Entries for December 2008

It's snowy. It's cold. It's windy. And in the past three days, you've eaten your weight in holiday cookie dough (or maybe that's just me). Clearly, between the extra food and the stress of visiting relatives, right now you need your exercise routine more than ever. But the snow, cold, and wind don't have to mean you have to head to the gym and fight the hordes waiting for the next available treadmill, either.

As one environmental physiologist once said, "Man in the cold is not necessarily a cold man." In other words: Suck it up, cupcake, and get out the door. With proper preparation, clothing, and common sense, there's really no place on Earth where it's so cold that you absolutely must forsake your outdoor exercise routine. "If you have the right gear, you can do anything you want in the cold," says John Castellani, a research physiologist at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine and an expert on cold injuries and exercise.

You've probably been thinking a lot about ways to weather a recession, but what about saving money on your fitness routine? (No, the answer is not to quit working out entirely.) Here are some tips:

*Get a deal from your gym. I wrote earlier this year about how to maximize the value of your health-club or gym membership. Those tips—look for discounts through outside groups, never pay an initiation fee—hold true now more than ever. In addition to these, try buying in bulk: Purchase a discounted package of classes or personal training sessions rather than more expensive singletons, says Cedric Bryant, chief science officer for the American Council on Exercise. Or split the cost of a training session with a friend.

If you can no longer stomach your monthly dues, try to negotiate with a sales rep. The club might well rather keep you as a customer at a lower rate than lose you entirely. And the YMCA offers scholarships for people who cannot afford their membership fees, which are already lower than fees at many commercial clubs.

Now we all know exactly how much Oprah weighs and that she's not very happy about it. In a forthcoming issue of her eponymous magazine, O, she confesses that she's gained 40 pounds in the last few years, putting her at 200 pounds. Now, admittedly, few people in the world can command press coverage simply by announcing what the scale reads (Google "Oprah" and "weight" and you'll get more than 4.3 million hits), but her technique of public disclosure is certainly one that the rest of us are free to adopt with our friends, family, and coworkers.

Talking openly about your weight-loss goals might not be a bad idea, says Brian Zehetner, a sports nutrition consultant who owns Fueling Performance in Woodbury, Minn. (One glaring exception: if you have a history of disordered eating. In that case, "focusing on the magic number can be really problematic," he says.) But for those who don't, setting a goal can help you tune in a little more, plus add some accountability and rope in some support from people around you. And many researchers advise using those very principles when managing your weight.

Here's a list of the things I know I should do but don't: Eschew Nutter Butters during the daylight hours, walk the dog at lunchtime rather than catching the back half of What Not to Wear, and shred old mail promptly rather than letting it build up in huge shredder-choking stacks. (And that's just for starters.) But I have trouble translating those fairly reasonable goals into action—in other words, I lack willpower. I'm obviously not alone; think of how much trouble we Americans have keeping our weight down, making time for the gym, avoiding purchases we can't afford, and so on. Willpower alone won't magically solve all of society's problems, but a little more sure couldn't hurt.

It turns out plenty of scientists are studying the idea of willpower and how to increase it. (A study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests your weight-loss willpower can get a boost from financial incentives, for example.) I caught up with a few researchers to get their tips for surviving the season of temptation.

In the overheated world of youth sports, it's come to this: a gene test that claims to predict whether a child is more likely to become an endurance athlete like Lance Armstrong or a sprinter like Dara Torres. As the New York Times reported over the weekend, some parents are paying $149 for the test in an attempt to get their kids matched with the sports at which they're most likely to succeed. My favorite part of the story quotes Donna Campiglia, mother of Noah, discussing her favorable opinion of the test:

"I could see how some people might think the test would pigeonhole your child into doing fewer sports or being exposed to fewer things, but I still think it's good to match them with the right activity," Ms. Campiglia, 36, said as she watched a toddler class at Boulder Indoor Soccer in which Noah struggled to take direction from the coach between juice and potty breaks.