How not to find the Pineapple Track (on the first try), but still have fun anyway

Once upon a time, someone told me I'm just like my dad.  He had this, "I'm going to X place at Y time with or without you" 'tude.  Unfortunately, I also inherited the Dennis Boucher curse... something that should take 30 seconds ends up taking 3 hours.  In my case, I decided to go on a quick walk to the Pineapple Track when my other weekend plans fell through.  That quick walk ended up requiring a 2 hour detour 6 miles away...

Each day that has passed since I arrived in Dunedin back in February, I've looked out my window to see a pretty mountain that gets prettier depending on how the clouds, sunset, snow, etc. alter its appearance.  Often, I say to myself, "I want to go there and check it out."  Today just happened to be THE perfect day to do just that.

I've been to the Ross Creek Reservoir a few times and no less than four people have told me, "Just take the road past the reservoir to the start of the Pineapple Track."  It sounds so simple, doesn't it?

I decided that I'd start walking towards the track around 10am and then take my time on the mountain until I was ready to come back.  I packed enough stuff to be prepared for anything: map, rain coat, rain pants, flashlight (a.k.a. "torch"), two sandwiches, two bags of nuts, mueslix bar and an orange.  Off I went.

Hard to believe that today is the Mid Winter Carnival when it was this green on the way to the reservoir...

Now, here's the point where things got a little hairy.  I walked past the reservoir and followed "the" road.  But, I didn't find the start of the track.  I did find a mountain biking path that would take me to the start of the track, but no walkers were allowed. Hmm... I noticed the light gray dashes on my map, indicating trails that would take me to the Pineapple Track, so I started walking down Wakari Rd to look for signage for one of these little trails.... and I kept walking... and walking... and walking...

New Zealand needs a little help in the signage department.

I realized that I had walked past the three trails that would get me to the track. *grumble* It seemed easier to just walk to the car park at the start of the Flagstaff summit walk. So I did. This meant a drastic change in scenery...

 I walked through this residential section for so long that it reminded me of the orphans who walked all the way to Daddy Warbuck's house in search of Annie.  (They walk forever, realize they found the correct street, and get terribly sad because they have to walk many, many more blocks to the correct house.  Sorry, couldn't find the related YouTube video.) Eventually, this sign gave me hope that my adventure on one of Dunedin's great Skyline Walks would soon begin.

There was still more walking to be done before I reached the track, so I chowed down on my cottage cheese/beet root sandwich (I know, How delicious! you're saying to yourself) and enjoyed the sunshine.

A nice couple was walking their beautiful fluffy white dog when I reached the start of the track.  They told me to avoid the mucky trail and take the one with better views instead.  I think they did a good job pointing me in the right direction!

Only problem (and it was minor) was the wind.  I tried to pick a video with the least amount of wind whooshing in the background to share.

The trail was VERY easy to follow.  I'd recommend it as the perfect trail to walk if someone wants to get out and has to go by him/herself.  There were few enough people that it was peaceful, but enough people that if I fell and broke a leg I wasn't worried about being stranded.

This is where I had to hang right to head back to the city.  Someday I'll see where the trail on the left goes.

Total trip time was about 4 1/2 hours.  Total distance walked was about 12 miles.  Absolutely worth it!

Eureka?! Me vs Traffic: A Lesson in Behavior Change

What do eating behavior and crossing the street have in common?  I'll give you a second to ponder that (cue the Jeopardy music)... 


Are you ready for it?  

They are both things that, in general, we do everyday.  Not only that, BUT when we try to change how we do them something in our little mind goes: Whoa, buddy! Something's wrong here!


Genius, right??

So, this thought came about when I was walking down Cumberland Street in Dunedin today.  I was recapping a conversation that I had with my supervisor on Monday.  Before our meeting I was trying to think of things we could talk about related to the research and other just chit chat topics.  I was preparing for things he might ask me such as, "Sara, how are things going?" to which I'd reply, "Well, I  only have an outline for my literature review (I was supposed to have a first draft completed at the end of May) and I have a first draft of my manuscript on the use of financial incentives with a mailed survey (I started it in February and haven't done anything related to the statistics section yet), but I'm crossing the street much better!"  I assure you, he'd find this last part funny. On one of our walks to our building a few months ago I was not at all used to traffic coming at me from the "wrong" direction and admitted I'd have to follow his lead - even at cross walks.

Well then why does this make me think of eating behavior?

Lately, I've been reading some disappointing articles about the efficacy of weight management programs.  Years after Ancel Keys taught us that restricting our caloric intake (similar to dieting) isn't all it's cracked up to be, we still have research coming out where researchers are trying to tweak dieting programs to achieve safe, successful, long-term weight loss.  It's just not happening.

So, now we've got a few of us out there thinking about weight maintenance.  But, if I'm supposed to develop a weight gain prevention intervention for my PhD thesis, how on earth can I move forward knowing that brilliant researchers haven't come up with anything spectacular already?!

I think we need to stop thinking like researchers with specialty knowledge in diet and exercise and human behavior.  Instead, we need to think like the average Joe and start there.

That's what got me thinking about things that we do so often that it'd be a downright pain in the butt to change them.  Like, for example, putting on socks. Or...crossing the street!  Americans are taught to "Look left. Look right. Look left again."  If you do that in New Zealand, you're going to be flattened into a pancake during an attempt to cross the street.  Things are not hopeless, though.  Luckily, after enough practice, it becomes more natural to look right first for oncoming traffic.  Then, over time, you can cross the street with confidence!

In my experience, I needed to be aware that traffic patterns are different in this new country.  Then, I had to recognize the situations where I'd have to adjust my behavior.  Next, I needed practice changing where I looked for oncoming cars.  Now, I'm almost in a maintenance phase of naturally looking in the "correct" direction for the traffic.  It was like a Crossing the Street Correctly in New Zealand intervention!  I think the same can be said for any new behavior, but particularly for eating-related behavior.

The real challenge now will be deciding what behavior(s) to focus on (e.g. speed of eating, portion size, mindless eating - all of which, and more, are being examined through our survey) and figuring out how to approach that behavior change the way I approached my own street crossing behavior.

I really think I'm on to something here...

Highland Dancing Shoes

My research assistant job can be unpredictable, but in a good way!  Today, two brothers came in to the office, but just one is in our study.  "Mum" explained that the family goes for Highland dancing practice each weekend.  What on earth is that? I thought to myself.

So, rather than wait until I could Google it, I asked about the dancing.  Instead of an explanation, the boys took turns showing me some moves.  It was awesome!  Here's a link to some girls Highland dancing, but the boys were doing it a little differently.  They both skipped around in a circle alternating hitting one heel with the other foot.  I was pretty impressed.

The other thing I found interesting is that the boy in our study had a BMI that put him in the "orange" zone (overweight), but his waist:height ratio was perfectly "green" (average/"normal").  I plotted the results and went over them with his mom.  She stated that he's "dense" because he's muscular from exercise.  I thought the same thing, but kept it to myself - I try to be matter of fact when I go over the results and refer families to their primary care physician ("GP" here) if they have questions.  When parents start speculating about why the results are the way they are, I just smile and nod.

I've long been suspicious of using body mass index to predict health risks.  In this study though, for the most part, kids are usually the same color zone for both comparisons (age/BMI and height/waist circumference).  When I plot results for families and those points on both graphs fall in the same colored zone, I don't think much about it... it seems straight forward... if families keep following their current lifestyle, I'd guess that those zones will both stay green, orange, or red down the road.

But, what will be down the road for a child whose BMI/age is "orange" and his waist:height is "green"?  I'm not sure... I'd usually be happy to speculate, but I'm still recovering from a head cold.  Anything I come up with risks being gobble-di-gook (a.k.a. nonsense).

What do you think?