Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Quick update: Bailey, the unfinished story

Further furnishing the story of Bailey's first canoe ride it's important to know that Bailey loves to point, the bigger the animal the more she like to do it. The Huron River is full of ducks, swans, and geese so you can only imagine, a point loving dog ensconced in birdom, was having the time of her life. Not only did she try to swim after the one goose before we stopped her, she also pointed at everyone we passed. You might think she'd learn that a four legged dog on two legs, trying to stand perfectly still while in a canoe, will lead to utter failure. I love my dog, she is not bright, she fell over. A lot.

Weight loss Wednesdays: I Canoe and you can too!

One of my favorite activities is back in style! I love being on the water, and my favorite water activity is canoeing. Summer is here so we'll be going as often as weather and finances permit. It can be relaxing and tranquil among the bright shades of green that nearly canopy the river and, the sounds of birds singing sweetly in a chorus that only the Pure Moods CD can compete with. And yes I own the CD.


The reality is it's hard work that gets you sweating and working as a team with whomever you choose to canoe with. You enjoy the views and the sounds, it's true, but your arms get an incredible burn while your abs get the workout of the year! Ah canoeing, nature at it's finest and my arms at their strongest.



Kevin and I got some bonus ab workouts this last trip. We took our dog, Bailey, on her first canoe ride and her pacing the first half hour of the outing had us leaning every which way trying to prevent the big flip. Which we did. Successfully. The only thing that got wet was Bailey's right front paw as she toiled with the idea of swimming after a goose to which we both shouted "NO!"


I recommend the canoe as a weight loss/active life tool because it's fairly inexpensive, fun and challenging, and can be tailored to any ability based on where in the river you canoe and how long your trip is.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Nutcracker Auditions: Detroit

I was looking around the web for musical auditions for my friend who is currently without the Internet, (I can't imagine), when I came across an announcement for Joffery Ballet's Nutcracker in Detroit.

It is, of course, the children's audition but, if you're between 8 and 15 years old, I say go for it!



DATE: Saturday, September 27, 2008
PLACE: Ford Center for Arts and Learning, Detroit Opera House (across from Comerica Park)1526 Broadway Detroit, MI 48226 *use Broadway entrance

GROUP A
11 – 15 years old
4’5” – 5’2” tall
4 plus years of ballet training

GROUP B
8 – 14 years old
4’ – 5’2” tall
1 – 4 years of ballet training

Rehearsals start in September and the show runs 6 times Thanksgiving weekend. For full details and how to register, click here.

Orginal image can be found here.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Kool Aid vs Vitamin Water

Everywhere I look people are drinking vitamin water. Not wanting to be left out I bought a bottle. I was astonished by what I found, it was like expensive, adult Kool-Aid. No wonder the sugar addicted populous seems to be toting this colorful bottle around. Parents are giving it to kids, one more thing to get them off the couch and bouncing off the walls. I couldn't even finish it.

Turns out this "super healthy" water which has tons of vitamin C, just like the K, is um, just like the K.

16 grams of sugar in Kool-Aid
13 grams of sugar in Vitamin Water

I'll stick with water.

The dirty little secret

Everyone's got one, here is mine. That's right, here, for the World to see is my secret.

I made a compromise about a something we bought for the house. I didn't feel like arguing anymore at the time. We were getting married and I was searching for that happy sweet state-of-mind so I said "You can pick it out."

I liked almost every one of the 40 or so options that you could choose...yet, of course, he picked one of the three I thought I would never like.

And I lied.

I said it's nice, if you think it is the right one for US then it is.

And he did.

Even with a loaded question like that, he thought it was. So now I am stuck looking at this very expensive something for the rest of my life.

The moral of the story? Speak your mind, cause a fight. Being passive is soooo not worth it. Lesson Learned.

Feel like sharing your own, just post anonymously and only you'll know!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Get the most from your veggies

The latest on veggies from Tara Parker-Pope, well writer for the New York Times:

A growing body of research shows that when it comes to vegetables, it’s not only how much we eat, but how we prepare them, that influences the amount of phytochemicals, vitamins and other nutrients that enter our body.

Read all about it here.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Weight loss Wednesdays: Go Go Goji Power

The last few weeks I have been increasing my goji consumption. Goji berries are famed for their many health boosting qualities such as enhancing immune system function, improving eyesight, protecting the liver, boosting sperm production and improving circulation, among other effects.

They are sometimes called the fountain of youth, a weight loss tool, and people have claimed they help focus their autistic children (and I hope it does) and mellow out ADD kids.

I doubt this miracle berry does all of these things, at least not alone or significantly.
The debate rages on and for now I will keep eating them. They taste good and there are enough benefits in eating fruit to justify it, plus what if they are a miracle fruit?

Monday, May 19, 2008

Weight loss inspiration for brides and, well anyone else

The latest motivational story comes from a bride slimming down for her own self esteem and of course, her big day! She realized she'd let herself go, and her mother gently told her she may be unhealthy. It was later confirmed when her future in-laws made a few, ahem, fat jokes at her expense leaving her in tears.



It's sometimes hard to hear, see, and accept that you have become the dreaded obese, which is not as hard to do as you may think. Obesity starts at a BMI of 30 and morbidly obese at 40. You can find out your BMI here.


The key to her success? She made the choice. She lost 130 pounds! That is what it really takes, you can dabble in all kinds of diets and exercise programs but until you truly commit, nothing is coming off.



So here is my commitment. I will lose 20 pounds by August. It will put me in a healthier weight range and increase my self-confidence. It will be easier to carry a child if I am lucky enough to get one, and I will be happier.



Read the profile and details of the bride here.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

So you think you can step it up and dance?

This weekend has been a nonstop dance marathon. MTV has been playing "So You Think You Can Dance" with Bravo catching us all up on "Step it up and Dance." It's pretty much all I did, along with making up a ton of choreography I will never use. At least I got a bit of a workout in as I put together the numbers.

"Step It Up and Dance" has some interesting choreography and guests and of course, overly dramatic but pretty good dancers. And Jessica Spano (on Crack?) also known as the 2008 Elizabeth Berkley. She is in great shape, but maybe too great. What makes her hold her eyes open like that? Not wanting to start rumors about what she is or isn't on, I will simply ask, does she seem normal?

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Weight loss Wednesdays: Crazy Jackie Warner Workout

Kevin and I have been doing the Workout on-demand from Crazy Jackie Warner. If you don't know who this ego driven, but buff as all get out, blondie is, she is the "star" of Bravo's Workout. It's an enthralling reality show mapping the drama of the gym she runs and her quest toward World domination with stops to make-out with her staff on the way. If you have worked in the soap opera that is a restaurant, it's kind of like that.

Anyways, the workout is pretty good, we have been rotating the twenty minute legs with the 20 minute arms, and tonight, back to legs. Mine are still aching from Monday, but I must press on, and so should you. A little sore is not a lot sore and movement is so great! With this particular workout, I wonder if the World (fitness) Dominatrix knows how incredibly intense it is, even her staff take turns performing the routine. This was either because giving them a "solo" was a kind of cookie for being a fav or because she didn't want anyone looking overly tired at the end. Either way, I am addicted to looking as awesome as this woman, in a much shorter body.

For as in-charge as this woman is, it's important to note she is the real deal and understands what it takes to be really fit and what it takes to become healthy. Here are her top five fitness tips, check out the rest of the list here.

1: Be a smart consumer and read labels carefully. Fat free products are loaded with sugar. Fat does not make you fat – SUGAR DOES! When grocery shopping, meals should have no more than 400 calories and snacks 150 calories – buy nothing with over 9 grams of sugar.

2: No overcomplicated routines/no overcomplicated diets. They have the highest failure rate because they don’t teach you how to live in the real world. Get back to the basic, common sense principles.

3: Never skip meals. All of my morbidly obese clients have one thing in common – skipping meals. The moment you allow your blood sugar to drop (when you feel hunger pangs) you become a fat storing machine. You must eat small meals or snacks every few hours.

4:Don’t ever juice-blend: Always eat the whole fruit, not just its sugary juices. Juicing takes out the fiber but leaves you with the sugars. However, blending fills you with the whole fruit (fiber) and a lot more nutrients.

5: Sugar is the devil. Sugar throws our body into an immune suppressed, non-working state of chronic fatigue, depression, and hormonal imbalance. It is the leading cause of disease and depression in this country. To break the sugar addiction, get rid of refined sugar (anything that isn’t fruit or veggies) for 5 days in a row, then allow yourself to have one cheat meal on Saturday and one on Sunday. You will have curbed the chemical addiction for sugar and your brain will desire less.

An update to the diet tool, that seems like more work then I am willing to maintain. I like to make healthy meals more spur of the moment based on what ingredients are on sale. Affordability is also high on my fitness goals list.

Photo from tv guide.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

How much exercise does it take to see the benefit

I feel that most of us don't accurately know what a portion is or what kind of work it really takes to burn the calories we consume. I am a big offender of feeling like my 30 minute walk makes a piece of cake a wash. It doesn't. Oh those are harsh words!

MSN highlighted some reality today -

To burn off a 6-oz. bag of vegetable chips, a 180-pound man would have to:
Run 55 min
Swim 65 min
Bike 70 min
Row 70 min
Lift weights 1 hour, 45 min
Golf 2 hours, 20 min
Shop 4 hours, 30 min
Do desk work 7 hours

Not pretty, who would think vegetable chips would require so much work? Turns out it is, of course, better to eat the veggies. I think it is going to be essential to keep the active lifestyle going in addition to serious workouts.

e-AR, Don't worry that runner is not on the phone.

We may start seeing runners with little sensors behind their ears, and no it is not a blue tooth so their friends can hear them pant along with every stride, it's the e-AR by Sensixa.



The e-AR technology is a sensor athletes can wear behind the ear. This bio-inspired device then measures shockwaves as they pass through the skeleton. It calculates everything from step frequency to acceleration, stride, and joint shock. For any of you out there that love serious training and serious statistics even more (you know who you are), then this is for you! It's my understanding that it's in the final testing stages and should be hitting the market soon.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Drop those pounds! Motivation and inspiration

Sometimes I need external inspiration and motivation to keep me on track to achieving my goals. MSN Fitness and Health featured the story of Caroline, she has lost 124 pounds and has kept it of for over four years! I don't have quite as much to lose, so it can't be nearly as hard. She looks fantastic, and I know I can too! Check out her plan for change.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Forced Networking at WomCom

Tonight was the Women in Communications annual Matrix awards. Let's start by saying I only half wanted to go. There were a few women I was really looking forward to seeing but mostly I wanted to sleep after the long day at the florist.

I got there and the only people I knew where fairly busy so I set off to mingle and network. I spent some time at the bar (while wishing I was at the barre), forcing conversations and I can't honestly tell you what I said and I know even less about what they said. It isn't that I wasn't interested or that there was nothing to be gained from meeting them, it's that I was too dang tired to care.

After some sitting and some downtime of casually talking to women I do know, I was ready to try again. This time I struck up some really great conversations and I am fairly certain only pleasant, mildly intelligent things flowed out of my mouth. I will know more next week when I find out if any of these women respond to my emails.

If you are looking for funny networking stories, I am too tired to provide but I highly recommend one from Steve Crescenzo. All have to say is, I was very tempted to use my cell phone to call my wallet.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Weight loss Wednesdays: exhausted

Oh the joys of Wednesday, a day when we come to terms with what happened over the last 7 days. I have been keeping up on the healthy eating...except for the baby shower, and the birthday party. I really ate like crap, delicious crap, those days, but the working out was spot on as you can see by reading some older posts.

Time to really focus on eating right. Fitness Magazine has a diet tool that lets you create a diet by selecting meals from their list and then generates a shopping list of all the foods you'll need. I am going to give it a shot next week. If you try it, let me know, and I, of course, will do the same.

Dance started back up again yesterday and I was thrilled to be back in class. The energy you get from a class working toward a common goal is incredible. More on that later. Good luck this week!

Monday, May 5, 2008

Standing is hard, is fit worth it?

The standing will kill you. Looking for a way to keep fit during the day? Get a job where you stand and walk around, standing is hard work. This week I have been helping at out the flower shop my mother works at. They are a large wholesale florist, shipping to every chain and specialty grocer in the area and even states away.

The running around: in the cooler out of the cooler, wrapping bouquets, stripping thorns, loading racks of buckets, hauling 10 bouquets at a time and hosting them overhead; it is is madness. My body is tired just thinking about my day. As long as you can resist the cupcakes they bring in to snack on, a physical job like this is bound to help shed some pounds.

The downside: working with your hands makes you have ugly hands.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Keeping Active at the Green Street Fair

With dance on a week long hiatus I had to find something else to fill my fitness needs while stimulating my mind, (let's face it, mindless elliptical work is not fun) so off to the green street fair we went. We got to walk all around the fair trying out green products and tasting organic foods.

While strolling through the Whole Foods zone we picked up some "green" bathroom cleaner, Naturally Clean Life Mildew for $5. Hopefully it smells significantly less terrible and does as good a job as my current not so green, mostly toxic, mildew remover.


We logged 1.5 miles while spending an enjoyable and educational day together. It is important to remember that living a healthy lifestyle isn't always about hitting the gym and protein bars only to wreck it with days of sleeping in and eating out. It's about living an active life, putting good things in your body and using products that are not harmful to be around. Dusting a little more probably wouldn't hurt me either, the thought of mites...gross!

Friday, May 2, 2008

Refresh tea, refreshing indeed

During the whole caffeine drought I became a huge fan of Refresh tea from Tazo. It's invigoratingly minty and delivers a nice refreshing lift any time of day while staving off the need for snacks. I was buying it at Starbucks but decided it best to head to Kroger's and buy a box for the house.


I am a big fan of tea, any suggestions on types to try?

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Stop diabetes, prevent heart attacks and erectile dysfunction while defeating depression: ahh Exercise

Oh the many things exercise is capable of. There's an article today in the Times that highlights the many health benefits, both physical and emotional, of exercise. Whether it's lowering the risk of heart attack, stroke, depression, hypertension, diabetes (notice the top stories link diabetes to increased risks for heart attacks and depression), obesity, dementia, osteoporosis, gallstones, diverticulitis, falls, erectile dysfunction, peripheral vascular disease and 12 kinds of cancer, physical activity can seemingly do it all!

Exercise may just be the elixir of life as it is even known to help with ailments like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, congestive heart failure and osteoarthritis.

If you know someone who is battling illness or struggling with weight I think the article will help encourage them to take exercise seriously, it sure motivates me.

I tried yesterday's "look hot in jeans" workout and it was mildly awesome, short (about 17 minutes), and just the right amount of difficulty. I recommend playing some Bon Jovi in the background. I plan to add some cardio later, perhaps with the dog again. If you tried the jeans workout, let me know what you thought of it.