A move to health

I've been thinking of changing gears for some time, but just haven't yet. I figure that since I'm working on a PhD in Health Promotion and over 2/3 of Americans are overweight or obese, I could have some valuable information to offer. But for whatever reason I like to write about a bunch of stuff I'm really not an expert on... and I will probably continue to do so. But I recently got a comment asking for help with an exercise program. I'm going to work on answering this question, but it's going to take several posts. If you have questions or comments in the meantime, please post them and I'll answer them. So here's the first question I'm going to address.

"So, I need your help. I want to start an exercise routine and getting your help to maximize my benefits with what little time I have would be greatly appreciated.

I am hoping you can help me with the weight lifting/load bearing exercises. I want to work out at home 3 times a week to gain strength.

Can you post a blog about a good routine to do at home with free weights or canned goods that will help me gain muscle? How many reps are ideal...what exercises work various muscles in the body...etc.. I am hoping you can provide me with a whole body routine.

If you would do that, I would love it! I figure I can get in some exercise at home with the baby playing next to me and do the cardio outside the apartment whenever I have time. Are you up to the challenge? I am! I'm tired of this baby weight/fat!"

First I'm going to interpret the question because it doesn't fit with what is known about strength gain, weight loss, etc. The question begins by asking for a weight lifting program to gain strength. I'll get to that in a future post. The comment concludes with a comment about being tired of body weight/fat.

Here's my major thought for the day. Strength training is the worst method of weight loss available. OK, I take that back. A television and potato chips is probably the worst way, but strength training just doesn't create a caloric deficit, and it's a caloric deficit that is responsible for weight loss.

I should probably be clear that I by no means think that weight training is bad. In fact, I would consider it an important part of a weight loss program, but that is not the source of weight loss. So today I will talk about establishing a caloric deficit.

To start, maybe I should define a caloric deficit. If you are in a caloric deficit, that means that you are burning more calories than you are consuming. Weight training doesn't burn nearly enough calories to really make a difference in weight loss. Aerobic exercise is a far better way to increase caloric expenditure, but still isn't the real cause of weight loss.

Weight loss occurs most readily when caloric consumption decreases. Diet is the key to weight loss. I'll talk about that sometime, but for now, just know that if you aren't seeing weight loss results, it's generally not because you aren't exercising enough (although that could be part of it). Time and time again diet has been shown to be the most effective way to lose weight. Diet induced weight loss is more likely to be permanent when it is accompanied by regular aerobic exercise. Weight training helps maintain muscle mass.

That's all that I want to write today. The main point is that diet is key to weight loss while aerobic exercise and weight training also serve important purposes, but it's not generally the cause of weight loss. Next time I will talk about weight training at home to work all of the major muscle groups, but I wanted to be clear that it is a poor weight loss strategy by itself. Later, I will also address how to eat less and how to get more aerobic exercise.

Competition

I remembered what I was really going to post about competition the last time I posted, and thought that it would make for a better post than the drizzle that came out last week.

I was riding into work like I do every morning and I wasn't in a particular hurry. I was just meandering along. I wasn't trying to go slow, but I also wasn't trying to go fast. Anyway, I got caught by an old guy who was also riding his bike into town. I don't especially care that I got caught, or even that I got caught by an older overweight guy. I wasn't racing and even if he did beat me in a race, my self-worth isn't completely dependent on my performance on a bicycle.

He passed me just before we turned on to University Ave., which is a fairly big street in Provo. Just a couple hundred yards after the turn there's an overpass that involves a really short climb and subsequent descent. After he passed me, I sort of decided to let him go because I find that there's nothing more annoying than passing someone and then have them accelerate to demonstrate that they aren't really that slow.

I was that annoying guy, but I really didn't do it on purpose. You see, he down shifted on the way up this little hill and I was in the only gear that I have, so I had to maintain my cadence in order to make it over the hill. The old guy laughed at me as I passed him. As he should have.

I waited for him on the other side of the hill because I still didn't want to be 'that guy' who races off to demonstrate his cycling superiority, when in reality it doesn't matter. He caught me at the first light and we rode together for a mile or two. I asked him where he was going because I think that it's a good conversation started to start talking about jobs and what you do, etc. He was going to North Provo, I was going to central Provo. One point for old guy, zero points for Sans; old guy had a further distance to travel from where we were at that moment.

I then asked what he did up in North Provo in an attempt to get the topic away from the competition. He's a social worker, but he wanted to compete. He came back with the next obvious question: Where are you coming from? Sans: Spanish Fork; Old guy: Payson. Two points for old guy, Payson is further away than Spanish Fork. Actually that's three points for the old guy because he also beat me in the 'race' that I didn't know I was participating in.

Did I score any points? I don't think I did in his book, but I want to say that I stopped for the stoplights that he ran. I consider that a point for obeying traffic laws, although it doesn't make me faster.

Why does everything have to be a competition? Why couldn't I have a simple conversation with this guy about social work and the people that he helps instead of having to compete over who rides further and faster and whatnot?

OK, last comment on politics for a bit. I mentioned last time that I liked Obama for the reason the McCain camp is saying he's no good... Lack of experience. One of my biggest concerns for Obama was something that Bill Clinton tried to place as one of his strengths. He compared Obamo to JFK and himself (Clinton) as being young and relatively inexperienced. While I'm not old enough to really know tons about JFK's foreign policy and such, I believe he did a good job with it. Clinton, on the other hand, I would argue was one of the leading reasons that the US invaded Iraq. I know that it is Bush's war and he's the one that made all of the bad decisions, but he also took over office after 8 years of Clinton's inaction against a growing threat (if they were, in fact, a threat). Is Obama going to be 4 more years of inaction? While I don't think the war in Iraq is good, I also don't think that inaction is good. Appropriate action is good and I don't think that is what Clinton provided and I hope that Obama would take a different path. Did you notice how I made the paragraph on politics really long and rambling? That was in hopes of you not reading it, but I did want to write it.

More thoughts on the olympics

After I my last post on the Olympics, I had this thought that I should do a follow up post. I really didn't think of it before, but it came to me; what are the changes in your life that you need to make to make your personal Olympic event a priority in your life? I want to spend more time serving people, but oddly, people don't come begging for service. So I think I need to overcome this whole awkwardness that comes with going out of my comfort zone and serving. Why is it so difficult to do nice things for others? It doesn't make sense. I know that I want to do it, and I would think that other people would want me to do it for them. But then there's this whole idea of 'what will it mean?'

Here's how it works. I'm riding home and I see someone sitting along the side of the road with a broken down car. If it's a women I wonder what she will think about being helped by a man. Will she think that I'm threatening or that I'm trying to pick up on her? If it's a man that needs help, will he not like the attack on his ego when I offer him assistance when any 'real man' would be able to solve the problem on his own. And thus I'm tempted to continue on without helping. And those are the easy, obvious opportunities to serve that I find so easy to pass by. Actually seeking out people who need served is far more difficult... although it really shouldn't be.

Now I'm going to completely change topics. Never mind the fact that it is the same post, I'm headed in a completely new direction and this is acting as a transition.

Why must everything be a competition? I know I've been posting on the Olympics and what we want to be the best at, but really when I look around it is the mediocre people who don't live their lives aspiring to be the best at whatever who actually make the biggest impact.

I think the most obvious example of this right now is the presidential election. There are a lot of people in this country who would make great presidents. I think those who would really be the best at it, wouldn't put themselves or their families through an election process because it's not worth it to them. They are also the people who aren't so proud to think that they deserve it and so proud to think that they don't need to ask for help. One of the biggest complaints the McCain campaign is making against the Obama side is his lack of experience. I see that as one Obama's greatest strengths. My hope is that if Obama gets into the White House he will say, "wow, I don't know how to solve that, but I know there are about 300,000,000 Americans and one of them is bound to have a good idea on the matter". And then he seeks different opinions, listens to all sides of the story and makes a decision based on the best advice available. And that's not to say that I've decided who I'll vote for, but I don't see experience in politics as a positive.

I got off topic. Why do we have to narrow it down to two people who we know are making campaign promises that they won't keep? It's just a competition to see who is better at campaigning, it's not a good way to choose the leader of our country. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a solution, but I don't like what we've got now. I don't have anything else to say now. I don't think I really finished my last point, so maybe I'll come back to it sometime.

The Olympics

I'll be honest, I didn't watch much of the Olympics, mostly because we don't have a TV. I actually enjoy watching athletes who have dedicated a lot time and effort to a sport.

There is a lot to be said about a person who dedicates their lives to a talent. Dedicating the time and energy to being the best in a certain discipline, yet if you were to challenge these athletes to a game of chess or anything else outside of their specialty, how would they fair? The point is that nobody can be good at everything, although my wife likes to try and prove me wrong on that. The other point that I wanted to make was the incredible dedication they have to what they do. It takes a lot of time to be a good athlete (I think I had mentioned that before). Anyway, I like giving the Olympians their time in the spotlight, in large part they worked hard to earn that.

While I really like the premise behind the Olympics, I sort of feel guilty watching them. (I still enjoy watching though). You see, the Olympics is a spectacle that showcases athletes and their amazing feats. I think that's great, I'm an exercise physiologist and understand the training that it takes to get there, but isn't there more in the world? How about the Olympics of giving? OK, Bill Gates has dominated those games... or has he. He certainly gives more money than anyone else, but how much does he give in proportion to what he has? And how much does he give in the way of time and energy? Money is easy to give if you have it, but other things can be far more difficult to give, but may be far more beneficial.

So here's the question. If we invented a new Olympics for you to display those things that you dedicate your life to, what event would you want to compete in? I've got two. The first is, and I think the most important would be an event of providing unrecognized, but meaningful service. (Do you see the irony there? I wouldn't really want it displayed, but that is what I would want to be really good at). I fall WAY short in that area and need to work on it.

My second event would be in meaningful living. I was going to say simple living, but I wouldn't stand a chance against the ascetics like they talk about in Siddhartha. And beyond that I don't think that is the real purpose of life. So my event is meaningful living, meaning a life that is focused around people, relationships and service rather than stuff. What is your Olympic event?

Goofing around

So I was working on my dissertation and I got distracted.  OK, more accurately, I finished a draft of my dissertation and my wife was doing some proof reading (that's why I love her, but I really feel bad making her read that thing) and I was the distractor, not the distracted.  

  Anyway, the boys were being funny, so I turned the camera on on my computer and captured some video.  Then I was dinking around on the computer this evening and found the footage and the movie editing software that came with my computer and spent 20 minutes editing to see what I could figure out.  It's nothing excellent, and Keith will probably laugh at me, but I think it's got potential.  

  Excuse the big red sheet hanging in the background, while hanging things out to dry is environmentally friendly and all, the wind mixed with the excess dirt (or absences of grass) and the wet sheets makes for muddy sheets, so instead we drape things around the house until they're dry.  Or until they need to be used.  

  Also excuse the sweaty cycling clothes in the background, they're also hanging to dry because I don't wash them every day.  Just feel lucky that you can't smell them.    So without further ado, here's the little video that I made.  Maybe someday I'll make another.  

Garden pictures

People asked for pictures, so here are a few pictures. I thought I turned them all right side up, but evidently I missed some... mainly those that the Mugwump decided we should post.
This isn't a great picture. The peach tree is on the right and then you can see a couple of tomato plants left of the peach tree. I put the tomatoes in tomato cages, but the tomatoes won that battle and have now tipped over with the cages around them.
There you can see a couple of little flower bushes that are really nice. Then we have our corn which has provided us with at least 8 ears so far. Behind the corn (I don't know if you can see it) are the sunflowers. I am really good at growing sunflowers. I don't put any effort into it and they grow really big and look great. If you know anyone who likes sunflower seeds, let me know. They don't do much for me.
Another sideways picture... The plants with the big round leaves are Brussels sprouts. You can see the tomato plants behind them and then the weeds/watermelon vines that cover the ground. You can even see one of my prized watermelons on the left (top) of the picture. Oh, you can also see in the background a lettuce plant that has gone to seed. I figure that way we'll be sure to have plenty of lettuce next year.
I like this picture (sideways again) because this is the best weeded section of the garden. You can see the cabbage and basil mingled in amongst the weeds. It may be the 'best weeded', but there are still weeds throughout.
This is looking back into the back yard. We've got some beans (I don't have any idea what kind) growing up that net thing that we built. You can see the squash patch off to the left. It is overtaking parts of the garden, but I'm thinking that if I plan things correctly, I'll be able to plant the squash next to the lettuce or beets so that as the lettuce is finishing for the season, it will be simultaneously overtaken by the squash. There are also some beets, carrots and watermelon in that picture if you can find them. They are really hard to pick out from among the weeds.

I've got another post upcoming that I think will be good, if it turns out. Although the posts that I think seem the best in my head, generally turn out the worst. Oh well.

Oh and this is a picture/PSA from bikesnob that I thought was great. We should all obey!!

As a cyclist who can see easily in car windows, I'm amazed at the number of people I see texting while driving. I see at least 2-3 people per day texting while driving. Not all of those people almost kill me, but I have more close calls with texting or cell phone talking people than I do people who are actually paying attention. Please don't kill me, hang up and drive.

Garden

By popular demand I am going to post about my garden. (Translation: the one person who reads this has requested to know about my garden). My garden is progressing quite well... as are the weeds.

I have some theories about weeds. I want to state from the beginning that I am fairly certain that these theories are wrong, but I use my theories to justify my laziness in not weeding the garden. Please don't destroy my theories because then I'd feel obligated to weed instead of doing whatever else it is that I do.

I don't want to start by writing about my weeds, I'll start with what is going well in the garden. When I grow up and own a farm I am going to grow sunflowers, beets and zucchini. I can grow those foods without problem. They grow great here and if that was all I planted I could have sunflower seeds, beets and zucchini for dinner every day for the entire year. I do not intend to do so.

This year we also have corn that we've been able to eat this year. Actually we have a bunch more that we should go eat. There, I figured out dinner for tonight. We grew a little bit of lettuce, but it was planted too close together and ended up bug infested before it went to seed really quickly and then tasted bad. We didn't get a lot of lettuce out of it. Our spinach didn't grow at all, even though I planted it three times. It may have been bad seeds, I'm not sure. We grew a bunch of basil. What do you do with basil? I know it's a spice and all, but evidently our cooking style isn't fancy enough to use spices regularly. We also had some carrots, except the ground was sort of hard and they didn't pull out real nicely. It took a shovel and chisel and we ended up with matchstick carrots mixed with dirt by the time we were done. We've got a bunch more carrots and I'm looking for dynamite in order to harvest them.

I still have hope for many things. The Brussel sprouts look pretty good, but I don't know how to harvest them. The cabbage looks good, well actually one of the five cabbages look good. We should have about four tons of tomatoes, but we've only had one that was ripe so far; it was stolen by a ranging child. Our potatoes look good, but the tough thing with potatoes is that they're underground so you never see them. Last year the plants looked good, but we didn't get many potatoes. This year the plants look good and we piled dirt up around the greens which is supposed to make more potatoes. We'll see. We've got peppers that look really good, but I'm not positive how to know when they are done. I also don't know what kind of peppers they are. Oh, and we have squash. We don't know what kind, they are mostly volunteers, but they are growing well.

Now for the grand finale. The part that I am the most excited about is watermelon. I have at least 6 big watermelon that are looking great. I'm not positive how to tell if they are ripe, but they look good. We've also got cantaloupe that looks pretty good. I'm excited for all of the melon growing in the garden, but I'm a little concerned. What do you do when you suddenly have 6 ripe watermelon and 8 ripe cantaloupe? How long do they last without refrigeration (I'll look on the internet, I don't expect answers to these questions).

Now for the weeds. we have weeds everywhere. The weeds have totally taken over the strawberries that we had. They are found throughout the corn, melon, Brussel sprouts, carrots, tomatoes, squash and peppers. I'm overwhelmed by them, so I wait for them to look like they are going to 'win' and then I devastate them and give the other plants a chance. My theory is that a little competition is good for the plants. It should make them grow faster and be stronger; adversity makes things stronger. Then when I pull the weeds, I leave them in place (but pull the roots... or break the stem really close to the ground). I feel that the weeds must contain a lot of really healthy stuff for my other plants. I'm sure it's helping everything grow. So as long as I cut down the weeds 'frequently enough', everything should go well. We'll see.

On a completely different note, I found this on youtube the other day and thought it was cool. If I had a couple hundred thousand dollars to spare I would love to do something like this. Actually I wouldn't. I don't think I would give people an SUV under any circumstance. Anyway, I thought it looked like fun and I liked the principle of giving things to unsuspecting people. Maybe I could do the same thing, but instead of giving them a car from my sponsor I could give them a used bike, or a weight loss program to help them lose weight. Somehow I don't think that would go over as well.