Rookie (noun): a raw recruit, a novice

As regular readers of this blog know, Jeff is the fantasy football expert while I’m the rook.  He’s been playing practically since the game was invented, this is my first season.  So on Saturday evening when I read the Yahoo! advice on my starting quarterback, Carson Palmer of the Bengals, I should have just done what I was told.  When I clicked on the little box next to Carson’s name, it said he was listed as “questionable” for today’s game and to check back Sunday morning.  But did I?  Noooooooo.  Rookie move.  When I finally remembered to check this morning, the game had already started and it was too late to make a change.  Now the little box read, “Carson Palmer (elbow) will be the team’s number three quarterback this week.”  Number three?  That means he’s not gonna play.  And he didn’t.  Rack up ZERO points for my quarterback postion.  Though all the games won’t be over this week until Monday Night Football, I currently have a whopping 63 points this week in a league that averages about 125 points a week.  SLAMMED! 

Luckily, I’m no rookie when it comes to Fantasy Healthball.  I’m 4-0 in Fantasy Healthball and I’m winning with authority.  Some rookie mistakes for Fantasy Healthball players might be:

• forgetting to write your daily points down on any given day
• choosing the vegetable challenge and not having a bunch of vegetables in your fridge
• choosing the water challenge and drinking coffee all day
• choosing the portion size challenge and then sitting down to the Hungry-Man-Surf-and-Turf-All-You-Can-Eat-Extravaganza at the local greasy spoon. 
• getting up late and not making time for a healthy breakfast

Those are the kind of rookie mistakes I just don’t make anymore.  I’m going to get better at this fantasy football stuff.  I challenge you to get better at Fantasy Healthball.  Click here to learn how.  — Jim Ballard

International Healthball – Detours or Speed-bumps?

On a fairly regular basis, my job affords me the opportunity to travel internationally.   Often during these trips, I have struggled to ‘stay on plan’ with my Fantasy Healthball goals.  A two-week trip out of the country turns into a half-month detour away from my health goals.  Certainly, there are steps I could have taken to better plan my trips, such as planning to stay in accommodations that offer workout facilities.  But, sometimes its just not that simple.

Recently, I have been traveling to Brazil on business.  These trips have been my first to South America.  As with traveling to any new region, I have had a lot to learn about local culture.   One of the observations I have made is that nearly every restaurant my hosts take me to includes some sort of buffet.  On our various customer visits, we ate at university cafeterias, shopping malls, downtown city restaurants, and roadside diners -all offering some sort of buffet. 

Now this can be beneficial, in that you can select what foods you want to eat, and try to keep portions reasonable.  However, there are cultural expectations that are hard to overcome, at least for me.  For example, the first lunch buffet that I decided to eat salad…just salad, led to my foreign hosts arguing in Portuguese about bringing me to an unsuitable lunch-place.  No amount of English explanation would change their mind, determining that I was just being polite.   So of course, this leads to the dinner-place selection being one which will provide me enough food on one plate to feed an entire family.  It’s hard to control your portions and maintain relationship with your hosts, especially if this is the first time you have met, and your job depends upon this relationship being secure.

Then, figuring out how much nutrition you are receiving in foods you are unfamiliar with can be challenging.  The national food of Brazil is feijoada.

It is a bean stew, with various meats and rice mixed in.  It is easy to find in restaurants each week on Wednesday and Saturday.  In the weeks I have spent in Brazil, I have had numerous opportunities to sample it in various forms.  It is a fairly heavy dish, easily filling you, and is invariably served in large portions.  As a regular part of my Brazilian diet, trying to figure out whether to give myself the daily Healthball points was sometimes problematic. 

Over time, certainly these incidents can be overcome.  But the point is, no matter where your life takes you, by keeping your good Fantasy Healthball goals at the forefront of your thoughts, and by looking for opportunities to stick to the plan.  Travel and work responsibilities can impact your weekly score.  But with a little planning and determination, you can turn these health detours into just minor speed-bumps, and get back on track to better health. — Jeff Hagen

Lose Weight Fast with Magic Beans….Guaranteed!

I seem to be getting asked a lot lately about “diet pills.”  “Hey, I’ve heard recently about a pill that makes you feel full,” started the question, “what do you think of that?”  Now I’ve been studying diet and nutrition and playing Fantasy Healthball for long enough now that I didn’t even skip a beat replying, “Well, yes, I definitely think you should feel full.”  “Full of water, full of fruit, full of vegetables, full of all the great food of the Food Formation in the right proportions.”  I don’t mind feeling full, when I know it is full of good stuff.   The last thing I want is some chemical making me feel full.  If you do, you will miss out on all the great vitamins and minerals and fiber and protein and all the great nutrients you body needs to stay health, fight disease, and thrive.  Don’t go for the magic beans, just read our Diet and Nutrition section and choose wisely. 

So then a few days later I’m hearing about this wonder drug, “alli,” that is flying off the shelves at Costco.  Being a good, cynical, card-carrying Gen-Xer, that is about all I need to hear to be extremely doubtful.  But Jeff and I will get asked about this so I jump online to do some research.  Their website says, “The pill works by preventing your body from absorbing some of the fat you eat. The active ingredient in alli attaches to some of the natural enzymes in the digestive system and prevents absorption of about a quarter of the fat you eat.”  So again, we are eating the wrong things and then counting on a pill to make it all better. 

But here is my favorite part: 

5. how do I know when I’m ready for the alli program?
You may be ready for alli if you can answer “yes” to these conditions:

>I am willing to do the hard work to lose weight gradually
>I am committed to following a reduced-calorie, low-fat diet (an average of 15 grams of fat per meal)
>I understand that if I take alli with a meal containing too much fat, I may get bowel changes known as treatment effects. The effects may include gas with oily spotting, loose stools, and more frequent stools that may be hard to control. Why? Because alli prevents absorption of some of the fat, and undigested fat passes through the body
>I am committed to eating smaller portions
>I am committed to making time to be more physically active
>I will read and follow the alli label

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, do “the hard work to lose weight gradually,” “reduced calorie, low fat diet,” “small portions,” “making time to be more physically active.”  You do those four things and you don’t need the pill that gives you “frequent stools that may be hard to control.”  You do those four things and you are golden.  You do those four things and pop empty pill capsules and you will get healthier.  You do those four things and you won’t need the magic beans.  Guaranteed.  — Jim Ballard

A Tale of Two Cities

It (week one of the NFL season) was the best of times and worst of times.  Best of times for Fantasy Healthball.  I scored big on my healthpoints last week and routed my fantasy football opponent.  I came out of the gates strong and worked hard all week to maximize my points.  My fantasy football opponent scored pretty well, but they were no match. 

Worst of times for my own fantasy football team.  While Jeff has been playing fantasy football for a very long time, I’m still a novice.  I was all excited as my team has Ladanian Tomlinson, Kellen Winslow, and Brandon Jacobs.  My QB is Carson Palmer.  Carson completed only 9 passes for 94 yards, no TDs, and one interception.  LT and Jacobs didn’t score either.   I’m near the bottom of my league.  Rather than jumping ship and changing all my players, I’m going to ride the same horse into week two and see what happens. 

On the health side, I had an amazing mountain bike ride at China Camp State Park this morning.  My friend who I used to ride with there all the time moved to Philly, so I haven’t been back recently.  It completely changed my spirits to be on the bike, on single track trails.  In the first 30 seconds I came upon about a dozen wild turkey.  I was glad I was on the bike and sailed right past them because if you have every been very near a wild turkey, you know you wouldn’t want to meet up with a dozen of them in some dark alley.  A bit later a black tailed deer pranced off the trail five yards ahead of me. 

These sorts of things happen to you when exercising – and not just at a State Park.  Your mind opens up and you think of things and see things that you might miss in a normal stressful day.  Give it a try.  You’ll be amazed.  And, if you are playing Fantasy Healthball, good luck in week 2!  — Jim Ballard

Week One Calorie Counting

Welcome to the first Sunday of the 2008 NFL season!  If you are playing Fantasy Healthball, you just finished your first week (we keep track of healthpoints Monday through Saturday).  In my household, we had a great week.  Both my wife’s score and mine, should be enough to put us over the top for a win this week, but you never know!  Those NFL pros have been hungry for week one, there could be a lot of scoring…we’ll see when the results of the games come in. 

One of the challenges I picked to track this week was calorie counting.  If you haven’t done it once, I strongly recommend it.  You will be amazed how quickly you get in touch with your body just by tracking one simple statistic.  To maintain your weight, calories consumed and calories burned must be equal.  To lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you consume.  We’d be the last people to say you only have to watch calories, but tracking them gives you a lot of information about that little calorie factory – your body. 

Okay, so I chose calorie counting off the challenge scorecard as one of my seven challenges for the week.  And since I am an over-achiever and a known Excel freak, I decided I was also going to track saturated and trans fats, sodium, fiber, sugar, protein, water, and servings of fruits and vegetables!  I track EVERY bit of anything that passed through my lips.  One onion ring?  I wrote it down.  Some chips and salsa?  I wrote it down.  Then I went through the arduous process of tracking the nutrition.  Most things I ate came with a nutrition label on the package.  Other things I looked up at this website.  Still others, I had to Google and make an educated guess. 

If you have the time, this is a GREAT exercise to do.  But I warn you, it is very time consuming.  That is why we just recommend tracking calories alone for a week – which is time consuming enough and paints a pretty clear picture.  Here is an example of a single day last week.  It was Labor Day.  Holidays are ALWAYS the hardest for me because they get me out of my routine.  Plus, we had friends over and we barbecued.  But here is how my day looked, counting every single thing I put in my mouth:

Click Here to See My Labor Day Tracking

My biggest issues that day were fat, sodium, and sugar.   Luckily, I ate a lot of things that day I don’t normally have as part of my diet.  For example, can you believe how much sodium is in ketchup.  Jeez, it is just red sodium paste!  I could go on forever here, but I’ll just say – for Fantasy Healthball purposes I was just tracking calories, and I stayed under my goal 6 out of 6 days!  Jeff and I hope you had a great healthy week.  And now it is time to enjoy a Sunday off.  Bowl of pretzels, turn on the game….I’ve got LT on my fantasy football team.  Run, LT, run.  — Jim Ballard.

Gentlemen…and Ladies…Start Your Engines!!

TODAY is the first day of the 2008 Fantasy Healthball season.  Today, you’ll start collecting points on the challenge roster scorecard.  You’ll collect points from today through Saturday.  Then, on Sunday, you’ll find out if it was enough for a win this week.  Find out all the details here. 

We recognize that by fluke of calendar and NFL scheduling, the Monday of our first week falls on a holiday.  So it is going to be extra hard to eat well today if you are having or attending a party.  If you are grilling, there are plenty of healthy things to grill.  See Jeff’s July post on grilling.  On the other hand, if you have today off, it should be easy to fit in an exercise.  You have all day.  We are looking for 20 minutes of vigorous or 30 of moderate.  All the details are here.  Good luck, have a great week, and be sure to work hard enough to rack up a win this week!  — Jim Ballard