It's a widely spouted "statistic" that the average American gains between 7 and 10 lbs over the holiday season. While a New England Journal of Medicine article showed those numbers to be exaggerated, it is still probable that most of us put on a pound or two over the holidays. I know I did.
Of course the abundance of food during the holiday months is one culprit, besides that holiday foods seem to be oh-so-succulent and full of calories compared to the food we might eat the rest of the year. I mean how often do you have a honey-glazed ham in July or a piece of pumpkin cheesecake with whipped cream in March? Also there seems to be an understanding during the holidays that eating healthy doesn't need to be a priority, after all it is a special occasion, right?
And I don't know about you but the business of the holiday season wreaked havoc on my workout schedule. In October I was working out 4 days a week but halfway through December with finals and gift shopping on my mind my workouts became weekly or worse.
Now that school is back in session and holidays are getting smaller in the rear-view mirror (though let me just throw out a "screw you" to Valentine's Day and its associated candy) I am finally back in a place where healthy eating and exercise are on the table. I mentioned in my post on New Year's Goals that staying in shape this year is a priority for me, and here are a few things I plan to do to accomplish that goal:
1. Stay away from french fries and pizza as much as possible.
I am not a sweets person at all (thankfully) though I do enjoy and occasional dark chocolate bar or bag skittles. No, my biggest temptation is greasy salty foods. I love french fries and can scarf them down in inspiring quantities, and I have been known to eat 4 or more slices of pizza for dinner multiple times a week. Now I agree that neither fries nor pizza is particularly terrible on occasion, all I'm saying is that cutting down on the number of occasions I have them wouldn't be a bad thing in my case.
2. Cut down on the diet soda intake.
By far my biggest health vice is the over-the-top amount of Diet Pepsi I drink. I am a vegetarian so I eat a lot of fruits and veggies, I don't consume too much saturated fat or sugar, and generally I follow doctor's orders as far as getting my vitamins and 64 ounces of water daily... but wow do I drink a lot of diet soda. When I'm at school I usually drink about 4 glasses a day, and when I'm at Matt's apartment it can be twice that. I console myself that though fake sugar isn't the best thing in the world, its better than all of the real sugar in non-diet soda... but several recent studies have shown that people who drink lots of diet pop are just as bad off as people who drink regular when it comes to things like diabetes risk and obesity. No good. I think that I can sacrifice my Diet Pepsi for water if it means a healthier mid-life, thanks.
3. Eat more Omega-3 fatty acids, folic acid, and antioxidants.
Omega-3s are great for your heart, folic acid is vital for women my age (especially if we plan to have kids someday), and antioxidants prevent cancer. Need I say more? Probably not but I will. It is harder to get Omega-3s than one might think. The main sources I know are flaxseed and salmon, not to mention soy milk that is fortified with Omega-3s. One think I want to try is making fresh basil pesto using flax-seed oil instead of olive oil, I bet its as good as it is good for you. As far as folic acid I just try to get it in my vitamins and cereals though I'm sure I could do better. And ah antioxidants: they seem to be in every fruit and veggie don't they (especially those greens)? Of course some of the best sources I have heard are tomatoes, cranberries, blueberries, and pomegranate. I could stand to have a few more of those in my diet.
4. Build up, mix up, and maintain the exercise.
Thus far I have run 2 miles a day each day of February (not to mention biking and lifting). Of course it is only the 3rd day of the month, so I'm sure I won't be able to say that for long. Really what I want to do this year is increase the speed and distance I run regularly, cross train more, and keep a steady workout schedule for the entire year. Right now 2 miles is my standard run, though I sometimes run 3 miles to challenge myself. I would love to run 3 miles twice a week and 5 miles once a week and to build my speed from 11 minute miles to 10 or 9 minute miles. Also, I swam twice a week every week last semester -- it would be awesome if I could do that this semester as well. Biking once or twice a week and mixing in some upper body weight training would round out my workout. Listing it here, it seems quite ambitious but really it works out to about an hour and a half at the gym 5 or 6 days a week. Besides, I have been talking about doing a triathlon for over a year now, and if I really stick to these fitness goals this could be my year.
Have you ever heard of a "flash mob?"
As far as I know its a fairly recent phenomenon that has been enabled by the web. I have seen flash mobs of entire campuses breaking out into mock ninja fights, hundreds of people at a park form a single file line behind one person, and mock gunfights where a hundred people say bang then fall to the ground. One particularly funny flash mob in Japan featured about 100 college-aged people running out from behind a wall while screaming towards an unwitting middle-aged person. It was hilarious to see their responses, especially the ones who started running and screaming with the mob.
I think my new favorite flash mob however is in the video below. 207 people froze in place at Grand Central Station in New York for 5 straight minutes while someone else recorded the scene. I must say they pulled it off stupendously and the scene had a marked effect on passers-by:
Pretty awesome, huh?
I would love to do something like this at my college, though my small campus might make it slightly less effectual. One fun one could be to freeze in place at the dining hall, or to have a flash dance in the middle of the quad between classes. There is already a facebook group set up for flash mobs at the 5C's but as far as I know there hasn't been an event thus far.
Hmm...
It is already almost the end of January, so I guess I have gotten a late start... but I thought I should still at least note the things I want to do in 2008:
1. Write More and More Often
As mentioned in my first post, I have started spending more time playing games and stumbling than doing things that are creative and productive, so my goal is to change that this year by writing more on this blog and on other blogs, and perhaps by creating something for publication such as a short story or a poem. In fact I have considered writing a novel, maybe this is my year?
2. Stay in Shape
In 2007 I managed to get in shape and lose a lot of weight, but over the holidays I became lax in my workout schedule and eating habits, which caused me to gain some of the weight back. This year I want to work out regularly (3-4 times a week) and eat healthfully throughout the year instead of in spurts. For me working out usually means running on the treadmill or perhaps riding a stationary bike. This year I want to start doing yoga again, start snowboarding again, and ride my bike outside more often. I used to do those things all the time, but it has been a while. Another thing I would like to do more often is hike and backpack.
3. Cultivate Friendships, Old and New
Since I have been in college I have become somewhat introverted and even shy. I don't know why... in high school I was quite the extrovert and even still I love being social. Its just that in college I have gotten wrapped up in my own life to the point that friendships have fallen by the wayside. To counter that I want to start making a point to spend time with friends I have and also to make new friends whenever possible. On a practical level this means making dinner dates and plans to go out together, calling friends as I think of them, and starting up conversations with the people around me instead of just going about my day thinking about all of the things I need to be doing. I have learned that while there are always things to be done relationships need their own time and attention and should be a priority.
Those are really the main ones. I have several other goals, like I want to visit Europe or do a triathlon, but those are things that can wait. Hopefully by taking steps to better myself I will be able to accomplish everything in my lifetime.
When I was in high school I kept a blog, a xanga actually, of my daily thoughts and experiences. Sometimes I would post poems I wrote or maybe a few pictures, and occasionally the well-thought-out essay in response to a topic that was on my mind, but generally my high school xanga was a place to vent. It was more like a journal that was intended to be read than a formal blog. I still have that xanga, but it is dead. I never post there anymore, and no one reads it. To some extent I still use it to note important events in my life, but not really. There is nothing creative there anymore and it is almost an insult to what it once was.
I have another blog, Shayna the Neuroscientist, but I haven't posted there in a long time either. It was meant to be a place for well-written blogs on topics I had considered seriously or researched, particularly those pertaining to religion and other "big issues." I am proud of the things I have written there, but honestly it is too formal for me to be able to post things regularly. I hope to write there more frequently starting now, and I plan to start including science topics such as responses to things I learn in class or reviews of new science articles that I read.
In the meantime, I have made it a goal for this year to write more and more often. Sometime between when I entered college and now my writing output has slowed to a trickle, and I regret it. Life has been busy, that is certainly one reason why I have spent less time ruminating on life in front of a notebook... but I have also started diverting more and more free time to less creative time sinks including video games, tv shows, and Stumbleupon.
For that reason it is one of my (numerous) new year's resolutions to begin writing more, and to aid in that goal I am starting this blog. Don't expect too much here - the ramblings of my mind aren't always all that interesting and the events in life are often quite mundane. Besides, my goal here isn't as much to entertain, inform, or provoke thought as it is to simply get my thoughts on paper.
Hopefully, though, you will enjoy reading my thoughts, unedited as they may be.
