Shakespeare's Landlord (Lily Bard Mysteries, Book 1) - Charlaine Harris

Shakespeare's Landlord (Lily Bard Mysteries, Book 1) - Charlaine Harris

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Walking with a New Twist

I am finally back to my workouts and doing it with a vengeance. Why you may ask? I recently had a job interview and when I tried on what I thought were my "impression making clothing" I ended up looking like Elmer Fudd. My belly was a round little pot and I could not even button my jacket. My blouse kept popping open because the buttons would not stay closed due to the stress my belly was putting on them (sigh).

So to motivate me into getting into the workout groove, I purchased 2 new DVDs to kick start my plan. ShapelyGirl: Walking Fit with Debra Mazda is one of them.

The DVD focuses on Plus Sized Gals, but if you ask me, they are for everyone. I love inviting the creator (leader of the exercises) Debra Mazda, makes you feel; all warm and fuzzy, while encouraging you to keep moving. She also is an advocate that size does not matter, but health does.

I have tons of DVDs by the walking queen, (dare I say her name? oh hell, why not) Leslie Sansone; she has gotten as boring to me as watching paint dry in a dungeon, while sitting in the dark. All her stuff seems to be the same, and that chatter she goes into is like having honey poured into your ears; sticky, sweet and annoying.

Give the Shapelygirl series a try, there are 4 DVDs in all from Debra Mazda and let me know what you think. Check her out on http://www.collagevideo.com/ or http://www.amazon.com/

TTFN
Dietdiva 4 Life

Missed Me?

I know it seems like I have been MIA for some time. I had to take some time off from blogging to concentrate on school. Thankfully, I have completed my degree, while working full time I might add, and now will be able to post more often. So if I had any followers out there, keep an eye out for me, I am ready to rock and roll.

Unfortunately, along with concentrating on school, I failed at my workouts as well. Not to worry, I have a bunch of new DVDs sitting on the shelf, waiting to be popped into the DVD player so I can rate them. I plan on blowing the dust off of them and getting back into my workout rhythm as well.

Baby...I am back!!

Bootylicious

Divas,
I am finally better from my death bed flu, (yeah) and am ready to rock and roll. While I was recuperating from the flu, I could not do a whole lot of anything. So I did what I could do, which was checking out new exercise videos on line. The Hollywood socialite Kim Kardashian, you now the one that is famous for having a big booty and a sex tape has released a video series called “Fit in Your Jeans by Friday”. The titles of these workouts are as follows: Ultimate Butt Body Sculpt, Amazing Abs Body Sculpt and Butt Blasting Cardio Step.

I read the reviews on http://www.amazon.com/ as that seems to be the only place one can purchase these DVDs and they got rave reviews, so me, being a big sucka, I broke down and purchased all 3 of these bad boys, head’s up, they run for around $14.99 a piece. I have to say that I am disappointed in what I have seen so far. Now mind you, I have only completed the Ultimate Butt Body Sculpt, but just from doing it, it didn’t do much for me.

Each work out is broken down into two parts; a 15 minute workout and a 20 minute workout. Each DVD incorporates a Step in the workout, so if your step from when you did Jayne Fonda workouts years ago is being buried under Christmas decorations, winter clothing and God knows what, you may want to dig it out that is if you want to keep your figure looking like Kim’s. (She claims these are the workouts she does to keep her famous booty in shape)

Oh, almost forgot, the workouts are not being lead by Kim, she does not appear to be that coordinated and even stated in one of the workouts that it was only recently that she could jump onto the Step (hmmm) but rather by other exercise professionals such as Jennifer Galardi, well known from the “Crunch” exercise series and Patrick Goudeau who has his own workout DVDs.

Now please don’t get me wrong and think that I am bashing Kim’s efforts, because I am not, I just don’t think that for someone that is at an advanced level of exercise that these may be worth it. But if anyone else gives them a try and feel like adding what I have already said, whether you agree with me or not, I will be happy to listen and you can even post your review on the blog, I won’t delete; scout’s honor (can you see me holding up the “scout” fingers?)

TTFN
Diet Diva 4 Life

Water World

Hey Divas, I know I have not written anything in a while, but truth be told, I was as sick as the proverbial dog. I have had the flu for almost a month and was barely able to stand let alone sit at the computer and form a coherent sentence to post on my blog. Today is one of the best days that I have had in a very long time, so I decided to post something.

Well, as I was so ill, I was on tons of medications, all of which made me drowsy even if the label or the doctor said that it shouldn’t, hey, what can I say, I am a delicate exotic flower that can’t take heavy narcotics, Advil is about as heavy as I can go without adverse side effects. During all this of course I had to keep myself twice as hydrated as I normally do to aid in keeping my fever down as well as flush all the toxins out of my body.

As I was doing the flushing, I was drinking copious amounts of water and my boyfriend bought me vitamin water as a good gesture to help me “get well”. I started to wonder, is vitamin water better than plain water?
As I was looking at the colorful water that resembled the jeweled colors not unlike the colors of Kool Aid, it looked appealing enough, but as I read the label of this particular brand, it was loaded with sugar. Now why would I want to consume anymore sugar than I already do? There is so much hidden sugar in lots of unsuspecting products such as ketchup etc, why would I want to add more to my diet, besides, last time I checked, I was sweet enough already.

The average bottle of vitamin water has over 100 calories plus sugar for the flavoring so you may as well go ahead and have that can of soda, so what is the point? I think I will stick to plain water and if I need to “punch” it up, I will add a twist of lemon. If I need vitamins, my multivitamin will suffice and do the trick.

TTFN
Diet Diva 4 Life

Pump it Up

Hello Divas first let me apologize for being away for so long. Life started happened while I was busy doing everything else and I had an overabundance of things on my plate, but I am back.

In our quest to keep fit, we may do lots of cardio, Pilates, yoga etc, but are we including strength training in our routines? Please, please, please stop thinking that strength training is for the bulky, top heavy gentlemen that you see in the gyms or the (ahem) ladies that you aren’t quite sure if they are male or female when you look at them because they have “strength trained” to the point that they have built up those large muscles, and you stop and go “hmmm”.

Anyway, strength training for women is a good thing. Why you ask? Because women in particular, see remarkable benefits from strength training. Strength training increases resting metabolism and women who are trying to reduce body fat will do so more easily. You will increase muscle fiber, and we all know that old saying “muscle burns fat”, well that saying is actually true.

I know we don’t want to dip our toes in the lake of “middle age” but let’s face it; it comes upon us like a thief in the night. One day you will wake up, look in the mirror and see your mother’s face staring back at you. But I am trailing off to another thought and topic (I have ADD sometimes). For women who have traveled to the land of middle age, strength training is the secret for helping to keep the middle age “spread” off.

Try Rubber Resistance Bands for strength training as opposed to weights. They are light, portable and you have very little chance of breaking your toes on them if you happen to drop them on your feet. Work all major muscles and do repetitions that produce muscle fatigue, maybe 10 -15 reps for both your upper and lower body. There are lots of strength training DVDs available. Try http://www.collagevideo.com/. They are an online retailer for exercise videos for all forms of exercise. They even take returns on opened DVDs if you purchase it, get it home and find out that you hate it (you know that you can’t even think of returning an opened DVD to your local sports & fitness store) and you get a chance to view a snippet of the DVD before you buy it as well; pretty cool.

There also is a new strength training DVDs designed especially for women from Pink Fitness. These exercises are lead by a woman and explained in detail. This set comes with a 5 lb weight bar & 10 lbs of weight plates, plus 12 total body power training workouts, and an eating guide. Check Pink Fitness out at http://www.pinkfitness.com/

Ok, I have to go. I feel like 10 miles of bad road today, body achy, headache, sore throat, combination of runny and congested nasal packages. Now I am not a doctor, so don’t quote me on this, but I think I may be coming down with a cold.

TTFN
Diet Diva 4 Life

Walk This Way

Something that we do everyday without even giving it thought is one of the best exercises and best ways to lose weight. Yes, Divas, WALKING. We learned to walk as toddler with lots of determination. First we started crawling and once that was mastered then we moved up to the next level, walking. Of course walking did not come easy then. Some of us had lots of falls, unsteady knees, and then let’s not forget the “plop” we made on the floor as we got unsteady and fell. Ahhhhhhhhhhh, I was a genius even at the toddler stage or so my mother tells the story. (I am sure I have shared that with you before, if not, I am telling you now). According to my mother, I never crawled. One day she sat me on the floor and I just got up and started to walk, just like that. No trial an error, no scrapes from the falling, none of that nonsense. I just mastered the skill right from the start.

Ok, let’s stop gabbing about me and my brilliance and get back to my intent for this blog. It is then no wonder that to this day, I find walking the favorite exercise out of everything that do for fitness. If you have been following my postings, you may recall that I have mentioned that I have a vast collection of exercise DVDs. Within my hoard, I have 18, (no I am not a pack rat) yes, 18 Leslie Sansone “in home walking” DVDs.

For those of you that have never heard of Leslie Sansone, she is the queen of walking, literally. She has created dozens of indoor walking exercise DVDs/videos. Some of the titles are Walk Away the Pounds, Walk Away Your Hips and Thighs, Walk Away Your Waistline and the list goes on and on. Leslie has DVDs geared towards teens and older adults as well. The DVDs can range from 1 mile up to 5 miles and come with chapters so you can do all the miles or chose to do only a few.

What the workouts consists of is marching, (walking in place) kicking, side steps, grapevines etc., all to the beat of music. She can make you work up a sweat with a 10 minute mile to some kick butt fast paced music. Leslie has even incorporated strength training in her workouts to help you build muscle with rubber resistance training. (OMG, please stop thinking that rubber resistance training is training to resist the use of condoms, don‘t make me laugh). You can choose Faith Walks as well with Christian music.

If you are interested in learning more about Leslie Sansone, check out her website. There you can find an array of her workouts and get to play clips from the DVDs, just to see what I am going on about. www.Amazon.com is also a great place to find her DVDs at great prices.

If you would rather walk outdoors, grab Fido or Twinkie, or whatever it is that you have named your pooch and take a walk. Researchers (here we go again with the people that get paid to do the cool jobs) have found that people that walk their dogs 20 minutes a day, lose an average of 14 pounds a year.

So whether you do in home walking or walk your pet (remember he needs exercise too) get up and walk. It is easy, you have already gotten over the learning curve, and one of the cheapest forms of exercise.

TTFN
Diet Diva 4 Life

Warning, This Can Be Habit Forming

Up late, as usual, watching infomercials or as they call them these days “paid programming”. No, I don’t want the Colon Cleanse, I eat enough fiber, and no, I don’t want to buy a course to teach me how to sell on EBay, I do that already for free without your course thank you. But of course what always catches my eye are the exercise infomercials, oh sorry “paid programming”.

I sat through Slim in 6, Michael Thurmond’s Six Week Body Make Over and Kettleworx. They all were including, free of charge of course, a six week workout guide. I began to wonder why six weeks. Why not two, three or four weeks?

The idea behind the six weeks is that any activity, performed over and over and over again soon becomes a habit. Experts (how do I get on one of these expert panels, anyway?) have discovered that it takes six weeks of repetitive action to successfully form a habit. I guess this also applies to things that are bad for you so if I were you, I would not start any filthy repetitive activity that I don’t want to become a habit.

Now if you did not happen to be up late watching infomercials (damn, there I go again calling them infomercials) and did not get sucked into buying any of the fantastic exercise programs or the zero percent body fat models that were the “after” results of the program didn’t seal the deal for you to add another expense on your already close to maxed out credit card, then this means that you do not have the free six week workout guide that comes with said program.

Oh well, here is a trick, and I promise I don’t have many tricks in my magician’s hat anymore, but this trick is to take a regular calendar and choose a date that you want to begin your exercise program. Mark a BIG X on that date and an even BIGGER X on the date that is six weeks from that date. Make sure that you do your activity at least 3 times a week for the six weeks. Each week, mark that week off to show how much closer to your six week goal you are getting.

After you create your habit even if you take a break from it, you will find that picking it up again, is much easier than if you hadn’t established it at all, though taking a break from exercising I am not recommending (remember, you started this to become healthy not just to lose that stubborn ten pounds and then quit). This will be like riding a bike, even if your bike is buried in the garage under tons of crap, if you pull it out, you will get back on it and ride it like a pro.

TTFN
Diet Diva 4 Life

Do The Split

Yeah, I know, you don’t have time to work out. I hear it all the time. I have to admit that I too have used that sentence and sometimes way too often in the past. I figured that I had to put in at least a full 30 minutes of body pounding, heart racing, and sweat drenching exercise to benefit from the exercise at all. Guess what, and this does not happen often, so mark this on your calendar people, for it may not come around again in a long time…I was wrong (I won’t repeat it either so I hope you got that)

While doing my research I came across a few articles that stated “short bouts of exercise throughout the day can have the same benefits as continuous workouts.” How come I never knew this before? Why didn’t the PE gym teacher, the one that we all suspected used Old Spice (the female gym teacher, you know the one, yeah her) not tell us that we did not have to spend the actual full gym period doing exerting ourselves? (I wonder if she still smells of Old Spice or upgraded to Axe.)

Ok, moving on. A study was done on non exercisers and people that either did the full 30 minutes or split their 30 minutes of exercise up in two 15 minutes sessions or three 10 minute sessions (you don’t need a calculator, it all ads up to 30 minutes, trust me). The results were that the only group that did not see a change in their weight loss or an increase in their endurance was the group that did nothing, yes the non exercisers.

So, stop saying that you don’t have time to exercise, do the split and split your 30 minutes a day up, you may be amazed at the results.

TTFN
Diet Diva 4 Life

Do Women Need Special Workout Clothing?

Maybe you have never thought of this, I know I never did, but looking good while you get fit can actually motivate you and give you confidence. No, I don’t mean piling on the makeup like our beloved and departed Tammy Faye Baker or having your hair perfectly coiffed, I am talking about wearing the right clothing. Yes, the right clothing can give you that boost to keep going, almost like some sort of drug free high, a sprit lifter if you will. (Hmmm, maybe this is why I have lulls in my exercise routines).

I for one have been wearing the same old sweats that I can remember buying back in 1999. They have been washed so many times that to tell you what the original color was, is next to impossible. But then again, I don’t go to the gym to workout, I do all my workouts at home, in my basement, but even so, even if no one can see you like at the gym, you still need to have the right clothing.

One of the most important piece of clothing to put lots of thought into is your footwear. Get footwear compatible for whatever exercise(s) you plan on engaging. This may mean that you end up with several different pairs of sneakers but trust me, you will thank me for letting you in on this secret. If you walk, get a good pair of walking shoes, if you run, you will need shoes for that as well, if you are the fitness fanatic that dabble in various forms of exercise, then a pair of cross trainers may be the best bet for you. The different shoes have different levels of shock absorbers for the different type of exercise, but you already knew that right? Oh, one thing that most people forget, when trying on athletic shoes, take the socks that you plan on wearing with the shoes with you, this lets you see how the shoes feel with the socks and ensures the best fit. I only just learned that, and boy I could have used this piece of knowledge years ago.

Divas, lets go to the “girls.” We need a GREAT not good, sports bra. The last thing we need is to be knocked unconscious when running or doing jumping jacks. (Hey, is that considered a sports injury?) Besides, last time I checked “flapjacks belonged in a diner. Invest in a bra that pulls moisture away from the skin like a moisture-wicking fabric, minimizes jiggling and bounce (you don’t need to be bound as if you are wearing duct tape though) and last but not the least important, is comfortable. Don’t forget adjustable straps to reduce the possibility if chaffing on the shoulders.

Let’s not forget your underwear, yes, we can talk amongst ourselves about that topic, it is not a secret anymore. Please, please, please do not wear cotton underwear., cotton gets wet quickly and stays wet longer. Quick drying, moisture-wicking fabric is best. Last thing you need is something that holds in moisture, that can only promote “other” health issues that we all know are unpleasant and even more uncomfortable.

As for pants or short and tops, again I am going to tell you NO cotton for the same reason as NO cotton in your underwear, it will get wet faster and stay wet longer, which will only make you uncomfortable and cut your exercise time down. Try clothing that is blended with spandex, this gives you some flexibility when moving, again, moisture-wicking fabrics are best. The same suggestion stands for your socks when it comes to the moisture factor, cotton will not be a friend to your feet, moist feet can only lead to foot fungus later down the road (yuk). Does color matter do you ask? No, not really, but my personal choice would be black, after all, black is slimming and looks good on any shaped body.

To cut this long story short, check out your local sports stores or online stores for your clothing, I am sure you will be able to find a knowledgeable sales person who isn’t sixteen years old and looks at you with a dead starfish look in his eyes when you ask questions. For your shoes, I would definitely do the in person store thing, you really want to try on as many pairs of shoes as it takes to get the proper fit.

TTFN
Diet Diva 4 Life