3/14/2007

Comfort Food: Fennel Mashed Potatoes

By Laura Moncur @ 5:00 am — Filed under:

Here is a link to a recipe for Fennel Mashed Potatoes:

If you look at their picture, the creamy and fluffy potatoes look so delicious, but their calorie estimate brings them in at 144 calories a serving. For 3 Points, you can enjoy down-home mashed potatoes made with butter and half & half.

If you have been limiting your diet too much, an indulgence like this might be just what you need.

3/13/2007

Wurlybird Flyer: Exercise and Thrills

By Laura Moncur @ 5:00 am — Filed under:

Wurlybird

It doesn’t look like it would exercise more than one arm at a time, but I can imagine playing on this thing for hours as a kid. Just imagine… a fair ride that’s free!

I have a couple of questions about this action toy, though:

Can you play with it all by yourself?

As a child, there were lots of playground toys that were useless to me. The teeter totter was one example. It’s impossible to play alone. It’s impossible to play with your sister who is five years younger. You have to find a kid who is about the same weight as you to play. Is that how this thing would work?

Does it only exercise your left arm?

It doesn’t look like you can switch arms, so you would end up with one sore arm after a day’s play with it. If you can’t switch arms, that’s a major design flaw.

This looks like a fun idea, but not quite up to exergaming standards. Heck, even the Wii exercises BOTH of your arms…

Via: Boing Boing: Hand-cranked home fun-fair ride

3/12/2007

Question of the Week: Southern Cooking

By Laura Moncur @ 5:00 am — Filed under:

I am currently in Austin, Texas. The restaurants here are a tribute to the Texas BBQ, so there is lots of meat to choose from, but I’m a little short on my veggie rations. Help me!

How can I eat healthy in Texas?

What are the healthiest items on the Southern Cooking menu?

Are collard greens healthy? They taste too good to be fat free. Are they cooked with lard or something to make them taste so good?

Should I be avoiding restaurants altogether and packing my own food?

If you have any experience with Southern Cooking, please leave comments here so I can make sure I’m really choosing healthy options.

3/11/2007

A Diet for Your Hair

By Laura Moncur @ 5:00 am — Filed under:

Self Portrait Tuesday: Straight Hair

Over the years, I have lost a lot of hair. Unlike most people, I’m a little grateful for the loss. I used to be an afro-freak child. Every trip to get a haircut ended with the statement, “Hey, Buffy, come over hear and get a load of this freak’s hair!” There are probably men out there who fantasize about having the hands of three hairdressers ruffling through their hair, but as a child, it just made me feel like a defective.

My mom said that having children is how she lost her hair, but I don’t think so. At the same age my mom had me and my sister, I lost a considerable amount of hair. I, however, had no babies to blame it on. I guess it’s just an age thing.

Over at Yahoo!, this article claims to be able to help you grow healthy hair:

The recommendations are simple:

  • Eat plenty of iron-rich protein
  • Load up on Vitamin C
  • Be sure to get your Bs (folate, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12)
  • Don’t forget the Zinc

I never know what to think about diets like these. Yeah, all those macro-nutrients ARE important for a healthy diet. Will it grow hair? Man, I’m to the point of skepticism with ANYTHING that tells me it will make me lose weight. I’m sure there are people out there who feel the same about promises of hair growth. It all sounds like snake oil to me…

Via: love and hope and sex and dreams: Eat Beef! (it’s good for your hair)

3/10/2007

Race Across USA: SLC Down, Headed Toward Omaha!

By Laura Moncur @ 5:00 am — Filed under:

Race Across the USA: Salt Lake City

Cruising past Salt Lake City, Utah on the Race Across the USA! Despite the glitch in the Nike+ Website, we gathered enough miles to get us past Salt Lake and on to Omaha, Nebraska! Imagine yourself running past the mountainy forests of Wyoming and the vast sea of farmland that is Nebraska!

These are the cities we are going to see along the way:

  • Los Angeles, California – Starting Point
  • Sacramento, California – 384 miles
  • Salt Lake City, Utah – 1,036 miles
  • Omaha, Nebraska – 1,971 miles
  • Chicago, Illinois – 2,439 miles
  • New York, New York – 3,227 miles

You can see the full route in detail here:

Don’t forget that there are prizes for the top 10 finishers:

  • 1st place – Most miles run – Four DVD set of Starling Fitness walking videos: Swami’s Beach, Sugarhouse, Moab and the as yet unreleased San Antonio Riverwalk.
  • 2nd and 3rd place – Choice of three Starling Fitness DVDs.
  • 4th and 5th place – Choice of two Starling Fitness DVDs.
  • 6th through 10th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD

Because of the glitch, the Top Ten have changed drastically. This race is still very much up for grabs. The current Top Ten are here:

Race Across the USA: Salt Lake City Top 10

There is still time to join up! To enter, you have to have a Nike+ and link it up to their online system. You cannot leave a message here to be sent an invitation. You must click on this link and ask to be added to the Race Across the USA on the Nike+ website:

You will be invited to a Speed race of 3327 miles. We’ll add the miles of everyone together. I will check the mileage every day. As soon as I notice that we have achieved the goal of 3,227 miles, I will stop the race and prizes will be announced. The Race Across the USA started March 1st, so come walk across the USA with us!


Since Nike’s system isn’t set up for a cooperative event like this, you will need to check here at Starling Fitness for progress and winners.

We reserve the right to limit participation in the challenge due to our time constraints or the limits of Nike’s system.

This event is not sponsored by Nike or Apple. Starling Fitness will choose the winners based on total mileage. Our decisions are final.

3/9/2007

Same Slice, Less Slices

By Laura Moncur @ 5:00 am — Filed under:

Many thanks to Slashfood for bringing this to my attention:

Orowheat seems to have released a half loaf of bread. Instead of the nearly two pound loaves of whole wheat and other popular flavors, you can now buy just a handful of slices at a time. These loaves aren’t lacking in anything but the number of slices; the height and width of the bread is the same.

If you have found that you eat less bread now that you’re eating healthy, you probably also have my problem every week. You have to throw away half a loaf of moldy bread. Orowheat is willing to sell me a half a loaf a bread so that I don’t feel guilty for “wasting” food. I’m all for that.

I haven’t seen it in the Salt Lake City grocery stores yet, but I’m eagerly awaiting their arrival!

3/8/2007

Glitch in the Race Across the USA

By Laura Moncur @ 12:12 pm — Filed under:

We all crossed the finish line? NO... we didn't...

Nike’s website decided that we had all achieved the goal, even though three entrants hadn’t run the minimum yet. I have no idea why they did that, but we have to start the Race Across the USA all over again. I resent out invitations to all the participants and I will start adding the mileage daily again. Yesterday, before the race had been unceremoniously “finished,” our mileage was up to 917 miles. I’m going to add that amount to our daily totals, so we haven’t really lost the progress from Los Angeles and almost through the Nevada desert.

I’m not going to keep track of the old mileage, so any advantage you had against your rivals is lost. Sorry, but we’re starting from scratch as soon as you join the new race. Nike’s website is cool, but it is REALLY difficult to deal with all this stuff, so I am just going to go from the ranking on the new race. Any mileage from the previous race is merely added to our group effort. The winners will be judged when I end the race after we’ve reached New York.

Sorry about the glitch, but here is a chance to start fresh. If you want to get a jump on the person who was kicking your butt before, now’s the time to do it!


Since Nike’s system isn’t set up for a cooperative event like this, you will need to check here at Starling Fitness for progress and winners.

We reserve the right to limit participation in the challenge due to our time constraints or the limits of Nike’s system.

This event is not sponsored by Nike or Apple. Starling Fitness will choose the winners based on total mileage. Our decisions are final.

Gratitude Vs. Happy Memories

By Laura Moncur @ 5:00 am — Filed under:

It's easy to be happy on a sunny day...Even though I’m all about “loving yourself thin,” I have a low tolerance for hippie baloney. This article has a gratitude exercise that might help some to foster a more positive outlook, but it really wasn’t very helpful to me.

I’m not much of a gratitude person. I don’t really feel good knowing that the universe was perfectly aligned to create human life on this planet and I have a harder time feeling grateful that we are here. When I want to binge, I’m usually feeling pretty down, so it’s hard to come up with a list of things to be grateful about and when I read one I’ve written in the past, it sounds pretty stupid to me. It’s hard for me to remember how grateful I felt that I came into being on this planet when I wish I could just numb myself away.

What has worked better for me is the Happy Memories exercise. When I’m feeling happy and in the mood to reminisce, I write down various happy memories into a notebook. I write down a small description of the happy memory and then later, I write a whole page about it including all the five senses that I can. The thing is, I write the happy memories when I’m feeling happy, not when I’m feeling down.

When I feel down and I’m trying not to binge, I have been going back to my Happy Memories notebook. After reading a few of them, I remember how sweet life can be. Somehow, reliving the happy memories heals me a little bit and I can skip the binge.

I don’t know why that gratitude thing doesn’t work for me. It seems to work for Oprah and all the people who worship her, but it just kind of makes me angry when I’m in the bingeing mood. The statements of gratitude seem idealistic to me, even when they are my own words. The happy memories, however, were truly happy for me and my awful state of mind can’t deny their relevance.

Try both exercises and see what works for you. Fill your toolbox with as many techniques as you can!

Via: Curb overeating habits with gratitude – That’s Fit

3/7/2007

Austin, Texas Reader Meetup: CANCELLED

By Laura Moncur @ 5:00 am — Filed under:

Reader Meetup Fortune

After a heated discussion on whether we should cancel the Reader Meetup, we let the fortune cookie decide our fate. It said, “A man who dares to waste an hour of time hasn’t discovered the value of life.”

It’s not like we don’t want to spend an hour with our readers; we really do. Unfortunately, the few people who contacted us in Austin have either not responded to our email announcing the event or cancelled. No one has RSVP’d on the UpComing.org site, so the underwhelming response says: CANCEL.

If you live in Austin and were considering going to the Reader Meetup, contact me. Mike and I are are going to this event, which is open to the public, so you’re free to show up here as well.

Your Video Blog Can Save the World

Friday, March 9th, 2005 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Carver Museum Cultural Center (1161 Angelna Street). Google Map FREE admission, no badge or pre-event signup needed to attend this session.

3/6/2007

Bingeing Is Most Common Eating Disorder

By Laura Moncur @ 5:00 am — Filed under:

I have always felt alone with my bingeing. Whenever I read about eating disorders, they always talked about anorexia and bulimia. It turns out that binge eating is three times more common than either of those eating disorders.

So, if bingeing is more widespread than anorexia or bulimia, why doesn’t the media talk about it? This article has a clue:

In the public eye, binge eating springs from a faulty sense of self-discipline rather than a diagnosable physical condition, but it is very much a clinical disorder, often occurring in tandem with major depression and anxiety.

People believe that bingeing is a self-discipline issue, but anorexia is a mental disease. The entire weight loss industry hinges on the idea that obesity is a self-discipline issue and the idea that we might need to heal our brains before we can think about eating healthy would put a lot of fitness gurus out of work.

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