This Week In Workouts: Running

Happy Sunday all! I hope your weekend has been wonderful. This weekend I picked up a new book series, so all my spare time has been spent reading it. Book one was finished last night and book two started. Once I finish book three, I will be sure to tell you the book and my thoughts!

The hubs has also been pretty sick this weekend with that bug that seems to be hitting 60% of us. So, it has been a stay-at-home couple of days as well. Thankfully, I am not sick and have been able to kick up my running a bit this week. Next week my cousin will be introducing myself and her sister to Barry's Boot Camp down in Miami. Needless to say, this week has been filled with a bit extra cardio in preparation. The cardio has also been spurred on with a fun new app I got called Nike+ Running. I know, it has been around forever, but I just started having fun with it this week... More info on that to come in the future!

Sunday: My first Pure Barre class where my legs and back and abs were sore for two days.

Monday: My first Nike+ run of 4-miles followed by eating soup... It has been a cold week in Florida

Tuesday: Another Nike+ run of 3-miles followed by this detox yoga flow which I loved after a run.

Wednesday: This Power Vinyasa Yoga flow by Ali K. It was great! You will be about 3/4's of the way through before it feels like 10-minutes have passed!

Thursday: Another 3-mile Nike+ run and the first one I tracked! Whoohoo, tracking! It worls pretty great :)

Friday: Rest day which was meant to be another 5-mile run but I found a book and read through the run. What can I say, I am a story addict.

Saturday: Late night AMRAP kettlebell workout from Pumps and Iron that left me dripping sweat after 15-minutes (photo above). I was part-way through number eight when that glorious timer went off. This was followed by a nice full-body yoga flow from Tara Stiles. Then more reading, and bed much, much later.

Do You Plan to Have Children?

Warning: This is a pretty personal post that has nothing to do with health or fitness or Disney. 

I currently have 5+ friends and family members who are either pregnant or had a baby within the last two months. This, like any other time when I see people changing around me, has started some thinking. From the time that I was about 14 the thought has been that I do not want to have children. And, since childhood I knew that I did not want to birth a child. All of my baby dolls (I had many) were, actually, all adopted and I would have told anyone if they had asked. It is not that I dislike children or think them unimportant or hate the idea of childbirth- really, it is quite the opposite.

Having a child that you must cultivate into a caring human being that gives back to our world is a large task and one that I am not quite sure I am cut-out for. My personal goal has always been to help as many children and as many animals as possible all around the world. As far as the childbirth goes, I do not know where the love of adoption came from but the idea of having a child when so many others are without homes and parents never really sat right with me.

There have been a great many articles and news reports from bloggers, magazines, and news stations about women who do not want to raise families. Since the 70's, the number of women who do not have children has doubled. This could partially be because of infertility, but it also has a lot to do with women and families making new choices that were not always available to them. Now, we can decide what age, job position, home, and income we want to be before starting a family

When I was younger I thought, "maybe in about ten years, when I have done enough good in the world and am ready to settle down, we can look into adoption." Now, six years later, I am still saying maybe in ten years and have even thought of ten plus years from now. Funny, but when people ask my husband and I about when we are having children and we say, "maybe in ten years," the responses are always different and almost always odd. My Dad is totally fine with it and thinks if we have them we should wait a long long time while my Mom cried when I told her I did not want children. Most people, however, look at me like I have three eyes or say something like, "well you will change your mind when you get older." That is the most hated response. To anything. From anyone. Ever.

For my husband, the most difficult part of the not having kids deal is the idea that we are selfish because we are not having children. That is not the case. In fact, we both feel like we can do more good for more people without children at this stage of our life. This article from Cup of Jo got me thinking about the whole selfish bit and the idea of feeling we can pass judgment on someone for their choices. It is common for a person to be asked why they would not want children, but almost rude to ask someone why they would. Personally, they both seem like interesting questions that could get us to learn a bit more about each other.

The decision to have children is a pretty big deal, as one Cup of Jo writer put it, "There are three positions people should probably feel a calling for: any sort of religious leadership, teaching or childrearing." This so well sums up the importance of such a simple decision that can so often be overlooked. With that in mind, what are your views on having children? Do you have children or want them in the future? Why or why not? I would love to hear your thoughts either personally or publicly. 

Side note, this picture is the first time I met my two cousins who have always been more like sisters to me. As of next Saturday, the one holding me will have officially introduced me to Barry's fitness. Cannot wait!!!

Tuna Jerky

On our last trip to Disney World, the hubs found the most amazing thing in the EPCOT Japan Pavillion- Tuna Jerky. All jerky-loving pescatarians can now join in and sing the Hallelujah chorus. This stuff is amazing. It is environmentally harvested tuna that does not harm dolphins and tastes exactly like that delicious beef jerky, but without that cumbersome bloody taste or the whole being meat bit.

Now, I know that this cannot become my own personal food group on a P+K food pyramid (as much as I would love it to), but having some delicious tuna jerky as a special treat every once-in-a-while is something I won't argue.

This has seriously opened a whole new world to me. The jerky is eco-friendly and I can pronounce all of the ingredients. Score! Since leanring about this whole new part of the jerky world, I have found quite a few fish jerky companies, but none that seem quite as dedicated as these guys. There are no chemicals used in the making of the jerky and all tuna is AAA Grade sushi quality.

The Tuna Company seems pretty new. I, sadly, cannot find an products on Amazon yet and am seriously wondering why it was in EPCOT Japan. So far, it seems to be available on their website for $5.99 a pack, or less, depending on how much you buy. This stuff is not crazy spicy but does have a little bit of a kick in that traditional, dry-rub, jerky kind of way. Mmmm, so good!

Does Where We Live Affect Our Health

I recently watched this video on YouTube. It was very informative on diets and healthstyle in Japan, and got me wondering about the US. Yes, we know that the US tops the World charts for obesity, but are there areas around the US that are better or worse? And where should I live if I want to diet successfully? Turns out that the answers to all of these questions were just a few searches away. Oh internets, what did we ever do without you?

As far as demographics for BMI in the US, that one is pretty easy. States were ranked depending on the percentage of people who fell into the "obese" category for the Body Mass Index.  A healthy BMI is between 18.5%-24.9%, overweight is 25%-29.9%, and obese is anything 30% and above. If you do not know your BMI, click here for a quick calculation. Although no state is the US has below 20% of the people being obese, there were quite a few with 20%-25% of people being over 30% BMI. As of 2010, those with the best score included California, Colorado, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, and Utah. In 2009, Colorado was the only state to have below 20% of the population fall into the obese category.

States with the highest percentage of obesity (more than 30% of the population) were Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia. The state with the highest percent of obesity was Mississippi at 34%.

Although these numbers by no means say that certain states have all unhealthy people in them or are, overall, less healthy than others, it is very interesting to look at which states fall into each category. Obviously, states where health and fitness are highly encouraged (like California, Colorado, and New York) have lower percentages of obesity. These states are also less accepting of fast and preservative filled foods.

Whether we are healthier or less healthy depending on our area is a completely new thought in many research fields. Researchers are currently finding that everything from the UV index of your area to the altitude at which you live can affect your health. Those who live closer to chemical plants, smog, and fast food restaurants tend to be less healthy than those who live near fresh produce groceries and even those at higher altitudes.

Personally, I know that when we go up to Michigan (a red state in obesity), I tend to gain between 2-3 pounds per summer. Then, I come home and it is gone within two months. This is not to say anything terrible about Michigan, I just do not eat as healthy as I do at home even though we work to eat healthier every summer we are away!

P.S. For a super detailed list of obesity depending on state, check out the link here. The CDC also has some fantastic info on obesity. Most of my numbers were taken straight from this article along with tidbits from here, and here, and here... Just in case there were not enough random numbers for you to look at ;)