How Triathlons relate to everything else in life

This weekend a bunch of us went up to Cedar Point to participate in a half ironman relay triathlon.  Two ladies did the entire half ironman on their own.  I have shared a lot of the event via Facebook using videos and pictures so you all can see what it was like.  Here, I want to reflect more on how the impact it had on all of us.

The distances for the half ironman (which is officially called 70.3 because “ironman” is a trademarked name) are:

1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, 13.1 mile run

I did the swim.  It was the longest distance I have ever swam in my life!  I went through my usual routine right before a race.  I put listen to some music, run for about  a mile, and then get my wetsuit on and get in the water.  The water was cold at first but it was really the perfect temperature for a race.  It was also really slugy.  It had stormed the week of the race which churned up a lot sediment.  When I got out of the water I had a lot of slug on my face and my friends were so nice not to point that out or take pictures.

Besides that, it was a perfect day.  Lake Erie was calm–probably the calmest water ever–and I was only doing the swim so I was ready. I felt really confident, but nervous standing on the beach.  I don’t like to feel overconfident about anything  but I felt good.

Swimming in the pool to train, I began to glean insight from swimming.  What else is there to think about, right??  I realized that if I kept swimming no matter how tired I was I would get the the end of the pool.  Just like a lot in life, we have to keep persisting towards our goal in order to reach it.  I knew that all I had to do is swim to the next bouy that marked the course.  I just needed to keep my eyes on that.  Keeping your eye on your goal will help you reach it.  If I didn’t check my position every fourth or fifth stroke, I might start veering off in the wrong direction and then have to back track.  Sounds like some of my clients’ weight loss efforts!  I knew all this going in.  Even in familiar territory we can lose our way…

We entered the water in a typical wave fashion, where everyone just runs in the water and starts swimming.  Its a big free-for-all.  Something about all those people really FREAKS ME OUT.  I totally lost it! Before I knew it I was hyperventilating and couldn’t catch my breath!  Ugh! I was so frustrated and scared and I thought about the lifeguards out there who would just scoop me out and rescue me from this whole thing.  But there was NO WAY I was going to do that!  Not only would I NEVER live that down, but I also had teammates counting on me and I couldn’t let them down.  I also knew that I could do it.  I just had to put out the effort and trudge forward.

I thought about how incredibly mental this all is.  Each bouy was a speck in the distance-I could hardly see it and it seemed like it took so much effort and felt like it wasn’t getting any closer.  But eventually it did and then I passed the next one, and that blue arch at the end that I had to run thru–I couldn’t even see that until I got to the second to last bouy.  Gosh, I thought it would NEVER come!!  My arms started to ache but it wasn’t too bad–I knew I was just being whiney.

Wow!  This was just like life!!  I found myself in total self doubt WHILE moving forward! I started beating myself up because I felt like I was the last one in the water (NOT true) and I was letting down my team for being slow (also NOT true).

I realized that the goal isn’t always visible while we are moving forward toward it.  But we need to know where it is and that we are doing the right things to move forward.  The keys to success in ANYTHING are:

-having a goal and keeping it in your mind’s eye

-having smaller benchmarks to mark your progress and staying focused on each one–knowing that its part of a bigger picture

-knowing what to do to move toward your goal and DOING it no matter what (I couldn’t just stop–i had to keep moving forward).

-stop listening to negative self talk–know that its NOT true.

 

 

apple juice and dr. oz controversy

Everyone is on Dr. Oz’s back about his comment on apple juice having arsenic in it and how we should not be feeding to babies. here is the link for the page it’s discussed: http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/arsenic-apple-juice

my take on it: start checking the bottles of juice you buy to see where the concentrate comes from. A lot of it is from China and Argentina. It is printed on the plastic not on the label. We do not have any control over what pesticides are used in those countries or how the concentrates are processed before they are imported. Other countries do use pesticides that are banned in our country because they are not safe, but we eat produce with those residues on them all the time.
THIS is why it is so important to purchase domestic conventional produce–produce grown in the USA. Organic produce that is certified will not have inorganic arsenic which is from pesticides. So buy organic when you can, and when you can’t buy US grown.
Seriously, who wants apples from China anyway! We have wonderful sources of apples right here in the US!!

Here is the link to the EWG guide to pesticide residues on produce–its a nice handy guide to print, laminate and put in your purse for quick referencing: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/guide/. If you have one, this one is brand new! and there is an app now! check it out!!

Usana Convention highlights: Part 2: facinating science facts

Still Thursday, and Christiane Northrup, a very well known physician who has written many books on women’s health, and has been on Dr. Oz, spoke.  She is a Usana Associate too.  Here are some REALLY interesting points she made:

• Every year 99,000 people die from medication errors and 98,000 people die from hospital-aquired diseases (nosocomials)
• people who are on antioxidants when they have surgery heal sooo much faster than those who aren’t.
• 60% of women over 60 have had a hysterectomy
• When vitamin D levels are optimal the myometrium (uterine muscle) is healthy and there is a reduced risk of of c-sections.
• your heart has a huge electromagnetic field that affects everyone around you (that’s their “vibe” they are giving off).  We can let love flow over the entire planet with a positive, healthy heart.

Usana Scientists presented upgraded products (i already touched on) and they also gave some really interesting statistics about the cells in our body:

• our bodies renew our skin every month (think of how healthy cells can make your skin look younger)
• our entire blood supply is regenerated every three years (you can clean up your act and it can have a difference on your whole body!)
• Our entire skeleton is turned over every ten years (keep the living part of your cells healthy! Calcium is only half the story!)
• Kids turn over their skeletons every YEAR, and teens do it every other year.

The kicker is that these incredibly important processes can only occur if the cells are healthy and working optimally, and that its NEVER to late to chance your health!

Dr. Heather Tick, a pain specialist with clinics in Toronto, Canada, and in Arizona said that she has had the most success with managing pain in patients with nutritional intervention–making lifestyle changes.  She also said that narcotics that are often used in pain management actually cause more pain in the long run.  She gave the following tips to reduce chronic pain:

• Eat a low glycemic, fresh food diet
• exercise
• stop smoking
• manage stress more effectively
• supplement to get cells healthy and optimally functioning
• One of the most effective things she found was to help people understand THEY are in control and empower people to manage their own relief.
• low Vitamin D levels are associated with pain–95% of her patients were profoundly deficient.
• curcumin plus phophotidylcholine (a phospholipid in our cells) has pain-reducing effects.
• ginger works on cox2 inhibitor pathways and is an anti inflammatory compound.  it works on more cox 2 pathways (4 different ones) than the drugs (vioxx, celebrex, etc–only 2).
• get good sleep and adequate amounts of it.

Accidentally overweight? and Are you happy? Dr. Libby Weaver and Shawn Achor

These two speakers were my favorite!

Dr. Libby Weaver, a biochemist from New Zealand spoke about women’s health and cycles related to weight gain.  She had so much information to share.  Her website is www.drlibby.com and she has a book called Accidentally Overweight that I hope to do a book club on soon.  The book is supposed to be available on Amazon soon.  This is a VERY short summary of what she said:

• 9 factors affect weight gain:  calories, thyroid function, gut bacteria, alkalinity, liver function, emotions, glycemic index, stress, and sex hormones
• the book covers these 9 factors and she reviews them on her website too.
• weight gain under the bra is caused by congested liver
• weight gain around belly button and hips is caused by cortisol (exacerbated by bad diet)
• she reviewed common problems associated with the female cycle, infertility, PCOS and PMS which can be found in the book and on the website. Its pretty involved so I wont get into it here.
• She said a really good way to help increase health is by increasing intake in GREEN veggies.

The other speaker, who was hilarious, was Shawn Achor, a psychologist from Harvard University who studies the advantages of being happy.  He also has a book, called The Happiness Advantage (another book club ). He said:

• intelligence and success go up proportionately when you are a happy person.
• we can change our vision of reality and that actually changes reality itself
• the more positive you are, the more you use the frontal lobe of your brain (he calls it the “thinker” and this is where executive functioning and processing goes on)
• he showed brain scans that showed that when people watch the news the mid brain (he calls the “jerk”) literally steals energy from the front brain.
• He demonstrated how “mirror neurons” work–its like when you see someone yawn and you yawn.  We did it with smiles; its very difficult to not smile when someone stares at you and smiles for 7 seconds.
• Your brain secretes dopamine and stimulates a smile. This shows that we are connected via mirror neurons (and energy from our “vibe” that Dr. Northrup spoke about).
• He has a list of gratitudes that you can perform every day to stay positive.  If you keep looking at the world the same way for too long it gets ingrained into your brain.  He calls it the Tetris effect (yes, like the video game).
• here are some ideas to stay positive–pick 3 to do for 21 days in a row:  write 3 things you are grateful for every day (has to be specific and have occured within 24 hours); journal all the details of one meaningful experience in the last 24 hours; exercise, which releases neurochemicals and creates a cascade of success (he said its actually more effective long term than taking antidepressants); meditation–multitasking actually decreases success rates–focus on one thing at a time; conscious acts of kindness–write a positive email for two minutes to someone everyday.
• the easier something is, the more likely you are to stick with it.  It has to take less than 20 seconds to activate.
• happiness is a choice, it spreads, it is a work ethic that you have to work on–its not passive.

Usana convention highlights part 1: the Usana Difference

The Usana International Convention took place in Salt Lake City August 24-28, 2011.  I took copious notes on the speakers that impacted me most and provided the most important information for YOU, my clients and community. Here, I will provide information from the General Sessions and the Break Out sessions that I attended, and provide some commentary or elaboration based on what I remember. Please comment and share!

Thursday, at the opening session, Dr. Myron Wentz–founder of Usana–spoke on the state of the industry and the state of the company. Before I give you the synopsis, I have to tell you that Dr. Wentz is a scientist thru and thru.  He is absolutely committed to science first, investing in the best manufacturing and certifications possible.  It is obvious to me that Usana, even though it is a supplement company whose industry has fairly low standards, strives to be not only a supplement leader, but also a leader in the science of nutrition.  They are becoming more and more involved with academic institutions to do peer-reviewed research that is at the level of pharmaceutical standards.  Understand that this is VERY rare in the nutritional industry.  As a former scientist, I have been so impressed not only with the level of science that Usana performs, but also with the level of scientists and physicians that trust Usana as well.

Here is a summary bulleted for your easy reading:

• direct selling industry is growing by leaps and bounds
• the most important factor for Usana and to separate Usana from other products out there is quality science, manufacturing, and complex understanding of the cell-body-nutrient connection.
• watch out for copy cat products: some businesses think they can just copy the award-winning formulation of the Essentials.  Its so much more complicated than that! You have to have the right form of the nutrient, in the right balance with other nutrients, and it has to be stored under the proper conditions and manufactured properly to keep the ingredients active.
• Usana nutritionals are not made out of synthetic ingredients.  The raw materials that they use are the purest natural materials possible.
• They quarantine every shipment received and test it using High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) which is about the most scrutinizing analytical test a chemical can go thru to test for purtity.
• Dr. Wentz is a world leader in researching what keeps cells their healthiest, winning the Albert Einstein award.
• Doing lots of collaborative clinical studies with the Linus Pauling Institute, TOSH (The Orthopaedic Specialty Hospital).
• Hepasil DTX is so effective at enhansing liver detoxification, they are getting it patented. (i added it to my Health Pak).
• They have upgraded Procosa joint health supplement to more effectively deliver curcumin (turmeric–a powerful anti inflammatory and antioxidant) into the cell — 30x more bioavailable than other formulations due to a special liposome encapsulation of the turmeric
• Proflavenol C 100 has been shown to increase blood flow to the periferal arteries (especially important in diabetics!)

Venuswoman blog

Hi,

This is my new blog!  it will enable me to bring information to my clients and community that I just cannot contain in a simple newsletter.  I hope that you find it informative and interesting, and most of all, relevant to helping you live a healthier life!

Please leave a comment, like, or visit my website at www.venus4her.com.

Thanks…Elyse Jarard

Owner, Venus Fitness for Her, LLC   Cincinnati, Ohio, USA