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.
January 1st is, traditionally, a day that many people use as the motivation to make positive changes in their lives. From getting in shape to going to church more often and everything in between there are countless ways in which many people are vowing to improve themselves, starting today. If you’ve made a resolution to improve yourself but you’re not quite sure how to go about doing so, you may find value in taking on some kind of challenge to help you reach your goals. We’ve collected a list of 10 of our favorite ones for you to check out below the cut.
Image courtesy of Manuel Cernuda
I stumbled across an interesting article over at MSNBC.com this morning while I was doing my daily scan through the numerous feeds I follow. Apparently some scientists over in Australia did a bit of research and came to the startling conclusion that people who spent more than five hours a week using a computer were two and a half times more likely to be obese than people who did not use computers at all.
I understand that next they are going to try and sort out once and for all whether or not that water stuff is actually wet.
In all seriousness, though, this article is yet another piece of information we have confirming what is a rather unfortunate truth for those of us who spend most of our day working and playing in front of a glowing box. Namely, if you’re a heavy computer user you’re considerably more likely to be fat. (In all fairness the same pretty much holds true for any sedentary activity, but there aren’t a lot of people I know who get paid to watch television all day.) We could get into the whole chicken and egg argument about whether computer users are predisposed towards obesity, but the whys and wherefores really do not change the facts of the situation.
The question is – What do we do about it?
Photo courtesy of akeg
Exercise is an important factor in getting to and maintaining a healthy weight. I realize that, for many folks, that statement is about as necessary as “oxygen is an important factor in breathing,” but for some of us it is a tough pill to swallow. For most people, exercise is not an enjoyable way to spend their time, and the thought of getting in the CDC suggested 30 minutes of physical activity every day is frequently so intimidating that they choose not to start an exercise regimen at all. Conversely, they may go from a completely sedentary lifestyle to one in which they are exercising so vigorously and regularly that they end up hurting themselves or becoming discouraged over the fact that the weight isn’t coming off as quickly as they hope it would.
Image courtesy of db*photography
I’d like to lose the 20lbs that stand between me and a size 12, or even the 50lbs that stand between me and a size “Wow!”. I know that to do so I need to make calories in less than calories out. But how many calories should I shoot for in general?
I’ve used a number of calculators, with so vastly different results.
Here’s two examples:
The American Cancer Society says I need 2318.
The Mayo Clinic says I need 1550.
What gives? Where can I get a reliable number?
Thanks,
Naomi
Ok. Wow. You guys have really decided to stop throwing softballs at us when it comes to these questions, haven’t you? Next time why not ask us how to perform open heart surgery or something? Sheesh.
Seriously, though – The reason this is a difficult question is because the first (and most honest) response is “it depends.” It depends on a lot of things. It depends on how old you are, how tall you are, how much you weigh currently, how active you are, what your sex is, and what type of calories you’re putting in to your body (a 1200 calorie a day diet consisting of nothing but Snickers bars isn’t very likely to warrant positive results). With all of those factors in place it is no wonder that you’re having a hard time finding a solid answer to your question.
A few years ago several World of Warcraft players with way too much time on their hands decided that it would be a good idea to rig their computers to a treadmill so they could virtually “run” across Azeroth. Unfortunately the video and the page that originally linked to it have vanished into the virtual ether, but suffice it to say that the heroes of the story soon learned that they were not, in fact, nearly as fit as their digital selves.
It seems as though these days you can’t have a conversation about Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games without someone asking which one is going to be the World of Warcraft killer. Personally? I happen to agree with my buddy Kevin Stallard who boldly stated that there would never be a WoW killer. Regardless of our opinion, though, people still speculate who is going to have the power to dethrone the 800 pound gorilla that Blizzard created, and many folks are wondering if the Asian inspired Aion from NCSoft has what it takes to become King of the Hill.
So what, you may be wondering, does dominance in the MMO industry have to do with a Health and Fitness blog?
You know, it’s not very often that I get the opportunity to post a picture of a rather attractive and scantily clad woman here on ShrinkGeek and still have the right to claim that my doing so is in the realm of “legitimate” reporting. Today just happens to be one of those days.
Fitness model and former World Wrestling Entertainment superstar Trish Stratus announced on Thursday that she is partnering up with Frima Studios to produce Stratusphere, an exergame that will focus on using Yoga as a “real workout.” The game will use the Wii Balance Board along with other peripherals and include video segments of Stratus encouraging the players on.
There was a lot of buzz on the floor of E3 this year after Microsoft unveiled Project Natal, and rightly so. The potential to have a game system that can track your movements so precisely that it can actually recognize who you are when you walk into the room is pretty amazing (and, admittedly, pretty creepy at the same time). While attaching a camera to a console to use in a video game is nothing new, the level of interactivity that Project Natal is promising is going to be a huge leap forward if it ever actually makes it out of development. Needless to say, this kind of tool could totally revolutionize the fitness gaming industry.
Ubisoft, however, isn’t waiting around for Microsoft to finish development of Project Natal. This Christmas they are bringing the hands-free fitness gaming concept to the Nintendo Wii.
I AM still working out daily with essentially the same level of intensity that I was before. I’ve just moved my tracking of it to a paper journal so as not to bore you all to tears.
EA SPORTS announced today that the first expansion to their hit fitness game EA SPORTS Active will be released in North America on November 17th, 2007 (just in time for the holiday season).
As much as I’m looking forward to getting my hands on this particular little expansion I have to admit that the name leaves a lot to be desired. When I first wrote about the “tropical” theme of the expansion I figured it would be something like EA SPORTS Active: Fitness In Paradise! or something along those lines. Apparently my marketing mojo isn’t as good as I thought it was because the name for the latest addition to this franchise is a descriptive but less-than-imaginative EA SPORTS Active More Workouts.