With the advent of spring comes weekends filled with 5Ks, 10Ks and half-marathons. If you want to participate in such a race, check out this calendar of upcoming runs.
Below is a time line of how to prepare for a 10K race – it is a five week training schedule, so plan your race accordingly.
To view the timeline, click here.
April 18th. 3 p.m. Gladiator. Challenge.
Next week’s Gladiator Challenge, hosted by Campus Recreation, marks the fourth year since its inception. It costs $10 for each team of two to enter and the last day to enter is April 15. Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to participate.
Event courses:
1. Sumo Joust
2. Fitness Challenge
3. Tug-o-war
4. Obstacle Course
At last year’s challenge, about 80 students participated in the challenge. The prize was a t-shirt, which might not hold up to gladiator standards (I’m thinking golden chalices, $100,000 in cash, your opponent’s dignity), but you still earn the title of gladiator.
Aaron Hrozencik participated in last year’s challenge, and he discussed life as a gladiator with me.
Are you participating in the Gladiator Challenge this year?
No, I am abroad in Argentina. But I really wish I could.
What was the best part of the challenge and the most fun course?
Power Ball, it was like a mix of rugby and basketball.
Words of advice for future gladiators?
No Mercy
What is the most difficult part of the gladiator challenge?
Coming in second place, it was a huge disappointment.
Who was your teammate, what was your team name, and did you dress up?
Clarion´s World of Pain (inspired by the combination of the name Aaron and teammate’s name Claire Brandow). Of course I dressed up.
Do you have what it takes to be a gladiator? Or more importantly, do you have a cool, gladiator-inspired name, like Hellga or Justice?
During lunch at work today, one co-worker mentioned that he wants to control the amount of toxins he takes into his body. I agreed, saying I was trying to eat food items that were organic. He asked me what it meant to be organic and how I could know that my food was organic. Valid question, considering almost every supermarket, restaurant and Chapel Hill dining establishments boast organic ingredients.
After searching the United States Department of Agriculture Web site, I found what an organization means when it claims that its product is organic. And it is not as straightforward as one might hope.
Organic, as defined by the USDA, means foods have ingredients that have not been made through the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, genetic engineering, growth hormones, irradiation or antibiotics. Basically, picture any scene from Little House on the Prairie.
According to the USDA, for a product to qualify as 100 percent organic, it must contain 100 percent organically produced ingredients – not including salt and water.
To say that a product is organic, 95 percent of the ingredients must be organically produced.
If 70 percent of a product has organically produced ingredients, it can be labeled as made with organic ingredients.
An organization even can say its product is made with some organic ingredients, if less than 70 percent of the product has organically produced ingredients, but the word organic must appear in the ingredient list.
The penalty for a company misrepresenting a product? A civil penalty of $11,000.
Do you have a headache yet? As soon as I read the varying definitions of organic, I wanted to rummage through my pantry and see what items I paid more for because I thought they were organic.
I found three organic products in my refrigerator, which means they contained 95 percent organically produced ingredients.
Organic Weetabix Cereal – organic whole wheat, organic barley malt extract, organic dehydrated cane juice, sea salt
Harris Teeter Organic Crunchy Peanut Butter -
basically, peanuts and salt, produced in a facility that also processes tree nuts and seeds
Stonyfield Farm Organic Fat Free Key Lime Yogurt – cultured pasteurized organic nonfat milk, naturally milled organic sugar, organic lime juice from concentrate, natural flavor, pectin, turmeric (for color), vitamin D3 and an exclusive blend of six live active cultures
So, I did not get the opportunity to play the role of the outraged consumer. Perhaps I would have felt differently if I had products made with organic ingredients.
Be a wary consumer. Even if it says it is organic, it might not be 100 percent – or even 70 percent – true. Check out the blog, Local Appetites, for a related article about the popularity of organic food.
The weather is warm, which means I am eschewing the confines of Ladies’ Fitness & Wellness in favor of long runs outside. For all you runners, I recommend MapMyRun, a Web site that lets users search its database of runs in their region or map their own run and see the distance, topography and a satellite view of their route.
I frequently use MapMyRun to create different runs. If you get bored easily with your runs and want to keep track of your mileage (accuracy to the hundredth of a mile), then MapMyRun is a great resource. Here is a 4.56 mile loop I created, which begins and ends at Mill Creek Condominiums.
4.5ish mile run around Mill Creek
Find more Runs in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Also, UNC Campus Recreation provides students with a few runs on and around campus.
The only thing missing? Some beats to keep you going when the first cramp hits. One of my guilty pleasures is current pop tunes, so here are some of the songs that I love to run to:
1. Shut up and Drive – Rihanna
2. Scream – Timbaland
3. Take You There – Sean Kingston
4. Let it Go – Keyshia Cole
5. Come to Me – Diddy
6. Kiss Kiss – Chris Brown and T-Pain
And some classics:
1. Baba O’Riley – The Who
2. Anyway You Want It – Journey
3. Even the Losers – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
4. Start Me Up – The Rolling Stones
Basically, as long as there is a quick beat or catchy lyrics, I can run to it. If you have iTunes, you can search for podcasts that automatically download techno workout music at least once a week.
Please post any running routes or songs here, I would love to hear about it.
Today I was meeting my friend for lunch at Lenoir Mainstreet, which is what Carolina Dining Services named the group of fast food places on the first floor of Lenoir. Because of my lunch date and boredom, I went to the CDS Web site, to see my lunch options for the day.
To my surprise, the Web site had been updated to include a sustainability pledge and nutritional information for the food served at Lenoir and Ram’s Head Dining Hall. Immediately, I navigated to the nutritional information page for the Top of Lenoir’s cafeteria food.
Confession: I like to look up the nutritional information for almost everything. Not in an obsessive, calorie-counting sort of way, but with all the hype about super-sized restaurant portions and trans fat, I like to see what and how much restaurants and fast food establishments are serving us.
Given the different meal options, Lenoir surprised me with some of the nutritional goodness the information revealed. Some of the top healthy choices at Lenoir:
From the bistro section:
1. Vegetable blend
2. Sweet potatoes, roasted
3. Bok choy and baby corn
4. Asparagus, grilled
From the grill section:
1. Blackened chicken breast
From the pizza section:
1. Vegetable pizza
2. Mediterranean pizza
Lenoir offers other options too, such as vegetarian, soup, a salad bar and a world fares section that samples foods from across the globe. With the nutritional information available for students, it is easier to decide how to make a Lenoir meal healthy, and the transparency encourages Lenoir to continue serving healthy options. There also are kiosks in the dining hall for students to access nutritional information on the spot, which can encourage healthy choices to prevent the Freshman 15 (oh, it’s real).
There are some problems with the information on Lenoir’s nutrition information site. First, there is not nutritional information for every item on the menu. Also, the serving sizes are not realistic. When you are in line at the bistro, waiting to spoon some beef burgundy with noodles onto your plate (if that actually sounds appealing to you, get over to Lenoir on Wednesday, the day it is served) , it is hard to eyeball a serving size of six ounces. Also, the nutritional information for every food item lacks a list of ingredients. I want to know what is in my food, which is just as important as how many calories or grams of protein or fat are in it.
And, for the best part, the foods that made my eyes bug out in disbelief. To put the nutrition facts in perspective, most of the nutritional information on food packages is based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet. Individual calorie needs vary based on sex, height, weight and level of physical activity. You can calculate how many calories you need a day by using this calorie calculator.
1. BBQ bacon cheese burger combo – 1024 calories per combo, 52 grams of fat
2. Buffalo chicken wrap – 1157 calories per wrap, 68 grams of fat
3. Chicken Caesar wrap – 888 calories per wrap, 36 grams of fat
And for those of you who are trying to eat all your daily calories in one sitting, there is the seasoned wings bar, where one plate has 2399 calories and 159 grams of fat. I wonder how many wings are considered a serving? Checking the nutritional information can help you to make the right choices for your diet, whatever it might be. Plus, in a nation obsessed with both obesity and the “perfect” body, we should ask all food establishments to post both their nutritional information and list of ingredients, so we can decide for ourselves if we want to indulge or not.
Happy dining!
Because UNC’s spring break is a mere two days away, this post will be dedicated to alcohol – the good, the bad and the drunkenness that stems from it.
The good
Is beer the new Gatorade? One research study published in November said that a group of 25 college students exercised in 104-degree temperatures, split into two groups, and one of the groups drank water while the other drank beer. The health risks of exercising in 104-degree temperature (heat stroke, dehydration, etc.) aside, the researchers found that the hydration effect of beer was slightly better than the hydration effect of water. Not that you all should fill your Nalgene up with Miller High Life before going to the SRC, but maybe beer does not dehydrate people as much as believed.
The health benefits of wine have been hyped in the news – specifically the health benefits of red wine. But, as the saying goes, “A little goes a long way.” The recommended amount of wine is two glasses for men and one glass for women. And “glass” is not subjective – it is defined as five ounces of wine. By combining moderation and a nice Merlot, you are increasing your good cholesterol, thinning your blood, activating antioxidants to prevent cellular damage and possibly preventing blood clotting. Cheers.
The bad
There’s more to excessive drinking than the hangover, the vomit, the beer belly and the morning after mistakes.
For all you winos:
The same study cheering the benefits of wine also highlighted the downside of imbibing too much:
Also, study results revealed in a Reuters article says that even moderate amounts of drinking can lead to high blood pressure. And high blood pressure can lead to stroke, heart failure, heart attack and kidney failure. The results of this study go against all studies promoting the benefits of moderate drinking.
The drunk
Earlier this week, the New York Times published an article about binge drinking explaining the cultural and mental reasons that people might resort to binge drinking. Some researchers believe that binge drinking is a combination of personal preferences and cultural expression. There are some cultures that use binge drinking as a way to celebrate or to take a mental vacation. I’m sure the MTV culture fits in this category.
And the effects of binge drinking varied from studying different cultures. Whereas some cultures became more reserved after excessive drinking, others were more likely to sing or dance around.
It’s interesting to think that alcohol can affect people’s behaviors so radically, which is why researchers have conducted studies in which two groups of people were given drinks – one group received alcoholic drinks, and the other received nonalcoholic beverages. Regardless, both groups exhibited “drunk” behavior. Not only is that embarrassing for the non-drinking group, but it also creates an interesting conclusion: maybe when we drink, our actions reflect how we think drunk people should act. None of the cultures studied revealed cases of aggression or sexual assault. Just happy drunks.
Hope you all have a fun and safe spring break! If you are planning on drinking, be aware of your surroundings and drink lots of water beforehand. And stop drinking those vodka tonics as soon as they start tasting like water.
(Because of technical difficulties, i.e., no internet connection in Fetzer Gym, this blog post was unable to be posted in real time. Let us suspend reality for the five minutes it takes to read this post and pretend I am in the darkened gym, listening to the bumping beats blasting from the Dance Marathon deejay.)
Click “View All Images” to watch a quick slide show of the event.
4:20 p.m.
DM ‘08, a 24-hour charity event for the N.C. Children’s Hospitals, started at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 23. I arrived at Fetzer on Saturday with two hours and 40 minutes until all the dancers could sit down after 24 hours on their feet. This year marked the 10th anniversary of DM, and the volunteers succeeded in raising $321,938.53, which is a new record for DM. As I entered Fetzer, I thought back to freshman year when I participated in DM: the pain coursing up and down my legs, the group dancing and the 15 hours of sleep following the end of the event.
This year’s theme was “Going out of the world for the kids,” and the hall leading to the gym was wallpapered in black paper and handmade cut-outs of UFOs and aliens. There was an award ceremony taking place when I arrived, followed by the group dance. Every year the DM coordinators create a group dance to which DM participants sing and dance at least once an hour. This year, the coordinators penned a song to the tune of “(You Drive Me) Crazy,” by Britney Spears, and they rewrote the lyrics to relate to DM:
Now don’t get lazy / Stay on your feet / 24 hours who need sleep / It may be crazy but it feels so right / Dancing for the kids we’re staying up all night.
The lyrics were projected on two huge screens, complete with instructions for a dance break, just in case the dancers forgot they were part of a marathon of dancing. Yeah, right.
4:36 p.m.
Clearly, it is time for a dance contest. I could not believe how energetic these dancers were after being up for so long. It was probably a combination of delirium and coffee. As the dance contest went on, I noticed one dancer stretching and took the opportunity to ask her some questions about DM. And then I convinced her to do the worm for me.
Katie Trapp is a sophomore and second year participant in DM. This year, she raised $400 for the children, and she says, “I go to church with a couple of kids who were helped by Dance Marathon.” During our conversation, she casually mentioned that Will Ferrell came to visit the dancers at DM after his Friday night performance at the Dean Smith Center. Reason number 435 as to why I love Will Ferrell. And what is Trapp’s favorite song to dance to? Apache. Trapp also says that the hardest time, in terms of feeling tired and run down, was between 1 and 2 p.m., and she currently was sore and feeling delirious.
The combination of staying awake all night and remaining on your feet can be painful and not a recommended activity. Studies show that sleep deprivation can cause a number of problems, including memory impairment. After scouring the Internet for tips on staying awake all night, most news articles had the same advice: don’t. I did find different blog articles about staying up all night, and a fellow WordPress.com blog, had some good advice, such as limit caffeine intake, snack regularly and listen to music.
The occasional all-nighter, however, will not be too detrimental to one’s health, especially when it is for a good cause such as DM ‘08. The benefits of acts of kindness, as discussed in an earlier post, might make up for the health risks.
5:20 p.m.
I leave Fetzer at the beginning of family hour, at which point families of the DM recipients come and express their gratitude to the dancers. At the end of the 24 hours, when Trapp and the other can go home, shower and finally sleep, they will know they helped out many deserving children.
When I go to the gym, the last thing I want to do is run on the treadmill for 30 minutes sandwiched between the kid who asks all the questions in my Spanish class and the girl who was real drunk at Top of the Hill last Saturday night. Yet, whenever I go to the SRC or RHRC, it feels like a class reunion. Only, the air smells stale, I’m wearing a five-year-old ratty t-shirt, and Nickelback is blasting from every speaker. My workouts were not enjoyable, and I had to take the bus to catch the bus for the sojourn from my off-campus apartment to the SRC. But all that changed when I decided to shell out the $180 for a three month membership to the Ladies Fitness & Wellness Center in Chapel Hill. Behold: a gym with only female members, where I don’t have to sign up to use a machine and don’t have to listen to Nickelback.
If you are sick of the SRC or the RHRC, and you can afford to join a gym, do it. There are many gyms around Chapel Hill, offering the restless exerciser with new classes and an escape from the student population. Below is a list of some of the gyms in the Chapel Hill area that you should check out.
Ladies Fitness & Wellness Center
Locations: Chapel Hill, Durham
About: As the name suggests, LFW is for women only (sorry, guys). Although it is smaller than the SRC or the RHRC, it usually is not as packed. I have not had to wait to use a machine. There is a sauna, more than 40 classes to choose to participate in and many strength-training machines. For an extra fee you can hire a personal trainer, get a massage or use the tanning beds. If you are in a sorority, you get a membership discount. LFW is not open for as many hours as the SRC or RHRC, but if you live on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, it is a convenient alternative.
Contact:(919) 969-8663 for the Chapel Hill location, (919) 929-7474 for Durham
PEAK Fitness
Locations: Durham, Chapel Hill
About: You cannot find an excuse to skip the gym with a membership to PEAK because it is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I would like to meet whoever is working out at 3 a.m. So, what are the perks of PEAK besides its hours of operation for the insomniac in each of us? They boast both their comprehensive facilities and their affordable rates. They also have an extensive group exercise schedule, including step, cycle and yoga classes. Some locations even have a swimming pool.
Contact: (888) 833-PEAK
UNC Wellness Center
Location: Meadowmont, Chapel Hill
About: In addition to its gym amenities, the Wellness Center has registered nurses, dietitians and exercise physiologists on staff. In terms of the facility’s offerings, there is a 25-yard lap pool, an indoor cushioned 4-lane walking and jogging track and a multi-purpose room with basketball court. There also are education classes, rehabilitation and nutrition classes. For someone who wants a gym that offers everything, the Wellness Center is for you.
Contact: (919) 966-5500
Franklin Street Yoga Center
Locations: 123 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill
About: The Yoga Center is yoga, all day, every day. On the Web site, the teacher and owner, Lori Burgwyn, says her “teaching style adapts yoga to the ever changing needs of the individual thereby motivating students to find what’s right for them by looking within.” Most of the classes are power yoga, which combines traditional yoga and a more vigorous workout. The first class is free, and there is a newcomer special.
Contact: (919) 929-0414
I will continue to update this list with other gyms in the area – check back soon.
I want you all to think about the last time you did something kind for someone else. Not a favor that someone asked of you, but some kind act that you performed because you wanted to do it. Savor that thought for a moment, remember how good you felt and how much better the community, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the United States and the world would be if everyone was kind on a regular basis. Ah, utopia.
As if you ever need an excuse to be kind, I have one for you. This week, from Feb. 11 to 17, perform as many kind acts as you want because it is Random Acts of Kindness week, sponsored by (who else?) the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation.
What is the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation?
The organization’s goal is to “inspire people to practice kindness and to ‘pass it on’ to others.” Created in 1995, the foundation is a non-profit that is privately funded and does not accept any donations. The foundation serves as the U.S. delegate to the World Kindness Movement, which is comprised of 20 countries, including Japan (the creator nation), France and Nigeria.
To help people perform acts of kindness, the Web site provides visitors with ideas for acts of kindness at school, in the community, at work and for individuals and groups.
Health Benefits of Kindness
Even if you are performing a selfless act of kindness, there are many physical and mental health benefits waiting for you. The following is an abbreviated list compiled by the Niagara Wellness Council from the book, “The Healing Power of Doing Good: The Health and Spiritual Benefits of Helping Others,” by Allan Luks.
What you can do
There are 964 registered members in North Carolina in four cities – Lexington, Charlotte, Buies Creek and Hampstead. As of 2006, there were 8,856,505 people living in North Carolina. I like to think that more than 963 people are being kind in North Carolina and more often than one week per year. It did make me stop and think about the last time I was kind and wonder if people consistently are kind to one another.
So, I’m curious, readers, when was the last time you were kind? Can you remember giving your bus seat to someone who looked like he needed to sit? Maybe you handed out five dollars to one of the homeless people on Franklin Street yesterday? Perhaps you let someone else have the last available shopping cart at Harris Teeter? No matter how big or small your act of kindness was, post it here as a tribute to Random Acts of Kindness Week.
(F.Y.I: My last random act of kindness was yesterday. I just got home from class, and I had an hour before a group project meeting. The gym was calling my name, wanting me to de-stress. My roommate called, and she was stuck on-campus in the rain without an umbrella. No problem. I jumped in the car, picked her up and had a shorter, but happier, time unwinding at the gym after knowing I made someone’s day easier. Cue cheesy music.)
It all started with Oprah, as many trends do. I watched as Dr. Oz, Oprah’s medical guru, espoused qigong (pronounced “chee-gung”) as a way to “add years to your life” and reduce stress. Then I found a qigong DVD in the apartment. And on Tuesday there was an ad in the Daily Tar Heel for qigong classes offered in Chapel Hill. The buzz around this exercise is heating up.
Perhaps qigong is becoming a new fitness trend in America, but in China, it is a 2000-year-old traditional healing method. Since 1989, medical qigong has been recognized as a standard medical technique in Chinese hospitals. In 1996, the Chinese government decided to regulate qigong and incorporated it into China’s National Health Plan.
What is qigong? According to the UNC Wellness Center Web site, qigong is, “a simple system composed of gentle movements, meditation and breathing techniques that cleanse and strengthen the immune system and Life Energy (Qi).”
Maybe you read that description and already decided to sign up for a qigong class near you. Maybe you laughed at the word “life energy” and the thought of an exercise powerful enough to strengthen the immune system. Or maybe you still are trying to pronounce qigong (it’s okay, you’ll get there).
Either way, people practice qigong to reduce stress, meditate and alleviate sickness with movements resembling a combination of martial arts in slow motion and beginner’s yoga.
I called the Cornucopia House Cancer Support Center in Chapel Hill, which is offering three qigong classes every Tuesday beginning Feb. 12, to learn more about the self-healing powers of qigong.
Joy Bryde, program coordinator, says that classes are open to cancer patients, survivors and their family, friends and caregivers. Qigong’s movements are gentle and easy enough for the patients and survivors to perform, says Bryde. Also, some evidence says that qigong can help with the absorption of medication in the blood stream. To absorb drugs, Bryde says, they must flow through your blood system, and qigong and its gentle movement helps the blood flow better.
The Support Center offers qigong as a complimentary therapy to cancer patients and survivors and not as an alternative to their current, doctor-prescribed medical regime.
The UNC Wellness Center also offers medical qigong, which helps the “practitioner to take control of illnesses or pains, and also helps to prevent them.” The wellness center focuses on the self-healing aspect of qigong, and the Web site says research indicates that people’s most powerful defense against disease is already within a person’s body. The goal is for practitioners to connect with these self-healing powers through qigong and decrease their dependence on medicine.
There are not enough well-designed research studies on qigong to prove the connection exists between the exercise and its healing powers. There has been research, however, in human’s self-healing power. At the very least, qigong’s meditative and energizing powers mirror that of yoga, and its breathing techniques and gentle movements should leave practitioners feeling calm and energized. And we all could use less stress in our lives. To sign up for classes at the Cornucopia House, call (919) 401-9333, or if you prefer the UNC Wellness Center, call (919) 931-9983.
Intrigued? Watch a short video about qigong featuring instructor Lee Holden, whose show often appears on PBS:
