New Start to a New Year?

Image: keeping it real

So it's almost the beginning of a new year. Some of you may have made new year's resolutions; others of you may be shaking your heads muttering "screw that!" You're just hoping all the enthusiastic newbies who are about to crowd in to your gym or fitness class will get the heck out of your way and leave you some room to exercise in these next few weeks. (After that, you can bet that most of them are going to disappear again, just as suddenly and mysteriously as they arrived).

But even if you're not the resolution sort, a new year is sort of a handy milestone. And we're about to start off a whole new decade, isn't that exciting? It seems as good a time as any for us to stop and reflect on our commitment to living healthy lives, and to formulate or refine our goals, and to reacquaint ourselves with basic truths that we may "know" but that we tend to forget.

In that spirit, for the next eight weeks my posts are going to focus a bit more on the fundamentals than they usually tend to.

Photo: Library of Congress

So there may be a little less of the subtle stuff, like the relative merits of DHA vs EPA vs ALA Omega-3 fatty acids. Instead, I'll have more nutrition basics, or motivation tips on how to get your reluctant ass to the gym, or ideas on what to do with said reluctant ass when you finally get it there.

Um... is anyone suspicious yet? That whole "milestone" and "reflection" stuff... that doesn't sound all that much like the usual crab, does it?

So yeah, that's a bunch of hooey. Sounded good though, didn't it? Wanna know the real reasons I'm going "back to basics" a little more over the next few weeks?

1. Googlers!

Yep, we tend to get a number of new readers in January and February, who are just starting out on their health and fitness quests. They don't give a crap if DHA is a better kind of Omega 3 than ALA. They're more curious about what we mean when we say a "plank" since we don't seem to be talking about building materials or pirates.

And since Cranky Fitness tends to get such friendly, helpful commenters who know all kinds of stuff and have great advice, I'm hoping you old timers will stick around and share your tips with those who are new and less well-informed.

2. Reminders!

There really are a LOT of motivational tricks and health and fitness truths that everyone has probably seen before, but that bear repeating because we forget to apply them. Sometimes I'll read something on someone's blog that totally inspires me, even though I may have written essentially the same thing myself. I figure if I can use the occasional helpful reminder, other folks might benefit too.

3. Blogonomics!

So I'm doing an 8-week Get-Healthy thing called the 10x Club over at Blogher, and I discovered that I'm allowed to cross-post the same stuff here. So rather than write two sets of posts, I can take the same information and tips, and put it two different places and actually get paid for it!

And it is a weirdly interesting concept they've got going at the "10x" club if you want to check it out. In addition to regular blog posts about health and fitness, there will be forum posts with daily challenges and rewards. The "rewards" are fun or silly links that you watch AFTER you do your challenge. Curious? The basic info on 10x is here and I hope a few of you will join us over at the 10x group and help me out with some fitness advice and suggestions.

4. I'm Actually Making A Few Fresh Starts Myself!

Those of you who have been bearing with my whining about injuries and cross-training lately know that I've been trying to change up my exercise routine. Plus, over time my eating habits tend to get a bit sloppier, and I'm due for a little more rigor and a little less "whatever." So while I'm not actually in full-on "resolution" mode, I do seem to be a bit more motivated to take a fresh look at topics such as portion control, strength training, various cardio options, high intensity intervals, healthy cooking, nutritious snacking, stress-reduction, etc, etc, etc.

But What About Breaking Health And Fitness Research?

Don't worry, if it doesn't fit in with the 'back to basics" theme, I can still pass along interesting health and fitness studies and articles to you--I may try to use that silly Twitter thingy I keep forgetting I signed up for. So check in with that doohickey on the left sidebar occasionally, or go follow me on Twitter, and if I see something good I'll be sure to pass it along. (Although you could catch a silly day like yesterday, when I was tweeting about Crabinars and Men's Classic Incontinence Briefs).

Also, Jo and Gigi are under no requirement to go "back to basics," so I'm sure they'll have plenty of cool stuff to pass along as well.


Got some good info to share?

Part of what I plan to be doing more of, both here and at Blogher, is sharing links to helpful "how to" health and fitness and weight loss information that other bloggers post. This is actually a good kick in the pants for me, because I've gotten so terribly lazy lately about linking! What happens is that I visit other blogs, and think "Gosh, what a great post, I'll have to make a note of that and be sure to include it next time I'm writing about... oh new mail just came in! I haven't read email in at least 4 minutes and... Chicken soup! I think we have some left in the freezer and that would make a nice little lunch. Wait, what was I just going to remind myself of?

Anyway, the upshot is that if you are a blogger or know of some good recent posts with some helpful health, fitness or weight loss "How To's," please email me suggestions and links or leave them in the comments and I'll try to pass them along.

And thanks for your patience as I try something new for a few weeks!

Anyone else making any sort of "Fresh Start" this coming new year?

Health and Fitness Gift Ideas

So today's main post is just below, but I also wanted to let you know I've got a post up at Blogher on Healthy Holiday Gift Ideas. Long-time readers may be suspicious when they read the title: "Holiday Hot Buttons: Don’t Send the Wrong Message With Your Healthy Gift."

Does that sound anything like a Crabby McSlacker post title? Not to me it doesn't. I don't even know what the heck a "hot button" is, or where it's located, or what dire things happen if you push it.

Oh wait! I think I found it.

Whatever You Do, Don't Press This Button! It's Hot!

(Photo: tarheelcoxn)

But if you're brave enough to click your way over to BlogherLand, you'll discover that the writing is mine, even if the title isn't. And thanks to those of you whose gift ideas I stole for the post! Most appreciated.

Recycling!

I Don't See a Slot For Blog Posts

[By Crabby]

Don't worry, this isn't a post nagging you to clean out your funky-smelling milk containers and save your used tea bags for the compost heap. I know you folks are green as all get-out and you're all over that stuff already.

(I keep having these nagging recycling questions myself, like: used napkins-- are they paper or garbage? Does it depend on what food they were used for and how disgusting they got? But never mind--like I said, this isn't actually about that kind of recycling).

So I just wrote a comment in an attempt to win a contest at Blogher, which is a pretty hopeless quest but I figured what the hell. And then I thought, why waste what's essentially a short post? So I decided I'd "recycle" the darn comment here.

For other Blogher folks who may be interested in entering the contest and spoiling my chances, the contest is about Your Plans to Live Healthier in 2008.

Note: the deadline is soon and there is a harsh and punitive WORD LIMIT of 250, which made it really hard for me because I do not tend to shut up about anything after writing a mere 250 words. I can't write a grocery list that short even if all I need is milk.

The competition looks pretty stiff, because everyone wants an all-expense paid trip to the Blogher conference in San Francisco this summer, which is the prize. (I'm assuming they know I will no longer be living near SF by then and hate to fly. I'm guessing if I win they'll send a very patient limo driver to Provincetown MA to pick me up and ferry me cross-country. Right, Blogher?)

Unfortunately, lots of the other contestants actually went out and did a bunch of cool new healthy things, which puts me at a decided disadvantage. But here we go anyway!

Crabby's Three Awesome Health Resolutions for 2008:

1. I'm going to run my very first MARATHON! Hooray for me!
1. Oh wait... my knees are pretty trashed. But I'm gonna do lots of healthy stretching and strengthening, and work up to running 5-7 miles five times a week!
1. Err, strike that. How about three to four miles, five times a week? That's still pretty darn healthy!
1. Ouch. Ow ow ow.
1. Sigh. I'll go running ONCE a week and return to dorky race-walking and elliptical like before.

2. I'm going to eat nothing but fresh organic produce, lean protein, whole grains, nuts and seeds and olive oil and I'll never touch another evil cupcake or eat another plate of nachos ever again!
2. Plus maybe a little dark chocolate and red wine, too. Those are good for you.
2. Okay, only ONE cupcake a week, as a treat.
2. Oops. Well maybe some weeks two cupcakes... But definitely only one order of nachos a quarter. Err, per month... Okay, per week.
2. Um, so lets say I resolve to eat pretty healthy MOST of the time, like I was doing already.

3. I'm going to resolve to keep improving my physical and mental well-being in every way possible every single day!
3. Um... most of the time, anyway.
3. Oh dear. Well, maybe I'll just try my best to be as healthy as I can. Life's too short for perfection!

So it's a holiday weekend for a lot of people, and I know you're all out playing and I hope you're having a great time. But if you're doing something healthier in 2008, Cranky Fitness would love to hear about it, especially if it keeps you from going over to tell Blogher about it and stealing my all expense paid trip.

Have a great weekend everyone!