January 2012
7 posts
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Daily Fitness Diary 01/15/12 - Downton Abbey Goes...
Breakfast today - 4 eggs fried in olive oil + berry smoothie (blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, banana + 2% milk); also had some of my wife’s delectable left-over beef stew. Spent 10 minutes explaining to (lecturing, shall I said) my daughter that she needs to read more. Watched Downton Abbey - an awesome new show, by the way - while I made breakfast for my wife and daughter. Planning...
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Daily Fitness Diary 01/14/12 - Pushing Limits
Had an exhausting work-out this afternoon - 3 miles of running at 6:40 min pace, then 2 more miles at 7:30 min pace. Then did weights - pyramid sets of bench-press, 135 x 2 sets, then 185 x 2 sets, then 225 x 2 sets, then back down 185x1 set, 135x1 set. Seated rows, 90x2 sets, 140x2 sets, 90x2 sets. Seated leg press, 180x4 sets. Squats, 180x2 sets. Standing curls, 35x2 sets, end with 20 push-ups....
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Book Review on History of Dieting
Read a short review last night in The Economist about a new book by Louise Foxcroft called Calories & Corsets: A History of Dieting Over 2000 Years. They rattled off some startling statistics about dieting: first, that in a recent study of 31 long-term diet plans, two-third of participants ended up heavier than before they started. Also, they reiterated what many of the folks I’ve...
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Daily Fitness Diary 01/10/12: Bosu Medicine-Ball...
With fitness and life, it’s always important to keep things fresh. Yesterday, I tried a new exercise that I saw in the Nov 2011 issue of Men’s Health: the Bosu medicine-ball twist. Before yesterday, I had no idea what a Bosu ball was. It’s essentially half of a swiss exercise ball with a small circular platform attached. Essentially, the exercise involves mounting the ball (which...
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Emerging Evidence that Hi-Fat Foods Cause Brain... →
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Daily Fitness Diary 01/04/12: The "Death Crawl"
Aside from my daily 3-mile run, I tried a new exercise today that I saw in Men’s Health - an exercise that was proposed in response to a reader question, “Is there one exercise that will blast my whole body?” It’s called the “death crawl,” and it involves (1) push-up position w/15 lb. weights; (2) push-up w/2 second hold at the bottom & then push...
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Love Your Body
It bothers me to my core to see the way people treat their bodies these days. While thousands of years of evolution have given us special physical abilities to move, run, climb, push, lift - most people don’t exercise. Most don’t take advantage of these amazing gifts. Most people see exercise as a cumbersome nuisance.
People today eat food that’s processed to the point where it...
December 2011
21 posts
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“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry...”
– Buddha
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Paleo = More Energy(?)
These past two times I’ve gone running this week, I seem to have a lot more energy than usual - it could be the fact that I’ve returned to the paleo diet & am increasing the protein and decreasing the carbs. On my Tuesday run, I kept a steady pace of 8.5-9.5 mph for 4 miles & then this evening, kept a pace between 8.5-10.5 mph for 4.5 miles, including boosting it up to 12 mph...
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Obesity Will Cost $344 BILLION by 2018 - twice... →
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2012: The Year of Achieving Goals
First of all, I want to say thank you to all of you who have chosen to follow me. I’ve noted with great satisfaction that the number of people following my blog go from single digits to 130+ in about 3 months and I really appreciate your support. Also, WillBraham, thanks for your comments especially. I haven’t figured out how to reply to your kind comments which is why I have not...
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Drink Water (or Else!)
In a 9-year study, French researchers found that people who drank 17-34 ounces of water daily were 36% less likely to develop high blood sugar or diabetes than those who drink less. According to study author Ronan Roussel, MD/PhD, when you are dehydrated your brain pumps out more vasopressin, a hormone that tells your body to produce glucose (from Men’s Health / Nov 2011)
See Authentic Effects by Performing Exercises in... →
ibuildbetter:
Physical exercise definitely produces endorphins in the body that may make anybody feel happy and full of energy. This is probably the key reason why regular work out has been found for being the effective way to reduce depressive disorders and insomnia. Furthermore, exercise makes certain that different muscles get to work too which explains why it’s a necessary component in an...
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“Exercise is really important to me - it’s therapeutic. So if I’m...”
– Michelle Obama
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“The Greeks understood that mind and body must develop in harmounious proportions...”
– John F. Kennedy
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Ingredients for a Good Sunday
I’m enjoying a good Sunday morning. Breakfast included an egg-white omelette + bowl of berries and almonds. After some time to digest & a quick skim of this week’s Economist, my daughter and I went over to the Haverford College track where I did a 3-mile run, including warm-up and pyramid sprints (100m, 200m, 400m, 200m, 100m x 2). Now I’m back at home in my comfy leather...
November 2011
36 posts
“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain...”
– Bill Mollison (via slychedelic)
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“There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all...”
– Buddha
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Can't Wait to Run Tomorrow
Yesterday and today were insane work days. Yesterday (Sunday!!) we had to drive to NJ yesterday for an interview with an Alzheimer’s patient (for a study we are doing), consuming 8 hours & then today I started at 7am today and worked straight thru to 7pm before crashing for an hour & now I’m back at the MacBook, editing a PPT presentation for a physician advisory meeting I am...
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“Doing only ab exercises won’t give you abs, say researchers at Southern...”
– Men’s Health, Dec 2011
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Finding the Right Running Shoes
I’ve been though a lot of different running shoes. When I first started running about 6 years ago, I was running in Nike Shox. One would think that the springy looking apparatus on the back would be useful. Nope. When it comes to running, they are complete rubbish. Next I moved on to New Balance. While I know a lot of people swear by NB, the ones I got made me feel like I was running on huge...
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Waking Up Early
There is something magnificent and deeply gratifying about waking up early in the morning and accomplishing things - a run, biking, work, making breakfast - before the rest of the world has had a chance to roll over & hit the snooze bar. I particularly love the quiet, the lack of traffic on the streets, and the simple sound of birds (whose chirps get muffled by the crush of ambient noise by...
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"I don't have the time"
In my travels, I often find myself in conversations about exercise. One of the things that interests me most is why people don’t exercise. “I don’t have the time,” is by far the biggest reason (excuse). Everyone has the time. And there are always creative ways to blend exercise into an otherwise non-stop day. Let me give you an example: last Wednesday, I realized that I was...
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Men's Health Reblog
“Exercising just 15 minutes a day can add 3 years to your life, a new study in the Lancet reports. Over a 13-year period, each additional 15 minutes of daily exercise (up to 100) slashed people’s risk of death another 4 percent. It’s not just a heart benefit, says study author Chi-Pang Wen, MD., DrPH. Exercise may also reduce risks of diabetes and cancer.”
Fantastic Running Weather
I ran 6 miles this morning in shorts and T shirt - cant believe it’s almost December! Perfect running weather, 55 degrees and slightly overcast
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“Some seek the comfort of their therapists office, others head for the corner pub...”
– Ultra marathon man, Dean Karnazes. (via obtund)
“Doing exercises for a particular body part will not burn fat at that very...”
– Dr. Oz & Dr. Roizen (via fit-smoothie)
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“Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like the muscles of the body.”
– Lynn Jennings
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“Running hills breaks up your rhythm and forces your muscles to adapt to...”
– Eamonn Coughlin
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“There are 1,440 minutes in every day. Schedule 30 of them for physical...”
– Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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Owning How You Look
There are aspects of my body that I can change, and there are aspects of it that I simply can’t. One of the characteristics that falls into the latter group is my hair. I’m balding. It started when I was about 30.
About three years ago (I’m now 40), I started growing out a patch of hair on the left side of my head that seemed to effectively disguise the growing barren tract above my forehead. Yes,...
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“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
– Wayne Gretzky 