Monthly Archives: January 2010

Shoes may not be the best fit for runners

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About four months ago I got into a conversation with a friend of mine about the fact that I had taken up jogging. I was about three quarters of the way through the Cool Running “Couch to 5K” training program and I had signed up to participate in my first official race on Thanksgiving. Knowing that I still had a decent amount of weight to lose and that I had dealt with weight-related injuries in the past my friend asked whether or not I was worried about injuries and suggested that if I wanted to improve my cardiovascular fitness I might consider a lower impact exercise like swimming.

At the time I was a little put off by his statements, to be honest. There is nothing quite as discouraging as having someone cast doubts about the safety of an activity that you’re working very hard to master. The fact of the matter is, though, that he had a point. Running is a fantastic way to burn calories and improve your endurance, but it can cause some significant injuries if you aren’t careful (and sometimes even if you are). I’m still, by most standards, about fifty pounds overweight and I am frequently sore for a day or so after I complete a run. All of that extra weight is pretty hard on my joints to being with and jogging is a fairly high impact activity. Not only that, but some researchers now think that the fact that runners wear shoes at all makes them more likely to injure themselves.

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Unexpected additives found in many weight loss supplements

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steveb_ohio via flickr

It isn’t easy to achieve or maintain a healthy weight. If it was there would be no such thing as a multi-billion dollar weight loss industry. While we contend here at ShrinkGeek that the only tried and true method of losing weight is to eat less and exercise, we concede that there is no such thing as a “one size fits all” solution on the best way to get there. The struggle to find the combination of diet and exercise that works best for your particular personality and physiology is probably the hardest part about losing weight, and frustration over finding out what you can and can not live with can be a potentially crippling road block to your progress.

Many people chose to rely on “natural” dietary supplements to aid in their weight-loss efforts, and with good reason. The ability to consume a product that can help you lose weight without introducing any man made chemicals into your system is pretty appealing! Unfortunately, it appears as though a lot of people who use these products are getting considerably more than they bargain for.

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Quit smoking, get diabetes

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Image courtesy of m.a.r.c. on flickr

Ok, seriously…Sometimes I just want to throw my hands up in the air and give in to the inevitable tide of “nothing you do is good for you anymore.” Seems like every time we get our heads around the right way towards healthy living someone has to come along and throw a monkey wrench in the works. It seems as though the list of food and drink you should or should not consume fluctuates wildly week to week, and sometimes the exercise du jour turns out to be more damaging to your body than beneficial. It’s maddening!

One thing we can all agree on, though, is that smoking is bad for you and that if you smoke quitting the habit is probably the best thing you can do for your health.

Right?

Not so fast, sparky.

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Keeping in step with the Nintendo Wii

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Back in July of 2009 Krystalle wrote up a review of the game Personal Trainer : Walking for the Nintendo DS.   Having used the product myself I can say it’s a really neat way to motivate yourself to go out and walk if you like video games, and the ability to communicate with your Nintendo Wii to download an avatar was an awesome feature.  The only real “criticism” I had of the game was that all of the motivation took place after you were done walking. There wasn’t really anything built into the game itself to make your walks interesting and you are only entertained for the few minutes it takes you to upload your step records every night.

Games like EA Sports Active and Wii Fit are fine ways to get exercise indoors, but they can be very daunting for people who haven’t been doing any kind of exercise. Walking is really the best way to get going when you’ve been sedentary for a long time, and Konami has come up with a new way to get you walking and entertain you at the same time.

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Win a free copy of EA SPORTS Active More Workouts

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Free is good. I’m a big fan of free stuff. Especially free food. Heck, it’s one of my biggest weaknesses when it comes to the whole “eating right” thing. If you put me in an all-you-can-eat scenario that I don’t have to pay for you bet your sweet bippy I’m going to go out of my way to make sure I eat until I’m so full I can’t move anymore.

Hey, I’m aware of my weaknesses.

Free food isn’t the only thing I like that. I also like free stuff. Like video games.

See where I’m going with this? If you haven’t already figured it out from the title, that is (and really, if you haven’t? I’m willing to bet you’re the type of person who asks where Mankirk’s wife is).

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“Couch Potatoes” have shorter lifespans

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Image courtesy of oddsock via Flickr

We here at ShrinkGeek walk a fine editorial tightrope when it comes to sermonizing about the “evils” of the sedentary activities we all share a common love for. Let’s face it, folks. The chips are stacked against us in the whole healthy lifestyle realm. You aren’t very likely to see an elevated heart rate for extended period as a result of playing games or watching movies. That being said, we also recognize that it’s perfectly acceptable to indulge in the things that we love if we do so sensibly and take the time to balance out other activities that aren’t quite so…passive.

The main problem with this issue is that it is hard to quantify just how “bad” for you sedentary activities are. We all should be able to recognize that someone who never exercises and spends all their time in front of a computer or television is not likely to be a healthy person, but it’s never been easy to put a finger on how much is “too much” when it comes to these activities. Is two hours of television or computer use a night too much? Three? What if you spend all day in front of a computer for your job? There are a lot of hard questions revolving around these scenarios and no easy answers to be found.

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Rules question – #dnd

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I probably would have just asked this question via twitter but it’s a bit long for that.

I’m confused about dying in fourth edition.  Specifically, I am unsure of how the Heal skill works in relation to it. I’m going to quote a few rules and then my interpretation of them to see if you all agree.

Ok, first we have the definition of dying in 4e:

• You’re unconscious.
• You’re at 0 or negative hit points.
• You make a death saving throw every round.

Here are the rules on Healing the Dying:

When you are dying, any healing restores you to at least 1 hit point. If someone has stabilized you using the Heal skill but you receive no healing, you regain hit points after an extended rest.

HEALING A DYING CHARACTER

Regain Hit Points: When you are dying and receive healing, you go to 0 hit points and then regain hit points from the healing effect. If the healing effect requires you to spend a healing surge but you have none left, you are restored to 1 hit point.

Become Conscious: As soon as you have a current hit point total that’s higher than 0, you become conscious and are no longer dying. (You are still prone until you take an action to stand up.)

And here are the rules on the Heal Skill (specifically First Aid):

Make a Heal check to administer first aid.

First Aid: Standard action.
DC: Varies depending on the task you’re attempting.
Use Second Wind: Make a DC 10 Heal check to allow an adjacent character to use his or her second wind without the character having to take an action to do so. The character doesn’t gain the defense bonuses normally granted by second wind.
Stabilize the Dying: Make a DC 15 Heal check to stabilize an adjacent dying character. If you succeed, the character can stop making death saving throws until he or she takes damage. The character’s current hit point total doesn’t change as a result of being stabilized.
Grant a Saving Throw: Make a DC 15 Heal check. If you succeed, an adjacent ally can immediately make a saving throw, or the ally gets a +2 bonus to a saving throw at the end of his or her next turn.

Here is my question…

If  a character is dying but has not used his Second Wind in that encounter the character attempting First Aid can opt to go for the easier DC 10 Heal check.  This would restore the dying character to a number of hit points equal to their Healing Surge amount and burn one of their healing surges.  If they have no healing surges left it would restore them to 1 HP.  If the dying character has already used their Second Wind for the encounter all that can be done for them is a stabilization check.

Am I interpreting that correctly?

Little changes

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Image courtesy of Silus Grok via flickr

I was chatting with a friend of recently when the subject of weight loss came up. He told me that he had managed to lose 10 pounds in the last month, and when I asked what he was doing he told me that he had stopped going to McDonalds for breakfast every morning and started drinking less soda at work.

That’s it.

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Truth in advertising

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Advertising Fail courtesy of the Fail Blog

If you’ve watched television at all in the last 10 years or so you are most likely familiar with the name Jared Fogel, and if not you’d likely recognize him if you saw a picture. Jared is “the Subway guy.” For those of you who are not familiar with his admittedly impressive story, the Reader’s Digest version is that back in 1997 Jared lost an incredible amount of weight by following what he termed “The Subway Diet.” The diet program in and of itself was pretty simple. Jared, who had been consuming what he estimates as nearly 10,000 calories a day, replaced two of his meals with six inch sandwiches from Subway’s “7 under 6” menu (sandwiches with a total of less than six grams of fat). He also walked pretty much everywhere and added other types of exercise on top of that. In the end he managed to lose over 240 pounds, and when the advertising executives at Subway caught wind of his success they hired him as a spokesman. That move turned out to be a smashing success for the restaurant chain, and Jared has been associated with them ever since.

While many restaurants have tried to duplicate the success that Subway had marketing themselves as a diet-friendly fast food alternative there is little doubt that Subway has remained the uncontested king of the healthy lifestyle hill.  So far they’ve managed to fight off all other pretenders to their throne, but it looks like they may be facing a new challenge from a fairly unlikely source.

Taco Bell.

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Famous last words

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Image courtesy of adamr.stone via flickr.

Alex approached me as I was getting ready for bed last night to tell me that his blood glucose level was low. This was, quite honestly, a bit of a shocker considering how much food we had eaten over at our friend Kari’s house during the course of the day. I realized, though, that I’d had him take his evening shot of insulin when we got home and that he hadn’t eaten anything since so it made sense. It was just weird. In any case I told him that he could go ahead and make himself something to eat because I was about to literally pass out in my chair and I was not in the mood to stay up and cook something for him.

“Oooh!,” he says to me, “I’ll fry up some fish!”

Alex got a deep fryer for Christmas. He didn’t get it from me, and when I saw it on the list of things that he wanted for Christmas that he passed on to his Grandmother I specifically told her that she did not have to go out of her way to get it for him. She did, though, and now he’s the proud owner of a Sensio 13401 Bella Cucina 3-1/2-Liter Stainless-Steel Deep Fryer. While I must admit that having a deep fryer is pretty much the height of awesome if you’re a teenager and you like to cook, this item concerns me for a number of reasons. The obvious one is, of course, the fact that I’m overweight and have had two strokes and fried foods are really not good for me. On top of that, though, I have that whole parent fear of him burning himself while using it or burning down our house (or both). This is an irrational fear, and I am aware of it, but that doesn’t stop me from having it. Like me, the boy is silly and can be highly irresponsible, but as a general rule he takes himself pretty seriously when he’s cooking and he’s never given me a reason to think that he’d do something stupid that would result in injury to person or property.

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