local gyms favored over chains

Seriously, anybody surprised? Consumer Reports just released the findings of its first-ever survey of health clubs. Tara Parker-Pope wraps it up in the NY Times article Local Gyms Outpace National Chains.

"Notably, national health club chains fared the poorest in the survey. The magazine found that private studios for yoga, dance or Pilates and gyms at local community centers, schools, work and nonprofit Jewish Community Centers and Y.M.C.A.’s received the best marks. National chains were often criticized for long wait times for machines, problems with contracts or fees, poorer cleanliness and less adequate locker rooms than other gyms."

Conclusion

The magazine recommends insisting on a trial membership before signing up and visiting the gym during the week, weekends and different times of day to gauge the conditions.

The full report on health clubs is available in the February 2008 issue of Consumer Reports. Portions of the story are available for free online.

Photo of studly Chip Conrad at his local gym Bodytribe Fitness in Sacramento.

how to eat

"EAT FOOD. Not too much. Mostly plants."
"Don't eat anything that your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food."

That's the advice journalist and author Michael Pollan offers in his new book, In Defense of Food.

"That's it. That is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy," Pollan said in an interview with Steve Inskeep on NPR.

YEAH!

2007 female boxing retrospective

David Avila's article in The Sweet Science names the following highlights for 2007.

Fighter of the Year - Elena "Baby Doll" Reid

Best Fight of the Year - Florida’s Chevelle Hallback (26-5-1) and Kentucky’s Terri Blair (9-13-2) - eight-round lightweight bout.

Knockout of the Year - Undefeated featherweight Jeannine Garside (7-0-1) of Canada dropped DBrooke Dierdorff (4-1)

Contender of the Year - Moreno Valley’s Kaliesha “Wild Wild” West, 19, bantamweight

Prospect of the Year - Elizabeth Quevedo, being compared to Lucia Rijker, won four US National titles as an amateur, shooting for a world title

2007

In general, the year saw the spotlight wane on the sport.

"Female professional boxing took a dip this year with fewer bouts between champions and contenders than in the past several years," Avila writes.

Although Kenya did a pretty good job of keeping its female boxing scene on the radar, things weren't too great there, either. "For the first time in two years, the general interest on female's boxing, which flocked countless enthusiasts to the game, degenerated considerably with fans shying away from the bogus match-ups." (East African Standard)

reorganizing

I've re-organized my post categories (in the right margin) in an effort to simplify and streamline them. Please check it out - feedback welcome.

Heads up because the last time I did this, the RSS feed went haywire - old posts showed up as new.

polycarbonate water bottles pulled

This AP story by Ben Dobbin explains (in the very end of the industry-defensive piece) by sellers are pulling the Nalgene polycarbonate bottles because of a chemical that mimics a hormone. Which one, doesn't say. Still looks like glass or a ceramic is probably the safest vessel, altho I'm still recycling plastic bottles myself...

from the article
...Critics point to an influx of animal studies linking low doses to a wide variety of ailments — from breast and prostate cancer, obesity and hyperactivity, to miscarriages and other reproductive failures.

An expert panel of 38 academic and government researchers who attended a National Institutes of Health-sponsored conference said in a study in August that "the potential for BPA to impact human health is a concern, and more research is clearly needed."

Fred vom Saal, a professor of biology at the University of Missouri and one of the study's chief authors said the panel reviewed 700 published articles on BPA, practically all published in the last 10 years. Yet U.S. health and environmental regulators "are pretending they're still in the dark," he said.

window xmas eve eve