My Health and Fitness Blog

A couple of weeks ago, I ran the Baltimore Marathon. It was my first time running this particular race and the first time attempting to run this extreme length of distance - approximately 26 miles. For most people, a full marathon usually takes anywhere from 3-6 hours to complete. It’s quite a feat for someone like myself who usually only engages in 4 miles running a few times a week.

So what made me want to attempt this monstrosity of a race? Well, I’ve been running all my life, ever since I ran track in high school, and wanted to achieve something great by pushing myself to the limit. Finishing a marathon is one of the highest accomplishments for running enthusiasts such as myself. By running and finishing such a sizable race, you are able do what only a few can do. That’s monumental. Who wouldn’t want to add a full 26 mile marathon finish on his or her list of “Top things I’ve completed in my lifetime.” It’s definitely on my to do list - is it on yours?

My Marathon Running Ambition Meets the Reality of Pain, And Lots Of It

Despite putting forth all the energy I could muster, sadly, I wasn’t able finish the 26 mile marathon race. I had to withdraw from the run at around the mile 19 mark. I was so close to the end, just 7 more miles to go, but by this point, my legs couldn’t bear to go any further. For the first 13 miles, I remember cruising at a steady 8.5 minute-mile pace, and my body was feeling pretty good. Then around the 16 mile mark, my poor legs started to breakdown. My knees started to ache and got really sore. Then my hips started to hurt really bad. My quads, hamstrings, and calves shortly followed. Soon, both my legs started to severely cramp and my muscles began to falter. Eventually, I had to stop. I started walking, hoping to recover by slowly walking for a bit. By this point, I wasn’t the only marathon participant who was walking. There were actually quite a lot of fellow runners walking all around me, all suffering from the same painful sensations of marathon reality. Unfortunately for me, this part of the race was also where you started seeing a continuous cycle of escalating hills.

I walked for about 3 miles through endless punishing hills, but at the 19 mile mark, I was forced to withdraw from the race as I could no longer continue. My legs weren’t recovering anymore, and the aching pain was just getting worse. Unable to maintain my balance, my body started to wobble. My hips could no longer handle the pushing forward motions my legs were producing. At that point, I could tell that my legs were going to completely cave out under me, so I came to a halt. Temporary paralysis is an inevitable side effect of cramping. Because I didn’t want my legs to collapse in the middle of the race, with the energy I had left in my legs, I gingerly approached a nearby police officer who was providing security for marathon participants to tell her I was withdrawing and needed a shuttle ride back. As the shuttle was taking me back, it ran into heavy traffic due to road closures because of the race. The shuttle driver somehow took a wrong turn and seemed to gotten lost at certain point on its way to the finish line. At this point, more than 45 minutes had passed since I sat on the shuttle bus, still stuck in traffic, and by then my legs were feeling much better. So I made the decision to get off the bus and get back into the race, thus jogging the remaining mile to finish line. It was a strange feeling as I jogged towards the finish line because so many spectators were cheering, not realizing that I hadn’t actually run the full course. They didn’t know that I had made it to the finish line with a strange combination of part running, part walking, and part shuttle ride.

Thoughts About How To Improve On My Exercise and Training Habits For Future Marathon Runs

The one thing I learned from the experience is that you can’t take on this type of mammoth race on sheer fitness alone. Just because you’re in great shape and run everyday does not necessarily mean you have the necessary training to complete a punishing 26 mile run. It wasn’t the fact that I didn’t train for the marathon that cost me the ability to run the full course, it was that I wasn’t able to train up to 26 miles before race time. The most distance I was able to cover during my training was 15 miles. It was brash and foolish of me to think I could somehow duplicate the 15 miles I had trained for during the actual race and somehow pull out an extra 11 miles thereafter.

I known two marathon runners who trained up to 20 miles before running their first full fledged 26 mile marathon. One struggled mightily to finish the remaining six, and had to battle severe cramping to carry himself to the finish line. The other runner withdrew from the race because his body simply could not take it anymore. The reality is that marathon running requires a training regimen that incorporates actual 26 mile practice runs. Any distance shorter than that simply won’t prepare and condition the body sufficiently for the onslaught it will ultimately face during the real thing.

One thing to remember, is that the ordinary human body simply was not meant to handle 26.2 miles of continuous running at the pace that marathon runners sustain. The legend of how marathon running came happened during ancient times during the age of the Greeks, and involved Athenian messenger, Philippides, who was said to have ran a distance of 26 miles from the battlefield in the city of Marathon to Athens to announce the victory over the Persians. Well, Philippides died shortly after delivering his message. The point is - running a marathon puts a lot of stress on the human body and it can even be damaging to one’s health, if it’s not conditioned properly prior to maximum physical exertion. Just think about it, you’re forcing the body to keep running when it wants to stop and heal. Without proper training and conditioning, your body is going to shut down in midstream. Remember, there is a big difference in the way your body feels at mile 20 and mile 26, or even mile 16 in my case.

For those of you thinking about running a marathon some day, I strongly recommend that you train and condition yourself properly for the full 26.2 miles before you attempt the actual race. You don’t want to experience harsh reality the way I did, bailing out in the middle of the race in lot of pain and feeling the anguish of not being able to finish. Just imagine the extra confidence you’ll have running a full 26 mile marathon when you know you can do it because you’ve already ran the 26.2 miles in practice, compared to someone who’s only banking on luck and sheer willpower alone. Someday in the near future, I will attempt to run a full marathon again, but until then, I will continue to train and get myself in better shape.

We live in a world of great excess. Everywhere you turn, it’s always an overblown obsession about the next best thing. Especially with the Summer 2008 Olympics in Beijing China going on right now, the world’s attention is focused squarely on only the most exceptional physical qualities - personified within the most gifted male and female athletes at the top of their physical games. These rare and exceptional athletes possess sculpted bodies we can only dream of possessing and display flashes of speed, power, endurance, and agility we can only dream about. The pressures to perform at peak levels and successfully deliver gold medal results can be enormous. Behind the scenes, I’m sure the male and female athletes who engage in professional sports and competitive sporting events like the Olympics take their preparatory fitness training and dietary regiments to the ultimate extreme. To acquire the perfect human physique with the exceptional muscular, spiritual, mental ability to go above and behind what ordinary human kind can achieve in normal competitive settings, Olympic athletes must push their bodies to the limits of human capacity.

But for the rest of us ordinary mortals, we can only sit back and watch the awe inspiring performances unfold on our television sets. I’m sure many of us certainly wish and dream that we had the same six pack physique and stamina of American champion swimmer Michael Phelps, the pure power and sprinting speed of Jamaican track star Usain Bolt, or the flexibility and graceful beauty of American gymnast Nastia Luikin. However, the reality is that the individual bodies and feats of these amazing athletes are extremely unique and one of a kind. Due to the perfect combination of exceptional genetics and bodily enhancements brought out by extensive training as well as strict diet and fitness practices, they are able to achieve feats most of us can only dream of.

While we should all certainly try to strive for healthy lifestyles, and practice a well balanced life comprised of a healthy diet interspersed with plenty of exercise, we should acknowledge it’s unlikely the majority of us will achieve the high level of rare physical and mental perfection found only in professional athletes. Unless you were born into the role with amazing genes or spent your entire life training for that one single event as your life long profession, most of us will have to be content with our ordinary human limitations. For the majority of people including myself, we are merely - ordinary. There’s nothing wrong with being ordinary and it’s okay to happily acknowledge that. After all, 99% of the population likely falls into this large majority group. Like all the other fellow members of this group of ordinary people, we are not blessed with perfect athletic genetics, nor were we given exceptionally tall, muscular, or perfectly shaped bodies. Most of us ordinary types were probably not born with exceptional metabolism to allow us to naturally burn off fat at amazing rates with little effort, and most of us were probably not born with the perfect bodily coordination found only in the most naturally gifted athletes. But as I mentioned, that’s perfectly okay. The vast majority of us can still live truly exceptional and healthily balanced lives, well into old age.

Unless You Are Blessed With Exceptional Genetics, A Life Of Moderation Is What Will Bring You A Physically and Spiritually Happy Life

My message is to remind readers that the vast majority of us are not perfect and that there is no sense obsessing over this lack of physical perfection. We all have a few pounds extra here and there we’d like to get rid off and we all have something about our fitness and energy levels we’d like to improve. While it’s important to practice good routine exercise habits and to adopt a well balanced diet comprised of nutritious foods, there’s little sense obsessing over our natural inability to reach the pinnacle of bodily perfection that only a tiny, less than 1% will ever reach. The never ending search for that physical ideal will only lead to non stop concern, never ending stress, and inordinate amounts of money spent on useless DVD’s, unhelpful books, pointless exercise gadgets, and expensive diet programs that lead to nowhere but a self defeating cycle of anxiety. I once stumbled upon a powerful quote that perfectly encapsulated my views on how the lofty pursuit of a healthy life can be taken to the unhealthy extreme:

“What some call health if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn’t much better than tedious disease.”

- George Dennison Prentice, Prenticeana (1860)

I hope readers will read this famous statement over a few times carefully. Never has a quote been so true. Ever since our society became obsessed with the pursuit for perfect health, the perfect body, and the perfect weight, we’ve become addicted to all the dietary supplements, pills, exercise gadgets, and surgical procedures that science and medicine can afford. Some of us spend every waking moment obsessing about our weights and what to eat and what not to eat. Instead of filling our minds with this type of constant worrying and nutritional counting, perhaps we need to take a few steps back and adopt a more wholesome, balanced lifestyle.

The key to this more natural and holistic approach is to simply adopt a life of moderation. Believe it or not, the human body is a powerful biological machine and is perfectly able to regulate itself quite well with the right natural balance of nutrients and exercise. Instead of obsessing about what you should do and not do when it comes to your diet and fitness habits, try practicing a life of moderation. Instead of cutting everything from your diet, cold turkey, that you perceive as negative such as caffeine, sugars, alcohol, red meat, and fried foods, and living a life of sad deprivation befitting that of a monk, try consuming foods and drinks in moderation. It’s gluttony and “pigging out” too frequently that gets many of us into trouble, not the fact we consume those things in the first place. The body is incredibly adept at maintaining the perfect biological balance so long as you don’t indulge its sweet tooth in all respects to great excess. Moderation is the key to a well balanced life and the practical answer to living a truly healthy life that’s free from an unhealthy obsession about perfectionism when it comes to health itself.

Ah, to be young again. Not that I’m all that much older than the good old days - I’m only approaching my late 20’s and early 30’s. However, back when I was 18, it was much easier for me to stay in shape and keep myself healthy, while maintaining a nice, tidy flat stomach. Now that several years have past, it’s not so easy anymore. Frankly, I never thought my time would come as I always figured favorable genetics would always be on my side. After all, both my mother and father have relatively thin body types. My mom in particular is as skinny as a stick and my dad (with his chicken legs) isn’t too far behind. While there was a time period in his life when my dad did balloon up in body size due to over-eating, stress, and lack of exercise, his overall skinny genetics ultimately allowed his body to shrink back to his standard youthful size.

But genetics can only help us so much and time eventually catches up to us all. We all have different genetics and we’re born with different predilections to certain body types, with different innate strengths, inherent resistances, and weaknesses to a variety of diseases and conditions. Some of us are simply able to better maintain thinner bodies, while others are more susceptible to frustrating growth issues like big pot bellies, thunder thighs, or massively large butt cheeks. There’s nothing we can do but accept the fact that we can only work with the cards that we’ve been dealt with in life. There’s no sense moaning and groaning about our current body shapes, or pointing our chubby fingers at our overweight parents and blaming them for passing on their so-called fat genes on to us. All we can do is take matters into our hands now and shape ourselves the way we want to be. While due to genetics, losing weight in the right places may be easier said than done for some people than for others, it can be done - but it takes dedication, sacrifice, and perhaps a good dose of natural endorphin pain (from exercise and sore muscles). Remember, no pain no gain, and no guts no glory, and no risk no reward - take your pick in cheesy expressions - but they’re all true.

A Big Problem Area Of Mine - I Have A Stubborn Little Pot Belly That Just Won’t Deflate and Leave Me Alone

They come in all shapes, sizes, and dimensions. No, I’m not talking about beanie babies - I’m referring to the timeless symbol of bodily decadence - the human potbelly. Some of us even opt to give them cute nicknames and refer to them with funny euphemisms - everything from lower belly pooches, personal life preservers, spare tires, love handles, to beer bellies. But let’s not sugar coat it and forget what having a saggy or flabby pot belly really is - it’s a sign that you have excess weight and a chunk of unhealthy body fat.

While I have an overall skinny genetic predisposition, and on first glance you might immediately assume I was skinny all the way around and otherwise in shape, if I pulled up my T-shirt, you might think differently. Hidden under my shirt is a jiggly treasure trove of human belly fat - perfect for some fun loving squeezing and a show of wealth perhaps in some poorer countries, but to me, it’s a sad reminder that I’m out of shape and have been hitting the ice cream cartons and Asian carryout meals a bit too hard.

It wasn’t always like this. I used to be a very avid runner. I ran cross country in high school and consistently ran and exercised with heavy weights back in college. I even challenged myself and successfully ran a 10 mile half marathon race only a few years ago in the Cherry Blossom Run of Washington D.C. But ever since I left graduate school and started working hard in my job and eventually transitioning into my work at home routine, things have started to sag - especially my lower belly region. I may be a skinny guy from afar - but I have a baby Buddha belly in the making. I refuse to allow this to happen and have recently promised myself to do whatever it takes to get my body back in healthier shape, and ditch the excess stomach pooch. My plan is to start my aerobic and weight training today, 60 minutes every day until this extra spare tire of mine deflates.

It’s not just for aesthetics either as I’m really not vain at all. While most people would agree that a body with a flat stomach generally looks better than one that exhibits signs of being overweight, I’m more concerned about the long term future health implications. Despite my parents’ generally skinny genetics, my dad and some of the other male members of his family have had difficult histories of battling conditions like diabetes and various cardiovascular diseases caused by living unhealthy lives. I’m determined not to relive the same mistakes of the past.

The Risks, Dangers, and Truths About Having Belly Fat

While some people will say that’s it’s more important to love your body, be comfortable in your own skin, than it is to perpetuate the benefits of having a certain body type, I disagree. Losing that belly is not just about looks, the sex appeal factor of having a flat stomach, or avoiding the embarrassment of having a belly fold that just hangs out, it’s also the important health benefits gained by not having it. Ultimately, body fat is simply excess energy stored in the body for use later. If the fat is not consumed through physical activity, the deposits have a tendency to accumulate over time. The way fat is distributed in our bodies has a serious effect on the types of diseases and conditions we may grow susceptible to. It’s a pretty well known and researched fact that people with apple shaped bodies (chubbiest in the belly area) have a greater risk of diabetes and heart disease than those with pear shaped bodies (fattest in the thighs, hips, and butt region). It’s no coincidence that those with apple shaped lower bodies tend to be at greater risk of these risky conditions than those with more favorable silhouettes. While the apple shape tends to hit men harder, women are certainly not immune as old age and menopause will gradually shift their body fat buildups towards the belly area as well.

The type of belly fat that is most hazardous to our health is not the subcutaneous belly fat that sits right underneath the excess skin that bulges out, or the flabby part our friends and family physically squeeze and tug on to annoy us. The most dangerous part in terms of health risk is the visceral fat, which lies deep in your belly and surrounds your internal abdominal organs. It’s the visceral fat deposits that are the primary triggers of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, breast cancer, and other serious metabolic insulin and hormone related ailments.

How To Battle the Belly Bulge and Keep The Stomach Fat Off

As we age, our body metabolism naturally slows down, making it easier for fat to accumulate. It’s unavoidable and a part of life so there’s no sense trying to stop it, but there are ways to slow down and perhaps manipulate the fat accumulation effects through proper diet and exercise. Belly fat is simply excess fat that has been built up and stored in our bodies. To get rid of it, you’ll need to force the body to consume up the excess energy to reveal the flat abs underneath.

The great news about stomach fat is that it is the first type of fat to disappear once you engage in a concerted effort to lose weight through improved diet and better exercise. While maintaining a healthy diet comprised of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and everything else your mom told you to eat when you were little, is important, perhaps consistent exercise is the most effective method of all. The solution to getting rid of that excess belly fat is through a combination of aerobic exercise and weight training. While some may rely only on running and other aerobic forms, research has shown that strength training greatly enhances the fat burning process.

1) Aerobic Exercise - Aerobic exercise is simply any type of physical activity that can get your heart rate up and make you sweat for a length of time. Aerobic exercise is important because it helps the body burn calories and fat. If you want to reduce that big belly, you must burn off your excess calorie stores. Strenuous physical activities like treadmill running, elliptical walking, stair climbing, swimming, and basketball fit the bill. Contrary to what my golf enthusiast dad says or thinks, golfing and putting a little ball, while riding around the course on a golf cart is not considered aerobic exercise - there’s a reason why plenty of aging male golfers still maintain their Santa Claus-like bellies.

Ideally, you need to exercise at least 60 minutes every day, 7 days a week. However, taking Sunday off has been recommended by some fitness instructors to give your body time to rest. For those new to aerobic exercise, 30 minutes of running per day may be appropriate to start. Personally, my planned workout regiment is to run on the treadmill for 30-60 minutes every other day, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and to lift  weights on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

2) Weight Training - Strength training must be used in concert with aerobic exercise and is an important component of the fat burning process. Currently, too many men rely solely on lifting weights alone to burn fat. But without the addition of aerobic exercise, their efforts may ultimately prove to be futile. You don’t need to bench press hundreds of pounds to accomplish this. Any type of weight lifting, whether using dumbbells or press machines can help you grow muscle.

When you lift weights and exert pressure on your muscles, you essentially wear and break down existing muscles cells, forcing the body to rebuild itself and grow stronger muscle mass to compensate. Muscle mass helps to burn off fat and developing it is a must. For the women out there who are afraid and worried about developing huge unsightly muscles, don’t worry. Biologically and physically, your bodies are unable to bulk up to the extent that male bodies can. Women simply lack the higher testosterone concentrations found in male bodies that permit the enhanced muscle growth potential. In case you’re wondering, most of the female body builders out there that do bulk up significantly almost always consume special supplements and body enhancer substances to promote this type of extraordinary masculine growth.

3) Healthy Diet - I’m most definitely not an expert on eating a healthy diet and it’s an area I wish to greatly improve on. But a healthy diet is obviously comprised of nutritional foods like fruits and vegetables, which contain important complex carbohydrates and fiber. There really is no magical diet that can help you lose weight, although certain food products, like fish, contain important nutrients for healthier living. Try to lay off the simple carbs like white bread and refined pastas if possible. Remember, to shrink your caloric intake. To lose the belly, you’ll need to consume less overall calories than you burn off.

4) Spot Toning and Crunches - This is probably the least important and least effective way to lose belly fat. Doing crunches and the exercise technique in which you repetitively suck in your belly numerous times to tone it, should only be practiced after all the above steps have been performed. Doing spot toning and sit ups to strengthen your belly won’t reduce the stomach size unless you lose weight. Excess bellies are simply excess fat that is covering up your internal abdominal organs. To get rid of that, you must engage in aerobic and strength training. Crunches only help to condition it further but should be the last step to a six pack ab, not the first.

Good luck on your way to a nice flat stomach. I hope to reduce mine in the near future as well. Looks like it’s time for me to hit the treadmill and the weight machine again.

Hello fellow blog reader! This is my very first post on my new health and fitness blog at Diet Blue Book. It’s my introductory foray into the delightful blogging realm of health living, nutritious diets, and daily fitness training. While I’m more experienced with discussing financial subjects as I do on my personal finance blog at Money Blue Book, and discussing debt management concerns on my credit card blog at Credit Blue Book, I’ve always wanted to have an online forum where I could faithfully track my personal diet and fitness development. Essentially, this blog was created so that I could hold myself accountable to the diet goals and fitness objectives I set forth for myself. While money is a terribly important facet of all of our lives, maintaining a strong and healthy body is perhaps even more paramount of importance. Without a healthy body and spiritually clean mind, one’s life journey would be incomplete and unable to reach its fullest potential. What good is discovering ways to make and save money, and finding ways to frugally enjoy the financial rewards that go with it if you don’t have a healthy physical and mental vessel to enjoy it?

Here’s To Making A Solid Commitment To Doing What It Takes To Make Healthier Choices For Better Living

By blogging about health and fitness, I want to strive to make a commitment to living healthy - an affirmative lifestyle choice of sorts. My goal and purpose is to pinpoint what I’m doing right and find better ways to enhance my life, body, and mind by modifying and even changing what I’m doing wrong. Since I’m a complete newbie when it comes to discussing health related topics, I hope my readers will forgive me if I sound clueless at times. While I consider myself a voracious reader, and pretty adept at researching subjects and coming up with reasonably intelligent answers to difficult questions, when it comes to health care and healthy living topics, I’m quite the beginner. I know the basics - avoid sugars, stay away from fatty foods, and adhere to the importance of daily exercise, I will be the first to admit that I don’t know much beyond the fundamentals. I run on the treadmill regularly at the gym, and try to perform light weight training on occasion, but sometimes I wonder if I’m doing things correctly. Regardless, I hope to become more educated as time goes on. Perhaps writing a blog on the subject will help encourage and motivate me to learn more about this very important subject matter. Won’t you come join me on my journey into the realm of healthy living, weight control, and fitness? I look forward to lots of questions and reader commentary in the months and years to come!