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Nickel at Fit 36 recently tagged us with an internet meme of his own devising. He wonders, “What is your biggest health or fitness vice? Nickel says that his biggest vice is eating out at lunch. He also likes tequila.
Generally I ignore blog games, but this one is interesting. I’ve shared many of my food vices in the past — most of them are related to cakes, cookies, and candy. I’m a sucker for fatty, sugary treats. In fact, just writing about this makes me crave fresh chocolate chip cookies.
But to be honest, the one vice I’m most trying to reduce lately is alcohol. I don’t know if this is my biggest vice, but it’s certainly one of them, and I’ve been drinking enough to make me concerned (8-10 drinks a week). I’ve read a lot lately from non-moralizing sources about the destructive effects of the stuff, so I’m trying to reduce my intake and my stock on hand.
As a general rule, you’re supposed to “tag” other people with these sorts of memes. I’m going to be a bad host and not do so. However, if you’d like to participate, please feel free to do so!
Meanwhile, here are some other interesting fitness articles from around the web:
At 60 in 3, Gal wrote about a subject I should take to heart: risky exercise. I have a tendency to want to push myself, to do more than I ought. In particular, I often continue to exercise when I know I’m injured. I’m getting better at that. In fact, I stopped in the middle of Saturday’s marathon training run and walked back to the start because I recognized I could not continue. But still: I tend to engage in risky exercise.
Lazy Man listed five reasons to jump rope. Kris gave me a jumping rope for Christmas as a sort of a gag gift. I’ve tried to use it once or twice but whoa!, it requires more coordination than I have right now. Still, I’ve been thinking I should practice it a little more. I can’t help but think it would give me a cardio workout when I don’t feel like running or biking.
Andrew recently ran his first 10k race, finishing in 53:14. Great work, Andrew!
Finally, SmarterFitter writes that diet-sized snack packs turn off willpower. “Willpower or not, these snack packs are just spendy ways to buy processed food,” Monica writes, “and I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone. If you’re trying to practice portion control, then what about nuts or fruit?”
Mac
9 responses so far ↓
1 Andrew is getting fit // Jul 13, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Thanks J.D. It felt great being able to do it!
2 Red // Jul 13, 2008 at 11:43 pm
My biggest vice is sugar.
I’ve been thinking about it recently and it just baffles me. I feel like crap right after I eat it, but yet I still feel like eating it all the time. Pavlov was wrong.
3 elisabeth // Jul 14, 2008 at 6:59 am
I disagree about the role of pre-potioned snacks. I see them as step one of will-power; “using enough will power to not buy the full sized box and only eating the pre-portioned amount.” From there, one can go to “not eating this snack every day” and maybe eventually to “not buying that item at all.” But if even step one will decrease the amount eaten, then it’s worth it.
4 Joel // Jul 14, 2008 at 11:49 am
As a source of empty calories, 8-10 drinks per week is significant, (700-800 calories/week for red wine) but, if your drinks are standard (1 glass of wine = 1 oz. of whiskey), that amount of intake is well within the safe range. If you drink much less than that, say 5 drinks per week, you may not gain the mortality benefit of moderate drinking.
5 monica // Jul 14, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Thanks for the link, JD! Alcohol is my big vice, too. I’ve been pretty moderate this past year or two, huge progress from my pitcher-a-night grad school days. Now I just worry about slipping back into my old habits. I don’t know what’s worse - the pitcher or the worrying!
6 Alison // Jul 15, 2008 at 7:33 am
In medicine, we have something called “the CAGE questions” to screen for alcoholism. Answering “yes” to more than two is a fairly accurate screen (though NOT 100%!):
- Have you ever felt you needed to Cut down on your drinking?
- Have other people Annoyed you by criticizing your drinking habits?
- Have you ever felt Guilty about your drinking?
- Have you ever needed an Eye-opener (a drink first thing in the morning) to calm your nerves or get rid of a hangover?
I don’t mention these questions because I think JD is an alcoholic, I mention then because I work in an emergency department and I also have someone who has a problem with alcohol in my family. I am sick of dealing with people who have alcohol problems. Alcoholic liver disease is a horrible, horrible thing. So I thought I’d take this opportunity to urge people that if they know people who have a real problem with alcohol to get them to seek help, before it is too late. It is life-saving.
7 Sally Parrott Ashbrook // Jul 15, 2008 at 9:40 am
I’m with you, JD. I was thinking just this morning about how my alcohol consumption has increased lately and maybe isn’t at a healthy point (not just how it relates to calories, but also emotionally). Then I was thinking, when you are utilizing (not necessarily abusing) a glass of wine or whatever to help you chill out a bit, and you decide to cut back or cut out alcohol, you have to figure out how else to offer yourself support for what the alcohol is offering you in your life. I’m intending to try yoga and a couple of other things; I’ve been thinking about it today. . . .
8 SmarterFitter Blog » Blog Archive » What’s your biggest health and fitness vice? // Jul 15, 2008 at 1:49 pm
[...] of my favorite bloggers, Sally Parrot Ashbrook, left this comment on Get Fit Slowly, where JD also cited alcohol as a vice: I was thinking just this morning about how my alcohol [...]
9 Pete @ quicktofit // Jul 16, 2008 at 5:00 pm
I posted on my blog about this as well - and my biggest vice is food. Specifically pastries. and anything else flaky and tasty.
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