It's been a pleasure in the past to present geeks - phd students, researchers - who also find a path towards fitness. Georgie Fear of AskGeorgie.com is a rather exceptional example of the blend.

Georgie is an RD, a registered dietician (think food doctor, more on this below), a fitness coach, a published researcher, PhD student, and now, Cook Book Author of the new COOK BOOK Dig In

Georgie has just released this awesome cookbook (in both ebook and paper) that is perfect for geeks who both want to eat healthily and tastily, but who don't have time to put together gourmet feasts. In Dig In, while many recipes are from scratch in the traditional sense of whole fresh ingredients, one of the things i enjoy about her recipes is that Georgie is unafraid of using intriguing foods that come in time saving tins, glass jars and plastic containers that still scream "tasty & healthy."

Both are possible.

We'll talk more about Dig In in a moment, but first, allow me to present an interview i've done with Georgie about her geek academic choices, and where health and fitness comes into that picture.

If you wear glasses, you may want to think about moving over to contact lenses.

Why?

The muscles of the eye, focal length, and long term condition. Here's a few tips on how/why to think about each of these issues.

Food is crtical to our survival; we're pretty wired to prepare for scarcity.
A lot of the best diet practices today focus therefore on habits rather than calories first, and making it safe for us to change from survival habits to aware habits.

Here's a guarantee that if you don't change anything else but make one change in the following categories, you will lose weight, consistently. The biggie will then be your persistence with this single change.

For one week, do one push up, once a day.

That's it.

If you can't do a full push up from the ground, no worries, do one from your knees.

If that's too much for you today, that's ok, too. Lean stand arms length away from a wall, and do a push up against the wall.

Based on very preliminary (about a month of )study, there seems to be a really good approach to help not just set goals, but get rid of the crap around goals (eg, fear that might come up around a goal; trepidation; arrogance - whatever - all sorts of stuff).

We don't hear folks talk about that part of the goal process much. In fact i hadn't really thought about the "stuff" around a goal - having previously just focused on whether a goal was SMART (specific, measureable, etc) But what about whether the goal is really YOUR goal? Or if it is (like getting your phd before 2014), then is there stuff up around it that is making achieving it harder than it should be?

I've written a preliminary review of this approach to decluttering around goals over at begin2dig. Suffice it to say that getting a dead simple process to help clear out and let go of stuff around goals, and indeed just to be more open to other possibilities for health, wealth and relationship well being is a Really Good Thing.

If that sounds interesting, you can get a free CD/DVD and mp3 that actually lays out the whole process that's covered in the 20 CD (!) course . You may well find that you get enough from the CD and web site that you don't need anything else, but i'd encourage you to check out the cd freebie, poke around the articles on the site, and investigate what surfacing and sweeping out one's *stuff" might do for you. Let me know what you find.

In fact, healthy early life practices, including the adequate consumption of most nutrients, calcium in particular, and regular physical activity, contribute to greater bone mineral mass and optimal peak bone mass. Bone is living tissue that responds to exercise by becoming stronger.

and elsewhere:

Overall, the evidence strongly suggests that regular physical activity, especially started in childhood and adolescence, is a cheap and safe way of both improving bone strength and reducing the risk to fall.

So while we've all heard how good calcium is for bone health, fewer of us know, it seems, that bones are living thriving tissue that are CONSTANTLY rebuilding in what's called "remodelling." Bone loss is a constant and natural part of that process: out with the old; in with the new. We may hear about bone deterioration effects more in elderly women (all those broken hips ), bone loss is just as prevalent in all of us.

In a sense, to get our bodies to keep replacing the bone it takes away, we need to prove to our bodies regularly that we NEED the bone mineral density (BMD) we have, and if we want more, well, we have to prove that too. And we prove that by the demands we put on our frame, not by the amount of vitamins we take (though we need those too to build that bone).

The good news is that bone is amazing, living tissue - of which only a part is the skeletal remains we find in mummies and doctors offices. Bone tissue is also (like the rest of us it seems) highly plastic and responds constantly to the demands on it. The thing is, we have to keep making those demands.

The following article is about how bone adapts, and why therefore it's critical to one's longevity to start banking BMD now.

If you know someone who is getting into fitness right now, or is way into it already, and you're looking for stocking stuffers or larger, consider this list of suggestions over at begin2dig. If any of you want to do training in the new year, or online, shout.

Also, remember: if you feel a cold coming on, hit the Chillated Zinc. Maybe stock up now to be ready - it's not in every pharmacy.

And for just general health stay hydrated and up the vitamin D. Apparently just about all of us are Vit D deficient.

Best of the season to you!

mc

So sit bolt up in that straight back chair and get ready for some difficult listening
- Laurie Anderson, Home of the Brave

Many of us have been told to "sit up straight" for the sake of our backs - and perhaps as children - to encourage proper bone growth.

Many of us have seen little wheelie chairs that induce a kind of kneeling that are supposed to be good for posture. Or have thought sitting on therapy balls a good way to encourage muscle action to support those low back vertebrae (they're not. i've gotten rid of mine).

If you're doing resistance training - either with weights, bands or bodyweight (like pullups or push ups) - the rest time you take between sets of repetitions is just as critical as the weight and reps that you choose, and will have a significant impact on your success. Indeed, number of reps in a set, the weight of a set, the total number of sets, and the amount of rest taken between these sets are all related in terms of the kind of strength one's trying to develop.

I used to get impatient waiting around after a set - someone saying "you have to wait 30-90secs" just irritated me, and i'd just go when i felt ready. It's good to trust yourself, but it's also good to learn WHY that wait - and just that wait (waiting too long can also be an issue) is critical for the type of strength you're developing.

What kinds of strength are there, you may ask? Generally, there are several phases

This advice may seem counter-intuitive: shouldn't we work our weaker side first so we don't do more reps on our strong side that we can do on the weak side?

Here's a couple things: appropriate reps/weights/sets for goal and neurological patterning

Reps: except for very rare occasions*, work with a weight where you *can* do the same number of reps on both sides. granted one side may be more of a challenge than the other, but if there's that big a discrepency with a given weight, pull back and do more work with a weight both sides can manage till you get better parity.
*(for those who have heard about "going to failure" that's what we're talking about and unless you're body building, you can set that aside you will not be going there)

neurological training: the main thing about starting with the stronger side is that it kinda teaches the weaker side the proper way to do the move. Form is everything. According to both Gray Cook in his FMS training, and Eric Cobb in his ZHealth work, there's a neurological patterning that happens in the body, and happens very quickly. The stronger side is usually also the side that is more proficient at a move. Doing great reps sets the pattern for the body.

Neurological effect is another reason to quit before losing form, and it's another reason for picking an appropriate range of reps - doing only perfect reps to do in a set, and to quit as soon as form starts to slide. Once form starts to go, according to Cook and Cobb, we're teaching our bodies to do poor form.

A great approach to getting in good work, and gating rep patterns to maintain good form while building strength and not overreaching is Pavel's ladders (described in detail in Enter the Kettlebell). The ETK ladders approach is a great way to build up volume for strength and endurance, while ensuring perfect rep, and quitting way before form starts to slide. In the ladder concept, you might do one rep on your strong side, then one rep on your left side. Then a break. Then two reps on the strong then two on the weak, break, then three/three and so on, up to five. Pavel has a beautiful system of mixing up intensity and developing progress throughout a week: starting out may be three ladders of three, building up to five ladders of three, then moving up to four steps on the ladder for three ladders, etc. You can do a hard, med and light day this way by varying the number of ladders, too.

It's this pattern alone that makes Enter the Kettlebell (ETK review)a great training program: increase volume progressively, gradually, varying rest and ladder amounts. With a max of five reps, with a doable weight, that's avoiding failure, and keeping great form.

The main take away from this post: in exercises that work one side at a time, start with your strong side - let your reps be gated by your weaker side, but start with your strong side, using perfect form to teach your body how to execute well consistently.

Here it is:

Glycemic instability and spontaneous energy intake: association with knowledge-based work.

Chaput JP, Drapeau V, Poirier P, Teasdale N, Tremblay A.
Division of Kinesiology (PEPS), Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, G1K 7P4.

OBJECTIVE: To further document the impact of knowledge-based work (KBW) on spontaneous energy intake and glucose homeostasis. METHODS: We used a within-subjects experimental design, in which each participant was engaged in each of the three 45-minute conditions followed by an ad libitum buffet, 1) resting in a sitting position; 2) reading a document and writing a summary; or 3) performing a battery of computerized tests. Fourteen female students (mean age: 22.8 +/- 2.3 years, mean body mass index: 22.4 +/- 2.5 kg/m(2)) were recruited to participate. Plasma glucose, insulin, and cortisol levels at seven time-points, and appetite sensation markers were measured at each experimental condition. RESULTS: The mean ad libitum energy intake after the reading-writing and the automated test-battery conditions exceeded that measured after rest by 848 kJ and 1057 kJ, respectively (p < .05). No specific dietary preference was detected, as reflected by the comparable percent of energy from each macronutrient in the three conditions. No significant difference in appetite sensation markers was observed among the three conditions. Mean cortisol level over 45 minutes in the two KBW conditions was significantly higher (p < .05) compared with the control condition. Finally, a significant increase in variations in plasma glucose and insulin levels was observed as compared with the control condition (p < .01). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that KBW acutely induces an increase in spontaneous energy intake, and promotes an increased fluctuation in plasma glucose and insulin levels. This study contributes to the documentation of a new risk factor for a positive energy balance, with the potential to lead to overweight in the long-term.

So remember to push that snack beyond arm's reach when at the computer and do take the stairs at least DOWN to up your NEPAs, since we're working at a disadvantage already. Every little helps, eh?

Skip the machines, find a qualified trainer and learn how to use free weights, and when you use those free weights, don't sit down; stand up or get prone.

There are a few reasons for this free weight advice:

• issues around sitting,
• proprioception,
• range of motion
• compound and closed kinetic chain movements

Guess what else? shoes stop feet from working. That's a pretty global condemnation but it's true: with a handful of exceptions, modern shoes are based on 200 year old technology (the lasts of shoe design), and for the most part are way way way too restrictive to let our feet do their thing.

It's not just four inch heels or wing tips that are the problem: it's also flip flops and horror of horrors those gorgeous high tech trainers with designs to "correct" supination or too much pronation or heel strike or whatever. And just when you realize that that's as bad as putting the foot into a cast, we find that flip flops and Birkenstocks sandles are equally horrific for other reasons: toes have to claw onto the sandle to keep them on. Despite claims that such "foot muscle work" is good for you, it really isn't. The body doesn't keep our feet in flexion (toes curled) with every step we take when we walk barefoot. That means just about every shoe in my closet is for the chop.

Why? Our feet are one of the most jointed parts of our body (after the skull and the hands) and yet daily, what do we do? Lace up shoes to restrict those bones from doing what they were designed to do to support us: MOVE.

THere's a fantastic piece in the New York Magazine from earlier this year that describes most of the latest research and why shoes suck. Recommended reading.

One benefit of freeing the feet this article doesn't touch on is the relation of squished feet to the nervous system. We don't talk about the nervous system much, it's just sorta there, right? But here's the thing: the nervous system, as described by Eric Cobb, is hard wired to check only very few things. One of these, demonstrated in the startle reflex, is not fight or flight, but the very binary Threat or No Threat. "We're geared to optimize for survival, not performance," according to Cobb. Most of the nerves in our bodies designed to detect how we're moving in space are at the joints. Guess what happens in terms of that Threat/No Threat thing if our joints are squished and so not sending happy "we're free and moving" signals back to the rest of the system? Is that going to be interpretted as a Threat or a No Threat?

A few months ago IAMGEEKFIT profiled PhD student Mike T. Nelson to see what motivates him to get out of the lab, and go pick up stuff and put it down, many times, all within the demands of courses, classes, exams and numerous other pay-the-rent obligations.

Today, i'm pleased to be able to introduce another person in the Research space, Suleiman Al-Sabah. Besides already holding a PhD and working as a fulltime researcher at Reading, Al has serious chops in karate and is also an RKC kettlebell instructor. The following presents an interview with Al, covering his research, his background in wellness, and how he keeps motivated to go move his body rather than spend more time at the microsope.

Read on for the interview