Jennifer Mercurio's Blog: Google

The first time I heard the term gateway effect was during the lead up to the Games for Health conference in Boston in June. Ben Sawyer, who runs the org and the conference, sent an email asking folks to think about health and games and examples of gateway effect.

I had absolutely no idea what the man was on about, so I looked up the term via Google. Ooookkkk….for those who Google it as well, you’ll notice that hundreds of thousands of links will come back for marijuana and how its gateway effect can lead one to becoming a hard core drug user. Ahem. That was obviously not *exactly* what Ben was getting on about.

Yet his meaning quickly became clear. At the conference, numerous side conversations led to many references at the podiums about the need to find and document examples of exergaming leading their users being active in other ways. The Robert Wood Johnson folks and Shellie Pfohl, Executive Director of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, were particularly eloquent in discussing the phenomenon.

At the time, I didn’t have any examples, because ECA works with gamers, who are using exergames for their own sake. The other type of folks we deal with in ECA’s Gamers for Health initiative are folks who want to work out, and opt for exergames instead of other activities. So we rarely see or hear about folks whose use of exergames have opened them up to other types of exercise. Yet that’s exactly what my exergaming experience seems to be doing for me.

Until two weeks ago, I solely worked out with exergames five or six days a week, as I’ve chronicled somewhat through this blog. So far it’s allowed me to shed about 22 pounds, and the scale number slowly, yet consistently keeps dropping.

But then a funny thing happened. I read “Born to Run” and recalled how much fun running had been in my youth (a really long time ago). I needed and bought a lovely new pair of all purpose shoes that happened to be of the barefoot running variety. Then, at lunch last Tuesday, which was a day that didn’t require a workout in my EA Sports Active 2 challenge, I literally figured “why not” and went for a run for the first time in seven years. On mountainous dirt roads. And I came trotting back 3.88 miles later. It was amazing.

Since then, I’ve run a few times. My longest run thus far has been 4.11 miles without getting winded nor achy. Each run day, I wake up excited to hit the road and see if I can make it as far and as fast as the time before. Each time, I run farther and faster - each time.

Yet none of this would be possible without the exergaming, which got me into shape and keeps pushing me into better shape. Both physically and psychologically, exergames have opened up a completely new world and perspective on life – that’s their gateway effect on me and it can be yours too. Try it. You’ll like it.

*Warning* If you do not want to read about breastfeeding, or such makes you uncomfortable, do not continue reading this post.

Breastfeeding (BFing) is one of the biggest nutritional and physical gifts a mother can give her newborn. For more information on its benefits, Google “breastfeeding benefits” and start clicking links; two of the best resources are Kellymom and La Leche League.

Unfortunately, not every mom/baby pair takes to it. Many issues can be overcome by a lot of determination by the mom, but not all can be. Similarly, social and professional pressures make exclusive or even regular BFing quite difficult for many women. We see these difficulties reflected in the declining BFing numbers as babies age. According to the CDC, nearly 3 out of 4 women try to breastfeed when their children are born, but that number plummets to approximately 13% of women continuing to breastfeed their infants at 6 months of age.

Knowing the benefits, as well as the pressure to stop, many governmental agencies have begun to nurture BFing in general, as well as extended BFing (meaning longer than 6 months), through a slew of relatively new BF-friendly laws. They’ve introduced amusingly named “baby friendly” hospitals, which make me wonder whether all other hospitals are “baby toxic” and one should keep one’s child out of them. Many states allow public BFing and mandate employer lactation support. Unfortunately, there’s a long way to go, especially in terms of public knowledge, and many women don’t know their rights.

I was not one of those women.

Many months before Dear Child was born, I knew the state laws in my and neighboring states. I knew the pros and cons, and looked forward to sharing the experience with Dear Child. Dear Husband was also supportive and very much on board. Dear Child just turned 22 months old, and we just stopped BFing entirely.

One of the plusses of BFing is that it’s supposed to help women lose their pregnancy baby weight. I saw that result in myself and my friends who were able to BF consistently and continuously for months. In the first six weeks, breastfeeding helped me take off the 30 pounds I put on during pregnancy, which is a fairly typical result.

(Thus far during this exergaming process, I’ve been calling the weight I wanted to take off my “baby weight.” However, I was until now too embarrassed to admit that the weight was put on in the years leading up to pregnancy. So they’re better categorized as my “married weight.”)

But after that first post partum weight loss, BFing women are discouraged from losing weight too fast – no more than a pound a week. The theory is that losing weight fast puts too many toxins once stored in your fat cells into your breast milk to be fed directly to your baby. I can’t speak for many other moms, but that was one of my props for not losing weight, let alone not losing it too fast.

Since beginning exergaming a few months ago, I’ve also noticed that my body hasn’t allowed me to lose weight very fast. I think it’s due to BFing. There were a few days when I was too preoccupied to eat very much of anything, and I continued to exergame. Yet I didn’t lose any weight. I think, and I can’t find any studies to back up this theory, my body held onto the weight because it knew I was still feeding my child and presumably was trying to keep that supply consistent. Again, I can’t prove it, and can’t find any studies on it either, but I hope someone does study this hypothesis. I for one would be very interested in the results.

But now I’m speaking as a former BFing mom. Dear Child and I stopped at 22 months last week. I thought it might take a month or two to but our new routine seems to be working of snuggling while reading and drinking milk. I actually seem to be more saddened by the end of BFing than Dear Child, which I’ve heard is fairly common (another thing to be studied by clinicians). But my emotionality goes along with the general nausea, sleepiness and dizziness, which I’m told is caused by the hormonal changes, which must be pretty drastic.

I’m also wondering whether the weight loss plateau last month was caused partially because we stopped Dear Child’s second to last BFing, whether weight loss will plateau a bit now, and whether losing weight will become a bit easier moving forward. As with everything, we’ll see!

If you have any feedback, BFing stories, etc, please post a comment here or feel free to email me. I’d love to hear from you.

Jennifer Mercurio's Blog

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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Gateway Effect

Monday, May 2, 2011

Breastfeeding

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