Thankful for…

Posted in Belly Dancing, Gettin' my head right, Lunch & Learn, Pain management, Progress, Questioning, Yoga on 11/23/2009 11:39 am by psgorder
From Shelly Dembes Web site, A Healthier Balance

From Shelly Dembe's Web site, A Healthier Balance

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

This blog has given me a lot to be thankful for. I’ve learned that I can make changes in my life at age 39 that make me feel better and help me enjoy life more. I’ve discovered that there are many resources at Ohio State to help me accomplish my goals.  I’ve had the chance to write about health and fitness for the first time in years. And I’ve enjoyed the support of so many people across campus — including those who notice when I don’t post updates for a while. For that I am thankful indeed!

But this year, the thing that I am most thankful for is dancing.

I’ve been studying belly dance at Habeeba’s in Grandview, and yoga dance at Ohio State through Lunch & Learn. The classes are very different — Habeeba’s technique is very controlled, while yoga dance is about moving however your spirit takes you.

Habeebas dancers at the Upper Arlington Arts Festival 2009

Habeeba's dancers at the Upper Arlington Labor Day Arts Festival 2009

Yoga dance teacher Shelly Dembe, RN, tells us to “move like no one is watching.” There is just something about Shelly. She can get a roomful of self-conscious people to open up and dance as if we’ve been doing so all our lives. Her class is the most fun I’ve had since kindergarten.

“Think about how you felt when you got here,” she said to me after class, “and how you feel now. That’s what it’s all about.” She’s right — I always arrive tense from the office, and leave relaxed and buoyant.

Belly dancing has been a different experience. The class has been difficult, and I must have quit and unquit dozens of times early on. Now I love it and can’t imagine not doing it.

Me dancing on stage after the show. Its the shades that make the look.

Me dancing on stage after the show. It's the shades that make the look.

I worked backstage at a Habeeba’s performance at the Upper Arlington Labor Day Arts Festival, and one of my teachers even pulled me onto the stage afterwards. More recently, after we’d just finished learning a new move in class, teacher Sharon Buhrts got me to think about how far I’ve come. “When you got here, you were afraid to move your arms,” she said, “and now look at you!”

I turned to Susan Van Pelt Petry, professor and chair of the Department of Dance at Ohio State, for an academic perspective on all this fun I’ve been having. The following text is from our email Q&A.

Enjoy, everyone, and have a healthy and happy Thanksgiving. Dance with those you love — to burn some holiday calories, and let your spirit soar.

PFG: Do you have any advice for people who are pursuing dance for fitness, such as myself?

Susan Van Pelt Petry

Susan Van Pelt Petry

SVPP: Find a teacher who has some dance credentials - either a degree in dance, professional experience, membership in a professional dance organization, etc. Notice if the teacher communicates instruction about movement with clarity and anatomical awareness. They should be able to address things such as how to protect knee joints, how to develop core strength so the back is not at risk of injury, and how to pace a class for appropriate levels of muscle fatigue, stamina building, warmth, and flexibility.

A dance class should have an aesthetic component – it is an art form and one of the reasons it can be an attractive way to “exercise” is that it has that very quality of the mind that makes moving a pleasurable, engaging activity, and not just something to check off your list. Seek an experience where you feel the quality of your body and moving changes, where there are sensations of lightness, resistance, speed, etc. and not just the making of exterior “shape.”

PFG: I am taking two dance classes right now — belly dancing and yoga dance. The form of belly dance I’m studying is Habeeba’s, which is largely based on ballet, and thus very structured and controlled (and up on our toes!). The yoga dance is unstructured, freeform. I enjoy both very much! Can you tell me — what different benefits might I gain from the structured dance versus the unstructured?

SVPP: More structured classes teach dance “vocabulary” and instruct in the building blocks of a style. Often the style will have a cultural or historical context and that can be a very interesting and satisfying experience. In a more structured class one might be able to assess one’s progress quite clearly, as skills get added as you progress through movement sequences. In a less structured class, such as an improvisation group, or some forms of modern dance, or hybrid styles such as “yoga dance,” you have the advantage of learning more perhaps about yourself and you learn how to observe your movement from inside and not from outside instruction. In a less structured class there is often a higher degree of creativity, and that can be very fun. There might be less physical rigor as it is more self-driven.

PFG: Dancing is uplifting, psychologically. For instance, I’m more confident and I don’t mind wearing more revealing clothing (especially while I’m belly dancing — it helps me see my moves in the mirror, right?). The yoga dance is uplifting because it’s just wild and crazy and fun. Would you have any comment about how dance has been uplifting for you personally? Do you find that many people (dilettantes such as myself) get this kind of emotional boost from dancing?

SVPP: Absolutely! Very uplifting. Dancers even joke they get addicted to it…. And there are studies that show there is real brain chemistry that changes as exercise, music, and expression conjoin for powerful rise of seratonin levels. I am at my desk a lot more these days, and I do feel fundamentally somewhat diminished without dancing as much as I used to.

 

I’ve been shot!

Posted in Uncategorized on 10/09/2009 10:55 am by psgorder
I hardly felt a thing. Though I did look away and sing la la la to distract myself. The kind nuse sang with me.

...And I hardly felt a thing. Though I did look away and sing "la la la" to distract myself. The kind nurse sang along.

I got my seasonal flu shot last night at the Agricultural Administration Buidling, and I saw many nurses and volunteers who were worn out after a long day. One commented that this was the biggest turnout for flu shots that she’d ever seen. Still, I hardly had to wait in line at all, as there were so many nurses on duty.

This year, getting a seasonal flu shot is more important than ever. That’s because different strains of the flu can combine to form new strains — inside your body. The Los Angeles Times explains how this happens in an article that traces the origins of the H1N1 swine flu:

When a flu virus infects a cell, it breaks down into its eight component genes and invades the cell’s nucleus. Once inside, those genes make hundreds of copies of themselves. Then they exit the nucleus and repackage themselves into new flu particles, which go on to infect additional cells. If a single cell is infected with two strains of flu at the same time — which can happen easily — genes from both can be bundled together to form a new virus.

And new research shows that getting the seasonal flu shot can offer some protection against swine flu, because the shot wakes up your body’s immune system and gives your antibodies a boost.

With all our fears about the swine flu, it’s easy to forget the danger that the normal seasonal flu poses in this country. In trying to allay people’s fears about the swine flu vaccine, this article in The New Yorker makes the point that the seasonal flu is also a killer:

In fact, the new H1N1 virus is similar to seasonal flu in its severity. In the United States, influenza regularly ranks among the ten leading causes of death, infecting up to twenty per cent of the population. It kills roughly thirty-five thousand Americans every year and sends hundreds of thousands to the hospital. Even relatively mild pandemics, like those of 1957 and 1968, have been health-care disasters: the first killed two million people and the second a million.

Click here for an interactive map of flu shot locations on campus.

Click here for an interactive map of flu shot locations on campus.

Ohio State employees can sign up for a free flu shot here. Remember to bring your BuckID!

Adult dependents may also receive free shots, but only on one remaining date: next Tuesday, Oct. 13. Something important to keep in mind is that your dependent will need to have your OSU employee ID number when he or she fills out the form to get the shot.

Meanwhile, free shots are available to OSU employees — but not dependents — at participating Kroger pharmacies.

Bonus: This week’s onCampus newspaper cautions us to take care but don’t panic, and offers a Q&A on the university’s flu prevention efforts. As always, you can check http://flu.osu.edu/ for updates.

 

So… I lied.

Posted in Data, Gettin' my head right, Nutrition, Progress on 10/02/2009 08:45 am by psgorder
Ive updated my data page.

I've updated my data page.

It’s the start of a new quarter, so I wanted to post an update on how my health is evolving. You’ll see a review of summer quarter on my data page.

The good news is, I’ve lost 17 pounds so far this year.

The (bad? neutral? other?) news is that I lied about how much I weighed when I started this venture.

Well, maybe not lied in the strictest sense. If I may reveal my Catholic upbringing for a moment, I would tell you that it wasn’t a lie of commission so much as a lie of omission.

The truth is, I didn’t know exactly how much I weighed when I started, because I didn’t want to know. I guessed 240 lbs. as a ballpark figure.

So when I weighed in at 231 lbs. at a checkup last month, I thought I’d lost 9 lbs. in total. Not bad, but not as much as I wanted for 9 months work. Then my doctor congratulated me on losing 17 lbs. and asked me how I did it. I didn’t believe her at first, so she turned her computer monitor to me and showed me my chart. I weighed 248 lbs. in January (a weigh-in in which I distinctly remember looking away from the scale and sort of humming to myself, while asking the nurse not to tell me the number) and 231 lbs. in September.

So then I had the conundrum of wanting to brag about losing 17 lbs., but having to admit that I was 248 lbs. at the start.

Here it is, out on the table. I lied. Lied lied lied. There you have it.

Other changes are afoot… Though my weight has stayed the same since last month, my clothes are still getting looser, so I think (hope) that maybe my body composition is changing. People keep telling me that I look slimmer, but I’m not certain whether they are just saying that. This morning my husband told me I look “more hourglass-y,” which is a good thing.

I know that I would probably get healthier faster if I changed my eating habits, which I have not done at all this year. I’ve just been working out a lot and hoping for the best. Steven Devor, associate professor of exercise science, offered to give me a little nutritional counseling some time ago — and I’m aware of formal nutritional counseling programs at Ohio State — but I’m having trouble getting past the “I don’t want to” hurdle.

C’est la vie.

 

We’re walkin’…

Posted in Hit the Road with the Buckeyes on 09/30/2009 03:30 pm by psgorder
If Charlie had five angels: Kristen, Julia, me, Emily, and Ellen.

If Charlie had five angels: Kristen, Julia, me, Emily, and Ellen. (Photo by Jo McCulty)

…and bikin’, and golfin’, and kickboxin’. And that’s just a small selection of the activities that are going to help me and my teammates rock this year’s Hit the Road with the Buckeyes Challenge.

Team Kinnear (named after the west campus road where University Communications is located) is: Kristen Convery, Web Editor in our New Media unit; Julia Harris, Associate Editor of onCampus; Emily Caldwell, Assistant Director of Research Communications; Ellen Hoover, Web Designer in our New Media unit; and me.

If the crowds of people picking up their free pedometer at the wellness fair were any indication, lots of faculty and staff are taking the challenge!

Our team is off to a bit of an inauspicious start, as one of us immediately lost her pedometer (suprisingly, it wasn’t me), and another pedometer just stopped working. I wore mine to belly dancing class and it whipped right off of me and cracked on the hardwood floor. It stopped working, too, so I just shook it until it started working again. A high-tech solution, eh?

We are not the only ones to have problems, and Human Resources sent out an email to all participants this week apologizing for any defective pedometers and saying that they are working on a solution. We can still keep track of all our steps, however, using the step calculator on the Hit the Road Website. Many different forms of exercise are listed there, along with the number of “steps” that they count towards.

Remember to enter your first week’s steps before midnight tonight, or they won’t count!

 

Autumn Quarter Lunch & Learn Registration Open

Posted in Lunch & Learn on 09/22/2009 12:46 pm by psgorder

The latest edition of Netwell arrived in my mailbox this morning, and… Yes! Registration for Autumn Quarter Lunch & Learn is open. [The new Netwell doesn't appear to be online yet, but when it is, I suspect it will appear here.]

I’m really excited about this quarter, because almost all of the offerings are new. Longtime L&L yoga instructor Marla Musyt is teaching pilates, as well as a class on back strengthening catchily titled “Back at ‘Cha.” (Back at ‘cha, Marla!)

Shelly Denbe, RN, is bringing her “Danskinetics” yoga-dance class to L&L, and I’ve already signed up. Yoga is great, dancing is great –  so the combination must be really great, right?

There are also lunchtime seminars on eating local and eating mindfully, as well as a healthy holiday luncheon at the Faculty Club.

All events are free except the Faculty Club lunch, which costs $11. I am so there.

 

Review: Health and Wellness Fair

Posted in Uncategorized on 09/18/2009 10:19 am by psgorder
My free stuff: pretty awesome.
My free stuff: pretty awesome.

Yesterday’s Rally for Wellness was chock full of information and — as always — free stuff. My favorite: a manicure kit from the Division of General Obstetrics and Gynecology. [The folks at OBGYN really know what the ladies want, don't they?]

I was glad I stopped by the booth for the University Health Connection, where I learned that this year’s flu season is already underway. It’s more critical than ever that we all get flu shots and get them early.

Swine flu aside — health officials are still working out the availability of that vaccine, and it will go to people such as health care workers and the elderly, who are most in need of it — the regular-old seasonal flu is spreading with the start of the new school year.

Bonny Roberts with Jeff Stephens, executive director of Consider Biking. Jeff gave me a book on Ohio Bicycling Street Smarts.

Bonny Roberts with Jeff Stephens, executive director of Consider Biking. Jeff gave me a book on "Ohio Bicycling Street Smarts."

Flu shots will be available to OSU faculty and staff starting October 6, and the university recently launched a new Web site to keep everyone up to date on flu happenings.

Next, I chatted with Bonny Roberts, Senior Systems Consultant at OSU Medical Center. Bonny was on hand at the Consider Biking booth, to testify that biking to work is possible, even when coming far from campus.

She takes the bike path near Olentangy River Road, then changes into dress clothes at her office. Her secret to freshening up? “Deodorant and wet wipes,” she said. She can afford lots of wet wipes with the money she’s saving in gasoline.

Finally, I checked in at the Faculty and Staff Fitness Program (FSFP) booth, where they were offering blood pressure checks, as well as the coolest t-shirts of the event.

The fall quarter FSFP class schedule is available, and I see that both yoga and pilates are on the list, as well as my much-beloved water aerobics.

Rebecca Nguyen (center) and some of her friendly staff at FSFP
Rebecca Nguyen (second from left) and some of her friendly staff from FSFP.

 

Health and Wellness Fair

Posted in YP4H Web site on 09/16/2009 07:54 am by psgorder

Don’t forget to go to the annual health and wellness fair, “Rally for Wellness,” tomorrow (Thursday, September 17) from 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. at RPAC.

If you don’t go, you will miss the following:

  • Free food
  • Free screenings for skin cancer, osteoporosis, vision, and hearing
  • All the health and wellness info you could imagine, and more
  • Cash-only farmers’ market with fresh local produce
  • Brutus Buckeye
  • People watching
  • Possible strange and amusing behavior from your coworkers (maybe that’s just me)

Admission is… FREE!

Free Your Plan For Health biometric screenings are also being offered… or, should I say, free biometric screening, singular. I just took the next-to-last available spot. Ha!

If you can make it to RPAC at 10:40 a.m., register for your screening now, before that last lonely spot is gone! Go to the YP4H Web site, and click on the link for “Faculty/Staff Schedule Your Biometric Screening” (on the right-hand side).

 

Playing it safe with healthy, locally grown foods

Posted in Nutrition, Questioning, Uncategorized on 09/11/2009 11:01 am by psgorder

I ate organic food before “organic” was cool.

When I was growing up, many people in my small Ohio River town grew vegetables. My mother grew corn, zucchini, and tomatoes — so many tomatoes! Neighbors shared what they grew, so we ate home-grown potatoes, peppers, and cabbage, too, among many other choices.

Maybe that’s why the idea of farm sharing appeals to me. It’s a return to my youth.

Last year, an Ohio State study found that grocery shoppers are willing to pay more money for locally grown produce. The author of the news release, my Research Communications colleague Emily Caldwell, showed me a way to eat healthier foods while patronizing local growers and possibly saving some money.

This summer, her family purchased a farm share: they invested in a local farm, and received baskets of fresh fruits and vegetables every week. The investment required a good bit of money upfront, but over the course of the summer they received so much food that Emily feels she saved money on her grocery bills.

Some friends and I are looking into doing the same thing next year, using this Web site to pick a local farm. Until then, I’ve been enjoying some produce that Emily and other co-workers have shared around the office, and I’ve been shopping farmers’ markets.

Chow Line: a service of OSU Extension and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center

That being said, I have to confess that in my adult life I’ve sort of lost the ability to deal with home-grown foods. I mean… if it doesn’t come out of a package, pre-washed and pre-processed (stems removed, etc.), I find myself at a bit of a loss as to what to do with it. For example, there might actually be dirt on it. (”Dirt? On food? Grown in the ground? How could that be?”)

So, how exactly should fresh food be washed? Should I just rinse things in water, or scrub them? Do I need to buy a vegetable brush? Or a bottle of fancy produce wash?

OSU Extension answered my questions today, in the latest edition of Chow Line.

Here’s an excerpt, from editor Martha Filipic:

Clean produce properly. Thin-skinned produce can be rinsed with cool water. Firm-skinned produce can be rubbed with a soft-bristled brush while rinsing. Food safety specialists at Ohio State University recommend washing produce just before consumption. If you clean it beforehand, drying it after washing will decrease the risk of any bacteria left on the produce from multiplying. Also: You don’t need special products for cleaning produce. While they may be effective, the evidence is not yet conclusive and so the CAST [Council of Agricultural Science and Technology] report authors do not recommend them.

Thanks, Martha and Emily!

How about you? Are you thinking about buying locally grown food? Or are you already living this trend, and have tips to share? Leave them in the comments below.

 

Free Community Fitness Classes

Posted in Lunch & Learn, Water Aerobics, Yoga on 09/03/2009 09:39 am by psgorder

The cities of Hilliard and Upper Arlington are offering some free fitness classes and special deals this fall.

Shannon L. Chaney, Upper Arlington LifeLong Learning & Leisure (LLL) Director, tipped me off to a week of free classes and a discount:

LifeLong Learning & Leisure is featuring a free fitness week from September 14-18 for any of the LLL exercise classes listed on the fitness grid in our 2009 fall catalog. Current and new students are welcome to try out a class they are not currently enrolled in and will need to sign the waiver form provided. Because there is no way for us to monitor attendance, participation will be dependent on space availability. Call 583-5333 for more information.

Take Zumba and Floor, Core & More and Save!
Take advantage of this limited-time fall fitness promotion. Students who register for the same full sections of Floor, Core & More and Zumba in one transaction will receive a 50% discount on their class fee for Floor, Core & More. The pairing of these two complementary classes gives students a well-rounded two-hour workout to enjoy twice a week as part of their regular fitness routine.

LLL class descriptions and online registration are here.

I highly recommend Molly Ohsner’s “Morning Total Body Workout.” Here’s the description:

Morning Total Body Workout
with Molly Ohsner, AFAA Certified, Exer-Safety Certified
This well-rounded class offers variety – simple aerobic movements, weight training using hand-held weights, abdominal strengthening, stretching and relaxation. Bring good aerobic shoes, a mat and a water bottle. Weights are provided. Class can be prorated for two days a week.
TIME: 9:30-10:30 AM, Monday, Wednesday & Friday
LOCATION: Marjorie Jones School of Ballet

I wish I could make it to a mid-morning class, but I just can’t… Molly’s Full Size Fitness class was my first foray into fitness classes all those years ago, and she put me on the road to losing my first 100 lbs. I would describe her class as mostly aerobic dance, as it contains lots of music and simple choreography.

It always meant a lot to me that she had the Exer-Safety certification, because I knew she would offer good counsel on preventing injury. Plus Molly is such a kind and genuine person that she made the class fun. I’m still good friends with some of the people I met there.

Meanwhile, as a Hilliard Recreation and Parks member, I received this email:

The Hilliard Recreation and Parks Department has a few new offerings!

Free Yoga Wellbeing Class
Stop in the Community Center on Wednesday, September 16 at 6:45PM to try out our Yoga Class for FREE!  This movement class follows the classical Hatha Yoga postures of breathing, meditation and relaxation techniques.  Gain flexibility, energy and strength.

The Hilliard Fall and Winter Program Guide and online registration are here.

I have to say, Upper Arlington has Hilliard beat for the sheer breadth of course offerings and ease of online registration. And while the UA course book is in PDF format, Hilliard inexplicably chose to offer its book as a series of high-resolution bitmap images which take a long time to load in a Web browser. Go figure.

Faculty and staff can find similar classes for free through the university Wellness Program, or through membership in RPAC, the Faculty and Staff Fitness Program, or the Center for Wellness and Prevention. But if you want to take fitness classes with friends or family members who don’t work at the university, or if you just want a class that’s closer to home, I think these community classes are a bargain for the money.

 

The Placebo Effect Is All In Your Head

Posted in Pain management on 08/27/2009 09:57 am by psgorder

…And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Today’s TIME.com Wellness blog details a study on the placebo effect. Researchers may have pinpointed the parts of the brain that cause people who are sick or in pain to feel better, even when they are given a sham treatment.

Personally, I’m a big believer in what I call the “anti-placebo” effect: when I’m so certain that a treatment is a sham that it won’t work on me, no matter what! I refuse to get better!

The TIME story got me to thinking about alternative medicine, and why some people feel relief of symptoms such as pain when using alternative treatments which have proven to be no more effective than placebo in clinical trials.

I’ve been meaning to share a study on acupuncture that Noel Cressie forwarded to me, and this post gives me the perfect opportunity, since the acupuncture study says something about the placebo effect.

Here is the WebMD story he forwarded. A study found that real acupuncture (the study treatment) was no better than simulated acupuncture with a toothpick (the placebo) at treating back pain. The shocker: people who supplemented their normal back pain treatment with either kind of acupuncture (real or fake) were more likely to feel better.

That is, 40 percent of people who took pain medication and did physical therapy felt better, and 60 percent of people who supplemented their pain meds and physical therapy with real or fake acupuncture felt better.

An important point: Everybody in the study received the basic standard of care for back injury, which includes pain medication and physical therapy. The way the WebMD article is written — with the sub-headline “Acupuncture Trumps Standard Care for Back Pain Relief” — suggests that acupuncture alone caused 60 percent of people to feel better, when this is not the case. Rather, adding acupuncture to the standard level of care boosted the success of treatment by 20 percent.

You can find the researchers’ original journal article here, and a related paper which explains the treatment in detail here.

The researchers speculated that perhaps the acupuncture made people feel better because of the placebo effect. People seem to feel better just knowing that they’re doing something that might treat a symptom. And let’s face it, when the symptom is pain, people can be very flexible in what they are willing to do to make it go away — me included.

I have used meditation to control pain.

How can I tout an alternative treatment, you may ask, when I am a woman of science?

Well, yes, I am a very analytical person. And, yes, I’m always going on about “peer reviewed” this and “randomized clinical trial” that. But I am not opposed to some health practices that would normally be considered alternative, such as meditation, when they are used properly in addition to standard medical care.

I am not opposed to these alternative treatments because I am absolutely certain that in those cases where they have positive effects, medical science will someday reveal the reason, and there is nothing mystical about why they work.

For instance, I look at meditation as just another way to train my brain.

When I underwent surgery to repair a broken foot two years ago, I downloaded this CD from iTunes. I listened to it every night as I fell asleep in the weeks prior to surgery. The idea was to think positive thoughts that would put me in the right state of mind to let my body heal itself efficiently.

After the surgery, I wanted to avoid taking narcotics because they give me migraines. When I went home, I did not take my pain meds.

As you may imagine, I woke up the next morning in what was probably the worst pain of my life. You can bet I reached for my meds then! But I remembered what the surgeon had told me: once people start to feel pain, it takes a long time to shut the pain off, regardless of taking medication. He predicted that if I avoided taking my meds, they wouldn’t take effect for a couple of hours after I finally took them.

I needed a distraction — any distraction! — until those meds kicked in. So I played my CD. The familiar words and music drew me in, and by the time those 40-odd minutes were up, I realized that I was in a lot less pain.

Did the CD lessen my pain because it distracted me? Or because I desperately hoped that it would work?

You know what? I don’t care. But I know researchers are working on it.

 
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