Tips to living a healthy life

Hey everyone! Hope your week has been going amazing and you've been enjoying it. I surely have been :D It feels amazing that I'm finally done my grad school applications, it's like a weight has been lifted of  my shoulders. Now it's time to start contacting professors. YaY! That means reading about cool research projects :)

I came across a really nice post the other day which includes 40 tips to live a happy healthy life. I suggest that you print it out and repeat it like a mantra in the mornings :P What I wanted to do for this post is to pick out a few that I think are important and expend on them.

Abs are made in the gym and are revealed in the kitchen.

Before I start, I want to raise a concern. Blogger has this feature that allows you to see what google search phrases led to your blog. Well one of them was "I need to be skinny". Seriously?! I felt so embarrassed because I was actually showing a few of my friends from the lab my blog when I discovered this and they were the ones to point it out. I hope my blog is not inspiring ED's or anything :S

Nobody needs to be skinny, that's crazy 0.0 Well I guess it depends on what you define as skinny... I've noticed that nowadays people's definition of skinny is someone of a healthy weight which makes sense since the average person is overweight. However, if the person who searched that is reading this please reconsider that statement. Being stick thin is not healthy nor is attractive. Being healthy and fit is. Period (how ironic... often stick thin girls don't get their periods).  

Anyways, on with the post!

My planks have improved drastically. You have no clue how happy it makes me! I took much fewer breaks during my 5 minute plank workouts and I'm actually starting to extend the workout. What I'm adding in are the Up-Down planks. It's a great way to add a solid arm workout to your plank series. I find them extremely difficult but I'll get there with time. My stomach itself is starting to look a lot more toned which is always a cherry on top :D I had my grandma feel and she gave me a thumbs up, Yay!

Something that I came across is this:

Tracking your workouts

Hey y'all :) Hope you enjoyed the little post about fecal transplants. It still cracks me up, haha!

Anyways, I came across a program called Training Peaks from Heather and decided to give it a try. It's completely free and is basically a workout tracking program. I'm still trying to figure out all of the features but it seems pretty cool at the moment. The interface looks just like a calendar where you can input your workout, run, swim, bike ride or whatever. In terms of running you can put in the distance with duration and it spits out the your pace and the amount of calories you burn. There's a little space where you can add description and comments of the workout which is amazing from tracking how you felt during or after. Then you can include the equipment you used, whether you did any interval training, what route you took, your HR zones and a bunch of other features I don't even understand!

RePOOPulating the Gut! Ewww...

I actually can't contain my excitement about this post. Hopefully it doesn't gross you out too much and you like it :)

A paper for my lab's journal club was about umm... RePOOPulating the gut or maybe I should say fecal transplant. I know right? Fecal transplant... Literally taking feces from a healthy individual and placing it in the large intestines of a sick individual. CRAZY!

Match made in heaven

The recipe book that I found last year was actually a traditional Russian Cookbook. I thought why not try out some recipes over the Christmas break, I`m sure my grandma would be jumping form glee. One cool recipe that stuck with me was carp with buckwheat and mushroom stuffing. Yummm! Not having any carp on me I decided to just make the stuffing. Boy, buckwheat and mushrooms are a match made in heaven!

The recipe is so simple yet so delicious and slightly sweet. Consume it cold as the flavour intensifies and that`s amazing because it means TASTY LEFTOVERS! Enjoy :D

Slave of the art

This Sunday I went to a global health conference that I have organized. It is part of the Student International Health Initiative (SIHI) at my university. I’ve been part of the organizing committee since second year of university and this year I became one of the co-chairs for the conference. Overall, everything went great and our keynote was amazing! It was John Tepper and he gave as a great inspirational speech about doing what you love. The example that he used was the conference itself. Think about it, how many people would choose to go to a conference on the Sunday morning? Only those who are passionate about global health (I’m not exactly too much into global health but I love love love organizing conferences). That’s exactly how you can tell who is passionate about a particular subject- if they’re willing to do devote their Sunday morning to it.

I want to challenge you

As you all probably know I've been on a bit of plank spree. I actually really enjoy planks now. They were intimidating outrageously scary at first but now they just became a part of my routine. Yes... you have read this correctly- planks are really not that bad.

Building a base

I checked the calendar and my half-marathon is pretty much in 14 weeks! Woah? The time just flew by. Which brings me to say that I pretty much need to start building my base mileage. For the last 2-3 months I've been very much focusing on transitioning to barefoot running and have been running about 40-60 minutes a week. Ick!

I know my barefoot running schedule is supposed to start including long runs (40 min)/ hills/ tempo runs (25 min). Instead I'm thinking of pushing that back and working more on building up my base mileage. Once I feel comfortable I'll start including long runs/ hills/ tempo/ fartlek runs. Basically, I want to get my mileage up a bit more before I start adding harder workouts.

Down's Syndrome... deactivating the chromosome?

Birth defects are horrible :( It really bring stress upon the family and the poor baby. They never choose to be born with the defect and thank goodness that through awareness, people are now more accepting :D

 As you probably know Down Syndrome (DS) is one of the most common birth defects with 1 in 800 births being a baby with DS. It mainly occurs when the mother's eggs (ovum) undergo improper division where an extra chromosome is present in the mature egg. Upon fertilization, the baby has 3 pairs of chromosome 21 instead of 2. The consequence is that there is an overexpression of certain genes that then results in clinical anomalies. Apart from the noticeable facial features, and mental retardation, these individuals are generally of a short stature and are prone to an array of complications. These include congenital heart defects, Celiac disease, imperforate anus, leukemia, testicular cancer, hypothyroidism, obesity, early-onset Alzheimer's, ear infections, hearing loss, depression, ADHD, autism, OCD. Crazy ha?

Goat and Cabbage

My grandparents brought something funky from an Eastern European grocery store. I have no clue why they thought it was Feta Cheese? It clearly said Yogurt on it and had pictures of goats on it. That's how I stumble upon Goat Yogurt! It is actually really tasty apart from its smell. I'd say very similar to modern Green Yogurt in terms of consistency and it was 11g of protein per 110 calorie serving (liberte 2.7%mf) ;) The cool think about goat milk and I guess yogurt is that it is more similar to human milk and has less lactose. This is a good non-milk alternative for kids and can be ok with some people with lactose intolerance. Give it a try one day ;) I surely enjoyed it with some muesli for breakfast ^^

Change your point of view

Hey y'all! Before I begin today's post I'd just like to say thank you so much for reading this blog. It really means a lot to me and you guys have been so supportive and inspirational :D

I have finally figured out some stuff regarding my blog layout and have added follow/ subscribe buttons which are located on the right side of the site. I'd mean the world to me if you follow even if you don't comment ^^

Now the post!

Da Plank

Last week I addressed my need for more strength training. I've never really been afraid of doing weights but I've always been pretty week. Sure I do build some muscle I'm not muscle gifted like my mom -.- Well she can't run like I do :P

Anyways, I needed an exercise that:

1. Did not require the gym/ a ton of equipment
2. Works out most major muscle groups (except legs)
3. Is pretty quick 

The Plank (aka the Whole Grail) is my weapon of choice. It works everything- the core (all of it!), arms, shoulders, and apparently even the butt! Smexy!

Yup the plank works them all (especially if you include side plank)

Barefoot in January? Am I crazy?

Hey y'all :) Hope you  had a good weekend I know I did!

Some of my workouts last week have been a bit of a fail and due to some circumstances I only went to yoga once this week :(

I was going to go on Saturday but there was an accident on the road so me and my friend couldn't get to the class on time. You know what! I'm kind of glad we didn't go because it was beautiful outside and we went for a jog instead :D

Source: http://skreened.com/render-product/m/y/n/myncmmanunmijqeuamyy/if-you-can-t-see-the-bright-side-of-life-polish-the-dull-side.american-apparel-unisex-fitted-tee.lemon.w760h760.jpg

It was strange because it was around 8 degrees out on Saturday? So much for Canadian winter! Of course I didn't have my shoes with me so I went running in... socks...

Nutrigenomics say what!

An internal debate has been going on within me. There’re people on one side claiming the health benefits of being vegan and people on the other side saying the same thing about following a paleo diet. What gives? They are very different yet both seem to claim health benefits.

Well I came across a concept while applying for the Masters in Nutritional Sciences program at University of Toronto. It’s called nutrigenomics. Yup Nutrigenomics! This is the study of how food and its constituents interact on a molecular level with the human genome. Kind of crazy…

Christmas x2

As you might have heard Monday was Orthodox Christmas. It's very much the same idea as regular Christmas but there are some discrepancies with the calendar so we celebrate it 2 weeks later. What I love about Orthodox Christmas is Kutia (Kutya), basically a wheat and poppy seed pudding. It is one of those special dishes that you make once a year because it takes ridiculously long to prepare. Nevertheless, I look forward to this homemade goodness every year and because you always make it in massive batches I had it for breakfast for 3 days after Christmas. It's one of those foods that is amazing for leftovers and actually tastes better the next day ;)

What it would look like if done very traditionally...

Please sir, may I have a chance?

"Please sir, may I have a chance?" <said in Oliver Twist voice>
(This is a bit of a rant, but I speak on behalf of many of my fellow students)

Back in my parents/ grandparents time or I should say Soviet Union times you went to university/ college after highschool, got paid to study if you had good grades, and had a job waiting for you after you graduate.

A promise of a job was all I ever wanted when I signed up for university. However, honestly what can one do with a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree? I'm sick a tired of family friends asking what profession I will have after graduating and me having to reply "absolutely none". They all give me a bewildering look. Yes, I said none! I can't do **** unless I do a masters or get into professional school. 

Skinny Fat?

I would like to start by saying that swimming is amazing. Honestly, it's one of the activities where you get a cardio +full body muscle workout. An amazing way to stay in shape and is uber fun especially if you're doing synchro :P

Well that's the problem, I've stopped doing synchro and switched over to running last year. My legs stayed in amazing shape, however the rest of my body lost muscle tone in a blink of an eye. Here's the deal, doing swimming I never really worried about strength training or doing much "land" exercise. Now with running, all I end up doing is cardio and that's about it.

I have become a scary word... Skinny Fat :S <hide under the desk>

Balancing Running and Yoga

Ever since I've started Bikram Yoga, my time devoted to barefoot running has gone down. The 90 minute yoga class in a "sauna" and all the commuting have really taken a toll on my running schedule. In addition, since I just started yoga my legs have been in pain. My quads and hamstrings hurt like **** that I gave up on a Strength Drill workout once.

Source: http://gymflow100.com/post-run-yoga-routine-that-targets-sorest-and-tightest-spots-video/

``Archille`s heel`` of cancer

This topic is crazy! When I first heard about it I thought it was mind blowing. CANCER STEM CELLS. Yes, a cancer and a stem cell all in one.

Let`s start off with some definitions.

A cancer cells as you might now are cells that undergo unregulated differentiation. Basically, they divide uncontrollably and form massive lumps or tumours. Alternatively, a stem cell is a cell that can give rise to specific cells (like skin, muscle, nerves) while being able to self-renew or make exact same replicas of itself.

Well aren’t these two very different things? You kind of have to think about Cancer Stem Cells as Tumour Initiating Cells. This whole idea is very new being proposed in 1997 and is still open for debate. A subpopulation of leukaemic cells were isolated that had a specific marker on them (CD34 and no CD38). Isolated from the tumour, these cells were capable of initiating tumours in immunocompromised mice. Similar phenomena was observed in other types cancers.

Source: http://hematopoiesis.info/2008/12/28/validity-of-the-cancer-stem-cell-concept-under-discussion

Colourful Rice

Rice... It's really quite a beautiful grain because there are so many varieties other than the typical brown rice. Something that I came across at Whole Foods was Himalayan Red Rice. Yes, I had to try it!

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take

I remember this poster. It used to hang beside the Music Room at my highschool. I've passed it many times and got imprinted in my memory

"You will always miss 100% of the shots you don't take" Wayne Gretzky

Looking Back and New Goals

Yesterday I was chilling with a few friends and reminiscing over 2012. Honestly, it's been an amazing year. 

It all began with me starting this blog. I guess it was kind of a New Years Resolution...

Then I met a bunch of really cool people at the lab I was at and there was some partying going on :P Good times! I kind of miss living away from home just for that reason.

I went to Calgary for my synchronized swimming competition and we got 3rd place for University Novice Teams at Nationals! WooT!

I'm sure I've used this picture like a gazillion times! It kind of hard to get a good synchro picture because they all turn out blurry!