The Journey

In the words of Boy George… In time it could have been so much more The time is precious I know… How did you spend your month?     There are 730 hours in one month.       Ran 93 hours (only 91 miles this month) Spinning Class 6 hours Swimming 1 hour   Hope you had a good and active month!   Stayfitt PS...I forgot to add my blogging hours....

So into the pool I went.  My coach, a 19 yr old college student,  introduced himself.  He smiled warmly then... he socked it to me!!!  This was the longest 30 minutes of my life.  Kick board and flippers on and then back and forth I went in the pool. This was my first lesson.  Is this guy trying to kill me?   I am twice his age.  I said nothing and kept moving. We went back and forth in the training pool.  Then he took the kick board away.  I thought…Noooooooooo.  I was nervous.  So we practiced blowing bubbles under the pool and up then bubbles under the water then up and again… Between kicking, bubbles, focusing…I was worn out in one half hour.  How can this be?  I am the cardio girl.  I love cardio and I could hardly manage to get through this lesson.  I learned a lot from this lesson.  Well…re-learned.   Strength training is key for all sports, especially core training.  I know how important strength training is in general, but it became  even mor

It is 5am on Sunday morning.   I walk slowly to the office where I sit on my green exercise ball for 4 hours reading journals and textbooks.   Did I forget to say I am a nursing student at Johns Hopkins Nursing School?   This is my weekly pattern.   Get up early. Read for hours and treat myself to the long slow run.   I began this little routine back in 1980s when I started college the first time and pretty much maintained the same routine for 20 yrs.   Today was as balmy, 28F degrees, icy with snow flurries; but I was determined to continue the tradition.   I am one of those runners who is always and never in training for something mostly because I enjoy staying active and like keeping 10-12 miles under my belt at all times just in case there is a half marathon that I would like to do or have time for at any given moment.   Time goals are a thing of the past for me.   I have transformed from the racer to the fitness runner.   I still appreciate the cardiovascular, m

Excellent movie on Health, Diet and Lifestyle..Forks Over Knives is definitely thought provoking. If you have 90mins in your day, please watch this. It is free. http://www.hulu.com/watch/ 279734/forks-over-knives

  General Health Facts. According the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, about one out of three U.S. adults or 31.3% has high blood pressure. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse, Diabetes affects 25.8 million people of all ages 8.3 percent of the U.S. population. A 2011 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the following: ·       The average male consumes 175 calories a day from drinks containing added sugar (like soda). ·       The average female consumes 94 calories from these drinks ·       About half of the population drinks a sugar-sweetened beverage on any given day. More than 45 million Americans now belong to a health club, up from 23 million in 1993. We spend some $19 billion a year on gym memberships. Of course, some people join and never go. Still, as one major study, the Minnesota Heart Survey, found, more of us at least say we

Spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down The medicine go down The medicine go down Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down In a most delightful way~1964 Walt Disney, Mary Poppins Yesterday I decided that I would attend my running club's Breakfast run.  One member of the club agreed to create the route and sponsor a post-run breakfast for the runners who attended.  The run was free for all attendees and the attendees agreed to bring something yummy for the post-breakfast feast in turn.  Seemed fair to me so I signed up. After Googling the address and bundling up for the 25F degree forecast; I arrived at the host's home.  She is an awesome, active military woman who recently relocated to the area with her family.  She greeted each runner with a warm, welcoming smile as we arrived at her home. Then she showed us the map of the run.  None of us previewed the course.  It was  surprise.  It was very well organized and included a description as wel

How amazing. A fabulous week is winding down in beautiful Baltimore.   I spent the entire week at an intense 40 hour HIV/AIDS seminar for health professionals.   More on this seminar another time.   It was wonderful chatting with physicians, physicians’ assistants, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, social workers, substance abuse counselors and students on how to better care for HIV patients from medical and psychosocial perspectives.     Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian lunches were provided daily.   During lunch, I chatted with other attendees about behavioral changes and how easy it is to advise patients to take care of themselves about sleep, exercise, nutrition, etc.   One NP said, “It is easier to provide guidance than practice guidance.”   We all laughed.   She was correct.   It is easier to say, “Do this or do that” even if you work in health care.   We talked about how crazy our schedules are with family, work, research, etc.   One student asked me, “What do you do

There Are No Mirrors in my Nana’s House~ Sweet Honey and the Rock Y.M. Barnwell ©1992 There were no mirrors in my Nana's house, no mirrors in my Nana's house. There were no mirrors in my Na's house, no mirrors in my Nana's house. And the beauty that I saw in everything was in her eyes (like the rising of the sun). I never knew that my skin was too black. I never knew that my nose was too flat. I never knew that my clothes didn't fit. I never knew there were things that I'd missed, cause the beauty in everything was in her eyes (like the rising of the sun); ...was in her eyes. There were no mirrors in my Nana's house, no mirrors in my Nana's house. And the beauty that I saw in everything was in her eyes (like the rising of the sun). I was intrigued by the cracks in the walls. I tasted, with joy, the dust that would fall. The noise in the hallway was music to me. The trash and the rubbish just cushioned my feet. And t

You just never know who you are destined to meet in life.  I sat on the plane on my way to the Disney Half Marathon and found myself chatting with a gentleman who is a life coach.  We chatted about authors and experiences.  He shared with me that he climbed Mount Kilamanjaro the same year that I was working in Uganda.  We laughed.  It was so funny that we met 8 yrs later on a plane destined for Disney. Here it is 2:30am and I am sitting in my hotel room eating a bagel and hurrying to make the Disney bus to take me to Epcot.  I sit next to a woman who struck up a conversation about growing up in the same state in which I live and how this is only her 2nd half marathon and she did her first one last month for her 41st birthday.  We chatted about the love of running and  how convenient running is with work and 2 small children.  I concurred. Then I met with 27,000 of my new found friends for a morning "training run" through Disney.  Honestly, I did not train for this event

There are two main strategies we can adopt to improve the quality of life. The first is to try making external conditions match our goals. The second is to change how we experience external conditions to make them fit our goals better. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, 1990   I hate training….Let me say it again…I hate training for anything, but I don’t mind PRACTICE.  As soon as someone says, “Let’s train for something,” I just shut down.  Training sounds like WORK to me.  I prefer PRACTICE.  In my mind, practice translates into something different.  I means that I get to do something over and over again until I get it right. I get lots of times to make mistakes and correct them. I like that. I can readjust, tweak and keep on going. Sounds good to me.   Whether you read Outliers by Gladwell or Ericsson’s original study, you may or may not be familiar with the 10,000 hour rule.  Acc

Jumped up at 455am to make it to my first HIT class.  The High Intensity Training class is a combo of boot camp and cross fit with weights, lunges, jumping jacks, iron cross (ab workout) and push up and treadmill running.  The treadmill was the only thing familiar to me.  Everything else was a mystery.  One lady asked me..."Why are you here, you already look in shape!"  I laughed said nothing.  See what see does NOT know is that strength training is my Nemesis.  I will run up hill, stretch, take yoga, cross train, but weight training is semi boring for me.  Basically, if it is NOT aerobic I avoid it. (Secretly, I was thinking..."Lady, do you know me?  You have no idea what I can or can't do and it appears you are judging me my how I look NOT by what I can do....Very bad error on your part.  She doesn't know I used to be a kid with asthma who could not run without an inhaler or when I was in college I could barely MOVE because I was so out o

Tis the season...Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystems, Medifast, Eat this NOT that...oh goodness all of this is quite confusion.   According to NIH , "If you are overweight, you are not alone. Sixty-six percent of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese.  Achieving a healthy weight can help you control your cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar. It might also help you prevent weight-related diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and some cancers." Interestingly, as obesity rises so is the rate of depression.  It is estimated that by 2020, depression will become the second largest cause of suffering -- next only to heart disease. So what is eating us?  Is it a stressful job, school, family conflict or is it something less tangible such as a sense of general dissatisfaction, disappointment, boredom?  Ask yourself do I consume food for comfort or for any other reason than hunger?  Do I eat excessive amounts?   Something is "eating&qu

“You have the ability not just to observe your life like a historian or a fortune teller but like a sculptor, through vision and painstaking hard work to make of it a life what you will.”—Devon Harris~Motivational Speaker and member of the Jamaican Bobsled Team T oday was simply a delightful, fun-filled day full of smiles, laughs and some good ole fashion hard work. The day began with a crazy 8 mile run with 810 Ft elevation gain with my running club. I watched in amazement as I observed people running over the hills and repeat this over 8 miles today.  I had a good view considering I was running in the rear of the pack.  Some chose to run 2, 4, 6 miles, but NOOOOO I decided to do the crazy 8. I never once thought about stopping, but I did thinking this WILL be difficult yet doable.  I kept my sights on a little old lady who was a power house.  She smoked me on the hills.  I smiled and thought to myself, " I want to be her when I grow up."  I survived the run needless