Sheila Kealey

This Week in Food, Health, and Fitness

This week, read about nutrition strategies for health and athletic performance, chocolate cake, how to define science, and more.

Nutrition Strategies for Health and Athletic Performance

I’ve complied many of my sports nutrition articles under one page, with additional information to tie it all together. The page reviews Overall Healthy Eating, Sports Nutrition, Food and Recipe Ideas for Athletes, and Sports Nutrition Resources. It’s a great resource for athletes of all ages. I”ll be adding information and new links to the page, so be sure to check back.

Chocolate Cake: Guilt or Celebration?

Do you ever feel guilty about eating certain foods? A study conducted by researchers at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand showed that associating a food like chocolate cake with celebration rather than guilt predicted healthier eating behaviors and better weight control. In the study, people who associated eating cake with guilt were more likely to have gained weight 18 months after the initial study (while cake celebraters were more successful at losing weight). (Appetite, March 2014).

Tim Crowe has a nice review of the study, and reminds us that “Eating food is far more than about nutrients and health. It is an incredibly pleasurable and social activity that is important to cultures the world over. Being overly worried and concerned about food or nutrient X may be doing more harm than good if it magnifies an unhealthy relationship with food.“

Strive to eat well, but don’t forget to celebrate food.

This Week in Food, Health, and Fitness

This week, read about how art misportrays runners, the child fitness tax credit, MSG, grapefruit juice, and more.

What Does Running Look Like?

Strike a running pose . . . are your arms and legs positioned correctly? Are you sure?

A recent study by psychologist Julian Meltzoff showed that many people will pose incorrectly (arm and leg on the same side of the body as if swinging in the same direction). If you posed wrong, you’re in good company. Meltzoff looked at the work of artists over centuries and found that this was a common error: even masters like Donatello and Da Vinci have depicted running incorrectly. Most people (including art historians) have not picked up on it. The Atlantic and Runners World had nice reviews of this research this week.

It’s not something that I’d noticed, but it didn’t take me long to find many examples of running pictured incorrectly. Even “How to Draw” websites list incorrect instructions on how to draw runners. Here are some examples I found in images from Microsoft clipart.

The Child Fitness Tax Credit – Money Well Spent?

The conservative government reports that it is doubling the Child Fitness Tax Credit to promote physical activity in youth. While this may sound like a good idea, the evidence doesn’t back up this expenditure. It’s unfortunate the government isn’t using this money in evidence-based ways to increase physical activity in youth.

There are limited data to show that such tax incentives promote physical activity in youth. A study looking at the tax credit suggests that the substantial public funds needed for the Fitness Tax Credit might have greater influence if they used in other ways: for example, toward more immediate rewards for parents (i.e., sales tax exemptions, rebates at point of sale, or subsidized programming) or used to improve recreational facilities or physical activity programs in schools. (This study is nicely summarized by obesity expert Arya Sharma here).

Other research (reviewed by physical activity expert Travis Saunders here) shows that the Child Fitness Tax credit is of little use for the kids who need it the most, and benefits parents who can already afford to put their kids in organized sport.

Inactivity in youth is a massive public health problem that needs to be addressed: these efforts may sound like the government is doing something, but they are misguided.

This Week in Food, Health, and Fitness

This week, read about how your dining partner can influence what you eat, more research on benefits of strength training, and nutrition, health, and fitness news.

The Larger Your Dining Partner, the More You’ll Eat

Here is another fascinating study from Brian Wansink of Cornell’s Food & Brand Lab. The study found that people are more likely to eat unhealthy foods if someone nearby is overweight. The study enlisted an actress who appeared in various dining conditions, including wearing a fat suit (that added 50 pounds) in one scenario. Researchers found that regardless of what the actress ate, study participants ate a larger amount of unhealthy food when the actress was wearing the fat suit than when she was not. Other research has shown that people around you can influence your commitment to your health goals. Practicing tuning into your own feelings of hunger to help you stick to you eat wisely and ignore influences around you. (Appetite, December 2014, 263-268).

Dave’s Strength Machine

Here is one of the reasons I have so much fun coaching! Dedicated athletes, innovative ideas, and incredible people, like Dave Mallory. His strength machine is pretty special . . . a movable strength fortress equipped with rollerboards, pulleys, and suspended hanging grip handles for pullups, pushups, and dips (just in case the regular form of these exercises isn’t hard enough . . .)

Dave’s Strength Machine

I coach at Nakkertok Nordic, where I get to share my passion for the outdoors and cross country skiing with other coaches and a forever impressive group of athletes. The amazing experiences that coaching has brought me are numerous, and I’m going to share one of these with you: Dave Mallory and his strength machine (a.k.a Dave’s Strength Machine).

Who is Dave?

Dave Mallory is definitely not your ordinary 70 something. A coaching legend in Ontario, he arrives at most practices on his motorcycle (equipped to carry rollerskis, poles, boots), and is just as excited as the athletes at the prospect of bombing down Black’s Lake Hill in the Gatineau Park. For over 30 years, Dave has helped skiers of all ages and stages achieve goals big and small. Wisdom is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Dave – he is observant, calm, and patient, and his smiling eyes mirror his enthusiasm for helping athletes and promoting active lifestyles.

Beyond his vast coaching expertise, skiers can thank Dave for some of the pristine grooming at Nakkertok (as well as some “jumps” inserted into fun racing events like the Boxing Day Burnoff, just to keep things “interesting”). Dave is also the mind behind several of Nakkertok’s wax room innovations.

What’s Dave’s Strength Machine?

Dave’s strength machine is a movable strength fortress equipped with with rollerboards and pulleys that is a highlight of Fall practices at Mooney’s Bay. The machine also has a variety of suspended hanging grip handles for pullups, pushups, and dips (just in case the regular form of these exercises isn’t hard enough . . . Dave is a big believer in introducing this type of instability into exercises to engage more muscle groups, improve joint stability, and use core muscles).

Of course, this means Dave can’t come to practice on his motorcycle, but he’s carefully designed his machine to fit in the back of a truck and take just minutes to assemble and disassemble.

The machine is supplemented by wobble boards, medicine balls, step up benches, and he uses the natural terrain for situps, hops and other plyometric-style exercise stations.

Every year Dave tweaks the machine routine to make it even better. He has carefully chosen each exercise, and arranged the order of stations to maximize the benefits for cross country skiers.

While watching athletes ski, Dave often notes how some technique flaws are resulting from strength weaknesses. When a new exercise appears in the rotation, you can bet that there is a pretty good rationale behind it.

Here is the 2014 routine:

The Routine

The strength machine embraces the fun and social nature of typical Nakkertok workouts: every station has two spots, so athletes pair up to do the exercises and rotate around the circuit together as Dave whistles when it’s time to change stations. Dave motivates the athletes, and takes the time to coach proper technique during the exercises. It’s hard to explain, but Dave’s coaching and his machine seems “old school” and revolutionary at the same time.

Just look at these girls having fun getting strong!

The strength machine circuit lasts for about 20 minutes, and is integrated into the athletes’ 2-hour workout. My group typically gets to the machine toward the end of their workout, and no matter what challenging activity came before, the energy you feel buzzing around this machine is incredible. The social component, rotations, stations, and Dave’s dedication and motivation turn this contraption into something pretty special.

More pictures of Dave’s Machine . . .

Share This:

Sheila Kealey

This Week in Food, Health, and Fitness

Nutrition Strategies for Health and Athletic Performance

Chocolate Cake: Guilt or Celebration?

More links of interest this week:

See More Issues of This Week in Food, Health, and Fitness

This Week in Food, Health, and Fitness

What Does Running Look Like?

The Child Fitness Tax Credit – Money Well Spent?

More links of interest this week:

See More Issues of This Week in Food, Health, and Fitness

This Week in Food, Health, and Fitness

The Larger Your Dining Partner, the More You’ll Eat

Dave’s Strength Machine

More links of interest this week:

See More Issues of This Week in Food, Health, and Fitness

Dave’s Strength Machine

Who is Dave?

What’s Dave’s Strength Machine?

The Routine