Couch to 5K + South Beach

On monday there were exactly 2 months to my wedding. My lovely bridal shower (see above pictures) had been that weekend, and all this had me thinking about my hopes to shape up before my wedding.

Overall I am fairly comfortable with my body. I definitely have some work to do, but logically I know I'm not as out of shape as I feel most of the time. I ordered my wedding dress in a size that just barely fit in February, when I was still actively losing weight. This meant that I would have to lose at least a few pounds to feel comfortable in it. As of last weekend, I had not lost those few pounds yet. Late Sunday night I decided to give myself a strict plan to follow. Here's what I'm up to...

Couch to 5K (C25K)

C25K is a program that trains people who are not physically active to run the length of a 5k race. Now I have been working out pretty regularly since January, and I am in shape enough to run a 5K, not fast but I could do it. So why I am I doing this program?

Exercise induced asthma. I have had a growing suspicion that I had this, and my allergist confirmed it. I have an inhaler to try, and it has helped in some small ways. Whenever I used to end a run I would come home and cough and wheeze for 10-15, which is not normal. My inhaler has solved this problem, but it has not solved the issue that bothers me the most. My aerobic stamina while I run is a joke. I have a hard time running slow enough for my lungs to be able to keep up, and once my lungs are pushed to their limit, I can't breathe and I have to stop and walk. After that point, each time I run my lungs last less and less time.

It's so frustrating that there was about 2 months where I didn't even want to run. Thinking about running made me feel like my chest was being squeezed, and I knew I need to a way to get past this feeling. I had read about Couch to 5K a few times for various reasons, and I finally decided to use it to try to train my lungs. It starts the first week with intervals of 60 seconds of running, followed by 90 seconds of walking. Each week you progress to increase your endurance, and there are 3 work-outs a week. I am using podcasts that someone made to go along with this program. He uses upbeat music, and tells you when to walk and run. It's pretty neat.

So far I like it because of the structure, 3 work-outs a week is easy to commit to. Also, the short intervals allow me to get a decent pace going, followed by a guaranteed recovery period. I plan to ask my allergist for a different inhaler next time I go, because I don't think this one is doing enough, but in the mean time using this plan will help me get some good work-outs in before my wedding!

The South Beach Diet

Now, as a health educator I am the first to say, diets don't work. You need to instead focus on portions and healthy eating, along with exercise.

But, I am human (and American). I eat fairly healthy on a regular basis, and I can tell a huge difference in how I feel when I am eating right and when I'm not. I also like a challenge though, and sometimes challenging yourself is a good way to bring long term small changes.

I had never looked in to the South Beach Diet (SBD) before, because like I said, I really don't believe in diets. Some people I work with have used it though, and when I looked it up and started reading, I was intrigued, and wanted to give it a try.

It starts with a 2 week diet of all vegetables, protein, and small amounts of dairy. After those 2 weeks you start to add some carbohydrates and sugars back in to your diet, and so on.

There are critics that say you gain the weight back, but seriously. Talk to any bride 2 months before her wedding, and she will say, just get me through that day.

Today was my third day of the strict first phase, and so far I doing good, and I am still enjoying the challenge. I think I am cheating a little though. I had 3 servings of dairy today instead of 2, and I am having one dove milk chocolate Promise each night for dessert, and I am not supposed to have any sugar. Sue me.

So, that's what I'm up to right now. Interning, wedding planning (really coming along), and dieting and exercising.

How are you? How has your summer been?

(The pics below are from a walk my friend Allison and I take Tuesday nights. This week we started in the Arb, walked to Gallup Park, and then through Furstenberg Park, and then back. It was a 2 hour walk, and it was amazing outside!)

On Wellness Literacy

As someone studying Health Behavior and Health Education, I have spent time learning about health literacy. In fact, health literacy is perhaps the area of my field I am most interested in.

Healthy literacy is "the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decision."

As you can see from this definition, there is no mention of ability to read. Health literacy is about more than being able to read. For instance, have you ever walked out of your doctor's office saying that you have no questions. But really, you're not sure how to take your new prescription, or why it is that you're being referred to a specialist.

Low health literacy can affect people of any race, age, income, or education level. Just because you know how to read, write, and speak a language, does not mean that you understand the issues related to your medical care. Doctors are not trained to speak at the patient's level, and when you are trained to use a certain language to speak about something, it's hard to feel like you are communicating the correct information if you don't use that language you were trained in. Basically, doctors, nurses, and health educators have a hard time letting go of words sometimes.

But outside of the medical realm, there are things that you read, hear, and process every day that affect your overall wellness.

For instance, all of the food you eat has an impact on your health. And virtually everyone knows that to be healthy you need to watch your calorie and fat intake. But does everyone know how to read a food label? Sure you may look at it and see the number of calories, but unless the serving size is the same size as the container, you have to do a little thinking about how much you can eat to take in that number of calories.

I was buying popcorn the other day, and I just started eating kettle corn. I wanted to see how many calories I was getting myself into though. I looked down, and thought, this is outrageous! How can lightly flavored popcorn have this many calories. I started to walk away, but decided to take a second look. I knew I had to be missing something.

As it turns out, I was looking at the number of calories that 1 cup of unpopped corn is. The popped amount was far smaller, and closer to what I expected. That's not to say that it got easy from that point on, figuring out the serving size was beyond what I felt like dealing with.

Now in all fairness, if I stop and think clearly about this popcorn label, it takes me about a minute to figure out what it all means. But what if you read at a 4th grade level? What if you have limited numeracy? Staying well in today's world is not as easy as many doctors and even health educators would have you believe.

Media literacy also impacts everyday health literacy. What I mean by this is, if you don't know how to decipher what is credible and what is bullshit in the media, your functional health literacy will likely decrease. You will likely fall for fad diets, or believe that a miracle pill will help you lose weight, or that a new supplement discovered in the jungle will cure cancer. And even if you wanted to go search for more information for yourself, do you know how to tell if a website it credible. And even if that website is full of credible information, will you feel overwhelmed by how little white space there is on the page or how many technical words are used.

I could go on, but I suppose my main concern stems from how incredibly simple and difficult it is to stay healthy in America. And in the public health field, all the attention going to health literacy is focused on the doctor/patient interaction. There is so much more to health literacy though, and only focusing on the medical side will not reach far enough.

Let's not condemn all who make the wrong choices, let's find ways to better present information so they can understand how to make the right choices. Let's put restrictions on health products and claims not reviewed by credible scientists. And let's integrate functional health literacy in to school curriculums.

If only it were so easy...