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Net Nerds
Shape Up! by Susan Ives, Alamo PC |
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Net Nerds
Shape Up! by Susan Ives, Alamo PC |
| According to the
Centers for Disease Control, more than 60 percent of adults do not achieve
the recommended amount of regular physical activity; 25 percent of all
adults are not active at all. It’s even bleaker for retirees: 92 percent
of retirees get no meaningful exercise and more than half are completely
sedentary. Since 1980 there has been a 42% increase in childhood obesity
rates and one out of five teenagers are now considered significantly overweight.
One out of every three American’s is overweight, and at any given time
about 65 million of us are on a diet.
Not a pretty picture.
That’s right! These instruments of torture that make our wrists ache and our back scream out in pain, these same machines that chain us to a keyboard and make us mouse potatoes – they can make us fit. For more information about this new SIG, visit our Web site, or look for the ad in the magazine. For now, let’s look at some Web sites that can jumpstart our fitness plan. Just Move is an initiative of the American Heart Association You can get fitness recommendations based on your current fitness level. I read the one on target heart rate. The AHA recommends that you measure your pulse periodically as you exercise and stay within 50 to 75 percent of your maximum heart rate. They give instructions for determining and measuring this, but I find it easier to use their alternate method. If you can talk and walk at the same time, you are not working too hard. If you can sing and maintain your level of effort, you are probably not working hard enough. If you get out of breath quickly, you are probably working too hard — especially if you actually have to stop and catch your breath. They also have an exercise diary (complicated to set up but worth it) and fitness news supplied by Reuters. The American Diabetes Association provides similar information. Shape Up America is headed by former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. It has sections on diet and exercises, and even a cyber kitchen. The body fat lab is especially useful, and the diagnostic tools are superb. The American Council on Exercise is a nonprofit organization that promotes fitness; it also certifies fitness instructors. Its Web site’s Fit Facts and Health e-Tips are worth a look; you can have the monthly e-Tips sent to your e-mail box. The second component in our healthy lifestyles is a healthy diet. Here, the Internet excels. Start with the US Department of Agriculture, the folks who brought us the food guide pyramid.. What!? You don’t have a copy of the pyramid taped to your refrigerator? Print one from this site, and while you’re at it, read the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Then, move onto the Interactive Healthy Eating Index. Log in for free, then each day enter every bit of food that goes into your mouth. When I type in “egg” I get 122 choices, from a simple poached egg to a Hardee’s bacon and egg biscuit. There are seven tamale choices, but under fajitas they only list Weight Watchers chicken fajitas frozen meal. Not perfect. However, it will store your food data for 20 days, and give you reams of nutritional data on your eating habits. Check out the whole site. If part of your healthy eating plan is to cook healthier foods there are many sources on the'Net. In the August Healthy Hackers SIG we’ll be examining Sierra Software’s Cooking Light, so examine the magazine of the same name. They have hundreds of recipes that you can search, browse, print, save and even annotate. Complete nutritional information, of course. Other good sources for healthy recipes are Bella Online and About.Com, which has great original content plus links to more than 700 nutrition and recipe sites. If your style of eating relies on the drive-thru window, don’t dispair. Start with the Fast Food Finder. It includes 19 restaurants, including McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King. You select a restaurant then fill out a form. You can search for chicken at KFC, for example, or for all foods on their menu with less than 300 calories or less than 20% of calories from fat. You get a list with all the nutritional information. A large garden salad at Dominos Pizza is 39 calories. Add a serving of ranch dressing and you’ve piled on 220 calories. Change that to their fat free ranch and you’ve only added 20 calories and saved room for a slice of thin crust cheese pizza at 255 calories. Knowledge is power! An even more extensive list is at Dottie’s
Weight Loss Zone Dottie and her helpers have compiled an amazing list
of restaurants. There’s a Schlotzsky's Deli right across from our new Resource
Center at Crossroads Mall and I was stunned to learn that their large deluxe
original sandwich is 2638 cal/152 g fat. Their best choice is a light and
tasty chicken on sourdough at only 288 cal/7 g fat. A Super Chicken Nacho
plate at Taco Cabana is 1588 calories. Get the Crispy Chicken Taco Dinner
for only 688 calories.
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