Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Is it in your jeans?

Good Morning Folks,

The title of my post today is a little play on words because I want to talk about a new scientific discovery that was recently made regarding the "obesity Gene." I also want to discuss a new trend in clothing stores dealing with waist size.. are you being fooled?

Have you ever heard someone say that obesity is genetic? It has been a long standing battle for people to understand whether or not their body type is actually genetic or whether or not it was the behaviors that they were taught growing up. So basically, do you gain weight easily because your body genetically stores fat more than someone else or is it because your mom fed you sugary cereals and baked treats growing up? Did these habits contribute to unhealthiness or was it just destined genetically no matter what?



This is something I have struggled with myself because I come from a family of people who have struggled with weight. I have never witnessed anyone in my family stuff themselves or eat nothing but hamburgers.. but they still carry extra weight even eating normally. So even with my exercise routine and healthy eating habits.. am I destined for this?

A study published recently in the Journal "Nature Genetics" shows that scientists have been able to pinpoint around 30 genes in the human genome that may affect a person’s propensity for obesity. Scientists linked certain genes to Body Mass Indexes (BMI) and discovered a correlation.  These genes are thought to have to do with the brains reward centers and hunger control. So, a person that has these genes may have a larger and more ferocious appetite than someone who does not and they also may release more endorphins from the pleasure center upon eating than the average person.

Now, this doesn’t mean that if you have these genes that you are going to be overweight automatically. It simply means that you may be more likely to hold weight than someone else.. which means that you may just have a tougher time at keeping weight off or losing weight than some others but it is absolutely possible with normal, everyday healthy habits : )

Want to read the article?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20101012/hl_hsn/researcherspinpointarrayofobesitygenes

Also,

Did you know that there is a growing trend in the clothing market that jeans sizes are now being mislabeled? Sizes are being skewed so that people with larger waistlines will feel better about buying them. Basically, let’s say for example that a normal size 6 jeans were for someone with a 30 inch waist.. clothing companies are now marking jeans with a 34 inch waist as a size 6. Obviously, this is just a numbers game.. but the consumer doesn’t know that stores are doing this and so they will continuously go back to the store to buy because at "GAP" they are a 6 when they are a 10 everywhere else. Some stores are going overboard with this change and are getting as high up as a 6 inch difference in the chart.


We cant all wear skinny jeans.. especially shorties like me

Are we really so obsessed with numbers as a society that we need to trick ourselves to feel better? It’s just like when people (Myself included sometimes) refuse to step on a scale because they feel better if they just don’t know the number.. well does that change at all what you weigh? or does it even matter what you weigh if you know that you are taking healthy steps for yourself? Is it ok for clothing stores to trick us if it makes us feel better about buying clothes or ourselves?

Tell me what you think.. what’s going on with the human psyche and its obsession with numbers?

Monday, October 11, 2010

What are your goals?

Good Morning everyone!

So last night I got thinking about time.. how fast it slow it seems to move depending on what situation you're in. When I am hanging with my friends or my boyfriend time seems to race by.. I look at the clock and wish it would slow down. When I am on the treadmill or in class.. time seems to creep by so slowly I cant stand it.. I find myself thinking "there is no way that its only been 4 and a half minutes." Then I started to realize that in less than a year there are going to be some major changes in my life!

I will be graduating from my Masters Program in August and will be ready to tackle a new world of experiences and things I have never done before. Its so easy to look into future and just wish the time away..but the cool thing about time is that it always passes whether you want it to or not and so I have ten months left here on my own.. so what things do I want to accomplish?

My best friend April and I used to talk about making a bucket list.. a list of all the things we want to do in our lives and I decided that maybe its time for me to make a 10 months list. Think about all the things I want to do while I have the time and the ability. So here is what I have so far

1. Figure out what my dream job is and start researching it
2. Take a vegan cooking class
3. Run in at least 5 more 5ks -(one with my dad)
4. Run my first 10k
5. Be able to run 6 miles without stopping
6. Get back in touch with some old friends
7. Visit my friends that have moved away in NYC, Cleveland, Miami, etc
8. Hold my little baby niece : )
9. Learn to cook different healthy meals that both my boyfriend and I will like.. He will think they taste good and I dont have to feel bad about eating it
10. Make my apartment feel like home
11. Go to more Pittsburgh events (hockey games, pirates games, shows etc) ..enjoy them while I am here
12. Spend more time with my family while they are so close to me
13. Visit at least 1 more state Ive never been too
14. Go to the Women in Entrepenuership Conference at Harvard Business School
15. Find 2 more conferences to put on my resume
16. Take more walks just to relax
17. Tell my true friends how much I appreciate them
18. Master a climbing wall
19. 100% kick the sugar habit
20. Graduate with Honors from my masters degree program

Do you have a list of things you want to do? Try writing down 100 things that you want to do before you are too old to do them. I promise you that its much harder than you think it is!

Try it! Id love to hear what things you want to accomplish in the next year of your life! Send me some of your thoughts!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Special Thanks

Hey everyone,

blogging hiatus is officially over. This weekend was a rough one. I went home on Thursday to be with my family because we had a death in our family. It was 3 days of crying, hugging and supporting my family. The only nice thing about the weekend was seeing family that I dont normally get to see. I got the cliche "I havent seen you since you were as tall as my knee" about 17 times but it was still nice to see them.

It seems also that families always help htemselves feel better in sad times by eating..and this was no different. I feel like I was either crying, hugging someone or eating. I was very happy to get back into my routine today.. to get the crying behind me..to realize that my family was going to be ok and start feeling better by first making myself physically better. Eating that way for a few days while being sad about our loss really took a toll on my body..I was tired and down. The first way to feel better is to get back into exercise and eating right.

So this morning I got back to the gym and ran 4 miles which about killed me to do after ab a week and a half since doing that much. I ate well (except for the left over cookie I may have had)..the rest of those cookies are coming into work with me tomorrow so I can get rid of them. Its time to get back to life and always remember what a wonderful lady my grandmother was.

A big thanks to everyone who sent cards, flowers or nice messages. Its times like these when you realize how nice and caring people can be. So thank you to all my friends for being so amazing.