Mmmm… turkey…

Well, at least for most people. Personally, I’ve never been a huge fan of turkey only because of how dry it’s always been with one glaring exception: fried turkey. Oh man, is that stuff good or what? A couple years ago when I was more involved in the audio production side of things at the radio station, I helped produce a cooking show, and as a happy consequence, I was in the studio when guest chefs would come in with samples and wines and such. Needless to say, I always enjoyed working weekends (and I built a sizable wine collection that I eventually gifted out one bottle at a time). One guest chef was Rick Browne, author of Barbecue America and other books, was one of the early regulars (not so much anymore), but he introduced me to fried turkey (I realized later that even earlier when I was working in another department at the station, I’d been at one of his promotional events out in town where I’d had my first taste of fried sirloin *drool*). I wasn’t a fan of regular, smoked turkey before, but after fried turkey, there was just no going back. I highly recommend investing in a deep fryer (I’ll be getting my own, with a lot of other things, when I get my own house).

Regardless of your preference of food, it’s Thanksgiving, which as I’ve mentioned before means a boatload of food for most people in this country (not a huge divergence from the norm, but I digress). Frankly, I’m feeling lazy today (anyone want a puppy?), so I won’t go on another diatribe about the problem of overindulgence or any number of other things. Instead, I’ll just say enjoy the day as you see fit, whether it’s with family, at work, going for a run, eating and watching football all day, or whatever else. If you ascribe to a spiritual or religious doctrine, be sure to take care of those obligations as well. For me, I’ll be taking care of puppies, getting in a long-overdue sprint session at the track, doing a short shift at the station, avoiding my family (trust me, it’s best for everyone), and otherwise—well, there is no otherwise. I’m sure puppies will be taking up the free time, which is fine. They’re a lot of fun, growing like weeds, have great personalities, but still need good homes, so if you or anyone you know within, say, an hour or three of Charlotte is interested, feel free to drop me a line. At any rate, I know I’ll get some extra satisfaction from my track session after reading this today. Yeah, I complain and gripe about strains and sprains and imbalances and trigger points and such, but that story sort of puts things in perspective.

Before I get to the links, I wanted to quickly mention a couple random things:

—I’m officially in the market for a bicycle since the girl got a nursing job with some oddball hours (it’s only a mile each from my place to the gym and the station). I’ll be hitting a local bike shop in the next couple weeks to get fitted (goodness knows I don’t need an ill-fitting bike to cause or exacerbate problems). I’m leaning toward a mountain bike frame with hybrid tires (smooth centerline, knobby edges) since most of my time will be on pavement, but I’d like the option of semi-safe off-road capabilities.
—Tony pointed me to this newfound nutrition-focused blog.
—Yesterday, I started reading The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, partly on the recommendation of a friend who’s also helped me through some of my more debilitating myofascial issues, partly because of those issues themselves (mainly hip and shoulder issues). So far, so good, though some of it still seems a bit quacky for all the ailments that trigger point therapy MAY alleviate, but when it comes to direct soft tissue issues and correction, I’m a big fan. I’ll toss out a review whenever I finish, which will likely be awhile since I’m also thoroughly intimidated by—and therefore temporarily avoiding—the other book that came: House of Leaves.
—Just an FYI:

Body bits: traditional versus functional training (the latter seems to correlate to fitness), help for your deadlift and rack position, stayability versus stability, definitive defiance of “instability” training, fixing your force couples, bicycling in the snow, walking tall (bit late to the party, eh?), a couple body-related bits from Eric (yes, I promise they’re buried in there somewhere), Keith’s WTF contribution, improving movement, two classic must-reads for coaches and trainers.

Edibles: HCFS junk-mails Dr. Eades, Mark tackles bake sales (“C” is still for cookie, dadgummit!), quality trumps quantity, one little Coke (Dr. Pepper, in this case) won’t hurt (note: if you don’t want yours, I <3 Diet Dr. Pepper, kthxbai), kitchen tech, humane foie gras, supplement suggestions, “protein makes you fat” and other gems from Tony, confessions of a food pr0n addict.

Mind matters: don’t let your mind hold you back, nap time, trusted news sources speak volumes about the public, Microsoft examines cyberchondria (Andrew’s take), optical illusions due to eye flicker, could “Truman syndrome” be the height of egocentrism?

Kiddie corner: youth largely unaware of junk food impacts, Nate Green’s first offering (for adolescents and older) is top-notch.

Fiscal fitness: think twice about giving the gift of fitness, hard-times home cooking, elderly foregoing assisted living, turning to inventiveness, South Carolina a leader in balancing budgets (USC saves, less PSA spending, mayors don’t want the Feds, painful but necessary trimming), Atlas Shrugged for the current economy.

General health: drug company round-up (cooking the books, prescription data off-limits, journalism conflicts of interest), fitness tips for differing lifestyles, home repair and fitness, new possible biomarker for heart failure, Americans likely sicker than they think, miscellany from Andrew, metabolism’s dirty little secret, insurance may cover medical tourism, forty years since Love Canal, the newest dope in sports, bad boss –> bad heart, stomach chemical linked to bone formation, your new secretary of Health and Human Services (and the possibility of federally-funded stem cell research), why are drugs ALWAYS the ONLY answer?????

Geek-out:
—Transportation: 105 years of the electric starter, vintage iron rules LA Auto Show, Hyundai tries a different battery, diesel is the greenest, a green flying car, Mitsubishi’s EV, Fisker hybrid to use GM engine, Bentley mocks recession, Porsche dilutes the brand, ten cars that mock fuel economy, a top-ten list of songs about cars.
—Tech stuff: the next cryptography battle, turn a scanner into a camera (sort of), Mac virus targets the stupid, touchscreen sketchpad, pushing Microsoft back into startup mode, old-fashioned sleuthing goes high-tech, seeing the previously unseen, Wall-E tech inspired by reality, next-gen ejector seat, graveyard solar farms, a brief history of light, nuclear waste to create universes?
—Nature: ten great biology videos, Moby Dick’s inspiration anniversary, fish are friends, Mars may yet hold water, teenaged galaxies, quasars hamper young galaxies, Hubble snaps mammoth stars, pondering the design of the universe.
—Miscellaneous: the creatures that ate Hollywood, not sure how I feel about the new Star Trek prequel, ten unconventional holiday movies (along with Colbert Christmas), eco-disaster movies coming, guilt-inducing video games, Random House embraces e-books, physics micro versus macro, futurist ups and downs, the power of words.

Git r dun:
—Some perspective on progression.
—The 10,000 hour rule.
—Reaching a goal doesn’t mean the end of the road.
—Difficult-difficult, difficult-easy.

A letter on behalf of my female readers

Dear Ms. Deardorff,

Please stop writing about subjects in which you obviously have little or no knowledge. You are doing your readers—and yourself—a disservice by using your position and access at a widely-read newspaper to offer advice that is based on outdated, uninformed, and/or hazardous practices. By passing off this checklist as (a) “good” advice and (b) “good” journalism, you are endangering the health and well-being of those who read and trust your words. Please leave mainstream media and take a position teaching part-time, community college, supplemental journalism courses that focus on making money by writing well enough to convince hiring managers that you actually know what you’re talking about (sentence ended with a preposition just to irk you). It’s difficult enough keeping people away from the Tracy Anderson-flavored Kool-Aid.

Regards,
Ben

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Now that I’ve performed my public service for this month, let me quickly run through the “advice” in the article and point out why it’s worth about as much as Enron stock right now:

1. Instead of sit-ups, do bicycle crunches — Good, don’t do sit-ups. Seriously, you shouldn’t. They put undue strain on the lower back and neck, depending on how you do them, plus they’re anything but functional—in what situation in everyday life can you point out where you’d need dynamic trunk flexion strength? Isometric, certainly. Rotational? Of course, but flexion? Not so much. Trunk work should focus on stabilization (isometric) to improve posture and rotation for real-world carryover. Bicycle crunches to hit both of these training styles to an extent, but you certainly need other movements to complete the development (like trunk extension, to fix your seated-too-long posture, and some kind of resisted rotation work). I’ll give the good author half of a Brownie Point, not a whole one for ignoring the myriad other dimensions in which the trunk should be trained.

2. Instead of weighted squats, do lunges — Now wait just a !$#!@#$ minute. I HAVE to quote the part after the squats line:

Squats with a weight bar on your back build serious bulk in the rear end and upper thighs, places women are most likely looking to trim down, said Richardson, who found that weighted squats increased her muscle—and made her waist bigger. “It did not look cute,” she said. They also strain the knees and lower back.

Serious bulk? What do you consider serious bulk? Yes, you add muscle. This is a good thing. It makes you stronger. The Amy Winehouse look is just barferific, lemme tell ya, but you’re not going to get HYOOGE. If it were that easy, don’t you think all the gym rats who spend two hours a day hump-curling barbells in the squat rack would have arms that looked like bowling balls? And that’s the guys with many many many times more testosterone in their systems than the women this article targets. Look, try buying some clothes that fit a fit body, not a spaghetti noodle. Sure, your waist may get a little larger, but the added strength will carryover to your entire body, and you’ll look proportionately better overall. If your idea of “cute” is “waif,” you’re not well. Seriously. There’s a continuum from sick to well to healthy to fit. Health is the absense of illness/disease. Fitness is the development of potential. Oh yeah, the knees and back thing? You know what that is? Because people think squatting is supposed to just happen—”bend with your knees” and such. I’ve had to beat that line out of people before. Yes, you don’t want to lift with your back, but you also don’t want to “lift” with your knees, either. The power is in your hips when you squat correctly (and secondarily in your trunk, which gets at point #1). It’s easy to blame squats for knee and back problems, but in reality, it’s ignorance on the part of the squatter (or, more likely, the idiot trainer).

By the way, lunges are great. I whole-heartedly endorse lunges and other unilateral leg work. The problem with the comparison is that they don’t compare to squats. Lunges are hip-dominant (the backside of your legs and butt) while squats are more quad-dominant (the fronts of your legs). Lunges are an integral part of a full training program, but squats are not to be ignored. Oh yeah, one other thing: women suffer from osteoporosis in FAR greater numbers than men. Want to know a way to avoid it? Weight-bearing exercise, especially lifts that load the axial skeleton (read: your spine). It has to be done correctly, but the weight-bearing work makes your bones more dense and encourages bone growth. Combined with proper diet, properly-lifted heavy weights are an almost sure-fire way to avoid “brittle bone disease” later in life, plus you won’t have to worry about falling nearly as much since you’ll be stronger for the effort in the first place.

3. Instead of behind-the-neck shoulder presses, do seated shoulder presses — Um, did you just say to do the same thing, only seated instead of standing? Yes, behind-the-neck presses are often done with too much weight, meaning bad posture and exposure of the shoulder girdle, neck, and upper back to unnecessary strains, sprains, and worse. Look, this one’s easy: (1) stay on your feet so that you make the movement a full-body effort, (2) bring the load down in front of your neck but without excessive backward lean (a little is acceptable to maintain your center-of-gravity), and (3) keep your elbows tucked to your sides or slightly flared (no more than 45 degrees) to keep the load on the larger shoulder muscles—flaring your elbows to the sides and pressing overhead still exposes the underlying shoulder structure to increased risk of injury.

4. Instead of straight-leg push-ups, do push-ups on your knees — What, just because you have “innie” plumbing instead of “outie” plumbing, you can’t do real push-ups? Sounds like we have a self-hating author. If you can’t do a full, proper push-up, don’t drop to your knees like a two-dollar hooker. Instead, find a wall or a solid chair or bench and otherwise start out with your hands higher than the ground. Find a height that is doable yet challenging. Do your push-ups as prescribed by your training program in this position. Once that becomes easier (read: you can do all sets and reps without failure), lower your hands. Continue this until you reach the floor, then start raising your feet (this could take a year or more—it took about that long for me to nail chin-ups). If Ms. Deardorff was so concerned about your knees during squats, she should’ve kept them in mind here, where the kneecap can be placed in a compromised position if loaded as she suggests.

5. Instead of deadlifts, do leg kick-backs — Hey, Julie, this is aimed straight at you:

Ladies, please, she obviously has some spiritual connection to Sarah Palin. Don’t sell yourselves short. If you’re not supposed to deadlift, that means you’re not supposed to lift anything from a height below your waist. No kids, no books, no groceries, no nothing. You might as well resign yourself to the Tracy Anderson School of Non-Training where you’re not supposed to lift ANYthing weighing more than three pounds. I don’t know in what world this makes sense, but it sure ain’t this one. Please please please please please deadlift, albeit properly. Frankly, the squat and deadlift should look nearly identical from the feet to the shoulders; the placement of the load—and thus the arms—is the only major visual difference. Learn how to do it properly. You’ll save your knees and back a lot of grief. You’ll also strengthen literally everything in your body. Leave the kick-backs to the cardio bunnies.

Deadlifts, squats, lunges, presses, rows, pull-ups. Six exercises, all weight-bearing, all mind-numbingly simple (once form is addressed), all time and again shown to make a stronger, functional HUMAN. Screw the sexist, defeatist, helpless mentality behind articles like this one. Aside from some plumbing and hormonal differences, men and women are physiologically the same. Don’t let someone tell you to do this or that and not this or that just because you can lactate and ovulate (or could, at one point, depending on your age) :)

No links today. I wanted to crank this one out. The backlog is growing again, but I’ll get them out this coming week. Scouts honor (too bad I wasn’t a Scout) ;)

Let the comparisons begin

Okay, it’s time to start naming the beard’s look-alike. I think I’ve outgrown the Robert Urich likeness (gotten that since I was sixteen, so who knows).

Took this just after 7am this morning while at the station, so you get the early-morning STFU look as a freebie.

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, this thing is… well… I’ll just say I don’t know how people do it permanently. I’ve curtailed my beer consumption since I don’t want to waste any getting lost in the whiskers (at least until I remember to get some straws at the next fast food joint I visit *snicker*). I never realized how unevenly my facial hair grows. It’d take a couple months of steady growth and grooming to get it all to even out, and while it’d work well for the grizzled biker look, I think I prefer a more aerodynamic look. At any rate, I’m thinking I’ll just grow it out completely, then take a couple pictures as I experiment with looks while trimming and shaving it down at the end of the month (unless I’m used to it by then).

This is going to be interesting sitting through Thanksgiving lunch with the girlfriend’s family with this thing. I just hope I don’t lose any turkey in there—well, unless it’ll keep until later. Ya know, now that I think about it, I get to wear this thing through the girlfriend’s birthday night out tonight (dinner, dueling piano bar, etc). Shirt, tie, scrub, awesome. I can’t decide if I want to go ahead and attempt grooming it down or just letting it poof as-is. Probably the latter. I’m feeling lazy today, and I’m sure any pictures from tonight will be roundly mocked regardless of facial hair :)

Half-@$$ing it

Including a lunch break, I got to spend four hours sitting at the DMV Monday morning to resolve an issue regarding my license plate. What’s that say about my visit that *I* had to take a lunch break? Long, boring story: the DMV sent me a notice back in September about an insurance stop on my vehicle stemming from July, odd since I’ve had my insurance policy for five years with no breaks. I called the DMV at the time, found out what needed to happen to fix the problem (a faxed piece of paper from my insurance company), called my insurance company to let them know, was told the paperwork was processed, and I went about my merry way. This past Saturday night (of course), the girlfriend gets blue-lighted in my truck for having a revoked license plate, which gets confiscated on the spot. Interesting. I got to be one of “those” people by taping a piece of paper in my back window that read “Tag Applied For,” not entirely true but just as effective as “Tag Lost” or actually writing my tag number on the paper. Good times.

The DMV opens at 8am, so I was there a little after that with about fifteen people in line ahead of me, but it moved quickly (I have to say that the DMV itself was pretty great, and rarely after first opening was there a line of more than three people). It took only fifteen minutes of actual paper and computer work to process my stuff at the DMV. The four hours came from waiting on my insurance company to fax a single piece of paper that I was told would take (first call) ten minutes, (second call thirty minutes later) up to an hour, and (third call ninety minutes after the first) “we’ll put a ‘rush’ order on it.” Three hours in, I aksed the service rep if I could go get some food since I’d skipped both breakfast and coffee that morning, not thinking it would be an all-day affair. I left in my tagless vehicle, came back a half-hour later, and played on my BlackBerry for another thirty minutes (no way I would’ve made it that whole time without it) until the rep told me the fax had come through (she was great as well, checking for the fax every ten or fifteen minutes while handling other customers). I walked out with a new license plate and without about thirty bucks.

I’m not entirely sure who dropped the ball back in September, but someone obviously half-assed their job, whether it was my insurance company or the DMV. I’m sure my insurance company sends their faxes out through a processing facility as some sort of cost-cutting measure, but four hours for a piece of paper? Really? Come to find out some other insurance company had claimed me and then dropped me (both without my knowledge), which flagged my plates with the DMV and started this whole mess. Still, it could’ve been worse.

As another example of half-assing, someone at one of the forums I frequent recently posted this little gem of a video. Trust me, all the cracks about seizures and air-humping and douchebaggery ensued. Kinda kills any faith you had in Guinness records, no? I’m just waiting for Gentilcore to get hold of it and make some kind of “he accidently the whole thing” remark. Even to the completely untrained eye, this has to look incorrect (the “record,” not the “accidentally” thing), yet the guy doing, well, whatever he was doing seemed proud of his, um, accomplishment. I’m sure his parents were, too. What, no “I’d like to thank…” speech?

It’s easy to point out when other people half-ass their work, whether in the gym, in the kitchen, or in general life, but what about ourselves? It IS Thanksgiving season, after all—no, Christmas season doesn’t start until the Friday after Thanksgiving, so for all of you all giggity-goo over trees and presents and radio stations already going to an all-Christmas format, get over yourself. Been feasting a little early? Maybe skipping proper warm-ups? Stretching? Sleeping? Not setting your scapulae properly in your lifts? *raises hand on that last one* It’s easy to get sidetracked and lose focus, this time of year for sure, but also any other time for a variety of reasons (puppies come with long-term exercise plans). The next six weeks will be tough on your will power, but don’t half-ass it. This time of year always invokes thoughts of Bob. Don’t be Bob.

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Traffic and content note: The link on Mark’s Daily Apple sent my site traffic through the roof, up nearly fifteen-fold for a couple days before returning to somewhere near sanity, so thanks to those thirty or so readers from the weekend ;) Since the blog relating health and finances got some attention, I’m going to add a section to the links called “fiscal fitness,” which will focus on financial issues related to healthy living, primarily how to save money while keeping fit (may be a tad sparse at first), though I’ll probably tend to throw some of these in with the other categories sometimes (this category will likely include stupid trainer stories since hiring an ignorant trainer is a HYOOGE waste of money).

/rambling

Body bits: learn to deadlift, save your wrists, your back during the squat, the importance of the rotator cuff, more from Keith on “frozen” shoulders, think twice about running winter races (maybe just try running like a kid), something old and new from Mike, more on unrealistic body image, Tony succumbs to his manhood every now and then (but manages to save himself), NFL combines are poor standards for fitness, wants versus needs.

Edibles: mmm… olives and other goodies, how to make dried fruit, pain in the grain, Trader Joe’s = awesome, immortal hamburgers, make cake in a coffee mug, the energy scam, the acai berry scam, how families approach food, calories should be counted like pounds, a birthday in canning, Paul recommends a book, post-workout fasting, food companies make false claims (gosh, no, really? shocking), Dr. Eades lays into the government’s new nutritional standards board (I have some amateur experience at this).

Mind matters: mental tug-of-war inside the womb, “Mirror’s Edge” hacks proprioception, driving therapy (I can attest to this big time).

Kiddie corner: three keys to youth athletics, more women giving birth at home, a wake-up call to parents (and another), a missing link in proper education, antipsychotics get a bad rap (the hell you say).

Fiscal fitness: words fail me (because I’m still laughing), South Korea is latest medical tourism destination, more illnesses untreated due to costs, skip buying gingko biloba (but maybe spring for grass with help from Google and Uncle Sam), seeing the doctor online (for real), what happy people DON’T do (hint: we’ve discussed this before).

General health: an excellent Q&A from Dr. Eades, the role of fitness in healthcare, primal versus paleo, GP versus specialist, correlation versus causation (again), more statin insanity (from Mark, from Mike, from NYTimes), headphones and heart devices don’t mix, more on Google tracking epidemiology (TED.com’s take), bone marrow may battle AIDS, nanomaterials are safe (though we don’t know much about them *rolls eyes*), more bad news for plastics, beware those off-label pills, President-elect as fitness role model, more evidence for a link between waist size and death risk, time change can put you at risk (aside from being unnecessary and completely annoying).

Geek-out:
—Transportation: smaller auto show still looking ahead, speed limit inanity, how the Volt will save GM (because this ain’t the way to go), Dodge EV race possibly fixed, Toyota struggling, BMW’s expensive EV, Honda’s EVs are looking better, Lincoln stuck in the 1980s, VW’s diesel in the desert, Japanese minicars (with help from Nissan), some rare but hopefully good news for Detroit, tricks for Tesla, ten coolest Bond cars, Pentagon clears flying-car project, biofuel startup bucks economy, speed dummies not in a patrol car, a 140mpg hybrid scooter, stoplight gadget for two-wheelers, solar hybrid yacht, the yummy spaghetti that is Tokyo rail, nuts and bolts hampering Boeing, Airbus uses its inside voice, plugging boarding-pass loopholes.
—Tech stuff: Ushahidi launches in the Congo, ten reasons iTunes sucks, why the iPhone barely beats a rock (another reason), relief from a BlackBerry, Flash decaffing Java, Gates chases Jobs for “big brother” status (at least you won’t get sick *snicker*), a pictorial history of Windows, how to recover your Google account or switch altogether (with video chat), OpenID confuses users, some pros and cons of Guitar Hero World Tour, Honda’s robo-legs (Joe wants this used for Olympic powerlifting), solar-powered ice maker, gadgets that Minority Report got right, gadgets the cell phone killed (and here), firefighting with Web 2.0, YouTube goes to boot camp (but without geotags, I’m sure), classic instruction manuals (here and here), secret rocket balls, neighborly WiFi, recession drives green electronics, protective directed energy, USB 3.0 screams, petaflop this, space station recycles urine, RIP Phoenix (TED.com’s take), and why is the NYTimes website blank in Opera but fine in IE and FF (yes, this one’s for me)?
—Nature: dark matter found (maybe), Census of Marine Life progress, genome hacking could resurrect woolly mammoth (did no one else read Jurassic Park?), lawnmowing with goats, shockwaves plant planets (like these and these), sonar legally more important than whales, coal-fired power plants thrown in limbo (but definitely more expensive), our ancestors’ brains may’ve been bigger than our own, ten great animal videos, magnetars are a little less weird.
—Miscellaneous: happy belated anniversaries (Times Square zipper, steel, a still-standing video game record, transfusions, standardized time), the science of scent, Oxford’s annoying sayings, clothes linked to your Facebook etc, “instant survival” inflatable house, “School of Rock” meets Harvard, remembering Michael Crichton (here and here), how science is like democracy, weirdest POOP sent to Wired, Bear Grylls is good TV (yes, I just said that), LEGO can’t copyright in Europe, Wired’s best headlines (NSFW), best fictional doomsday devices, Bond villain lairs, rare microphotography resurfaces, the Clock of the Long Now.

Git r dun:
—Do what works for you, not for someone else (and don’t disparage others for not seeing things your way all the time).
—Thoughts on being the best.
—Do you need a push, a pull, or a nudge?
—Achieving your goals and success, Fass-style.
—Finding inspiration from others.
—The Charter for Compassion.
—Shaking hands with the devil (not really a motivator, more just a good story).
—Don’t believe in maintenance.
—Strategy trumps brute strength.
—F*** you, cancer (Andrew answers).

Who wants a puppy?

This isn’t going to be a normal blog from me. Long story short, yesterday I came into possession of a litter of nine puppies who were staying out in the weather, which has turned rainy the past couple days and looks to get below freezing through next weekend.

Before:

After:

Black – Moe (smaller girl), Larry (boy), Curly (bigger girl); white – Wilbur (runt boy), Rascal (bigger boy); brown – Tinny (darker-faced boy), Zorro (lighter-faced boy); fawn – Scooter (boy), Lyra (girl).

Yes, they’ve been named. I don’t know why. It wasn’t my idea—well, not all of them; I was going to give them all names of some of my favorite literary characters, but Lyra (Northern Lights) and Wilbur (Charlotte’s Web) is as far as I got before the girlfriend got to them, so I had to name a couple on the fly. More pictures on my Facebook.

Right now, they easily fit into half my bathtub, which is where they sleep (for now since I came home from running errands this morning to discover they’d learned how to turn on the water), and my bathroom provides plenty of room to run around and chew on stuff without me having to worry about them messing up the floor (yay tile!). I’m skipping resuming my training this weekend, which was the plan up until this morning after getting maybe three hours of sleep last night (note to self: never have kids), on which I place full blame for my eating two Egg McMuffins this morning. Shame on me (though I did make my weekly farmer’s market run this morning as well), but I’ll be back at it on Monday. Hopefully.

I have no intention of keeping any of them, but I did want to give them a chance to get good homes, so if you or anyone you know in the general Charlotte area is looking to adopt—it’s just over a month until Christmas *ahem*—please feel free to leave a comment below, email me, or send me a message on Facebook or Twitter (can you tell I’m accessible?).

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Hey, look! I made it on Mark’s blog! I guess there’s something to that whole “topical” post thingy instead of just, oh I dunno, random crap. I’m SURE it also had NOTHING to do with the fact that (I’m guessing) half or more of the links in my last post were from Mark. Nosiree. Nothing like a little virtual back scratching, eh? Let’s see… he called it “wonderful,” so does that mean I use a similar adjective for one of his posts, his whole blog, or do I just send flowers and a thank-you card?

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Now, for the original reason for this post:

Oh yeah, now we’re getting somewhere. In skipping the gym this morning, I was able to go pick up my Harley from its servicing at the dealer. Movember is halfway over, so it’s time to start thinking about grooming (if any). I’ll be okay for another couple days, but it’s going to start getting annoying soon, so I’ll entertain any suggestions for what to do with this scruff (I have a facial hair trimmer as well as a razor, so there are a lot of possibilities).

No links today, but they’re piling up, so be ready for a purge coming soon.

On the cheap

Generally speaking, I can’t say the whole economic mess has affected me much. Even the once sky-high fuel prices weren’t an issue since I work from home or only a mile down the street at the radio station. However, I’m also unmarried, childless, and pretty happy being a homebody for the most part. Most people are not in my position and so have to endure much greater financial expenditures, whether it’s for regular food (let alone GOOD food), fuel to get to and from places, doctor visits, or the cost of a family YMCA membership, and that’s just most middle-aged people—more elderly folks (and those who care for them) are facing their own sets of problems, too. It piles up quickly, especially if jobs and their benefits are in doubt, and when it comes to making budgetary decisions, individuals and families might mimic public schools in foregoing the basics of physical activity and healthful foods. While I can understand that decision, I also think spending priorities are WAY out of line (see: television—why deal with this in the first place, anyway?).

Whether it’s a knee-jerk reaction or a larger social phenomenon, people consistently fail to take their physical well-being into account when making monetary decisions—why is it that someone will drop hundreds of dollars on a “personal trainer” or the latest as-seen-on-TV fad gadget, both equally worthless, but won’t make the relatively minor investment in a jump rope, maybe some stretch bands, and a buggy full of veggies (I won’t get into the farce of “organic,” “free-range,” “farm raised,” etc labels right now)? Or, if you’re going to keep your broadband Internet service anyway (along with your TV), why not take some time to do at least a little research for product reviews and interactive places to ask questions and get (hopefully) informed answers? (Hint: look at the column to the right.)

A primary consequence of cost-cutting measures is a shift toward simplicity and moderation. Fewer resources means fewer options, and as I recently vented, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it should be embraced—humans seemed to do just fine (perhaps better) before Bowflex or Bally’s or Tae-Bo or any number of “Hollywood diets.” You don’t have the option to just tone up *face palm*—you either exercise or you don’t. To that end, I’ve gone back through the archives and picked from some previously unlinked articles to present you with some links with common themes: simplicity, frugality, and efficiency. Please feel free to add anything I missed to the comments section as well as (dis)agree with anything I’ve linked up here. The nice thing about all this stuff is that if/when the economy picks back up, you can continue doing these things and pocket the extra coin.

Note: I know some of the following may seem more expensive than necessary, which is halfway correct. The upfront costs may be slightly more than the most economical choices in the near-term, but the long-term benefits of these practices will more than pay for the initial investments (think: fewer doctor visits, fewer medications, fewer illnesses, etc), an encouraging thought considering the direction some things are going. You may also notice the bulk of the links focus on food or simply doing less. This is because budget-conscious exercise options are easy, but it’s considerably more difficult to abandon our grocery-buying habits or even just slow down. Massive thanks particularly to Mark Sisson’s blog for a wealth of information.

Exercise
—Train like a prisoner or MacGuyver. Either way, master your body first, then look for free/cheap/homemade equipment.
—Video proof that you can exercise outdoors.
—Running seems like a no-brainer, but be smart about it (find a hill). Walking doesn’t count—you should do more of that anyway.
—Foam rollers = cheap self-therapy (you can also use basketballs, baseballs, tennis balls, and even rolling pins).

Diet
—Mark offers some general guidelines and recipes (quickies and snacks, too) to keep in mind.
—Eat seasonally, which in turn means eating more locally (which doesn’t mean boring). Here’s a start to winter, spring, summer, and fall veggies. If you’re in the Charlotte area, I can point you to some local meat farms as well (just drop me a comment or email).
—Ten-dollar meals are the latest rage (thanks, KFC) and promote quick eating. Don’t. You can do better, even by simply eating together.
—Junk food is cheap for a reason: it’s not good for you, but make sure your regular store is keeping up. Or you could cowpool :)
—Resist the cheap carbs, especially the single-serve variety (you can better spend your money elsewhere).
—Reconsider buying in bulk (unless it’s some of the less-desirable cuts of beef that make good jerky).
—Watch out for those liquid calorie bombs (including Jagerbombs).
—Guides to square-foot gardening and composting.

Kids
—This one’s easy. Just kick them outside, and they’ll figure it out for themselves. In fact, play whatever games they make up. You’ll be gassed by the time they’ve halfway woken up.
—Use some parenting sense, but let the kids be kids, including dirt.

Lifestyle
—Barefoot—and other primal considerations—is better (and ultimately cheaper).
—Keep journals for both training and diet. Numbers give you immediate feedback.
—Visit the library or the park (read: free stuff), not a psychic, and remember that it could always be worse.
—Consider the benefits of taking a break (just don’t go overboard). It’s quick, cheap, and easy, though while you’re at it, consider active meditation as well, but don’t think that relaxation doesn’t take work.
—Vote every single chance you get (even early, just not often).
—Sleep as well as you can, which shouldn’t be a problem if you’re no longer buying that daily four-dollar latte (since sleep is free, that immediately negates an expense).
—Having a kid? Have it a home.
—No matter how bad things may seem, hang in there.

Back from vacation

Hope you’re sitting down. This is going to be a long one.

I’m finally back from a week’s vacation in Charleston, South Carolina—be ready for some slightly old-news and politically-tinged links as I start this on the Saturday (and it’s now what day?) after the trifecta of Halloween, time change, and Election Day—and writing here instead of on a friend’s book project. Not that that wasn’t fun and all—I learned a LOT about the chaos that marks the initial throes of creativity in a group setting—but despite the dozen or so print-worthy pages I pieced together during the “morning” work sessions (whenever people decided to wake up and get coffee until we decided to have “lunch”), it’s tough (for me, anyway) to get fully engulfed in writing up an idea that’s not my own. We got a lot done, and there’s still a lot to do, but I don’t have—or just haven’t developed—the brain to sit down and grind out pages of work just because I have time to do it (trust me, putting this blog together is like making sausage: nice product, nasty process). No, my writing explodes without warning (bite it, peanut gallery), so I have to ride the wave for all it’s worth whenever it happens. I’d love to make a living out of writing—and as we all know, I can churn out words—but it’s not exactly something you quit everything else to do before bringing in at least a trickle of revenue. Got to pay the bills with something else while doing the writing (for free) on the side.

Slightly related side note: I signed up for a Twitter account today (“nomagicpill”—I have no idea how the codes or symbols work yet). Apparently blogging is SO last year (just like laptops, apparently). Talk about too many options, but I’ll get to more of that in a minute. At least I’ve practically pulled the plug on my MySpace account (yes, it’s actually still around).

Beyond writing, it was a great, rainy week of not a whole lot, including a supposed extra hour of sleep (which I hate just as much as losing an hour in the spring). There were a couple nights out in Charleston itself (the house was in Folly Beach), substantial sessions—both solo and with a “band”—of Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour, a typically violent game of spoons, and a game called Killer Rabbits and the Quest for the Magic Carrot. One of the guys found it at a hobby shop and thought it looked similar to Chez Geek/Goth, only slightly more gratuitously macabre. He was right, but it was still fun(ny). If you’re looking for any party games, Rabbits and Chez Geek are good ones, though they do have a somewhat steep learning curve, and we still had to establish some house rules for Rabbits, but then, we wanted to play, not scrutinize the lengthy rulebook. For me personally, I got in some good saddle time on the Harley (the rides to and from Charleston notwithstanding; pictures on my Facebook), a couple of okay workouts (with a possible sport-specific training modification to come when I resume regular training this coming weekend), a renewed love of cooking on a gas stove, and a realization that I should probably suspend my CSCS pursuit.

Yes, you heard correctly. I’ve slowly lost steam for this push over the past couple months for a variety of reasons, and a conversation with another beachgoer at the house this week brought the boiler to a quiet rest. She was flipping through some of my study materials while waiting to go out one night, noted how difficult the stuff was (at least I correctly answered some of the questions she tossed out), then asked why someone would get a CSCS certification. I told her the various settings and positions and clientele that are out there, which was all fine and dandy, but then she asked why *I* was working on it. Good question. I’m fortunate in that I have a job that allows me to spend time pursuing other interests without inhibiting my work performance or income, but what would happen if I took a different job? I wouldn’t have the time I have now, and who knows if I’d actually enjoy the work, especially enough to do it full-time? Cost is an issue, of course, and I’m not so committed to a major career change yet to justify further expense toward a complete overhaul, just maybe more toward making it a side job first. Plus, I have some other logistical considerations coming up in the spring to keep in mind (namely whether or not I’ll still be in Charlotte). I enjoy my training a lot, and I don’t mind offering tips and advice when asked, but as a full-time gig, I just don’t know. In that light, I will continue looking at my boot camp and youth conditioning pursuits since those lend themselves more to once- or twice-a-week sessions (Saturday mornings, maybe one weekday afternoon, etc) and make a decision on those once I better know where I’m going to be this summer, and of course, I’ll continue my reading and research as well as this blog. So there’s that.

—————

So, Halloween is over, and you know what that means (aside from various hangovers here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). Millions of leftover pumpkins! Grab what you can and cook ‘em up! That’s some good, healthy eating (the girlfriend doesn’t know I’m soon going to disembowel the one sitting on our front porch if it’s not too rotten). It also means the start of two solid months of total dietary debauchery, at least for most people. If food options run rampant during the other ten months of the year, it’s outright anarchy now. I don’t need to go down the list of goodies because you probably already have. However, take a minute to go back and look over your list again. Just exactly where is the cornucopia of food options? Let’s see… sugar, sugar, flour, sugar, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, sugar, chocolate, sugar… hmmm… sounds pretty similar to every other month of the year (read: not many healthy options). The only real differences are the amounts and relative percentages of caloric intakes. Nope, that stuff is always there, perhaps in different forms, but just because these two months have some sort of social attribution, we suddenly get a free pass? Two months out of twelve—well, AT LEAST two months. How many of you started your holiday snacking back in September? How many of you will hate to see any of it go to waste and therefore continue packing it away well into January? Throughout the year, you have cheat days here and there, maybe even a cheat week once or twice in a blue moon, but two whole months? Let’s face it. There are too many gatherings and literal feasts to stay completely on-track without alienating someone on the Christmas card list (which isn’t always a bad thing, but I digress). Given the current economic situation, there may be fewer or less elaborate setups, but that may actually just continue a food-buying trend toward cheaper (read: junkier) foods. Are you SURE you didn’t start back around Labor Day?

Quick aside: A bad economy can be a HYOOGE burden on our health, be it physical, mental, emotional, whatever. I’ve sprinkled in links and comments here and there over the past several blogs, but I’m planning on putting together a whole post focusing on keeping your fitness and sanity during an economic slowdown, whether its worldwide or personal, something that may be exacerbated by the onset of winter and the associated blues, doldrums, holiday letdowns, or so-called seasonal affective disorder (I miss George Carlin). Stay tuned.

Admit it: it’s not so much the season that causes over-indulgences. It’s just that the usual stigma of horking your weight in cookies and cakes flies out the window. Hey, everyone else is doing it, so why not? (Note: you might want to duck my flying backhand right about now.) A friend of mine, who like clockwork produces a weekly message for thought and motivation, offered one relevant to my point here (the following is re-printed without proofing or permission from anyone):

Mahler’s Monday Morning Motivator # 235 – The Season of Excess

The Season of Excess (11-03-08)

Over the past weekend and with a simple step on the scale this morning, I am reminded that we have entered what I like to call “The Season of Excess.” Yes, excess, as in too much, more than what is needed, indulgence, intemperance, or just plain gluttony. A good example, on a broad scale, might be the presidential election campaign. I don’t think there is a person I have talked to or corresponded with, regardless of their political stance, who is not just plain sick and tired of the campaign and cannot wait until it’s over. It has been a long and grueling feed at the trough of posturing for both sides. I am reminded of a little joke I once heard that it is so appropriate, that elections are held in November in the United States, since it is the month of Thanksgiving and voters elect the next group of turkeys.

On a more personal level and bringing the idea of this season of excess closer to home, it seems as though with the end of summer and the change of seasons a lot of our healthy eating and fit living habits tend to take a hike. Yes, they take a hike, but we don’t. In the summer months, the outdoors seems to bring out the best in us. There are so many activities and we seem to be just a bit more conscious of our physiques, what with the lighter and more revealing clothing we wear. As autumn approaches, the calendar presents us with so many opportunities to ditch all the work and effort we have put in during the warm weather. First comes Oktoberfest, prompting us to indulge in our favorite brews. Then Halloween, my personal challenge, where we are tempted with more empty carbohydrates than the most clever of wizards could ever conjure. There is something inherently evil about a peanut, covered in chocolate and topped off with a candy shell. Closely following on its heels is Thanksgiving Day where family and friends gather in love and comradeship to see who has to loosen their belt first before the football game comes on. Then Christmas sneaks up on us and we find ourselves neck deep in cookies, candy, eggnog, cheese balls, and goodies of all kinds. It seems the only thing we don’t eat is the damned fruitcake. I don’t think I have ever actually seen anyone consume fruitcake. It’s always there, but never gone. We finish off the season with more excess as we ring in the New Year with enough liquor to put a salty sailor to shame and literally brining many of us to our knees in homage to the porcelain god that sits stoically in the bathroom. And, after all is said and done, we resolve never to do it again and to get in shape in the coming year, until, of course, the next Season of Excess.

There may not be much that you can do about the holidays. They are what they are and I love each and every one of them. The Season of Excess is one of my favorite times of the year. But, with that said, I think I will try to also turn it into a different season, by keeping up with my workouts, by trying as much as possible to eat and drink in moderation, by making wise choices while reveling in the company of friends and family. It is possible, dare I say, to change The Season of Excess into The Season of Success. Well, at least I am going to give it a try. How about you?

I don’t need to tell you how many different training programs, both legitimate and craptacular, are out there. I have neither the time, patience, or desire to even begin that laundry list. With so many options, how do you know which to choose, let alone stick with for more than two weeks before jumping to the next fad program? Sometimes, even when you do things right, your body just may not be designed for it, meaning you have to take some tools out of the training bag. Same for dietary medications and supplements. Have you stopped to really look at the vitamin/mineral section at your regular store? One word: insanity. Seriously, if you took the recommended dosage of every single pill that’s supposedly good for you, your wallet would be beyond empty, and your belly would be bloated, yet you’d still be hungry. How awesome would that be? There’d be no need for all the fad diets! Needless to say, these industries suffer from extreme excess and “variety” that does little more than confuse the public, which consequently lines the pockets of these snake oil salesmen.

A couple of my other frequent reads wrote on the forthcoming season bloat as well (here and here). My question is: why is excess even an option? Should we just because we can? One particular post I came across discussed the changing perception of obesity over the years. It’s worth the time to read and watch the embedded videos (which are funny in their own right). At this time of year when people throw gastronomic caution to the wind, I’m going to state the obvious: people have not, do not, and will not become fat based on these two months out of the year. Sure, they certainly don’t help, but all the New Year’s resolutions in the world are pointless when (a) they rarely make it to February and (b) they don’t signal true lifestyle changes. Instead, they follow the fad diet and exercise habits of “purging” or “cleansing” or “turbulence” or whatever buzzword is trendy, all of which inherently imply temporary, quick-fix overhauls meants to negate chronic, built-up “impurities” in whatever form. If followed to the letter, they do work—temporarily. In my humble opinion and experience, the degree and longevity of success on any program is directly related to the degree and longevity of the effort put into researching and following said program. Even if you don’t ultimately get the results you want, keeping up with something for three months rather than three weeks gives you a good idea of what WILL work, and you can adjust accordingly; hopscotching lifestyle changes doesn’t allow enough time for your body to adapt, meaning it just stays in the same form you’re trying so hard to change.

I have a friend who is one of those hopscotchers. She IMs me once every month or two to announce her new plan, which never includes a long-term lifestyle modification, just the latest infomercial special or push from whatever women’s magazine she picked up that day even though she asks for—and I no-longer-enthusiastically offer—advice (in her defense, her recent pictures do show a significant weight loss, but I’m waiting for that six-month “set point” to kick in before I sincerely congratulate her). Look, you can’t know if your plan is one that’ll work long-term, but if you’re going to invest your time and money into it, the least you can do is give it a fair chance to do what it purports to do. I mentioned I’m choosing to limit my academic and professional options for the time being. That doesn’t mean I’m giving up on them, but I’ve given them a fair shake recently and have decided to step back a little. I have a myriad of options for work and play, and they will remain there as long as I hold some ability, experience, and/or interest in them, but for now, I’m keeping things simple, within my means (financial, physical, mental, and otherwise), and letting things slowly develop on their own instead of rushing headlong into a dozen different pursuits at once. I tried that lifestyle back in college, and it was the right time to do it, but not so much now—I like my sleep too much :)

Lots of links to catch up on (I won’t go through my entire backlog this time), but first, a special Election Day post-mortem: post-election blues, the psychology of voting, getting out the vote, drive-thru voting, the psyche of would-be presidents, Nanobama, computers pick 1952 winner, CNN’s magic wall, five best Hollywood Presidents, Twitter updates, a butler well served, a century of Presidents, Colbert beats Obama, Obama in = Bush spy secrets out(?), need-to-know physics, a view of California’s Proposition 8, Cressey talks taxes, and a couple comics (XKCD, HijiNKS Ensue).

Body bits: warming up (stretching sense, NY Times joins the 21st century, Eric’s take, Andrew’s take, Vernon’s takes 1 and 2), you CAN get strong on bodyweight alone, fixing your deadlift, Mark makes a pipe (I made mine awhile back from these instructions) and sandbags (the ones I made), one reason why Spiderman can beat you up, single-leg supplements, running CAN be good for you (as long as you do it correctly for your body type), brisk walking is also good for you (if you’ve been doing absolutely nothing else), towel pull-ups, for the love of two wheels (and proper descent), soreness is not the goal, Dr. Eades takes the new federal fitness guidelines to task, as the spine turns and hurts, callous relief, a doctor who discourages plastic surgery etc (despite advances).

Edibles: mmm… bison, skimming the soup scum, ideas for coconut, primal snacking, Mark holds court on the (lack of) need for carbs, food pr0n from Dr. Eades, liquid calorie bombs, another magic pill wannabe (note the last line of the article), takeout = long slow painful death (someone’s a little late to the Omnivore’s Dilemma party), chicken industry suffers from inbreeding, bake sales tanking for healthier fare.

Mind matters: a mindset for vitality, road runner rage (Mark’s take), compassion meditation, strategy may trump will power, dealing with information, solitary gaming, “Wired to Connect” audio series.

Kiddie corner: strength training Little Leaguers, kids know best about fitness (read: free play), 21 is not working, huge jump in childhood medications, a dark side to youth sports (and another).

General health: women shafted on health insurance, elderly care modeled on child care, the complexity of elderly falls, check the source of those meds, women are germier than men (yet WE’RE still pigs), Iraq looks to alternative medicine (so does Manhattan), green spaces reduce health gap (even Charlotte thinks so), migraines may signal lower cancer risk (not sure which I’d choose, though), the consequences of moisturizers, caffeine iffy during pregnancy, n=1 doesn’t make an expert, the world’s healthiest countries.

Geek-out:
—Transportation: 40mgp 450hp Scorpion, a crossing anniversary, “cars” powered by air, possible Detroit nuptuals, Scythe redefines ugly, an E85 apocalypsemobile, a hybrid bicycle(?), Brown goes green, pimp my scooter, homemade motorcycles, million-dollar motorcycles, Tesla builds coffers, a push for infrastructure and more, grandmother of all auto shows, California green-lights high-speed rail, $15 flights to Europe, Boeing says three years to biofuel, tarmac testing.
—Tech stuff: distorting body image, flexible displays on the cusp, Mercury take two, radiation protection for astronauts, Tsar Bomba anniversary, Men in Black for real, the tech of bowling, block cell phone spam, Firefox hits 20% market share (and introduces “porn mode“), social media becomes the news, micro solar panels, more Sony laptop battery fires, Twittering War of the Worlds, Bond villains’ last line of defense, gadgets you can trash, USAF looks to re-write cyberspace laws, cloning from cryogenics, FCC opens up white spaces.
—Nature: the devil Down Under, casualties of going green, exploring in a winged submarine, walking the earth, virtual Yosemite, getcha sun, fungus synthesizes diesel.
—Miscellaneous: America needs a geek overhaul, toys from the future, story of a child soldier, another look at da Vinci’s face, social responsibility in business dealings, how math solved “Hard Days Night,” wingsuit cliff-jumpers, paper airplanes on crack, birthday of a design star (with pictures), remembering Michael Crichton.

Git r dun:
—Individual factors.
—Staving off the boredom of the grind.
—Sometimes you have to go through “stupid” to become “invincible.”
—We’ve apparently failed to learn from the past.

A slow grow so far…

Yes, I know it’s a couple days late, but I’m just now getting to a point where I can sit down and update my progress after vacation (more details to come in a much later post), and even then, it’s just a shot from my Blackberry since I’m still uploading pictures from my camera at the moment:

Yes, that’s all that’s grown in a week, but fear not. In another week or so, it’ll be a briar patch to make Br’er Rabbit proud.

The girlfriend told me one of her co-workers is also randomly doing this whole Movember thing, so if I find out where his update webpage is, I’ll link it up here.