtle. He’s an only child, but some of his woodland friends have siblings. He’s adorable, and friendly. We read his going to school book before nap as well. We like him a lot.

Biscuit – He’s a very friendly silly puppy. He lives with his girl. We hope Biscuit has new adventures soon, because we’ve memorized all his current books.

Clifford – We’re just starting to read books about this red dog. Fun, with detailed drawings that can be discussed on a lot of levels.

Dinosaurs – We were actually on a waiting list to get the latest (How Do Dinosaurs Go Up & Down?) when it came out before Christmas. We even discovered some stickers for the series (that was SUCH a bonus!)

Knuffle Bunny – This is a very funny, much beloved trilogy about a girl and her bunny.

That’s Not My… – This series has kept us captivated since our daughter was an infant. She now likes to recite the stories and try to locate the words that she know must be there on the page.

Goodnight Moon – We didn’t realize that there were other books in the series until recently; there’s also a matching game. We love all of them.

Curious George – The original book is okay, but not one of ours faves. Rather, we’ve become transfixed by the 12-book phonics set. It’s simply awesome.

These are just some of the books in constant rotation here. It’s be great to hear what your kids love to read. Again, we’re always looking for new suggestions. Email me ideas!

Seven Pound Drop

Over a year ago, when I began the exergaming campaign, one of my primary interests was whether video games could be used to maintain or lose weight. But over the ensuing year, as weight did indeed drop, focus has shifted somewhat to endurance, strength and stamina building aspects of exercise, as well as wonderment at how far one can push one’s body before collapse.

For a long while, perhaps three months or more, my weight has remained relatively stable even as I’ve been adding additional miles on top of my base weekly mileage and exergaming. I haven’t been bothered by it, to be honest, since clothing has been fitting me better and my focus has been set on sheer distance. Over the last month or so, I’ve been fine tuning clothing and regimen in order to make distance runs longer, and added the goal of a half marathon in April.

So it came as somewhat of a surprise to me yesterday, when I stepped onto my garden variety scale for the first time in perhaps a month. Mind you, that month was also filled with yummy holiday events. The surprise was not only that I had dropped seven pounds seemingly overnight (at least since my last weigh in), but that I had been just thinking about fine tuning my eating and exercise even more in an attempt to lose weight, because I was sure I’d added some weight.

Obviously there are many things at play in one’s weight: daily, weekly, monthly fluctuations; muscle versus fat balance within the body; level, frequency and type of exercise; portions, types and balance of food; among other things.

We hear from doctors that a body can change dramatically for a short period of time; but that in its physical memory, it retains a “memory” of its former self before the change was implemented. So, following this theory, it’ll bounce back to its former “normal” state unless change is constant and indefinite. That makes sense. I’ve also wondered for a while that when the body realizes it’s being holistically changed (like shedding 70+ pounds), it’ll hold on at certain stages before allowing itself to move into the next state of transformation.

So, using my weight loss as an example, it was hard to lose the first 60 pounds. It took a lot of concentrated effort regarding exercise and food. Then, for about three months or so, my body seemed to stay the same weight wise, regardless of whether I worked out more or less, or ate more or less, or healthier or less healthy. The number on the scale remained the same. Then, one day, I had a seven pound loss without seemingly changing anything.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens going forward. With a half marathon coming up in 12 weeks 2 days, my training has to increase. It’d be nice to lose some more weight, but my focus is on the distance, not the clothing size. So we’ll see.

Have you found something like this happening with changes you’ve made in your life? If so, please email me and let me know!

Damn It's Cold

Image via WikipediaThe title says it all. While I have gotten out to run once this week, and hope to do so again this afternoon, the icy rain, sub-freezing temps and general holy c40p it's cold type stuff, I am extremely happy that EA Sports Active II allows me to do all of my cross-training at home, in sweats, with heaters blasting.

So, for half marathon training, what does EA Sports Active II offer the lay (or lame) non-athlete like me? Well, it has kick butt work outs. It offers multiple yoga, core, upper body and crunch options. Also, thanks to their "create your own workout" area, you can put together your own favorite routines that can change as often as you want. That includes the length of those workouts and what your avatar wears. Pretty cool.

In between the stretching, sweating and crunching going on in front of one's TV, road work still

requires some attention. This calls for good cold weather running clothing. While I am a novice with this sort of thing, I already know that I'm looking for stuff that wicks my sweat away and - need I say it - keeps me WARM. I'm starting to doubt whether those things are really possible given the amount of sweat I'm producing and the low temperatures outside. My go-to brands right now are LuLuLemon, Under Armour and SportHill. The switch from barefoot running shoes to Nike Vomeros (+6) keeps my feet much toastier during the hard winter months. While sometimes, the temps only require two layers on top, on some runs I'm layering pieces from all of those brands and more.

What do you wear outside during the coldest months? Email me and let me know!

Goals

Targets are generally important in any endeavor. They help us sketch out in our mind’s eye where we are and where we want to go.

Some people like making generalized visions of themselves at a next stage. Examples of this are statements like I’d like to lose five pounds and I’d like to learn the piano.

Others have date related goals they’re meeting. Examples of this are statements like I’d like to lose five pounds by Cindy’s wedding and I’d like to learn the piano before Christmas.

For me to accomplish things, I look at an action, like running a half marathon or doing all the laundry in the house. My generalized vision is being someone who runs a half marathon or has no dirty laundry. Please note that these two goals are probably self exclusive. The date related to such goals are the date of the half marathon or the date I’d like to have the laundry totally done.

I’m relatively compulsive once I’ve fixed on a project. I read the blogs, I peruse the free sites, I sometimes read magazines, I query friends and strangers who know more than me, and I always read far too many books on the topic. Dear Husband still jokes that my pregnancy prep resembled my prep for the bar exam. Honestly, some friends of mine (CBS & ML come to mind) who will probably read as many or EVEN MORE books than me on that topic. They’re compulsive lawyers too. J

So here I am in week one of half marathon training. On the cheap. Recognizing that I am a novice. And I’m loving it.

Today, day three, I worked out with EA Sports Active II. I didn’t use their 21 day or 9 week programs, both of which I love. Oh NO. I went hard core and clicked right to the Crunch & Core workout. Welcome back mountainclimbers! Hello again plank position!

Because here’s a lovely secret about well thought out exergames like EA Sports Active II – they take many different fitness plans into account and offer you options. So I’m able to do my half marathon cross training by using their OTHER fitness workouts, filed away in the “My Workouts” Box on the upper right hand corner of my home screen. Crazy right?!?!?

Well, I’m lovin’ it…and that’s all that matters as I look ahead to tomorrow when I go on a nice 4.1 mile run in the mountains in 40 degree temps….oh, and there might even be rain. Yippee. Bring it ON!

What’s The Plan, Sam?

Image by marichica88 via FlickrSo, I never did a year end wrap up on weight loss and results, nor did I post specifically about this year ahead….until now.

As some of you know, the autumn was a particularly intense season for me personally and professionally, which was so jam packed with goodness that it slipped right through the holidays. In fact, due to freakish global weather patterns that have encouraged all squirrels across the globe to become obese, I have been able to not only continue to exergame, but also to run into January. I even ran today.

Which all brings me to my lack of blogging. I didn’t so much. There was simply way too much stuff going on.

Quick Year End Update:

After exergaming consistently all year, and added barefoot running for the last third of the year, I lost a grand total of 58-61 pounds. Pretty good. Could have been better and could have been worse. It even stayed off last week when I totally fell apart with exhaustion and only worked out once – a four mile jog.

I’ve lost 3-4 dress sizes and generally look better in what I’m wearing. My shoe size has remained the same.

My endurance is generally much better and I can whip off a Zumba workout, an EA Sports Active II hill workout, or a 10K any day of the week without worrying about feeling pain afterward – or even the following day.

What’s Up In 2012:

I’ve committed to, and registered for, running my first half marathon (ever) on April 15^th. I hope to run another in the fall. This means that my present training has to be fine tuned and thrown up a notch. Other than the long distance running piece, exergames, specifically EA Sports Active II, will be my only cross training crutch, at least for the first half marathon.

A lot of people ask me how I keep all the moving parts straight and get things done across platform. I generally find that quite funny. I feel that I barely keep things together and moving cohesively (and keep our family in clean clothing!), so I’ve also decided to express a year of gratitude. One has an awful lot of goodness in one’s life, and one doesn’t always think about it or write it down or acknowledge it as it’s happening. So my plan, which is totally ripping off a friend of mine, is to take a few moments each day and write at least one “I’m thankful for…” statement. I’m keeping them all together, so that at the end of this year, I can look back and see some small pieces of what’s been going on and that keeps me centered. I’ve already looked at the list a couple of times, and it does help centre oneself.

So there we have it campers! How did your 2011 projects turn out? How are your resolutions going?

Related articles

• Exergaming: Can Exercise Games Help You Get Fit? (webmd.com)
• ExerGames & Weight-loss (gamiconnection.wordpress.com)