Do I Look Fat in This?

I previously wrote in my regular blog that I don't like shopping. That's still true, and I want to elaborate on why it takes so long to try on clothes: as the Wall Street Journal (subscription may be required) highlighted today: sizes are inconsistent across brands, "The numbers on the labels are increasingly meaningless as designers and retailers play to vanity and their own customer demographics in determining the length of an inseam and width of a waistline." Therefore, enter "SizeUSA", the "first-ever American 'sizing census' ".

I thought the goal of SizeUSA would be to come up with a "uniform sizing scale", so that I could walk into any store, buy a size [insert number here], and know that it would fit. Instead, they're trying to build a massive database with all this info, and give retailers (paid) access so they can slice and dice the data however they want to come up with "better-fitting attire for specific markets".

"For example, a hosiery maker could pull out data related to the 11 measurements taken around the feet and ankles to design better socks. A jeans maker could construct more comfortable jeans by examining the waist-to-hip ratio, which TC2 says is getting bigger. A dress manufacturer could better determine the age at which a body starts to become more prominently pear-shaped. Manufacturers will compare the data to their current measurements and determine if they should start making clothing a little bigger or longer."

Levi's used this concept a while back. Crystal first told me about this: apparently, based on a huge study, they're now able to recommend jeans that fit the wearer perfectly by taking only a few (around 6?) measurements. I like the idea of wearing clothes that fit better, and came up with another way of making my (existing) clothes look more flattering on me: diet and exericse. No kidding. It works. But seriously, despite my anti-shopping stance, I would pay a premium for purchasing certain things for a custom fit: SHOES.

Hormone Supplements May Increase Risk of Dimentia

According to this Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article (subscription may be required) and New York Times (NYT) article, a new study has shown that hormone therapy "doubled the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia in women who began the treatment at age 65 or older", quite the opposite of previously held beliefs.

The results are from the Women's Health Initiative, which the WSJ describes as "the largest and most rigorous set of human studies to test hormone replacements in prevention of disease, rather than relief of symptoms of menopause". NYT says that the findings are from a "four-year experiment involving 4,532 women at 39 medical centers. Half took placebos, and half took Prempro, a combination of estrogen and progestin, the most widely prescribed type of hormone therapy". The new report on dementia is being published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Pacific Sun 10K Results

The Pacific Sun 10K results are in! Overall, I ranked #504 out of a total of #648 participants, and 32 out of 42 for my age/gender category. My official total time was 55:23.0 minutes and my average pace was 8.55-minutes/mile.

Hubby will probably provide his own commentary about the race, but I'll note his results here anyway. He ranked #389 overall and was #36 out of 46 in his age/gender category. His time was 49:10.0 minutes meaning he had an average pace of 7.55-minutes/mile.

Pacific Sun 10K

For Memorial Day, hubby/Dave & I participated in the Pacific Sun 10K in Kentfield, CA. According to the Tamalpa Runners' website, the race is a USATF nationally certified (CA98013TK) loop course through Kentfield, Ross and San Anselmo. They also had a 2.5 mile race, which I considered participating in instead, but I was so pumped after running the Bay to Breakers last week that I decided to just go for it and throw myself in the 10K.

We got to Kentfield at around 7:30AM. Kentfield is a lovely small town north of Marin. The weather was perfect: the sun was shining and the weather was warm. The race started at the College of Marin where we picked up our running bibs and timing chips. The timing chips were new to both Dave and myself. It consisted of a little velcro strap that we used to affix it around our ankles. I hope we didn't have to activate it manually, because I couldn't see anything on it to push or twist etc. I'm not sure how it works but I think it syncs with some sort of master timing device and turns off when you reach the finish line.

Since this is the first real race I've competed in, I started towards the back of the pack because I didn't want to get in the way of the more seasoned runners that were going to cruise by me anyway. Most of the people there looked like they were regular runners, especially the middle-aged folk. I saw some women whose faces indicated they were at least 45 years old, but whose ripped, rock-hard abs suggested they were in their mid-twenties.

I was very nervous about the race, and hubby offered to run with me but I told him to go on ahead because he doesn't get the opportunity to train that much on weekdays (he's on an out-of-town project). However, he was kind enough to start with me, but after the starting gun went off, I watched him take off and disappear into the distance almost instantly. The race started pretty slowly as the pack gradually dispersed and people found their own pace. I followed hubby's tip #1: don't run too fast early on and burn myself out. He said that I should take the first mile easy and evaluate how I felt at that point to determine whether I should speed up or slow down. What wonderful advice: the first mile was definitely the hardest and I was tempted to stop with every step I took as the cool air burned my lungs. I reminded myself that I had it easy with this race - I can't even begin to imagine how much harder it would have been if it were a lot colder that day or if it were raining (miserable racing conditions that hubby has previously endured).

There were water stations at the 5K and the 5-mile marks. Since I wasn't running with my portable water supply (i.e., hubby), I took the water offered at each and every station. The first time I grabbed a cup, I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. I certainly wasn't going to stop to drink the water, but I couldn't figure out how to hold the cup still against my lips. So I kind of just threw water in the direction of my face and hope that some of it would make it in my mouth. I nearly choked on the first try, and half of the water ended up ON me as opposed to down my throat, but just enough of it ended up down my throat to keep me going. Maybe I should check out some running websites to see if there's some special technique I should deploy to ingest water while in motion.

At each mile marker, there was a representative who would read out the time from a stop watch so people would know how fast they were going. At the first mile marker, I was coming in under 9 minutes which I very pleased with. I considered that to be a strong start and I suspected that I would slow down in subsequent miles once I became tired. After the first mile, while I was about to enter a long loop, I saw the fastest runners coming back around the other side of the loop. Those guys were fast and were practically sprinting. Whoa. Meanwhile, I was still plodding along when I came up to a residence on the left where a family was standing on the curb cheering on the runners. They were playing "Chariots of Fire" as inspirational music. It was pretty funny and I was very touched that they did this because I certainly needed the encouragement.

I wanted to keep to a steady pace but I had no idea how to do that because I had no concept of how fast I was going and I have a tendency to unconsciously slow down when I get tired. That's when hubby's tip #2 came in handy: try to pick somebody in the pack with a decent pace and run with that individual. You know what: it works! The first few times, I picked people who were much faster and ended up speeding ahead. But finally, I came upon a couple of women who were about my speed: one of them was about my age, and the other one was about 40 years old. It was nice to run with others because they kept me honest, and kept me going! My legs started getting tired after the 4th or 5th mile, but it was my lungs that were holding me back. That's also when I felt blisters developing in EXACTLY the same place that I had them from last week's race. Bummer.

After what seemed like forever, I finally got to the last quarter mile. The run actually finishes on a running track where I saw hubby hanging out on the side. He was cheering me on and then ran with me for the last part. His final tip (tip #3)? Go for it and don't leave anything in the tank! So I sprinted the last 100 feet which was just pure misery. But it felt awesome crossing the finish line and hearing the announcer say over the P.A. system, "Coming in is Lauren Wu from San Francisco!" I can't remember my exact time, but I ran a consistent 9-minute mile throughout so I finished in under an hour. Woo hoo! Hubby came in around 49 minutes. He ran the first 5 miles at around 7-7.5-minute miles, but slowed down to an 8-minute mile for the last part. No wonder - he was really hurting after playing 6 back-to-back games of basketball at the Presidio YMCA yesterday. Ouch. It was amazing that he finished at all, especially since he was running (as usual) with his signature camel pack. After stretching briefly, I headed over to the free stuff: bottled spring water, Propel (I have yet to try some), orange wedges, pieces of banana, bagels slices and of course a souvenir T-shirt.

It was an awesome experience - I'm already looking forward to the next race!

San Francisco Examiner Souvenir Edition

More Bay to Breakers stuff! The San Francisco Examiner has a Souvenir Edition to report the event. They've published the names of the top 10,000 participants. Here's the page where you can see me (#3287) and hubby (#3284)!

Bay to Breakers Results

I wrote a post about running in the annual San Francisco Bay to Breakers a few days ago. The results are now available online and it looks like I placed 3,287 out of approximately 50,000 registered participants, with a "gun time" of ~75 minutes. Woo hoo!

Most Common Exercise Myths

ACE (American Council on Exercise) recently conducted a survey of more than 1,500 ACE-certified fitness professionals to discover the most common exercise myths they hear from their clients:

• Women who lift weights will get bulky muscles
• Spot reducing is possible
• No pain, no gain
• Exercise requires a hefty time commitment
• If you exercise, you can eat whatever you want
• There's a magic bullet or quick fix out there somewhere

Check out the news release on this subject to get the complete scoop.

Serving Sizes Are Smaller Than You Think

I first paid attention to "serving sizes" when I took the YMCA Principles of Health and Fitness certification as a prerequisite to becoming a group exercise instructor. The Wall Street Journal has a great article today about common misconceptions about portions and serving sizes. People often have trouble losing weight because they're eating a lot more than they realize.

I'll give you an example: grab any box of cereal and take a look at the picture on the front. Chances are, it will be a picture of a bowl of cereal which one would naturally assume represents the recommended serving size. Then, look at the food label (you can visit the FDA backgrounder on food labels if you're not familiar with them) and look at the section where it says "serving size" -- it's somewhere between 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup for most cereals. But my guess is that the picture cereal bowl on the box actually contains 1 cup - 1.5 cups, at least two times the serving size! Also note that the nutritional content on the food label is for the cereal ONLY. You have to factor in extra calories if you add milk. As an aside, I read this article in a magazine about "food stylists", and they said the "milk" in cereal picture is really glue (like Elmer's white glue) because it photographs better.

Reading food labels is helpful, but not when if you're dining out. Restaurants are notorious about serving way too much food, unless you go to an overpriced uppity place that calls 3 artfully placed pieces of lettuce a salad. The article provides some helpful hints about how to approximate how many servings you are eating just by looking at food:

... a three-ounce "serving" of meat, fish or poultry is about the size of a deck of cards. A cup of pasta, worth two food pyramid "servings," is about the size of a fist. A teaspoon of margarine or mayonnaise is the size of a finger tip; a tablespoon is the size of a thumb tip. Use two whole thumbs to measure two ounces of cheese, which qualifies as one "serving." Two tablespoons of peanut butter looks like a ping-pong ball. A half-cup portion of cooked vegetables or a cup of salad greens counts as one government-sanctioned "serving."

When I eat out, I typically order 2 appetizers instead of an entree, and whatever leftovers I can't finish I have wrapped up in a doggy bag - a healthy and cost-effective solution for those who tend to overstuff themselves to avoid wasting food.

One piece of info from the WSJ article I was not aware of, is that "the USDA and the FDA used different methods and survey data when they each determined uniform serving sizes. The result is that serving sizes found on FDA-regulated food labels tend to be larger than serving sizes used in the USDA's food pyramid." I wrote a post about serving sizes last month which contained a link to the USDA Food Guide Pyramind.

San Francisco Bay to Breakers!

Hubby (aka Dave) & I ran in the annual San Francisco Bay to Breakers yesterday. We were two of the 50,000 official participants who registered for the event this year. In today's paper, The Examiner reported that 20,000 more joined the race without signing up. Hubby slowed down so we could run together, but pushed me by running just slightly ahead.

While we didn't see as many people in costume this year (we suspect it was because we ran the course and the more colorful participants were in the back), we saw a lot of naked people! As for centipedes, we saw the familiar school of salmon ("swimming upstream", as expected), and groups of Elvis (Elvis'? Elvii??). My favorite centipede was for donor organs - they had the clever slogan "recycle yourself!".

I'm so inspired by finishing the race that I've signed up for the Pacific Sun 10K on Memorial Day, May 26, 2003. I found the information on the Tamalpa Runners' website, which lists races specific to the Bay Area, but online registration was processed through Active.com, which has information on races across the country. I'll be checking it out for more events!

Running Shoe Survey

The American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) has an online Running Shoe Survey to increase their knowledge and understanding of the relation between running shoes and injuries. AOFS is "an organization of more than 1,600 orthopaedic surgeons who have special interest and training in the foot and ankle. Its members are medical doctors and doctors of osteopathy who, after completing medical school, have taken at least five years of additional training to become specialists in the care of diseases and deformities of the foot and the ankle and their surgical treatment."

Lacing Athletic Shoes

24 Hour Fitness has a brief article on their website with different techniques for lacing athletic shoes depending on whether you have narrow feet, wide feet, heel problems, or narrow heel and wide forefoot.

Update to Oreo Lawsuit

Stephen Joseph from BanTransFats.com issued a press release yesterday indicating that he is voluntarily dismissing the Oreo lawsuit because,

The factual and legal basis for the lawsuit when it was filed was that the American people did not know about trans fat. At best, perhaps 10-15 percent knew. The American people were being kept in the dark by the food manufacturers. The word "trans fat" is not even on food labels. That was then. This is now.

Apparently, Mr. Joseph has received tons of email from people who, thanks to the lawuit, now know what trans fat is and know how to avoid it (if they want to). Trans fat usually isn't explicitly labeled on packages, and Kraft was opposing this labeling because it would be "confusing," even though the FDA says that we should eat none of it. Now, in response to the lawuit, Kraft has announced that it is "actively exploring ways to reduce trans fats in Oreo." And other foods I hope.

I'm inspired and will send an email to Krispy Kreme donuts (they fry their donuts in 100% vegetable shortening)!

Nabisco Sued over Oreos

According to this SFGate.com article, Stephen Joseph filed a suit against Nabisco to ban Oreos because it contains high levels of trans fat that is "too dangerous for children to eat".

My friend Crystal is the one who first told me about the evils of trans fat, and how it may be even worse for your health than saturated fat. I'm surprised that Nabisco has been singled out in the suit given that it's in most breads, cereals, crackers, biscuits, cookies and other snack foods. Apparently, Mr. Joseph "... targeted Nabisco because as other major snack food sellers reduced the amount of trans fats in their products, Nabisco had not. "

For more information on the evils of trans fat, and links to articles on the subject, visit BanTransFats.com. It's a non-profit corporation based in California whose goal is the "reduction and elimination of trans fats from all food products."

From what I've read, trans fat is partially hydrogenated vegetable oil so margarine and shortening are definite no-no's. Small amounts occur naturally in milk and meat products, but BanTransFats.com says you can spot the artificial variety found in processed foods, by avoiding those with the words "Hydrogenated", "Partially hydrogenated", "Fractionated" and "Partially fractionated" in the ingredients list. I'm still not sure whether the same thing applies to all partially hydrogenated oils and not just vegetable oil. Specifically, I wonder about fractionated palm kernel oil because there is evidence that it's not that good for you.

Qigong - the Next Yoga?

I'm a big believer in yoga and Pilates to supplement all the cardio I do, and with any luck, I'll be able to use it to replace lifting weights (since certain yoga practices/poses involve supporting your own body weight). The latest trend similar to those exercises (but much less strenuous) is qigong (pronounced "chee goong") as reported by the WSJ. Just a fad? You decide.

Teaching Advanced Step

Only about half the usual number of people showed up today at the Palo Alto Family Y for basic step. I asked participants whether anything was going on, and they replied, "Mother's Day!" Doh! Good thing I remembered to send Mom an e-card in advance.

After class I had planned on moseying on over to Japantown to have lunch with hubby, but I decided to check out the sub board first to see who was teaching Advanced Step that day. Nobody was listed but since Ying was teaching the Hi-Lo class just before that, I assumed she was just going to do back-to-back classes. But when I spoke to her, it turned out that nobody was scheduled to teach the class. She was prepared to do it, but could only stay for part of the class so we decided to team teach!

This was a very interesting arrangement because I've only team taught in the past with Terri where I did only the warm-up. This time however, we split the class in half: Ying taught the first half hour, and then I took over midway after she did an interval and put participants in a holding pattern. Side note: at this point, I must rave about Ying. She's an awesome instructor, and even though she had nothing planned, she was able to pull off some amazing routines out of the air. Nobody could tell she hadn't prepared anything in advance. Fortunately, I had subbed an intermediate class at the Embarcadero Y the day before, and just happened to have some more challenging choreography in my back pocket. Actually, I had used this same choreography for my basic step class that morning: the difference was while it took 45 minutes to teach two 64-count combos in the basic step class, it took all of 10 minutes for the advanced steppers to catch on. I'm so glad Ying suggested we team teach and took the first half - otherwise, I would have ran out of material.

In summary, the class worked out surprisingly well, especially since our planning had consisted of a 1 minute discussion just before class. Now that I know I can do it, I'm going to sign up for the Sunday Advanced Step rotation. Yay!

Calories Burned During Kickboxing

24 Hour Fitness has an article on their website summarizing the results of an American Council on Exercise (ACE) study on the number of calories expanded during cardio kickboxing.

The 15 women who participated in the study burned ~8.3 calories per minute (350-450 calories/hr) while performing a combination of upper-body (e.g., upper cuts, jabs) and lower-body (e.g., roundhouse kicks, front and back kicks) movements.

Fast-Food Salads

McDonald's has been struggling to increase its profitability, partly due to the backlash against fast food. They're trying to copy Wendy's successful strategy of offering premium salads to attract the healthy eating crowd.

Sounds promising, but before you think you're eating well by chowing down on a Bacon Ranch Salad with Crispy Chicken, take a look at this WSJ article that notes:

"[A] report from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit vegan group founded in 1985, contends that fast-food salads -- purportedly the healthiest and trendiest item on the industry menu -- are nutritionally disastrous."

The full report looks at salads from Au Bon Pain, Burger King, McDonald's, Panera, Subway, Taco Bell and Wendy's.

Clinical Trials

I often see random flyers recruiting candidates for sponsored programs to quit smoking or lose weight. I question their legitimacy (I suspect some are scams), but the WSJ had an interesting article about the benefits of some clinical trials, sometimes for free:

The range of benefits on offer may come as a surprise given the common belief that clinical trials are for desperate patients seeking experimental therapies. But clinical trials represent a remarkable opportunity for the rest of us to gain access to top doctors and care that might not otherwise be available.

Not only do doctors doing clinical research pay fastidious attention to every complaint and comment of the study subject, but they also often conduct comprehensive health screenings with far more follow-up than many patients get from their family physicians.

However, the article cautions that, "Clinical trials aren't a substitute for regular medical care, and they don't solve the problems of people who don't have health insurance." If you are considering participating in a trial, make sure you perform adequate due diligence beforehand:

To be sure, any patient thinking about taking part in a clinical trial needs to assess the risk of the study and the credibility of the researchers involved. Participants in trials should be given detailed informed-consent statements and have the opportunity to ask as many questions as they like. Credible research studies are conducted in obvious health-care or university settings. Any trial that uses experimental treatments, drugs or seems to carry even a minimal risk should be vetted by a trusted health professional who doesn't have a personal stake in the research.

If you want to search for trials on the Internet, www.clinicaltrials.gov is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, listing NIH-funded trials around the country. Another clinical listing trial service mentioned in the article is CenterWatch, which has a list of IRB (Institutional Review Board?) approved clinical trials being conducted internationally.

Hanging Out at the Gym

I watched a TV show recently on "celebrity workouts". I think it was on the Discovery Health Channel, but I can't seem to find it listed on their website. On this show, they interviewed some celebrities and asked them what their diet & fitness regimen was to keep them in shape. Most of them were honest to admit that didn't exercise regularly or eat well to maintain their beautiful physiques since they had won the genetic lottery.

One person who shared their exercise regimen was LL Cool J, who looks like a chiseled ebony statue. Apparently, he works out for two hours a day doing a combination of cardio, weights and calisthenics. He also emphasized that when he goes to the gym, he focuses and really WORKS OUT, as opposed to HANG OUT. In contrast, check out this article in LA Times (you'll need to subscribe to look at the full text but it's free) about how some folks loiter around gyms:

Almost every gym has its small population of hangers-around, those who spend as much time -- or more -- shooting the breeze as actually exercising. Flexible work schedules -- or sometimes no job at all -- allow them to spend two, three, sometimes five hours a day among sweaty bodies.

That's fine, but if you're spending a lot of time socializing at the gym, be cognizant of the fact that that's what you're doing. So the next time you catch yourself complaining, "I don't know why I'm not losing any weight - I work out for [two, three, whatever] hours a day at the gym", really think about how much time you're exercising.

Turbo Kick Round 16 Debut

I know I still have to put pen to paper (finger to keyboard?) and document my thoughts on the Turbo Kick (TK) certification and on TK in general, but I taught my first TK class last night and I just had to write about it. I debuted Round 16 (R16) yesterday at the Seqouia YMCA in Redwood City. I had originally planned to only teach Sections 1 & 2, but made a last minute push to learn the whole routine and just go for it. It went as well as I had expected. I didn't have all the combos at the tips of my fingers so I warned participants in advance that my cueing may not be as awesome as it usually is! ;-) I was also less rowdy as usual because I was concentrating so hard on what came next. That'll change quickly! I'll iron out the kinks by next week.

Fortunately, I teach a wonderful group who are patient (and forgiving!) and they all had a great time.They like the new format better than drills (I usually make them do lateral shuffles and they hate that), and they LOVED the music. Since my philosophy is that it's the participants' class, not mine (and I really mean it), I hereby declare that I will teach the TK format on a regular basis. Having said that, I'm not giving up on drills, since I think that's valuable too, but that's for another post.

Thanks to Loida and Lisa for giving me tips on how to modify TK for YMCA participants.