Wednesday, November 21, 2012

NHBPM #18-21

I have fallen a little behind because I didn't connect with the topics over the weekend. Then last night I was going to write, and the blogging app on my iPad kept crashing...what's up with that? I have no idea how to fix it. I am just going to mush all those days together here today with a hodgepodge of topics that may or may not be from the list.

My New Marathon Playlist aka My New iPod Shuffle aka I am a Technology Dunce
Remember my Election Day playlist that I did on my iPhone? Well I added a bunch more songs to make sure it was more than five hours long, then I wanted to figure out how to transfer the playlist to my iPod Nano which is easier to deal with than the iPhone for playing music on runs. (This is NOT going to be instructions on how to do that properly!)

My laptop that has my iTunes on it and my HUGE library of music that makes up the playlists currently on my iPod has died, and all the music is trapped, although our computer guy may be able to get it off sometime. We'll see. Anyways, I downloaded iTunes to the crappy laptop I've been using at work and plugged in my phone. What happened then was that all the music I have on the phone got backed up on the computer (good), but my actual Election Day playlist was deleted (I still have most of the songs, just not gathered together). The reason I didn't even get all of the songs (I guess) is because some of them are from home CDs rather than iTunes and apparently that doesn't get copied. Or something.

Anyhow, I reconstructed the playlist and downloaded a few more to make up for the missing ones. However, I didn't want to try to load it onto my iPod because I'm afraid I will wipe out everything else that's on there. So I made an emergency trip to Target and got a new iPod shuffle for this playlist alone (it's 100+ songs). While there I succumbed to Target's siren wiles and this happened....
Those gloves are touch screen friendly. And the scarf! Love. I wish it were going to be cold during the Seattle Half on Sunday so I could wear it. But it's not. It may be wet, though.

Alternative Treatments and Medicine
I am all in favor of alternative treatments and medicine, as long as it is not at the peril of rejecting life-saving medical treatments.

For example, I believe that obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and Type II diabetes (and pre-diabetes) should all be addressed with diet and exercise, either before turning to medications or in conjunction with medications if they are needed. I know this isn't a radical position, in fact I believe it is the standard of care for these types of conditions. I don't think that medications should be rejected, if they are needed.

I am curious about, but have never tried, hypnotherapy and acupuncture. I am all in favor of massage therapy and in support of chiropracture (though I've never tried it).

My bottom line position is that when a person has a medical condition, all the possible methods of treating it, medical and non-traditional, should be considered. However, I would be leery of any sort of wacky treatment (for example if Suzanne Somers endorses it) for a life-threatening condition.

Calling B.S.--again
I already used this topic some time ago, but today I am a little fired up and ready to take another swing at it.

Today my target is Mr. Eat This Not That, David Zinczenko. You know who he is, right? He's a writer for Men's Health, and he has made a new career out of his books which tell you how to choose the healthier options, primarily from chain restaurant menus, I think. He also appears regularly on the Today Show to blow the top off of everyone's fatty food restaurant meals (or home meals).

Now let me say that I do not mind him showing us the calorie bombs from Applebee's and P.F. Chang's and so forth, and actually most of the time he offers alternatives that are pretty good (besides not going to the restaurant, which would be my choice, usually). But his methodology really gets to me. (I'll explain in a minute.)

This morning he was on the Today Show to address Thanksgiving foods, of course. We all know that many Thanksgiving favorites are full of butter and carbs, no surprise there. But even Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie seemed a little frustrated with his examples of "this" and "that."

One of Zinczenko's gimmicks is to take the subject food item, and show a "comparable" other item that has the same amount of bad stuff in it. For example fat. The problem is, sometimes his comparison just doesn't seem to matter. Sometimes he compares fat, sometimes saturated fat, sometimes sodium, sometimes carbs, and only sometimes calories. And really, bottom line, only the calories matter. Or at least, you have to put the other things in context with calories. This morning two of his comparison items were a whole pile of Nilla wafers, and a bunch of gingerbread men. Who cares if your Thanksgiving dish has the same (something bad) as 20 Nilla wafers? There's no context there. Expecially since Nilla wafers and gingerbread men are not inherently bad!

So please shut up, David Z.

Health and Fitness Apps I like

I really only use a few. My main one is the Livestrong app (used to be Daily Plate). I track my food and exercise on it religiously. The exercise record is just for balancing with the food; I keep track of my mileage separately. Not in an app, but on paper! I haven't updated my runner's journal for months, but all my mileage is written on my training plans. It's going to be a job getting that stuff together if I want to figure out a total for the year!

Map My Run. I do have this app on my phone and iPad, however, to actually map routes I have to use the website. I'm not sure why I can't do it with the app. Isn't that what the app is for? I don't really use the app at all. However, the website is fantastic for planning various lengths of runs.

Garmin My Connect. I only use this on my computer...I don't know if there even is an app. I love looking at the data, and route and elevation and all that good stuff. I have also gone there to check my mileage on days when I forgot to write it down.

IPod. Obviously I have used the iPod app on my phone. I like it! :)

Audible.com. I use this app to listen to audiobooks during long runs (and sometimes at other times). It does help pass the time, but I tend to run a little bit slower than I do with music. I like to switch to music for the last few miles to get a final kick.

Radio apps. I have the apps for a couple stations (NPR and a local newsradio station) on my iPhone, and sometimes I listen to the radio instead during long runs. I also use the radio app when I'm getting dressed in the morning. It's the 21st century version of a transistor radio (little portable radios we used to have back in the 70s).

Runner's Log app. I don't have this one yet, but it's a free download through iTunes over the Thanksgiving weekend. I might download it and check it out!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!



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