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

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

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

Avoidable Tragedy

Our local Fire Chief always says, “If we can anticipate it, we can prevent it.”  That rings so true with me.  If we know something is likely to be a problem, we can overcome it with a little foresight and follow through.  Can we manage wildlands around residential areas so that when a wildfire starts it does not devastate homes?  Of course we can, but it takes a lot of will and personal commitment by home owners. 
What does all this have to do with Fantasy Healthball?  I believe the same principle holds true when it comes to your health.  You can anticipate the wildfire of health problems related to weight and obesity.  They come by names such as “heart disease,” “type 2 diabetes,” “cancer,” “reduced life expectancy,” “stroke,” “depression,” “high blood pressure,” “osteoarthritis” and the like.  Obesity is one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide.  Can you believe that?  We are not talking bubonic plague, we are talking body weight.  Genetics play a role here, but diet (poor) and exercise (lack thereof) are the real killers here.  So can we protect the residential areas (our bodies) so that when a wildfire starts (poor diet, sedentary lifestyle), it does not devastate us?  Of course we can, but it takes a lot of will and personal commitment by you. 

That is what Fantasy Healthball is all about.  A community of like-minded (read:  football fans) individuals committed to helping ourselves and helping others live healthy lifestyles so that we can live long, full lives and never have to deal with personal tragedies like those listed above. 
So maybe this isn’t a problem for you, but do you know someone you can help?  Is there anyone in your life that is overweight/obese that could use your support?  You can help them by planning healthy activities with them, go for hikes, bike riding, swimming, plan healthy meals, turn them on to Fantasy Healthball or other great health programs.  Since 2/3rds of Americans are overweight or obese, we all have loved ones that we can help with a new attitude of health.  If we can anticipate it, we can prevent it.  Do something TODAY to help yourself or another person live a healthier life.  – Jim Ballard

Calories made easy

In our post “Calorie Counting Made Easy,” we talked about how to count calories and how to find out how many calories your body needs. 

Now that you know what you “need” and what you are eating each day, you can see how those relate and affect your weight.  Need 2,500 and eat 2,500?  No change to body weight.  Remember, a pound of body fat equals 3,500 calories, so it takes a cut of 500 calories a day (3,500 divided by 7)  to lose a pound per week.  Need 2,500 per day and eat 2,000 each day?  You would be losing a pound that week. 

At Fantasy Healthball, we always stress the need for exercise in addition to a healthy diet.  So, if you wanted to lose a pound a week as in the above example, we’d suggest you cut maybe 250 calories a day and exercise for the other 250.  Or lose weight over a longer period of time.  For some, simply improving food choices throughout the day can reduce calorie intake significantly. 

Calorie counting can change the way you look at food.  The act of writing down what you put in your mouth, although a little burdensome for some people, can open your eyes to a healthier way of thinking.  Once you know the number of calories you need, and how many you average, it may make you look at food differently.  You may look at a candy bar, for example, and think “wow, that is 280 calories, is that really worth 280 calories, or maybe I should have an orange (also very sweet, but only 60 calories) instead.”  Jelly (raspberry filled) doughnut, 350 calories.  Piece of coconut crème pie, 450 calories. 

Sometimes people “sneak” a snack.  They eat a candy bar or some other candies quickly as if to minimize the act.  But when you are calorie counting, the fact you know you will have to write it down and add it up may change your mind about eating it in the first place!  At a restaurant staring down at your giant serving of spaghetti and sausage?  Put half in the “to go” container to eat the next day and you’ve just cut your calories in half for that serving.  Skip or reduce the parmesan cheese and you saved yourself some more.  Drop us a comment or email to tell us how this is working for you!  — Jim Ballard

Get a Great Workout – With Your Shovel

It is a little known fact that Terrell Owens got his finely sculpted body while helping his grandmother in the garden.  Okay, maybe not, but the fact remains that gardening is good for you.  A year’s gym membership could be many hundreds of dollars and a new treadmill for the basement could be over a thousand, but your local nursury has all sorts of opportunities to build muscle and burn calories for dirt cheap prices. 

The University of California Master Gardener Julie Monson wrote today about the health benefits of gardening.  At Fantasy Healthball, we listed gardening and yard work second on our list of moderate exercise.  Check out our full list at “Not Your Father’s Calisthenics.”  Monson tells of a University of Arkansas study that showed gardening as #2 behind lifting weights at the gym to build healthy bone mass – “gardening uses all the major muscle groups, and can help develop endurance, strength, and flexibility.”  Monson also suggests benefits that can help in preventing heart disease, obesity, adult onset diabetes, and high blood pressure.  In that case, bring on the shovel!

With the NFL season over, we are in training camp mode and always identifying ways to stay fit.  I know from experience that after a few hours working in my backyard, I feel as spent and exercised as after a long workout in the gym.  Plus, it gets at muscles that I can miss as part of my exercise routine.  I hike and mountain bike regularly, but a couple hours of squatting in the yard make my leg muscles fully worked out.  Ever remove some old junipers from the yard?   At the end I feel like I have just won the heavyweight boxing championship – but with less ear biting. 

So, when the weather allows, get out there and spend some time in the yard.  In these economic times, you can increase your home value with a little sweat equity. 

What’s that?  Not tough enough for you?  Not NFL enough?  To you, I offer exhibit A.  The NFL’s stamp of approval.  Team gardening gloves!  — Jim Ballard

The Obama Diet, or How to Stay Fit While Leading the World

I’ve got a fair amount of stress in my life so eating right and exercise are absolutely necessary to keep my blood pressure from ballooning me up like a engorged tick on the belly of a sleeping dog.  But how to find time to exercise?  I also have 4-year old twins who still wake up in the middle of the night for ice water, cos they had a bad dream, or just to pull their covers up.  So, sleep for me is precious, in other words, I’m not the sort of person who is going to get up at 4:30am to get in the morning workout.   And I don’t want to work out in the evening either because that is my only free time with the twins and that darn Cats in the Cradle song replays in my head whenever I choose something so self-indulgent over being a good daddy – and not the “soft as a feather” Cats in the Cradle by Harry Chapin either, what plays in my head is the venomous, angst-ridden version by Ugly Kid Joe.  So, because of all this, I fit most my weekday workouts in at lunch time and then I do hardcore ones on weekend days.  I used to worry about those lunch workouts.  Should I be working through all my lunches?  Should I be having lunch meetings?  Can I afford the me-time at lunch given my stressful day job?

Well, if you have ever asked similar questions, worry no more.  The leader of the world, most powerful politician on the planet, works out 45-90 minutes a day.  And if he can fit in 45 minutes on the elliptical machine while brokering hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus packages, why the heck can’t I?  It is awesome to picture, “the President calls a 45 minute intermission to this congressional session on single-payer health care so that he can play H-O-R-S-E with his top aides.”  If I were president, that’s how I’d do it.  Keeps the stress down, the blood flowing, the problems in perspective.  It is commonly reported that when someone said to Voltaire, “Life is hard,” he replied, “Compared to what?”  Now that is perspective! 

If you want to know the details of the Obama diet and exercise program, check out this article from the Chron.  He does a full body workout with aerobic and weights.  That’s the way to do it.  Get that body pumping with some treadmill, bike, round ball, or whatever, then work in some strength building.  Obama’s diet is generally healthy but he fits in the occasional “big, sloppy, high-carb delights” because you can when you otherwise run a healthy life.  If you do things right 80-90 percent of the time, you can take a little step off the health wagon from time to time and feel no guilt.  There are more healthy tips at the end of the Chron article.  EVERY single one of them are things we recommend here at Fantasy Healthball. 

Think you can’t make time?  I won’t be surprised if I see a CNN report where our President is spotting the bench press for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – spotting for someone builds a trust and brotherhood/sisterhood that can’t be replicated at some stuffy peace conference.  So try the Obama diet and exercise program, and remember, Yes You Can!  — Jim Ballard

Congrats To Steelers and Congrats to Fantasy Healthballers

A great victory for the Steelers over a team that challenged them every step of the way.  Congrats also to all of you who participated in the 2008 Fantasy Healthball season.  Just like the Cardinals did for the Steelers, life has a way of putting hurdles in your way as you try to live a healthy lifestyle.  You can’t phone it in and expect to win/be healthy.  You have to keep pushing, keep focused, and try even harder when it appears you are down or lost momentum.  The trials of a good football game are the perfect analogy for the trials of losing weight and/or having the body you want to have.  As Big Ben just said with the Lombardi in his hand, “Anything is possible.”  Sometimes it just takes the focus and drive that leads to a toes dragging, sideline, end zone touchdown catch.

My playoff fantasy team ended with 69 points for the game led by Larry Fitzgerald.  My healthpoints for the week top Jeff’s fantasy team today so I finish this wonderful season 19-1.  

We can’t help but get a little emotional and nostalgic.  One year ago, at the Superbowl halftime, as Tom Petty rocked the crowd, we launched our website and blog.  This year, as Bruuuuce rocked the crowd, we had an amazing year to look back on.  The miles jogged, the weights lifted, the calories burned, the countless fruit and veggies, the portion sizes that finally got under control, the water, the fiber, all of it combined to have a huge impact on our health.  If you joined us, you know exactly what we mean.  I leave the 2008 season in the best shape of my life and as committed as ever to stay that way.  Jeff is getting great reports from his doctor and has made substantial progress this year.  

We hope 2008 saw your healthy lifestyle improve as well.  If not, it is time to hit it at training camp and it is never too early to start getting ready for the 2009 season!  We have big plans for 2009, come along with us.  Anything is Possible.  – Jim Ballard

The Fall-Back Workout – Use it

On Monday, the Fantasy Healthball week begins leading up the the Superbowl.  Our scores Monday through Saturday will be pitted against the fantasy players’ Superbowl scores in our own SuperHealthBowl.  I had a good week keeping to my health routine this week and expect to ramp it up next week so I can pull off a SuperHealthBowl victory. 

I managed to work out 5 of the 6 days this week, missing one day due to lunch and evening meetings.  One of the workouts was what I’ve been calling my “fall-back workout.”  That is when you are tired and just don’t have the time to work out.  It could be those or any other of a thousand excuses.  It is too cold out.  It is too dark out.  My shoes are wet.  The dog ate my weight gloves.  My ear muffs are at the cleaners.  I’m just too busy.

Whenever the excuses start piling up, I tell myself “fine, just do the fall-back today.”  The fall-back is the minimum workout so you can feel like you’ve done SOMETHING but not so much that it is overwhelming for you.  As we talk about on the website, the Surgeon General recommends 20 minutes of vigorous or 30 minutes of moderate exercise per day.  Depending on who you are and your current condition, that 30 minutes can be almost anything.  Take the dog around the block a few times.  Do a quick little routine in the basement of running in place for 5 minutes, sets of sit ups for 5 minutes, some jumping jacks, some stretching, etc.  Whatever it is, you need to have your fall-back workout.  One that, when you think of it, makes you feel like, “well I can squeeze that in, that is not so hard.”

My personal fall-back workout is a walk up the hill behind our house.  If I go to the top and back, it takes in the ballpark of 30 minutes – maybe a little less but I have never seen the Surgeon General there with a stopwatch!  What is your fall-back?  What could you squeeze in even in a very busy day?  Figure out what it is and then do it when you need to.  On other days, you might be able to do a good hard exercise, but on those days that you just can’t, then fit something in.  Even something small is going to make you feel better about yourself, the world, and keep you on track on your health goals.  Now go do it!  — Jim Ballard

Week 3 – Championship Round – Steelers and Cardinals Move On

The good news is I moved up this week about 20,000 spots!  The bad news is that puts me in 131,778th place!

Before Sunday’s games, I had received a tip about my fantasy opponent for the week – named “Bears58.”  I heard he (Jeff’s team) went heavily on the Cardinals and Ravens.  Since my own NFL Fantasy Playoff Team is full of Steelers and Eagles, I thought this could be the deciding weekend on which of us is going to finish with more points.  So of course the Cardinals and Steelers move on and each of us find ourselves replacing some players going into the final week.  As you read in my prior post, my grand strategy was to still have 3 moves left over for the Superbowl.  So I can replace some of those Eagles on my team.  My only hope is that Bears58 is out of moves and he will go into the Superbowl with some Cardinals and some empty spots (formerly held by Ravens).  Week 3 result:  Jeff finished first in our league with a 98 and I came in second with a 74.  A big improvement over my prior week but not enough to pick up with win so I fall to 1-2 and Jeff is 2-1. 

I slipped a little this week on the health side because I had a couple lunch meetings where I did not keep to “adequate portion size” and I missed a couple exercises because I had to work late one day and stay with a sick kid another, but I still posted my Fantasy Healthball score in triple digits which was enough to beat Jeff’s fantasy team’s 98 points.  That puts me at 3-0 in the playoffs on Healthball and going strong into the Superbowl. 

So my intuition is that, going into the fantasy Superbowl, Jeff has a few Cardinals and some empty slots.  But if you are going to have some slots filled, the Cards seem to be the way to go.  I dismiss them on a weekly basis only to be surprised by their performance each week.  I keep thinking they are all pomp and no circumstance.  But I know I’ll need a great healthy week to beat them.  3TDs to one receiver?

Since there is no game this Sunday, my league is using this week as a “tune up” and training week for next week.  We’ll keep track of our health challenges this week but only use our scores for trash talking leading to the big game.  Next week, it is for real! 

I currently have Big Ben at QB, Willie Parker and Brian Westbrook at RB, Hines Ward and Larry Fitzgerald at WR (okay, so I did take advantage of those 3 TDs as well, can’t completely pass on those guys!), LJ Smith at TE (what a mistake that has been), my kicker slot open, and the Ravens on Defense/Special Teams.  I can replace 3 of those.  Send any advice my way – I need it as the fantasy rookie going against the fantasy juggernaut!  I’m thinking I need to replace Westbrook and Smith (Eagles out) and my defense (Ravens out).  Good luck to you as well!  (in football and in health)– Jim Ballard