Quick calorie counter

I just added a little gadget on the right side of this blog that allows you to count up the calories you have eaten. Click the Settings link to customize it to your size and activity level. Enjoy! Be honest.

Your chair is beating the hell out of you

Remember how your Mom used to yell at you at the dinner table to stop slouching? She was right. I bet she wouldn’t like the way you sit at your desk either.

A study by Canon UK found that the average desk dweller sits in their chair the equivalent of 34 weeks per year. That is not a typo. A number of people think that buying a $900 chair makes this OK. It probably helps, but it does not compensate for the effects of sitting, especially when you add bad posture to the mix.

You have muscles that run from your low back to the upper part of your legs called psoas, also known as hip flexors. They are what allow you lift your knee up (hip flexion). Try that movement right now and notice what it mimics: your legs in the sitting position. So, if you were to maintain this position for 5-6 hours per day, the muscles naturally begin to shorten and you lose flexibility.

Shortened hip flexors can cause you to lean forward when standing, which places undue pressure on your lower back as well as other arthokinematic distortions. Click here to see a detailed video of the mechanics of how this works. Your body will compensate for it, but not always in a way that is beneficial to you.

There are a few things you can do to help alleviate this common office warrior issue:

• Stand up at least once per hour and stretch for 2-3 minutes. One of the best stretches you can do in the office is the following:
• Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, toes pointed straight ahead, left foot about 18 inches in front of you.
• Reach up as high as you can with your right arm
• Bend as far as you can to the left with your arm still extended
• Slightly twist back to your left and hold for 20-30 seconds
• Repeat for the other side, do this 2 times on each side
• Try to strengthen the opposing muscles in your back: the erector spinae. You can do this by doing back extensions on a Swiss ball or a prone cobra core exercise
• Think about working part of the day from a stand-up desk or worktable
• Make sure when you workout that you are not making the problem worse by always doing seated exercises (stationary bike, any seated resistance machine, etc.)

Take care of your posture. Make Mom proud.

I know exactly how many calories you can eat in a day and not gain weight. Do you?

I would argue that guessing, and erring on the side of easier, is most people’s greatest enemy when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight. People underestimate the size of their food portions, how many calories are in them, and how much extra stuff (butter, dressing, etc.) they put on it.  Many people also overestimate their activity level, how many calories they are burning on the elliptical trainer and how many calories they need to eat in a day.

Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is fat and unhealthy.

It is kind of like not having a speedometer in your car and then wondering why you keep getting speeding tickets. You can moan and groan that you “thought” you were going the right speed. Maybe you might even say, “Well, I don’t care what speed I am going as long as I’m comfortable with it.” Do these arguments sound familiar? The inescapable fact is that you eventually have to face the consequences whether that is Judge Harkins at traffic court or Mr. Love Handles and his sidekick, Diabetes.

Don’t guess; ask the right questions.

Check out these calculators that will help you find out exactly what you need to manage your personal health and wellness regimen. You can even add an application to your Google home page to quickly calculate what you need to do. Some things you might learn:

1. If you know how many calories you can eat, it also lets you know how many you CAN’T eat if you want to lose weight.
2. You may like that elliptical machine, but it comes at a price: you only burn about half the calories as running in the same amount of time.
3. What does it take to lose a pound of body fat? The loss of 3500 calories. Burn it, don’t eat it, whatever. Lose the 3500 or keep the pound.
4. Your genes are influential on how you look and where you store fat. However, except in rare medical cases, everyone can lose their excess body fat. If I put you on a desert island for 45 days with limited food and increased activity to survive, I guarantee that you would lose a tremendous amount of weight.
5. Number 4 evidently does not apply to that one character on the TV show, Lost.

Some people may say this is too complicated Who said this was going to be easy? Has ANYTHING you have ever achieved in your career been easy? What would your response be to a young associate who did not want to complete a project because it was “too complicated”? Remember that look of disdain on your face when you think about skipping over your own planning and preparation.