Health Metrics: Part Two

This is a very delayed post, but I finally had a brief moment to surface from the craziness that is life to take some time to write a post!  Last time, I wrote about my health metrics from a blood test.  Today I'm writing about my experience testing my body fat percentage test by getting dunked!

Literally, I got dunked.

The experience itself was a little intimidating since body fat percentage is a much better indicator of where you stand health-wise.  People who think they are really thin can actually have a high body fat percentage which means they aren't as healthy as they think they are.  Muscle weighs more than fat, so being low in numbers on a scale doesn't capture where you fall health-wise.

Another intimidating component was not knowing what a good body fat percentage was.  Growing up, you hear a lot about weighing yourself, but rarely is body fat percentage mentioned.  Therefore, I had no clue what I was supposed to stack up to... but this little whiteboard helped provide some clarity in terms of the desired ranges.

Recommended body fat percents based on age and gender

I was incredibly pleased with my results.  I ended up being 17.46% body fat which means that I am within the "Athlete" category of body fat percentage.  The cooler part about getting this test done, is that I also was given a bunch of great stats about how I burn calories and how my body processes things.  For example, if I wanted to lose 0.65 pounds/week, I would have to be on a 1200 calorie diet and to maintain my weight, I have to consume 1519 calories per day.  I was also given an extensive report on how different exercises actually impact my calorie burning, which is much more helpful than the guestimate given by a treadmill or the Nike+ gear on my ipod.

I've been fascinated by how personalized I can make my workouts to truly benefit what I am looking to achieve.  As some of you know, my half-marathon was cancelled, and with work and life getting in the way it has been tough getting back into the swing of exercising.  However, I recently read this amazing article that inspired me to try a different approach to exercise which talked about how girls are always so focused on being skinny when STRONG is the new skinny.

It got me thinking about how I would love to be stronger than I am today, so over the next couple of weeks I'm going to explore strength training through various pathways.  Get excited, it's going to be a gym-tastic time on The Nom dot Com. :)

Noms,
Alyx

13.1 Miles in 12 Weeks

As of this Monday, I officially started training for my half marathon!  I tend to get a lot of questions from people asking how I actually train.  The part that usually leaves people baffled is that it only takes 12 weeks to train for a half marathon.  

My training schedule push-pinned on my wall at work.  Onto Day 3!

Have I peaked your interest?  Thinking you want to try a longer run?  A half marathon is a great place to start.  It's more ambitious than a 10K but less terrifying sounding than a marathon.  Just make sure you are prepped beforehand:

• Ease into it: You want to be able to run about 10 miles/week before training officially starts
• Dont push it: Notice that in the training you increase mileage slowly, and you never run the full half marathon distance until the date of the race
• Remember to rest: Rest is important for your muscles to recover
• Do more than just run: Cross-training is critical to pushing your muscles outside of the running comfort zone and building your speed and strength 

I can't wait to post more updates as I continue forward with my training.  I'm still trying to figure out some specific goals since this is my second race, but I think I want to try out the race in my minimalist shoes to really test out the barefoot running experience. 

Noms,

Alyx

Ninja Tales

Many people ask me what my favorite food is, and I have to say, recently I've been digging Japanese food.  I know this is sort of a cop out, since Japanese food isn't anything specific, but if I had to pick a style of food to eat forever, I think I would be pretty happy with it.  I see a trip to Japan in my future...

Anyway, I wanted to write about some different Japanese dishes that I have tried and loved since moving over to the bay area.

Traditional Sushi
I'm talking raw fish and rice - nothing overly fancy or crazy going on here.  I've learned to love and appreciate the subtle flavors of sushi pieces.  It's always fun to try something new and crazy here since there are endless flavors and textures to try.  So far, my favorite place has been Sushi Tomi, since they hands down have the best fish in Northern California.

Photo Credit

A tip: The traditional way to serve sushi pieces uses wasabi between the fish and rice.  Most places mess this up so you feel like you are just munching on wasabi, but if the place is good it actually helps bring out flavors and really compliments the fish.  Therefore, if you aren't sure about the restaurant, you can ask them to leave the wasabi out of the picture.

Fusion Sushi
Most sushi places out there will probably fall into this category.  Some characteristics of fusion sushi are: deep fried rolls, use of cream cheese, and and hilarious/odd names for dishes.  You will probably walk into one of these restaurants and feel pretty comfortable if you aren't Japanese, but sometimes the food quality can suffer from this Americanization.  However, if you find the right place, you definitely can have a delicious meal.  Some of my favorites in California are Sushi Dan (Los Angeles) and TGI's Sushi (Campbell).  Both places have fun with their rolls, but they don't compromise the quality of their food or fish.

Photo Credit

A tip: Trying to choose from a long list of many rolls?  Stay away from rolls with eel and cream cheese.  These can mask the fish quality and they can be a bit overwhelming in flavor.

Ramen
I'm not talking about your college "just add water" ramen, I like the real stuff with ingredients that I cannot pronounce and broth made out of pure deliciousness.  Some fun facts about ramen are that the best broth is made out of pork bone marrow (a little gross sounding, but surprisingly delicious).  Also, soft boiled eggs in ramen are absolutely delicious.  When the yolk leaks out into the soup, it makes it amazingly creamy and delicious.  My favorite place so far is Orenchi ramen, even though the wait can take forever.  Perfect ramen takes time since it is made out of hopes and dreams.

Photo Credit

Happy nomming,

Alyx

Learning to Snowboard

It's fulfilling to learn something new, and last weekend I had the pleasure of learning how to snowboard.  Special shout out to Joe who courageously taught me how to snowboard.  I say courageously because after falling on my butt 1,000 times, I started getting a little grumpy... :)

I sat (well, fell) on my butt most of the day. 

Anyway, the reason I felt that it was noteworthy to mention my learning experience with snowboarding was because of the struggles I faced while trying to learn.  I feel like these struggles are pretty ubiquitous for any new skill you are trying to acquire that you aren't immediately awesome at.  For me, this happend to be snowboarding, which my butt can attest, I was definitely not awesome at.

An important thing to know about learning a skill is that you need to figure out what the critical components are and master those first.  For snowboarding, there are some clear base components: balancing, turning and stopping.  Obviously there are many more things that you can take the time to learn like doing jumps, playing around with speed, etc.. but without the base components, you aren't going to get anywhere.

Standing AND I made it down the mountain. 

You need a solid base, and even if you don't look like a pro coming down the mountain, you will actually make it down the mountain, which is a lot more than you could have done when you initially started (no, I'm not counting tumbling down a mountain or being evacuated by helicopters).

The reason a lot of people get frustrated when learning is that they take on too many of the non-critical details without building a base.  This leads to larger problems that you need to overcome in the learning process and a whole lot of backtracking.

The moral of the story is, when you start getting frustrated with something when you are trying to learn a new task, take a step back and dissect what you are doing into the absolute necessities.  This will help motivate you to master a new skill without feeling like you will never be awesome at it.

Noms,
Alyx

Health Metrics: Part One

I finally got my health metrics and I wanted to share!  Turns out that I am doing pretty well health-wise, so I am proud to report that I am on track with my fitness/health goals.

All in the green!  (that's good.)

There are definitely still some areas for improvement, so it's nice to have a baseline to compare from later on.  I'm interested to see what my body fat percentage test tells me, since it will give me a more useful metric than my BMI which is just based on my height and weight.

Some other interesting components of this test were:

1. Learning to balance the right kinds of cholesterol 
2. Getting a better idea of my blood pressure
3. Learning about my blood sugar levels (especially after 10 hours of fasting!)

I'm also happy to have a baseline right before I start my formal training for the half-marathon.  This way I can see the true impact of a rigorous training program on my body, and I can make sure that I'm balancing being healthy with my fitness goals.  

Overall, I recommend doing a health check.  These are super basic metrics that your doctor can give you during your next check up and they can help inspire a change for the better.

Noms,

Alyx

Defining Healthy

The other night I had a great discussion with Patrick about what it means to be healthy.  It all started as we contemplated what society defines to be beautiful...

Throughout time, beauty has consistently been associated with things that are difficult or impossible to attain.  Back in the dark ages when food was tough to come by, beauty was being fat, since it meant you had enough money to afford to excessively feed yourself.  Today, beauty has become defined by being thin, toned, tan, tall... just look at any women's magazine cover and you will get the picture.

Taking a hike to stay active!

Okay - so this isn't really revolutionary in terms of how we think about things, right?  Well, I started thinking more about what motivates us to make changes, and a lot of us try to be "beautiful."  As I've been working through what my goals are, I've struggled with trying to figure out what motivates me.  Beautiful isn't my goal - healthy is, but what does healthy mean anyway?

Urban Dictionary says... 

• Professional athletes or people who are athletic/physically fit
• A euphemism for someone with curves

There's clearly an issue when what you are striving towards doesn't have an objective definition.  So how do we truly define healthy?  Metrics.

Your body is full of clues telling you whether you are or are not healthy.  You can do a body fat percentage test or do a blood test to get a baseline of where you are at.  A little intense?  Sort of - but it lets you know what you actually need to improve upon from a completely objective point of view.  If you know how to make yourself objectively healthy, then you can truly have a goal to strive towards.  

Everything else aside from your physical cues and objective health goals is purely mental.  If you are objectively healthy, but you feel unsatisfied by how you look in the mirror, then you really need to ask yourself why and dive deeper into the issue.  Being healthy should be your goal, not conforming to looking like a photoshopped model. 

To take a stand and formally assess where I am health-wise, next week I'm doing a blood/health test (cholesterol, glucose levels, blood pressure, height and weight) to see where I'm at!  I'm also going to do a body fat percentage test (hydrotank) in the near future.  I will post my findings and give you all updates as I dive into the world of health metrics!

Noms,

Alyx

It's all about Perspective

As I sort out life, fitness, and just general goals sometimes I find that I've hit a wall.  Life can be tough, and it can be incredibly hard to not just quit when things get tough.  A great example is my run this morning.

Before a mud run last year!

I've taken a bit of an extended hiatus from running, and I knew when I woke up this morning that I really had to get back to it to start prepping for my half marathon.  I was feeling pretty pumped and super confident going into it.  Then... at the end of mile 1 I started thinking to myself, "Hm.. I'm kinda tired..."

It didn't get easier.

At the end of mile 2 I was sure that I was going to have to walk the rest, and this felt like such a let down.  I felt like I had failed.  It really sucks when you were able to do something, and then you let it slip away through a lack of commitment.

However, mid-run as I started getting really negative, I decided to get out of my head and start focusing on the world around me.  Instead of beating myself up mentally, I decided to focus on the positives, and guess what, I finished all 3 miles.  Did it kind of suck? Yes.  Did I still finish? Yep.

I was SO proud when I finished my half marathon last April. 

Sometimes you need to realize that you can be your own worst enemy when it comes to accomplishing your goals.  I know that I am by far my worst critic regardless of what I do.  This makes me push harder, but at times, I know that I have to give myself a break.  Taking a moment to say "Hey, you got off of your butt and decided to actually go for a run, that's good." is better than saying "Ugh, you can't even do 3 miles anymore?"

It's about perspective, and I'm slowly learning to shift my perspective and become my own personal cheerleader.  If you don't believe in yourself, then it's likely that others won't either.  It really does start with YOU.

Noms,
Alyx