Skwigg Blog

Skwiggor (pronounced "SkwEYEgor")

Tue, 5 Aug 2008 15:08:54 -0600

I've been yapping away on Twitter and I forget to blog half the things I tweet, so I am about to share all the dumb things I forgot to tell you. Prepare for a nonsensical tweet stream of consciousness.

- I keep hearing from people who either can't lose weight (waves at Etana), or overtrain like lunatics in order to maintain, or can't eat more than 1200ish calories per day without gaining. Most of the time I can help those people but sometimes they stump even me. I don't like feeling stumped! So, I ordered Leigh Peele's The Fat Loss Troubleshoot and The Metabolic Repair Manual. I'd been avoiding these e-books because; don't I know all that stuff already?? Apparently not! I've been picking up oodles of insight and I'm only halfway through the first book. Standby for a full report on Fat Loss Gone Wild and When Metabolisms Attack.

- I'm oddly euphoric about ditching my expensive land line ($70/mo) and getting T-Mobile @ Home ($10/mo). They sent me a fancy dancy wireless router and some nice V-Tech cordless phones. I get all the same services (caller ID, call waiting), plus free long distance, plus I have an extra $60 a month to spend on e-books. :-D Only problem, an AT&T robot man is now stalkering me. He keeps calling to see if I really transferred my phone number to another carrier. Yes, I really did! And now I have all of these dead phone jacks on the walls. I'm going to have to find some framed art or something to cover them.

- I joined Digg if you want to see what I'm reading (hint: health news, killer supercolliders, and dead beach monsters). And apparently I have a YouTube Channel even though I've never uploaded a video. You can still see my favorites: Urban Ninja made me smile, MMA Lesson Gone Wrong is possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen, and Where the Hell is Matt? made me laugh and cry like a crazy person.

- Fans of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Joss Whedon, be sure to check out Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. A crazy new Joss musical is just what I needed this summer! Can't wait until he's back on television every week.

- I made a "Before, 8 Weeks, 8 Years" comparison photo as requested. Amazing factoid: I weighed the same in the first and last photos - 137lbs.

- Work is freaking freezing! I get hypothermia every day. So, yesterday, appearances be damned, I put my hood up. I was told that I look like Igor from Young Frankenstein. I give you Skwiggor.

No More Sausage Arms

Sat, 2 Aug 2008 10:55:37 -0600

I was going through an old Body for Life photo folder today and found major hilarity. I actually named this photo No more sausage arms. Did you know that my arms used to be my most hated body part? They were big, smooth, shapeless, sausage-esque blobs... as was the rest of me, actually.

The pic on the left is at the height of my carb sucking. Even though I worked out and was a "normal" weight, I was a misguided vegetarian eating an all processed carbs diet, no protein, and way too many calories. In the pic on the right, I'm a shiny new carnivore and 8 weeks into my first Body for Life challenge. This was the first I'd seen of dents and definition and I was SO freaking excited!

Anyway, thought you guys would get a kick out of the hilarious old photo. Go ahead, commence with the fun-making. :-D

Confessions of a Carb Queen

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:50:20 -0600

Ah, summer. Time to read fluff. One of my favorite fluffy subjects is food. I'm unnaturally curious about what people eat (or don't eat) and why. I just finished Confessions of a Carb Queen by Susan Blech. It's about a pretty blond bodybuilding and fitness girl who binged her way up to 468 pounds and then lost all of the excess weight. That's all I needed to see before I was clicking the "Buy" button. How is that even possible? What was going on in her head? WHAT do you have to eat to gain that kind of weight? I had to know, and oh boy, did I find out. The book contains possibly *too much* graphic information about greasy fast food binges and sex with scary internet strangers. I was horrified but I couldn't put it down.

One thing that worried me as the story unfolded is that she checked into an ultra-restrictive diet center in order to lose the weight, the kind of program that doesn't have any flexibility and doesn't translate well into the real world. It seemed to be very low-calorie, low-sodium, and low-fat with barely any protein and no margin for error. So, I was reading along thinking holy snot, one wrong move and she's going to be right back where she started. In this Today Show interview about the book, she appears to have regained in the vicinity of 100 pounds and they never said one word about it! I understand that it's an ongoing process and that there will be setbacks, but it was a bit Twilight Zone that the interviewer didn't ask about the obvious weight gain and she didn't acknowledge it.

In the end, I wish the book had been a little more insightful and a little less shocking tell-all. Still, it was inspiring and a totally fascinating read.

Browsing around at Amazon.com, I see a lot of new books about dramatic weight loss, eating disorders and recovery. Any suggestions about what I should check out next?

What Is Healthy?

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:40:09 -0600

Q: How do you keep from getting bored with foods? I want to eat the way my body wants but get sick of grilled chicken. Ever have this problem? And if so how did you keep yourself from mowing on Mexican at every meal?

A: I always eat the way my body wants. Is this a trick question? :-)

I posted this on BFL Women the other day:

I went from seven years as a (pudgy, carb-sucking, confused) vegetarian, all the way over to a bodybuilding carnivore diet w/meat 3-5 times a day (I know, gag me with a chicken), and now to... I don't know what. Flexitarian? Mediterranean? Lately I eat meat or fish 3-5 times a week. Most days I'll have one meal with some meat in it. Sometimes I'll go a few days with no meat. I still try to eat protein at every meal, but it's often not what a bodybuilder would consider a protein portion. I feel good, look good, and my jeans are loose, so I'm just going with this rampant rule-breaking.

If I crave Mexican, I eat it. I will breakfast burrito, enchilada, guacamole, tortilla, black bean, salsa myself immediately. If I crave burgers and fries, I'll have that. If I want Doritos, I'll have a 100 calorie pack. Ice cream? I'll have some. I never deprive myself of anything, so I never have out of control cravings. I choose to eat healthy most of the time because I like looking and feeling great and I like tasty whole foods, but I also eat some kind of treat every single day, and I never eat anything I don't like.

Here's something Eat Stop Eat guy Brad Pilon posted in his blog this week. I really loved it and could practically have written it.

What Is Healthy?

I've come to the conclusion that 'healthy' is not a thing.

It doesn't come in a breakfast cereal, or in a protein bar, or the
latest super food.

It is not a measurement like weight or height. There is no scale
you can stand on and say "Hey great! I'm 192 healthys today".

Healthy is not a certain percentage body fat, and it is not an
optimal BMI score.

There is no 'Healthy Index' (although I'm sure some PhD student is
busy trying to develop one so we can all conform to a certain diet
and certain type of living.)

Even the definition of Health is vague. Health can best be defined
as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and
not merely the absence of disease.

This definition, which was ratified during the first World Health
Assembly and has not been modified since 1948.

I spent a fair amount of time really thinking about this
definition. At first it didn't make much sense to me. After all, if
health is well-being then how the heck do we define 'well-being'.

After really thinking about this I have come to the conclusion that
Healthy is a mindset.

I think healthy is the way you approach life. The way you think
about what you eat and how you exercise. It is the decisions you
make in life and why you make them.

After all, physical fitness has many different incarnations.

An IronMan athlete is definitely fit, so is an NFL running back.
Interestingly, neither one could so the other's job.

No single diet can make you 'healthy' - Even if that diet is Eat
Stop Eat ;)

Healthy is definitely NOT being an obsessive compulsive eater. Nor
is it doing workouts you hate because some trainer told you that
it's the only way to workout, or the only way to lose fat.

The secret to Healthy is NOT working out less and eating more, and
believe it or not, working out more and eating less may not always
be healthy either (however for most of us, this one is probably a
step in the right direction). It really depends on who you are,
where you are at, and what you want to accomplish.

Healthy is finding a way of eating and a way of exercising that you
love, that causes you no stress, that doesn't make you injured or
sick, and that gives you a body that looks the way you want it to
and can do the things you want it to do.

When it comes to being healthy I think the key is finding a balance
between doing the things you love and the things you need to do.

I don't believe in fat-loss workouts. I feel best in the gym when I
am trying to build muscle. I like my reps low and my rests long.
When I do this I actually enjoy my workouts.

I love walking. Yep long slow boring cardio. I don't do it for fat
loss, I do it because it helps clear my mind. Walking makes me feel
healthy, so I do it.

So here's the point of all this - If your current lifestyle
(nutrition program or exercise program) is not giving you the
results you want in a way that is enjoyable then it is failing you.
It is not healthy.

If you are eating something or doing something you hate, and are
only doing it because someone told you it was healthy, maybe it is
time to replace it with something you truly enjoy.

It is possible to find a style of eating and exercising that will
make you feel healthy, you just have to find it.

BP

Loved that! I consider "healthy" a wonderful, joyful, FUN thing. It's not about feeling sorry for yourself while you push a pile of lettuce around your plate. It's not about adhering to an exercise routine that you dread, or watching the clock tick away the minutes until your next bland Tupperware meal. It's about eating and training in a way that empowers you and makes you happy.

Early on in my fitness adventures, I was really vocal about having found "the way." If you were not following "the way" you were doing it "wrong." Isn't that cute? LOL I don't do that anymore. I recognize that there are a lot of ways to get there, and that not everyone has the same goals or preferences.

Intermittent fasting is one approach that took me a while to warm up to. A few years ago I used to RAIL against any form of fasting, because everybody knows that if you don't eat every two hours you'll wreck your metabolism, disintegrate and die. Or will you? Once I quit having a hissy fit and actually tried it, I got great results. I lost fat, kept my lean muscle, and (weirdly) became even more relaxed about food. It's not something I do all the time, but it's become a valuable technique for creating a calorie deficit without getting all hung up on numbers, ratios and restriction.

If you're interested in the science and health benefits of intermittent fasting and really want a deeper understanding of it, Brad Pilon has created some new Eat Stop Eat Advanced Audio files. They're available through the "big announcement" link at the top of his page. There are six separate episodes that cover intermittent fasting and: starvation mode, fat burning metabolism, muscle metabolism, insulin and sugar metabolism, exercise, health and weight loss.

(Warning: Do not listen to these late at night when your brain is fuzzy. You'll fall asleep sitting up and dream about insulin sensitivity, growth hormone, and rats... not that that happened to me.)

Brain Fitness

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:46:41 -0600

I've become hopelessly addicted to the little games at Lumosity Brain Fitness. It started innocently enough with some reading. One brain book lead to another. The books lead me to the brain training software. The software is like crack. I'm especially fond of Monster Garden, which I suck at, but I love that the little monsters go, "raaaawr!" or "hissssss!" I also love Bird Watching, which I'm reasonably good at, even on my challenging widescreen monitor. The little birdy will appear for a millisecond. Where was it? And what was that letter that flashed in the center of the screen?

It's like crack, I tell you! And I do seem to be getting smarter. I stomp on less monsters and remember more details. My attention, cognitive control, and processing speed have all gone up. These games are designed by neuroscientists to improve function in specific areas, and you can see a graph of your progress. I started brain training because I didn't want to be stupid and confused in my old age, but now I've decided that I'd like to become a super genius as well. I mean, why not? Wyle E. Coyote did it!

I've been reading about neuroplasticity - how our thoughts can change the structure and function of our brains, and neurogenesis - how the brain can create new neurons. It used to be widely accepted that the body (and brain) naturally deteriorated every year and that there wasn't much you could do about it. Fitness people know better! If you can train your body into a sleek, fit, high-speed machine, why not expect the same level of fitness from your mind? Plus, with brain fitness, you can "train" while you're sitting on your ass in the air conditioning.

Reading about neuroplasticity may sound like a big ol' yawn, but the real life stories are totally fascinating and inspiring. I'm reading a couple of really good books on the subject.

The first book is The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge. One of the people in this book had totally lost her sense of balance due to a drug side-effect. Called a "wobbler" she always felt like she was falling. Even when she was lying down, it felt like she was dropping through the floor into an abyss. (Having had my own bouts of violent vertigo, I can't imagine what it would be like to experience that continually for years!) A researcher put a special helmet on her that included a mouthpiece about the size of a stick of gum. When she tilted her head forward, the front of her tongue tingled. When she tilted her head back, the back of her tongue tingled. Same for the sides. When she had the helmet on, she could tell exactly where she was in space and was totally stable. No wobbling, no sense of falling. But what was really wild was the residual effect. Her orientation and balance would remain normal for a period of time after the helmet was removed. After a few months of training, the residual effect increased until her balance was 100% restored, even though the vestibular structures of her inner ears were totally toasted! Her brain had "rewired" itself to compensate for it.

Another example was from the 1960s when scientists rigged up a television camera, a clunking 400lb computer, and a dental chair with a panel of electrodes in the back. A blind person would sit in the chair. As they panned the television camera around the room, the image would go through the computer, turn into an electrical impulse, and be translated into an "image" that the blind person could feel as a sensation on their back. Dark pixels would tingle more. Bright pixels would tingle less. Eventually, they were able to recognize people and objects and would duck if a ball was thrown at the camera. The brain was "seeing" but the information wasn't coming from the optic nerve. Wow!

I also really enjoyed My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor. It's about neuroanatomist who had a massive stroke at age 37. As a brain scientist, she is able to articulate exactly what happened and why. She explains how she was able to make a full recovery from a condition that should have been devastating and permanent. Plus, she's funny and a bit of a workout nut. The morning of her stroke, she woke up with the worst headache of her life but went ahead and did her cardio. She was having her stroke ON the elliptical machine! She didn't fully register what was happening until later when her arm became paralyzed and bashed into her like a club. When she realized she was having a stroke, her first thought was, "Wow! This is so COOL!" As she loses her ability to process language, she describes people as sounding like Golden Retrievers. When her logical left brain clicks off, she loses all perception of physical boundaries. She becomes one with an infinite and loving universe. She says, "The energy of my spirit seemed to flow like a great whale gliding through a sea of silent euphoria." I was entertained, educated, and at times totally awestricken by her story.

So, enjoy some light summer reading on neuroplasticity, and let me know what you think about the games at Lumosity. You can play free for a couple of weeks, and then it's only $6-$9 a month to keep training. I'm doing it on a month-by month basis in case the novelty wears off, but so far no sign of that. They keep coming up with new games! The latest one is called Name Tag. It's about matching faces with names, something I'm currently terrible at. I can remember dog names but not people names. I can tell you the name of every dog in every house within a 20 block radius, but I can't tell you who their owners are. I describe people as "Roscoe's mom" or "Tinkerbell's dad." Hopefully, I'll be cured of that once my brain is all buff and I'm a super genius.

Olympic Abs

Mon, 7 Jul 2008 13:24:25 -0600

I'm easily mesmerized by media images, which is kind of hazardous considering that I watch television for a living. I want to look like every new action hero, eat every new fast food item, own every new gadget, and buy every new car. I totally realize that I'm sitting there being brainwashed, and I do have a sense of humor about it. Somewhere in my little pea brain I realize that I don't reeeeally need a Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme, a Samsung Instinct, a Triceptor Dip Stand, and a Hummer H3 (even though they're on sale right now!).

At least this week, my brainwashing involved airing Wimbledon, AVP Beach Volleyball, and the US Olympic Trials, in other words, some seriously inspiring people and images. AND, a few days ago when I went to the break room to microwave my gruel, I walked back through the lobby and there was Olympic gymnastics hopeful, Ivana Hong, arriving for an interview. I have never seen an elite gymnast in real life. OMG! She is so exquisitely tiny, and so totally ripped, and so apparently friendly, but I didn't talk to her because I FREAKED OUT. I felt like a giant moose standing next to her, and I had hot gruel in my hands! I know, I know, I should have pulled myself together, put the gruel down, and asked her to tell me everything she ate yesterday. :-)

Anyway, watching the Olympic Trials has me all geeking out about abs again. Have you seen the abs on these women? In the picture below, left to right, that's swimmer Dara Torres (41 years old!), sprinter Allyson Felix, and pole vaulter Jenn Stuczynski. I had been debating which workout to do next, and seeing these three in action totally narrowed it down to Turbulence Training for Abs. It is definitely a total body, sweat pouring, lung bursting, core killer! Right now, it hurts to laugh or sneeze, and forget lifting my arms over my head.

Angelina's Arms

Sat, 5 Jul 2008 13:03:35 -0600

I saw the movie "Wanted" this weekend and loved it. I'm not saying that it was the best plot ever (rat bombs?) but great action scenes and really fun. Angelina kicked so much ass that I feel bad bringing up the arm issue, but HOLY CRAP DID YOU SEE HER ARMS?! I am completely, completely tripping on how thin she was in this movie!

I don't even know what to say. This is the first blog post where I've been rendered semi-speechless. She's beautiful, she shoots people, she throws knives and wrecks cars. I was in total awe, but her tiny tattooed arms don't look like they could even pick up a big gun. WTF?

Ok, so I'm all conflicted and weirded out by this. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it dangerous? Is it fine and healthy? Is it art? Is it her natural body type and we shouldn't be hating on the skinny people? Does she need some... pie? Or a pull-up bar? I'm going to go puzzle over it some more. Talk amongst yourselves.

Body for Life Results Not Typical

Sat, 5 Jul 2008 01:00:18 -0600

This is actually from the comments a few entries down, a reply to the Champions Body for Life Review, but my response turned into a whole rambling blog entry, so I thought I'd bump it up here. I do recognize that not everybody is going to look like a fitness model after 12 weeks, but there's so much more to it than that! So, thanks for the opportunity to explain why I still regard the program so highly.

I have to admit to being upset at the "they did it, so can you" comment. From what I hear, lots of people try this, and a small fraction become Champions or have those dramatic results. That doesn't mean the rest of us aren't trying, but genetics (as well as other priorities) may not have this in our cards.

I'm sorry, but they are NOT the normal, median, or average result even out of people who follow the program.

If you're not familiar with the book's message or the "side-effects" of completing a 12-week challenge, I can understand your frustration at the claim, but it's not just a matter of physical results. If you officially enter, 50% of the score is based on essay. It's about making a commitment to yourself and honoring it, and then being able to express how the experience has changed you.

I've moderated an 11,000 member Body for Life group for nearly a decade (holy crap!) and I've seen literally thousands of people change their lives completely. Not just smaller clothing sizes and impressive after photos, but major life overhauls. After completing a 12 week challenge, people are almost universally healthier, happier and more confident. Many members of our group have made the kind of jaw-dropping physical transformations you see in the book. Quite a few have been named champions or runners-up and ARE in the book. But many more have used their newfound confidence and life management skills to start businesses, leave bad marriages, change careers, or return to school. Once they realize that they can take charge of their health and fitness, they start taking charge of other areas of their lives. Usually, it's the people who have the worst genetics and the biggest obstacles who find the sweetest success.

Making a promise to yourself and keeping it is a huge thing. Some people have never done it. They've actually gotten used to lying to themselves, making excuses, failing, not expecting much, quitting whenever things get tough. When those people sign-up for a 12 week challenge and totally, publicly, officially commit to it, they get a taste of what it's like to plan ahead, to overcome obstacles and to face fears. They learn to stumble and get back up again. They learn to measure and appreciate progress, to support others and be supported, to feel pride in themselves. It's like somebody lights a fire under them. Nothing is ever the same.

So, I interpret "they did it and so can you" not as a diet sales pitch but as a call to action. They honored a commitment to themselves and to their health and so can you.

The Scaredy Dog

Wed, 2 Jul 2008 19:45:26 -0600

Here's a crazy photo of Ripley in my lap during tonight's thunderstorm. As you can see by the lunatic blank look on her face, she is not in her right mind. Moments after this was taken, she tried to scramble up onto the desk, knocking things over and stomping all over the keyboard. Then she launched herself through the air using me for traction. Currently, she is hiding under the coffee table.

Summer Eating, Serious Abs, and Thunder Monsters

Wed, 2 Jul 2008 11:28:48 -0600

I sent these links out to the Skwigg Alert! peeps this morning but thought I'd post them here too. Incidentally, while I was writing said Skwigg Alert, there was a big clap of thunder and Ripley the crazy Australian Shepherd jumped into my lap. Nevermind that I was in an office chair on wheels. Nevermind that I was typing. Nevermind that she's an enormous animal, and happened to be panting and drooling like a waterfall. To her, it seemed like the logical thing to do. If anybody has had ANY success with curing a dog of thunder phobia, please let me know what worked.

And now onto the links.

I've added two new articles to the site this week.

Eating on the Road: Nutritional Travel Strategies, by Dr. John Berardi - Did you know that you can FedEx tuna and egg whites to your hotel? Good, because I didn't think of that either. Luckily, JB did!

How to Lose the Last 10 Pounds, by Craig Ballantyne - Advanced fitness and nutrition tips you can apply to any program to maximize results in the final weeks.

I also read an in-depth interview with Dr. John Berardi this morning, appropriately titled The Big JB Interview. He covers lots of topics, but what perked up my little ears (eyes?) was that they asked him about intermittent fasting! Dun, dun, duuuuuun!! Will he admonish all of us who have tried it or will he give his blessing? Check it out on the Precision Nutrition forums. If you're not already registered, you may have to do that before you can see the whole interview, but it's free, only takes a second, and no salesman will call you. (Sorry, I watch too much television.)

Finally, Craig is discounting his new workout, Turbulence Training for Abs, and normally he doesn't discount anything ever. If you're already a Platinum TT member, you can fetch the new workout free from the members' area. That's where I got mine. However, the link is worth clicking on just to see Craig's abs and his goofy dog. Nice to see that somebody else has a dog who wanders into every picture!

I tried the first workout this morning. It was great to get back to the heavy-weights, wreck-yourself-in-20-minutes, it-will-hurt-to-laugh-tomorrow approach. However, in the middle of the workout, trembling canine thunder-phobe, Ripley, got in between the ball and the bench on the stability ball jackknife crunches... and stayed there! I don't even know what to do with her. I miss the days when she used to lock herself in the bathroom during thunderstorms. Now she seems to think that clawing her way up my back and standing on top of my head would be an appropriate reaction.