Running: A Fever

Can you built muscle if you are over 50? Well, I'm a living example of that. I gained almost 20 pounds of muscle in a year, starting when I was 52. Supplements are a topic of high interest, and I did a whole episode on them: Episode 67 on supplements: http://runningafever.com/raf067-the-real-deal-about-supplements/   Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/189    

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired! I'm tired of my clothes not fitting right, of those nagging back pains. I know you know the feeling. If you're listening right now, you probably do. Have you experienced the yo-yo dieting effect? As you know, I've been preaching about avoiding that type of thing, about thinking about the long haul, the big picture. But once again I am facing a crisis. I have my biometrics screening in less than two weeks. Not the end of the world, I suppose, if I don't pass the waist measurement test that stands in for BMI which I definitely won't pass. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/188 Weight 7-day Avg. (change since Jan 2018): 227 (-48) Workout time: 0 Minutes Total Distance (total since Nov 2017): 0 Miles (576.02) Steps: 2,892 Muscle Mass 7-day Avg. (change since Aug 2018): 158.27 (+16) Body Fat 7-day Avg.: 30% Daily Sleep Duration 7-day Avg: 7 hours 2019 Goal: 15% Body Fat

Does it sound too good to be true that Chocolate can be good for you? Should we be eating more of it? Why did several of the longest-lived people eat chocolate, sometimes lots of it, on a regular basis? We're going to answer those questions right now! My mom, superlistener Hank Davis, is an excellent researcher and found some great material for me today. How can YOU be a superlistener like Hank? All you have to do is engage. I love to hear from listeners and I would love for you to be an active and interactive part of the show. So contact me at mail@runningafever.com with your comments, questions, and suggestions. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/187 Weight 7-day Avg. (change since Jan 2018): 227 (-48) Workout time: 0 Minutes Total Distance (total since Nov 2017): 0 Miles (576.02) Steps: 2,892 Muscle Mass 7-day Avg. (change since Aug 2018): 158.27 (+16) Body Fat 7-day Avg.: 30% Daily Sleep Duration 7-day Avg: 7 hours 2019 Goal: 15% Body Fat  

One of the philosophical considerations of increased longevity is the so-called problem of overpopulation. This is controversial and has been hotly debated by zero population growth advocates like Bill Gates and his parents, as well as conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones who propose that an elite group wants to limit population to themselves and a sufficient number of plebeian slaves. I don't really want to get into all that. But as a philosopher I am very interested in the topic abstracted from the debates. So today I'm discussing not a 10,000-foot view, but a 10,000 light-year view of proliferation of the human species. The popular debates going back several decades mostly assume that humanity has no resources outside of our home planet. But for as long as this debate has continued, there have been scientific theories about the true limits of human expansion, which include the entire universe, and the entirety of time. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/186 Weight 7-day Avg. (change since Jan 2

Meal prep is a great way to eat healthy, check out this episode to find out why. Breakfast is important, and not really complicated. I have steel cut oatmeal almost every day. Steel cut oats are healthy because they have a high glycemic index and are a whole grain, and our bodies are wired to process whole foods. Only problem is it takes 30 minutes to prepare, and many of us just don't have that kind of time in the morning. I can shrink that time by 90 percent by preparing it in a big batch ahead of time. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/185 AND check out the video at https://youtu.be/V3y_96waYH4  

Today I join my best friend and new dad Robert for my first visit to Lake Weddington. This is a not a state park, but is a "recreational area" which I believe is federally designated, because recreation.gov says it is part of the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests. Recreation.gov claims to be a gateway to new adventures. So do NOT go there unless you are game for new adventures! Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/184  

Why do we need so much money? Why not go do a job I love that pays peanuts? Some of the jobs in which you can make a difference or pursue a passion are not the best paying jobs. For example, acting. The average member of the screen actors guild makes $1000 per year. Musicians? I know a little about this from personal experience. I never made any money to speak of playing my own songs. Orchestra players, unless they are in a big city, do not make enough to live on, and maybe nothing at all. Playing in clubs, if you play cover music and not your own, you can make maybe a few hundred dollars for a weekend gig. All this is before expenses, taxes etc. More importantly, all artists have to hustle to get work. Even if you make $50 per hour, the average for film and tv actors, you're not guaranteed to get those hours. Teachers make about $45K per year, and police officers make $39K. Suppose you are passionate about your religion and want to make a difference there? Priests in my diocese get room and board plus $1,000

Why women and men? You may not know this, I didn't for a long time --- but women have testosterone and men have estrogen. It is produced by the sex glands, the testes in men and ovaries in women. Men have 7-8 times more testosterone than women and produce 20 times more on a daily basis. What is it? Testosterone is a hormone. Hormones are chemicals that control bodily functions. In the past we have discussed other hormones, like the brain chemicals in episodes 139 and 150-154. We've also mentioned ghrelin and leptin which control appetite and fat conversion. This one controls some secondary sex characteristics. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/182 Weight 7-day Avg. (change since Jan 2018): 223 (-52) Workout time: 192 Minutes Total Distance (total since Nov 2017): 5.51 Miles (562.96) Steps: 17,621 Muscle Mass 7-day Avg. (change since Aug 2018): 158.03 (+15) Body Fat 7-day Avg.: 29% Daily Sleep Duration 7-day Avg: 7 hours 2019 Goal: 15% Body Fat

Back in episode 140 I talked about the different kinds of fat, saturated, unsaturated, trans fat and omegas. I said that in general, saturated fat is bad because its consumption leads to a higher risk of heart disease. But there is at least one exception. Coconut oil. Turns out there are a number of benefits to the white waxy substance, some which may be very surprising. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/181 Weight 7-day Avg. (change since Jan 2018): 223 (-52) Workout time: 192 Minutes Total Distance (total since Nov 2017): 5.51 Miles (562.96) Steps: 17,621 Muscle Mass 7-day Avg. (change since Aug 2018): 158.03 (+15) Body Fat 7-day Avg.: 29% Daily Sleep Duration 7-day Avg: 7 hours 2019 Goal: 15% Body Fat

How many times have a stated that stress is a vicious killer, a slayer of men, a menace to all earthly life? Today I want to talk about how to avoid it, so we can live longer, happier, healthier lives to the very end. But we all have stress. It is a part of life. Without it, we would be even worse off. It is a survival mechanism that kicks our bodies into high gear when we are taken by surprise with a serious threat, so we can do what needs to be done. I was thinking about this today in regards to the human animal and other animals. Very few animals live longer than humans. Perhaps some tortoises and elephants, maybe a few kinds of parrot. Animals seem to face a lot more stress. They can't go to a grocery store to get food, or even to a soup kitchen. I think of lions and tigers, who have to kill some hard-to-kill prey, and fight off other lions and tigers and other animals who might want the same food. But when you put them in captivity, a situation in which their survival has no external threat, food is prov

There is a lot of noise about sleep. Unfortunately there is also a lot of noise in this episode of the podcast due to the overwhelming presence of cicadas in the park. So apologies for that. For example, back to the figurative noise, another podcaster called Jocko always recommends getting up early to get more done and be more successful. If you go to bed late and get up early, you might not be getting enough. But noise makes it difficult to sleep, literally, and difficult to sort out how much sleep I really need -- figuratively. When there is noise like this, I try to filter it out for you and distill the information down to something useful and true. There are some recent studies, the reports of which offer suggestions on how much sleep is needed at various stages of life. See the National Sleep Foundation website linked below. But basically, most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep per night. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com  

Most of us can't afford our own private gym. So we have to share with others. That means curtesy is important, as it is everywher humans gather. But in the gym there are a couple of particular things we can do to help keep the peace with our fellow gym members. One is racking weights after you finish with an exercise. There are a couple of good reasons for this. One is that you never know where the next person to use that station is going to start. Sometimes I like to do a warm-up set with a lower weight level, about 50% of what I would lift in a working set. Sometimes I just use the bar. But it's rare that any two people are lifting exactly the same amount of weight. Another reason is that sometimes it is difficult to tell if a station is in use. This can also be caused if a person abandons towels or water bottles, which I have also seen. If the weights are racked and the debris is cleared, it's a good bet the station is available. Don't drop weights unnecessarily. It can be harmful to the equipment and floo

The value of time is infinity per hour! Yesterday we had a power outtage at my company. I was called in to make sure our IT equipment was running the way it is supposed to. And it was, thanks to the fact that the company has twice the IT equipment it needs to do all the things it does. Half of the equipment is for situations exactly like the one that happened yesterday. I calculated that the company earns approximately a million dollars per hour. Which means any down time is very expensive. Companies value time in dollars. So how should we value our own time? We sell it to our employers, whether we get paid directly per hour or not. We spend time working and get paid in return. I used to decide whether to hire someone to do something vs. doing it myself by looking at how much I get paid compared with how much it costed to pay someone else to do it. I would consider the fact that I might not have the skill to do the task without doing research and that it would take longer for me to do it. But that's not an ac

Storm video: https://youtu.be/Hmxw1w4tLmg First of all, its grammatically incorrect. I mean, as an English major I have to point that out. Healthy is an adjective, not an adverb, so it modifies a noun, not a verb. What I really mean is Eating Healthy Foods or Eating Healthily. But that just doesn't have the ring. I try to make this podcast about learning how to learn, learning how to become an expert in your own health. So I don't really present an overall program. But it's easy to get lost in the details. If I don't have a big-picture idea of my goals, I may not have the focus I need to propel myself forward. So when you're describing yourself and how you live to someone you don't know that well, do you say, 'I try to eat healthy'? Because 'I try to eat well' doesn't work, it implies eating high-cost foods. Like 'living well'. As opposed to eating high-value foods. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/176

We all know the benefits of healthy fruits and vegetables in our diets, but have you ever heard that just having plants around can make you healthier? According to an article at treehugger.com, These are the 5 benefits: 1. Better breathing. 2. Staving off illness. 3. Cleaner air. 4. Speedy healing. 5. Better work performance. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/175 Weight 7-day Avg. (change since Jan 2018): 211 (-57) Workout time: 107 Minutes Total Distance (total since Nov 2017): 4.68 Miles (533.73) Steps: 17,517 Muscle Mass 7-day Avg. (change since Aug 2018): 163.74 (+21) Body Fat 7-day Avg.: 25% Daily Sleep Duration 7-day Avg: 6 hours 2019 Goal: 15% Body Fat

The NFL starts Early! I suppose there are international exhibition games in July, and by August the preseason has started. Of course coaches want to be careful about using their key players before the season starts, so we expect not to see the starters play that much. But practice started last week, and I’m in the 2nd week of June as I record this. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/174 The TB12 Method: https://amzn.to/2uq8iH3 Also see episodes 120, 121, 122, 129, 138. Here's the YouTube playlist for those: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StNWQVPb3Fw&list=PL0-YNhuffh89maOARmUnz2QCb9r1rNNyi Weight 7-day Avg. (change since Jan 2018): 211 (-57) Workout time: 107 Minutes Total Distance (total since Nov 2017): 4.68 Miles (533.73) Steps: 17,517 Muscle Mass 7-day Avg. (change since Aug 2018): 163.74 (+21) Body Fat 7-day Avg.: 25% Daily Sleep Duration 7-day Avg: 6 hours 2019 Goal: 15% Body Fat

Medical department. I took a sick day this week because of sunburn. I mentioned in an earlier episode that I neglected to apply sunscreen one day, that was last Sunday. On top of that day, in which I did a full 5.screw-5 mile walk, lasting close to two hours out, at least partially, in the sun, I had been exposed to the sun several times in the prior week, watering my lawn, mowing, and on additional walks. Most of these times I remembered sunscreen, but on Sunday it was cooler than usual and that helped me forget. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/173 Weight 7-day Avg. (change since Jan 2018): 218 (-56) Workout time: 153 Minutes Total Distance (total since Nov 2017): 7.59 Miles (521.22) Steps: 16,763 Muscle Mass 7-day Avg. (change since Aug 2018): 154.68 (+12) Body Fat 7-day Avg.: 29% Daily Sleep Duration 7-day Avg: 5 hours 2019 Goal: 15% Body Fat

I know what you're thinking. "How can you put everything about eating right in one episode? After all, you've already talked about it for most of 171 episodes and you're still going." Good point! I'm looking at how to eat right in terms of sticking to a plan. We know that habit and discipline go hand in hand. The more something becomes habit, the less effort it takes to maintain discipline. Discipline is sticking to a plan. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/172 Weight 7-day Avg. (change since Jan 2018): 218 (-56) Workout time: 153 Minutes Total Distance (total since Nov 2017): 7.59 Miles (521.22) Steps: 16,763 Muscle Mass 7-day Avg. (change since Aug 2018): 154.68 (+12) Body Fat 7-day Avg.: 29% Daily Sleep Duration 7-day Avg: 5 hours 2019 Goal: 15% Body Fat

This episode is a brief update. It's important for me to be honest with you about the struggles I face, no matter how bad things get. I don't share everything, there are some lines I don't cross, but for the most part, when it comes to fitness, diet, and medicine, I provide my own experience good or bad. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/171   Weight 7-day Avg. (change since Jan 2018): 218 (-56) Workout time: 153 Minutes Total Distance (total since Nov 2017): 7.59 Miles (521.22) Steps: 16,763 Muscle Mass 7-day Avg. (change since Aug 2018): 154.68 (+12) Body Fat 7-day Avg.: 29% Daily Sleep Duration 7-day Avg: 5 hours 2019 Goal: 15% Body Fat

Welcome to the 11th and final (at least for a while) episode on super-centenarians. And this time it's all about the queen of longevity herself, Jeanne Louise Calment. She lived 122 years, 164 days, from February 1, 1875 to August 4, 1997. She is the oldest person ever with documented proof. See the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/170 Weight 7-day Avg. (change since Jan 2018): 218 (-56) Workout time: 153 Minutes Total Distance (total since Nov 2017): 7.59 Miles (521.22) Steps: 16,763 Muscle Mass 7-day Avg. (change since Aug 2018): 154.68 (+12) Body Fat 7-day Avg.: 29% Daily Sleep Duration 7-day Avg: 5 hours 2019 Goal: 15% Body Fat