Archive for April 2010
This is just a test.
Puppies are so cute!
We will be up and running soon…………..
I hope I’ve caught you before you heard this on CNN or BBC America or…egads, I just heard the president has called a press conference. I hope he’s not going to blab. Damn those White House leaks!
Quickly then, here’s the scoop: After 500+ posts on blogger, I am moving up (or down, depending on your POV) the blogging food chain to Wordpress. Blogger has changed what and how they support blogs like mine, so I’m taking my toys and going elsewhere. (Caution: If you have google stock, you might want to watch the markets carefully after this news hits the airwaves.)
(Note: If you have google stock, are male, 45-55, and are unmarried, drop me an email.)
Okay, so the move is scheduled for later this week (so much packing and cleaning to do!), and in a perfect world will mean no changes to you whatsoever. RSS feeds will work, archives will hop where they’re supposed to, and so on and so on
Um ,yeah. This is ME we’re moving, and my world is blessed but not perfect. Since the last thing I want to do is lose you , I wanted to offer you an opportunity to sign-up for a courtesy email letting you know when the migration is complete. If all goes well, you’ll already know because your feed or email or click-through worked, but if changes are necessary for updating your feed (and I hope you will!), I can let you know via email.
If you’d like to sign-up for the FREE! post-migration Cammy-gram, you can fill out the form at the bottom of this post, click ‘SUBMIT’, and we’re done! If you aren’t able to use the form below, you can use the form here instead.
Or you can just email me your address using the Contact link in my sidebar.
Or you can just roll the dice and see if the RSS feed works like we hope!
I’ll still be posting here this week, as time allows, and I’ll provide updates, if needed. Meanwhile, I’ll be working out, having carpet installed in part of my house, overseeing the outside painting and gutter installation, and hanging out on your blogs.
Oh, and I should probably learn to use Wordpress at some point, shouldn’t I? Any resources I should know about? 
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Thanks so much for reading The Tippy Toe Diet!
I change my exercise program fairly regularly. That’s partly by design; we’re supposed to change things up fairly regularly to keep our bodies guessing and to make sure we’re covering all the vital muscles. Changing things up is, for me, also necessary to keep me interested and challenged. And sometimes I have to change an exercise because some jerk fellow fitness friend is camped out with whatever apparatus or weights I need. That’s okay, though. Change is good.
Since joining the new gym, I’ve noticed a few exercises that keep working their way into the line-up. Oddly enough, most are exercises I detested when initially learning them, but now–please don’t tell my former trainers–I look forward to them! So much so, that I’ve now decided my Friday workouts will be made up of all my current favorites, with a few extras as needed to cover all the bases. Who ever thought I’d be using exercise as a reward?!
Wanna see which exercises are on my fave list? Geez, I thought you’d never ask!
BOSU squats w/Medicine Ball I’m using an 8-lb. ball until I have my balance issues tamed. Not to mention that the medicine balls at my gym don’t have those cool handles on them and can be hard to hold onto when wearing weight-lifting gloves.
BOSU pushups These are tough for me, but when I remember that I couldn’t do any real pushups in the beginning (I did elbow creases and only three of those), I’m inspired to push-push-push!
Swiss ball jackknife I’m embarrassed by how much I used to whine about this exercise, but I’m also happy when I see how much more stable I’m able to keep the ball now. Before, I was all wiggly. Even now, I can’t hold back those odd little grunts on the third set.
Face pulls with lunges I couldn’t find a pictorial demo of this exercise. The link is to a standard face pull. I add a reverse lunge to it, so imagine an older, squish-bellied brunette in a t-shirt stepping back into a lunge with each pull. And again with the grunty noises midway through the final set. When I stop grunting, the weight gets increased. It’s the price of success.
Bird Dog This is one of my final exercises, and I do it a couple of ways. First, I’ll do a couple sets in which I hold the poses for a 2-count, and then I do fewer reps but longer holds on the final set. I’ve seen this exercise recommended for “6-pack abs”, but I like it for how my back feels when I do it. I’ve been doing this exercise for over a year and not a 6-pack in sight. For me, it’s simply a great way to end my workout with a happy sigh.
Those are my current favorites. For this past Friday’s workout, I filled in with some chest presses, lat pull-downs, step-ups w/weights and back extensions. Seems like there’s something else, but I’m forgetting it now. The main thing (for now) is that I got all of the favorites in! I’ll probably do a few of them throughout the week, but on Fridays, I get to do them all! Woo-hoo!
I know the roster of favorites will change as I discover new exercises or variations on old ones. At some point, I hope they include unassisted chin-ups. Since I’m currently at zero on reps completed, I’ve got a ways to go.
What are your current favorite gym exercises? Do you have any nominees for me to consider adding to my list of favorites?
Hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend! We’ve had a stormy start to it, but it’s all blue skies right now!
*in the key of Cammy*
Happy Earth Day to you,
Happy Earth Day to you,
Happy Earth Day, dear…Earth People,
Happy Earth Day to YOU!
Wasn’t that fun?
Yep, it’s Earth Day again. Time for me to recycle the same Earth-friendly tips I’ve used for the past three years, with a few updates for 2010. As we work toward making ourselves healthier, there are a few things we can do to make our planet a little healthier, too!
1. Opt for filtered water over bottled water. In 2001, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) reported that around 1.5 million tons of plastic are used each year to bottle 89 billion liters of water. Yes, we can recycle plastic containers, but do we really need to? How can we use our local water supply safely? Check out allaboutwater.org for all the info you can use about making your drinking water safe. (At minimum: why not commit to reusing half –or more—of the bottles you do consume?)
2. Eat less meat. Easy for a vegetarian, less so for those of us whose bodies like meat. But did you know that reducing our meat consumption (even by as little as 15%) would greatly reduce our risk of heart disease, diabetes, or stroke? Why, yes, you say, I do know that, but what’s it got to do with the environment? Some sources report that livestock production is responsible for up to 18% of greenhouse gases created by humans. Factor in the amount of water required and the number of forests destroyed in favor of grazing land, and you have even more reasons to reduce your consumption of meat. You can find more info at eatlessmeat.org (At minimum: try going meatless one day per week by following some of these great tips.)
3. Buy fewer packaged products. We need more fresh foods anyway. By shopping the outer aisles of most grocery stores (bakery, fruits/vegetables, dairy, meat), we’ll cut down on sodium and other chemicals, for one thing, and for another, we eliminate a lot of packaging that will likely end up in a landfill. Oh and speaking of landfills, I’ve noticed that since I’ve started eating heatlhier and have fewer packaged foods, I don’t need to put my recycle bin out every week (unless there be stinky stuff in there). This means that the trash pick-up truck doesn’t need to stop and idle in front of my house. \O/ Score!
3.1. Buy fewer products. Period. The economy is taking care of this one for many of us, but beyond that, now is a really good idea to ask ourselves if we really need everything we buy.
4. Buy organic and buy local, when possible. We avoid those messy chemicals used in production and the noxious fuel consumed in transportation. Oh, and don’t forget to get yourself some re-usable canvas grocery bags. Opt out on paper AND plastic.
4.1 Grow your own. Vegetables, that is. After last year’s experimental tomato plant, I’ve taken the big jump to FOUR plants this year. Within a couple months, I’ll be here complaining about the abundance of tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers I have, but for now, I’m excited!
5. Walk your errands (riding a bicycle is good, too!) every chance you get. I’m fortunate in that I have a grocery, drug store, and a few healthy-ish restaurants really close to home, and even more within a couple miles.
6. Commit to carrying a sack and a pair of gloves on your walking route just one day per week. As you’re walking, pick up any trash you see and take it to your own garbage can/recycle bin. You’ll get extra exercise, your neighborhood will look better, and fewer items will be headed down the drain and into a local river or stream. We just had “Neighborhood Clean-up Day” day last weekend (as usual, I missed it), but I’m going to carry a small bag on my walk today, just in case they missed some stuff. Or maybe I’ll venture into another neighborhood entirely.
Those are just a handful of ways we can improve our environment as we improve ourselves. If you have more, I’d love to hear them.
I found a quote from poet Maya Angelou today that resonated with me:
“I don’t know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes- it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, ‘well, if I’d known better I’d have done better,’ that’s all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, ‘I’m sorry,’ and then you say to yourself, ‘I’m sorry.’ If we all hold on to the mistake, we can’t see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can’t see what we’re capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one’s own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that’s rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don’t have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never
teach” try to lose weight.
(Strikethrough mine, obviously. All the bolding is mine, too.)
I forgave myself for years of obesity some time ago, but the inherent tendency to beat myself up over things lingers. This quote reminded me that moving forward requires stepping out of the past. It also reminded me that my value to the universe is not based on a scale number, a tape measure, a squishy belly, or anything else having to do with my physical make up. The same is true for YOU, and I hope with all my heart that you know that.
I’m off to the mirror to behold some glory. Join me?
Disclosures at end of post.
If you’ve been reading here for any length of time, you know that learning to be mindful about my actions (and inaction) played a large role in my successful weight loss and continues to work well for me with managing my weight. It’s an ongoing project and I still have work to do. While I continue to build a better habit of mindfulness of what I’m doing, I also want to learn more about being mindful of what I’m feeling.
Knowing that, you can imagine my delight when I was asked to review Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life
Savor is a remarkable book that offers much more than the eat-less-move-more advice for dropping a few pounds. Combining ancient Buddhist wisdom and the modern science of nutrition, the authors say that, while eating healthy and increasing movement are important, how we eat, move, and think is every bit as critical if we are to change our behaviors and achieve full success. It’s an approach that might hold a few keys for those like me who “woke up fat one day” and then couldn’t figure out how to fix it.
There are three primary segments to Savor:
- A Buddhist Perspective on weight Control
- Mindful Action Plans
- Individual and Collective Effort
These are followed by a wonderful resource (print and online) section as well as further discussions of mindfulness principles.
While I enjoyed Savor in its entirety, I lovedlovedloved the first section and believe it will help me improve my own mindfulness practices. The parables and stories used to demonstrate the principles being discussed were especially helpful, and I really appreciated that the “tone” throughout this section was kind and encouraging.
The section on developing mindful eating, moving, and living plans was also helpful. It contains many suggestions on dietary intake (some I agree with, some I don’t), as well as helpful counteractions to some of the roadblocks we put in our way. I do appreciate that while the authors recommend a plant-based diet only (citing health and environmental reasons), they also include helpful suggestions for readers who do eat meat.
The final section of Savor discusses individual and collective efforts, the interconnections of our behaviors with those of the world around us, and ways we can work to improve our communities and our world. Within it are fascinating examples of how seemingly small actions by various individuals have had profound effects on communities.
If you’re wanting to explore how living more mindfully might enrich your life, I highly recommend you check out Savor. It supported some of the things I’ve already learned and introduced a whole host of new ideas and directions to follow. You just might find some answers, too!
Intrigued but still undecided? Check out what these bloggers thought about the book.
Disclosures:
- I was invited to participate in this book tour by the kind folks at TLC Book Tours, who provided a complimentary copy of the book. No other compensation was requested, offered, or received.
- Book link is through my Amazon affiliate account.
Portions of this post are adult in nature. If you are below the age of consent in your state, country, or region, go do something else for a while.
I don’t have a Wii Fit, and I hadn’t really considered getting one. Until now.
Amanda Flowers, a 24-year-old from Manchester, claims that a Wii Fit injury has turned her into a sex addict.
After falling from her Wii Fit board, Flowers reports that even minor vibrations–such as from a food processor, she says– “turns her on.” She was told by a doctor that she had suffered a damaged nerve that has provoked “persistent sexual arousal syndrome.”“It began as a twinge down below before surging through my body. Sometimes it built up into a trembling orgasm,” Flowers says, according to the Daily Star’s article “Nintendo Wii Made Me Nympho.”
Read the rest on The Huffington Post including a link to some videos of other Wii accidents. Fortunately (or not, depending on your kink), no videos of the aforementioned accident or its aftermath.
Well now. That certainly puts a different light on the Wii Fit, doesn’t it?
And that’s all I’m going to say about that.
Actually, that’s all I’m going to say about anything today. I’ve just completed a hilly ten-mile bike ride (sad to say, my longest of the spring, so far), and I’m headed for the comfort of my sofa. My DVD player might not be as–ahem!–exciting as a Wii Fit, but it’s all I have.
Hope you’re all having a lovely weekend! I’m back on Monday with a great book review! (Um, the book is great. Not sure how the review will turn out.)
All memory of what I intended to post when I sat down here just evaporated. It’s not that I forgot (though that’s certainly happened plenty of times.) No, what happened was that I skimmed a couple of feeds and stumbled upon one of the best posts I’ve seen in a long, long time. It literally took my breath away.
And when I could breathe again, I knew that I had to share it with you as we head into the weekend. Someone (perhaps several someones) need to read this post far more than anything I could come up with tonight.
So, run (I said, RUN!) check it out: Pamela Slim’s: You, Less Than. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Wishing you a joyful weekend and the blessing of remembering who you are.
A few weeks ago I ended a post with a photo of some turtles I spotted while on my bike ride. In particular, I was delighted by these little cuties:
I thought I was pretty lucky to be in that place at that time, to capture the sight. What a gift!
Imagine my surprise when I was walking the same trail last week and came upon…the exact same sight! What luck!
That’s when the voice of wisdom jumped in and said, “This cain’t be right.” (My voice of wisdom is a little bit country.) When I’d ridden past the bayou previously, I’d actually done little more than spot the turtles, snap a photo, pause to count my blessings at being there in that moment, and then hop back on the bike to continue my ride. On this, the second sighting, I took the time to get a little closer, really look at the bayou, and wonder.
What were the odds that days and days after my initial discovery, I would once again see four turtles, in the exact same positions, complete with retracted head on second-from-right turtle and fallen branch hanging over the log.
And wasn’t it the teensiest bit strange that other turtles in the bayou were diving off their sunning spots left and right as I tromped daintily made my way down the path. Why did these turtles almost seem to be posing?
And why do they look so completed and totally tried out, like…resin or concrete?
Yep, you guessed it: they’re fake. Decorative turtles only. I have no idea why they’re out there, or why I couldn’t see that they were fake on my first visit.
I was so disappointed, and more than a little embarrassed when I remembered that I had excitedly posted a photo here.
But then I remembered that of all the people in my universe, this group might be more likely to understand this desire to believe in something, even if it seems too good to actually be true. I’m sure there’s more than one person reading here (besides me) who has heard a sales pitch for one of those lose-weight-without-exercising-or-cutting-your-calories products and at least considered buying the product. And possibly a few who did buy it.
So, I’m thinking this turtle news may give you a chuckle and a memory of a time when you fell for something that wasn’t actually real.
It’s also a good opportunity to remember that sometimes things are real and true, even though we can’t see them. Things like progress toward our goals, to name just one example. It’s sitting there right in front of us, but we’re off looking at fake turtles (see: scale and tape measure) and can’t see our successes.
Real or not real. It’s worth slowing down a little to make sure we understand what we’re seeing, don’t you think?
