Mmm, lycopene

I love tomatoes. I know, they're a weird food to love, but I do. Tomato sauce, ketchup, salsa, tomato sandwiches or even tomato slices with a little salt--I don't want to sound like Bubba from Forrest Gump, but you get the point. The best part of this love affair? A food that is really good for you is something I already like to eat! I don't have to force it into my diet (and my body) like broccoli or low-fat cheese. Hooray lycopene!

I made this fortuitous discovery reading through "What's Your BQ?" for class while eating whole- wheat pasta with, you guessed it, tomato sauce. The sidebar titled "The Mediterranean Miracle: Tomato Sauce" explained that the red stuff has "has an incredible range of health benefits" from reducing the size of cholesterol plagues to containing the powerful antioxidant mentioned above, lycopene, to keeping your arteries young.

Though the tomato's power to reduce the risk of prostate cancer by 40 percent does not apply to me, it's blood pressure lowering abilities do. I have a history of heart disease and high blood pressure in my family, and eating 10 tablespoons of tomato sauce a week can lower blood pressure by 8 over 5 mmHg.

Age is Just a Number

I was reading Women's Health online last night, thinking maybe, just maybe this time I'd find something worth blogging about. As I scrolled through the Soothe Stress page and clicked on a link to the article "How Old are You Really?", the Garth Brooks song "Much too Young to Feel this Damn Old" came up on my iTunes shuffle. A coincidence? Yes. A little creepy? Uh huh. A testament to my bad taste in music? No doubt.

The good news is, according to Dr. Michael Roizen, M.D., aging is "governed by our actions;" he says genes aren't the only things that factor in, so do your diet, exercise habits and even sex life.

Roizen claims 70 percent of aging is determined by our choices (most experts say it's probably closer to 40 percent). Not surprisingly, he's also got a book out, RealAge: Are You as Young as You Can Be?, and says that if you follow his advice, you might add up to 29 years to your life. Right.

I decided to take the RealAge quiz to see "the biological age of my body based on how well I've maintained it." I have to admit, it's a downer to scrutinize and self-evaluate your fitness habits; the quiz covered medical history, lifestyle, stress/social support and nutrition. It was even more depressing to see my RealAge--26.6. Over five years OLDER? I think Women's Health made a mistake putting this on the Soothe Stress page . . .

I'm pretty sure the quiz and the results are partially a ploy to get me to subscribe to the newsletter, buy the book and start the RealAge program (denial is more than a river in Egypt), because my results assure me that I'll look and feel younger if I start my 90 day plan today.

My results did point out some areas that I can improve though, like vegetable intake, folic acid intake and taking a daily vitamin. Kind of the 'no-duh' stuff that I'll get around to when I get older, which, according to RealAge, may be sooner than I think.

Scary Supplements

In my health and fitness writing class, we've had more than a few guest speakers and presentation. Normally, during these presentation I have a couple quick, "Huh, well that's kind of interesting," moments, but when Brittany and Adam, two of the grad students in my class, did a presentation on supplements last Thursday, I acquired a wealth of knowledge.

Did you know the FDA does not regulate or review supplements (a wide range of products that are not defined beyond not being food or drugs). In fact, no one does. Got you thinking about those vitamins you take every morning or the weight loss pills you take to shed those extra pounds? It did for me; I'm even a little creeped out by the Airborn I take when I feel sick (the merits of which were argued briefly by Adam and Brittany. Conclusion: It probably works because of the placebo effect).

Ultimately, I think that taking a multivitamin is probably a good idea, and my cranberry supplement can stay, too, but I'm going to check any supplement I put into my body on ConsumerLab.com. The presenters also suggested only taking supplements that are GMP certified and even check with the manufacturers for a Certificate of Analysis. With all the lead in lipstick and toys, who knows what in my Centrum.

I have a New Addiction

How many calories does high-impact aerobics burn? I can tell you. How about studying? or surfing? I can tell you that too! How, you ask? Well, I continuously procrastinate and come up with new ways to spend excessive amounts of time doing nothing on the internet. My new fixation? The Calories Burned Estimator.

I know how many calories I burn on the Elliptical machine (well, if the one-size-fits-all measurement is correct, which I doubt), but what about just doing day-to-day activities. I spent two hours studying tonight, did I burn anything? The calculator estimates 210, which almost makes up for my reduced-fat Cheez-It binge.

It's pretty interesting, some things burn more than I would have expected (washing a car for half an hour burns almost 130 calories) and some less (dancing for half an hour only burns 170). Hopefully one day soon I'll be able to keep up with an entire day's worth of activities—one day.

Bathing Suit Season is Over

I'm a pretty healthy eater—I’m by no means a chocoholic, and I understand the concept of moderation. Except for Saturdays during football season . . . and on holidays . . . and on vacation. Okay, so I'm not as disciplined as I like to let on. I sat thinking about this yesterday as I ate cheese pizza while cheering on the Gators: is Fall killing my healthy lifestyle? I know it's hard to blame a season for forcing me into my sweat pants, but it's cold anyway, bring on the candy corn.

WebMD, apparently on a slow news day, decided to put a giant picture of candy corn on their page only to turn around and tell me it's making me fat. Thanks guys. They even compiled a list of the 9 most fattening fall foods to put a little extra guilt on that piece of apple pie.

Number one: Halloween Candy. No, really? Stealing my cousin’s mini-Snickers is counterproductive to my time spent in the gym. Their solution to candy-snacking? Chewing on a piece of sugar-free gum. Right, because if I'm going to wolf down a package of Sour Patch Kids, some aspartame is going to cut it . . . My solution? Reading the sugar content on those sugar-drenched gummie kids (of 40 grams, 29 grams are sugar); maybe just one will do. C'mon it's Halloween.

Also on the top ten are root vegetables: potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, etc. Though they're nutritious enough on their own, I guess I do have a tendency to cover them in cheese, gravy and anything else that decidedly masks anything that made them nutritious in the first place. The fix? Grilling or roasting.

Finally, to help rid yourself of those football weekend pounds, the experts at WebMD recommend doing jumping jacks, sit-ups or push-ups during halftime or during commercials. Uh huh, right, at your next tailgate maybe you could offer an 8-minute abs class; I'll be standing next to the nachos.

Superbug Alert

I've been feeling under the weather lately, and, as I sat in French class, stifling as many sniffles and sneezes as possible, one of my classmates offered up, "Hey, did you know staph infections are going around?"

Gee, thanks. I did; one of my professors has missed multiple classes because of a staph infection. When she came back she told us a horrifying tale of an abscessed cut, surgical soap and disinfectants galore. Eww. So, I did what any responsible, potentially-ill person would do--I WebMD'd it. Apparently, a quarter of the population carries the Staphylococcus bacteria with no problems, but staph infections can range from infected cuts to drug-resistant forms to flesh eating bacteria. Now, I'm not a germaphobe, but flesh eating bacteria? I decided to take a deeper look.

Staph infections have been in the news lately--a drug resistant form, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, now kills more people in the US than AIDS (16,000 deaths in 2005 to MRSA's 18,650). This superbug is generally acquired in hospitals, but some people have acquired it without a stay in a medical facility. Many doctors blame our reliance on antibacterials and antibiotic overuse.

What are we supposed to do to avoid MRSA? Doctors recommend washing your hands. I guess the tried and true approach is best sometimes. This begs the question (since I have antibacterial soap in my kitchen and bathroom) should I keep using it to avoid viruses spawned by our reliance?

Kiss of Death?

I don't wear lipstick often (I'm more of a ChapStick fan), and my aversion to ruby red or petal pink lips may help me avoid slathering my lips in dangerous heavy metals--including lead, according to a report from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

First toys now lipstick? Where else are labs going to find lead? According to the press release, 33 red lipsticks bought at various locations across the country were tested by an independent lab, and the findings are pretty scary. Sixty-one percent of the lipsticks tested had lead "levels ranging from 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm)." The FDA limits candy to no more than 0.1 ppm of lead because, it, like lipstick, is digested into the body.

Though it doesn't seem like your favorite L'Oreal, Cover Girl or Dior (three brands that had the highest amount of lead), will do that much damage, lead does build up in the body over time; those two or three applications a day can amount to serious problems down the line.

The Dog Workout

Two weeks ago I adopted a six-month-old lab and Australian Shepherd mix who I have named Ziggy, and, aside from becoming my obsession, he has probably encouraged me to exercise more than any personal trainer ever could. When I get home from class he's always there, tail wagging and ready to go for a walk. How can I say no?

We've started running together too, and, on a good day, we probably get out of the apartment for almost an hour and a half collectively. I don't want to make it seem like it's all wonderful; he is a puppy, and even though he's cute enough to make me forgive anything, I do end up chasing him around to pull things out of his mouth (my alarm clock cord most recently) and to clean up his messes. This too adds to my increased physical activity.

I came across an article yesterday that details all the good things pets can do for your health, including: providing unconditional love, reducing blood pressure and improving your mood. Maybe adopting Ziggy is one of the best things I've done for my health these days. I do believe my stress levels have decreased pretty dramatically; at the end of the day, no matter what happened, when I pet Ziggy at night, he still looks at me like I'm the most important person in the world.

The Future of Working Out

My boyfriend's niece and nephew purchased a Nintendo Wii a few months ago, and, though I'm probably the furthest from a video game enthusiast, I ended up playing various and assorted games until about one in the morning. When I woke up, my forearms were actually sore from using the motion sensitive controller.

Did I consider it a "workout," no, but it was more stimulating than any other gaming system I've tried. A Vancouver gym, Studeo 55, apparently thought so too and recently added a 400 square foot Wii workout station to include as a warm up, cool down or in circuit training (article). I'd probably go to the gym a lot more if I knew Wii Tennis was involved . . .

Games like Wii bowling, boxing and tennis involve punching, jumping and other movements that get your blood flowing (especially once you get addicted), and Studeo 55 owner, Nathan Mellalieu, told Reuters that he estimates playing the video game is equivalent to taking a brisk walk.

Although it's not high-impact, it's nice to know that you can add a little variety to your workout and switch things up. Now I have a semi-valid reason to ask my parents for a Wii for Christmas too.

Breaking it Down

Last Thursday I went to the Gainesville Health and Fitness Center (which, to my surprise, was harder to find a parking spot at than on campus—apparently everyone in Gainesville is a gym rat) to listen to a couple of presentations by personal trainers Renada and Eric. As soon as Renada got up to speak, I couldn't help but smile when she started talking about functional training--the very term Matt Herring, the UF men's basketball strength and conditioning coordinator, had expressed a strong dislike for the previous week.

Renada, a former UF swimmer, cut an impressive figure, and, since I was near the front, I decided I'd better listen attentively to what she had to say. I have to admit, it was pretty interesting. She told us that you can break down all movement into six patterns: squatting, lunging, pulling, pushing, twisting and bending. I didn't give it much thought at first, but on the way home from the gym the wheels began to turn. Of all the amazing things the human body can do, there is no way you can simply put all movement into six categories.

I started to pay attention to the way my body moved during everyday activities, determined to find a flaw in the simple categorization; I couldn't. Then I thought, what about contortionists? After watching half an hour of my friend's Cirque du Soleil tape, Renada's statement still held (granted there was some extreme bending and twisting). Finally, I came to the conclusion that these six seemingly simple patterns are the basis for all movement. This made the once nebulous concept of functional training much simpler for me.

Like Matt and Renada said, functional movement doesn't have to be some crazy, uber-complicated exercise; it's simply requires applying these six motions while working out. My new found appreciation of the simplicity of movement has motivated me to dust off my hand weights--we'll see how long this newfound motivation lasts.