Tag Archives: school

Junior Year Changes

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If you were to ask me which year I truly “found myself” it would be junior year.  Not early junior year-more late junior year.

When I decided that math wasn’t for me and dropped the major.

this is math?

When wheels started turning that swimming injury was near and perhaps quitting swimming would in my best interest.

Swimming the Mile, Can you tell?

To sum up junior year the most it would be risk taker.   My life 100% changed junior year.  At the beginning I asked myself, what could be lost with joining cross country team?  If I didn’t enjoy it after the first couple of weeks, I could leave, but giving it a shot would be fun.

One of my first XC races!

I still haven’t left.

Then later I asked, what was going to do graduating with a major that I didn’t care for.  Math and education (double majors) are a very narrow focus.  If you graduate with those…you go into teaching…if that isn’t your jive…well…you need a different major.

The minute I changed majors, I have never been more happy in my life.   A weight was off my shoulders and I immediately knew that is what I wanted to do with my life.

So entering junior year as the n00b math education runner who was clueless of how to actually blog.

Exciting junior year as the running obsessed community health major who was still clueless of how to blog.

Question for you: Did you change majors in college? 

Training Musings

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My training this week was similar to last week just with more mileage. I didn’t feel bad-just indifferent. Not good, not bad…kind of stale. With classes coming to a close (I’m not done with school-I still have finals), I just haven’t had time for the training I would like-mostly relating core exercise and such and weight lifting. These things happen though. I have also been on the eating extremely unhealthy train the last week but I guess these things happen to. Similarly, I haven’t had as much free time to blog and what not (lame).  To sum it up-I need to stop burning the candle on both ends.

For finals week, I know I’ll be far less stressed if I run and attempt to eat a cleaner diet and of course get sleep.

This week I ran a total of 82 miles. This might be a high for me-I know I’ve hit 80 mile weeks but I’m not sure past that. As a terrible blogger who types spur of the moment, I’ll go back and look at my training now… My last 80+ week was in April (81.45) so I guess this is the highest mileage week. But I dare to say that week was a bit more high quality of workouts then this weeks.

All of these runs were easy so there isn’t much to say there. I’ll get back into fast running when I want. I ran some with music, some in the rain, some with my friends, in the sun. A real broad range of runs…but mostly between 7:30-9:00 min pace. I didn’t really time any of them either, just noticed what time I left and came back.

My goals for next week:

Running between 60-80 miles. This is such a broad range of mileage and has covered most weeks for me.

My real goal though like I said is to get sleep, don’t carb load on cake, and hopefully maintain a stress free finals week.

Question for you: What was your favorite workout?

Eating Disorders Documentary

By Posted in Reads, Weight Tagged , 12 Comments

**Warning: This is a documentary about eating disorders.  Sorry if my post title is a bit point blank-but I don’t want anyone who this would make uncomfortable to read/watch ot.  

After opening my blog reader sometime last week and opening Health Craved blog post link to this video…I thought…well I think I’ll watch it.

As some of you know, I’m doing my senior project on anorexia nervosa.  I’ve been watching vdeos, doing extensive research, and writing a 50 page paper.  It isn’t the most glamorous topic (as some of my classmates are doing theirs on gum disease or heart disease…) but it is a topic that interests me.

*I have never been diagnosed with an eating disorder.  It is a topic that interests me because 80% (and this is estimated low) of females show a determinant of disordered eating as a means to control their weight.  

Interesting points that came from this video.  It followed several females who suffered from eating disorders from bulimia to anorexia to eating disorders with athletics (What I found the most interesting).  If you have a few minutes (or 50) and this is something that interests you-I’d watch it.  It is by far one of the most interesting videos I’ve watched on eating disorders, especially since the focus is with athletics.

Tests, papers and mud

By Posted in DailyMusings Tagged , , , , , 14 Comments

So I don’t have much life to say but I have a great sense of accomplishment brewing for my final day of classes before break.  Today I did all of the following:

  1. Took 3 tests and I think did really well on all three.
  2. Turned in my huge paper that is 1/3 of my grade in one of my classes.  (My teacher reviewed it and said it was fantastic!  I have literally never had her even say….oh this is decent.  Normally it would be “oh this needs a lot of work”. So basically I layed in bed basking in my own glory last night bahaha).

To celebrate last night after that lovely email-Julie (my housemate) and I went to the local bar for dinner.  It’s classy don’t you worry.  They also have the best duck ever.  I got a “duck salad”.  When she asked me how I wanted my duck cooked, I stared at her dumbfounded and asked her what was best.  Medium rare apparently…and it was.  I don’t really have much knowledge in duck cooking and didn’t know it was possible for it to be cooked in various ways.

  1. Turned in another smaller paper for another class-funny that smaller means for me 8 pages.  HA-yeah…
  2. I was indeed a real girl today.  Warmer weather=more real girl Hollie.  (yeah I went there).
  3. Oh and I finally did my first double of running and felt awesome.  Except in the last .1 mile when some boy ran me over and pushed me into the mud while he was cycling.  He felt terribly bad so I can’t be too mad at him…I guess.
  5. What a fabulous day.  How was yours?

BMI Scale.

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I had to write a whole paper on my thoughts of BMI.  As we all know in the health conscious would, BMI is such a controversial issue, I mean who wants to be classified in an overweight/obese/morbid obese or even the underweight category.  Sadly-the MAJORITY of the population does not fall under the health conscious category. 

If you don’t know your BMI-I would suggest going here and following the oh so difficult directions.

But let’s continue.   I am going to step on a lot of toes here and honestly, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest.  I think the BMI test is good and a good baseline for the majority of the population.  

I asked the question on several occasions via twitter and my facebook.  In my own primary research, I had 34 people answer.  I had 32 say that they thought it was a terrible measure. 

So that leaves me with two people that had a similar opinion as mine.

First, the biggest complaint people have about BMI is that it doesn’t take into account the muscle mass versus fat.  While this is very true, there isn’t a lot of society this covers and I will vouch that that they will always be in the minority.  Sure it covers athletes and just generally muscular and big boned people but having a BMI of 20.2 is not any better than having a BMI of 22.2.  It’s just a range.  Similar to having a weight of 121 or 120.8…it does not matter.

Let me back myself up here.  In our society, there are NOT very many people who fall under the category of being “overweight” on the BMI scale due to muscle.  If they do-they are very muscular to begin with and are already health conscious so are not going to see a 25 on the BMI scale and say to themselves-weird-I’ve really got to lose this extra fat that I didn’t know I had.

Furthermore, we are NEVER EVER EVER going to find a universal method to calculate what is the right amount of body fat for the right body.  Every single person stores fat differently.  I could weigh 120 pounds and have an ass bigger than someone who weighs 150 pounds.  Life happens, our genes are different. 

BMI is just a starting point for many people (keep in mind two-thirds of the American population is overweight or obese).  People with a BMI (muscle or fat composition) between 18.9-24.5 have been shown to be less susceptible to health risks.  Further  tests also have to be done to determine where you store your fat and all that jazz. 

In summary,  BMI testing is a good baseline.  It does not determine how healthy you are.  It is a good baseline for the MAJORITY of the American population who are overweight or obese.

Question for you: Let’s chat about BMI.  Thoughts/comments?