For the past month, I’ve been thinking how cool it would be to keep track of my exercise, but I was trying to think of why I would want to share that information over the Web. You know, like am I trying to inspire other people? Is this solely for the purposes of tracking my exercise so I can improve/look back? Am I trying to connect with other athletes (whoa, am I an athlete??)? Am I just trying to show off? The way I figure it, no one wants to read a selfish blog nor do I think calling attention to myself for the sake of attention is a biblically based move.
After thinking and praying about it for a while, I decided that my real motivations were that I really want to just inspire people, you know, people who don’t even have athletic backgrounds, like I used to, or who do know how to sprint a 400 but haven’t done it in a while and would like to get back into shape. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any delusions of grandeur; I know I’m not a running or exercising expert. However, I used to think that walking a mile was hard where now I’m running 8-11 miles every other Saturday. With the help of a very supporting family and God, I have drive and I’d love to share it.
Secondarily, I think it’s a great way to keep track of my stats so I can improve. My husband got me to start an excel sheet when he inspired me to start running three years ago (Bless you!!!). But, it’s an excel sheet. It’s in black and white. There are no pictures, there are no graphs (although I could make one, but where’s the ease in that? J), and no one ever sees it but me and my husband so I don’t get feedback from many people. While I tried to keep as many anecdotes about my run to make it somewhat interesting, I lost motivation quickly (as shown in the fact that my husband was making many of my entries for me in the end; poor man!).
So…once I decided that my two reasons for creating a running blog weren’t completely selfish, I checked out a few random running blogs to get a feeling for what makes them successful. I found that the most successful running blogs do three things: (1) keep track of stats, (2) provide anecdotes to training or training lifestyle, and (3) have a theme (like https://owa.angelo.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=a11a401e57854b29917c58653bc1a2dc&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.fitmepink.blogspot.com%2f or https://owa.angelo.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=a11a401e57854b29917c58653bc1a2dc&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.youmotherrunner.com%2f).
Well, I can do the first two, but what about the third? What about a theme? On a random internet search, I was looking at this really fluffy Web site that Gwyneth Paltrow started, located at https://owa.angelo.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=a11a401e57854b29917c58653bc1a2dc&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.goop.com. She’s all Zen like and advises local produce eating and $1,000 dress shopping and junk, but I started thinking about the recipes that she provides on her web site. And that made me think of my allergies… so if you know me, then you know where this is leading, probably.
This is my “Allergic to Sitting” Blog. While I’m quite big on grabbing a container of nuts or a bag of chips and watching Lord of the Rings in our home theatre, running allows me to do that and I’m not talking calorie-wise. I have some funky weird food allergies (or you could call them intolerances if you’d like, it doesn’t matter since my body obviously can’t handle certain things no matter what you call it). I’ll post my current list of allergies here in a bit, but basically I want to talk about my breakthroughs and frustrations with food as me and my husband work around and through my allergies with exercise and diet. I’d like to use this blog to share several things. I would like to provide what recipes that we use, how to find alternative foods of all kinds (cheaply, healthfully, and locally) and using them while training, how I eat out at restaurants, Web site and book recommendations, food holiday frustrations, how I weaned myself off of allergy medications, how I’m feeling on a daily basis, how my husband survives, maintaining a healthy weight on a limited diet, and then post my training log and upcoming races. I’m not sure if it’ll gain a huge following, but if this information can help you, one reader, GREAT!!!!
I was wondering what you thought might be the cause of the escalation in food allergies reported in the kids in this study?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailyrx.com/news-article/peanut-allergies-appear-more-prevalent-14145.html
Why do you think it seems that there is such a higher instance of this in recent times?Do you think it is because of better medical tracking giving a more accurate picture or changes in the environment?
Jen,
ReplyDeleteGood question! I'm definitely not an expert, but I have heard several theories about why people have allergies. The most prevalent one is the "hygiene hypothesis" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allergy#Hygiene_hypothesis). In case you're not familiar, this suggests that our society has become increasingly too clean and therefore our immune systems do not develop properly as it shapes and changes throughout our lifetime. Somehow fighting off diseases and infections and gaining more experience with unfiltered air and un-washed foods is somewhat essential to our growth according to this theory.
Some scientists behind this theory go so far as to say that our immune system is built off of that of "early man" where it was necessary to have an extremely high-functioning immune system. Some say we still have that same immune system, but it's no longer getting a complete workout (like having a V8 engine with a bazillion horses, but never going above 30 mph). As a result, it's "bored."
I'm not sure how these theories fit with the idea that we can also inherit allergies from our parents. Genetically speaking, what our parents' immune system "learns" while they are alive does not pass down to us. If they get a cold before we are born, we won't somehow be magically immune to that same cold after birth. We can still become infected by that cold. We can only inherit their genotype or the blue prints of an immune system. So "hygiene" can't be the only explanation for why there may be more cases of allergies today.
Like you said, better medical tracking could also be an influence on the statistic you found. Doctors might be keeping better track of this information. Also, it's common knowledge in the medical field that once a pharmaceutical company advertises a drug for some medical problem, people will see their doctor and ask about that medical condition at higher rates than during the previous time period before the advertisement. Knowledge of allergies and medications for allergies have grown exponentially in the last decade (according to my own observation). More and more people might see information in the news media, infomercials, books, etc, and then realize "hey, you know that problem I've been having? It might be allergies." Then they go to their doctor.
In summary, nobody really knows why we have allergies (and as a result, why there are different trends in allergies). I'm sure you were anticipating that answer. :) Allergies have been a pseudo-scientific area of study for quite some time. My husband and I are planning to have kids in the next few years, and it's a real concern what genes their going to inherit. All I know is that, Lord willing, we're going to encourage our kids to be as active as possible and to be healthy eaters because I know that's what has really helped me.