My UltraLife

Can you finish the sentence?

I asked my 9 yr. old niece Hannah if she could finish the sentence. She looked at me strangely.  I told her it was a famous saying. 

I asked again; Can you finish the sentence “An Apple a Day…., she said ”help a heart”?

Not bad I guess, but the strange thing to me is that she had never heard the saying; “An Apple a day keeps the Doctor away”.

It appears we have a fruit and vegetable crisis in America.  See the clip from Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.

Hannah might not know an old saying, but at least in our home we have lots of fruits and veggies so she was as shocked as you were when these kids didn’t know the difference between a Potato and Tomato.

We recently discovered a great snack food trick.  We keep a bowl of cherry tomatoes on the kitchen counter.  Anytime you walk buy you can pop a few tomatoes into your mouth.  Hannah loves it.   The 14 yr. old boy in the house is not yet a convert!   He says he’s a meat-a-tarian!  But the tomatoes are good for you and keep you from snacking on something less healthy.

Lately my appetite seems to have waned a bit.  Maybe it’s because my arm is still in a sling so my activity level is much lower.  I can’t run or swim…only sit around or walk a bit.  

So, I have actually been eating an Apple a Day for my lunch.  I took this idea from an old friend named Morty.  For years he eaten only an apple for lunch.  He’s 80 years + and still going strong, so he’s a great example.

It’s really criminal that kids don’t know fruits and vegetables.  If they don’t know what fruits and veggies are they certainly aren’t part of the kids diets.   You can’t blame it on the schools either.  The fault lies at home with lazy parents who don’t take the time and effort to create healthy diets for their kids.

I hate to imagine what health issues the children of today will have 40 – 50 years from now…..only time will tell.

My solution….Eat Apples!

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It’s Saturday morning.  I’ve been stuffing myself since Thanksgiving morning.  Don’t we all tend to nibble while we cook?  How else will you know it’s good?

For some reason on Thanksgiving we just tend to each too much.

There are more dishes than usual and the portions just seem to be larger than normal.

Then there are the leftovers. 

This year I had tons of turkey and 2 casserole dishes of stuffing left uneaten.   So what was I to do but load up for Friday lunch with a super size serving of turkey and stuffing.  Yum, I love my stuffing.  Then I went to the movies all afternoon with a friend.  The turkey and stuffing just sat in my belly.

That night I had a late dinner of, you guessed it, turkey and stuffing along with some wine and a few tortilla chips and then, yikes, some chocolate cake! (I never eat cake…what’s happening to me!)

I woke up in the morning, still feeling full.  It was about time to get out and go for a run. 

I hadn’t run all week.  I swam about a mile both Monday and Tuesday and played water polo Wednesday so it’s not that I’ve been inactive, but I haven’t run for a week, so I had to get out and run.

As I started out I could feel the extra bowling ball in my stomach.  As I ran I remembered a Discovery Health show about obese people.  They showed a sonogram of an obese persons intestines.   You could actually see the undigested food clogging up the intestines.

I’m sure we all know the sure fire method to gain weight is to constantly pack in large amounts of food and just sit around between meals.   That undigested food  sits in your intestines getting compacted with the next meal being forced in on top of the last meal before the first one and in between snack can be processed.

This procedure seems to be a very easy one for people to follow, just look at the obesity rate in America today.

I’ve found that one of the best ways to get your body moving, so to speak, is to “get moving”!   The movement of the body while running or riding a bike moves the intestines around and helps in the digestive process.

Then all you need to do is skip the next meal and the in between snack and you’ll be on your way to Thanksgiving recovery!

My six mile run was a slow one this morning.  I had all the extra weight to carry around, but I know I’ll be feeling better soon.   I think I’ll invite friends over to help finish off the rest of the leftovers! 

Turkey sandwich anyone?

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I just got back from 3 days of skiing at Mammoth Mountain!

The skiing was great.  It’s been about 3 years since I’ve skiing.

In the past years I didn’t want to interrupt my running or Triathlon training with a ski trip….what a mistake.  

Skiing is a great sport.

It’s nice to change up your routine and skiing works your thigh muscles like nothing else.

We had a strong winter storm come in during the trip which dumped about 18 inches of soft dry powder.  It was wonderful to float through the wintery fluff.

The last day of skiing was windy but we had clear blue sky.   We took my niece and nephew on the trip.  It was their first time to be in the snow.  Josh learned to snowboard and Hannah skied. 

While the kids were in lessons I had a chance to sneak off to the challenging slopes.   I may not have taken the steep runs as fast as I did a few years ago, but I was surprised that I was able to manage the most challenging runs just like I used to.  

It was a great escape.   I plan to ski quite a bit this year and since it’s storming outside today on Christmas morning, it looks like we will have plenty of local snow.

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     (This picture is several years old but represents my present condition) 

Eat Drink and be Merry…. `Tis the Season and all that crap. 

I’ve been celebrating the grand accomplishment of the “run with Mike Double Marathon” for the past 4 months now.

I’ve eaten those big dinners, drank plenty of beer and wine and really slacked off on my training.

All my celebrating has begun to show.  I have added back the 15 pounds I sweated off during the summer.

I must admit I have been drinking quite a bit of red wine.  I can really see how much when I check the recycling bin and see all the empty bottles.   My trash bin looks like it should be at the back of an Italian restaurant.  But I have been using it for medicinal purposes mostly.

1.) Drown the grief over the loss of my father.

2.) Drown my grief and relief over the loss of my business.

3.) Cure my boredom of being semi-retired.

4.) Try to get as much Reservatrol into my system as possible.

You know scientists have discovered that Reservatrol, found in Red Wine, has the ability to reduce the effects of bad diet, reduce the risk of heart disease, cure cancer, warts, ingrown hairs and old age.   They have tested it on mice and the mice are quite happy and living longer lives.   You’d have to drink about 1,000 bottles of wine per day to get enough Reservatrol into your system to match the dose given to the mice. 

1,000 bottles a day would not be possible on my present available budget so I figure 1 bottle a day is a good enough effort.

But enough is enough.

Time to get back to normal.  As my early NEW Year’s resolutions.  I will:

1.) Cut back on the Big dinners

2.) Reduce my wine consumption even at the risk of growing warts.

3.) Increase my physical exercise.   I’ve got to start running again.

4.) Set a new athletic goal or sign up for an athletic event.

I remember saying this Summer that I wanted to keep in the tip top shape I had attained.  I had worked too hard to get there, but too much travel, good times, grief and free time (honestly, too much free time) made it hard to keep moving at the pace I had been going during the Summer of 2008.    I know I needed to rest a bit.  It’s tough to keep up running 50 to 60 miles per week, but I rested and recreated a bit too much.

Now I know what it takes for me to loose 15 pounds and I know how easy it is to add it back on.

I’ll work to achieve a happy equilibrium.

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  I’ve been running and running and Swimming and doing a bit of weight lifting.  Three weeks to go and I’m almost ready to run.

I’d like to drop a few more pounds and fine tune to make sure I have a successful, nearly painless run so I’ll be working out, stretching and swimming while I taper down on the running.

I’m hoping to provide an example of what you can do as a 50 year old.  Everyone should be able to get out there and be active.

This past weekend I had a friend take some photos of me running.  Here are a few of them.

I’ll dig up some photos from last year so I can show a good comparison of my progress.

I think everyone can be fit.  Everyone can gain health benefits from exercise.  Extreme exercise builds bone density and muscle strength.  Ultra-exercise builds good health.

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  I belong to Bally’s Fitness and depending where I am and what I am doing I might get some gym time in for stretching, weight lifting or a swim at the gym in Cerritos, Fullerton or Anaheim.

Last week I met up with my old Triathlon buddy, Jimmy Tsai, for lunch but his suggestion was swim instead of eat so we went swimming for lunch at Bally’s in the City of Industry.

At most of the gyms I step on the scale when I come out of the showers to see if all this running is helping me shed the pounds.   I know I am loosing inches because I need to cinch up  my britches a bit more than I used to, but the pounds have not been as easy to loose.

Tonight I went swimming at the Cerritos Bally’s.          I stepped on the scale .  It showed 202 pounds.

I started at around 216 (ok, I fibbed…it was 220!).

I like the scale at the Cerritos Bally’s.  It’s much friendlier than the scales at the other gyms. 

I expect I’ll be spending more time at the Cerritos gym from now on.

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A news story about a new study caught my eye with the headline; "Runners Live Longer, Stay Healthier".  This just confirms the MyUltraLife philosophy.   Run, exercise, stay fit and you will live a longer, healthier and happier life.

You can read the full story here:   Runners Live Longer, Stay Healthier

The study spans 20 years and finds that runners are Half as likely to die as the non-runners.

You don’t necessarily need to be a runner, but you do need to engage in frequent vigorous physical activity.

The report states that running not only reduced the risk of heart disease but also reduced the rate of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease and death.

Keep active.  Keep Running.  Stay Healthy and live an UltraLife!

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It may just be my bad luck with scheduling or pure fate but it seems I never get an opportunity to follow proper rules for recovery after a big event.

A day after I completed the Ironman in Couer d’Alene Idaho June 2006, I was on a flight to Richmond, Virginia for a meeting with Circuit City (a U.S. retailer).   The day after the L.A. Marathon in 2006 I was on a plane headed to Hannover, Germany to attend the Cebit trade show.

This week I ran the Orange County Marathon on Sunday January 6th.  On Monday I drove to Las Vegas to attend the International CES (Consumer Electronics Store) to meet with sales reps and suppliers. 

This show spans several huge convention halls and hotels. Walking long distances is inevitable.    I’m cheap so I found the lowest cost parking spot, which meant it was a long walk just to the registration area.  Then I headed for the upper level of the South Hall for a meeting.  As I approached the long steep escalator I noticed it was out of order.  I looked at the alternative, a long flight of stairs.   The attendant must have seen me walking with my wooden legs and suggested the elevator.  I said, "I’ll give these a try", grabbed the hand rail and pulled myself up the stairs.  Going up stairs isn’t so bad during recovery, but going down would not have been an option.

I spent the first three days after the OC Marathon walking from meeting to meeting, walking up and down stairs.  It was actually pretty exhausting.  I took my running shoes on the trip(always the optimist), but they never made it out of the bag.   I’m not sure if traveling to trade shows and business meetings is the best plan for recovery, but it seems to be my fate.

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I ran the Orange County Marathon and finished with a time of 4:51, a 16 minute drop from my time in October for the Long Beach Marathon.  I met some crazy and fun people along the way during the Marathon.  I hope you enjoy the video!

The night before I had quite a restless sleep.  I dreamed that I started the Marathon late and I was wearing roller blades.  An official caught me as I was rolling downhill and marked me on his clipboard as disqualified.  I quickly pulled off the roller blades, opened my pack only to find a pair of green patent leather shoes with 2 inch heels.  What the Fu@# (heck).  I finally found the correct footwear but was the last person on the course and the official warned me that I might not make the cut off time. 

I woke up and said to myself, "wow, you must be worried about this race".  It was 1:52 AM….I went back to sleep.   I must admit, I was worried about this event.  Did I workout enough?  Did I rest too much?  I really did the taper thing this time with my longest run on Christmas Eve Day?

But I know I have been improving on my times and overall strength and it all came into play for this Marathon.  I wore my CamelBak so I was able to run through every aid station and simply thank the volunteers as I ran by.   I went through 100 oz. of CarboPro and it was just enough to get me through the 26 miles.

I certainly had my moments of weakness and muscle fatigue, but I just kept running.  Except for a few stops for filming, I ran the entire race straight through.

I remember at the end of the Long Beach Marathon in October 2007, I though "I can barely do this, how can I possibly run 52.4 miles." But today, at the end, I still felt strong and thought, "That’s it?"  I know I could have kept going.  I was ready for it to end, don’t get me wrong, but I could have kept going.  How far, I have no idea, but I know I  still had energy at the end.  Guess I should have run faster.

Next Month…..Surf City Marathon…..Huntington Beach February 2, 2008.

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On Christmas day we visited the house with a "Trampoline in a Living Room" for a second attempt at Trampoline greatness.   You’ll see I still need practice.   Josh gives us his skills demo and shows of his flip…..sorta.

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Kevin, Kurt and I go for a Christmas eve run up Crystal Lake Road on a very cold morning.    I am amazed that such a beautiful place is less than an hour from my home.

Along the way we find some of the wild life Kevin warns us about at the beginning of the video.

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  One of the great things about MyUltraLife is that my business allows me to travel around the world from time to time.  

Our company partners with a sales group who sells our products in Germany.   Each December they have an annual sales meeting and Christmas party.   I have had the pleasure of visiting our sales team on several occasions and have made great friends there.

The company is located in a small village named Weertzen which is a few miles from the town of Zeven.   This area of Germany is called Niedersachsen or Lower Saxony.   Zeven is about 45 minutes north of the City of Hamburg and about 30 minutes from the City of Bremen.  More accurately, it’s located in the middle of nowhere surrounded by small forests, villages, intertwining country roads and cornfields. Strange place for a high tech company, but it works!

The main purpose of the visit to Germany was for business, but my schedule allowed for a bit of free time.  During this trip I had the pleasure of:

• Visited the town of Bremen - you may remember the Grimm Brothers Fairy Tale about the Bremen Town Musicians.   The story of the old Donkey, old Dog, Tired old Cat and Rooster who was to be cooked for dinner went to Bremen to become Town Musicians.   During my visit I didn’t see any town musicians but I did experience the Christmas Festival.  The town center was filled with kiosks of shops with trinkets and gifts, food and hot spiced wine called Gluwein.
• I went running in Zero degree Celsius weather in my California shorts and T-shirt.  The locals thought they were seeing a crazy man.  I ran through a scary forest which made me think I’d meet up with Little Red Riding Hood (another Grimm Bros. Story), the Big Bad Wolf or a rusted out Panzer tank.
• I went to a Sport club where we had a 1/2 hour warm up and 1/2 hour spin class.  I sweated so much during the spin class, I thought I was melting!
• Went to the Christmas party, ate and drank too much.  They like to drink shooters of Jagermeister (tastes like medicine yuk!)
• Got to fly in a private plane (Beachcraft Bonanza) for an aerial tour over Northern Germany. We flew out over the North Sea and landed on the Island of Norderney, flew back buzzing the town of  Zeven and Weertzen so we could get a good look at familiar landmarks.
• Ate Lebanese food and even took a few puffs on a Hookah Pipe (one of my sales guys is Lebanese!)
• Had business meetings in between all that and flew home. 

When I have the opportunity to travel and see new places I always try to get the most out of the journey.  So often the fast pace of business means that you fly to some foreign land, drive from the airport to an office or hotel and back to the airport to fly home.  You’ve been to a new place, but it could have been anywhere or nowhere.  You are no different from the adventure. 

I always try to go running in the new city I visit.  By being on the ground and running through the town you see things you would never see and really get a sense of the place.  It’s great to be able to say I’ve run through Zeven, Germany or Taipei or Shenzhen, China or Paris or Lisbon.   You get much more out of the journey than if you just sit in hotel or buy a souvenir at the airport gift shop.

Live your UltraLife!

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The main point of this article is that most Americans are FAT and if we just get off our fat asses and move….even a little bit, people will experience health benefits.

• More than 1/3 of all U.S. adults are OBESE
• Obesity is a major risk factor for Heart Disease, certain cancers and Diabetes.
• The CDC has founds that more than 1/2 of all U.S. adults do not engage in ANY form of physical exercise.

We are just a bunch of lazy fat people who would rather sit in front of the TV, drink our soda and beer munching snacks instead of simply going for a 30 minute walk.

• Exercise cuts the chances of dying from Heart Disease
• Exercise cuts the risk of stroke, colon cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes
• You don’t have to be skinny to be fit.  The BMI is a guideline for target weight, but you can be a bit overweight and still experience health benefits from exercise.

Most people would rather go to the doctor and get medicine to cure these ills and spends thousands of dollars on medications instead of investing a bit of time and energy on their own well being through exercise.  Exercise is the SUPER PILL you’ve been waiting for…and it doesn’t cost anything!

• In the study even a small amount of exercise cut the death rate in half
• You may still be fat, but be fit enough to make significant health gains, if you exercise.

We all have a choice.  Sit around, just waiting to die or get out and get some exercise and enjoy our UltraLife.

Fit people live longer — even if they’re fat - Fitness- msnbc.com

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In this part of the series we examine the Body Mass Index in detail and discover the Waist to Hip ratio which may be more crtitical in determining your health risks.

Center for Disease Control BMI Calculator

National Institute of Health BMI Calculator

 The Body Mass Index: Download

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Recently a news story was widely publicized with the title:

Most diet pill users stay overweight. But drugs may offer other health benefits, review finds

updated 3:58 p.m. PT, Thurs., Nov. 15, 2007

The full story can be found at the link below:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21823462/from/ET/

Drugs have little effect on weight loss

My general impression from this article is that even though the three types of medically prescribed weight loss drugs mentioned in the article have little or no effect on weight loss, the pharmaceutical and medical industry will still push them on unsuspecting, just plain lazy patents.

Research conducted in Canada and Brazil on men women resulted in average weight loss of  less than 11 pounds after at least one year and up to 4 years on the weight loss drugs.  The subjects had starting weights of 220 pounds with a BMI of 33.

This is simply ridiculous!  When you consider how overweight these people are, if the patients made even a modest attempt at physical exercise and portion control during meals they could easily loose and maintain weight loss of more than 11 pounds. 

Drug Pushers

Doctors are pushing drugs,  patients are lazy and drug companies are getting rich.  Doctors defend the practice by touting the benefits of lower blood pressure, cholesterol levels and reduced diabetes as a result of the weight loss.  But wouldn’t these benefits be multiplied by natural weight loss through exercise and diet?

Patients and insurance companies pay a price not just financially but also with the risk of potentially dangerous side effects.  

Small gains big side effects

One drug tested is called Xenical which is also known as orlistat and Alli in a lower dose in the U.S.  Alli works  to prevent absorption and digestion of fat.  Up to 30 percent of patients had unpleasant digestive and intestinal side effects.  Remember those potato chips on the market a few years ago made of Olestra….they had the same effect and didn’t last on the market very long.  Eat some chips; get the runs.  Great marketing campaign!   You probably have seen the advertisements for Alli.  Read the box it lists this side effect!

Another drug used on human weight loss subjects is called Meridia, also known as sibutramine.  Up to 20 percent had side effects including raised blood pressure and pulse rates, insomnia and nausea.

And another drug called Acomplia which also has another name; rimonabant had the side effect of  mood disorders in 6 percent of patients.

Both Meridia and Acomplia work by interrupting nerve signals in the brain.  Another study published recently in The Lancet also showed Acomplia raised the risk of psychiatric problems like depression and anxiety. Acomplia has been approved by the European Drug Agency, but was rejected by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel in June after it was told of the psychiatric side effects.  What a good idea, mess with a persons’ nerve signals in the brain just so they can loose 10 pounds.  Sounds like a great idea to me!  Loose 10 pounds and go crazy at the same time!   How stupid are these doctors!

Better than Nothing

I think the medical industry has given up on lazy people.   Diet and lifestyle changes haven’t been very effective in fighting obesity.  “We’ve got to be realistic,” said Susan Jebb, head of nutrition and health at Britain’s Medical Research Council. “Even though the weight losses from the drugs are modest, they’re better than most other things we’ve got.”

Hopeless lazy people

So even though the drugs have little or no effect and have potentially dangerous side effects and no one knows the long term effects; doctors will still push them on people because people are too dang lazy and undisciplined to take care of themselves.  

Our world has devolved to a point where doctors who swear to "do no harm" believe that potentially dangerous drugs will have a more positive effect than relying on people to change their lifestyle and behavior.

I guess if you are too lazy and unconcerned about your own health and you would rather rely on a PILL to do the work then you deserve to go crazy and get the runs.

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