Oh yes I did.
Category: Health
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On Cold Showers
So looking at the title a lot of you are probably thinking I’ll pass. I’ve found that my recent foray back into working out has left me rather sore at times. Looking around online I noticed people sometimes mentioning contrast bathing as a way to help with the soreness.
This reminded me of something I read when I was skimming the 4 Hour Body. Tim Ferriss mentions that taking a cold shower can help stimulate weight loss via bat thermogenesis. The technique he uses actually seems relatively close to taking a Scottish Shower. After searching around some more it seems that people tout cold showers for a lot of random stuff like a stronger immune system, clearing of allergies, etc.
I figure…why not. If anything I’m saving on heating and probably wasting less water as I’m much more motivated to finish my showers now. So for the past week or so I’ve been trying out this cold shower technique. I start off with hot water and at least let myself enjoy it for the shampoo. It’s during the soap portion where I hit cold water. I’ve come up with a few techniques that make it bearable.
- Hide from the water and wash yourself off piece by piece (arm first, then other arm, etc) Soon it’s not quite as bad and you can jump in and finish it off
- Slowly turn the water from hot to cold. This does work, but I think the first technique works better for me.
- Just do it. Worth trying at least once for the shock value haha.
I can’t really say whether or not it’s had any effect other than the obvious ones of saving on heating, making me shower fast, and waking me up. Whether it helps me avoid colds, alleviate muscles soreness, live allergy free, live longer, burn fat, etc…I’m not sure I’ll ever know as I have no good way of measuring. But in the interim I think I’ll stick to it for a while longer. While I know many of you enjoy your hot shower, it’s actually not all that bad and I’d say give it a try. If you’re a morning shower person I guarantee I’ll wake you right up so there’s an added bonus. It’s less useful if you shower at night and want to sleep early though =)
This post may be a bit long, but I just wanted to write a bit about my experiences in changing around how I eat and maybe someone else can gain something from it as well.
As I mentioned in my 2011 Goals post in the past few years I’ve gotten more interested in trying out various changes to my diet to see if they make a difference and also just because. Who knows why, just to try maybe. I tend to avoid fad diets that give you little nutrition and prefer to focus more on the more holistic lifestyle change type things as they seem more sustainable and healthier. I tend to go on and off these diet changes as I feel like it and maybe that’s why I keep changing it around. Just to keep things new.
This started out with just recording what I was eating and guesstimating the caloric content. This actually worked pretty in making me watch what I ate because well…I would hate to drink that soda then have to write down the 160 calories I wasted on it. I’m actually pretty sure it drove some people crazy because I can get a bit OCD sometimes about these kinds of things. I believe this was a good exercise to start with because more than anything it made me more aware of the “cost” of eating certain foods and since I tend to eat certain foods more I got pretty good at guesstimating without looking stuff up all the time. Sure I may be off by 500 calories at the end of the day…but isn’t that better than not knowing at all?
The next diet that actually piqued my interest was after hearing about how a New York Times food columnist lost weight. Mark Bittman’s Vegan before 6 approach was interesting to me for two reasons:
- I’ve never tried being vegan before.
- I can eat whatever I want for dinner which is actually generally my largest meal (I know I know, but sue me it’s how I grew up)
I tried it for about 3 months and found that it’s amazingly hard to be a true vegan. My breakfasts always consisted of oatmeal with agave with maybe fruit. Lunches were always salad of some sort or cooked veggies and maybe some sort of starch like rice or potatoes. To be honest, I like meat and was pretty hungry by 3 or 4. There aren’t many pastries or breads to eat because they tend to contain butter, eggs, or honey. Then I found hummus and pita. Apples and peanut butter were also great. After the initial adapting phase I got used to it. Near the end of my experiment I happen to have a blood panel done. The results were pretty good. BP good, fasting glucose levels good, cholesterol awesome (I had more HDLs than LDLs and an overall low score), but considering I’ve never done a blood test before (at least that I can remember) I couldn’t say it was directly related to my diet. But I wouldn’t discount the diet completely either. Either way it’s not a bad way to eat since you have dinner to curb your cravings, but still a bit difficult if you’re not prepping your own breakfast and lunches. Again milk, egg, honey…they show up everywhere.
Finally to my most recent venture inspired by the very popular Paleo Diet trend right now. I remember hearing about this maybe a year ago and thinking that it was interesting…but alas I am Asian and love my rice, and so was not ready to embark on the experiment. Now that it’s gained a bit more traction and there’s a bit more study around it I’m ready to give it a shot. At the very least I can have my beloved meats (sorry animal lovers…I like my meat). Paleo itself is a pretty strict diet, but I’ve found many people do paleo spirited diets. I say in the spirit of paleo because they allow small cheats like the occasional milk product or legume. In the interests of being flexible, which ultimately leads me to stay sane and stick to it more, you’ll find me eating in the spirit of paleo with the occasional total cheat meal/day as I come from a family of carb eaters. We loves our man tou and butter. I’ll be posting my daily intake so as to be honest to myself on my eats page and just for record keeping. There is no greater motivation than to see your track record and to aim to do better than you did the day before.
Looks like posting the 2011 goals have been useful as I’ve hit the gym more often than not as of late. Recording stats is also probably helping. It must be the RPG nerd in me.
So today’s run has been the longest run in the VFF’s so far. Ran a 10k split at 2 paces. First 5k@10 min/mile and 2nd 5k@~9 min/mile. I say approx because I tried to push a faster pace and then ended up having to slow it down a bit. So I just did the math and found it averaged to just about 9. To protect the rubbing areas I turned to bandaids which actually worked really really well. Unfortunately I think I’m feeling what may be a new callous forming around the ball of my feet. Maybe this is just part of what’s needed to push distance in the VFFs?
Finally, the Bio Impedance fat meter came today. After trying it a few times I think I can get pretty wild readings. So I think in the interest of keeping things consistent I’m going with an average right after waking and an average right before bed. More than anything I’ll be tracking the trend over time since the actual % can vary depending when you use it, how hydrated you are, and even how you hold it.
Debated for a while about running since it’s still in the 40s and chilly, but decided to F it and man up so I went running around the neighborhood. Based on yesterday’s rubbing I put on some tape on both feet just in case. After the run I checked and while the tape took a rubbing my skin is still intact. Still unsure about a long term solution though. I really hope that I won’t have to tape every time I want to head out for a longer run.
I’m also wondering when I’ll be able to start doing longer runs more consistently. I’m still feeling the calf soreness from these shorter runs, but it seems like my recovery is getting to the point where I think I could do a run everyday if I wanted to.
Wanted to go for longer, but it seems that those blisters kick in right around the 3 mile mark. Will try with band-aids next time.
First run today and decided to try again without the tape. Seemed like it went ok as I didn’t feel any chafing, but then again it was a pretty short run. Will try again later this week on a longer run. Cross your fingers!
Did a lightish bike ride around the Tustin area with some friends. Overall very similar to the Palo Alto loop that I do. It’s maybe slightly harder with one 10% grade hill…or I could be out of shape again (that’s very likely).
So even though I didn’t make any resolutions I did get a workout in. Take that 2011!
12/28/10: VFF Outside Run: 2.36 Miles in 21:23
Today: VFF Outside Run: 4.27 in 37:47
Now that I’ve done a handfuls of runs in the VFFs I think I can say they’re getting more comfortable. I seem to be able to slip in and out of them a lot easier than I used to. The running also seems to be getting a bit easier. Can’t tell if my form is getting any better though.
As far as the downsides go washing it took care of the Five Finger Funk that people seem to talk about.
An outstanding issue is still the rubbing that started happening after that first wash. They’re still rubbing up against the inside of my feet, but I’ve found a temporary workaround…tape. It didn’t quite hold up for today’s run though. I took off the shoes and found that I had totally torn up one of them. On the upside I didn’t notice that something was wrong so it wasn’t really bothering me that much =)
Here’s to more running (and hopefully biking) next year. I’ll learn how to swim someday.
First outside test of the VFFs today. You can definitely feel the rocks if you’re on a path full of them, but other than that it wasn’t too bad.
I did pick up 2 blisters on the inside of my feet though. Somehow after washing them the seams are harder than before (or something). All I know is I didn’t have this problem before. Anyone got answers?