I don't know if anyone else laughs at diet programs like i do, but man have i seen some weird ones. Only eat meat! Don't eat any meat! Don't eat any fats! Don't eat any sugar! Just don't eat at all! And then there is the great food pyramid, which before its revision was even more difficult to functionally use. and what about the Super size me program where they 'proved' that by eating any thing and everything from a fast food restaurant they could kill themselves. Or the rebuttal program where another person ate selectively and moderately at a fast food restaurant for every meal and became more healthy!
All I'm saying is there are a lot of choices out there, and most of them will not help you permanently lose weight, mainly because there is no permanent loss of weight unless you always take steps to keep it off. The only real secret to weight loss is to burn more calories than you consume. Period. While this may seem simple, doing this one thing will result in the stated goal. Of course the hard part is eating less than you burn off, as just about every thing we can buy helps us go over.
Sugar, fats, dressings, greases: They are all tasty, and everything that is tasty has one or more of them, and usually a lot of calories too (OK maybe not EVERYTHING, but most things). So whats a person to do? Well obviously you can go ahead and eat whatever you want, as long as you still burn more calories right? The only problem is not everyone has the time to work out 5 hours a day, nor do we all have the ability to work out that long.
Well assuming we are consuming a reasonable amount of calories (2k-3k) and working out occasionally, theres those other things about health to think about. Vitamins, cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and countless other factors that indicate a healthy human. Which i guess is where all of these unique diet plans sprang up. Someone must have been following one plan and discovered that they were not reaching the goals they wanted. Thus they experimented to find out what worked for them, and proclaimed to the world that they had the secret to dieting right!
But sure enough another person tried their plan, failed, and came up with their own that worked for them, and then proclaimed to the world that the others were wrong and they had the right diet plan! If we rinse and repeat this process for 50 years, well its easy to see how have so many diet plan choices today. What i find odd about all of these diets is that very few people have reasoned that perhaps something more is at work here, such as how individuals process foods differently, how genetic differences give some individuals the ability to eat some foods and not others.
I recently came across the first diet plan that actually makes sense in light of the past 50 years of scientific research called the Blood Type Diet (http://www.dadamo.com/). Essentially, it is wisely suggested that once your body breaks down foods into proteins, those protein interact with the proteins created by your body and are either allowed to enter into the blood stream or are rejected. Seems reasonable right?
Well everyone has a slightly different make up genetically, and each person therefore has a slightly different protein set in their blood. This means potentially there will be some proteins from food that we will be unable to process, some that we are able to process, some that react very poorly with our system, and some that seem to aid our body in its functioning. You can read the exact reasoning or watch the embedded videos for a more detailed explanation, but that's the general idea.
Really what I'm getting at is this is one of the first examples of and individual truly designing a diet plan, testing it in the field, analyzing the results, refining their plan, testing it, analyzing results, refining, testing, analyzing, repeat repeat repeat. This is exactly what we are supposed to be doing for our applications, and here someone is doing it for food! Personally i believe what Dadamo is suggesting about the connection between blood type, food, allergies and the like. But i more respect the process to which he has reached these conclusions, and the updating and on going testing of his theories.
Check it out, you may find your new favorite diet!
If you can't see the embedded video
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=obertancat
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Life in the Fast Lane
What was once a popular song by the Eagles, the term 'Life in the Fast Lane' no longer carries that same dreamy sound. Everyone everywhere is doing everything they can to be faster, more efficient, do the most amount of work with the least amount of effort. Essentially Life in the Fast Lane is all there is anymore. But what about those of us who want to get out of this fast lane?
Unfortunately, many times the alternatives are grim. None is it more grim than in the world of competitive swimming, where technology has advanced to the point making the fast lane more about what suit you have on rather than the talent and hard work you have put in. Don't get me wrong, I love the new suits, they demonstrate innovation at its best and help elite athletes reach milestones that were believed to be unreachable. But in all honesty, i think those athletes were going to reach new heights whether they had the suits or not. They are so good at maintaining proper technique, disciplined in what they eat, focused in how they train, that records were going to be broken with or without the suits.
Those are the elite, the top 5 swimmers in the world I'm talking about. I'm not talking about your average Joe, your 13 year old daughter, or your 22 year old recent alumni to the University varsity team. For those groups of people, the suits have a little bit different impact. First off, cost; the elite athletes are sponsored by companies like Speedo, TYR, Arena and others and receive the latest model for free. Everyone else though? At least 300 dollars, up to 600. Not to mention an extra suit for when yours rips after trying to put it on. Or the extra suit for the other race you have an hour later (because yours isn't dry yet). And you'll probably want another suit in case that one rips when you put it on the second time.
How many was that, 4? So you mean to tell me that i need at least 1200 dollars to spend on suits and at best they might last me 2 competitions? The last time i checked i could buy a superb tennis racket for 300 dollars, and it might last for as long as i use it (with good care). But even if the suits never rip, the still will get eaten by chlorine after 5 uses, or one competition (2 events with prelims and finals and the time i tried it on in practice) I'm sure its expensive to make these suits, after all they are using the latest in muscle compression technologies, nanotech fabrics, NASA patented fabrics, and designer quality flare, but i think I'll be broke for weeks just looking at the costs.
Well apparently some people agreed, and for a while, the suits were only available as 'rentals' at elite meets. Really it was a testing ground for the companies, and only the people who really needed them to stay competitive were getting them. But what really concerns me is the people who don't need them, but now can get them.
Recently I was able to partake in some testing being done by a manufacturer of high tech swim wear. The first day i watched as my former teammates did a particular test called the dive and glide; the athlete took their mark on the starting block, was started, then they dove in and glided about 12 yards. No one took over 6 seconds to make it, the lowest without a fast suit was 4.35. I believed that these individuals would not qualify as elite for this particular test, none of them had very good dives. But when they put the fast suits on, well suddenly they were really good at dives. the fastest now was 3.78, and none of the males were further than .2 of a second apart, where before they were almost .7 apart. That means some people dropped .5 of a second and others as much as .9 of a second for a 6 second race!
I considered myself to be elite in this particular category 2 months ago when i was on the team. I knew i was way better at a dive and glide than any of them, but i didn't know how much better. The next day i came in a little early with my speedo brief on, goggles in hand, and decided to do some independent testing. on my best start, without a fast suit, i was timed at 3.88, which if you remember is way better than the 4.35's that were posted the day before, but not as good as the 3.78 which somebody had with a fast suit.
the manufacturer's designers were intrigued, and decided to throw me a developmental suit (the fastest one so far) to see if i had the same kinds of gains as the other swimmers. 20 minutes later, i get back up on the blocks, bam! 3.77! wait, what? i only dropped .11? but everyone else dropped at least .5, so i tried again. 3.70!, 3.67, 3.65, 3.62! That's a little better, .26 dropped, but still i only got half as much as anyone else.
So to recap:
My best without a fast suit - 3.88
Everyone else without a suit - 4.35
Difference - .47
My Best with a fast suit - 3.62
Everyone Else with a suit - 3.77
Difference - .15
By now you have assuredly asked, where is all of this going, how is this related to design? Well my question to you is, what is more important in swimming, how much time you spend learning how to do proper starts, or how much money you are willing to spend to gain the ability to do proper starts? I spent 13 years of my life perfecting my ability to do great dives, and it shows in the unsuited results where i gain almost a half of a second in the first 5 seconds (or i go 10 percent faster as a result). But those years can almost be washed away, as my earned advantage is reduced by 66 percent just through the use of a 300 dollar suit!
If you are a coach, what do you do? do you by the suits and stay competitive at the cost of knowing that you may not be able to get enough suits, or you will have to make budget cuts elsewhere? Or do you design your program to teach people how to actually do the right things (since it is almost as fast) but know that you are going to be at a disadvantage to everyone else who just gets the suits?
It is a pickle, no doubt about it. whether i like it or not, its possible for an average Joe to spend the money and be competitive at a dive and glide with someone who spent years developing the ability. Are these suits ruining the sport, or is it progress as usual? I have a feeling people were saying the same thing when metal rackets came out average Joe's were hitting as harder than the pros using wood rackets. But now everyone has their carbon fiber titanium racket, and i would bet that the pros still would whoop my butt.
Unfortunately, many times the alternatives are grim. None is it more grim than in the world of competitive swimming, where technology has advanced to the point making the fast lane more about what suit you have on rather than the talent and hard work you have put in. Don't get me wrong, I love the new suits, they demonstrate innovation at its best and help elite athletes reach milestones that were believed to be unreachable. But in all honesty, i think those athletes were going to reach new heights whether they had the suits or not. They are so good at maintaining proper technique, disciplined in what they eat, focused in how they train, that records were going to be broken with or without the suits.
Those are the elite, the top 5 swimmers in the world I'm talking about. I'm not talking about your average Joe, your 13 year old daughter, or your 22 year old recent alumni to the University varsity team. For those groups of people, the suits have a little bit different impact. First off, cost; the elite athletes are sponsored by companies like Speedo, TYR, Arena and others and receive the latest model for free. Everyone else though? At least 300 dollars, up to 600. Not to mention an extra suit for when yours rips after trying to put it on. Or the extra suit for the other race you have an hour later (because yours isn't dry yet). And you'll probably want another suit in case that one rips when you put it on the second time.
How many was that, 4? So you mean to tell me that i need at least 1200 dollars to spend on suits and at best they might last me 2 competitions? The last time i checked i could buy a superb tennis racket for 300 dollars, and it might last for as long as i use it (with good care). But even if the suits never rip, the still will get eaten by chlorine after 5 uses, or one competition (2 events with prelims and finals and the time i tried it on in practice) I'm sure its expensive to make these suits, after all they are using the latest in muscle compression technologies, nanotech fabrics, NASA patented fabrics, and designer quality flare, but i think I'll be broke for weeks just looking at the costs.
Well apparently some people agreed, and for a while, the suits were only available as 'rentals' at elite meets. Really it was a testing ground for the companies, and only the people who really needed them to stay competitive were getting them. But what really concerns me is the people who don't need them, but now can get them.
Recently I was able to partake in some testing being done by a manufacturer of high tech swim wear. The first day i watched as my former teammates did a particular test called the dive and glide; the athlete took their mark on the starting block, was started, then they dove in and glided about 12 yards. No one took over 6 seconds to make it, the lowest without a fast suit was 4.35. I believed that these individuals would not qualify as elite for this particular test, none of them had very good dives. But when they put the fast suits on, well suddenly they were really good at dives. the fastest now was 3.78, and none of the males were further than .2 of a second apart, where before they were almost .7 apart. That means some people dropped .5 of a second and others as much as .9 of a second for a 6 second race!
I considered myself to be elite in this particular category 2 months ago when i was on the team. I knew i was way better at a dive and glide than any of them, but i didn't know how much better. The next day i came in a little early with my speedo brief on, goggles in hand, and decided to do some independent testing. on my best start, without a fast suit, i was timed at 3.88, which if you remember is way better than the 4.35's that were posted the day before, but not as good as the 3.78 which somebody had with a fast suit.
the manufacturer's designers were intrigued, and decided to throw me a developmental suit (the fastest one so far) to see if i had the same kinds of gains as the other swimmers. 20 minutes later, i get back up on the blocks, bam! 3.77! wait, what? i only dropped .11? but everyone else dropped at least .5, so i tried again. 3.70!, 3.67, 3.65, 3.62! That's a little better, .26 dropped, but still i only got half as much as anyone else.
So to recap:
My best without a fast suit - 3.88
Everyone else without a suit - 4.35
Difference - .47
My Best with a fast suit - 3.62
Everyone Else with a suit - 3.77
Difference - .15
By now you have assuredly asked, where is all of this going, how is this related to design? Well my question to you is, what is more important in swimming, how much time you spend learning how to do proper starts, or how much money you are willing to spend to gain the ability to do proper starts? I spent 13 years of my life perfecting my ability to do great dives, and it shows in the unsuited results where i gain almost a half of a second in the first 5 seconds (or i go 10 percent faster as a result). But those years can almost be washed away, as my earned advantage is reduced by 66 percent just through the use of a 300 dollar suit!
If you are a coach, what do you do? do you by the suits and stay competitive at the cost of knowing that you may not be able to get enough suits, or you will have to make budget cuts elsewhere? Or do you design your program to teach people how to actually do the right things (since it is almost as fast) but know that you are going to be at a disadvantage to everyone else who just gets the suits?
It is a pickle, no doubt about it. whether i like it or not, its possible for an average Joe to spend the money and be competitive at a dive and glide with someone who spent years developing the ability. Are these suits ruining the sport, or is it progress as usual? I have a feeling people were saying the same thing when metal rackets came out average Joe's were hitting as harder than the pros using wood rackets. But now everyone has their carbon fiber titanium racket, and i would bet that the pros still would whoop my butt.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Drug Testing: Why do we have to use Urine?
Some think of it as gross, others not needed, and most just want the 3 hours of their life back after waiting for everyone else to try. I'm talking of course about the drug testing procedure for Northwestern athletics. Lets review quickly how it works for those of you who are not in the know.
Alright, so every team is 'randomly' tested once through out the year as a team, meaning everyone has to produce a sample at an unknown point during the year at the same time. Additionally, at each random team testing, there is 'random' individual testing for all of the other teams. generally there are about 10 random individuals who are selected to be tested with the random team test.
Individuals and teams are not notified until they are at practice or 3pm, and they are expected to arrive at the testing location by 6pm, if they have not it is considered an automatic positive. Assuming they have shown up, the real fun begins. At the test site, there is only 2 individuals running the test, typically one male, and one female, and only a male can test a male, and a female test a female.
Everyone has to sign in, and then wait.
Waiting can be quick, if you are first, or it can be extremely long. Unfortunately, the university is too cheap to use blood, and uses urine samples. This means that if you get stage fright, and can't pee into a cup with someone watching, you can try and try and not get enough. Worse yet, you can also produce samples that are to dilute, meaning you are too well hydrated. Well if you are at a strenuous practice, chances are you are drinking water in ample supply, and run the risk of producing to dilute samples. On the other hand, you can try to not drink enough (and risk cramping and failure in workout), sweat out all of your water, and then be unable to produce enough quantity. Its largely a guessing game, and no one gets it right every time.
So what happens if you get stage fright, produce to dilute, or can't produce a large enough sample? you go to the back of the line is what, which can be 30 or more people long. if you figure that each person takes 3 minutes to attempt to produce a sample (and thats on the short side) thats 90 minutes before you can try again. What if you fail again? And again? well unfortunately for you, you only have a 3 hour window to try in, and if you have not been able to succeed, then you get to come back tomorrow and try again. Or you can give them a hair sample, but they really do take a huge chunk out of your hair and you look quite funny.
Starting to get the picture here? the drug testing protocol is a very time consuming affair, not an exact science, and has far more reliable and efficient methods (however more costly) in hair samples and blood samples. So why don't we use them?
The best bet is that no one has considered forming a persona about the people who are going through the drug testing process. They seem to be unaware that as a student athlete our time is very valuable, we have expectations that make it difficult to produce acceptable urine samples, and we don't wish to stand out with funny hair cuts. Perhaps if they made a persona named Richard, and found out a little more about who they were designing the program for, they might be more inclined to splurge and go with the faster blood testing set up, allowing the students to spend less time at a testing site and more time studying for that test they have at 8am the next day.
Alright, so every team is 'randomly' tested once through out the year as a team, meaning everyone has to produce a sample at an unknown point during the year at the same time. Additionally, at each random team testing, there is 'random' individual testing for all of the other teams. generally there are about 10 random individuals who are selected to be tested with the random team test.
Individuals and teams are not notified until they are at practice or 3pm, and they are expected to arrive at the testing location by 6pm, if they have not it is considered an automatic positive. Assuming they have shown up, the real fun begins. At the test site, there is only 2 individuals running the test, typically one male, and one female, and only a male can test a male, and a female test a female.
Everyone has to sign in, and then wait.
Waiting can be quick, if you are first, or it can be extremely long. Unfortunately, the university is too cheap to use blood, and uses urine samples. This means that if you get stage fright, and can't pee into a cup with someone watching, you can try and try and not get enough. Worse yet, you can also produce samples that are to dilute, meaning you are too well hydrated. Well if you are at a strenuous practice, chances are you are drinking water in ample supply, and run the risk of producing to dilute samples. On the other hand, you can try to not drink enough (and risk cramping and failure in workout), sweat out all of your water, and then be unable to produce enough quantity. Its largely a guessing game, and no one gets it right every time.
So what happens if you get stage fright, produce to dilute, or can't produce a large enough sample? you go to the back of the line is what, which can be 30 or more people long. if you figure that each person takes 3 minutes to attempt to produce a sample (and thats on the short side) thats 90 minutes before you can try again. What if you fail again? And again? well unfortunately for you, you only have a 3 hour window to try in, and if you have not been able to succeed, then you get to come back tomorrow and try again. Or you can give them a hair sample, but they really do take a huge chunk out of your hair and you look quite funny.
Starting to get the picture here? the drug testing protocol is a very time consuming affair, not an exact science, and has far more reliable and efficient methods (however more costly) in hair samples and blood samples. So why don't we use them?
The best bet is that no one has considered forming a persona about the people who are going through the drug testing process. They seem to be unaware that as a student athlete our time is very valuable, we have expectations that make it difficult to produce acceptable urine samples, and we don't wish to stand out with funny hair cuts. Perhaps if they made a persona named Richard, and found out a little more about who they were designing the program for, they might be more inclined to splurge and go with the faster blood testing set up, allowing the students to spend less time at a testing site and more time studying for that test they have at 8am the next day.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The stationary bike
Exercise is wonderful. Yes we all know it, we all are supposed to do it, but a surprising number of people (upwards of 33 percent in the US) just don't. While i could go into how these people will die early, are unhappy, have low self esteem, this blog is not for that. It is for the people who do work out and have ever used a stationary bike of the electric variety (no fan or moving handles). I myself just completed my last season as a competitive swimmer and would be considered elite among the world in physical capabilities. However, as i sat down to test out this particular staitionary bike, i quickly discovered that these electronic bikes are clearly not meant for people like me.
it was simple enough to get started, move the seat to a comfortable location, start peddling, and follow on screen directions for selecting one of the various automatic workouts or pick a manual one. since i didnt know what to expect, i elected the automatic workout titled sport training. next i entered a time, and finally a level. i started out in the middle of the level ranges, but quickly ramped up to the max which i assumed would be difficult for me. Not exactly.
The correct description of what happened would paint a picture like this. As i increased the level of difficulty, the resistance increased as well, however as i began to maximize the setting, the machine started to 'slip'. that is if i was on a real bike it would be the equivalent of peeling out. once i was all the way maxed out, every time i pressed into the peddle with the force necessary to turn the pedals at 60 revolutions a minute, the machine slipped. if i lowered the difficulty, the machine stopped slipping, however i was not able to get my heart rate up to the recommended cardio training level.
My only question is, why did they put a level on the machine which would cause it to fail (and eventually break completely as i continued to try to max it out). Did the makers not expect someone like me to come along and actually be able to do it? While i mentioned that nearly a third of the people in the United states could never do such a task, there are still 200 million people that could potentially reach the same place i did. at least i had hoped so, but as i looked around at those other people on bikes, i realized how much of a minority i was representing.
All the other users were at level 5 (of 20, where i wanted to be) or lower. most of them were actually above the recommended heartrate for their age group, and all of them appeared to be content. Perhaps i will just bring my complaints to the manufacturer and request an advanced machine. Or maybe from now on i will just get on a real bike and find some nasty hills.
it was simple enough to get started, move the seat to a comfortable location, start peddling, and follow on screen directions for selecting one of the various automatic workouts or pick a manual one. since i didnt know what to expect, i elected the automatic workout titled sport training. next i entered a time, and finally a level. i started out in the middle of the level ranges, but quickly ramped up to the max which i assumed would be difficult for me. Not exactly.
The correct description of what happened would paint a picture like this. As i increased the level of difficulty, the resistance increased as well, however as i began to maximize the setting, the machine started to 'slip'. that is if i was on a real bike it would be the equivalent of peeling out. once i was all the way maxed out, every time i pressed into the peddle with the force necessary to turn the pedals at 60 revolutions a minute, the machine slipped. if i lowered the difficulty, the machine stopped slipping, however i was not able to get my heart rate up to the recommended cardio training level.
My only question is, why did they put a level on the machine which would cause it to fail (and eventually break completely as i continued to try to max it out). Did the makers not expect someone like me to come along and actually be able to do it? While i mentioned that nearly a third of the people in the United states could never do such a task, there are still 200 million people that could potentially reach the same place i did. at least i had hoped so, but as i looked around at those other people on bikes, i realized how much of a minority i was representing.
All the other users were at level 5 (of 20, where i wanted to be) or lower. most of them were actually above the recommended heartrate for their age group, and all of them appeared to be content. Perhaps i will just bring my complaints to the manufacturer and request an advanced machine. Or maybe from now on i will just get on a real bike and find some nasty hills.
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