Health and Fitness

Run-n-Read Helps Out With The ‘Reading On Treadmill’ Issue

Do you use a treadmill or elliptical system for exercise? Do you read while on it? If so, you’ve probably encountered eye-strain as you were moving and trying to focus on the stationary e-device text. Run-n-Read from Weartrons seeks crowdsource funding to deal with this issue by tracking motion and repositioning text to keep it stable in your visual field. Run-n-Read uses a combination of hardware and software to stabilize text. The hardware tracks your head motion relative to the screen and text, and the software runs on your iOS or Android device to shift the text position in real…

Health and Fitness, Outdoors

Avoid These Hydration Mistakes During Marathon Season – The Monday Mile

Hydration is a problem for everyone – office workers deal with dry environments from conditioned air and need to increase fluid intake to compensate. Athletes bodies use it more quickly and it is easier to get into a very dangerous place. As fall marathon season starts it is important to separate fact from myth to keep hydrated and safe. Through the years there have been a number of articles and guidelines put out about what we should drink, when we should drink and how much we should consume. Most of these have been pretty rough guidelines, and can generally be…

Game Diary, Health and Fitness, News & Features

Mario Esposito Discusses Sensoria Fitness Game Development Projects

We recently talked with Heapsylon’s CTO Mario Esposito about impressive gear that can interface among the physical world and video. Esposito also co-founded Heapsylon in 2009, which concentrates on wearable body sensing technology. Heapsylon, a Washington-based start-up, has launched Sensoria Fitness, which consists of mobile applications, the first e-textile pressure sensing smart sock, and Bluetooth anklet. The mobile application monitor and guide you through real-time audio cues. The smart sock, completely made of fabric, can be washed or dried like a regular sock. The anklet magnetically snaps on the cuff of the sock and sends commands. Sensoria Fitness recently completed two successful campaign on…

Health and Fitness

Use Back-to-School to Revisit Your Health & Fitness Goals – The Monday Mile

Many kids across the country are already in class, with other states opening within the next week. It’s back to school time, and that means getting organized for a new year. This sense of a fresh start can apply to everything, so as we get our kids equipped and organized, it is worth revisiting our health and fitness goals. At the end of last year, I talked about using the ‘SMART’ system to evaluate your resolutions. I emphasized the importance of setting goals that would make you accountable for tracking and milestones, and that were specific enough to be measurable. One…

Editorials, Health and Fitness

Debunking the ‘Running Doesn’t Aid Weight Loss’ Myth – The Monday Mile

I have talked many times about how running has fueled my weight loss and maintenance through the years. Many people take up running but don’t lose weight – and this week I have had the same old report brought up twice about weight loss and exercise. Bottom line – losing weight is hard work requiring changes in eating and exercise. One of my favorite Bloom County comics involves Opus looking at an index of diet books and deciding how to reshape himself, with Milo offering the basic advice ‘how about eat less, and exercise?’. Here it is: Perhaps you have…

Health and Fitness, Reviews

Science or Not, Wu-Long Slimming Tea is Awesome!

It seems like the science behind weight gain or loss changes all the time, leaving us wondering if today’s health food will be tomorrow’s junk. For thousands of years oolong tea has been a weight loss aid with no negative effects, so weight loss aid or not, Wu-Long Slimming Tea tastes fantastic and is reasonably priced! There are a number of natural herbal products that claim certain health benefits, or have at least been used for that purpose for many years. One such product is oolong tea, which has long been reported to support weight loss. Those claims have…

Health and Fitness, Reviews

Merrell Vapor Glove Minimal Running Shoe Review

Minimalist running means different things to different people, from zero-drop to barefoot design to little cushioning. Regardless of definition, the Merrell Vapor Gloves qualify; they have zero drop, 2mm of cushion, and they can fold up into your pockets. They are amazingly comfortable while offering an uncompromisingly minimal design, so it’s worth checking them out to see if they’re for you. I did an initial impressions post on the Vapor Glove, and now after spending more time with the shoes, it is worth going back to see they have performed over a longer time period. So let’s get into some…

Editorials, Health and Fitness

Can You Hear Me Now? Running with Music – The Monday Mile

Running outside brings freedom and opportunities to interact with nature. Listening to music helps pass time, provides a motivation, and creates a pacing rhythm – so long as you listen at a safe volume. Running outside already poses numerous risks – why make it worse with music so loud you can’t even hear these risks? Safe music volume is another key to running safety. Last weekend I went out for a couple of long runs when it worked for my family schedule. One day that was 11AM after grocery shopping; the other day it was 7PM after dinner. Naturally at…

Health and Fitness

The Amazing World of 2012 Running Statistics – The Monday Mile

Each year since 1995, Running USA has documented the ‘state of running’ in terms of road races. They have looked at the total number of finishers of official races, as well as how those numbers are distributed by race, age, and gender. For every one of the last 20 years except 2003, there have been new records set in every aspect of road races as covered by Running USA. They released the numbers for 2012 last week, and as that was my first year of participating in road races I was intrigued to see the numbers. Here are a few…

Game Diary, Gear Bits, Health and Fitness

Blue Goji Fitness Game Company Launches – Cardio Exercise Experience Through Immersive Gameplay

Blue Goji has begun and aims to combine fitness and gaming into a brand new platform where working out is more fun by adding interactivity using various tech devices, especially mobile and tablet devices. The Blue Goji fitness game platform will function with tablets and smartphones (Android and iOS) on cardio equipment such as treadmills, stationary bicycles, and elliptical machines. The Android/iOS first platform will release near the 2013 holiday season. The formation of this new interactive fitness company was announced on July 29, 2013. This company looks to use their Goji Play game system and other interactive methods to “transform the cardio…

Health and Fitness, Outdoors

The (Elevation) Map Is a Lie – The Monday Mile

This weekend I completed the inaugural running of the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon Marathon. The race takes place on the Pine Creek Gorge just outside of Wellsboro, PA. As noted, this was the first running of the race, which always means watching organizers work out the bugs in the system in real-time. I had gotten a couple of obscure comments from one of the leaders of a local running club group on Facebook, so I was watching what happened over the course of the pre-race and race-day events. It was a race and a weekend that left me conflicted in many…

Editorials, Health and Fitness

The Oatmeal Nails Running Culture With Humor and Pathos

My series ‘The Monday Mile’ has detailed interesting health and fitness tips and my own personal experiences and feelings. I filter things I discover through th elens of my own personal experience with significant weight loss and fitness routines, and trends and truisms that have come and gone through the years. Over at The Oatmeal, Matthew Inman creates what he calls ‘badly drawn comics’ … but more important is the stories he tells through the comics. Until a few weeks ago my favorite was the story of his house burning down when he was a kid, because it is touching, funny…

Gear Bits, Health and Fitness, News & Features

Sweat Machine from UNICEF Turns Perspiration into Drinking Water

I have never had a problem perspiring – and given that I am also a distance runner who doesn’t shy away from the heat and humidity, and you have the recipe for some drenched workout clothes! All of my Dri-Fit stuff is still wet after several hours! Imagine if there was a way to harness all of that perspiration and convert it back to drinking water? Well, there is, and it is called simply the Sweat Machine and it is part of a UNICEF campaign to raise awareness for the 750 million people around the world without access to clean…

Health and Fitness, News & Features, Outdoors

Magellan’s Echo Smart Running Watch – Leverages Your Smartphone and Integrates Fitness Apps

Have you ever stood in your driveway waiting for your GPS to find satellites whereas your phone was set a few minutes earlier? I have done it many times, as has pretty much anyone who has both a GPS watch and smartphone! The realities of power, cost and space make it hard for GPS watch makers to have the same capabilities as a smartphone. To deal with this, Magellan introduces the Echo – let’s take a look! The Echo isn’t like other GPS watches – because it isn’t a GPS! Instead, it is a specialized Bluetooth receiver that works with…

Health and Fitness

What Works for Me … Works for Me – The Monday Mile

This is going to sound a bit cynical and perhaps it is: American culture has become obsessed with the possibility of actions without consequence followed by a ‘quick fix’ to undo whatever mess we’ve made. I have a picture of my mother at a bicentennial celebration in 1976 and she was rail-thin, thinner than I had ever seen her. She had problems for years losing weight after my younger sister was born, so her doctor gave her diet pills to help. In the mid-70s ‘diet pills’ were basically speed. She lost weight way too fast because the speed diet pills…

Health and Fitness

Make the Most of the Runs that Matter – The Monday Mile

Recently I calculated my mileage for the first half of 2013, and came up just over 1400 miles (1411.2 to be precise). Looking at the breakdown, that consists of a median run distance of 7.5 miles (not a normal distribution), and an average of 6.5 runs per week. My frequent work travel this year has resulted in more than 45 ‘double days’, which pushes the ‘runs per week’ number up. I have run on four pairs of shoes, with ~200 miles on my old Nike Free Run 3’s before I retired those and put ~750 on my ‘new’ orange Nike…

Health and Fitness, Outdoors

Taking Your Fitness Routine on Vacation – The Monday Mile

I am just coming back after a week-long ‘vacation’ … and I have a marathon in THREE WEEKS! I learned about and signed up for the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon Marathon just before vacation, and at that point it was still June, and the race was at the end of July, so I looked at it as weeks away. It wasn’t until we got back from vacation that I really thought about it – and realized that my next marathon is only 10 weeks after the first. Plenty of time to make sure I’m ready, but not a lot of time…

Health and Fitness

RoadID Debuts Companion iPhone App

I am sure I sound like a broken record, but everyone who is even moderately active should have a Road ID product. These simple bracelets and tags let you keep emergency contact and health information on your wrist, shoe, or around your neck so that, if something were to happen to you and you are unable to communicate, first responders have information to help assist you. The products are inexpensive but offer an immeasurable value and, more importantly, safety. Road ID is now taking their protective ideas to a new level now with an iPhone app that offers its own safety-minded…

Health and Fitness

AMA Calls Obesity a ‘Disease’, What Do You Think?

Last week there was a big stir as the American Medical Association (AMA) made a change in their definition of obesity. While obesity was previously defined as a “major public health problem,” it is now recognized as a disease. The AMA is the largest group of physicians in the U.S. and, while their vote isn’t legally binding, they are a highly influential body that can influence medical standards and insurance policy. In other words, what they have to say matters. But for most of us, the decision of a group of doctors to reclassify something as a disease doesn’t change…

Health and Fitness

Losing Weight is HARD!!! – The Monday Mile

Losing weight is HARD, and has been a lifelong struggle for me. When I look in the mirror, I do not see the same person that others see. While body image and ‘yo yo’ weight loss struggles have been stereotypically associated with women, the reality is that men also struggle with their weight and are often unhappy with their appearance. There were a few instances this past week where I was reminded of how quickly people make broad generalized assumptions about you based on your appearance. Specifically, if you are currently thin, there are many people who have no issue…

Health and Fitness, Reviews

Georgetown Dry Pannier from Detours Bike Bags Review – Keeps the Elements at Bay

I like to try to ride my bike whenever I can in an effort to burn off some of the extra pounds that I put on in my gig as a food writer. I have a Litespeed Titanium road bike that I ride for fitness, but it’s not very practical for in town use, especially since I use Speedplay pedal clips that make it almost impossible to walk in the specialized shoes when you’re not on the bike. So for just getting around town or riding to the YMCA and back (where I then go to a spin class ……

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