Fitness

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…

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…

Gear Bits

SPIbelt Makes Their Kids Pouches Insulin Friendly

I think I enthuse about SPIbelt almost as much as I enthuse about RoadID. SPIbelts are small low-profile waist packs that are ideal for running, hiking, and other activities where you need to keep your phone, a granola bar, or some other small items close to your person. They are an American company that consistently improves and refines their product based on the feedback from users, and their latest refinement shows they pay close attention to how parents and children use SPIbelts! SPIbelts are very popular with kids who have medical needs such as diabetes. It’s much more attractive and…

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…

Crowdfunding, News & Features

Introducing the Perfect Pitch Golf Mat – Portable Practice for Perfect Shots

When I was in college, I had a roommate that worked at a golf course, so naturally we played a lot. Between student specials and free golf after he got off work, I played around three or four rounds of golf a week. Playing golf is often a great method to keep your frustration and anger levels down. There are so many skills needed for a variety of situations, and most players spend their entire lives chasing the perfect round. For young players, hitting off the tee is about all they work on. You have to impress everyone with that…

News & Features

Monster iSport Freedom Bluetooth Headphones are The Perfect Wireless Workout Companion

While in New York for a CE Week event last week, I had a chance to spend some time at the Monster headphones booth. While there, I saw the Monster Inspiration Active Noise-Canceling Headphones which Judie had reviewed and loved. (Read the review.) The White Tuxedo Monster DNA Headphones I reviewed were also on display. (Read my review.) There were also a pair of strikingly bright headphones that caught my eye; these were the upcoming iSport Freedom headphones. The iSport Freedom headphones are Monster’s first-ever on-ear wireless headphones. The iSport Freedom headphones are water-resistant, anti-microbial and sweat proof. Inside the…

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 ……

Health and Fitness, Reviews

First Impressions of the Merrell Vapor Glove Minimal Running Shoes

Carly did a great job reviewing Merrell’s philosophy of running shoes and some of their line-up earlier this year. This week the company sent me a pair of their most recent addition – the minimalist Vapor Glove. These are Merrell’s lightest shoes at a specified 5 oz per shoe (my scale in the video has them at 6oz … I blame the lousy scale), and have an ultra-light, breathable barefoot construction that puts barely anything between you and the ground. I decided to do a quick hands-on video while in the midst of my first run using the shoes –…

Health and Fitness

Have Some Coffee to Rock Your Workout – The Monday Mile

Many of us grew up with some specific ideas about soda, coffee and caffeine in general: mainly that caffeine is a diuretic; it will therefore flush fluids from your system (make you urinate) and dehydrate you. Therefore, any of those types of drinks are bad choices for athletes at any point around a workout. But like so many other things we learned growing up, there is much about that ‘common knowledge’ that is incorrect and misleading. Let’s take a look at a few reasons why perhaps your next workout drink should have caffeine!

Health and Fitness, Reviews

New Balance Minimus MT10 Running Shoe Review

A few months ago, Carly reviewed the Merrell Road Glove 2, which is one of the most highly regarded minimal running shoes available. For the last year or so I have been running on Nike Free Run 3s, which are a ‘minimal-ish’ shoe with a small drop, very light construction, but still a decent amount of cushion. I’ve always been ‘minimal curious’, and on Black Friday last year I found a great deal on the New Balance Minimus. The shoes I got had serious issues and I needed to return them, and basically gave up. But apparently I left them on…

Health and Fitness

10 Tips for Running in the Summer Heat – The Monday Mile

Just over a week ago I was in Kentucky for work and commented on Facebook that I barely made it out of the hotel parking lot on my 4:30AM run before I was covered in sweat. Last week, Judie noted that she got a late start and that it was 98F while she was running; her pace slowed considerably while she ran as the heat took its toll. Suffice to say – hot weather has arrived across much of the nation, and it is time to think about running in the heat. Here are some tips to keep safe: Hydration: hydration…

Health and Fitness

Get Out and Run for National Running Day on June 5th!

Tomorrow (June 5th) is the fifth annual National Running Day, but is the first one I have known about or participated in running. The purpose is to get people inspired to get out in run in as many different ways as there are runners. So whether it is a street run, pounding around a track, doing trails or relays or group runs or whatever, it is a great opportunity for distance runners to reaffirm our commitment and for new or occasional runners to get themselves started with a new training plan or goal. According to Running USA’s media director Ryan…

Health and Fitness

It is NOT All About the Gear – The Monday Mile

As I went out for a run last week, I was fresh off cashing in a gift card at my local Dick’s Sporting Goods (and loads of coupons), and I was flush with cool new stuff. It occurred to me that I was outfitted with HUNDREDS of dollars in gear – minimal shoes, high-tech socks, absurdly expensive Dri-Tech shorts, Dri-Tech compression shirt, SpiBelt, Garmin FR-10 GPS watch, and even a $25 high-tech running hat! The only thing that wasn’t exorbitant, was the $0.30 of band-aids to prevent ‘shirt front bleeds’, if you get my drift. Contrast this with what I…

Reviews

Yurbuds Inspire Limited Edition Sport Earphones Offer Good Sound and Good Fit

The other day we reviewed yurbuds’ Focus Pro behind the ear sports headphones. I was impressed with the comfort of the headphones as well as the microphone and in-line controls on them. The audio from the headphones was good, but it wasn’t good enough to make the Focus Pros something I would want to listen to as my full-time pair of headphones. The Focus Pros are perfectly fine for a run or similar activity, but they simply don’t stand up to some of the other relatively high-end headphones we have reviewed. This time we are looking the yurbuds Limited Edition…

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