Sad day

Well readers, today was my last day of health and fitness writing. Sad, I know. I think it even deserves an emoticon. :(

We played a game of "Survivor" for our last reading quiz grades and A Tribe Called Quest, my team, took second place and received a 100 on our "quiz." We scored five points, three of which were scored by me. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I'm basically a health and fitness writing expert. NOT.

But I did learn a few things in class:

1. Functional fitness, movement prep; I'm still not totally clear on what these things are, but they sound REALLY good when trainers talk about it. I mean it makes sense to do exercises that will suit the specific movements you make in your sport, the way Matt Herring trains the University of Florida men's basketball team.

2. Cadavers are gross, especially when compared to everyday items. Like comparing a face peeling off with a Halloween mask. It's weird. Researchers will throw cadavers around, crash cars with the body inside, but when it comes to shooting a gun at a cadaver, even in the name of research, it's the first time the researchers get squeamish.

3. Skipping is difficult. Apparently I've been doing it incorrectly my entire life. But according to Corey at IMG Academies, I'm not getting enough height or moving my legs the right way. Also I don't know if skipping is a tissue or a neural exercise, so apparently that makes it worthless.

4. Taking a chance on a class can be worth it. I know this might seem like sucking up, but it's not. I'm just glad that last semester, I had it in my head that I wanted to be a real journalist, so I should take classes applicable to that goal. While I've since changed my mind (I want to be a teacher) I'm still glad I took this class. I got to meet some cool people and learn a lot more about health, working out and proper diet than I ever would have on my own. So thank you, professor Spiker, and whoever else is reading this blog (a.k.a. my mom), for your time throughout the semester.

Bad beef

The American Food Groups of Green Bay recently recalled 96,000 pounds of beef products after two people got sick, possibly from E. coli bacteria, according to an article in the New York Times.

GROSS.

I don't know what to say to that. After the bagged spinach scare during the summer, I must say, I'm over this whole E. coli thing. I don't know how much more beef I want to eat in the near future, which is sad considering I'm having hamburgers for lunch on Friday.

Watch out readers, if you live in Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin, because all those states were distributed recalled beef.

E. coli is a leading cause of foodborne illness, and infection often leads to bloody diarrhea (EW!) and kidney failure (boo). Neither of which I want. Be careful, friends, be careful.

Calorie counting

Well after three months of being on Weight Watchers (last summer) I thought I was a calorie-counting expert, but looking up nutritional values of foods, I realized the steady decline of my skills. And as if I needed more proof that my skills aren't what I thought they were, I read this article on the New York Times Web site.

The bigger the meal, the bigger the error rate in calorie counting; and with the holidays coming up, I have a feeling accuracy is going to take a dive on my list of priorities.

I don't know how I'm going to measure all the ham, green bean casserole, rolls, mashed potatoes, carrots and pie that I plan on eating Christmas Day (and that doesn't include the wine). I didn't even attempt to count my Thanksgiving meal.

I looked at my empty plate and felt disgusted with how much I had eaten. Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce and a VERY sizable piece of french silk pie. Before dinner (which was at 3) I had a ham sandwich. And at about 9:30 p.m., after a glorious nap, I ate a turkey sandwich for a late snack.

Go ahead, be disgusted. I'll give you some more space to be grossed out.

Are you O.K. now? Sorry I had to give you all those details, but I feel better now that I've gotten holiday eating habits off my chest. I know I needed to be more careful, and if I was still doing Weight Watchers, I would definitely be dreading the next meeting.

Hopefully I'll be more careful during Christmas, and I'm sure being under my mother's watchful eye will help. (She gives my plate what I like to call "The Look of Judgement.") At least now I know not to trust myself when it comes to counting calories.

Decisions, decisions

Every winter I get so excited when I see people walking around with the red cups from Starbucks. To me it means that Christmas time is almost here. It also means that final exam time is imminent. And with exam time coming, my weekly plans include studying, studying and well, more studying. I’ll be camped out in my favorite place on campus, the Library West basement.

But spending so much time in the basement means I have to make a choice. What Starbucks drink is going to become my signature drink of the winter 2007 exam season?

I have a few options:

Peppermint Mocha: Tuesday night I went to the Starbucks in downtown Gainesville, with my heart set on my first Peppermint Mocha of the season. But what I heard when I tried to order one of my seasonal favorites, I heard some dreaded words, “we’re out of peppermint syrup.” I guess peppermint is so popular right now that they just can’t order enough. At a complete loss for what to order, I panicked. But after much deliberation I came across another one of my options:

Caramel Apple Spice: A mixture of steamed apple juice, cinnamon and caramel syrup topped with whipped cream. Healthy, I know, but it tasted delicious. But there’s one small issue with making that drink my signature study drink. NO CAFFEINE. How can I possibly have a “study drink” that has no caffeine? I can’t. Moving on.

Pumpkin Spice Latte: My all time favorite Starbucks drink. The second they bring this bad boy out in early October, I’m standing in line ready to order a Venti. This drink = yum. But like I said, I’ve been ordering this drink since early October, so I’m in the mood for a change.

I’ll have to test drive some drinks before I make my final decision, but I’m not worried about time, I have about 20 study days left in my semester. Readers, I’ll let you know what I choose.

Now you know

I remember the days of watching "Bill Nye the Science Guy" on PBS and in my elementary school science classes. He typically had a segment called "Now you know" when an announcer would list off a few interesting facts about the day's show's topic in a deep, booming voice.

Well readers, just imagine you're hearing these interesting (at least interesting to me) facts in a deep, booming voice. The facts for today are a selection from one or two articles I read this week.

NOW YOU KNOW:

Humor can improve your memory. Actually you might already know that. When was the last time you remembered a car insurance commercial during which a seemingly randomly selected person stood there and talked to you about how you could get a better deal by switching to their company? When was the last time you remembered a car insurance commercial during which a talking, computer-animated lizard made jokes and introduced you to a new brand of car insurance? Yeah. That's what I thought.

They have casinos in Seattle. Yeah I was suprised too. Random.

What "off-label drugs" are. When I first read this article I thought it meant some variation of off-brand drugs. You know, the non-brand name drugs that are usually a lot cheaper than the most popular ones and they're supposed to do the same thing. But no. Off-label drugs are drugs that people use for purposes other than what's prescribed on the label. Off-label drugs are used by non-impaired people, like people who take Adderall when they need to pull an all-nighter. Or new memory drugs being marketed not to people with memory problems, but to lawyers who want to remember more about their clients or real estate agents who want to remember more about the property they're selling. Scary, isn't it?

IMG Academies

It's been quite a while since I've been on a field trip. Over two and a half years to be precise. But last Thursday morning, our 20-person class boarded a 56-person charter bus and went to IMG Academies in Bradenton, Florida, with Captain "Yo guys check it out" Brian as our fearless driver.

IMG is a training and educational facility for both youth and professional athletes. It has training facilities for tennis, golf, baseball, basketball, soccer and other sports. At IMG they also help athletes with general performance and mental conditioning.

We had speakers talk with us about performing under pressure, proper nutrition and got hands on training with Steve and Blair, two former actors who help athletes by honing their communication skills with improvisation activities. This is supposed to make athletes more comfortable with social and professional interaction.

Another part of our tour was a workout led by one of IMG's performance trainers for the entertainment of many of IMG's trainees. We did lots of lateral bounds, skips and gallops, reminiscent of my days as a high school lacrosse player. And when I say reminiscent of those days, I mean I hadn't done exercises like that since those days. Needless to say the next day, when I swung my legs down to get out of my bed, I almost yelled out in pain. I guess I didn't realize the consequences of using muscles that I hadn't used in almost three years. But I liked the workout, I miss exercising like that. Almost makes me want to join a club sport. Almost.

Mmmm

Today was a day of reminiscing. I had lunch at the Olive Garden. Now for many the two do not go together, but I haven't eaten at Olive Garden since the heyday of my high school swimming career.

I remember the days. The days when I didn't give a thought to eating four breadsticks because I knew I had worked off forty breadsticks during workouts that day. The days when I wasn't allowed to choose what I ate, my coach chose it for me.

Now whenever I eat at Olive Garden, I'm overwhelmed with choices. Our menu used to consist of water, salad, breadsticks and pasta with red sauce (we could choose to have it with or without meat). And since our meals were so boring, our team needed some way to entertain ourselves. And what better way than with a breadstick eating contest?

The current record is 17, held by Daniel T. I don't think it's been broken and I don't think it ever will. Will we ever go back to the days of 17 breadsticks in one sitting? Probably not, and we probably never should.