Top 10 Ways To Keep The Weight Off November 6, 2010
Posted by nrhatch in Exercise & Fitness, Health & Wellness, Humor.comments closed
During the Holidays, we face challenges to our will power on a daily basis. Visions of sugar plums (and other sweet treats) dancing in our heads can derail even the healthiest of eaters.
“Cleaning out” the refrigerator to make room for goodies can bulk us up faster than Ebenezer can say, “No more pie.”
As my Holiday gift to you, here’s . . .
Top 10 Ways to Fit Exercise IN and keep the Holiday Weight OFF:
10. Make cookies! Mixing stiff cookie dough by hand strengthens your grip, biceps, forearm, and shoulder muscles as it burns 170 calories an hour (vs. 80 calories when standing in line quietly at the mall).
9. Never stand in line quietly at the mall. Instead, do jumping jacks (or jump rope) while waiting for the next available clerk. If you’re lucky, they’ll open up a new checkout lane just for you!
8. Lift weights. While waiting for cookies to come out of the oven, grab a couple cans of dense, high caloric food (pie filling, gravy, or candied yams), hold one can in each hand and do bicep curls, shoulder presses, and straight arm raises until the cookies are done. If you’re talented, juggle three cans to test your hand eye coordination.
7. Take advantage of Holiday-induced Attention Deficit Disorder. Think of something you need from upstairs. Race up the stairs before you forget what you need. At the top of the stairs, allow yourself a moment to remember that you already forgot what you wanted. Race back down the stairs to take the pie out of the oven. Repeat.
Ten minutes of stair climbing burns 89 calories . . . 1/36 of a pecan pie.
6. Ride the escalator at the mall and burn 78 calories an hour. I know that doesn’t sound like much for an hour’s worth of “exercise” . . . but it will keep you away from the Cinnabons in the food court.
5. Do leg squats while addressing Holiday cards:
Sit down at a table.
Stand up and get the Christmas Card list.
Sit down again.
Stand up and get the address book.
Sit down again.
Stand up and get the Holiday cards.
Sit down again.
Stand up and get the stamps.
Sit down again.
Stand up and add 16 items to the shopping list.
Sit down again.
Repeat 100 times.
Strengthens thighs, abs, and glutes.
4. Reality Bites. As the aroma of Cherry Strudel filters through the house, sit in a comfortable chair. Visualize eating a small piece of strudel. Feel the taste and texture on your tongue. Savor every morsel. Cut another virtual slice. Visualize feeling full . . . fuller . . . uncomfortably full . . . stuffed with Cherry Strudel. Reach for another virtual bite. Visualize buttons popping off the front of your favorite Holiday outfit . . . in the middle of a party . . . at your boss’s house. Keep eating until Cherry Strudel holds no virtual appeal, while repeating the mantra, Reality Bites.
3. Do Ab Scrunches. Tighten your abdominal muscles, and squeeze into your tightest pair of jeans ~ the ones that you can only zip up by lying down on the floor and exhaling. Once scrunched into the jeans, hold your breath for a count of 20. Shimmy and shake out of the jeans. Take a deep breath. Repeat 10 times. Strengthens abs and core muscles, as well as your resolve NOT to polish off left-overs after dinner.
2. Hamstring Kicks. As you stand in the kitchen, surreptitiously polishing off the last piece of pecan pie, work your hamstrings and outer thigh muscles by shifting your weight onto one leg while bending the other at the knee . . . and kicking yourself in the ass.
Alternate legs with each bite.
And the #1 way to keep the weight off:
1. Push Ups. After meals, hold your arms straight out in front of you and PUSH UP and AWAY from the table . . . BEFORE you feel like a pumpkin on steroids.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Otters Outta Sight! November 6, 2010
Posted by nrhatch in Animals, Life Balance, Nature.comments closed
I stepped onto the deck this morning and saw an otter playing on the opposite bank.
As he rolled around on the grass, he kept looking at the water, waiting for his playmates to appear.
They did! Two more otters joined the first furry fellow!
Entranced, we watched the trio race up and down the banks before diving back into the water and disappearing from view.
Otters . . . Outta Sight!
Related post: Why I Otter Kill You!
Edible Communities November 6, 2010
Posted by nrhatch in Food & Drink.comments closed
Want to know what’s brewing in Buffalo, what’s cooking in Cape Cod, what’s palatable in Portland?
Get authentic food stories from the fields and kitchens of edible communities like: Santa Fe, Orlando, Sarasota, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Manhattan.
Visit Edible Communities on Facebook to learn more.
Bon Appetit!
WARNING: I planned to include a link to the Edible Communities website in this post, but my computer said that the site had been reported to Microsoft as “unsafe” (for taking personal information from users). Proceed with caution.
Spirit Lights The Way 