Be Fit With Biray

In an earlier post I had briefly pondered the applications of internet tools, such as Twitter, within the health and fitness industry. A few months later, a resourceful post was written on the “Spare Change” blog outlining the current extensions of Twitter for health. But today I wanted to ask a deeper question: Can Twitter be used to teach the art of mindfulness?

Jon Kabat-Zinn, a scholar in field of mindfulness, defines mindfulness as “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally, to the unfolding of experience moment by moment.” Most people shorten that down and say ‘living in the here-and-now.” For many, this concept seems abstract. It was for me at first. You see, I thought I was already ‘living in the moment’ and believed I had been paying attention.

In grad school, I took a class on the study of mindfulness. My professor, Dr. Ann Sebren, had suggested we first increase our cognitive awareness by paying attention to our thoughts more frequently. So, I did what was asked and for the next week tried focusing on my thoughts. But in doing so, I quickly became aware that I was focusing on the fact that I was focusing on my thoughts. Once I realized I was ruminating, I tried to stop. And when that didn’t work, I started questioning why I couldn’t stop this meta-thinking and soon lost my focus!

Through practice, I got better at experiencing my thoughts, being aware that I had them, and then letting them go. And now it’s an ongoing process that is still part of my conscious daily effort. But I had always wished there was a way I was introduced to mindfulness without it being such a transcendental process.

Here is where I think Twitter can come into play. If you’re introducing mindfulness to someone who has yet to fully experience it, how can you tell if what you’re teaching is helping them understand the concept? Or better yet, how do you know if they are even applying its principles? You don’t. Which is why I think using Twitter can be a metaphor for demonstrating both an understanding and the application of mindfulness.

Twitter is a platform that allows the user to selectively update their thoughts (aka “tweets”) as they are having them. It stores these ‘tweets’ on a linear timeline on the web. Each tweet is only allowed 140 characters and can be updated from the web or a cellphone, via text or voice (if you couple Twitter with Jott). Your activity (or data) can be quantified and examined using the mashup TweetStats. (Researchers should love this!)

As you can see below, I’ve included the most recent statistics for ‘Befitt’

The graphs can tell you when, to whom, and from where you’ve ‘tweeted’. For more information on what you’ve tweeted, you can simply go to your main Twitter page: http://www.Twitter.com/befitt.

Couldn’t this be the first step to quantifying mindfulness? Or perhaps make it easier to understand the mindfulness process? Can’t you define streaming consciousness via Twitter? So often I witness educators, trainers, wellness coaches suggest writing in journals or posting blog entries as a way to introduce and analyze abstract concepts to students or clients. But in my mind (no pun intended) these exercises are often outdated and pretentious.

Could there be an art of Tweetfulness. I’ll let you think about that one…

For the past several months (as part of my research for a fitness/tech article I’m writing), I’ve been exploring the various ways health and fitness professionals are using YouTube. I’ve come to find many applications that have been beneficial for both group exercise instructors and personal trainers.

One personal trainer in particular, Steve Turano from BodyPerformanceTV, has been using YouTube to educate the public on various health and fitness issues. He’s got over 180 different videos posted, covering topics from nutrition to weight training. Although informational vodcasts are common, Turano’s posts are unique in that he uses YouTube like a video-email (similar to EyeJot). People send in questions and if enough inquiries come in on a particular topic, Turano responds via YouTube. His advantage: He engages his audience directly by answering relevant questions THEY want to hear and uploads them in a timely manner (i.e. he vodcasts).

So, I contacted Turano and asked him if would be interested in trying Stickam, a live streaming video chat-room. Since I’m always looking for ways health/fitness professionals can experiment with new technologies, he was open to my request and was willing to give it a go. He quickly set up his channel and we did a few test runs live (there was a lot of echoing problems at first). He then promoted his ‘live show’ on YouTube, and did his first webcast tonight!

“I thought tonight went very well. Probably had about 15 people average and some very good questions. I believe people really appreciated it and they were interested in me presenting again next week,” he said in an email he sent to me afterwards.

Although I couldn’t stay during the entire webcast, I did stop in at the beginning to see how things were going!

He seemed to be facilitating the session quite nicely and having a great time doing it!

Thank you, Steve, for being open to trying something new so we can all learn something from your experience! Good luck with your future webcasts - keep us posted on how things evolve!

I’ll be presenting another workshop on blogging called “Stop, Blog, and Roll” at Chandler Public Library at the Hamilton Branch on Wednesday, March 26th at 6:30pm. Attendance is FREE and open to the public. Enter the blogosphere and learn the healthy ways of blogging!

UPDATE: Thanks to Ted Leibler from CPL, who helped organize tonight’s events. The facilities were terrific! And thank you to Roger Williams and Melissa Richards for taking the time to stop, blog, and roll. I look forward to following your blogs!

I’m being featured *LIVE* on my first internet radio show! Host, fitness instructor, and self-proclaimed “Goddess of Virtual Fitness” Raina (aka Penda) will be broadcasting the interview. Our topic will be about fitness and technology, exergames and the Nintendo Wii. Where we go from there… well, it’ll be in the hands of the callers…

Show aired at 6 AM (Arizona, PST). If you missed it, you can listen to it here! (Okay, so I said a lot of ‘uhms’ and ‘aahs’ but I blamed that on the early start time - LOL!)

UPDATE: It’s nice to know others out there are promoting exergames within the fitness industry. A lot of times we hear exergaming being used in kid-fitness classes or physical education courses. Commercial fitness industry still is a bit resistant to adopting exergaming as a format in group exercise. And Penda is a big advocate for exergaming (which she calls ‘virtual fitness’) and spends time demonstrating the benefits of the Wii to her colleagues. I really enjoyed our conversation! Thanks, Penda!

For more information on how to incorporate exergaming in a health club and fitness studios, check out this article “Exergaming: Programming Outside the Xbox“

I know it’s been a while since my last post (shame on me!). I went to SXSW a few weeks ago and my brain is still recovering from the tech-information overload. But now that the dust has settled, I’m able to share an interesting tech & health story from the conference.

On the third day of SXSW, I attended a panel entitled “Body Optimization: Why Stop at Health & Fitness?” The session was supposed to be about making the right health and fitness choices and creating effective lifestyle changes. It was moderated by former Chief Technologist of Technorati Tantek Celik, and the panelists included Noelle Murata, Kathryn Myronuk, and Sean Bonner.

I was thrilled when I saw that a health and fitness topic landed a session at a tech conference! I thought this would be right up my alley. When I arrived to the session, I set up my live blog on Tumblr so I could capture (what I hoped would be) an innovative discussion.

It ended up being an anecdotal session of how these once-unhealthy tech ‘geeks’ (and I mean that affectionately) finally changed their ways and adopted a healthier way of life. One lost 15-20 pounds by reducing his caloric intake and increasing his exercise (imagine that!). Another shared his transition into a vegan lifestyle. One lady pursued the art of yoga and became a certified instructor; the other, an advocate for supplementation (the last lady, I tuned out. She was a research economist speaking about a health-related topic I didn’t feel she had much authority on).

Where was the technology?! Did anyone use ExerciseFriends.com to find buddies to workout with? What about Podfitness to stay motivated? With a session next door about Second Life, didn’t anyone think to discuss the indoor spinning classes in the virtual world? How about an ‘amen’ for “I tracked my calories on MyPyramid.gov”? Nope. Nothing. No tech, no gadgets, no software. Not even an “I kept a weight-loss blog.”

Don’t get me wrong, I love hearing stories of people making lifestyle changes. (In fact, afterwards I congratulated them on their achievements). But these were uber-techno-nerds, man! I wanted to hear ways they used future bio-technology to reach their goals!

Then it suddenly occurred to me: if these techno guys are seeking out traditional ways of exercising, and fitness professionals are integrating more technology into their health-related efforts. Aren’t we just two ships passing in the night?

In light of all this, I decided (at the very least) to submit a panel proposal to SXSW for next year and show these tech guys how full of ‘code’ we fitness folks can be!

No, it’s not a typo. I didn’t mean to write “North by Northwest” (the famous Hitchock-Cary Grant flick thriller). I meant, South by Southwest - the Austin based film-music-interactive media festival!!!  AAAAH! I’ve been wanting to attend this conference since I was a film student in college. But since leaving the ‘biz’ and developing interests in the new media technology, this year I finally get to attend the interactive portion!

My colleagues and fellow Twitter friends from Arizona will also be there… @rrodrigo, @cogdog, @iboughtamac, and @hardaway! I’m looking forward to meeting new uber-techno geeks, like me, and entertaining conversations that explore the possibilities of the future!

I will be tweeting as often as possible, so be sure to follow my feed @befitt. But I will also be tumbling live from Austin on my new Tumblr Blog (it’s like Twitter but you get to microblog with text, pictures, audio, and video!)

See y’all when I get back!

It was Tuesday evening and I was hard at work on a presentation for Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center in Scottsdale, AZ on how to integrate Web 2.0 technologies with their programming (thanks to Jennifer Sukalo for connecting me with this opportunity). When all of a sudden… “beep-beep-beep” - in came a text message from my Twitter gal @soul4real. It said I had been ‘tagged’ and included a link to Dr.Coop’s (aka @soul4real) blog post.

Here’s what it said:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences (sentences 6-9).
5. Tag five people.

Normally, I never participate in these kinds of digital chain letters. And at this crucial hour, I simply didn’t have any time for them. But after reading Dr.Coop’s post about how she met a new colleague online by doing one, I thought it might be worth connecting with someone new.

Here’s my contribution (beware: this author loves long sentences):

“Many of these feelings can be quite intense, especially when all of our usual outlets such as talking, doing things, moving around, reading, or listening to the radio are intentionally suspended. While many people find the all-day session enjoyable from the very start, for others the moments of relaxation and peace, if any, may be interspersed with other experiences that may be a lot less enjoyable. Physical pain can well up for extended stretches; so can emotional pain or discomfort in the form of anxiety or boredom or guilt feelings about being here rather than someplace else, especially if someone had to give up a lot to come today.”

Book is called “Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness” by the one and only author Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD. The excerpt is from a chapter on experiencing a full day of mindfulness and the exercises that accompany the day’s session. Very interesting.

So, like my predecessors, I’m also changing the rules. I’m choosing only health and fitness colleagues to tag and the books they choose have to be health or fitness-related in some way (I figured, at least we all might learn something in the process, right?)

1. Pick up the nearest health, fitness, or wellness book (of at least 123 pages).
2. (the rest remains the same as above…)

I’ve chosen to tag my Twitter friends in hopes to get to know them a little better.

1. @jasoncscs (aka Jason White) - a personal trainer on the east coast, an active tweeter with lots of information and podcasts on his website www.strengthnation.com! I would love to find out what interesting fitness topics he’s been reading about.
2. @FitnessRocks (aka Monte Ladner, MD) - Board certified in Anesthesiology and Chronic Pain Management, Dr. Ladner really gives back to the community with delightful podcasts and informational blog posts. I would love to know where his latest health adventures have taken him.
3. @sportyspice - this gal is fierce and fun to follow on Twitter. Always active, always sporty. Wonder what new things this personal trainer is learning about!
4. @tryingfitness (Eartha) - Props to my Twitter gal on the west coast - when you’ve tried everything else in fitness, you go to her blog. Tell us your latest and greatest reading material.
5. @spacekicker - one of my best friends from college, lover of everything caffeine and not-so healthy hamburgers. But he does exercise, I give him that much. Forcing him to pick up and actually read any health book (if he even has one) might do him some good. (Also, he’s made me do these digital chain letters in the past - so now it’s his turn to do one of mine!)

So, to all my Twitter pals: tag, you’re it!