Last weekend turned out to be a bad weekend when it pertains to working out. As a whole the weekend was great.  We headed up to the Alpine Slides for the day.  Our last trip down on the slides I ended up taking a spill and getting some decent sized road rash on my leg and arm. At the time I seemed ok but by the next day it was pretty painful. I did try and run my 5 miler on Sunday but only got as far as 3.2. It seems that sweat dripping down into road rast can be pretty uncomfortable. For the rest of the week I took it easy.  The only problem with that is I signed up to do a 10k this upcoming Sunday (tomorrow).  I am no way ready for a 10k yet, especially after not running this whole week, but I paid $30 so I will be there.  The run is called Pints to Pasta and there will be beer at the end so that alone is reason enough for going. ;)  The only other down side is I also caught a cold at some point too this past week.

Decided to bail on the gym this morning. Today was already moved from Thursday morning but after running 4 miles late last night and then having to get up early for the gym, It just was not going to happen. To keep on pace with the Marathon training I need to fit in a 3mi run and a 5mi run in the next 3 days and make up that gym day. I am hoping things will get better once I get my running legs back and I am not so beat after every run.

Headed to the gym this morning to make up for skipping yesterday and heading out for breakfast.  I did manage to get in a 3 miler when I got home from work so any  guilt I have for bailing on the gym is gone.

I decided to start doing a food journal.  Mind you I am not trying to loose weight, I’m just trying to be mindful of what I am putting in my body. I recently got an iPhone and in the Apple app store they have a program just for this.  Down side is its $14.99.  I have have only been using it for 3 days now but I it seem really nice.  If you are interested the app is called “Absolute fitness”

Garlic has some obvious cooking benefits and quite a few health benefits but sad to say has one major drawback. The Breath. Diethack posted 5 health benefits of garlic that I suggest reading. Make note of the last point in the post about what type of garlic is needed. Fresh chopped . Bring on the bad breath.

Over at CNN.com they have a section called Fit Nation. There is quite a few interesting articles, but the one thing I would like to pass on is the Fit Nation Checklist. Its a list they came up with of 10 general things you can do to be fit.

1.) Learn your family health history
2.) Make fitness fun
3.) Get at least 30-minutes of exercise daily
4.) Drink water
5.) Be a role model for children
6.) Take the stairs
7.) Be consistent
8.) Do the math
9.) Eat a healthy breakfast
10) Involve the whole family

If you have been reading this site you know that I recently ran in the Arizona Rock-N-Roll Marathon and Half Marathon. That was back in January and to be perfectly honest I have only ran once since then. My motivation is non-existent to say the least. Surfing the net while NOT running I ran across this article with tips to change yourself from a couch potato to a Gym enthusiast. Now I have been hitting the gym doing stronglifts 5×5 so going to the gym is not really the issue but I feel most of the tips still apply to my running issue.

http://blog.liferemix.net/10-tips-change-yourself-dedicated-couch-potato-gym-enthusiast

I was on a long road trip today for work, a total of 7+ hours.  One can get quite board of your typical music radio.  At some point I found a station that was taking about a new (at least to me) supplement called HA or Hyaluronic Acid.  From what I gather, one of its benefits is similar to Glucosamine but better.  If you are not familiar with Glucosamine it is suppose to help with your joints.  Below is a list of its major benefits.

Treatment for both rheumatoid and osteoarthritis.

Keep joints lubricated

Hydrates the skin

Helps wounds heal more quickly

Promotes a youthful appearance

At a brief look it seems the price for this particular supplement can range from cheap to expensive.  One place I found is even giving a free 30 sample if you pay for shipping. Please note that I know nothing about HA except from what I heard about it on the radio and from what I have read online tonight so do some research if you are interested in trying it out.

There is a rule of thumb out there that states 3500 calories equals 1 pound. This has been generally accepted by most. With that equation you can decrease you calorie intake over a week and predict weight loss. Recently there has been some questions about that formula. Check out the following post for a good article with more details about this very subject.

http://www.atozfitness.com/wordpress/3500-calories-to-lose-a-pound-is-this-formula-all-wrong/

Not everyone can be a “morning person”. For some of us it can be a real downer. Here is a few reason to get up a bit earlier and help change your outlook on mornings.

1.) Personal Time
If you get up a bit earlier you can have some personal quite time. Have your morning coffee or watch the news, read the paper, all without interruptions.

2.) Have a good breakfast
Having cold cereal can really get boring. If you wake up a bit earlier you can find time to make a nice warm healthy breakfast. Try making some eggs with whole wheat toast and coffee. Or how about some buckwheat pancakes.

3.) Make more time for a busy day
If you have a busy day ahead of you, waking up early will denfintly give you a head start. Its amazing what you can fit into an extra hour or so.

4.) Now you have time to exercise.
In todays busy age its hard to find time for some much needed exercise. 30min a day three times a week can sometimes be very hard to find. Not if you wake up a bit earlier. The best time to exercise is in the mornings.

5 .) Planning
Sometimes you need to plan out how your day is going to be. Waking up a bit earlier will give you that time to plan things out so the day will go the way you would like it.

6. The view
When is the last time you had seen a sunset.

Thanks to realityofnature.com for the ideas

Weight loss seems to be the primary goal when the subjects of diet, exercise, and fitness come up.  One of the best things you can do to loose those those extra pounds is, believe it or not, gain a few pounds.  It might sound strange until you think about it. The more muscle your body has, the more calories it will burn.  The more calories you burn the more fat you could loose (with a balanced diet). Since muscle weighs more than fat, you can see what I mean about gaining some weight to loose some weight.  One of the best weight(fat) loss exercises you can do is weight training.  The goal should be to loose fat, not weight, and gain muscle. So what do you say?  Stop telling yourself you want to loose weight and instead tell yourself you want to gain some weight.  Muscle weight .