Tag health

A Centenarian Who Broke World Records

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Tom Lane

Tom Lane broke records as one of the nation’s oldest Masters swimmers. He exercised every single day, shot golf regularly, but his favorite physical activity, and the one which won him gold medals in Masters divisions, was swimming. a former patent lawyer, Tom Lane set Masters records in the backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle in three age groups. He went on record stating that his life’s philosophy was, ‘If you can’t beat ’em, outlive ’em.’”

Tom Lane proved to younger people that old age was never an excuse to become lazy and sedentary. He went on record saying that for many people, retirement is when an active life can begin. He didn’t even allow blindness to stop him. When glaucoma robbed him of his sight at the age of 92, he began to have problems with turning at the end of laps in the pool, and would bump his head on the edge of the pool. Instead of quitting, he attached a sponge to his forehead to cushion the blow when he reached the edge..

Tom Lane died at the age of 103 from complications of pneumonia in his home in San Diego in August of 1997, but not before leaving an inspiring legacy and breaking world records in Masters swimming.

Bravo!

This Is What $54 Worth Of Good Cat Food Looks Like…

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For the past several weeks, I have been re-training my European Burmese cat Kazu to eat moist cat food so that she will lose weight. She is a very fussy eater, and it has been a guessing game, trying to determine which foods she will eat. My conclusion is that Kazu will only eat food which has had little to no processing, and is considered “human grade”. This little lady is insisting on a whole food diet, which is fine with me, but the kind of food she likes is expensive!

Today I decided to stock up, so I went to C&C Pet Foods (great place for discounted pet food in Burbank) and purchased 32 three ounce cans, 6 three ounce pouches and 1 six ounce can, which came to a total of $54. That’s pretty pricey if you ask me! However, Kazu has refused other brands of foods, so I have to stick with a small handful of brands (Tiki Cat, Weruva, and B.F.F.) which are not available at stores like Petco or PetSmart.

If you have a finicky pet, I would HIGHLY recommend these brands of pet food, because they are high quality and quite palatable to most pets.

Hindsight is 20/20: Weight Training Then Versus Now

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This article details the five most important things I have learned about training since I began weight lifting over 25 years ago. When I think back on how little I truly knew about the methods and motivation behind working out, I realize that I have come a very, very long way. It was no accident that I obtained an undergraduate degree in exercise science and a medical degree, because I have spent my adult life strongly driven to learn as much about the human body and its potential as I possibly could. However, there is so much warrior spirit and heart that goes into weight lifting, and it can never be taught, only experienced.

Lifting Lady Weights versus A Lady Lifting WEIGHTS

I began lifting weights when I was 21 years old, shortly after embarking on a mission to heal from a year-long struggle with anorexia which brought me down to 85 pounds and also sunk my spirits to rock bottom. At that time my main objective was to learn how to lift properly, which fortunately was supported by my undergraduate studies and eventual Bachelor’s degree. I was rail thin and weak, so it took some time before I made real gains in the weight room. I held the same misconception back then that many women have now, in which I had a fear of lifting heavy and getting too muscular as a result. More than 25 years later, I regularly dispel that myth by encouraging women to lift heavy weights and showing them that my physique, which is not overly muscular, is the result of some very heavy lifting over the last several years.

Maintaining a Nice Physique versus Raising The Bar

During the years preceding my journey into competitive bodybuilding, I never pushed myself to the next level because I honestly never saw the point. I was content with the degree of muscle I had built in my 20’s and 30’s and was surrounded by people who weren’t impressed with weight training, so I never set new goals. Since I was blessed with decent genetics which kept me at a low to normal body weight and a moderate amount of muscle mass, I was pretty complacent (though very consistent) about my weight training. Then I went through a dramatic shift in 2009 when I competed in my first NPC bodybuilding contest and had an “aha” moment in which I finally understood the insatiable desire to push on to the next level and continue to set the bar higher and higher. Essentially, I had been bitten by the bodybuilding bug, and it overtook me with a ferocity and intensity that I had never known. I know that if it hadn’t been for that dogged determination which made me hungry for top national placings and an IFBB Pro Card, I might never have become a Pro.

Competitions & Overtraining versus Paying Attention To Pain

Let’s just get one thing straight: ever since I began competing in 2009, I have become accustomed to training like a beast. However, when I began my journey towards obtaining IFBB Professional Status, my purpose was so singular that I was willing to train until I collapsed from complete exhaustion, a tactic which I now realize is pretty stupid since it wreaks major havoc on the body when practiced for many months or years. I now understand that it is NEVER worth overtraining, or training with injuries which won’t heal because the athlete never takes a break from lifting. Overtraining interferes with muscle gains, immune function, sleep cycles, joint health, mood and energy, and can trigger a complete metabolic meltdown if the athlete continues overtraining for an extended period of time. Though my body’s creaks and groans, along with chronic pain issues from rotator cuff tears in my shoulder and severe tendinitis (IT bands, forearms, feet) were what caused me to finally ease up on the intensity of my workouts, I only allowed myself to pull the reins back AFTER I got my Pro Card. Once the beast had been slain, I fully embraced the idea of training smart and listening to my body’s pain cues

Hurry Up Before It’s Too Late versus Improving With Age

Before I began competing, I honestly believed that there was a freshness date stamped on competitors which essentially relegated them to the dinosaur pits by the time they reached 35 or 40. So I became positively giddy when I discovered that there was a masters’ division in bodybuilding and that I could strut my 43-year old booty onstage without risk of embarrassment. I regarded each subsequent contest as a chance to improve with age, thus using my competitions as a means to beat Father Time. Through my competition journey I have also met other bodybuilding and fitness devotees who do an outstanding job of proving that one can never be too old to be in great shape.

Seeing Clients/Patients One-On-One versus Impacting The Masses

If someone had told me back in 2009 (my first year of competing) that I would build a global following in a couple of years, I never would have believed it, especially since I had become so accustomed to working with fitness training clients and medical patients on a one-on-one basis. My passion for fitness became supercharged when I began competing, and I was so enthusiastic about sharing that passion that I turned to websites and social media platforms to demonstrate favorite exercises and contest video footage. Without thinking about it, I had put myself in a position to lead by example, and used my knowledge, educational background and experience to build fan loyalty and inspire and motivate my followers and fans. To this day, I love getting messages from fans who say that it was because of me that they decided to start competing or to pursue another personal passion which gave them joy and also graced them with optimal fitness.

These days, I often refer to embarking on a fitness and wellness regimen as putting the oxygen mask over one’s own face. That was exactly what I did for myself over 25 years ago. By showing others how to do the same thing, I feel completely in line with my life’s purpose, and it’s extremely rewarding.

Hot and Cold

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Many women who are in their early 40’s and beyond experience a roller coaster ride with their internal thermostats which is absolutely maddening. They can go from sitting comfortably one minute, to a sudden sweat and flush which makes them feel like they are standing next to a fiery blaze the next minute. Such a roast-fest can last from seconds to minutes, after which a woman may feel pretty comfortable. But the pendulum can swing the other way, and the woman may suddenly feel very cold once the air conditioning has kicked in, prompting her to put on a sweater. Guess what? Chances are that sweater will be peeled off in a matter of minutes when the woman has another hot flash. Hot, cold, hot, cold, hot, cold. Fun times. Such fluctuations in a woman’s perception of temperature, coupled with her constant putting on and taking off layers of clothing, are often perceived as pretty nutty by people who don’t have a clue about the torture these women go through.

I can relate to the constant temperature fluctuations because I have been suffering from it for over a year now. I fully realize that my body doesn’t know what temperature it is. Thanks to hormonal imbalance and the decline associated with peri-menopause, I am very familiar with the sweating which is sudden and intense, and I know that feeling of desperation which has me peeling off clothes, fanning myself, and sticking my head in freezers and in front of blowing fans. However, I only recently began experiencing the feeling that I am suddenly freezing my butt off, and I truly can’t stand it. My perception of the ambient temperature can go from upper 70’s, to 120 degrees, to 60 degrees, within 5 minutes flat.

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On my worst days I will have maybe five or six of these episodes, so the daytime hours aren’t too bad, but my evenings make up for the relative break I get during the day, because I am hot and sweaty for many hours and cannot cool down at all, even if I wear a cooling towel around my neck, lie on the floor under my ceiling fan (the darned thing is positioned right over the foot of the bed and doesn’t cool me off at all when I am in bed), and lie over the covers. My bedroom feels like it is 100 degrees and I cannot get away from the heat because, of course, the heat is emanating from ME. My hypothalamus is tricked every night into perceiving that my body needs to release excess heat. I know that this is the result of low estrogen levels, but my professional knowledge of estrogen therapy is enough to keep me from ever supplementing with estrogen, so I will continue to suffer as long as my hypothalamus triggers the way it does. At least I know I am not alone: about 85% of women who are peri-menopausal experience hot flashes. Hot flashes can last from several months up to 15 years, with an average of 2 years. I hope and pray that I fall into the average! Seriously, hot flashes and night sweats are absolutely miserable. I often get as little as two hours of sleep at night when my night sweats are in full effect!

Why Cheat Meals Are Good

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If you ask a competitor about favorite cheat meals, you had better expect the person’s eyes to glaze over as he or she lovingly describes his or her most beloved foods. You may wonder if cheat meals are only incorporated into the lives of fitness people, but they actually serve a purpose for anyone who is committed to healthy eating. Perhaps you have just embarked on a healthy food regimen and are struggling a bit with it. When you incorporate one or two cheat meals into your plan each week you will boost your metabolism and foster a more balanced relationship with food.

Let’s face it. We are only human, and we carry our emotional relationship with food with us throughout our lives. If we were to practice a rigid adherence to a healthy meal plan without any fun meals, we would feel guilty if we were to ever indulge in a bad food in a moment of weakness. If we know that we are allowed such a fun meal (I prefer this terminology over “cheat” meal), we can rest in the comfort that it is acceptable and that there is no reason to feel guilty about consuming it. This also works nicely if you tend to go to events on the weekends and don’t want to be the stick-in-the-mud who can’t eat anything that is being served.

When you eat a more calorie controlled meal plan during the rest of the week, a fun meal will speed up your metabolism and satisfy cravings that have been accumulating during the week. I believe it is important to eat something you truly crave instead of doing a small cheat like a dinner roll with a chicken spinach salad. Have the two slices of pizza or the burger! Just make sure to eat an acceptable amount of food and don’t gorge yourself.

I am often asked by weight management patients if a cheat day or a cheat weekend is acceptable. My response is no, for the simple reason that this creates a slippery slope which causes many individuals to lose self-control and spiral into a guilt-ridden “I messed up so why stop now?” mentality. If it is too difficult to do one fun meal per week, incorporate two fun meals spaced by at least one day so that your body can recover.

My Cat Needs A Body Transformation

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For the first time in the thirty years that I have had cats, I share my home and my heart with an obese cat. My six year old European Burmese Kazu is of small stature, and her normal weight should be somewhere around nine pounds. She was nine pounds until just under a year ago, when her weight began creeping up. I noticed instead of walking down the stairs like she used to do, she hopped down the stairs, mainly as a result of her increasing belly girth and her short legs, both of which interfered with normal transit.

8.18.15 Kazu

One day in May, my roommate remarked that Kazu was rather stout, then began asking questions about her. Since my roommate was new to the household, she could clearly see that my cat was overweight. Was she constipated? Well, yes, Kazu has had bouts of constipation since kittenhood. Did Kazu drink enough water? Yes, I think she does. Does Kazu overeat? Honestly, I really don’t think so. Kazu doesn’t usually beg for food, and she normally doesn’t like moist cat food or people food. Out of concern for my little girl, I took her to the vet, who told me that my cat was fat and that there was nothing I could do about it. I then got a second opinion which was the same. I then addressed the constipation issue by trying glycerin suppositories, but there wasn’t much of a change in Kazu’s bowel habits, and neither of us enjoyed the process.

By early August, Kazu’s weight shot up to twelve pounds, which prompted me to take her to a third vet. Thankfully, that vet (Dr. Lavely at Limehouse Veterinary) was willing to take the time to chat at length about the problems which I had regarding switching the household to scheduled feeding times (erratic schedule, often not home, greedy male cat who eats everything, Kazu’s finicky palate). It’s been about a week since we visited Dr. Lavely, and the feeding has definitely been very erratic, which is why I still have dry food out at all times for the cats to eat. I keep trying to give Kazu people food and moist cat food, but her response is inconsistent. On some days, she readily accepts the food I put out for her, while on other days, she barely even sniffs the food before walking away. I am hoping that Kazu begins to accept the offerings I give her, because that is the only way she will lose weight. I even bought a very expensive moist cat food which has human grade ingredients in hopes that she transitions over to moist food. My goal is to get her to lose three pounds in a healthy way over the next year. Kazu is relatively active and plays with her siblings frequently. She also plays toys and is the only cat out of the three who knows how to play fetch and even initiates games of fetch on a regular basis.

I guess Kazu is my first feline body transformation client!

Evil Goldfish

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Goldfish

Last weekend I went out of town on a much-needed weekend getaway, and I decided to go off the grid with everything from my daily life and wing it. I didn’t pack any whole food, gym clothes, or my computer, and I had no plans to do any work. Since I was in wine country, my main objective was to visit wineries, enjoy the scenery, and to allow myself to consume whatever struck my palate. One winery featured wine and cheese pairings, which is something I would ordinarily refuse. Thank goodness I didn’t deprive myself, because the cheese selections were even more delicious than the wines at that particular winery!

Though I could feel my gut rebelling somewhat against the drastic change in diet, I enjoyed the freedom I had. I still looked for more protein dense food selections while we were exploring the region, and I wolfed down a couple of B-Up Bars for a boost in protein. However, I pretty much gave up on getting my usual 25+ grams of protein with my morning meal while at the bed and breakfast inn where I stayed. The only protein dense food selection at the inn was Greek yogurt, so I had that on Saturday morning with some fresh fruit.

By the end of the day on Saturday, we had visited some wonderful wineries. We made sure to hydrate well the entire time and we also had a big lunch, but I was hungry when we returned to the inn, and since the food selection was so limited (the fruit and yogurt were no longer available at 5 pm), I grabbed a snack sized bag of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers and began munching on them while chatting with the innkeepers. BIG MISTAKE. About five minutes after consuming the cute little crackers, a feeling of malaise washed over me, and my head began to pound. I excused myself from the table and went to my room, whereupon I crashed onto the bed and held my sore head. The room was blazing hot, even with the ceiling fan whizzing at high speed, and I floated in and out of sleep for about an hour.

We had dinner reservations at a fancy restaurant, so I peeled myself off the bed and got ready even though I felt like I had gotten hit by a truck. And NO, it was NOT the wine which had me feeling this way. Once we were at the restaurant, I ordered an entree which sounded appealing, but by the time the entree arrived, I could not even eat as a result of severe nausea and a splitting headache. That delicious lamb shank I ordered sat on my plate like a forgotten masterpiece.

Now that I realize what got me so sick, I figured I would review the ingredients found in these evil Goldfish crackers. How could something I so gleefully consumed as a child wreak so much havoc on my body as an adult?

→ Ingredients are listed in order of importance (quantity).
Ingredients list : MADE WITH SMILES AND UNBLEACHED ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR (FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON. THIAMINE MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), FOLIC ACID), CHEDDAR CHEESE (CULTURED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES, ANNATTO), VEGETABLE OILS (CANOLA, SUNFLOWER AND/OR SOYBEAN), CONTAINS 2 PERCENT OR LESS OF: SALT, YEAST, SUGAR, AUTOLYZED YEAST, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE, AMMONIUM BICARBONATE), PAPRIKA, SPICES (CONTAINS CELERY) AND DEHYDRATED ONIONS.

Well, for one thing, these crackers are loaded with gluten (from the unbleached enriched wheat flour), and the canola or soybean oil lurking in the crackers also did a number on me. Back in January, I discovered (through ALCAT Testing https://www.alcat.com/) that I had an intolerance to gluten, canola oil, and soybean oil. No wonder I felt so ill! My habit of reading labels and of avoiding any foods which have ingredients of which I am intolerant is something I need to do ALL THE TIME. Just one slip and I had to pay the price!

New B-Up Bar Flavor: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

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There’s a new flavor in the B-Up Bar lineup! Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough has lots of tasty chunks of chocolate, and tastes just like chocolate chip cookie dough! These bars have ZERO artificial sweeteners, are gluten free, are loaded with fiber, and deliver 20 grams of protein.

Go to Yupbrands.com to order any of the amazing flavors of B-Up Bars or B-Jammin Bars.

When ordering single boxes (no bundle packs or samples), you can use my discount code amstacey29 to get 12% off your order!