Category Archives: Uncategorized

Day 1 of 500 Calorie Diet Diet Plan

Today I started 500 calorie diet plan – Preparation Phase:

I only took one cleanser tablet in the morning and one before bed.  Did not feel much change.  I did not get a chance to have real breakfast and lunch because I had to take my daugther to the rink.  One large Dunnkin Dunut Coffee with Cream and Sugar.  One Costco Blueberry muffin. 

We went to park district pool for swimming for a couple hours.  Then we went to Roberto – in town Italian restaurant for Father’s Day Dinner.  I ate a lot of bread and bread stick, with some butter and oliver oil.  My dish was mussle on angel hair.  Could not finish all pasta.  I made wrong choice for type of pasta. Should choose bigger size pasta.  Angel Hair too thin.

Starting numbers:

weight – 133.6

 

 

I started it again

Yesterday, it was the first time after, gosh who knows how many years, I went out run 3 miles.  It felts so good.  Weather was in a little bit chily side, around 65 F.  But sun comes out early in summer.  Fresh, cool morning air made me wanted to work hard.  I logged in 3.4 miles under 50 mins.  I was happy with it.

The problem now is I need to find time to keep this schedule up.  I could not go out for running because I had to work late last night. 🙂

 

My Daughter Quit Skating

Two weeks ago Wed night, my daughter came to me and said she wanted to talk with me.  I said OK though I had a lot to do.  But I thought it was very important to listen what she wanted to say.  Normally, she did not open up herself to me.  I would like her to change that.  I would like her know that she can tell me anything.

She told me she quit skating.  She asked my opinion of her quit.  My feelings were complicated.  I wanted her to quit for so long.  I used to beg her to quit because our financial could not afford to have full spear training schedule for her.  I could not take out second mortgage like most other competitive skaters’ parents did.  I could not quit my job.  If I quit, we definitely had no money for her to train.  But she never wanted to quit.  So I was glad to see that she finally saw the point.  But I was puzzled by her abrutly change.  She told me she felt it was time for her to focus on her academy. She is in 8th grade now.  She wanted to go to good college.  She wanted to be a sport med doctor.  She also said she wanted to have normal school life.  With skating, she could not do anything other than skating.  She could not watch TV; she could not sleep over; she could not take vacation, etc.  But boy, she had been skating since she was 6 years old.  It was almost half of her life.  Well, she is still young.  She has time to think.  But now, I need to help her to get ready for transition.

I had to transfer her from online school to our school district public school.  Nowadays, enrollment to public school is not that easy.  We could not register before our school board approved our residency.  Good thing is our school board lady who is dealing with documents are very efficient.  Student counselor of Middle school she is going to is very nice.  So within one week, we got all paper work and registration ready.  She is going to start her 1st day in public school tomorrow.

I am nervous.  I don’t know what to expect.  But soon, I will know…

Calculating Maximum/Maximal Heart Rate

How Effective Is Your Exercise and Workout?

by Carrie Harper,ACE Certified Personal Trainer

Our time is precious. The amount of time we spend exercising is directly proportional to the time we have for everything else. Add a full time job or two and a family, and gym time becomes crunch time. So, how do we know for sure that our body is being as efficient as we would like in that time frame? Whether our goals are increased fitness or weight management, we would like to know that we are not wasting time and that we are actually making headway toward those goals.

First, let’s crunch some numbers. There are several means of calculating a maximal heart rate. The most common equation is the Karvonen equation: 220-age=maximal heart rate. That is a rough estimate, with most people falling plus or minus 12 beats to that. Some are now using 210-(.5)age. That may be closer for some. And for exercisers that are older, 65 and up, use 226-age.

In today’s age of fitness, these estimates can be far from accurate because we are all so different in our level of fitness. For example, professional athletes will have a very low resting heart rate, which affects their numbers, and many young people have high resting heart rates due to inactivity and body weight, which greatly affects their numbers.

Your trainer or physical therapist can also do a maximal heart rate test for you for a better estimate. If you want to know how healthy your heart is, take your own resting heart rate when you first wake up in the morning. Wake up without an alarm clock, stay still for a few minutes, and then count your pulse for one minute. That is your approximate resting heart rate. Look at this number in comparison to your maximal heart rate. If your RHR (resting heart rate) is 75-85% lower than your MHR, you most likely have a fit and fabulous heart. 45-55% would be a tender and tired heart. If this is your level of fitness, please see a doctor before starting an exercise regimen. Anywhere in between (55-75%) would be an average heart.

Now, to determine where your heart rate should be when you are exercising, you can approximate by using the 220-age formula and multiplying it by .75-.85. That is a good average working rate for the average heart. For a more specific zone, determine your Heart Rate Reserve (HRR)= MHR-RHR.

Then, to find your parameters:

HRRx.55+RHR=low end

HRRx.65+RHR=high end

Now, many people ask how to determine how many calories that would be. Unfortunately, there is no way for the average exerciser to know. Everyone burns calories differently and everyone’s metabolic rate is different. Some hospitals have a breath and heart rate monitor that can determine the actual calories burned, but the average fitness center does not have such equipment. The cardio machine at the gym that estimates how many calories you are burning is a very, very rough estimate and may be no where close to actuality.

For most people, instead of the numbers swimming through the mind the whole time they are exercising, I would use a RPE test. RPE is the rate of perceived exertion. On a scale from 1-10, how are you feeling? Are you working your absolute hardest (10) or are you just now waking up (1)? An exerciser can not stay at a 10 for very long, so please don’t try! The upper RPEs are reserved to increase our stamina, not for calorie burning. In fact, this is the anaerobic threshold, where the body is no longer burning but conserving calories. In a solid cardio workout, where the heart rate stays evenly elevated for 20-90 minutes, the RPE should be around a 6 throughout. In an interval workout, alternate between a 3-4 and a 7-8 for the workout. This type of workout will increase stamina, strengthen the heart, challenge the muscles involved, and burn more calories. However, the constant cardio workout is important as well. In an average regimen, make sure both of these types of cardio activity are used.

Carrie Harper
ACE Certified Personal Trainer
ACE Certified Weight Management Consultant
Carriefit.com

Carrie Harper is a long time PEERtrainer member. She has been helping people with health and fitness goals since 1994, where she started teaching group exercise at The Florida State University. She is certified in personal training and in weight management consulting through the American Council on Exercise. Carrie is also a full time elementary music teacher and a full time mom. She still enjoys teaching group exercise at Family Fitness in Lake Jackson, Texas, where she works with individuals and groups with their fitness, health, and weight loss goals. Carrie also works with students and is passionate about ending the obesity crisis in today’s youth. She also tackles women’s health issues, including training for women with diastasis recti, or training after childbirth.

Want to Avoid Pancreatic Cancer?

Courtesy of Supermarket Guru

Two different studies, one from the University of Hawaii and the other from the University of Pittsburgh, point to potential cause and cure of one of the most aggressive cancers – pancreatic cancer. With the highest cancer mortality rate (some 80% of all those diagnosed die within one year) pancreatic cancer is now the fourth leading cause of cancer death among men and the fifth among women in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society.

In previous hallmark studies of pancreatic cancer prevention, the consumption of fish and green tea were shown to provide some improvement in the condition of pancreatic cancer patients and contributed to the fight against carcinogens. But in a study released last week by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the focus was not on a particular food or beverage, but on a spice, capsaicin, the element in hot peppers that make them “hot.”

Sanjay K. Srivastava, Ph.D., lead investigator and assistant professor, department of pharmacology for the university, treated human pancreatic cells in the lab with capsaicin to examine its antioxidative and anti-inflammatory potential. (Antioxidants are known to fight cancer cells.) What they found is that capsaicin induced programmed cell death without affecting normal pancreatic cells, giving this spice chemotherapeutic potential as a novel agent in the fight against pancreatic cancer.

In the Hawaii study, conducted by the University’s Cancer Research Center in Honolulu, these researchers followed 190,000 men and women of five different ethnic groups for seven years. The scientists concluded that those who ate high amounts of processed meats, like hot dogs, and breakfast or dinner sausages, had a 67% increase in the risk of developing pancreatic cancer over those who did not consume the products or consumed very few. The study also indicated that eating pork and red meat increased the risk of pancreatic cancer by 50%.

Those participants who did not consume cured or processed meat but ate chicken, fish, eggs or dairy products did not have increased rates of pancreatic cancer despite their equal or similar levels of natural fat and cholesterol. This led the scientists to believe that it is not the meat itself, or the fat, but the chemical agents, especially the use of sodium nitrates, which can lead to cancer. Sodium nitrates are well known to increase the development of nitrosamines in the body that promote the growth of cancer cells, particularly in the colon and the pancreas.

Once again reaffirming: we are what we eat!