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Practical Eating
Skyr Vs. Fage: Yogurt Deathmatch
All yogurts are not created equal. Some are champion snacks or even meals, and others are sugar-soaked goop. One serving of my childhood favorite, Western Family lowfat blueberry yogurt, contains 44g of sugar, versus 9g in an equally if not more delicious serving of Total Fage. So no more Western Family for me. Which brings us to the topic at hand: yogurts' nutritional content, specifically high-end, thick-style yogurts.
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Scientific
On Stress and Belly Fat
Writer and runner Haruki Murakami has a great line in his book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: Walking behind a beautiful young fat woman, the narrator speculates, "There must be as many paths of human fat, as there are ways of human death."
Well, some Wake Forest researchers have found an exception to Murakami's rule: The searchers fed monkeys an "average American diet," and the monkeys got fat. Shocker! But here's the wrinkle: The researchers also found that if the monkeys ate American food and experienced prolonged stress, they got fat in a particular, common way. They developed belly fat.
That's bad news because belly fat is linked to heart disease in monkeys and in humans. People with larger waistlines -- over 40 inches in men, and over 35 inches in women -- are at significantly higher risk for all sorts of trouble: Diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, among others.
Yet another reason to manage your stress: Lose the belly, and nurture your own, natural, even literary, fat profile.
Big News
Social Workout Works Out
Five years ago, two people connected in the comment threads of this site. They were part of our original crew of literate, urbane, fitness nerds. Pretty soon, he was inviting her to costumed mud races, and she was writing warm odes to him. In hashtags, she denied her love, but it wasn't long before they discretely made public their mutual hearting. From the start, they've been a force for the good, and together they flogged thousands of pushups, crunches, and burpees, and even co-produced an extraordinary short film.
This weekend our old friends msh258 and killercadoogan were married. We smile and salute them. At Social Workout HQ today, we will all hold a ceremonial two minute plank in their honor.
Onward friends and lovers!
Pay to Not Play
CVS Employee Wellness Screening: Fair or Foul?
Starting May 1st, reports the Boston Herald, CVS Caremark Corps will require all employees on its health insurance plan to submit to regular wellness screenings. Should they opt out of the screening, employees are subject to a fine of $50 per month, or $600 per year.
CVS' policy is just the latest in a series of increasinglly aggressive and controversial attempts by companies to reign in their health care costs. CVS aims to "incent our colleagues to improve their health care and manage health costs," but the move is seen by some as an invasive and punitive policy that could lead to discrimination against unhealthy or disabled workers.
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Sex Ed
More on the Pelvic Floor, the Psoas, and the Big O
Yesterday, our poll on Pilates and sex prompted healthy debate. A few key points to highlight: The general consensus suggests that exercise focus on the pelvic floor can bear very positive results for the orgasm-er; but also that those benefits do not necessarily accrue to the orgasm-ee. In any event, the discussion prompted a yoga teacher friend to email the following:
Psoas release is where it's at for the ladies. A little something called "constructive rest" for about 10-20 minutes a day can really unlock it, and that helps everything work better. I recommended it to one of my classes, and women were thanking me for months. :)
Naturally, I insisted that she elaborate. Included after the jump, then, a small tutorial on "constructive rest," the importance of releasing the Psoas major muscle, and the female orgasm.
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The Hamptons
Yogalebrity Alert in Amagansett
Erika Halweil of Mandala Yoga in Amagansett teaches a popular yoga class that has started shutting people out because they run out of space -- now that it's peak bikini season. (Get there early or suffer mat rage). It's really just the first half of the Ashtanga primary series, but the fashionable ladies of the East End can't get enough. Last weekend, students included Joni of Joni's, of Montauk healthy wrap fame, and yogalebrity Christy Turlington, sweating, but still looking better than anyone else will ever look in their life. Erika adjusted Christy a few extra times, but wouldn't you?
B.O.W.C. Updates
Tee Minus Ten Days, And Counting
Attention dear B.O.W.C.s: You are two thirds of the way home. 20 days down, ten to go (or 240 hours, or 14,400 minutes.) Metaphorically speaking, if the Challenge was a work week, you've made it to Friday evening. Nothing but the weekend in front of you!
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Free Yoga
TeleYoga Wants You and Your Friends to Do All the Minutes of Yoga You Can Muster
In a mere week, the Million Minute Month begins! To cheer us all along, we've gathered powerful forces for good in the form of Spirit Guides. Today, a big welcome to Spirit Guide Christine Miller, Founder of TeleYoga, whose sweaty minute encouragement begins...now. On the line: A free private TeleYoga session. All you have to do is rally a few friends as fellow challengers. Here's how it works:
More..._0.big center.jpg "Christine! photo by David Pexton")
To Do
Emergency Guide to a Healthy Next 24 Hours in NYC
Friday of a long, holiday-bracketed weekend. Schedules either jammed, or disrupted and in flux. For those as scrambled as we are at SW HQ this afternoon, here is a menu of surefire workouts and other physical treats on offer in NYC -- beginning effectively now, and ending tomorrow evening....
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New York
Poet Laureate
Mohawk’s Got the Rants
Maybe I’m channeling msh258 here, but something about today seems like it deserves a rant or two. Lo and behold, I refresh my Yahoo news page and read this lovely article about new Wisconsin legislation that’ll slap a 10k fine and some jail time on health teachers if they teach kids about contraceptives because a) it’s illegal to have sex if you’re a minor in Wisconsin (HA!) and b) knowing how to have safe sex will “contribute to the delinquency of a minor.”
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Mat Manners
Bad Yoga Behavior — Instructors Dish The Dirt
We've gotten into the rich territory of ridiculous breaches of yoga etiquette before. People popping cans of Diet Coke during savasana, tighty-whities in Bikram...but that's all been from our the student perspective. What about the teacher perspective? The Phoenix New Times talked to yoga instructors, and they've compiled a list entitled of notable complaints entitled "Why Your Yoga Instructor Hates You." You've got the usual suspects — crackberry addicts, people leaving during savasana — but then there are a few surprises:
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Sacred Sweat
Does the Pope Sweat?
It's Day One of a new papal regime. This got us to thinking: What's the Pope's daily routine, and does he go to the gym? Dawn Patrolers will recall that we also covered the daily routine of the Dalai Lama. Call it the Sacred Sweat series.
It's early to know how Pope Francis will spend his days, but we do know that he will not be running any marathons. Turns out Francis is working with only one lung, having had the other removed due to dangerous teenage infection. Outgoing Benedict wasn't much of a cardio fiend, either. He limited his daily exercise to a 10 minute walk around the Apostolic Palace, but he also kept a strict and healthy schedule: Up at 5AM after six hours of sleep, a Mediterannean diet, sans alcohol, and plenty of prayer.
The public record suggests that fitness, in the conventional sense, has not been a major preoccupation of the Vatican. True, Pope Pius XII, a controversial pontiff who presided over Catholicism during World War II, used a rowing machine in his youth. By the time he was Pope, however, Pius' routine was strictly 15 minutes of "knee bends and arm flexes" timed with a gold Swiss watch.
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Home Gyms
Shh...The Ottoman is a Weight Bench in Disguise
Let's not mince words. Gym equipment is fugly. Try as you might to upgrade your home gym with swanky designer dumbells or an artsy rowing machine, when all is said and done, camouflage may be the best recourse. Enter the hidden home gym....
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Gym TV
Dwight Shrute Takes Over Spin Class
In case you missed it, last week's episode of "The Office" featured a guerrilla take-over of a spin class by Dwight (skip to the end, it's the last scene of the episode). And I quote:
Dwight: OK everybody let's take this next hill!
Instructor: Excuse me, I'd appreciate it if you just let me run this.
Dwight: You know what, you had your chance, you're no leader. Up out of your seat let's blast!
Online & Video
Buns of Steal
Breakneck Ridge: Hike of Death
The Workout: 5.5 mile hike up Breakneck Ridge Mountain
Location: About an hour north of NYC, between Beacon and Cold Spring, NY
The Pass: Free hike, courtesy of Columbia University's Environmental Law Society
Money Saved: Entrance to the park is free, but I saved $22 in transportation, plus a free lunch...(though I'm sure my exorbitant law school tuition dollars indirectly paid for all this.)
There are hikes, and then there is Breakneck Ridge. This isn't your Sunday afternoon family hike. You are literally climbing up a mountain.The NY-NJ trail conference describes it like this: "Despite its relatively short length, this is generally considered to be the most strenuous hike in the East Hudson Highlands." True dat.
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100 Days to Get Summer Ready… and Then Some!
I know it may seem crazy to start thinking about getting ready for summer when the thermostat hovers at around 15 degrees and the weatherman still warns of impending snow storms. However, this really IS the time to start training for a summer ready body.
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Vent About “Easy Tone” Shoes
I’ve been meaning to write about this for awhile now, but after seeing another one of the infuriating commercials this morning while I was on the treadmill, it just had to be done.
Has anyone else seen the Reebok commercials for these shoes? If not: http://www.reebok.com/microsites/easytone_reebok/
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Wake Up Call
On Eisstockschießen
You have to have a dream so you can get up in the morning.
~ Billy Wilder, Austrian-American filmmaker
Eisstockschießen is like curling, but without the brooms. Or it's like bocce, but played with funny discs on frozen ponds in Austria.
Syrupandhoney: Not sure where you live, but I found siggi's skyr at ..." More comments...