Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness Support Thread

Parent Cafe
2081

<p>Ya’ll probably know about this, but Google Maps has an incredibly useful tool for walking, running, or biking routes.</p>

<p>[Gmaps</a> Pedometer](<a href=“http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/]Gmaps”>http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/)</p>

<p>Type your zip code in the JUMP TO box. Then, navigate as usual in Google Maps, using either MAP view or SATELLITE view.</p>

<p>Click START RECORDING over in the box on the left of the screen to begin your route. Then, you can double-click to mark the starting point of your route (i.e. your front door!). Then, every time you double-click again you add the next point on your route. You can click and hold to drag the map around in between double clicks. </p>

<p>You can select AUTOMATICALLY FOR RUNNERS or AUTOMATICALLY FOR CYCLISTS and it will complete a route between two points. Or select MANUALLY STRAIGHT LINES to draw the route yourself (the only way to make the route leave roads on the map).</p>

<p>As you continue the route, the distance appears in a box on the left (in English or Metric depending on your selection). At the halfway point, you have the option of clicking COMPLETE THERE AND BACK route automatically. You also have the option of turning on mile markers displayed on your route.</p>

<p>And, the coolest feature of all is the ELEVATION feature. It gives a graphic display of the elevation changes on your route. For example, I walked a 1.5 mile hilly route this afternoon:</p>

<p>1st quarter mile: down 40 feet
2nd quarter mile: up 40 feet
3rd quarter mile: down 70 feet
4th quarter mile: up 70 feet
5th quarter mile down 40 feet
6th quarter file: up 40 feet</p>

<p>You can save your route as a browser bookmark, there’s a CLEAR LAST POINT feature that you can keep clicking to undo as much of a route as you like. And, finally, a CLEAR ALL POINTS and start over button.</p>

<p>Really handy little tool if you want to see how far you have gone or check out a prospective route.</p>

2082

<p>toneranger:</p>

<p>That calorie calculator is great. Thanks. If you click Advance Options, you can use a Lean Mass formula. The iPod nazi has a video that teaches how to calculate that methode. Looks pretty close. Your website is a lot easer. </p>

<p>It looks like their “fat loss” calculations should result in about a pound a week. Sounds to me like you’ve got the right idea adding in a little more intensity in the workouts, but maybe with some full body exercises instead of leg press machines? </p>

<p>You could also do your bike rides or treadmill walks and throw in some short bursts of sprint or incline on the treadmill. It’s amazing how five or ten bursts will send your heartrate for the whole workout up. That intensity raises the metabolism for hours and hours and apparently is the key for fat burning.</p>

<p>I can already see the problem on my walks. On level ground, my heartrate never really goes up. It takes the hills to get my heart pounding. And, that’s me at a very low level of fitness. Somebody who had been walking for jogging for a long time simply would no longer get the intensity.</p>

2083

I usually use the loops at the Livestrong site for calculating routes, but it wouldn’t let me go off road, I see that the walking option on the gmap link lets you do that which is handy when I’m in parks. Thanks for the link! Things are fairly hilly around here, so I usually get a decent work out. When I’m on the elliptical I basically get my heartrate over 140, then rest a minute and repeat.

2084

<p>Are junk food cravings just like other addictions? Researchers fed rats bacon, sausages, Ding Dongs, and such, and they loved them so much they ignored warnings they were about to get shocked.</p>

<p>[Junk</a> food addiction may be clue to obesity: study | Reuters](<a href=“http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62R23O20100328]Junk”>http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62R23O20100328)</p>

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2085

<p>I’d love to read the actual study because the Reuters article is a bit of a mess. There is no way that junk food is physically addictive in the same way that nicotine or cocaine is. Nicotine, by a fluke of nature, has molecules that bond perfectly to a major set of chemical receptors in the brain. It’s not just a “learned” addiction, but the molecule of the drug physically hijack a key brain chemistry system that controls behavioral learning. It’s a perfect storm. Cocaine, herioin, and other opiates behave similarly on brain chemistry.</p>

<p>I doubt very much that the molecules of a Hostess Twinkie bind perfectly to receptors in the brain!</p>

2086

<p>The popular press never does justice to these stories. I came across this on the Google News page and haven’t tried to track down the actual study.</p>

<p>The term ‘addiction’ is used pretty loosely. I just thought it was amusing that the rats would rather suffer an electric shock than give up their Ding Dongs. Sounds like me when I was 8 months pregnant with my youngest. (I can’t believe I admitted to that in writing.)</p>

2087

<p>interesteddad, here is another presentation of the same subject. The focus is on the number of dopamine receptors.</p>

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</p>

<p>[Fatty</a> foods may cause cocaine-like addiction - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/03/28/fatty.foods.brain/]Fatty”>Fatty foods may cause cocaine-like addiction - CNN.com)</p>

<p>I wasn’t very impressed with some of the quotes in the article, to be honest. I am not a big fan of science lite.</p>

2088

<p>That’s the part that’s a little muddled.</p>

<p>Basically, things that contribute to our survival (like eating, drinking, being warm, etc.) trigger a dopamine release. The dopamine release plays a key role in teaching us to keep doing things that release dopamine and not to worry about doing the things that don’t cause a dopamine release.</p>

<p>Nicotine (and cocaine and heroin) hijack the receptors that cause the dopamine release. So not only does nicotine directly cause a dopamine release (thus teaching us to do that, i.e. smoking, some more), but it blocking all the normal stuff (like eating) from releasing dopamine the way it should. That’s why smokers have this weird inability to finish a meal without smoking. They need the nicotine to release the dopamine and tell their brain they have eaten enough and are satisfied. Crazy stuff.</p>

<p>The brain tries to compensate by doubling and tripling and increasing by a hundred fold the number of receptors so that there are some free ones left over for something other than nicotine to bind to. Nicotine withdrawal when people quit smoking is the period of time it takes for those receptors to return to normal numbers and normal sensitivities. Until that happens (a couple weeks, a month), nothing is triggering dopamine releases, leading to a the feelings of emptiness that make quitting difficult.</p>

<p>So, there’s no doubt that eating Pringles and hog grease causes a dopamine release and trains us to enjoy it and do it again. That’s the whole brain chemistry, food, survival thing. I’m just not sure what they are trying to say about receptors and dopamine levels. If junk food were physically addicting, it should cause an increase in the number of those brain receptors.</p>

<hr>

<p>The flashing light thing with the rats is interesting. Rats will press a lever for a dose of nicotine at higher than expected rates, as is the case with all addictive drugs. However, if you flash a light with each shot of nicotine, the rats go absolutely crazy slammin’ the lever for more and more nicotine. Off the charts. So there’s a mechanism where the drug is not only addictive, but massively addictive when accompanied by learned visual cues. That’s related to the whole dopamine behavioral learning mechanism. The rats associate the dopamine release with both the nicotine and the flashing light. That goes a long way towards explaining why smokers experience such strong need for nicotine when, for example, they get in the car or answer the phone. The trained cues are brutal.</p>

2089

<p>Food is a tough one to control. At the end of the day, beating a nicotine, heroin, cocaine, or alcohol addiction is conceptually pretty simple. You just have to accept that you can never use that drug again. Period. It’s black and white. It may not be easy getting there, but the fact that there is no gray area actually makes it easier. The decision is already made (for successful quitters).</p>

<p>You can’t (or at least shouldn’t) say you are never going to eat again. So, now you’ve got a much more complex problem. I can eat this, but not that. So much of this, but not this much of that. IMO, that makes dealing with a compulsive behavior much harder. Too many “should I or shouldn’t I” decisions.</p>

<p>I actually think that the relentless bombardment of don’t eat this, don’t eat that, in the media and pop culture may be contributing to widespread eating problems. Forced deprivation is a sure fire way to generate real cravings. I mean, if you deprive yourself of carbs, fats, salts, sugars, and calories, there isn’t much left but celery. I’m thinking we would be better off to say, “enjoy your food, just enjoy a little less of it”.</p>

2090

<p>Yes, and no. For the most part, I agree with you. But if you are in the habit of reaching into a big bag of chocolate chips a few times a day, the only way to stop that habit/addiction is to just stop it, period.</p>

<p>(I use to have neighbors, a family of four in which every single member was extremely obese, kids included. When a teenage friend of ours babysat for them, she found several bowls of choc. chips sitting on the kitchen counters. The kids could just grab a handful whenever the urge hit them. I don’t think a habit like that can be kicked by just cutting back.)</p>

2091

<p>I find several foods very addicting: chocolate, potato chips, cheese, cookies. I just don’t have these at all any more. Chocolate especially–if I have it one day, even a little piece, the next day I am thinking about it and clearly craving it. So perhaps not to the extent of nicotine or other drugs, but there’s clearly something psychologically addictive in those foods to me. </p>

<p>Ice cream, I don’t care about at all. My H will buy it, and I don’t even have any. Wish I had that will power with everything.</p>

2092

<p>Chocolate may actually have some kind of chemical properties. Cocoa beans and all. I don’t know. I can take it or leave it. I’m much more likely to plow through a bag of sour gummy worms or red twizzlers. I just have to say “no” on those.</p>

<p>On the other hand, I don’t know if saying “no snacks, never again” is viable. I think that just sets up binge eating bouts. I’m learning to never, ever take the bag, but to serve a small bowl and that’s that.</p>

<p>It’s like when we have tried to say never serve a carb starch. It’s all well and good for a few months, but I think the body rebels. Probably more realistic to have a starch with dinner once a week or something. I don’t know.</p>

2093

<p>That walking/biking interface is interesting, interesteddad. Where did it come from? It’s definitely not a Google product. The elevations were beautifully correct on the spot I tested, but the calorie count was grossly off.</p>

2094

<p>I’ve used Google maps to map some runs, but they does not show elevations. idad, thank you for the link!</p>

2095

<p>Cardinal. It’s an third-party overlay of Google maps, kind of like when people do maps of the DC metro subway stations and so forth.</p>

<p>The calorie estimation isn’t and can’t be accurate without age, genger, weight, and so forth. I’ve given up on all those estimates as they are all different, no matter where you look. I’ll just keep trying to eat a little less every day and exercise a little more and we’ll see what happens. Logiic tells me that it should be good.</p>

2096

<p>Didn’t weigh myself after a weekend of crappy food…attend a banquet for each daughter’s EC, meaning chicken breasts covered in breading and/or sauce, substandard desserts eaten out of boredom, etc etc. Time to eat roasted veggies for a few days.</p>

2097

<p>But the map interface asks for your weight-- and then the biking estimates are off by an order of magnitude. I mapped yesterday’s ride, 20 miles with 2500 feet of elevation gain. OK, that’s a lot of climbing for a short ride, but still, it’s not 2500 calories worth, or anything remotely close to 2500 calories. It’s one thing to be a bit inaccurate, quite another to give an answer that’s not even in the same zip code.</p>

2098

<p>I can’t say that I miss the EC banquets!</p>

<p>Day four of return to victory or something like that. Yes, after a brief hiatus I am subscribing to the exercise everyday philosophy. Yesterday we were in the middle of painting and got a call from DD that the men’s ice hockey game was being televised on espnu, so we had to go to a sports bar to see if we could spot her in the pep band - wow, she got some nice coverage! Team lost, but it was fun watching. </p>

<p>Anyway, came home, finished painting - and this is the point of my post - I went downstairs and lifted weights at 10:15! I was so proud of myself. This AM I was back out for my 4 mile walk with my partner.</p>

2099

<p>For xmas, I got DH a Garmin forerunner that does all sorts of cool things (Thanks for MoWC and others for very helpful input). It is so interesting to watch what his heart rate relative to hills, pace, etc. I wear our old polar monitor and he wears his as we go out to exercise - are we weird or what?? Anyway - it is very entertaining.</p>

2100

<p>My trainer (yes, the one who killed my legs) says she weighs herself every day and is regularly up 3 lbs on Monday since she is more relaxed about her diet on weekends. Those pounds are gone by Thursday. She looks great. So we really shouldn’t worry about a few pounds… as long as we resume discipline and don’t let them stay on our bodies!</p>