That's Fit

[That's Fit blogger Larissa Brown chronicles her journey to health and fitness through this regular weekly feature.]


I wrote after I completed my first relay race that I was going to use bicycling to work as a way to carry myself through the post-race slump. Well, biking was exhilirating and fun the four times that I did it, but it wasn't the right kind of challenge to keep me moving. I'd biked a lot before (my husband and I lived for 7 years without a car). But this time around I was a super-tired mom who slept too late on workdays, and the challenge mostly left me feeling guilty for taking my beloved tiny convertible to the office.

I started to get scared that I was going to hit the holiday season with a fat old thump. So what to do?

I started running with friends. Four of them to be exact.

The Internet is chock full of advice to parents who ought to be good fitness role models for their children. Like these tips for being a healthy role model to your daughter, most advice is specific, sound, and...focused on kids.

Clearly this is important. But what about us grown-ups who struggle with the ups and downs of trying to build and maintain a fit lifestyle? Who commit to exercise and then don't feel like keeping it up, or who want to eat mindfully and healthfully but then blow it? Repeatedly? Don't we need someone to show us that everyday people can and do make fitness a fun and normal part of their lives?

I say yes! And I'm not talking about professional ice skaters and Linda Hamilton in T2. We all need regular people like ourselves to be fitness peers with--to admire, emulate, and look to for support and mentoring especially because we are so much like them. Not a world apart.

Olivia writes on urbanmamas about advice she got from the children's shoe expert at Nordstrom department store. Her post brought back sweet memories of going to Stride Rite and getting to stand on the metal shoe sizer, full of pride at how I'd grown. I always knew we were getting "good shoes" (with the doggie on the logo, or am I just imagining that?).

But I didn't realize they were also good for my health.

Developing feet need good shoes that fit just right. According to the UK's Children's Foot Health Register, bones continue to harden and grow - and shoe fitting is crucial - all the way up through age 18. What Olivia learned echoes this exactly. Correct sizing - length and width - is the most important issue in selecting shoes for children. But she also writes about the characteristics of a few popular children's shoe brands and the benefits of real leather in the fight against unhealthy shoe stink.

Our son is 16 months old and just beginning to wear shoes. I've had him in used shoes that we got at consignment shops, but Olivia's post has got me reevaluating that idea. It may be time for him to take his first trip to the shoe store.

[That's Fit blogger Larissa Brown chronicles her journey to health and fitness through this regular weekly feature. Once a month she checks in with her fitness stats.]

• September 19
• Today's weight: 160 lbs.
• Up 1.5 pounds since August's check-in
• Pounds lost since June: 6
• Minutes it took to run my fastest mile this week: I don't even know

I've gained 2 pounds since the Hood to Coast relay, and I'm feeling a little lost.

Even this post is a day late. I normally blog the Road to Fitville on Tuesday. But what can a person say when her mouth is full of baked brie?

Organic spinach is surely part of most of our fit diets, so please take a minute to look at the information about this outbreak of e.coli and the voluntary recall of spinach under several brand names.

As I sit here reading my email, I can literally see CNN.com's list of states affected by this e. coli outbreak rapidly growing.

The Food & Drug Administration is warning that no one should eat bagged spinach, and advises everyone to throw it away. CNN sources note that washing the greens will not get rid of the e. coli bacteria.

[That's Fit blogger Larissa Brown chronicles her journey to health and fitness through this regular weekly feature. Click the Road to Fitville category above to see them all.]

When someone called me an athlete the other day, I had to laugh. If I haven't made it abundantly clear through this series of posts, I did not grow up athletic. Far from it. This person also had me pegged as a holier-than-thou vegan. They were so totally wrong, unless you consider an athlete someone who can jog for up to 10 minutes at a time, and a vegan someone who devours cream-filled desserts every day and who still mourns the closing of the hot dog stands at Home Depot.

I'm incredibly proud of the fit and healthy lifestyle I'm building for myself, and the profusion of walks, bike rides, jogs, races, and hikes I've taken this summer. And every week my husband and I make a game of trying to eat everything that comes in our organic produce delivery box. But I still eat my share of ice cream, and when it comes down to exercise I have - until today - considered myself only slightly more active than average.

Writing for Shape magazine, Dr. Ann Kearney Cook suggests indulging all your senses if you happen to be a person who can't stop thinking about eating and loves too much food. "Food is one of life's great pleasures," she writes, "but if it's your only or most prominent one, it's a sign that something else is missing."

I love this idea and can't stop thinking about how I could feed all my senses to keep me from thinking about peanut butter ice cream with whipped cream and a cherry, or salty hot macaroni and cheese, or...or...

[That's Fit blogger Larissa Brown chronicles her journey to health and fitness through this regular weekly feature. Her first milestone was a two-day relay race in August. Now she's heading into a new challenge.]

As summer spills into fall in Portland, Oregon, we probably have about six weeks of sunny weather left and everyone knows it. It seems the whole city is both slowing down and trying to pack in a record number of barbecues and yard sales. The Bicycle Transportation Alliance takes advantage of this outside-obsessed time of year to launch its annual Bike Commute Challenge. The challenge offers friendly competition to get people biking instead of driving to work. It pits companies against one another and individuals against their own internal sloths.

When a coworker asked me to join, the timing could not have been better. The bike commute challenge is going to carry me through this critical period right after my big relay race, when all my motivation is threatening to go out the window along with the fear and anxiety that kept me training so faithfully for the Hood to Coast.

So today I began. And it was not just like riding a bike.

While camping carries a mystique of healthy rigor about it, the very dishes we eat off of while vacationing in the wilderness may be teeming with tiny sick-making bugs. And it's our own fault.

The food blog Brownie Points pointed me toward the Science News article How to Wash Up in the Wilderness. A microbiologist, Joanna Hargreaves, conducted a study regarding dish-cleaning practices among backpackers and expedition companies and found that their methods were not removing all harmful bacteria. She hazards a guess that individual campers may have even poorer habits than the large expedition providers she followed.

The piece in Science News recalls a related 2004 study that found that 56% of backpackers studied on the Appalachian Trail developed diarrhea, and the risk was much higher among those who did not always treat their water before drinking it. But nearly half of the Appalachian hikers who did consistently treat their drinking water still got diarrhea. "So other hygiene lapses-including inadequate washing of hands, dishes, and eating utensils-are apparently major threats to health in the wilderness," concludes microbiologist Hargreaves.

I have to admit my own camp dish-washing methods pale in comparison to the three-bowl scientific approach she prescribes. If I recall our last camping trip correctly, we rinsed with boiling water...or swished...or something. Umm, maybe I'll mend my ways next time we camp thanks to this article.

[Photo by kwankwan.]

Over the past few years, the debate about the safety of amalgam dental fillings - the silver kind which contain the toxic metal mercury - has grown.

A good friend of mine recently had all her silver tooth fillings drilled out, then underwent two rounds of intravenous chelation therapy and colon hydrotherapy to remove the released mercury from her system. On the other hand, my dentist has advised me that the worst way to deal with silver fillings is to drill them, a practice which would release more toxic materials and vapors into my body than simply living with the filllings in my mouth. As the debate continues in the health communtiy, I wonder if we'll ever know which approach is most sound?

The US Food and Drug Administration recently reviewed 34 studies of amalgam tooth fillings that contain the toxic metal mercury, and yesterday announced its conclusion that the use of such fillings is not harmful. Of course this will not convince anyone who strongly believes otherwise - chief among them proponents of naturopathy - and some concerned individuals have already alleged that this government conclusion is driven by politics and not concerns for the health of U.S. citizens. In fairness to these amalgam filling opponents, here is a link to holisticmed.com with a list of arguments against mercury filllings and their opinions as to their dangers.

Regardless of the FDA's conclusion that mercury fillings are safe in the mouth, its sister agency the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) does advise against using mercury in voodoo rituals, a practice which the EPA is not keen on regulating, since it may violate the U.S. guarantee of freedom of religion.

[Photo by d&e.]

Having just learned to run with earphones, I am still deciding whether I like it or not. There are the issues of safety foremost, and then also comfort and logistics (where does that cord go when you run?)

What music should be on my list is something I haven't even begun to refine. But I do know that loud music when it's hot out makes me feel sick, and new agey music when I'm running in the deep of night with the stars overhead is blissful.

Just in time for my exploration of the perfect running playlist, there's a new resource for adding some oomph to my next run, walk, jog, or skate. The Martha Stewart magazine called Blueprint is offering downloadable jogging playlists of their staffers' favorite exercise music, which they promise to update frequently throughout the fall. Whether they have good taste remains to be seen, and will surely be a decision for each reader/downloader to decide for him or herself.

What's on your exercise playlist? Is it free and downloadable? If so, give us a link!

[Photo by Leonid Mamchenkov.]

[That's Fit blogger Larissa Brown chronicles her journey to health and fitness through this regular weekly feature, Road To Fitville. Her first milestone was North America's largest two-day relay race on August 25-26. Here is her report from the road.]


Friday Morning: I furiously pack a few last items and jump in the car with four cases of water, a gigantic mound of healthy food, and three running outfits in Ziploc bags. I'm bubbling over with excitement. There are 12 women on my team, and I don't really know anyone in my van. I stop for my last cup of coffee for two days then meet my vanmates. As we pack our stuff, we get a proud and frantic call from our first six runners. They are 40 minutes ahead of our estimated schedule! We load up our various power ades and jump in.

Later Friday: After all the excitement, we sit for a while at a big parking lot in Sandy, Oregon , waiting for our first set of runners to approach the exchange. There are more than 12,000 runners in this race, and the volume of people is beginning to show. Vans are decorated wildly, with everything from college alumni teams to the fiersome Michael Bolton Running Team (How Can We Be Runners If We Can't Be Friends?). Our team is all moms, and we have time to decorate our van with all our children's names while we wait.

Friday 6:30 pm: I'm the last runner on the team, and I start my leg on a mean, nasty uphill in the hot hot sun. I struggle across a long (did-I-mention-hot) urban road that passes my teammate Sarah's house. I feel so loaded down that I consider dumping my water and MP3 player on her porch, but reason with myself that I'll want my stuff later. I dial up an inspirational message from my husband on the MP3 and hurl myself onward. Turning onto

Hawthorne Blvd

in Portland , I run past a group of heavy smokers waiting in line for a concert and gag. Then pass all kinds of bars with people drinking beer and eating pizza. Gag, gag, gag.

The Wall Street Journal reported today [subscription required] on a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine, which shows an increased risk of earlier death among people who are overweight at age 50.

I wrote recently about my desire to remain in the overweight category, even once I reach my own weight goal of 150 pounds. Ater reading what WSJ has to say about this study, I'm still sticking with my plan.

The new study - by scientists at the National Cancer Institute - was conducted among older people who were asked to recall what their weight was at age 50, a method designed to correct for the "dynamic" nature of peoples' weights as they age. Also a method my grandma (who lived to be 93 and smoked every day of her life) would have called "tricky." Though so far everyone seems to agree that "obese" people are at greater risk of earlier death, they are now officially split on those of us who are just a bit fat and pretty fit.

In my opinion, all these studies about weight and earlier death beg the question earlier than what? We're all going to die and we're not sure when. This new study has not convinced me that losing an extra 10 pounds will change my chances.

[Image based on a photo by northern california.]

[That's Fit blogger Larissa Brown chronicles her journey to health and fitness through this regular weekly feature, Road To Fitville. Her first milestone is a local, two-day relay race on August 25-26.]

Stringy pink cotton candy clouds floated above as I ran into the sweetest cool air and loveliest sunset last night. My feet -- in their pretty new expensive Asics -- were bouncing off the sidewalks with no hint of heaviness or sluggishness. As I ran, I composed haikus and designed knitting patterns. My mind wandered happily, and even on the uphills I'd look up to find myself suddenly five blocks closer to home.

My sunset run was in stark contrast to the other run I did yesterday. That's right, I completed two runs in one day. You see, this weekend is my big relay race, and I needed to practice running more than once in a day with about nine hours of recovery time.

The morning run was a hot slog. I was nervous because I was running with one of my teammates whom I'd just met. She was faster than me, but I knew the route, so I was working hard to keep up with her and yelling directions like "Go around that reservoir and then meet me back here!" At one point she took the jogger to try it out and I watched my little baby roll off over the horizon with a near stranger. A very pleasant stranger, my teammate, but still it was weird. I was highly motivated to keep up with them and I didn't enjoy the process.

So when night approached I headed out with some trepidation. How could the second run of the day -- this one after nine hours of "recovery" that included hosting 12 people for brunch and reading about 40 board books over and over and over with my son -- be any better? I'm so glad I tried, because it was better. So much better. As I sprinted the last 60 seconds up to my house, I felt alive, validated, light, happily hungry and seriously proud. And I even went to bed with loose muscles, a condition virtually unknown to me.

I learned that I can do this race on Friday. And I was reminded that for every hard run it's always worth trying, trying again. Because a bad run is a special kind of hell on earth. But a good run is a special kind of heaven.

Here are my August stats:

• August 21
• Today's weight: 158.5 lbs.
• Pounds lost since June: 7.5
• Minutes it took to run my fastest mile this week: 10:42
• Minutes shaved off my mile since June: 1:43

[That's Fit blogger Larissa Brown chronicles her journey to health and fitness through this regular weekly feature, Road To Fitville. Her first milestone is a local, two-day relay race on August 25-26.]

Well, it's official. I'm no longer obese! I am now simply overweight ... and loving it.

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number calculated using a person's height and weight. According to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta (why do they always add the "in Atlanta" in sci-fi movies?), a person's BMI "provides a reliable indicator of body fatness for most people." Body fatness? Okay. It says that based on my height and my weight of 159.5 pounds as of today, I am overweight. Not in morbid trouble, but I could do better.

The thing is, they are right and wrong about me. I am overweight and I want to lose 9.5 more pounds. But even at my goal of 150, BMI standards will still put me in the overweight category. I have no plans to ever reach normal. I often joke that I'm dense, but seriously I look fine and feel terrific at 150 pounds. To get out of the overweight realm, I would need to drop to 140 pounds, a weight at which I'm bony and have to continuously diet pretty severely in order to maintain the status quo.

Imagine a lifelong diet that never ends? Nope. I'm going to be overweight when I meet my goal of 150 and switch to a maintenance level diet, but I will be fit and will feel and look thin and that's just fine with me.