Fantasy Healthball Update – week 7

After the first 7 weeks of NFL football, my ”Healthball Hulks” stand at 4-3 in the fantasy football standings and I stand at 5-2 for my Fantasy Healthball scores.  My most painful healthball loss was week six where I scored a very respectable 124 healthball points (surely enough to win, right?) and my fantasy opponent, the Malvern Manglers, scored 143 points.  The Manglers had Matt Schaub passing for 392 yards and FOUR touchdowns and Maurice Jones-Drew adding three more touchdowns on his 133 yards.  Oh, and two of Shaub’s TDs went to the Manglers TE Owen Daniels – WHO, by the way, only had 2 touchdowns all of last year, but he decides to go on a tear and the Manglers total 143. 

Looking back at my 124 healthpoints that week, I had an amazing Monday through Thursday and I started to fall apart on Friday and Saturday.  I got cocky and thought I had scored enough points to win.  On Friday, I only met 3 of my 7 challenges and on Saturday I met 2 of 7.  I needed to follow our health advice and our exercise advice.  This is a great reminder about consistency.  Had I finished strong, I might have even beaten the 143 points from the Manglers.  I coasted in the “4th quarter” of the week and it resulted in the “L.” 

Let this be a reminder to the Healthball Hulks and also to you.  Meeting your health goals is an everyday challenge.  You can’t coast and be as successful as you want.  You only meet 2 of your 7 challenges and you probably deserve the “L!”  Push it out, finish strong, and you are likely to record the “W” for your health. 

Am I fearsome?

Oh, and one more thing, I picked Matt Forte as the #2 pick in the entire draft and was proud to have the great Chicago Bear who I could watch with pride all season.  Now he looks like Gnat Forte as in “couldn’t hurt a gnat.”  Ugg!  – Jim Ballard

Diet Beats Exercise? What’s More Important?

A reader recently sent us the “For Losing Weight, Diet Beats Exercise” article in the San Francisco Chronicle by Erin Allday.  Erin did a nice job reporting the news, it was just the news that was stupid.  In this post, we’d like to take the opportunity to debunk some of this junk with some good old fashioned common sense.  You will notice that in Fantasy Healthball, exercise is the ONLY mandatory challenge in the bunch.  We have a great many health and diet related challenges, but exercise is the only mandatory challenge.  You won’t win much at Fantasy Healthball if you don’t exercise, and we think you won’t win much at life either.  As our reader said, “Being healthy is a whole body job.”  We couldnt’ have said it better. 

The article starts out by saying exercise is not a key ingredient to weight loss.  An excerpt:  ”Is exercise good? Absolutely. But not because it burns calories,” said Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF Children’s Hospital. “Diet is about weight. Exercise is about health.”

Fantasy Healthball:  Huh?  Say that again Doc?  “Diet is about weight and exercise is about health.”  Yeeeah, oookaaay, but isn’t weight about health?  Doesn’t being overweight or obese lead to tons of health problems?  We think this is less about splitting hairs and more about splitting an atom.  Diet and exercise need to go together.  Split them and bad things happen. 

An excerpt:  “Folks are getting a lot of mixed messages about exercise these days. Some studies say just 20 minutes a day of moderate exercise is fine, while others say people need an hour of vigorous exercise most days of the week.”

Fantasy Healthball:  Agreed. There are a lot of mixed messages.  We go with the Surgeon General.  But we also say do what you can.  If you do 20 minutes of moderate exercise each day that is good.  An hour of vigorous is great if you can work up to it.  You need to listen to your body and talk over your planned program with your doctor.  It is all about you and your body, not some overall standards.

An excerpt:  Exercise is great for maintaining weight, but it isn’t the best way to drop pounds. A person would have to burn off about 3,500 calories to lose just one pound.  “Running a mile is about 150 calories for a guy, so to burn a pound of fat, just with exercise, is almost running a marathon,” said Dr. Wayne Smith, co-director of the Medical Weight Management Program at Kaiser Permanente in San Jose.

Fantasy Healthball:  We are big fans of Kaiser, but we think this is a tad misleading.  Like an ocean is a tad wet.  3,500 calories is a pound.  Agreed.  But Rome was not built in a day and neither is weight loss.  Let’s talk about a week.  Losing a pound a week would be burning an extra 500 calories a day (check our math:  7 days x 500 calories/day = 3,500 calories to lose a pound).  Read this to see how it works.  And yes part of that should be exercise but part can be diet too.  You don’t have to get all 500 just in exercise.  Healthiest could be exercising and burning off 250 and reducing 250 calories from your daily intake.  Viola!  You are losing a pound a week and making your heart and body happy.  Superfast weight lost is usually not sustainable, we are going for a bit each week until you meet your goal and it becomes you new habits, your new way of life. 

 

Last excerpt:  On top of that, Smith said, while many people overestimate the calories they burn when they exercise, they also underestimate the calories they eat. People often think exercise gives them the freedom to eat what they want, weight-loss experts say.

Fantasy Healthball:  Good point doc.  Some do.  But our readers know you can’t sit pedaling a stationary bike while eating a banana split and hope to lose weight and build a strong healthy body.  For that, you need both diet AND exercise.  And you need a little motivation and inspiration.  Some competition is a great motivator.  That is where we come in.  – Jim Ballard

NFL Week One – Will you be 0-1 or 1-0? And the 5-step Diet Grief Process

So your first week of Fantasy Healthball (Monday through Saturday) is now behind you.  Your Scorecard for the week should have a little “2″ written in where you met the challenge for the week and a “0″ where you did not.  Add up all your points with any bonus points and get your total score for the week.  This is the score that you will now pit against your fantasy football opponent for the week.  Did you do enough to beat them?  You’ll know soon!

Meanwhile, let’s talk about your week.  Which 7 challenges did you pick?  What did you find hard?  Easy?  If you found some things hard, that is good – getting into great health is not going to come to you on a silver platter.  You need to follow our nutrition advice and exercise input and focus yourself to keep it up.  Even if you start out this week with a loss, you can bounce back next week with a win to move your record to 1-1.  Put together another good week and you are 2-1.  Once you start stringing some victories together, it gets easier and easier.  Questions?  Let us know.  You want to make good decisions during the week so that you have a good chance of scoring higher than your fantasy opponent and winning the week. 

Most of changing your habits and losing weight and getting into great shape is mental.  Fantasy Healthball helps you change your attitude by focusing your football passion into health passion.  But we know how emotional it can be and how years of poor health habits can’t be changed overnight like flicking a switch.  Many people go through steps similar to the 5 steps of grief process. 

1.  Denial - Not a problem for me.  I like being fat and happy. I’ll work this weight off later.  Being overweight is just me.  Besides, my spouse doesn’t mind.  It is no big deal.

2. Anger - Quit pressuring me, jerk!   I eat what I want when I want.  But how did I gain so much weight?  I’m mad at that person in the mirror, who is that?  It is not fair.  My life doesn’t allow me the time to exercise or think about nutrition. 

3.  Bargaining - When I hit 40 (or 50) years old I’ll start getting serious about health.  I’ll cut down on sodas but I will not give up my double mochas with whipped cream. 

4.  Depression – What’s the point?  I’ve never going to fit into those shorts from college anyway.  Eating better isn’t going to change the fact that there is a history of health problems in my family.

5.  Acceptance – I really can do this.  I can drop some pounds and get into healthier shape.  I do feel better when I’m not filling my body with junk.  I can feel good again. 

Where are you on the above?  No matter your stage, it is time to check us out and give it a try.  — Jim Ballard

Play Fantasy Healthball with us – Get in great shape this fall/winter

Even if you weren’t one of the first to respond and join our custom league, you can still play Fantasy Healthball this 2009 NFL season with your friends or even by yourself.  Think about it.  It is easier to stay in shape in the summer time.  Days are longer, it stay light well into the evening (allowing for outdoor activities), the weather is nicer and inspiring to get outside, and the throngs of people outside in shorts and tank tops inspire you to fit into that old pair of shorts you love or that old bathing suit. 

But then winter comes.  Days are short.  It is dark by the time you get out of work.  It is cold or windy or rainy or all three.  Everyone is bundled up in layers of clothing, not a flat tummy in sight.  It is the time of year your brain might be telling you, “time to pack on some calories and get ready to hibernate until the thaw.” 

Well my friends, Fantasy Healthball is what separates us from the grizzly bears.  Our bodies do not need to pack on fat for the long winter.  Our bodies need just as much exercise and vitamins and minerals through nutrient rich food as we do in the summer time.  So play our game with us.  You are going to be watching football anyway, you might as well be getting into great shape as you are doing it!  Check out the “Start Playing” section of our website to learn all the details and then come back here for updates and advice.  By the way, this is a 2-way communication with our fans.  Send us an email or leave us a comment on our blog and we’ll get back to you. 

And now I must get back to preparing for our custom league draft on Monday.  You probably know Jeff is our fantasy guru, but here is how I have the top ten running backs ranked for this year’s draft as of right now.  I have Forte higher than most experts as he is going to be an even bigger catching threat with a first-year Cutler in addition to his usual awesome running.  And I have Frank Gore higher than most because he has never been more fired up in his career.  A hall of fame middle linebacker as a coach will do that for a guy. 

1. Adrian Peterson
2. Matt Forte
3. Michael Turner
4. Maurice Jones-Drew
5. Frank Gore
6. DeAngelo Williams
7. LaDainian Tomlinson
8. Brandon Jacobs
9. Brian Westbrook
10. Steven Jackson

How will you compare with the season of these guys?  Find out now.  — Jim Ballard

Join the official Fantasy Healthball league! – Free!

This just in.  You’re reading it here first!  Our very own fantasy guru Jeff Hagen will be the commissioner of the first annual, official Fantasy Healthball league through Yahoo! Fantasy Sports.  We’ll soon be announcing the League ID and password.  Stay tuned to this blog for that information.  Then, it is first come, first served!  The first lucky Fantasy Healthball fans to sign up will be enrolled in our inaugural league. 

We will be playing head to head Fantasy Healthball.  Each week, your fantasy team will be matched up against another team in the league.  At the same time, you will be tracking your health points against your opponent’s fantasy team.  Your fantasy team will get a win or a loss, but you will also get a personal win or loss when it comes to your healthy choices for the week.  That’s right, you will have to be committed to your health Monday through Saturday and your result will stack up against your fantasy opponent!  It is you against the NFL pros.  

And a whole new element to trash talking begins.  Your friend always kick your butt at fantasy football?  It is time to crush him/her where it matters even more – your personal health.  Or maybe you are the dominant fantasy player?  If you can dominate with your health scores as well, you are the true ruler of the universe, er, I mean league. 

It will add a whole new element to watching the games on Sunday.  And a whole new element to your food, nutrition, and exercise efforts throughout the week.  You’ll need to work hard enough during the week to maximize your points.  Then, watch the NFL games to see if it was good enough.  You gotta work hard at it because those NFL players aren’t playing tiddlywinks.  They will be racking up the yardage and TDs.  Do you have what it takes to beat them?  Make it happen! 

Use your passion for football to create passion for great health!

Stay tuned and we will be releasing the ID and password at a random time.  Then be among the first to join our custom league called, “Fantasy Healthball.”  This year it is totally free.  Jeff and I will see you there.  — Jim Ballard

Fans headed wrong way

Psssst, hey fantasy footballers, hey NFL fans, hey America , we are going the wrong direction.  Our American athletes are getting stronger and stronger.  World records are falling right and left.  Athletes are bigger, stronger, faster, and leaner than they used to be, but wait, what about us fans?  Us fans, we are getting weaker, slower, and fatter than cheering crowds of old.  Oh, you want proof?  I have indisputable, scientific proof, but, as they say, a picture is worth 1,000 bits of indisputable, scientific proof.

Exhibit A. Sports fans of yore

 

Exhibit B: Sports fans of today

If that doesn’t say it all, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month reported that Americans are getting heavier and heavier and now 26% of us are now fully obese.  That is not the “overweight or obese” stat but the fully obese, 26%, wow. 

 That means you get any two American couples together, let’s say Bob and Cathy stop by Ken and Lisa’s house, one of those people, let’s say Bob, is obese.  The overweight OR obese stat also rose and is about two-thirds.  That means, Cathy and Lisa are most likely overweight.  That just leaves Ken.  In this little scenario, you want to be Ken. 

Bob, and to a lesser extent Cathy and Lisa, have higher risks for chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes. 

If you want to find out where you fit in all this, you can calculate your body mass index at lots of websites like this one.  Or, you can take just look at the photos above.  Whether you identify more with the first or second photo, we encourage you to check out our nutrition info. and our exercise info. and we welcome you to the Fantasy Healthball family.  If you love football, we can help you turn this around and get back going the right direction.  – Jim Ballard

OUCH!

“Hey, have a safe 4th.”  “Hey, have a safe one.”  What is it about the 4th of July that compels people to always tell you to be safe?  Do they really think without their helpful reminder, that you might accidentally set off some bottle rockets in your shorts?  Or perhaps they are talking about that other 4th of July staple – BBQ grilling.  Are they telling you to make sure you grill the burger thoroughly on both sides so you can avoid the nasty E Coli or even this mad cow?

Really Mad Cow

 Whatever it is, I was told by several people to have a safe 4th.  And you know what?  I should have listened.  But more on that later.

At Fantasy Healthball, we are all about good health and the well-being of our Fantasy Healthball community (which you are one of since you are reading this blog!).  As you can read on our website, we think good health leads to happiness in all parts of life.  We care about our readers, the readers of our site, our blog, the Fantasy Healthball devotees who play our game, and the whole Fantasy Healthball community.  A few posts back, we reminded you to figure out ways to decrease stress in your life during these difficult economic times.  In this post, we have a quick word about safety. 

There is a reason NFL players wear pads.  Think of the meanest, nastiest, current NFL player you know and I can guarantee he wears big pads just like everyone else.  Safety doesn’t mean wimpy, safety means thinking about what you intend to accomplish and then putting some things in place that will help you get there.  Couple things happened this week that made me dwell on safety.  First, I bought my first great pair of running shoes ever.  For running shoes, I typically go down to the big box mart and buy whatever is on the best sale.  I usually wear them until they fall off me in shreds and long past when it feels like I have no foot protection left in them.   This week, as I turn 41 years old, I realized it was time to get smarter.  I went to our local specialty shoe store and had the crackerjack owner dissect my feet and running style until I walked out with the perfect running shoes for me.  If you have one of these places within 100 miles of where you live, it is worth it.  You can find a shoe basically made for your specific foot and running mechanics.  I hope my knees and joints thank me and continue to perform for many decades to come.  I make a Fantasy Healthball pledge to replace them once a year and show some respect to this aging machine I live in (my body). 

Okay, second safety episode this week.  While mountain biking near my house, I tried for the first time an extremely steep section of trail full of long ruts and covered in slippery gravel and rock.  I made it up with a series of small bursts like a blue painted Mel Gibson screaming “freeeedooom!!” while charging the opposing army.  On the way down, I did a “full on endo” which is an over-the-handle-bars- end-over-end-flying-flip where my bike landed on me and ultimately stopped 10 yards further down slope.  It looked exactly like:

  

So here is the point.  We care about your body, you should too.  If you are injured, your ability to exercise and burn calories is greatly reduced.  Today, I have a wrist injury, bruised ribs, and a pretty shoulder rash that looks like someone ran out of red ink on their Spirograph.  I won’t have a decent exercise anytime really soon.  So I’m going to pay even more attention to what I put in my mouth, keep control of my calorie intake, and go for some non-body-jarring walks.  A public service announcement from Fantasy Healthball:  exercise, eat right, and take good care of your body, it is aging and deserves it.  Oh, and one more thing, “have a safe one!”  — Jim Ballard

From Mini-Camp to Training Camp

In cities all over America, NFL teams are conducting Mini-camps this month.  What are Mini-Camps?  They are an official opportunity for NFL teams to start preparing for the upcoming season, prior to the official Training Camp which will begin in July.  The Mini-camp is essentially a long weekend whereby both team veterans and newly drafted players can meet with coaches and begin learning new plays and strategies to be used in the upcoming season.  They take small steps, one-by-one to prepare for the weekly grind that is the NFL season.  They don’t just show up in September without any practice and expect to perform at peak level right away.

This pattern makes good sense for all of us as we prepare to play Fantasy Healthball in the upcoming season.  If you have been taking time away from recording your Health Points, perhaps allowing yourself some slack in your daily health habits, consider conducting a one week Mini-Camp to get back into the swing of it.   Perhaps you’ve been considering a new health challenge?  A mini-camp is just the ticket you need to try it out before we start up for good in September.  

Take next week and the first week of July to run as Mini-Camps for Fantasy Healthball.  Get yourself re-acclimated to scoring yourself every day.  Then during July and August, string together 3 or 4 consecutive weeks as a Training Camp or Pre-Season effort.  By the time Season Kickoff rolls around on Monday, September 7th, you will be ready to roll and you can expect to perform with good consistency right from Week 1! — Jeff Hagen

Mental Health Day

I learned an important lesson in high school the day I skipped school to go with my friends to see “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”  The redundancy of the message was clear enough for even this high schooler to figure out – every once in a while it is important to take a mental health day.  A day unlike the normal routine.  A day where you do things you WANT to do and take time off from the normal world where you do a whole lot of things you HAVE to do. 

If you think of the stereotypical American vacation, you probably think of a station wagon driving through a national park with the next stop “the second largest ball of twine on the face of the earth, which is only four short hours away?”  But our post today is to remind you that a vacation can also happen in a day, “a vacation day,” a mental health day.  And with a global pandemic, a severe recession worse than most of us (unless you were around when “Gone with the Wind” was a new release), jets falling into water, almost 10 million people receiving unemployment, nuclear weapon testing, shootings in museums, well, you get the picture, we all could use a little break now and then. 

Yesterday, I took such a break.  I took Friday off.  Here is what I learned:  if you are living with an unusual amount of stress, you should figure out how to do it too.  And don’t just sit on the couch and watch re-runs of the Beverly Hillbillies (okay, go ahead and do that, that “Granny and Jethro” are such a hoot!), but even better than that, we recommend focusing on your health and well being.  A correction back to a new normal if you have gotten off track.  I started with a long mountain bike ride.  Actually, it wasn’t intended to be quite so long but I got lost in the middle of a state park and it added 45 extra minutes to my ride.  The getting lost part was a great diversion from my day to day office job.  While lost, you have to consider what happens if you stay lost – could I catch that jack rabbit for dinner?  Could I start a fire with my stainless steel canteen and some rocks?  But I digress.

Let me cut to the chase.  I biked (exercise), had some great seafood (nutritious), got a massage (relaxed and mental health boost), and hung out with great friends (more mental health).  Those are the body and mental health things I did and today I feel calm, relaxed, happy, and newly prepared to face the world.  At Fantasy Healthball, we know these are tough times and we care about your well being.  So take our advice, take a break from the stress and the vending machine junk food.  Pick up that banana and bowl of blueberries.  Get some good exercise.  See a friend.  It is tough times out there, remember to take care of yourself.  — Jim Ballard

Guest Blog Post – Why Fantasy Healthball Works for me (Part 2 of 2)

And now, part II of Duff Beach’s post: 

The tools are more important than the game.  The great thing about Fantasy Healthball is that the lessons you learn in battle stay with you after the season ends.  I haven’t counted calories in a long time, but daily I think about what I’m eating and how it affects me.  When I eat ice cream (I won’t ever give it up), I think about it and understand its effects.  When I have that third beer while watching the game, I think about it.  When I’m traveling on business, I make sure I take a walk before I go to bed and I eat a salad rather than a cheeseburger.  There’s no rocket science here.  Instead there’s habit and understanding, two things Fantasy Healthball instills.

Fantasy Healthball is only part of the equation; it’s my offense.  A looming health insurance physical became my special teams.  Not because I really wanted the lower rates (I did), but because insurance companies base their rates (their risk) on odds.  It’s not unlike baseball.  Sure, the career minor leaguer, called up for two weeks who’s batting below the Mendoza line could hit the game-winning homerun in the bottom of the ninth.  It could happen.  And a guy my height, weight and cholesterol level could live to be 90.  But it’s not likely.  Just like you want the career .300 hitter who averages 40 home runs stepping into the batters box when it matters, the insurance company wants to insure someone who’s fit.  I looked at the odds (and the rates) and realized they weren’t good.  Caring about being there for my family is my special teams.

Defense wins championships.  Playing Fantasy Healthball by itself won’t make you healthy.  Caring about the outcome will.  I used the good offense to create my best defense; I got the tools I needed from Fantasy Healthball.  My defense is the will power: knowing that I needed to walk past the jar of candy on my co-worker’s desk, make the oatmeal instead of grabbing the donut, have tea at night rather than a brownie with ice cream.  It’s not always easy, but it’s working.

I’m not there yet, but for the first time in 6 years I’m closer to 190 than 200, and still moving in the right direction, marching down the field slowly, steadily, and without any gimmicks.  I’m insurable, I’m a little quicker on my bike and hockey skates, and on top of it all, I feel better about myself.  Thanks Fantasy Healthball: you showed me the way with a good, fundamental offense.  — Duff Beach