Happy new year! Last year I posted my 2010 DSB Year in Review a little earlier — as in, before the new year — but I also had a lot less going on in my life (read: I had no access to a couch in which to sit and do nothing for hours on end). I ended that post with “I am excited to see where 2011 takes us!” I sometimes lament on how I don’t understand time, and when I wrote that post I did not think for a second about writing this 2011 version, knowing exactly where 2011 took me. I’m glad to be able to say that this year was even better, which I wasn’t sure was even possible at the time.

I never could have known when I wrote last year’s recap that by the same time next year, I would have run one and two-thirds marathons, filmed an online webisode for a huge search engine, fall in love for the first time, find a great job and get quoted in the biggest newspaper in the world, to name just a few. And as always, this blog was instrumental in most of my year.

And if you are one of the 37,000 people who found my blog this past weekend from Texgate lol, I want to say welcome and also that I was advised once to work on not getting frustrated with people who are dumb, but instead to feel fortunate that I (and all of you non-idiots) have a gift that they don’t. It is a very lovely way to think about the world. That said, please send me comments or emails about stupid people you might like to see ridiculed here.

I don’t see the world in such a lovely way.

Anyway, here we go with my 2011 DSB Year in Review . . .

January

On January 1, I rang in the 2011 new year with blogger friends old and new and proclaimed that my goal for 2011 was to find a career where I am writing and doing social media related to health & fitness. I actually achieved that goal (See July ) and even though my job isn’t 100% health & fitness, I am thrilled with what I am doing and there is some fitness-related stuff going on there.

On January 26, I felt legitimized as a blogger who happens to love fitness when I was quoted on page 2 in the New York Times article “Full-Service Gyms Feel A Bit Flabby about getting the most out of my workouts with dedicated, boutique fitness classes.

February

On February 1, I shared my response to that NY Times article — namely that the reason people pay so much for boutique fitness classes and even join on top of already-expensive gym memberships is because these classes produce results.

After alluding to my hip injury that was preventing me from running and taking some of my favorite exercise classes, I finally explained it to everyone in a two part series: My Hip Injury – Part 1 and My Hip Injury – Part 2

Also in February, the amazing exhale spa (home of Core Fusion classes) offered me the chance to try acupuncture to help with my hip. Naturally, I accepted.

March

In early March, a doctor told me I was too pale to run a marathon. This “sports doctor” orthopedist seemed very sure of himself as he chuckled at me for even wanting to do such a thing while my hue was so fair.

And he had some bad timing, since I also started writing a weekly column called Dori’s Quest for NBC New York’s GO Healthy NY website, in which my first post was called How I Got Into The Greatest Marathon in the World.

The best part of March — of every March — is my favorite time of year, my birthday, at which everyone pays attention to Dori. Everyone has to be nice to me and buy me drinks and I get to be a self-absorbed asshole on this blog and post tons of pictures of myself.

Case in point:

The other best part of March? Meeting the boy who likes sitting on the couch and doing nothing as much as I do. And he actually owns a couch so really that’s why I love him.

I promise I own more than one dress.

April

I fulfilled my dream of attending a Wendy Williams show taping, and appeared on the show on April 12 with my blogging friend Heather (formerly of Hangry Pants fame). Here we are beside Rudy Huxtable’s real life mom:

I also published two freelance articles for the incredible Blisstree.com:

• When You Don’t Have IBS: How My Chronic Digestive Problems Took 3 Years to Diagnose
• Core Wha? Top 10 Workouts from A to Physique

And on April 26, it was time to write a blog post but I didn’t have anything to write about. Then my friend forwarded me an email and I just had to make fun of it. Publicly. It epitomized my friend’s and my saying: What is wrong with EVERYONE?! And so the most popular post in my entire blogging career — by far — was created:

Texting and Dating, or Texgate lol 2011 

Have I mentioned how much I love the internet?

May

I finally made it as a blogger after a commenter called me a self entitled c*nt.

In non-texgate news, I started running again after taking six months off from my hip injury and felt like my November NYC Marathon dream might actually be possible after all.

June

On June 11, Missy and I hosted a free IntenSati class as part of the Be Fit NYC initiative on how to make NYC your gym, and even though we had to change the location (it was too rainy for Central Park), lots of people came and it was a huge success as evidenced by this photo of my ass:

And even though I guaranteed had entry to the ING NYC Marathon, I decided to also run the race as part of the Girls on the Run charity program called Solemates because, why not? For the second time (first here), my blog readers helped me raise money for an amazing cause!

July

I explained why July is my favorite month of the year (it is REAL SUMMER!) and in unrelated news my roommate moved out of our 320 square goot apartment. I still do not have a place to put things. I also fulfilled my dream of being recognized for taking the best race photographs of all time and appeared on the NYRR.org homepage!

On July 11, I started training for the ING NYC Marathon — a goal I had in the works for over a year, and the biggest thing I wanted to achieve in 2011.

I also accepted a job offer, accomplishing the goal I mentioned earlier of finding a career that involved writing and social media in the wellness world. Really, I am the social media manager for a number of beauty brands (such as Hydroxatone and Sarah McNamara Beauty) but I love it and I’ve got some wellness-related items in the works there too.

I finished the month with a surprise PR in the Queens Half Marathon — my first half marathon post-injury and one I did not train or plan to run my fastest half marathon at 2:06:27 in. Because I learned I can run a sub-10 minute mile half marathon without great training, this race inspired me to do train correctly and do even better in the half marathon distance next year. I have an ambitious goal for 2012.

August

I revealed the secret video shoot I had been alluding to on my blog for almost two months with my Bing: Friends Matter webisode filmed at Refine Method (founder Brynn Jinnett appears in the video), The Gym at Chelsea Piers and Central Park. This was all about how our friends influence our decision, and exists because of Bing’s partnership with Facebook.

While I was in the best shape of my life during that shoot (which happened in June), in August I started feeling run down and — for the first time since I fell in love with exercise in January 2010 — burnt out.  Goes to show that everyone, no matter who they are or how strong — goes through periods where motivating to work out is hard.

Luckily before that happened, I ran a strong 14 miles — the longest run of my life to date, and the first time I ran farther than the half marathon distance. And it was just a week after my half marathon PR!

And in response to a reader’s question about how I stay in shape, I also explained why I don’t tell you what I eat.

Also in August I was the subject of an interview with my friend Ben Waldman of Motivate Your Ass for NBC New York for his column called Extraordinary Motivation.

September

I ran 15 miles for the first time in my life, and I ran it by myself, which is highly unusual for me with crazy long distances.  I also decided to stop writing for NBC New York’s GO Healthy NY blog because I had less time with my new job.

I ran the 18 Mile Marathon Tune-Up – a race I ran past the year before and knew it would one day be me — where it would appear I outran death:

October

Surprise! I ran 20 miles for the first time — and felt great — on a day I had 19 on my schedule.

And then I ran my planned 20 miler!  With no route planned, Z and I ended up at LaGuardia Airport and Riker’s Island. Those two 20-mile runs both went so great, and I felt so strong both during and after, that I knew I could run 26.2. All doubt about the distance vanished and I felt confident.

November

After a year of qualifying through the NYRR 9+1 program, four months of training, lots of anticipation, excitement and anxiety, and thinking/talking about nothing else for months, it was finally time for the ING NYC Marathon on November 6. Like many things we plan, the race didn’t go as I expected. After suffering indescribable, freak upper-GI pain for a good nine miles, I made the extremely heartbreaking, difficult decision to leave the race at mile 18.

A week later, I surprised most people when I announced that I finished the SunTrust Richmond Marathon in 4:33:29! I completed my first marathon on November 11, 2011 – a good 20 minutes faster than I thought I’d finish. I was so happy and thankful that everything worked out the way it did.

Running that race was the greatest four hours of my life and I still wish I was back inside of it.

On November 22, I announced I was axing Tuesday Blags and instead going to blog when I felt like it. So far, I’ve failed miserably. Happy Tuesday!

December

On December 6, I reflected on what my two years of loving exercise has taught me about myself, which may all have canceled  each other out by points such as “I am lazy” and “I am an underachiever” juxtaposed with “I like pushing myself” and “I am tough on myself.”

I went to my new(ish) job’s holiday party on December 8 which validated my decision to accept said job when I saw they brought in both a caricature artist and a photo booth.

My last post of 2011 was a long-winded explanation of my workout goals for 2012. The short-winded version? I’m only going to take classes I know are excellent or actually want to take, and I am not going to try new classes (either out of curiosity or for review) unless I really, really want to.

And lastly, in December, I received the most thoughtful, meaningful, best present of my life when my brother and sister-in-law sent me this word cloud from my own blog to commemorate my marathon finish. It looks like a sneaker and is fascinating:

So, yeah. I’d say 2011 was pretty great. I ran 585 miles, took more Refine Method and Core Fusion Cardio classes than I can count, ran a marathon, fell in love with a sweet boy with a couch and got an amazing job. I’m in worse shape physically than I was at this time last year, but now that I’m back into taking classes I think things will turn around. And throughout this past year — especially after I was a wreck from my DNF in the NYC Marathon and after I was elated from completing the Richmond Marathon — the support from your comments and emails helped me get through everything. When you’re happy for me, I feel happier for myself. When you commiserate with me, I feel better knowing I’m not alone.

I could not have achieved many of my 2011 accomplishments without this blog and without your support.

I still don’t know what will happen with DSB and my posting frequency, but I can’t imagine not having this record of every month of my life so I’m sure I’ll figure something out. I’ve got great things coming up in 2012 and as always, I’m excited to share it as it happens here.

Last week, I read a post on Fit Chick in the City about Skechers Shape-ups for Girls. Not girls as in females, but girls as in little girls.

Jess asked the question, “Is this commercial sending the wrong message to girls about body image or is it just encouraging a new generation that being active is important?”

Without even watching the video, I responded with my outrage:

Horrible idea. Not just because the shoes themselves are dangerous (they gave my mom a stress fracture in her foot) but more importantly because they send the idea that being fit and toned is what is important — not the actual EXERCISE which encompasses so much more than just looks. Terrible for body image, terrible for message. Children do not need an “easy way out” of exercising. They need to learn to love being active.

And then I watched it.

Uhh . . . this commercial says absolutely nothing about the fact that these are not regular sneakers. I would assume that by now most people — most parents — are familiar with Shape-ups, but what about those that might not be? Those parents will have no clue, based on this commercial, that these shoes claim to: “burn more calories, tone muscles, improve posture, reduce stress on back and legs.” And this is how they claim to do so:

“Designed to improve your life by changing the way you walk, Skechers Shape-ups feature a unique soft kinetic wedge insert and dynamic rolling bottom to stimulate walking barefoot on a yielding surface such as sand.”

To explain, this creates an unevenness and a need to use your muscles to balance, which is where the “toning” work comes in.

[Source]

It is one thing for an adult to make the decision to try these balancing shoes out (although I have strong opinions about this as well, and they aren’t pretty), but a child? That commercial makes these shoes seem fun and cute. Never mind the fact that there is a warning that come with the shoes explicitly stating NOT to run in them. What young girl in the playground with her friends will know that‽ That’s actually how my mom got her stress fracture with these shoes — she ran for less than 30 seconds in an urgent situation. That is all it took. Less than 30 seconds. Do you really think a kid in recess is going to say, “Sorry guys — can’t play. My shoes are for toning, not running around.” And that is assuming the girl even knows that her shoes are for toning (REALLY?! TONING a child’s legs?!”) and is aware that she should not run in them.

Especially when ”Heidi’s got new Shape-ups, got everything a girl wants. She’s got the height, got the bounce. She’s lookin’ good and havin’ fun ‘cuz Heidi’s got new Shape-ups.”

These commercials are being aired on the Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, targeted to children as young as PRE-SCHOOL age.

Disgusting.

So let’s ignore the fact that the commercial is totally misleading. Let’s assume that everyone knows what these shoes are for.

For their intended purpose, Sketcher’s Shape-ups for Girls are horrifying on two levels:

1. Body-image

I often feel sad that there is so much pressure to be thin and wonder how things got to be this way. There are so many more important things to think and worry about, and THIS is where we spend our money, our time, our energy? I love working out and I do it for many reasons — being “skinny” at the very bottom of my list, I can’t deny that it is there — and I wish more women would focus on being strong and healthy.

I constantly think about how when I have children, I am never going to say a single word about my body in front of them — unless it is to say how strong I am, or how I am happy with the way I look and feel. They are never going to hear a single negative thought. They are never going to hear that I wish my side-stomach area was smaller. I’ll always think it, but they will never know this. I don’t want them to have a single negative reference when it comes to judging their own bodies — at least none that come from me.

And here we have a commercial targeting babies — BABIES! — for shoes that indirectly tell them they need to tone their legs and their butts. Four-year-olds. Toning their tushies.

Kids should learn from an early age to love exercising.  Love it because it is fun, because it is healthy. Go to summer camp and be active. Join sports teams. Take dance, like I did my entire life — even though I sucked. The benefits to exercise are infinite.

It is one thing for adults to choose to buy these possibly dangerous shoes and try to find a quick fix, an “easy” way to tone up. Kids do not need to be toned. They do not need an easy way out of exercise. They do not need to be sent a message (even though the commercial isn’t clear, it does come down to this) that they need to tone up their legs and butts.

Things are so f*cked up as it is when it comes to body image these days. We should be promoting healthy body image. As Jezebel perfectly says, “Little girls should not worry about toning their thighs and butts.”

2. Safety

People see Skecher’s Shape-ups (and other similar shoes from different brands) as a way OUT of exercising. A shortcut. But there are no shortcuts! You want to feel magnificent and look great? Exercise! That is how I do it. That is how most of us who are healthy and in great shape do it.

There are many claims and at least one lawsuit that these shoes are dangerous and can cause injuries.  My own mom got a stress fracture wearing them! The woman with the lawsuit has stress fractures in both her hips. Maybe it is a fluke and the shoes are not responsible, but we don’t know for sure. Shoes like these have not been out for very long, and we do not know the long-term effects. Is that really something we want to experiment with on children?

Kids do not have the judgement to make that decision.

Thoughts?

I get upset easily. I am a crier. I do not have a thick skin. This is a flaw. I don’t like it about myself and I don’t recommend you try this at home.

It is because of this flaw that I feel the need to defend myself to idiots on the internet.

I left a totally innocuous comment on one of my favorite blogs, Melissa Nibbles. She was talking about people jumping on the gluten-free/sugar-free/whatever else-free bandwagon and explained that she eats all those foods and her stomach feels fine. I commented and said:

I’m still waiting for people to join me on the “I’m giving up salad bandwagon.” Talk about making my stomach hurt.

What I did not say:

• No one should eat salad! It is bad for you.
• I hate vegetables and I won’t eat them!
• My body feels better when I eat crappy foods than vegetables, so I will eat crappy foods!

Nope, said none of those things. All I said was that salad (not vegetables; salad) makes MY stomach hurt. “Hurt,” by the way, was a euphemism for “be rushed to the emergency room while screaming in pain.”

A commenter by the name of Cat felt the need to respond to my comment, since she was able, by use of her extremely advanced brain power, to know exactly what I meant when I said salad makes my stomach hurt:

Dori I’ll join you on that no-salad bandwagon. My insides feel waaaay better when all I’m consuming is bread, beer and meat compared to when I’m eating vegetables at every meal.

I immediately went back to my own comment, because I had no recollection of saying I eat meat. As a vegetarian, it doesn’t sound like something I would say — but Cat seems to know all, so she must be right! I also don’t drink beer. While I never liked the taste, now I physically cannot drink it because it is a bloating agent as I am sure many of you know. And about those vegetables. Last I heard, vegetables — especially cooked vegetables (which I CAN eat!) — are not the same thing as salad. When I say salad, the first thing that comes to mind is a bowl with a good amount of raw lettuce or spinach — the foods that would completely debilitate me. I cannot eat raw vegetables.

I know I should have just let it go. Who cares, right? It’s the internet and people are jerks and can hide behind the cloak of anonymity.

But I couldn’t help myself. I can’t explain it, but I feel this need to defend myself on the internet. I don’t want people thinking incorrect things about me and I felt frustrated at the complete misreading of my comment. Ask any of my friends or family — they will tell you I am one of the cleanest eaters they know. People come to me for nutrition advice! I write a health blog! So the insinuation that I eat crap foods — all because “salad makes my stomach hurt” — offended me. Cat falls into the category of “What is wrong with EVERYONE?!”

Listen, I am all for dissenting comments. I don’t want anyone to be scared to say what they are thinking in my own comments section. If you call me a self-entitled c*nt (Hi John!) I might call you out on it, but you don’t need to agree with whatever I am saying. I welcome and encourage all types of comments as long as you’re not an ass about it.

But I can only appreciate dissenting comments when there is some sort of basis. Some facts or knowledge. And if you don’t know what you are talking about, either research it or simply ask! Cat could have said “Dori, why does salad make your stomach hurt? Do all vegetables do that? What do you eat?” Instead, she assumed that I meant I hate vegetables and love meat and beer, and she attacked. And since when is it OK to judge someone else’s pain?

So I replied.

Cat — That sounds like an exciting diet but as as a vegetarian and non-beer drinker (chronic stomach illnesses destroy all the fun!) I won’t be able to join.

I expressed my point concisely, although I could have been less abrasive. I generally try not to be passive aggressive and I think I failed here, but at least I said what I needed to say.

I doubt Cat clicked through to my blog, but if she did she might have seen that my most recent post at the time linked to this article about my ordeal with a chronic illness that keeps me from eating some of the healthy foods I love. But my guess is that Cat is not someone who does much reading.

And by the way, there are other people in my no-salad bandwagon. I know this because they have contacted me after reading my blog to commiserate. And guess what? They are all people with digestive illnesses. And none of them are happy with this restriction.

It kills me every day that “salad makes my stomach hurt.” I want so much to be able to eat this food that I loved before I got sick. I wasn’t denying that salad is healthy; the fact it is so healthy makes me SAD that I can’t enjoy its health benefits! Which is why I drink green juice instead. Which is sort of like beer and meat.

The next time you’re about to click that submit button on a comment, think for a second about whether you are being an uninformed jerk. Read this great Hollaback Health post on leaving dissenting comments. And then, if your comment is still ignorant and this is truly who you are, go ahead and click submit.

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