Be Fit With Biray

You are bound to find a health and fitness conference happening somewhere around the world at any given month. And in Arizona, April is the month for FitnessFest, the Southwest region’s biggest land and aqua convention! Top professionals from the nation share their expertise with group fitness instructors and personal trainers in the area!

The event officially starts this Wednesday (4/16/08) and goes through the weekend (4/20/08). And this year FitnessFest has asked me to be their official conference blogger! I will be bringing you the highlights from the conference each day as it unfolds *LIVE* on this blog! Photos, session updates, presenter interviews, comment polls, member feedback… it’ll be like you were here!

Check in regularly and become a part of the experience!

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 fascinates me when new technology changes the way we engage in physical activities. I still remember the moment in my professional career when I first discovered heart rate monitors. It changed my entire philosophy on cardiovascular training. Now I can’t imagine a workout without one.

It seems that GPS(Global Positioning System) has similarly changed the way people engage in outdoor adventures. We’ve all heard of GPS, particularly in how it’s guided us with street directions. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise to see GPS utilized in outdoor excursions, as well. Let’s just say, the compass has evolved!

I’ve had my share of outdoor hiking and biking excursions, but I had never given a second thought to venturing away from registered trails and marked campgrounds. (Also, that was back when I lived in LA. Although the Santa Ana Mountains were practically in my backyard, a trip off the beaten path would have led me to a red carpet trail of celebrities and over-priced Malibu homes.)

With GPS, now the whole world is your trail (well, the part to which the maps have been downloaded)! In my search to understanding these gadgets further, I went to the ultimate outdoor store (REI). A thorough lecture was given by an REI professional on the Fundamentals of GPS. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about the inner workings of satellite coordination, how locations are tracked and ‘waypoints’ inputted.

I realize GPS has been around (and available mainstream) for several years. And, no doubt, health and fitness professionals have been participating in outdoor activities for ages. But recently (and I’m a little late in the game here) the combination of this technology and adventure has spawned a new extreme sport called geocaching.

In essence, geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing) is a GPS-based treasure hunt anywhere across the world’s geography. One basically hides a cache at an undisclosed location, uploads cache coordinates to a website, and geocachers search for it, come back and post their experiences!! What’s in a cache, you ask (don’t worry, I asked that too)? It can be as simple as a logbook (to prove you were there), as extravagant as thousands of dollars, or as mysterious as coordinates to another secret cache! Geocaching can take place in natural or urban environments.

The guy at REI showed us several GPS products – from training (handheld) to travel (for the car) variations. Some of the high-end GPS devices come with built-in pedometers, accelerometers, barometers, altimeters, and even… (drum roll please) heart rate monitors!!!

I know what’s going on my wish list this year!

 
Did you know that Chicago was nicknamed the “Windy City” NOT because of their weather (although there is a lot of wind blowing), but because back when Chicago politicians campaigned, their speaches were simply thought to have been “blowing a lot of wind.”  Isn’t that hilarious?!

Anyway, my trip to Chicago was both professionally and personally refreshing.  Not only did I attend the Healthcare Blogging & Social Media Summit in downtown Chicago, but I spent some time being a tourist, as well.

First, let me tell you about the conference:
The conference was attended by healthcare and medical professionals who wanted to learn how blogging and social media tools might help to promote health and medicine.  Although my focus is slightly different from this audience, I was still able to pull relevant information to apply to the health, fitness, and wellness industry.

It’s a bit jarring when you’re at a health conference and 99% of the participants in the room are Twittering live and exchanging Facebook profiles instead of emails.  In one session which specifically addressed health-related blogs, a presenter asked if anyone was currently blogging (she meant, as in, did anyone have their own blog).  When one person raised his laptop and answered “I was, but I just lost my connection,” everyone laughed – he thought she had asked if anyone was blogging live during the session.  To say the audience was technologically-savvy would have been an understatement.

Most of us have at least heard of the term “blog.”  We either have one (whether we maintain it or not is another question) or keep hearing we should ‘get’ one.  (Why do I get the feeling that not having a blog on the web is like not having a fingerprint on your hand – you may exist, but your identity is unknown.)  The conference was less about “what is a blog and how can it be an effective tool in health” and more about discussing the deficiencies in healthcare (with regards to consumer care) and how blogging might be utilized to combat these issues.

According to Pew/Internet, 80% of Americans resort to the web for health-related information.  But what’s even more interesting, about 34% rely on user-generated content (such as a blog) to help in their decisions about health.  People are less hesitant to check a brand or company website directly.  They are more likely to rely on someone “just like them” for advice.  A popular example of this is the New2HIV blog - Dan, who was diagnosed with HIV recounts his medical experiences, shares his symptoms, and expresses his emotional side as an HIV patient.  If he were to say something bad/good about a medication, it would probably impact the consumer more heavily than the millions of marketing dollars used to promote that product.  This is one reason why healthcare and medical professions are interested in the roles social media and blogging have with consumers.  All very interesting stuff, I thought.

Social media policy was another topic discussed – in other words, what is the hospital’s or pharmaceutical company’s policy on implementing social media into their marketing?  For example, who is allowed to post on a blog and what are they limited (or unlimited) to say?  In a field where everything is heavily regulated, having some control seems necessary.  But if you have control over a blog, doesn’t that sort of defeat the purpose of the blog itself?  Isn’t the goal to have a forum for honest commentary on products and services?  Or what if the policy decides to not strictly control blogs.  If people begin blogging about things that are disconcerting (i.e. side effects of certain medications, poor doctor services, etc.) will medical professionals be liable if they are aware of these concerns?  Valid questions – no clear answers, yet.  As a consumer myself, I know I’m not alone in my attitude towards healthcare.  I am certainly skeptical and unsettled by what I see (or don’t see).  And this is probably a second reason why healthcare and medical professionals want to utilize social media – it could allow for more transparency and create a human side in healthcare.

I could go on, but I’ve touch on two conceptual take-aways from the conference.  Overall, I’m glad I went.  I met some amazing people and gained a new perspective within this big, crazy world of health-something… care? war? market? commercial?

Second, a few site-seeing features:
Although I hardly spent any time in Chicago, I did get the opportunity to see several nearby attractions.  Of course, you can’t be in downtown Chicago and miss Millenium Park.  And being a lover of live music, I had to check out Buddy Guy’s Legends.  As you know, nobody leaves the city without “singin’ the blues!”

Conclusion: I will definitely find a reason to come back to Chicago!

This weekend I’m heading off to Chicago to attend the 3rd Annual Healthcare Blogging & Social Media Summit.  I’m looking forward to the trip because it will be my first time in the Windy City (and of course, it’s all about new media technologies)!  I will blog about my experience when I return next Wednesday!

Thanks to everyone who will be subbing my classes while I’m gone!

First weekend in July, I headed out to the IDEA World Convention in San Diego, CA – one of the world’s biggest health and fitness conferences!  This year marked my first time attending as a presenter at an international conference.  I, along with my colleague Lyndsi Johnson, presented a session about how to utilize internet-based tools to enhance the fitness experience.  It was called “It’s URLife, Make it a Healthy WWWone!” and you can check out the blog we created for it here.  We’ve even uploaded pictures and a YouTube video directly from our session!

Welcome to my blog! Unfortunately, it’s still under construction, please forgive me. My adventures have taken me deep into the heart of Mexico for the summer. I’ll be teaching a health education course with a study abroad program. Come join me on my journey at www.BeFitInMexico.blogspot.com!