The other day I noticed that the “saved” section on my Facebook page was starting to look a lot like the pile of half-read fitness and women’s magazines tucked between the wall and the toilet on my bathroom floor. As I went back through the saved links, I started thinking, am I actually ever in such a frenzy for dip that I will reach for Alton Brown’s Hummus in a Hurry?  Will I ever really reference the page from Fitness Magazine that tells me the 48 Foods That I Should Be Eating Right Now? Or will I ever invoke the 3 Tips for Looking Gorgeous in Photos that celebrity makeup artist, Jenn Streicher, advises? Probably not, but I did learn a few things worth sharing…
Why Women Who Exercise Are Also More Likely to Drink (Shape Magazine):  According to recent research put out by Health Psychology, there is evidence to suggest that women who put away a few (too many) cocktails a week are twice as likely to work out versus their besties that avoid the gym. My guess is that the women that are partaking in the festivities are driven to the gym by some sort of guilt, but I will leave that part to the psychologists to follow up on. The more interesting part of the article was the link between drinking alcohol (in the right amount) and exercise – that it can actually be good for you.  This was by far the best news I had read all day!  Get this…a researcher in Europe actually conducted an experiment where he tracked a group of lucky ladies for a year, asking them to drink one glass of wine five times a week (oh well, ok…it’s for science) and exercise for two to three hours a week. As a result, these women saw their cholesterol levels improve over the course of a year, versus the vino drinkers who didn’t make it to the gym and therefore did not experience any heart benefits at all. Well how does that work? Apparently in moderate amounts, alcohol can cause blood vessels to dilate, which improves circulation and helps the body reduce its level of bad cholesterol. Couple that with the benefits of a sweaty cardio session – lower blood pressure and higher levels of good cholesterol – and you have the perfect one-two punch! Hmmmm…I don’t remember Dr. M telling me to Google that to lower my cholesterol.
Refilling Your Water Bottle Could Be as Dirty as Licking Your Toilet (Cosmopolitan): Have you put down your water bottle yet? Just when I thought I was doing something good for the environment – toting around my sleek, reusable, Swell bottle – I am told I would be better off drinking from my toilet. When it’s put like that, I don’t feel as smug or ecological as I did before. A researcher from Treadmillreviews recently published an article about his findings from testing different types of refillable water bottles that had been used by athletes for a week (looks like he drew the short straw in the research department when compared to the guy that got to follow wine-wielding women for a year all through Europe). In his sampling, he found that some of the bottles contained over 900,000 germs per square centimeter. As any germaphobe can tell you, our planet is covered with bacteria, some good, some bad, and in this instance it was all bad. Over 99% of the germs found on the squeeze-top bottles and 98% of the germs on the screw top bottles were the kind that can make you sick – pneumonia, strep, staph infections…at a minimum its certainly giving me the spits. The good news is that there is an easy solution, and it doesn’t involve throwing away my pretentious $40 refillable stainless steel water bottle. All I have to do is toss it in the dishwasher every night and wash away all the mouth. But I’ll be honest, it’s going to take a while before I can look at my bottle the same way again.
5 Steps to the Perfect Snot Rocket (Runner’s World):  With the Rock-n-Roll Brooklyn Half Marathon coming up in October, I was excited to find this one. I expect that the weather will be cool at 7am, and that my nose will be running throughout the race. Carrying tissues is annoying because there is no place to keep them dry from sweat and trying to use them when running is annoying.  Seriously, try running in a straight line, with some speed, with your hands up by your face pinching your nose. So when I came across this short video that demonstrates the proper step-by-step technique to shoot snot out of my nose at high speeds without the need of a tissue, I knew it was a keeper. When you witness someone doing it properly, it is actually something to admire. It’s sort of like when you watch a cat use a litter box and it doesn’t need toilet paper. I always wondered how it got a clean break.
But before I go into the details of the perfect form, I should mention one quick, very important, public service announcement…and that is that this should only be done outside where you have a clear 3-4 foot “blast radius.” This way you won’t hit any innocent bystander (or fellow runner) with your shrapnel.
So for anyone that would like to give it a shot, here you go:
- Take a deep breathe in through your mouth (like you are gasping for air)
- Hold one nostril by pressing firmly
- Purse your lips closed
- Cock your head to the side with the open nostril and exhale out your nose
- Repeat on the opposite side
If you’ve done it right you haven’t blown an eardrum, and you don’t have a string of snot connecting your nose to your shoulder. Good luck out there.