Life is like a box of chocolates...

I'm not being a mindful eater at the moment - I'm actually being a completely mindless eater.  It's lunch time and I'm devouring mushroom falafel balls and researching Acceptance & Commitment Therapy randomized control trials.  Guess this is a do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do moment.

Anyway, this particular article caught my eye (probably because it involves chocolate).

Comparing thought suppression and acceptance as coping techniques for food cravings

Hooper, N., Sandoz, K, E., Ashton, J., Clarke, A., & McHugh, L. Eating Behaviors (2011), doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2011.10.002

Here's the abstract:

Handling food cravings seems to play a major role in weight management. Many try to simply avoid cravings. However, avoidance based techniques like thought suppression can make attempts to deal with cravings more difficult. Recent research suggests that acceptance based techniques, such as defusion, may be a plausible alternative. The current study aimed to compare these two techniques. Participants were instructed in either a thought suppression or defusion technique at the beginning of a week-long period of attempted chocolate abstinence. A control group was given no instruction. It was predicted that the participants given the defusion intervention would eat less chocolate during six days and during a final taste test. It was found that participants in the defusion group ate significantly less chocolate during the taste test than other groups. However, no difference was found in the amount of chocolate eaten throughout the duration of the experiment.

Since I'm supposed to be doing "work" at the moment, I'll just leave you to ponder how you handle your own cravings.

Speight's Birthday Brewery Tour

Jeez Louise!  How did I forget to write about my birthday brewery tour?  Back in June, I organized an adventure to Speight's Brewery, right here in Dunedin.  What more could a girl ask for besides beer and quality time with friends?

The cost was $20/person because we had enough people for a private tour.  Our guide was a perky woman who lead us around and eventually set us free in the tap room to pour our own beers.

The first bit of educational-ness that we encountered was a display on the history of beer.  Thank you, Egyptians, for your contributions! 

I decided to pose for a picture with Mr. Speight. 

Unfortunately, a fair amount of time has passed and I've been busy doing this, that, and the other thing, so I don't remember much about the tour.  Plus, my camera was being dodgy, so there aren't any pictures to wow you with. Sorry. 

Basically, you've got some stuff to make the beer... 

Then stuff happens here... and then it becomes beer.

And, when it becomes beer, this is one place where you can go and consume it: the tap room!

But, alas, all good things must come to an end.  Eventually, the tap was turned off and we were escorted out.  I was a wee bit sad about this.  In my defense, would you blame me? I was the birthday girl, after all, and I wanted more beer.

If you're a beer drinker and you'll be in Dunedin then definitely check out this tour!  We had loads of fun.  Even non-beer drinkers can have a good time.  The folks in our party that fit in this category enjoyed their history lesson and the walk around the buildings.  A tip for the beer drinkers: strategy is key!  I believe they had six beers on tap (one of them was a cider, actually) and so I had to delicately balance enjoying each beer and quickly moving on to the next one to taste in the 30 minutes we were allotted in the tap room.  Bottoms up!

I Am A Mountaineering Machine

What a weekend!  It was amazing! It was incredible! It was spectacular!  It was so unbelievably awesome that I had to spend the better part of my morning detoxing on a near overdose of dropping f-bombs because simply saying something like, "This is the most beautiful sunrise ever" did not have the same emotional punch that "This is the most f-ing beautiful sunrise ever" had.

So, two cool things happened: I learned how to walk with crampons (those spiky things attached to my boots) and how to use an ice axe.  Typically, I'm accident prone.  So, placing a sharp object in my hands or on my feet is usually a no-no.  However, the kiwis were unaware that I have  cut my fingers with the sharp edge of a knife while trying to cut brie cheese with the blunt edge of a knife; nor were they aware that I once stapled my thumb while putting together a display of studying tips for freshmen when I worked as an academic mentor.

On Friday, we arrived at the lodge.

On Saturday, we walked up to the day hut just below Waitaki Face.  On the walk we learned about kicking our feet into the snow rather than stepping straight down.

Eventually, we made it to the day hut where the real fun began.

First, we practiced walking with just boots on our feet.

Then, we moved a little up the mountain to practice self-arrests.

Believe it or not, my favorite part was sliding headfirst on my back down the mountain and maneuvering onto my stomach, feet first, and digging the pick of the axe into the snow/ice to stop myself.

Before we headed back for dinner (by the way, roasted pumpkin/potatoes/onion/garlic and cooked broccoli/carrots and pan fried tofu in garlic/onion/butter/salt makes for a heavenly meal) we took turns bum sliding down the hill (this worked better than sliding down on a shovel or an inner tube).

I slept on the top bunk and on Sunday I was woken up to this view from inside the hut:

I scrambled down the ladder and booked it outside to catch the sunrise.  It was... beautiful.

After breakfast and a walk up to the day hut, we set out to haul ourselves up Foster's Peak using a combination of daggering and French technique.

Not a bad day, eh?

Target destination: straight ahead.

Ready? Set...

Climb!

I had the option of taking an easier route, but what fun would there be in that?!  After I got to the top, I was greeted with a Tim Tam Slam break (like a real kiwi!) and then we huddled together for a lunch break.

This was my view for lunch.  Hard to believe that at one point I used to have lunch in the hospital cafeteria!  This beats that hands down a million times over!!!

What goes up must come down.  After lunch, it was time to get back to the lodge and head home, but first...

Then...

Followed by...

Not a shabby place for a little Sunday morning walk.

If there are students who plan to study in New Zealand and enjoy the great outdoors then bring your own gear!  It is insanely expensive to purchase boots, a pack, and a sleeping bag.  Here's my list of things I want to buy for tramping (I've been entering LL Bean's give away, but no luck yet. *sad face*  That's okay, I'd still recommend their fleece lined raincoat!).  

• Boots (I can tolerate soggy feet, but something like this may keep them dry - oh la la!)
• Wool socks
• Gaitors (these fall under the trying-to-keep-my-feet-happy theme, but also useful when tramping through that sonofagun stuff called gorse!)
• Hiking pants (loving my waterproof pants, but something that is less baggy/more stylish would be grand... I am a fashionista-in-training after all) 
• Cozy hat
• Gloves (is it possible that they could keep my hands warm and dry during a bush bashing session?)
• Compass (New Zealand specific.  Interesting, eh?)
• Sleeping bag (you would faint if you knew how much $US I've spent on both the sleeping bags that I bought in New Zealand and I still FREEZE even in a hut!  Something that'd keep me warm indoors and outdoors would be fantastic)
• Sleeping bag liner (Celia swears by silk, but anything that keeps me from freezing would be sweet as)
• Sleeping pad (someone described the ones for hire at Unipol as rolled out rock, but not this one)
• Stove
• Knife 
• Tent (I've been staying in huts, but camping in a tent would be cool)
• Hiking pack (I've been borrowing Kate's, but my own would be sweeeeet!)
• Hiking poles (wouldn't it be great if I didn't look like the Hunchback of Fiordland?! Hiking poles would help me with that!)

The list could go on and on, but I am knackered and need to sleep.  Unfortunately, my weekend wiped me out and I had to nap after my morning seminar today.  This (combined with getting ready for the trip and being away for the trip) lead to a serious lackage of doing research-related work.  This then lead to me flicking an email to my supervisor with the subject heading "Sara = Slacker" followed by an explanation of how my exhausting (but, fun!) weekend prevented me from getting down and dirty with our database.  He liked the alliteration and forgave me (just this once, but I think it's because I described my weekend as "awesome" and then continued with "You know what else is awesome? Statistics!").   ☺  Needless to say, I need to focus way more research and less on fun...for now.  

Snowcraft 2012 at Awakino Ski Field

The Otago University Tramping Club went on a trip this weekend to learn about mountaineering and transalpine tramping.  It was phenomenal!  I had a great time and wanted to share my excitement with you ASAP.  Here's a teaser to hold you over until I can write a proper post.

Photos and commentary to follow!

Whoa Nelly! I'm going to Welly!

I just got an email saying I was selected to receive a scholarship to attend the Public Health Association of New Zealand's national conference!  It'll take place in September in Wellington. How cool is that?!

*happy dance*

The conference will focus on children's health.  I don't have anything to present, so I'll simply be an attendee.  I'm excited to sit back and be a sponge... just absorbing as much as I can learn about public health issues in New Zealand. 

*happy dance continues*

Rowing to Russia: Paul Ridley and Friends' Arctic Row 2012

Yesterday, I watched live feed of the Ironman Lake Placid finish line.  It gave me goosebumps to watch "ordinary" people finish an extraordinary event.  One finisher, Kelley, is a friend who battled breast cancer this year.  It was inspirational to see her cross the finish line with a smile from ear to ear.  She and I raced our first Ironman together in Lake Placid in 2010.  I still remember seeing her in high spirits out on the run course - quite the opposite of how I was feeling.  Man, she has endless energy!

Recently, I came across an extraordinary adventure of a different kind: Arctic Row.

Paul Ridley, one of Arctic Row's rowers, and I graduated from Binghamton High School together.  In 2009, I followed his Row for Hope that involved crossing the Atlantic Ocean to raise funds for cancer research.    This time, he's not rowing solo and he'll be in a much chillier climate.  Check out the Arctic Row website www.arcticrow.com for more info!

Milk, maps, and my brush with death (just kidding about the death part).

Most research students can relate to the stress that accompanies recruiting participants for our studies.  So, in the interest of good karma, I've tried to sign up for studies when I can.

A while ago, I participated in a study that examined how our mind relates to an artificial limb.  The goal with the research is to help people with prosthetic limbs.

For the experiment, I sat down with both of my forearms inside a black box and watched a video of the fingers of a prosthetic arm being stroked with a paint brush.  At the same time, the researcher was showing me a video of him stroking my fingers with a paint brush.  He was trying to see if my mind would accept the fake arm as my own.  I could tell which arm was mine, so I thought the experiment was boring. BUT, the student explained that in the original experiment (where he got the idea from) the participants saw a video of a hand getting stabbed with a knife and even though they knew the fake hand was being stabbed, not their own, they still jerked their hand back.  That was kind of cool.  So was getting a huge bar of chocolate for participating.

Last week, I participated in a milk tasting study.  The researcher strongly emphasized that we should NOT swallow any of the milk.  He also emphasized that an ethics committee did approve the study, so anything we tasted wouldn't cause harm.

Alrighty...

I sat in a cubicle and was presented with a pair of milk samples.  I took a swig of one, swished it around, and then spit it out.  Then I did the same thing with the other sample.  I repeated this for 12 pairs of samples.  My job was to identify the milk that I liked better and explain why.  I'm not a huge fan of milk, so I may or may not have sniffed some samples, decided they smelled HORRIBLE and poured out a wee bit of milk into the spit cup so it looked like I tasted it.

Yes, I am a cheater.  But, in the end I still got a $20 gift card to a local grocery store chain.

The most recent study that I participated in was really fun.  A guy from the tramping club was comparing our ability to locate ourselves on a map of Woodside Glen track, one that none of us had been on before.  The weather was craptastic and so our easy/moderate hike turned into a hardcore sliding down the mountain mudfest.  We had to scramble up the side of a mountain, sometimes on our hands and knees, for nearly 3 hours.  I fell into a stream at one point and ended up getting lost with a group of students (all with their own map mind you).  And you know what?  When we realized we had completely lost the track the first reaction wasn't hmm, maybe we should turn around and go find the track.  Nope. Someone suggested we photo-document being lost.

Like I said, the weather was craptastic.  The fog made it really hard to stay on the right track, especially when we walked through this tussocks. 

So, the leader of our little stroll decided to can having us find the last few points where we needed to locate ourselves on the map.  This was fine by me!  I was tired, cold and hungry.  He promised us lunch, so quitting meant we'd get to eat sooner.  We all looked like dogs on ice on our way to find a place to sit for lunch.  It wasn't a matter of if someone would fall on their rump.  It was more a guess of how many times we all would fall.

Oh, the things we do in the name of research!