The Empty Cabinets of my Mind

Got the Shakes?

From sweet potatoes pureed in milk and honey and blended into a creamy shake with ice to Natraburst's relatively new MLM product which I mix with chocolate and quaff daily, I am a confirmed health shake nut. 

I like nutrition bars too, not as meal replacement, but as a substitute for dessert.  Having weaned myself off from white flour products decades ago, now things like cake and donuts and pie crust just do not taste good to me.  I'd rather eat a diet bar for a sweet treat, or my all time favorite, a little bit of decadent dark chocolate.

Until recently my own little countertop sprout farm was churning out buckwheat lettuce, wheatgrass, and fennugreek sprouts on a daily basis, but I recently moved in with a friend who doesn't yet understand all this stuff, and we haven't quite figured out where I can put stuff.   Not only do I miss the super fresh crunchy green I had been growing, but my jeans seem to be filling out a bit. 

Instead of dieting, I have always considered commons sense nutrition to be a necessary and normal way of life.  I don't get all freaked out if 5 extra pounds pop up, and I never diet to get them off, but maybe I will drink more water, be more active and cut back a little on the carbs. 

Unlike a lot of folks these days, I consider bacon and eggs and real butter to be health foods, but like everything else, in moderation.  Therefore, it will be breakfast as usual. 

 

 

 

The Skinny on Fat: Is it Necessary in your Diet?

It is alarming to me to see people on a quest to lose weight flocking to products advertised as low-fat, because when I read the ingredients in these products most of them are rather high in sugar, which I consider a drug, not food.  Some say that all sugars are alike, but I disagree.  The worse sugars, in my opinion, are the ones that are the most processed.  Worse than those are artificial sweeteners, which I believe make our bodies seek out "real" sugar. 

But last week I had a real treat.  On a trip through Utah I stopped in a little country store that sells homemade blackstrap molasses.  It was SO delicious.  It was made by wringing the juice out of a mountain of sugar cane stalks and then slowly cooking and skimming the liquid for a whole day.  It was really good tasting molasses.  Unlike processed sugar, homemade molasses contains lots of vitamins and minerals.

I was sipping a nice cold glass of milk flavored with this wholesome blackstrap molasses when I checked the morning mail and found an invitation to write a paid post on the subject of  easy weight loss diets.

I like this advertisor because his profile is written in Latin :-)  But more to the point, he discourages people from looking for quick easy fixes, and encourages them to make well considered permanent changes that include exercise and sensible eating, with an eye to the basic food groups.

Kids Need Exercise Too

When I was a little farm kid growing up in the country at a time when some families still had outdoor toilets, physical education programs were mandated in the schools in order to ensure that all of the school children had an opportunity to bathe at least five days a week.  There really wasn't much of a physical education curriculum, and frankly, I think that in some cases as much harm was done by the required PE courses as help when it came to fitness.  But no matter, because the work we had to do at home to help keep food on the table and our home maintained kept us in good physical condition. 

Presumably there were some sort of pe lesson plans in the schools in those days, but the emphasis seemed to be more on socialization than fitness. I don't remember the term fitness ever being used.

By the time I was in high school, the PE classes became more interesting, and there were actually some learning components in the high school physical education plans, but then the emphasis turned to sports such as football and baseball.  They had extramural basketball for girls, but most of the sports were for boys and they had access to the best equipment and we got what was left over, if any.  

We did have as part of the curriculum, however, chapters on basic nutrition and hygiene.  There were at that time seven basic food groups in the pyramid, not four, and a discretionary food group which includes sugar and alcohol was not one of them.   Candy and sugary drinks were considered an occasional treat, not food.  

I think that kids need active play of the type that involves critical thinking, not the kind that requires the latest scripted fad toy.  They also need a decent diet consisting of wholesome and untainted foods.  But to be able to continue being fit and being able to live long and healthy and productive lives, they need to be literate and have the basic skills necessary to understand history and not repeat it, to learn from their mistakes, and to discern what is healthy and what is not through sound judgment, without being enslaved by hype. 

I Bought a Bike

It was sort of about fitness, and sort of about the price of gas. 

I wanted to be able to get out in the cool evening air and let the breeze blow away some of the routines of my day...and maybe sneak down to hamburger row to snag a little junk food once in a while without piling into the car and wasting gas.  This is how my mind works:

Let's see, cost of McDonald's double cheeseburger -- $1.  Cost of gas to get there and back -- $.20.  Cost of getting out of shape from eating burger and then sitting in car -- my life.   Cost of weekly specials at the fantastic market across from McDonald's -- corn, 5 ears/$1, grey squash $.50...piling in the car and getting there?  Unlikely...too much bother for one item, too close to McDonald's, waste of $.20 in gas.  That certainly ups the overall price of the leaders.

So I had been avoiding that cute little neighborhood market.  No more.

The bike had to be a folder.  That way we could take it along on vacations, and haul it back and forth between our summer and winter places.  I couldn't afford this one:

Fastest Folding Bike

I didn't want a bike that screamed "Steal Me!" either.  I looked hard and long at the Dahon boardwalk, as well as Citizen, and some of the other online specials.  I decided it had to come from a local bike shop, so that I could get competent help from someone who knows bikes better than me.  So I rode the Dahon and then I rode this little sleeper from Sun in Taiwan, called the Cayne Rambler.  It was a hard choice because the Dahon handled well and was a bit lower, which appealed to me.  But the Rambler coasted along faster with a whole lot less effort.  

It has gotten some compliments, so I can't really say it is not pretty, but it has a utilitarian look that I like, and although an alloy, the frame is sturdy.   But for now you will all have to excuse me, for there is a hamburger with my name on it. 

Exercise Nook

When I moved my body dome exercise ball to a new location, I found that its proximity to the wall threw my balance off a bit, so it became necessary to think of adding a stabilizer bar. 

Add-on stabilizer bars cost more than a new rebounder, though!  So why not just get a whole new one?

I first looked at the ubiquitous urban rebounder, priced at about $99.  However, it is hard to find good information about it online and reviews are mixed.  Most experts on this kind of exercise equipment encouraged readers to choose a more expensive and better made product.  So then I had a look at the top of the line products, including Bellicon's sumptuous bungee rebounder.  Maybe someday, but the one we like costs 15 times what we thought of spending .  One must wonder "Will I like it THAT much?"  Probably, but we wanted to ease into this routine. 

Once having seen the bungee  rebounders, though, we kept thinking how nice it would be to have a softer and quieter bounce.   What a delightful surprise it was, then to find the Yog Flex mini-trampoline on half-price sale at our local Big5 store.  Not only is it pretty, but I can lift it easily for cleaning underneath.  I should mention that the weight limit for using the Yog Flex is 250 pounds, but that is not a problem for anyone in our household. 

As you can see, both devices fit perfectly in the nook below our bedroom window.  See how the discreet but sturdy stabilizing bar serves both my beloved yellow body dome and the bungee rebounder.  Hubby and I can even exercise together and share the stabilizing bar!

The little white gadget on the corner stool is a Biozone  ultraviolet air purifier which removes dust and kills air borne bacteria, thus allowing us to feel comfortable about storing exercise equipment in the bedroom.   

I Love to Jump