I usually enjoy the “MisFits” column in the Washington Post. Authors Vickie Hallett and Lenny Bernstein have an obvious enthusiasm for health/fitness. But I found this short notice annoying:

Get Fit in 2010
 
Monday, November 23, 2009; 7:03 PM

New Year’s resolutions: It’s not too early to think about next year’s fitness goals! Send your New Year’s resolutions, including how and why you intend to stick to your routine in 2010, to misfits@washpost.com, and we’ll print some of the best in early January. We may even help you reach those goals.

Reality check time: January 1 is a completely arbitrary day on the calendar. If your goal is to get fit, then there’s zero point to waiting another 5 weeks – start NOW.  After all, you will still be the same person you were on Jan. 1, that you were on Dec. 31.  Even worse, you will have spent the preceding weeks reinforcing the habits you presumably want to change. This isn’t a recipe for long-term success, which may be why New Year’s fitness resolutions tend to fail abysmally.

So get moving – as of yesterday! If you make a fitness resolution for 2010 at all, it should be to continue what you’ve already started.

The Nov. 2 issue of TIME magazine has a great article on the latest report from the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity: “Sweet Spot: How Sugary Cereal Makers Target Kids.”

Rudd researchers just finished crunching Nielsen and comScore data — which track television and Internet marketing — to figure out exactly how much cereal advertising kids see. The result: obesity researchers for the first time have hard data proving that the least healthy cereals are the ones marketed most aggressively to children.

…The Rudd findings, which will be detailed at CerealFacts.org in time for the Obesity Society’s annual meeting in Washington on Oct. 26, show that each year preschoolers (ages 2 to 5) see an average of 507 cereal ads that are designed to appeal to kids. The report also details how sugary-cereal makers are interacting with young consumers online through video games like Lucky Charms Charmed Life and Cinnamon Toast Crunch Swirl. 

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Cool article in the Chicago Tribune about the use of exercise balls instead of classroom chairs:

Donna Yehl’s fourth-grade students bob behind their desks, heads going up and down as if they sat on the deck of a rolling ship.

But it’s not a bad case of fidgeting.

The two dozen kids in Yehl’s classroom at Creekside Elementary School in Elgin do all of their classwork perched on exercise balls.

The multicolored inflatable balls are commonly used in Pilates and other exercise classes. They’re still a rare sight in classrooms, but teachers increasingly find they provide a multitude of benefits, saying they sharpen attention and improve posture.

At the end of the last school year, Yehl took to the Internet seeking creative ways to help her restless pupils sit still. She stumbled on a story about exercise balls and improved concentration, and opted to replace the kids’ metal and plastic chairs with bouncy balls about 21 inches high, in colors the kids selected for themselves.

Yehl found herself an almost immediate convert.

“They’re more focused,” Yehl said. “They’re sitting upright.”

This is something my kids would certainly have liked…

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The name of the article says it all: “On the ‘Biggest Loser,’ Health Can Take Back Seat.”

Some contestants have claimed that dangerous weight loss techniques were common among contestants. Kai Hibbard, who lost 118 pounds and finished as the runner-up in Season 3, has written on her MySpace blog and elsewhere that she and other contestants would drink as little water as possible in the 24 hours before a weigh-in. When the cameras were off, she said, contestants would work out in as much clothing as possible.

Ms. Hibbard, who weighed 144 pounds at the show’s finale, wrote that she added 31 pounds in two weeks, most of it simply by drinking water. That experience is not isolated. Including Mr. Benson, the winners of the first four seasons of the show each have added at least 20 percent to their weight at the end of the show.

Why am I not surprised?

<deep sigh>

I appreciate what the administrators at Lincoln University are trying to do… but they’re doing it wrong.

Entering freshmen at Lincoln University have to get their body mass index, or BMI, measured. And if the result comes back above 30, the threshold for obesity, the students have to take a physical education class called “HPR 103 Fitness Walking/ Conditioning” or they can’t graduate. Details here.

The requirement kicked in for students who enrolled at Lincoln in the fall of 2006. That class is now in its senior year, and most are looking forward to their graduation this spring. But for 80 seniors, graduation will hinge upon their taking phys ed or passing the required BMI test, according to minutes of a Nov. 3 faculty meeting at Lincoln.

James DeBoy, chair of the department of health, phys ed and recreation at Lincoln brought the issue up at the meeting, because he wanted to remind everyone of the requirement. About 15 percent of the entering freshman class in 2006 tested above the 30 BMI mark.

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And th-th-th-thaaaat’s all, folks!

This week wasn’t too different from last week – except a little less grueling.  There was only one “Punisher” set and 2 drop sets in the three workouts.  This was fine with me, however… not sure I could have hacked anything more intense.

It was a good program, but I’m glad it’s over – the volume of the Level A workouts was pretty high, and I’m definitely ready for a rest.

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This LA Times article describes what happens when your kids are raised to prefer sweetened foods.

Reporting from Chicago – The dairy industry recently rolled out an expensive media campaign in praise of chocolate milk, a classic school lunch drink that’s under assault for its sugar content. As trade groups spend upward of $1 million to defend the drink, three fifth-graders have come to its rescue.

A year after the school district in Barrington, Ill., banned flavored milk from its elementary- and middle-school lunch menus, students persuaded administrators to give it another chance.

“Kids weren’t drinking the white milk,” said Haley Morris, 10. “It’s better to have the chocolate milk than nothing.”

…National health organizations agree that milk, whatever its flavor, has benefits for young bodies. Bone density peaks during adolescence, and calcium is vital to bone strength. Milk offers calcium, Vitamin D and a host of other nutrients. Children need about 32 ounces of milk daily just to get the recommended allotment of Vitamin D, Greer said.

Milk processors argue that children might not receive those benefits if chocolate milk is taken away. “There is a huge concern that if kids don’t care for [the taste of plain milk], they won’t actually drink it,” said Vivien Godfrey, the milk trade group’s chief executive.

If they won’t drink even a neutral-tasting beverage like milk without added sugar, there’s a problem.

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Introducing the RipTFusion, “the revolutionary torso enhancing undershirt.”

And no, I don’t believe in Spanx for wimmin, either.  What’s the point in pretending to have a better body than you really do? If you need “body shaping” undergarments to look good in clothes, then it’s time to hit the gym.

We haven’t visited Ye Olde Superfruit controversies in a while, so I thought I’d link to this recent Men’s Health article on acai by Bryan Smith.

The upshot, say experts, is that no one fruit or berry, no matter what its ORAC score, fires an antioxidant silver bullet. “What I tell people is that you need to eat all these types of compounds, in all different colors,” says Navindra P. Seeram, Ph. D., who studies the bioactivity of berries and other plants at the University of Rhode Island.

“Açai berries are wonderful, tasty, delightful fruit,” says Blumberg, “but I have never seen any report demonstrating that they are any better than apples and oranges and cranberries and blueberries and so on. Where is the evidence?”

Given the undertow of controversy pulling on açai, it might seem surprising that we’re so willing to brave the current for more. But for psychologist Ditto, it’s an all-too-familiar phenomenon among American consumers.

“There’s this long history of ‘just drink this and all your problems will be solved,’ ” he says. “That’s why these superfruit berries like açai are so successful. They’re sort of exotic, and they have the trappings of something that sounds good for you. It’s easy. It’s painless. So people tend to be kind of gullible — ‘Sure, I’ll give that a try.’ And they’ll spend a lot of money for it.”

Ouchie!  It’s a long (3 page) article, but Smith did his homework… it’s a good read.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest did some lab tests on movie theater popcorn. 

Eeek!

WASHINGTON—It’s hard to picture someone mindlessly ingesting three McDonald’s Quarter Pounders with 12 pats of butter while watching a movie. But according to new laboratory analyses commissioned by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, that food is nutritionally comparable to what you’d find in a medium popcorn and soda combo at Regal, the country’s biggest movie theater chain: 1,610 calories and three days’ worth—60 grams—of saturated fat. (Nutrition aside, that combo costs $12—for raw ingredients that must cost Regal pennies.)

“Regal and AMC are our nominees for Best Supporting Actor in the Obesity Epidemic,” said CSPI senior nutritionist Jayne Hurley. “Who expects about 1,500 calories and three days’ worth of heart-stopping fat in a popcorn and soda combo? That’s the saturated fat of a stick of butter and the calories of two sticks of butter. You might think you’re getting Bambi, but you’re really getting Godzilla.”

Ok the “Bambi vs. Godzilla” is a bit much… I don’t think anyone noshing on popcorn at the movies imagines they’re eating health food.  But people should have some idea about what they’re eating.  It’s easy as pie (no pun intended) to underestimate how much you’re eating. Movie theater snacks are the kind that are often eaten mindlessly, too (your attention is on the movie, after all), so it’s not exactly hard to pack away quite a few excess cals without noticing.

Like the Cheesecake Factory meals we were discussing yesterday,  munching movie theater popcorn isn’t exactly an every day thing.  But it’s not hard to see how these “loaded” meals and snacks can fit into an overall pattern of overeating that has implications for people’s weight and waistlines.  It helps to know where the “calorie traps” are, so they can be avoided.

I mostly agree with WaPo blogger Ezra Klein’s post on the Cheesecake Factory, although I think he’s off base on one point:

If I had gone to the Cheesecake Factory with the intention of ordering relatively healthfully, it’s pretty likely that the miso salmon would have ended up on my plate. A heart-healthy fish with a soy-based glaze? What could be better?

A lot, as it turns out. On first glance, I would have figure the salmon for the lightest entree, followed by the chicken piccata, the carbonara, and the crispy beef. Not so. The salmon weighs in at 1,673 calories — which is to say, a bit more than 75 percent of the food an adult male should eat in a day. The piccata is a comparably slim 1,385 calories. The crispy beef is 1,528 calories. And the carbonara? 2,191. The answer might be that someone looking for a healthful meal shouldn’t go to the Cheesecake Factory. But insofar as you’re already there, or your family wants to go there, making a good decision isn’t a particularly straightforward proposition.

Emphasis mine.  Sure, I agree completely with his point about the importance of knowing the calorie values of restaurant menu items.  But the calorie counts he’s quoting are for full entrees, which are hyoooge, and include sauces and (an often) heaping pile o’ starch.  But it doesn’t have to be that way… I’ve eaten at Cheesecake Factory before, and have emerged unscathed by following my usual ”restaurant rules.”

1. Pass on any bread/butter (or chips/salsa in Mexican restaurants)
2. Pass on any drinks except water, tea (I make occasional exceptions for a single glass of wine)
3. Order grilled chicken or fish (if it comes sauced, leave most of it on the plate)
4. Ask the server to hold the rice or potatoes and substitute a veg (if one already comes with the entree, I ask for double veggies.  In Asian restaurants, when rice is put on the table, I simply ignore it).
5. Skip dessert (order some decaf if others are ordering dessert) 
6. Eat only until comfortably full – bring leftover food home in a “doggie bag” for a later meal.

Thus, making a good decision IS a straightforward proposition, if that’s really what you want to do.  While developing an awareness of portion sizes and calorie counts is a good thing, it’s even better to have a set of food “values” to live by that can be relied on to mitigate any damage, regardless of where you’re dining, be it Cheesecake Factory, La Grenouille or IHOP.

“The MisFits” – Vicky Hallett and Lenny Bernstein - have a nice article in the Washington Post on the value of pedometers.  As small as they are, they can nonetheless have a big impact on the results of a walking program.

…buying a pedometer is not the first — or second, or third — piece of advice you typically receive when you turn to someone and say: “I really need to get in shape, but I hate exercising. What should I do?”

But it probably should be, says Dena Bravata, a physician and senior research scientist at Stanford who analyzed 26 studies of pedometer use and found clear evidence that people who have them get more exercise, lose weight and lower their blood pressure. In fact, the decrease in blood pressure was equivalent to results achieved through much more expensive interventions that involve doctors and pharmacists, she said. And in a relatively short time, many people were able to lower their body mass index enough to move from the “obese” to “overweight” category.

“What we found was, on average, that wearing a pedometer increased people’s physical activity by about 2,000 steps per day,” Bravata said. “That’s equivalent to about a mile.”

…As a rule, people overestimate the amount of exercise they get. Keeping track can be eye-opening. Falling short motivates people to find ways to walk more, Bonin says.

“I have walked the corridors of this building many a night, trying to work off my last steps,” says Bonin, whose goal is 10,000 steps a day, or about five miles.

A pedometer is a simple way to set goals monitor your progress.  Even for something as basic as walking, this sort of accountability can be invaluable.  Most models are quite inexpensive, and readily available at most sporting good stores (although if you own the latest iPod Nano, you already have one – a pedometer function is built in).

It’s time fruit juice loses its wholesome image, some experts say.

Yes. Yes. YES!

One… more… week… to… go…

Gonna make it to the finish line, but I can tell I’m ready for a training break.  I know the feeling: when I come back home after a workout, and feel drained emotionally as well as physically, it’s time.  The workouts themselves are going well, but lately, it’s been hard to reach for that extra “ooomph” needed to power out those last 1 – 2 reps in the last set(s).

So much of lifting is mental… it takes focus and determination – and lately, I’ve had a tough time summoning both. 

At any rate, this was the first of two “Power Boost” weeks, where the majority of exercises are focused on developing explosive power.  Admittedly, most of these were kind of fun – there’s a joyful aspect to plyo work, thanks to all the hopping and jumping around.  It also induced some muscle fatigue, however, which made this week’s 100 rep “Punisher” sets particularly excruciating.  There were Punisher sets for triceps (rope pushdown), back (seated machine rows), quads (walking lunges) and shoulders (dumbbell lateral raises).

We did the shoulders and quad Punishers earlier today.  I’m shredded.

I will say this for the program, though - my shoulders and upper back look harder and more chiseled than they did at the start, so – like it or not – the high volume and overall pounding have done me some good.  John has some pec and leg development going on, too.  So – while I’ll be glad when we’re done – I’ll also be glad we went through it.  I could see myself doing a version of this again, although I’d be inclined to make some exercise substitutions, as well as make it shorter (i.e., 6 weeks vs. 9).

As noted before, Chris Woolston’s ”Healthy Skeptic” column in the LA Times is pretty good.  Here he is on the subject of diet patches…

Some day, scientists might develop an effective weight-loss patch, says Dr. Howard Eisenson, executive director of the Duke Diet and Fitness Center in Durham, N.C. But, to his mind, that day is probably still far off. The patches on the market today “are beyond ridiculous,” he says. “The more hyperbolic the claims, the more people can quickly dismiss the product.”

Eisenson says there’s no evidence that bladderwrack, a common ingredient in weight loss patches, can encourage weight loss or suppress appetite. The seaweed hasn’t been thoroughly tested orally, let alone through the skin, he says.

So far, no diet patch has passed muster in a published, peer-reviewed study, says Dr. Michael Steelman, past president of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians.

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Apparently GNC wants to be more appealing to women.  Time to pull out the pink!  From Monday’s NYT:

The ads, by Arnell in New York, part of the Omnicom Group, feature black-and-white photographs of wholesome women, and resemble ads for antiwrinkle creams or cosmetics.

The products — including be-Beautiful, which promises to revitalize skin, hair and nails, and be-Hot, which promises to “maximize the results of your workout” — are packaged in pastel containers, with pills that also are pink or lavender. Those pills are smaller than the norm for GNC, and have a flavored coating, since company research found a common complaint among women was that vitamins were unpleasant to swallow.

The goal was to “create a brand that looks like it was designed for women, by women,” said Beth J. Kaplan, president and chief merchandising and marketing officer at GNC. Containers have a clear window so women can glimpse pills that are “smaller and colored and really quite pretty,” Ms. Kaplan said.

Because wimminz need pretty pink and lavender pills to gaze at, and – of course – more space, so they can wander around without interfering with the purposeful, driven, barbell-lifting Men!

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I thought this was hilarious…

Nonetheless, it’s also pretty deadly – she’s got the “wedding culture” nailed. It’s pervasive:  everytime I’m in the grocery store, for example, I silently gag at the sight of those ubiquitous ”Bride” mags lining the checkout aisles.  Naturally, there are no “Groom” mags… as the vid illustrates, weddings are pageants focused on the BRIDE.  Thus, with all the pressure to be perfect on that One Special Day, it’s no surprise to see brides-to-be lose their perspectives.

Unfortunately, they may also lose their lives… 

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Bodybuilding.com has recalled 65 products containing suspected anabolic steroids as part of a cooperative arrangement with the FDA. According to Functional Ingredients Magazine:

The FDA has informed the Company that it believes that the Recalled Products contain ingredients that are steroids. Specifically, the FDA has advised the Company of its concern that the Recalled Products may contain the following ingredients that are currently classified, or the FDA believes should be classified, as steroids: “Superdrol,” “Madol,” “Tren,” “Androstenedione,” and/or “Turinabol.” While the Company has not had an opportunity to independently confirm the FDA’s concerns, the company is undertaking this voluntary recall in an abundance of caution.

Click here to read the rest of the article (inc. the list of recalled supps).

I was doing my usual, early a.m. blog surfing today, and ran into this “Dear Abby” column over at Philly.com:

DEAR ABBY: I am slightly overweight and want to lose 5 to 10 pounds. I admittedly have little self-control and always eat whatever is put in front of me.

My problem is, my wife continues to stock cookies, ice cream and other goodies in the house. Even though I have asked her on many occasions to stop, she refuses to honor my requests. She says “the kids” shouldn’t have to suffer because of my lack of self-control. Abby, I’d like our kids to eat better, too. What should I do?

I’d hate to split up over this issue because we have preteens and everything else is going well.

- Frustrated in San Diego

DEAR FRUSTRATED: The print and television media have, for some time, been filled with stories about the importance of children learning healthy eating habits and urging parents to not only stock the fridge and pantry with healthy snacks, but also to set a good example.

Your wife may have missed all of this, or she may have some ulterior motive for making sure you don’t lose the weight. Should this end an otherwise good marriage?

No, but please understand that if you do not draw the line, your children may also wind up paying the price.

Aaarrgh! Is this a pointless response or what?  What does she mean by “drawing the line”?  What sort of actions does she think he should take?  How do they differ from what he’s doing now?

Must be nice to get paid for dispensing perfectly useless “advice”.  This isn’t about the kids.  It’s about two grown-ups acting like kids.

I think I can do better.  Here goes:

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Paul posted a rant about Kellogg’s Froot Loops and Apple Jacks last week, so I figured I’d pile on too… Can’t let him have all the fun, after all.  According to a recent press release:

Kellogg Company Discontinues Immunity Statements On Rice Krispies Cereals

BATTLE CREEK, Mich., Nov. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Kellogg Company today announced its decision to discontinue the immunity statements on Kellogg’s Rice Krispies cereals.

Last year, Kellogg Company started the development of adding antioxidants to Rice Krispies cereals. This is one way the Company responded to parents indicating their desire for more positive nutrition in kids’ cereal.

While science shows that these antioxidants help support the immune system, given the public attention on H1N1, the Company decided to make this change. The communication will be on pack for the next few months as packaging flows through store shelves. We will, however, continue to provide the increased amounts of vitamins A, B, C and E (25% Daily Value) that the cereal offers.

We will continue to respond to the desire for improved nutrition, and we are committed to communicating the importance of nutrition to our consumers.

Why are they doing this now?

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