“If you are concerned about hypothermia, you don’t need to be unless the temperatures are extreme,” advises Sforzo. “The body produces a lot of heat during exercise and when it produces heat, it pretty much diminishes any chance of hypothermia. “The key is continuous exercise. If you go outdoors for a walk or run, just move continuously. Don’t stop for five or 10 minutes to talk to your neighbor. Hikers sometimes get into trouble if they stop for lunch. As long as you are moving, the muscles produce metabolic heat and that metabolic heat will keep you pretty warm… .” So even if you bundle up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW4IZ0Flh3M for the cold, you may end up shedding layers. He adds: “The danger zone is typically in the -20 to -30 windchill zone.”

That, hopefully, is something we won’t have to worry about.

Exercise and baby weight

Exercise during pregnancy is good for mom and baby, but it doesn’t have an impact on how much a baby will weigh at birth, according to a study by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The institute studied the exercise habits before and during pregnancy for 43,705 women ages 15 to 49.

The exercisers in the study — defined as those who “reported brisk walking, jogging, bicycling, aerobics, fitness or weight training, or other physical activities an average of 6 times a month during the first 17 weeks of pregnancy and then 4 times a month until week 30” — gave birth to babies that weighed about the same as the women who did not exercise.

The study did, however, find that women deemed overweight or obese before getting pregnant gave birth to heavier babies. Concluded the study’s administrators: Exercise and drop that extra weight before getting pregnant.

Mexican-Americans most active

Mexican-Americans are doing a better job of meeting minimum physical activity goals than whites or blacks, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Among other things, the study tracked 10,000 people in the U.S., each of whom wore an electronic device that tracked their activity levels. The survey found that 27 percent of Mexican-Americans met the goal of doing either 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week, or 20 minutes of rigorous exercise three days a week. Twenty percent of whites met the goal as did 15 percent of blacks. The findings were published online Feb. 11 in the American Journal of Public Health.

Curiously, previous studies found that physical activity target was reached by 36 percent of whites and 25 percent of blacks and Mexican-Americans. Those studies, however, relied on self-reporting.

“Those self-reported findings … show that people are likely to have difficulty estimating their activity levels,” said study author Sandra Ham, a graduate student at the University of Chicago.

“The greenway is such a remarkable thing to have,” he said. “People ride it for recreation, the can use it to commute to work. It’s really amazing.”

That’s it! I thought. If I had better balance on a bike I would have slapped my forehead.

Monday, I handed in a 49,868-word manuscript on backpacking in North Carolina. The book dominated the past 15 months of my life, between weeklong excursions to scout trips and long hours at the computer deciphering GPS data, researching and writing. With Monday’s handoff came a flush of relief — and a feeling of “What next?”

Map the state’s greenways, of course!

Ten years ago, the greenways in North Carolina were bits and pieces of neighborhood asphalt, a mile here, a mile there. Good for taking a short stroll, experimenting with rollerblading, teaching the kids to ride a bike. Today, those pieces of elbow macaroni are  joining to form long strands of spaghetti that are making it possible to take the greenway more and more places. More people are taking the greenway to work, more people are using it for serious recreation and exercise (as evidenced by the Tarwheel’s greenway ride). Hit your local greenway just about any time, but especially on weekends, and you’ll see just how popular these longer versions have become.

American Tobacco Trail in Wake County.

Now, just about anyone can navigate a piece of itty macaroni. A long strand of spaghetti, though, especially a strand attached to other long strands, requires navigational assistance. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be heading out with my GPS mounted to the handlebars of my old Trek 820 to begin providing that navigational assistance. The plan is to have a dedicated greenways page on this site where you can find maps and pertinent information on any greenway in the state.

It’s a big job. I need your help.

• Tell me what you want to know about a greenway before you head out. Do you want to know what other greenways link to it? Are you interested in bike routes that may hook up with the greenway? What kind of amenities are you interested along the way? Is the surface — asphalt, crushed gravel, concrete — important?
• What do use the greenway for? Are you a runner or a walker? Is it important that every mile or half mile be marked? Are you a biker, and if so do you use the greenway to commute to work, to ride with the kids, to get a good workout? Rollerblader? Trikker? Unicyclist? Identify yourself.
• What’s your favorite greenway? I live in the Triangle and am familiar with the local paths. I have less exposure in Charlotte, the Triad, Wilmington, Asheville and elsewhere. Clue me in to the greenways I need to hit. (Eventually, I plan to get to all of them; this will help set priorities.)
• What concerns do you have about your local greenway system? I’ll get the ball rolling on this one: The over-riding complaint I hear is that the greenways are not well-marked. You come to a fork: Which is the main path and which is a connector to a local neighborhood? Sometimes a greenway reaches a road and it’s not clear where — or if — the greenway continues from there.
• Would you like to be alerted of changes to your greenway system? An email when construction begins on a new stretch of trail? An email when a new trail opens — and I mean when it’s actually ready to use, not three months later when the mayor can work a “grand opening” into his schedule.
• Anything else you can think of?

My plan is to start getting information up as soon as possible — early to mid-February at the latest. It may not be a graphic work of art at first; I’ll refine the appearance as we go along. (If you have thoughts on presentation — on maps, graphics, whatever — let me know those as well.) The goal is to provide a comprehensive atlas for North Carolina’s greenways posthaste.

Share your thoughts. I’ll need your help.

Photo: The pedestrian bridge over I-440 at the N.C. Museum of Art in Raleigh.

One word: Greenways? Go here, youngsters.

This morning, the February 2010 issue showed up on the kitchen table. I was waiting for the coffee to finish, I didn’t feel like going out in the rain to fetch the Sunday paper, so I started thumbing through. Here’s what I learned:

• The regional Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, 39 miles in two days, will be in Charlotte this year, on Oct. 23-24.
• “Plastic Surgery May Reduce Headaches,” p. 102. A study of 49 migraine sufferers who underwent plastic surgery found that 80 percent reported a significant reduction in subsequent migraine episodes, of whom 50 percent said the headaches disappeared completely. Bahman Guyuron, head of the plastic surgery department at University Hospitals of Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University, believes the connection may have to do with the removal of muscles that cause the problem by compressing nerves.
• Antiaging? (“Antiaging? Really?” p. 102) Don’t believe it when a shampoo or nail polish makes the claim, says plastic surgeon Dr. Steven H. Dayan. Hair and nails are made of the protein alpha-keratin, not living cells. Basically, so-called “antiaging” products are spackling paste, smoothing over your ridges, ruts and divots.
• Goat’s-milk ice cream (“The Big Scoop,” p. 117) has half the fat of its cow’s-milk based counterpart. It also contains more calcium, magnesium and potassium.
• An 11-year study of 3,000 women by Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found that those who consumed two or more cans of diet soda a day “doubled their chances of accelerated kidney decline compared with people who drank less than one can a month.” (“Sip Wisely,” p. 118.)
• Eat a Mediterranean diet — one rich in olive oil, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, cereals and fish — and you’re less likely to get depressed, according to a Spanish study of more than 10,000 men and women. (“Eat and Be Merry,” p. 118.)
• “Does eating late at night really make you gain weight?” (p. 126). It’s not a matter of eating late, it’s a matter of how much you’re eating late. A study of 867 people by the University of Texas at El Paso found that people who eat more early in the day tend to eat less, people who eat late in the day tend to eat more.
• Nuts freeze well — as do a number of other healthy foods (“Frozen Assets,” p. 128).

I also learned that bootcut jeans can act as a “push-up bra for your butt.” (“How to Build a Better Butt,” p. 77), which isn’t so much about exercising your glutes as it is about finding the right jeans to mask a deficient derriere.

Not really germane to our discussion here at GGNC. But but good to know all the same.

That physiological fact is important to people trying to lose weight because going below your RMR won’t help you shed pounds. Your body will go into primal panic mode and simply perform the same functions, perhaps not as efficiently, on fewer calories. And that will make you cranky. Stick to your RMR and any additional activity your body performs — taking the stairs rather than the elevator, parking in the spot farthest from the front door, walking for half an hour at lunch — will go toward burning fat and building calorie-consuming muscle.

Alas, your RMR is a pretty Spartan number. Say you’re a 40-year-old 5’ 4” woman who weighs 135. According to your Resting Metabolic Rate, you need 1,263 calories a day to  perform your basic body functions. Breakfast and lunch from a fast food joint would pretty much tap out your RMR by noon. That convenience factor coupled with a lack of time is the biggest challenge to good eating that Mitchell sees with her clients.

“It often boils down to time, which leads to a broader discussion about priorities,” says Mitchell. “We try to break through some of the myths about finding enough time to eat right.”

With that in mind, she offers these tips:

• Do what you can to avoid those fast food meals. That Egg McMuffin combo (with hash browns, ketchup and a small Coke) you grabbed so you could sleep in another 15 minutes? 575 calories. Wake up 15 minutes earlier and have some oatmeal (307 calories), which will stick with you at least until lunch and offers a variety of other nutritional benefits (low in saturated fat, very low in Cholesterol and Sodium, good source of dietary fiber, phosphorus, selenium, manganese).
• Embrace beans, rice, pasta. All can be prepared quickly, all are good sources of nutrition.
• Embrace frozen vegetables. They can be plucked from the freezer and prepared quickly. And, says Mitchell, contrary to what you may have heard, frozen vegetables usually have better nutritional value than fresh. “Vegetables begin losing nutrients the moment they’re picked,” says Mitchell. “Since most frozen vegetables are processed near where they’re picked, they generally retain more of their nutritional value.” (Canned vegetables, on the other hand, are often packed in sodium-rich brine, only about 60 percent of which is removed by rinsing, she says.)
• Embrace leftovers. Make more for dinner than you plan to eat and take the leftovers for lunch.
• Eschew processed foods. They aren’t as “calorie dense,” says Mitchell, meaning you won’t get as much bang for your RMR-restricted calories. And they frequently come packed with chemicals your body doesn’t need.
• Make your own fast food. We resort to fast food because it’s … well, fast, and we’re running late and if we’re not at the desk by 8 a.m. sharp Mr. Dithers will have a conniption fit. So, says Mitchell, make your own, healthy fast food. “Go shopping on the weekend and make your lunches Sunday night,” she advises. “Some foods are more sensitive to time,” she acknowledges. For instance, you wouldn’t want to make a PBJ Sunday night for lunch Thursday. A pasta dish, on the other hand, should keep well.
• Embrace precut veggies & fruit. You learn this back in preschool, that precut veggies and fruit make great snacks. Raw baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, sliced peppers, celery, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower all do well on their own, and do even better when jazzed up with a dip using fat-free sour cream as a base.

Maybe the most important thing to keep in mind in your efforts to eat more sensibly, says Mitchell, is not to take an all-or-nothing approach. You’re changing your lifestyle — not joining a cult. An early morning Egg McMuffin now and then won’t kill you.

“It’s OK to have a moderate approach,” says Mitchell. “What’s important is to make this a lifestyle change so you aren’t doing the same thing again next year.”

• Mitchell’s resource tip: Looking for online help to help get your diet in line? Mitchell says the USDA’s MyPyramid.gov provides nutritional information, recipes, weight loss advice and a slew of other helpful information.

Photo: Beans, rice, green, leafy vegetable — this plate’s got it all, baby!

That, says Kara Mitchell, a dietician and director of the Fitness Program at the Duke Health and Fitness Center in Durham, may well be your problem. “The biggest mis-conception for weight loss is that the more you deprive yourself, the more weight you lose. But that does not help you lose body weight.”

You’ve probably heard that before. And it probably got buried under a load of babble from weight-loss programs with their own slant on what you really need to do to lose weight. While some of those programs may work, Mitchell says through it all, amid all the commercial chatter, you need to remember three words: Resting Metabolic Rate.

Each of us have our own, unique Resting Metabolic Rate, which reflects the amount of calories our bodies need to perform basic functions: breathing, circulating blood, adjusting hormone levels, and growing and repairing cells, according to MayoClinic.com. Your RMR is based primarily on your weight, height, gender and age. Here’s why those factors are important, according to MayoClinic.com:

• Height and weight: The bigger you are the more calories you burn, even at rest.
• Sex: Sorry, gals, but men generally have less body fat and more muscle, and since muscle tissue burns more calories than fat, guys burn more calories, even if they’re just sitting in front of the TV watching football.
• Age: Apologies here to my fellow AARPers, buy as you age you typically have less calorie-burning muscle tissue and more fat.

Say you’re me, a 5’9”, 170-pound, 53-year-old guy. Your base calorie consumption, your Resting Metabolic Rate, would be 1600 calories per day. Mitchell says that if I were to go below my RMR, my body would start sending up red flags. Ahh-OOO-gah! Ahh-OOO-gah! My primal survival instinct would kick in and my body would start requiring fewer calories to maintain those basic functions of breathing, circulating blood, growing and repairing cells. My body doesn’t know I’m trying to lose weight; deep down it still remembers waaaay back to those days on the savanna when me and my cavepeeps may have gone a week between kills without eating.

I figured out my RMR using one of the many online calculators that will compute your RMR and its close cousin, the Basal Metabolic Rate. (For an explanation of the difference between the two, go here.) Mitchell says that will give you a good ballpark of your RMR, but for a more accurate reading you need should have your breathing measured as well. At Duke, that process involves sitting in a La-Z-Boy with a bubble over your head for a half hour to 45 minutes. That’s followed by an analysis of the results and a counseling session on how to get the most out of your base calorie needs. If you’re also embarking on a physical fitness program, the session can look at what you’ll need, calorie-wise, to keep from going below your RMP.

Mitchell says such nutritional counseling sessions can be arranged through your doctor’s office. At Duke, the cost of the analysis and nutritional counseling session is $100. Mitchell says the sessions aren’t covered by most health insurance programs (Duke Select, available only to Duke employees, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina being the exceptions). But, she adds, the number you walk away with, your RMR, could mean the difference between finally starting to lose weight and winding up in this same place 13 days into 2011.

“Your metabolism responds to change,” Mitchell says. “Make sure you know what your number is and don’t go below it.”

Tomorrow: Kara Mitchell returns with some tips on how to eat and get the most of basic calorie count.
Photo: Sitting in a La-Z-Boy for 45 minutes could be your first step to finally losing weight.

Reading

“How to lose 10 Pounds in Your 30s, 40s and 50s,” Health.com. It’s not your imagination, losing weight becomes more of a challenge as you age. For one thing, your metabolism slows. For another … well, read the article.

“Exercise Improves Fat Metabolism in Muscle But Does Not Increase 24-h Fat Oxidation,” Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews. In this study appearing in the April 2009 journal of the American
College of Sports Medicine, researchers were surprised to discover that moderate exercise did not rev up one’s metabolism. The study focused on the short-term (24 hours) impact on moderate exercise (in one case, riding a stationary bike for less than an hour). The study did not look into how metabolism was affected by more intense exercise over a longer period. Read a non-technical report on the study here.

“Winter Exercise Can Lift Your Spirits,” National Institutes of Health’s Medline. “Not only can physical activity lift your spirits during days of limited sunlight,” say the folks at the NIH, “it can help make sure you’re in good shape when it’s time to pull out those shorts and bathing suits again.” Tips on working out in the cold, too.

Viewing

NIH's HealthDay offers short videos on health and fitness issues.

“Exercise and Brainpower,” HealthDay TV, National Institutes of Health. A study of 18-year-old Swedish men entering the military shows that those in better cardio vascular health scored better on cognitive tests. Other interesting ties between physical fitness and mental acuity in this short video.

Listening

“Man Outruns Obesity After Boss’s Ribbing,” National Public Radio, Jan. 1, Morning Edition, Storycorps project. Antonio Douglas weighed 275 pounds when he went to work for 70-year-old Frank Lynch (pictured together above). Lynch suggested Douglas could stand to lose some weight, so he challenged the 45-year-old to a race. Listen to what happened next.

Well, pardon me, where’s my sense of propriety? Happy New Year, everyone! Now, what was I saying? Oh, yes … .

— exercise trends for 2010, according to the American Council on Exercise. Today, five more.

1. Functional training workouts Functional training workouts will increase in variety, including popular Suspension Training® tools such as TRX.  The portability and time-efficiency of these workouts will appeal to people looking to stay fit at home, the office, the gym or while traveling.

Evidence: Go to Target or one of the Marts (K, Wal) and check out their sporting goods section. Compact items beginning with resistance bands are jamming the shelves. Do a little Googling and you’ll find out why: These gizmos let you do a nearly endless variety of exercises that increase flexibility, strength, balance — everything you need to simply function more efficiently and effectively. And you can do them in your own home.

2. Growing health and fitness awareness “The importance of health and fitness is gaining greater awareness among commercial and governmental organizations.  There will be a strong movement towards collaboration between these groups and health and fitness organizations throughout the New Year.  These diverse groups will work together in the fight against physical inactivity and obesity.”

Evidence: If you doubt this trend you aren’t an employee of the State of North Carolina, which in October proposed making overweight workers pay more for health insurance. The state took a fair amount of heat for this move, which shows just how serious it is about having healthier workers. Look for more innovative ways to emerge as employers battle to keep health care costs down.

3. An increase in properly credentialed trainers “Health and fitness clubs are recognizing the need for, and the importance of, hiring trainers who hold high-quality, reputable professional credentials.”

Evidence: No evidence, but something I vow to look into in the next month or so. Personal trainers come with a wide array of credentials. But how can you tell what those credentials mean? Which credentials are from the Harvard of the PT field and represent a thorough knowledge of physiology and strength training, and which are the “earn-your-four-year-degree-in-a-weekend” type? I’ll report back.

4. Specialty exercise classes “Specialty classes such as ethnic dance, hooping, pole dancing and Zumba will remain popular due in part to the continued success of shows like ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and ‘So You Think You Can Dance.’  Fusion-type classes will be popular among fitness enthusiasts that want to switch up their typical workout programs.  Additionally, more gyms will offer unique group exercise programs and mind-body activities.”

Evidence: Again, we suggest you check out your parks & rec catalog. You may not find pole dancing (that’s a little advanced for most municipalities) but you will find an assortment of dance-oriented classes such as Zumba (described by Zumba Fitness as “a fusion of Latin and International music that creates a dynamic, exciting and effective fitness system.”

5. An increase in fitness training tools “Technology is continuing to infiltrate the fitness world.  The use of tracking and online training and scheduling tools will increase in the coming year with more people looking to better gauge their progress by accessing and monitoring details of their fitness programs. Some popular examples of tracking gadgets include GoWear fit and Fitbit, while online tools such as TrainingPeaks software offer fitness programs and meal plans that people can access 24-7. Mobile applications are even bringing fitness on-the-go through iPhone applications and other downloadable programming.”

Evidence: Remember back in the late ‘70s when Jim Fixx’s running log came out (on the heels of his 1977 bestseller, “The Complete Book of Running”) and everyone had to have one? It was basically a calendar for runners, but, with the aid of a pencil, you could record your every workout. It was revolutionary. If you (or your parents) thought that was something, you need to check out its contemporaries, such as MapMyFitness and TrainingPeaks. There’s room to record your workouts — and so much more. Easy to see why these are becoming so big.

Photo: The Distance Meter Pro app tells you have far you’ve gone, how fast, how many calories you’ve burned, your altitude, your longitude, your latitude … .

Here are the top 10 fitness trends for 2010, according to a survey by the American Council on Exercise. Time and money appear to play a key role in how we’ll be exercising in the year ahead.

“Consumers will really look to maximize their workout results while maintaining a close eye on their budgets this year,” ACE Chief Science Officer Cedric X. Bryant, said in a press release.  “Along with financial constraints, we understand that people are busier than ever and will look for workouts that offer the results they seek while fitting within their already jam-packed schedules.”

In addition, says ACE, look for more “alternative fitness programming and classes,” as well as more classes aimed at Baby Boomers trying to stay active. We’ll share five on the list today, five tomorrow.

1. Cost-conscious workouts at fitness clubs and at home “The impact of the economy continues to affect the choices of fitness enthusiasts and health clubs alike. Gyms will alter programming and training to better serve the needs of the cost-conscious member, while in-home workouts utilizing small, portable fitness equipment will be popular among individuals watching their budget.”

Evidence: Witness the abundance of cable TV ads for the likes of the Ab Rocket, the Ab Circle Pro and the Ab Coaster. Look for more gyms to drop their enrollment fees (Gold’s) or to offer gift cards applicable to gym services when you join (Lifestyle Family Fitness offers a $150 gift card to new members).

2. Personal training in small groups “Individuals will scale back on personal training sessions to take advantage of small-group training and group class participation as another way to save on expenses. Health clubs may alter some programs to better suit the needs of larger groups. Likewise, individuals may find that the group setting offers additional motivation and support of their fitness efforts.”

Evidence: During a recent training session with the TRX suspension training system at Seaboard Fitness, personal trainer Larisa Lotz said she’s seeing more demand — and supply — for group personal training. She suggested two ways to approach this: Call a local gym and see if they offer the service, or, find two or three people who are in similar shape (though you don’t necessarily need similar goals) and hire a trainer to work with you. With three people there’s sufficient time for personal attention in a 45- or 50-minute session, she says, and the cost savings in significant.

3. Time-Efficient Workouts “Shorter yet higher-intensity workouts will be more appealing to those with busy schedules because they can reap significant fitness rewards with relatively minimal time investment.  Boot-camp style workouts will continue to be one of the most popular of these trends in 2010, offering the ability to burn sufficiently large number of calories while simultaneously improving muscular fitness.  Circuit training will also be a time-efficient workout of choice due to its combined strength and endurance activities.”

Evidence: Over the past 10 years, the medical and fitness community has continued to re-evalutate how much exercise you need on daily. First, they said you only needed 30 minutes a day. Then they said you didn’t even need to do all 30 minutes at once, that three 10-minute workouts would do. Now, there’s a cottage industry in 10-minute workouts. “Tony Horton’s 10-Minute Trainer,” The “10-Minute Workouts,” Kathy Kaehler’s “Total Body Workout: 6 Ten Minute Workouts”. Sean Foy’s “The 10-Minute Total Body Breakthrough” is based on the principal that you need 4 minutes of aerobics, 3 minutes of resistance exercise, 2 minutes of core work, 1 minute of stretching and deep breathing a day. That’s one jam-packed 10 minutes.

4. Exergaming “Exergames will continue to climb in popularity and be taken to the next level: fitness clubs.  By integrating fitness-based video games into their programming, clubs will offer unique exercise sessions for game-lovers and those looking for variety within their workouts.  Studies conducted by ACE on exergaming-type systems, including Nintendo’s Wii Sports and Wii Fit and the PC-based Dancetown, offer insight into the true fitness benefits associated with these alternative fitness options.”

Evidence: The jury is still deliberating on the effectiveness of exergames such as the Wii Fit, but their popularity continues to grow: Witness EA Sports introduction of its Active program, which runs on the Wii Fit platform.   Watch for GetGoingNC’s occasional reports on whether we find the Wii Fit a helpful training aid.

5. Boomer-specific programs “Special fitness programming for aging adults will remain a strong trend next year.  Growing numbers of boomers recognize the multitude of benefits that come along with regular exercise participation, from lowering blood pressure and cholesterol to maintaining one’s functional independence and overall wellbeing.”

Evidence: Check your local parks and rec catalog for winter and you’ll see that the number of class options for “Seniors” — and yes, fellow Baby Boomers, we’ve nearly all passed into this 50-plus classification — is growing. The Raleigh Parks & Rec Leisure Ledger for winter 2010, for instance, includes: Chair Yoga, Kripalu Yoga for Seniors, Horseshoes, group walking clubs, Senior Weight Training, Seniorcise and a host of exercise programs at seniors centers.

Tomorrow: functional training workouts, health and fitness awareness, importance of proper professional credentials, specialty classes, fitness training tools.

Photo: You can’t get much trendier for 2010 than an action-packed 45-minute TRX workout with your personal training group at a gym that’s waived its enrollment fee. Photo from fitnessanywhere.com

I say “fortunately” because, caffeine aside, you can get in a lot of trouble in your neighborhood coffee shop. Walking into my local Carribou a few minutes ago I picked up their “Beverage Nutrition Guide: On The Trail to Better Health,” which gave a hint of the caloric chaos a trip here can cause. I could have my 5-calorie Americano (12 ounce) or I could have a small hot cocoa for 230 calories. And that’s the range of their smart choices. A visit to Caribou’s online nutritional guide, which details all its drinks, shows the extent to which a coffee shop habit can derail an otherwise exemplary diet.

Say you’ve had a bad day at the office (or worse, a bad day because you no longer have an office to have a bad day at) and stop by the coffee shop to drown your sorrows. “Hey, barista!” you say, bellying up to the coffee bar, “Gimme a large Mocha Cooler with whip and dark chocolate. An’ make it schnappy.” Moments later out comes your 680 calories and 20 grams of fat. If you’ve had a really bad day, you may feel you need the large Turtle Mocha with 2 percent and whip; 710 calories and 49 grams of fat later you stumble out to the car with flecks of Guittard chocolate and caramel clinging to your sloppy smile. Even if you think you’re being good by scaling back to a large latte with whipped cream and 2 percent milk, you’re downing 340 calories and 21 grams of fat. If you’re going into the New Year with a goal of cutting back to 1,500 calories a day (often cited as a good target for people trying to lose weight), you could spend nearly half that in an indulgent coffee-related drink.

Which isn’t to say you should stop going to the coffee shop altogether. That, in my four-cup-a-day opinion, would be silly. Caribou’s Beverage Nutrition Guide offers these suggestions to help you cut back on the calories and fat, but not so much on the taste.

• Skip the whip. Tell us to hold the whipped cream. You’ll save 100 calories and 11 grams of fat right off the top of any drink size.
• Skim it back a bit. Ask for skim milk. You’ll lose 35 calories and five grams of fat for every cup of milk.
• Keep it flavorful, but sugar-free. Our sugar-free syrups save you between 75 and 125 calories, depending on the size of your beverage.
• You call the shots. Cut the calories by asking for just a half shot of your favorite regularly sweetened syrup.
• Say soy. Soy is naturally lactose-free, enriched with calcium and chock-full of important vitamins.

Following these tips and realizing that quality trumps quantity (that is, order a small), and the damage from that Turtle Mocha is nearly halved, to 390 calories from 710.

To recap: Words you should incorporate into your order on your next visit to the coffee shop: “soy,” “sugar-free,” “half-shot,” “no-whip.”

“Stop going to the coffee shop” — I’m still chuckling over that.

I paid $324 for this?

On Christmas Day, the Wii Fit entered our home, storming in with the attitude of a boot camp sergeant none-too-happy with its new recruits. It told the 11-year-old she was teetering on being overweight (she’s nowhere near: she eats better than any kid I know and is twice as active). It told the 15-year-old he was weak (he won the high school division of a local mountain bike race series this summer). And in addition to telling me I’m weak, a bit heavy and old, suggested I’m “unbalanced” as well.

I wouldn’t say I’d resisted getting the video gaming system intended to get you off the couch and into the action. But I hadn’t been convinced of its merits enough to spring for one until Nintendo recently cut the price of the Wii system $50, to $199.99. That seemed enough of a drop to justify weighing in on the debate around the Wii’s place in the nation’s ongoing battle of the bulge. There’s general consensus that waving the Wii Remote to play tennis or golf, or faux running on the Balance Board is better than sitting on the couch. Beyond that, though, will a Wii workout really help you get in shape? (Nintendo is careful not to make any claims about its Wii and Wii Fit, simply saying of the latter that it “is a fun, easy way for you, your friends and your family to exercise every day.”)

Obviously, with the chance to go snowboarding, ski jumping and to knocked silly by giant black balls on a mile-high obstacle course, the kids and I weren’t going to start with the Wii Fit’s more serious side. The Balance Board, we discovered, lends itself well to certain activities, not so well to others. Snowboarding down a slalom course on the Balance Board felt somewhat realistic (though I never saw stars after falling backwards and smacking the back of my head). Running the obstacle course, however, my Wii Me counterpart often continued on after I’d stopped, sending him/me/us into the abyss. The Wii Remote was more on target: I sliced just as bad with my WiiWood as I used to with a Driver. And I still can’t hit a high inside fastball, even if it’s thrown by what appears to be a 12-year-old Wii girl.

It’s fun, I thought, but … .

Then we switched to the strength training component.

Strength training includes 15 exercises. Some work your arms, some your legs, most your core muscle group, especially your abs. If you’re new to an exercise, your “personal trainer” walks you through it, then does the exercise with you. I started with push ups and side plank, and was disappointed to see we were starting with just six reps. Three days a week, I’ve been doing a workout that includes 95 push ups. What am I going to get out of this? I wondered.

For one, I was going to get schooled in how to do exercises correctly. My trainer had perfect form (one of the advantages to being animated), and I discovered by mirroring her moves my form — and what I was getting out of the exercise — was getting better as well.  Instead of rifling through my push ups, I was executing them slowly, better working my muscles.
Ditto the jackknife. Begin by laying on your back with heels on the Balance Board, then create a “V” by raising your legs and arms, keeping them straight. Hold for a two-count, release on the whistle. Ten reps. I may not have executed them perfectly, but watching my personal trainer on the screen and mirroring her moves I know I was doing them better than I would on my own. Same with the lunges that followed (10 reps, each leg) and the sideways leg lift (10 reps, each leg). I did three sets of the four exercises, intently focused on my trainer and mirroring her perfect form. After 30 minutes I felt like I’d had a good non-aerobic workout. Better, certainly, than the routine I’d been doing on my own.

Aerobically, I didn’t see anything on first pass that could truly benefit me. I’ve been backpacking and hiking about 70 miles every other week for the past few months, try to ride my bike three to five hours on the alternating weeks. Pretending to walk on the Balance Board was a distant second to those activities. But I did come away feeling that I’d stumbled onto something that could overhaul my strength training and build my core.

Later, feeling pumped, I returned to explore a little more. Apparently, the Wii Sergeant sensed my confidence and felt compelled to put my in my place. When I stepped on the Balance Board for session two, after a break that included Christmas dinner, it remarked with robotic smirk: “Your weight has changed since the last time you played.”

Probably not a wise thing to say to someone diagnosed as unbalanced.

I’ll report back in a few days, and continue reporting periodically, on how my Wii Fit experiment is coming along.