The video below (click through if you don’t see it) shows what happens when you literally turn the stairs into a toy by installing piano keys with working notes. They found people chose the stairs 66% more of the time. Check it out!

By Mike

I always think of myself as a pessimist. However, I often find myself telling my friends or coworkers the brighter side of the situation. For example, at work, my coworkers complain about our boss’ management style (as do I sometimes). But then I counter with some positive ways of looking at the situation. While our boss likes to take all the fun and exciting work for herself, it frees up our time to work on new initiatives on our contract.

While I was in one of my pessimistic moods recently, I realized something that questions why our world was set up the way it is. Before I begin, though, please be sure to read through the entire piece as you’ll miss my point if you only read the next section…

The World is Out to Get You!

If you step back and look at the big picture around you, you’ll begin to realize that there doesn’t seem to be anything you can do right. To clarify, it seems that regardless of what you do to live a long, healthy life, there’s a downside to your action that could actually harm you. Take the following examples:

• Eating eggs is good because of the protein they provide. But eating eggs is bad because of the cholesterol.
• Running is an excellent, low cost method of weight loss and fitness. But running deteriorates your joints and could compress your spine from so much pounding.
• Drinking milk provides essential calcium and other nutrients to help our bodies grow healthy and strong. But many claim that drinking milk from cows isn’t natural (well, it isn’t I guess) and the hormones are wreaking havoc with our bodies.
• Relaxing by watching TV or reading a book is great for refreshing your mind and body. But too much relaxing leads to muscle atrophy and bed sores (ok, that was a stretch).
• Taking vitamins is essential to replace the nutrients you aren’t getting in your regular diet. But taking the wrong vitamins could lead to a toxic reaction (e.g. too much iron).
• Basically when you try to avoid one thing, you find out the alternative is just as bad for you, or worse.

So it seems that we have to be super-cautious about working out, eating, and just keeping/getting healthy or else risk harming our bodies more than we’re helping. Why is life so difficult?!?

Should we all just give up?

Ok, so that’s a pretty depressing statement, but many people that try to get healthy end up thinking the same thing. They give up trying. But even as a self-proclaimed pessimist, I won’t accept the excuse that the world is out to get us and nothing we can do will improve our lives.

Having a wife who is a registered dietitian doesn’t mean that I have some special insight into how to be healthy. I’m still an overweight, out-of-shape husband who eats buffets and Ramen noodles and watches TV instead of going to the gym. That’s because:

• every person’s body is different, thus are the types of food that work best for it (or against it). Just being close to a dietitian or personal trainer doesn’t automatically suck the fat away (believe me, I’ve wished for it).
• it’s up to the individual to have the motivation to work out, eat better or eat appropriate portions. No one can force me to change; I have to do it myself.

If I don’t get up off my butt and exercise, and eat the right mix of foods (and right amounts) for my body, then I probably have a very slim chance at staying, much less getting, healthy. And how do I find out what and how much I should be eating? By seeing a registered dietition! How do I get into better physical shape? By going to the gym, walking, running, climbing stairs, etc.!

But we still can’t escape the problem that whatever we do has both positive and negative results. However, I can still try. I’ll avoid fad diets and “miracle cures”, knowing that nothing will be a fast-fix to my health problems. I’ll be careful not to over-exert myself when working out, and minimize the impact on my joints. That means using the elliptical trainer and walking until I lose enough weight where running is less detrimental than it is beneficial. It means eating proper portions (aka “portion control”) and not overindulging at buffets or over-snacking.

Not all is lost, even if you are a pessimist. At the beginning of this article I said there always seems to be a negative to the positive. Well, conversely there’s a positive to every negative. Yes, eggs might raise your cholesterol, but you can just eat egg whites. Yes, exercising can deteriorate our bones, but you can do low-impact workouts. There’s always a good with any bad.

So stop moping around, feeling sorry for yourself that you’ll never get healthy. And stop fussing over all the new diet fads or health alerts. Otherwise, you’ll get overwhelmed and just give up. Take it one step at a time. Introduce exercise into your daily regimen. Then cut down on the amount of food you eat (assuming you overeat) or see a registered dietitian to create a nutrition plan that works for you.

Take enough small steps and you’ll be surprised at how far you’ve gone!

_{Photo by Abdullah AL-Naser}

Here are some statistics I found regarding dieting:

(courtesy of the Eating Disorder Foundation):

• Granted, this was a People Magazine survey (so somewhat biased results based on who reads the magazine) but 4 out of 5 of the women surveyed said they feel insecure about their bodies compared to fashion models. (who wouldn’t? But many of those photos are “doctored” and unrealistic!)
• In 1990, the average age of a girl starting a diet was 8 years old! Eight, that’s right. Can you imagine that our little 2nd and 3rd graders are already starting to think of dieting and actually doing it? They should be thinking about what Webkinz they want or what Wii game they want to play, not how they look!
• Another statistic that shocked me is that 81% of 10 year old girls are afraid of being fat.
• Men are not immune to dieting–about 1 in 4 men are dieting on an average day.

So, today, when you look in the mirror, be happy with what you see. What you see as imperfections are strengths in other people’s eyes. Ladies, you ARE beautiful; men, you ARE handsome! Make a resolution that, starting today, you’re not going to go on any fad diet and you’re going to stop picking on your body.

If you have children, avoid talking about how much you hate your body in front of them. Avoid talking about bad foods and good foods and how you “can’t eat that food”. Even at a young age, kids hear it and internalize it. It’s like swear words. If kids hear that it’s bad to say, then it becomes a punishment if they say it. Don’t be like that with food.

Don’t have “forbidden foods” and make kids feel bad if they want one (for example, if you say “cookies make me fat and I need to exercise if I have one” then your child might feel bad if they have one and feel like it’s going to make them “fat” because you think it will). Healthy eating behaviors and self-image are key! Even if your child is overweight, tell them that they are beautiful. Make exercise and healthy eating fun so that they won’t feel like they are being punished for their weight. Don’t avoid food groups or certain foods altogether, because you CAN eating fatty foods if you eat the proper portions!

The MyPyramid Meal Plan is designed for healthy individuals over the age of 2 years. If you have a health condition, it is best to talk to your doctor and dietitian to find out what diet is best for you before embarking on this meal plan.

What can the MyPyramid.Gov website do for you?

1. Tell you how many calories (roughly) that you need each day.
2. Give you a meal plan that tells you how many fruits, vegetables, grains, meats/beans, and milk you need each day and provide you with information on serving sizes and examples for each food group.
3. Link you to a tracking system that you can use to type in every food item you eat in a day. Pretty cool if you ask me!
4. Give you some information on physical activity.

There is also information on the website for kids and pregnant and breastfeeding women.

So, let’s check it out!

Here are instructions for using the MyPyramid.gov website

1. Go to the MyPyramid.Gov
2. Click on the link to the right of the page for MyPyramid Plan.
3. Enter your age, sex, weight, height, and activity level (to get an estimate of how many calories you need a day). Once you do this, it will tell you, on estimate, how many calories you need each day, and how many servings of grains, fruit, vegetables, meat/beans, and milk you need each day. If you are overweight, it will kindly tell you so and it will then give you a meal plan for how to eat to lose weight.
4. For an example, click on the “tips” link to the right of the grains. You will see some examples of how to incorporate these food items into your daily meal plan. It will also give you links on the right of this page on what counts as a serving of whole grains. You can click on the tips for each of the food groups.
5. At the bottom of this page, it links you to some example of ways to incorporate physical activity into your life.
6. On the right of the page, you see links to “view, learn, and print more”. You can print out a checklist of this information (i.e., “print a PDF version of your results”).
7. On the right of the page, under the “view, learn, and print more” section, click on the My Pyramid Tracker. This will take you to a free website to enter in what you eat and see how it measures up to the guidelines. (You must register to the site, but it IS free). How awesome is that? You can also do that with your physical activity!

Well, I hope that you enjoy the MyPyramid.Gov website. It’s a useful tool for helping with weight management and control.

Living and working in a high-paced area, I notice that a lot of what we say is negative. We are quick to judge others and even quicker to judge ourselves. How often have we looked in the mirror and exclaimed “I have fat thighs/hips, stomach”, “I hate my hair”, “If only I could change…?” I do it, my husband does it, and even girls I know who have model-perfect bodies do it. But it’s not right! By judging ourselves and those around us, we are trying to conform to a standard that we have set, a standard that says “this is what is good, and I have to match up to what is good.”

But who defines this standard? If you think about it, it’s crazy. What constitutes “the perfect body” for me might not be what you think is the perfect body? So who is right? No one!!

Not only should you talk to yourself lovingly, talk to others with the same level of respect. Even if you think that someone else is out-of-shape, try to find something about them that is positive: do they look nice in that shirt today, does that necklace bring out the color of their eyes? Commend others on what they are doing right, and do the same for yourself. Start the day off with a positive attitude and give yourself a hug everyday. You might think I’m crazy, but try it! It’s the easiest thing you can do for yourself!

_{[Photo by kalandrakas]}

Courtney, who used to write for Shape magazine (and had a monthly weight loss column in the magazine), admits to how she has struggled with her weight, binge eating (which becomes an important part of this book), and working out.

It’s not a weight loss book that conveys that “you can do it and there will never be any struggles.” On the contrary, this book describes those struggles, from eating out with friends, having difficulties with eating when you start out with a bad day, and struggling to lose weight when everyone already “makes fun of” your excess baggage.

Although I am a “normal weight” person, I still have days where I struggle to eat healthy, exercise, and feel good about myself. Therefore, I related to several points in this book–from food cravings to being self-conscious about other’s seeing my meals to finding the motivation to work out. Courtney talks about all of these points and much more! I also related to her story because she lives (lived?) in the DC area and trained for a marathon–her feelings about marathon training, and her excitement over the “long runs” and being able to succeed, were very similar to how I would feel during those months of training.

One of the key points that Courtney discussed, which can be easy to forget, is that weight loss isn’t ever just about weight. Emotions play a key role in our weight, in how we eat, and how much we eat. Like alcoholism and cigarette addictions, we CAN have addictions to certain foods, to portions of foods, and to using food to numb an emotional pain. And Courtney discusses this in her book.

The last chapter of the book says it all–basically, that (paraphrased) it’s about what’s on the inside that matters. Weight loss isn’t about how others view you. It’s about how you see yourself and whether you match up to your own standard of weight loss and self-image. Remember that others can’t see what you are going through inside and that no one should judge you for how your weight loss is going.

Weight loss is also about priorities, about what you deem important. If you (like me) are always trying to please everyone, then it might be hard for you to fit exercise into your schedule because you don’t want to disappoint anyone else or stick up for yourself and say “I can’t go out tonight/I can’t drink tonight. I’m working out in the morning”. And, it’s about asking for help and not feeling alone. We’re human beings–it’s rare that we do anything alone, so why would we try to make a big change like lose weight without having support? So, if you are trying to lose weight, don’t feel like you need to go at it alone–find support in your friends, in your family, in your coworkers, in anyone who will help you achieve your goals and support the person you are inside.

This book is not for someone who is looking for a way to lose weight (i.e., it won’t give you recipes, meal plans, or exercise goals), but for someone who is trying to lose weight or understand the struggles of someone undergoing weight loss and overcoming a binge eating disorder. In my opinion, it’s a book to help friends and family of someone struggling with weight to understand how complex of an issue it really is!

This hesitance covers all aspects of my life: career, social (as mentioned above), and even in my personal fitness. Since my husband stopped running due to a back injury, I have had a couple of opportunities in the area to run local races (5K, 8K, 10K races). However, although I have been “very close” to signing up and have told others “oh, I’m going to run that race too!”, I have become too anxious about the event to actually sign up (“will I be the slowest runner there?”, “how will I get there?”, “will I know anyone else there? If so, will they laugh at me?” etc). After all, my running buddies are not in the immediate area, and running a race would be me–just me–embarking on a new adventure. I’ve always had my husband or friends to be there to help me through these things.

This holiday, the local road runners club threw a New Year’s 5K race that was practically free ($5 for non-members) and there was NO pre-registration until race day so I didn’t have to stress about signing up or losing registration dollars if I didn’t show up–not that I’ve done THAT before!). So, although we had friends over to celebrate the New Year, I decided to get up early and run the race!

Although I had those anxiety-ridden feelings the night prior and the morning of the race, I forced myself to go to the race and actually run. What did I have to lose? My previous fears of being the last person to finish and my fears of not knowing where to go and what to do dissipated when I realized that

a) I just followed everyone else when signing up for the race and running, and
b) I actually finished in the top 42% of female runners (of ~100) and female runners in my age range.

So, what WAS I so afraid of all this time?????

So, I am sure that many of you are probably like me: hesitant to try something new. I’m here to tell you that although it’s natural to be afraid and anxious about some new adventure, it’s important to break through those walls if you want to accomplish goals in life.

Maybe you’re afraid to go to the gym because people will “make fun of you”; the way I see it, if others are making fun of you, then they just aren’t working hard enough at the gym! Maybe you don’t take that aerobics class because you’re afraid you’ll “make a fool of yourself”–do you think the instructor did a perfect routine the first time they took a class? Probably not–just remember, everyone has to start somewhere!

This empowerment I feel today by doing something that I was so afraid to do may not mean that I’ll be able to just forget my anxieties and sign up for/run every race, but I hope that it will help me embark on new adventures that I may have been resistant to even attempting because of that “fear factor”. Good luck on accomplishing your goals and getting over that hump!

_{Photo Courtesy of Violator3}

Many of us are going to embark on 2008 by setting some sort of a New Year’s resolution, even if we tell ourselves we won’t. But many of us (myself included) have set those NY resolutions in the past and by the end of January have forgotten them, gotten discouraged, or “messed up”. So, how can we stick to those resolutions?

My Tips For a Successful New Year’s Resolution

1. Be realistic: if you have not worked out in months, what makes you think that you’re going to suddenly start working out every day?

2. Break your resolution into pieces: if you want to get more physically active over the next year, consider breaking your goals into months: For example: “for January, I am going to work out once to twice a week”; “for February, I am going to focus on strength training and see the physical trainer at the gym”. Increase these goals as the months go by.

3. Choose a resolution that you are motivated to achieve. Have fun with it!

4. Choose a resolution that it specific, not vague. For example, “this year I am going to lose weight” is vague, but to state “this year, I am going to try to lose 10 pounds by…” is a realistic goal that you can work towards.

5. Write down your resolutions and post them where you can see them (I have mine on the back of my bathroom closet door–I get in there daily and not everyone knows it’s there).

6. Get others motivated to set the same resolution with you. For instance, you and your neighbor decide that you are going to walk every Monday morning (and if you don’t feel motivated, chances are, she will and motivate you to keep your resolution).

7. Get others to support you, even if they don’t have the same resolution (in the case of trying to quit smoking). However, remind them that nagging is not the best motivation.

8. Make a plan to accomplish your resolution. If you want to spend more time with extended family, block out weekends andoccasions in which you will see them. Or, schedule weekly phone calls on your calendar to keep you connected. If your plan is to volunteer more, write down places you could volunteer and keep that list handy.

9. Plan a reward if you meet your resolution. For instance, plan a trip if you lose those 10 pounds, run a race, etc. Have this goal in mind before you set the resolution however.

10. Recognize that we all have good and bad days. So you screw up one day or even a week, but that doesn’t mean you’re done for the rest of the year (unless it’s already December 31st)!

Good luck in achieving your New Year’s resolutions, and Have a safe and Happy New Year!!

_{Photo Courtesy of Snowdeal}

“It’s about how much you eat.”

“You can do anything you set your mind to”

“believe in yourself”

There’s no magic to it. These participants went from not even being able to walk 1 mile to walking a marathon (26.2 miles) in one day!!!!

Finisher weights:

Men lost: 80 and 85 pounds
Women lost: 55, 50, 56 and 51 pounds

10 weeks, 575 miles

You don’t need to devote your life to full-time walking like the Fat March contestants to see a difference. Walk a few blocks after work or in the morning every day. Walk longer on weekends. See the neighborhood, go to the track, or walk in the mall without stopping to shop. You’ll be amazed at the improvement in your joints, breathing, appetite, stress and even sleep after walking every day. Eventually you can build up to more exercises like strength training and aerobics, but start with walking if you’re able!

With aerobic fitness workouts, we have measurable goals. For example, running an 8 minute mile (my own goal), beating a certain number of stairs per 30 minutes, or biking at a certain constant pace for 60 minutes. When the machine or our clocks tell us that we’ve met our goal, we can celebrate.

Strength training also provides many opportunities for meeting goals. We may not focus much on the time factor though. Rather, we can count number of repetitions of a certain weight. In college, when I first started strength training (I was a pretty overweight kid), I had a goal of bench pressing 225 lbs. I started with 135 lbs and worked until I could complete 30 repetitions of 135 lbs, with breaks. I continued stacking up the weights through the months until that one day I pushed up 225lbs. I felt amazing that day.

Although your goals may not match up with what others around you can accomplish, don’t be discouraged. Ultimately, your goal could be to out-bench, out-run, or out-anything that friend or stranger.

Set measurable, yet attainable goals in order to provide yourself the ability to feel an accomplishment. Without goals and without rewards, your fitness and strength training activities may feel rather pointless. Give yourself something to work towards so that you’re excited to go to the gym, the track, or the weight room!