ah, technology...

I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm a technophobe. It wouldn't, however, be too far from the truth. Yet I find myself, somewhat surprisingly, with a brand new Droid 3 that I'm falling head over heels in love with. Crazy talk? Yeah, maybe...I'm starting to learn, though, that technology is not unlike anything else: it's a good thing, in moderation.

Moderating technology use is kind of like being mindful of what you eat, or how much you exercise. There are a lot of us who have problems staying away from the chocolate (or in my case right now at the beginning of fall, the apple pie...mmmmm...). Magazines, diet books, and our trainers are quick to say that you don't have to stop eating chocolate, you just need to exercise restraint in when and how much you eat it. Easier said than done, right? You can help yourself out, though, in a few ways. You can only have a small amount around the house. You can promise yourself that you won't buy things while you're out that have chocolate in them. And you can make sure that what you have on hand is the best stuff, the kind of chocolate that will be wonderful to eat slowly and savor instead of the cheap candy that it's easy to keep popping. When I was thinking about these tips, it occurred to me that they could easily be extended to provide some guidelines about technology usage! Crazy talk? Yeah, maybe...

1. "You only have a small amount of it around the house." We have three computers in our house, which is about two more than we need. My husband used to work from home, so having them around made more sense, but now that he's working elsewhere, I totally want to get rid of at least one of them. We also both have Smartphones, which are constantly blinging us and telling us we have messages that are urgent and dire. I recently realized that with all the automatic notifications most phones have now, it's really difficult to unplug at all from work or even well-meaning friends. I don't really want to be interrupted in the middle of dinner or playing with my daughter to be told that Nordstrom's is having a sale. So I'm turning my phone's notifications off, except for the texts and phone calls. That way I'm not constantly pulled out of my life and into my phone!

2. "You can promise yourself that you won't buy many things while you're out that have chocolate in them." When we're out and about doing things, it's super tempting to feel like you're "wasting time" by just walking down the street, or riding the bus, or eating lunch. I've definitely almost gotten run over, tripped and fallen on my face, and eaten way more than I intended to because I was multitasking on my phone. What if when we're out doing things, we just did things? No phone beside us during our workout. Looking around and noticing beautiful things on a walk instead of texting. This month I'm going to challenge myself to be really present, using the time I need to use my phone on my phone and no more than that. It's gonna be hard, which brings me to my last point...

3. "And you can make sure that what you have on hand is the best stuff, the kind of chocolate that will be wonderful to eat slowly and savor instead of the cheap candy that it's easy to keep popping." With my new Droid 3 I have access to a million games, applications and ways of connecting to people. I spent hours yesterday familiarizing myself with a handful of them, trying to decide what would really be useful and what will just take up time. Um...there's a LOT of things I could do on my phone that would purely suck up days of my life without really giving me anything in return. So I'm going to be really careful, and spend the time to research right now, the apps that would really feel great to use. Allrecipies.com has a great app that would let me find cool dinner ideas and get an ingredient list together so that I could stop at the store on my way home instead of having to make an extra trip. Inspiration, information-gathering and time-saving...that feel like good chocolate to me. Angry Birds doesn't feel like anything but time when I could be resting or doing anything else at all that would be truly refreshing, so instead of forcing a tired brain to go into overtime, I'm not gonna download that one.

I'm going to go hop on the bus now! I'll try to think about these guidelines I've come up with...think about them yourself, if there's a chance they might be helpful to you! :)

5 things I learned by doing the Hell Run!

Hello, everyone, I'm back from Hell and am living to tell the tale! And what a tale it is...I definitely had fun, and have some wisdom that I gleaned from the experience that I'd like to pass on! The only bummer is that my ninja mask fell out in the car, so I was not nearly as mysterious as I had hoped to be...

1. Get in the front of the pack if you can! For the first half-mile I was worried that I'd overtrained, because I was walking more than running. This is because unlike a 5K, everyone piled up behind the first set of obstacles. Also, if you're behind a bunch of people, you're more likely to get mud dropped in your eye as they're climbing the wall in front of you. Once the first obstacles were cleared, though, the flied opened up and I was able to run the rest of the race.

2. Trail-running will serve you better as a training tool than treadmill running. I do both, and was grateful for that fact - none of the race was paved, and there were lots of switchbacks and clambering up and down hills (can you clamber down a hill? Hmm.). I overheard some women muttering at the beginning that "this race is an sprained ankle waiting to happen." This is true unless you've spent a considerable amount of time working on balance, stability and different-surfaced running, which I've been focusing on. You can further improve your chances of getting out injury-free by working on core stability and single-leg strength!

3. No matter who you are, you can do this. There were very serious CrossFit-looking guys running alongside women that looked like my grandmother, who was in turn running alongside a 30-something woman in a tutu and pink pigtails. It's for everyone who doesn't mind getting dirty. There were a lot of groups running together, and I think I'll definitely have to get my people together for next year - it seemed like a lot of fun! People were sprinting and walking, hopping over obstacles and walking around them, stern-faced and constantly cracking up.

4. It was cold. I mean, I wasn't that cold to start, but I was wearing this in the beginning and this at the end, and it was not a warm day. I opted to drive home how I was and skip the at-race "showers," mostly because the people that I saw post-rinse-off looked way colder than I currently was. By the time I walked to my car and drove an hour to get home, though, I was super duper freezing. Next year I'll do the shower and change into dry clothes!

5. Check the race course the day of the event, because things might have changed. I was dreading beforehand the "Tactical Tires" section, afraid that when the tires got muddy and slippery I'd blow out my knee. Turned out the specific Hell Run course I did didn't have that section...although I did end up in the river up to my waist, wading through the icy water for about five minutes. Yeah...did you know your shoes get heavier when they fill with water? Anyway, the point is that they adapt the course to fit the location, so check the website as late as possible for the most up-to-date info!

Very glad I did the race, both because it was fun and gave me extra reason to train hard, and also because my kids now have a Hell Run shirt, medal, and superhero cape to play with. :)

Gendered social eating?

I have the fortune of a decent-length car ride to my gym and back at least once a day, and I listen to NPR almost exclusively on these trips - it's the only reason I have any idea what is going on past what my clients, family and friends are doing/feeling. I heard a fascinating study this morning that suggests that people tend to consume more calories when they're eating with women than when they're eating with men. The article is here. I found this super interesting...what, men don't eat more when they're hanging out with their buddies? Apparently not, according to the study, which was pretty informal and only looked at college students. Seems like a narrow base population from which to try to draw larger conclusions, but the article raises some interesting issues about the social significance of food in our culture, not the least of which is that women are conditioned not to eat much in the presence of men. It's just not ladylike, right? And I'm not surprised that women eat more around other women, by and large...there's a whole "I'm out with the girls, let's have a treat" mentality out there for sure!

The larger issue, of course, is that who we eat with is one of the many factors (conscious and unconscious) that govern our choices of what to put in our bodies. Making conscious decisions day in and day out to eat a certain way is very important, but equally (if not more) important is that we seek out and address the unconscious factors. The best intentions can be derailed by a habit that was begun in childhood and which seems so much a part of you that you feel you have no power over it! Take some time to look at these things with the intent to change the dialogue you have with yourself about eating. It's one thing to say, "I've always had a weight problem...it's because my parents gave me too much junk food and now my body craves it." It's another, healthier choice to acknowledge those tendencies (and their origins) but focus on the actions you might be able to take now, as an adult, to help your body adapt to a new normal. Talking to others can help in this process, but a lot of the work is for you alone - too often talk between friends is more about commiserating that about enabling progress!

I'm by no means the expert on nutrition, but both because of my childhood habits and because of my job, healthy eating is something I've thought a lot about, and tried to help my clients (and myself) understand. Keep at it, people - and try not to let who you're eating a meal with determine how you nourish yourself! :)