Monthly Archives: June 2009

Workout of the Day – June 29th

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35 Minutes Elliptical Machine

4×5 Assisted Pull Ups – 180 pounds (down 10 pounds)

1×3 Assisted Pull Ups – 180 pounds (down 10 pounds)

1×2 Assisted Pull Ups – 190 pounds

4×5 Pulldown – 100 pounds (up 10 pounds)

1×5 Pulldown – 90 pounds

5×5 Dumbbell Row – 40 pounds (up 5 pounds)

3×5 Bicep Curls – 25 pounds

2×4 Bicep Curls – 25 pounds

35 Minutes Treadmill

No freakin’ idea what’s going on with the bicep curls in those last two sets but not only was I not able to go up at all I couldn’t complete a set I’ve done several times already.  Maybe I stressed my muscles out too much increasing on the other machines.  I think I’m finding the weights I need to work with for a few constant workouts.  Overall, though, I’m kinda dissappointed with this one.

Treating Parkinsons Disease with the Wii Fit

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Jorge and Samuel are doing it wrong. Image courtesy of hdaniel

Jorge and Samuel are doing it wrong. Image courtesy of hdaniel

Health care is big business.  Just ask President Obama.  Even with our twenty-four hour news cycle being overrun with updates about the Iranian Elections or the latest round of tragic celebrity deaths, there is still almost daily coverage of the debate in Washington about the future of health care in America.  While there is a great deal of conflict over what exactly the cure is for our ailing health care system, it seems as though everyone agrees that something needs to be done to reign in the rate at which health care spending continues to grow.  If nothing changes the current estimates indicate that by 2017 health care expenses will top nearly $4.7 trillion dollars (nearly 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product).

With all of that money floating around in the health care system it should not come as much of a shocker to learn that in the last 18 months exergames have generated nearly $2 Billion dollars in worldwide sales.  Despite our ever-expanding waist lines (or perhaps as a direct result of them) video game fans are flocking to fitness related video games like Wii Fit and EA SPORTS Active.

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User Queries : The Dreaded “D” Word

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Questions

Image by marcobellucci

I recently got my Diabetes status alert level to “OMGITSNEAR,” which means that I have to both lose weight and be pickier about what I eat. I was wondering if there are any common drinks or foods that I should avoid which might seem healthy at first glance but are not.

For instance, I’ve heard that sports drinks like Gatorade and Cereals like corn flakes should be be on my “do not consume” list because they contain lots of sugar, even though they’re supposed to be alright for consumption for a healthy body. At the same time, it seems that eating chocolate flavored oatmeal with nonfat milk might be bad, but is supposed to be alright. As you can guess, I’m a bit confused.

Any advice for people trying to avoid diabetes while eating right?

– Victor

I can certainly understand the confusion you’re dealing with at the moment.  Diabetes is a scary and intimidating disease and there is a lot of misinformation out there about it.  To many folks a diabetic is someone who isn’t allowed to eat candy bars, but the reality is that not only can a diabetic person eat a candy bar if they want to there are times when a candy bar could be the best thing to keep them from going into a coma!  I could go on at length about Diabetes here (and my original response to you started down that path), but I’ll do my best to stay focused so that Krystalle doesn’t beat me with the editor stick.

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Crazy Cupcake Lady is crazy

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the evil cupcakeThere’s nothing quite like the crazy of an extremist to make a movement look really bad.  From politics to religion and everything in between we are constantly bombarded with examples of people who take hold of an idea so fiercely that they actually do more harm than good for the cause they are trying to prop up.  These kind of people make great headlines and are, unfortunately, usually more interesting to read about than those of us who are trying to make rational arguments.

The proponents of healthy living are not immune from this phenomenon.

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Toll House Recalls Cookie Dough

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Image courtesy of SuperFantastic

Image courtesy of SuperFantastic

Ok.  So.  This is a health and fitness blog for geeks, right?  The whole point of this thing is to promote lifestyle choices that will help you live longer and better lives.   That’s why we’re all here.  I get that.  I mean, considering the fact I’m one of the founders one would hope that I grasp the concept of the experiment.

I also understand, however, that there are times when all the good choices in the world get tossed aside and you just have to have something decadent.  Call it a mental health break if you will, but every once in a while even the strongest of us just have to be “bad”.  I get that, too.

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Nintendo Announces Wii Fit Plus

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Fly, Chicken Man! Fly!

It appears as though the battle for supremacy in the exergame field continues!  Not content to sit back and let EA SPORTS Active steal all the thunder when it comes to fitness gaming, Nintendo recently announced an expansion to the popular Wii Fit title during the E3 conference in Los Angeles, California.

The appropriately named Wii Fit Plus is scheduled to be released this Fall in time for the Holiday shopping season.  Available as a complete package with the Wii Balance Board or as a stand-alone expansion for those who already own Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus includes all the exercises of the original game along with 15 new balance games and six new yoga and strength training activities.

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In Pursuit of the Pull-Up

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Photo by uuzinger

Photo by uuzinger

I have never, in my entire life, done a pull-up.

This is not an easy revelation for me to make.  The truth of the matter is that it’s downright painful.

Back when I was in Middle School (6th to 8th grades down here in Florida) physical education was a mandatory class that everyone had daily.  For some kids it was an excuse to get outside and have some fun during the school day.  For me it was a daily reminder of how much I sucked.  It was an opportunity for me to get picked on for how slow I was, how much I was sweating in the hot Florida sun, how I was horrible at team sports, and how ugly I looked when I didn’t have my shirt on.  The latter, of course, only happened on one of the very rare occasions when I would actually get up the nerve to “dress out.”  When I didn’t, which was most of the time, I got picked on instead because of how badly I smelled due to not taking a shower after class.

The absolute worst humiliation I had to endure during that time, however, was a direct result of The President’s Challenge.

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Umm….What?

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So I have a Cafe Press store.  I got to playing around with it today because Summer said something really funny that sounded T-Shirt worthy.  In doing so I cam across the following product that was in my shop –

The reason I find this noteworthy is because I have NO IDEA WHAT THIS BUMPER STICKER MEANS.

Seriously.  None.

I can only assume that it came about during my days hanging out with the ladies on the Bad Girl Swirl.  Perhaps it was something Anais said.  That’s as close as I get to an explanation.

My life is weird.