Livestrong Together

 

Fourteen years ago, on October 2, Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer - but with the news that it had spread to his abdomen, lungs and brain his chances were greatly hampered. He was only 25 years old.

 

Through a combination of determination, education, physical conditioning, aggressive medical treatments and a positive attitude, Lance fought back at the disease. Before even knowing how the story would end he declared himself a cancer survivor. He created the LIVESTRONG Foundation as a support and advocacy group for other survivors. And he never backed down. Amazingly, after his treatments finished, he went on to win the Tour de France a record breaking seven times in a row.

 

Lance Armstrong has been an inspiration to me and his LIVESTRONG website has long been a source of knowledge and motivation for me as I try to incorporate healthy choices into my own lifestyle.         

 

Today is LIVESTRONG Day - a global event to raise support and awareness for the 28 million cancer survivors worldwide. I am going to wear yellow today in support of the LIVESTRONG ideology and in honour of Lance Armstrong and the way he showed us to believe in our strengths. 

 

You can also participate in LIVESTRONG Day online - help spread the word.

September...

Means I am back to the gym now after the laziness of summer vacation. Thirty minutes on the cross trainer tonight and I am feeling it!

I recently watched a TED Talk (Keep Your Goals To Yourself) where Derek Sivers talks about how you should never verbalize your goals to people as it apparently makes it far less likely you will actually carry through with those goals (something about your brain considering the immediate accolades you get from people when you express your goal to be equivalent to "Mission Accomplished") so I'm not going to tell you how often I am planning on going and I won't list my most immediate goals.

This TED talk is worth a listen and is only three minutes.

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

Today's Livestrong newsletter broaches the topic of Vitamin D, something that I have been interested in ever since the Cancer Society of Canada suggested that large doses of Vitamin D can help prevent or fight cancer. Other health experts have suggested that Vitamin D deficiencies (hypovitaminosis D) of Canadians could be attributing to our higher instances of auto-immune disorders, like MS.

Vitamin D (commonly referred to as the "sunshine vitamin") plays an important role in both our physical and mental health. The vitamin is made by our bodies when our skin is exposed to direct ultraviolet rays from the sun for at least 20 mins at a time. The problem with living in Canada is that we don't get a lot of sunshine and we often don't go out in the sun unprotected (sunscreen hampers this process).

I can't recommend to you how much Vitamin D you should supplement your diet with as I am not an expert, but I can suggest to you to go off and research it yourself to determine what would benefit your lifestyle. Personally, in the winter I will take up to 1000 IU a day and in the summer I often drop it down to 400 IU a day and will sometimes even skip it (because I am a sun worshiper and often forget my sunscreen).

Vitamin D is one of only four vitamins that are stored by the body and as such we have been long taught not to take too much of it. This way of thinking is changing with new research and from what I've come to understand it would actually be difficult to ingest enough Vitamin D to produce toxicity (In healthy adults a sustained intake of 50,000 IU per day can produce toxicity after several months). Currently most information I've found suggests the "Tolerable Upper Limit" of Vitamin D is around 2000 IU per day.

Vitamin D is easy to obtain and take in pill form - I would suggest asking your pharmacist to recommend a trusted brand to you if decide to add a supplement to your diet.

Let's go to the Market!

This past summer Duncan and I have developed a weekend ritual of hanging out at a Farmer's Market. We walk around the market checking out all the wares and making selections that allow us to support the local economy. Eventually we return home with an armload of locally grown fruits and veggies and sometimes some buffalo or specialty sausage to BBQ. Every trip brings something different.

Normally we go to the City Centre Market but today Duncan suggested we go to the St. Albert Farmer's Market, which happens to be the largest outdoor market in western Canada. With 250 vendor's to choose from you really could find everything here that you might need (except a cool basket to carry it all in). Today we bought some Rosemary Garlic Chicken sausages from Sunworks Farm, an SPCA certified family farm that raises their animals ethically, organically and free range. They were very good!

If you haven't yet been to this market (Saturdays 10am-3pm) I highly recommend it. We will definitely be back.

Have a Heart?

I want to blog about recycling - but not the kind that comes to mind when someone says "recycling." We can be recycled. Yes, you read that right.

Most of us have a cursory understanding of organ and tissue donation - likely from stories in the media about people waiting for heart or kidney transplants - but I don't know how many people realize that almost ALL of us is recyclable. In addition to our organs you can also donate your eyes, skin, tendons, bones and cartilage. In fact, just one person can provide usable parts for up to 75 different people!

Now that's the ultimate act of recycling!

I like this idea quite a bit but I am ridiculously paranoid about carrying around an organ donor card so I've made other preparations. I've let my family know that should I meet with an unfortunate and untimely death that I would be happy if they donated whatever they felt they could part with. I've also included this in my Will and Power of Attorney documents.

You should think about this too. For more info (in Alberta) check out Alberta Health Services. For other places just google "Organ and Tissue Donation" with your location.

Rule #1 - Cardio

Today was much easier to get out to our workout as it is Canada Day. As the gym didn't open early today I was able to sleep in, which was a bonus all in itself.

The gym wasn't very crowded (it usually isn't in the mornings, but less so today) so access to the machines was plentiful and I was able to do my usual circuit without much waiting. My Doctor had outlined 30 minutes of weight/resistance training he wants me to do, but some of the machines I like to do more sets on (like the calf raise) so I actually spent 45 minutes on this part of my work out. Cardio is next, another 30 minutes is what the Doctor ordered. I was going to use a machine but my son wanted to do the track so I walked/ran on the track.

I realize that my workout is a little haphazard and that I should likely focus a tad bit more on what I am actually doing (i.e. trying to build muscle and tone) so before I left I booked an appointment with a personal trainer. That's for next Tuesday evening, which unfortunately means I am going to have to miss Yoga but it was the only appointment time available for the entire month of July.

I told my daughter that I would run the Bloomsday Run with her in 2011. Seemed like an easy thing to promise at the time (haha) but if I am going to be running 12 kms by the beginning of May next year I should develop a training plan for that as well.

After our work out this morning Wesley treated me to Booster Juice - I had a 12 oz Brazilian Thunder with extra fibre, which was tasty and only amounted to 220 calories, less than what I burned this morning at the gym.

Life is good :)

Dare to LIVESTRONG!

This year I've been focusing on certain lifestyle changes aimed at living and feeling healthier. I've read and learned a lot about diet and activity but some of the best information I've found is on Lance Armstrong's website Dare to Change Your Life. I highly recommend it, both as a resource and for inspiration.

Happy Bloomsday!

Here are Raven's Bloomsday 2010 results:

Finish Time (12km): 1:17:59
Pace: 10.5 mins a mile (avg for age group 14.47 min)
Placed 70th out of 638 14 yr old female runners
Placed 183rd out of 1887 13-15 yr old runners (age group)
OVERALL: 10,981 out of 49,674 runners

Faster every year! Congrats Raven!