What I did today:
50 crunches
Monday, June 7, 2010
Bootcamp kicked my butt
Until this morning, I thought I was in excellent physical condition. After this morning, I realized the joke was on me.
Almost every exercise we did this morning was something I hate doing. I hate push ups. I hate lunges. I hate dead lifts. I hate jumping jacks.
Then there were the new exercises that I learned to hate too. The fake swimming exercise with stretchy rope thingies hooked to the wall, the reverse push ups with some straps hanging from the ceiling while lying almost parallel to the floor and holding onto the straps, jumping up on giant tires, the mountain climber exercises with sliding things under my feet, the burpee thing (ugh!).
I wish I could say it was fun, but when is pain fun? When is panting, sweating and gasping for air fun, especially when a young, 20-something handsome male is pushing you really hard, telling you "KEEP GOING, FASTER!!! FASTER!!!"? After fifteen minutes I thought to myself, 'if I get out of here alive, I AM NEVER COMING BACK!'.
After 35 minutes, my heart rate monitor said I'd burned 276 calories. It always reads half of whatever the machines say, so it's fairly accurate. Thirty minutes on the StairMaster only burns 200 calories, so I was happy with the results. Normally the bootcamp class is 45 minutes, but since today was my intro class the first ten minutes was spent going over the exercises with me.
Am I going back on Wednesday? Of course. Will I keep going after my month is up? No. One, normally it's $247 a month which is ridiculous. There are only three people in the morning class, which is also odd. The guy that owns/manages/teaches and is the CEO is about 20. He's in great shape, but he's 20! He was nice and seemed to know what he was doing, but the place was kind of strange.
I was slightly flattered when the owner said he would have to up my weights next time because the 15-pound dumbbells were obviously too light for me and the dead lift weight (I have no idea how much - it was a kettle ball) was too light. Next time he said he'd make sure I used heavier weights than the other women. I guess that's a good thing.
The most valuable lesson I learned today is that I don't push myself hard enough on my own, and I'm very competitive when it comes to exercising. Hence, group exercise classes are probably what I need to focus on to get the best workout possible.
When other people are doing the hard stuff, like push ups, it's hard for me to say I can't do it. I feel like I have to prove something, like I may be 20 years older than you, but I can do everything you can do (and more!).
Overall it was okay. Maybe it'll be more fun when I feel more comfortable with the exercises. It was a lot of stuff to learn very quickly, and a lot of hard work. Plus the ton of lunges I did just about killed me. My butt is already sore!
Almost every exercise we did this morning was something I hate doing. I hate push ups. I hate lunges. I hate dead lifts. I hate jumping jacks.
Then there were the new exercises that I learned to hate too. The fake swimming exercise with stretchy rope thingies hooked to the wall, the reverse push ups with some straps hanging from the ceiling while lying almost parallel to the floor and holding onto the straps, jumping up on giant tires, the mountain climber exercises with sliding things under my feet, the burpee thing (ugh!).
I wish I could say it was fun, but when is pain fun? When is panting, sweating and gasping for air fun, especially when a young, 20-something handsome male is pushing you really hard, telling you "KEEP GOING, FASTER!!! FASTER!!!"? After fifteen minutes I thought to myself, 'if I get out of here alive, I AM NEVER COMING BACK!'.
After 35 minutes, my heart rate monitor said I'd burned 276 calories. It always reads half of whatever the machines say, so it's fairly accurate. Thirty minutes on the StairMaster only burns 200 calories, so I was happy with the results. Normally the bootcamp class is 45 minutes, but since today was my intro class the first ten minutes was spent going over the exercises with me.
Am I going back on Wednesday? Of course. Will I keep going after my month is up? No. One, normally it's $247 a month which is ridiculous. There are only three people in the morning class, which is also odd. The guy that owns/manages/teaches and is the CEO is about 20. He's in great shape, but he's 20! He was nice and seemed to know what he was doing, but the place was kind of strange.
I was slightly flattered when the owner said he would have to up my weights next time because the 15-pound dumbbells were obviously too light for me and the dead lift weight (I have no idea how much - it was a kettle ball) was too light. Next time he said he'd make sure I used heavier weights than the other women. I guess that's a good thing.
The most valuable lesson I learned today is that I don't push myself hard enough on my own, and I'm very competitive when it comes to exercising. Hence, group exercise classes are probably what I need to focus on to get the best workout possible.
When other people are doing the hard stuff, like push ups, it's hard for me to say I can't do it. I feel like I have to prove something, like I may be 20 years older than you, but I can do everything you can do (and more!).
Overall it was okay. Maybe it'll be more fun when I feel more comfortable with the exercises. It was a lot of stuff to learn very quickly, and a lot of hard work. Plus the ton of lunges I did just about killed me. My butt is already sore!
Can You Fly With Those Wings?
Bat Wings After Massive Weight LossBy Kaye Bailey
That hanging flapping upper arm of the song leader in the second grade was a great source of jokes for many of us as children. But after massive weight loss when we look in the mirror only to see our own arm flap waving back at us it is no laughing matter. A surgical procedure called brachioplasty may be the solution to correct what surgeons
That hanging flapping upper arm of the song leader in the second grade was a great source of jokes for many of us as children. But after massive weight loss when we look in the mirror only to see our own arm flap waving back at us it is no laughing matter. A surgical procedure called brachioplasty may be the solution to correct what surgeons
How did Phil managed to change his life forever?
Hi, guys. My name is Phil Coleman. I want to tell you about my
weight loss experience
. I had problems with my weight some months ago. I was overweight and I wanted to do anything to get rid of the fats. The first thing that I tried really managed to help me. It is fully recommended in lots of blogs, sites and articles online. You have to see it in order to believe it. If you want something to do in order to become a slim person, then you have to read more here and change your life forever.Up and ready for my bootcamp introduction
It was a busy weekend, and I'm rushed for time this morning. Another sleepless night so I'm feeling exhausted, but kind of psyched about bootcamp. Thank God for caffeine.
I did my best to do filling foods this weekend and not count Points, just my weeklies (non-filling foods). It's really hard to eat Chinese food and have any of it count as filling food. I failed miserably and used 11 of my weeklies at one meal. Oh well.
Also red wine is NOT a filling food. Ten weeklies wasted on wine in two days! I'm not much of a drinker and prefer to eat my extra weekly Points, but my mother-in-law isn't in town very often, so I let loose a little. It was fun but now it's back to the grindstone.
Bootcamp is at 7 a.m. which is going to make me late for work, but I've already made arrangements that I'll be in at 10 a.m. This is my intro class, after this it'll be 6 a.m. classes which will work out fine with my work schedule.
A few pictures from the weekend...
Lots of beautiful fresh produce.
I did my best to do filling foods this weekend and not count Points, just my weeklies (non-filling foods). It's really hard to eat Chinese food and have any of it count as filling food. I failed miserably and used 11 of my weeklies at one meal. Oh well.
Also red wine is NOT a filling food. Ten weeklies wasted on wine in two days! I'm not much of a drinker and prefer to eat my extra weekly Points, but my mother-in-law isn't in town very often, so I let loose a little. It was fun but now it's back to the grindstone.
Bootcamp is at 7 a.m. which is going to make me late for work, but I've already made arrangements that I'll be in at 10 a.m. This is my intro class, after this it'll be 6 a.m. classes which will work out fine with my work schedule.
A few pictures from the weekend...
It was an absolute zoo at Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. Gorgeous weather, hundreds of people.
Flowers everywhere.
Lots of beautiful fresh produce.
Market Spice shop, my mother-in-law's favorite store. She spent a fortune in this place.
Lots of fresh seafood.
More flowers.
Me and mom, and I was horrified that my belly was showing. These pants are too big and were falling off of me. I look like a bum and chastised my husband for not telling me my belly was hanging out. He said he didn't notice (!).
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Fermented Grain Recipes from Around the World
In my last two posts on grains, I described how traditional food processing methods make grains more nutritious and digestible (1, 2). I promised to briefly describe a few recipes from around the world, then got distracted by other things. Here they are.
Africa: Ogi
Grain fermentation is widespread in Africa and is probably nearly as old as agriculture on the continent. The nutritional importance of fermentation is suggested by the amount of time and effort that many African cultures put into it, when they could save themselves a lot of trouble by simply soaking and cooking their grains.
Ogi is a common West African porridge that's eaten as a staple food by people of all ages. It's even used as a weaning food. It's made in essentially the same manner from corn, sorghum or millet.
Whole grain is soaked in water for one to three days. It's then wet milled, mixed with water and sieved to remove a portion of the bran. Extra bran is fed to animals, while the white, starchy sediment is fermented for two to three days. This is then cooked into a thin or thick porridge and eaten.
South America: Pozol
At first glance, some people may think I left the 'e' off the word 'pozole', a traditional Mexican stew. However, pozol is an entirely different beast, an ancient food almost totally unknown in the US, but which fueled the Mayan empire and remains a staple food in Southeastern Mexico.
To make pozol, first the corn must be 'nixtamalized': whole kernels are boiled in a large volume of water with calcium hydroxide (10% w/v). This is a processing step in most traditional South American corn recipes, as it allows a person to avoid pellagra (niacin deficiency)! The loosened bran is removed from the kernels by hand.
The kernels are then ground into dough, formed into balls and placed into banana leaves to ferment for one to 14 days. Following fermentation, pozol is diluted in water and consumed raw.
Europe: Sourdough Bread
Sourdough bread is Europe's quintessential fermented grain food. Before purified yeast strains came into widespread use in the 20th century, all bread would have been some form of sourdough.
Although in my opinion wheat is problematic for many people, sourdough fermentation renders it more nutritious and better tolerated by those with gluten/wheat sensitivity. In an interesting series of studies, Dr. Marco Gobbetti's group, among others, has shown that fermentation partially degrades gluten, explaining the ability of fermentation to decrease the adverse effects of gluten in those who are sensitive to it (3). They even showed that people with celiac disease can safely eat wheat bread that has been long-fermented with selected bacteria and yeasts under laboratory conditions (4). Rye contains about half the gluten of bread wheat, and is generally nutritionally superior to wheat, so sourdough rye is a better choice in my opinion.
To make sourdough bread, first the dry grains are ground into flour. Next, the flour is sifted through a screen to remove a portion of the bran. The earliest bread eaters probably didn't do this, although there is evidence of the wealthy eating sifted flour in societies as old as ancient Egypt and ancient Rome. I don't know what the optimum amount of bran to include in flour is, but it's not zero. I would be inclined to keep at least half of it, recognizing that the bran is disproportionately rich in nutrients.
Next, a portion of flour is mixed with water and a "sourdough starter", until it has a runny consistency. The starter is a diverse culture of bacteria and yeast that is carefully maintained by the bread maker. This culture acidifies the batter and produces carbon dioxide gas. The mixture is allowed to ferment for 8-12 hours. Finally, flour and salt are added to the batter and formed into dough balls. These are allowed to ferment and rise for a few hours, then baked.
My Experience
I've tried making ogi (millet) and pozol, and I have to admit that neither attempt was successful. Pozol in particular may depend on local populations of bacteria and yeast, as the grains' microorganisms are killed during processing. However, I do eat fermented grains regularly in the form of homemade brown rice 'uthappam' and sourdough buckwheat 'crepes'. The buckwheat crepes are tasty and easy to make. I'll post a recipe at some point.
The first two recipes are from the FAO publication Fermented Cereals: a Global Perspective (5).
Africa: Ogi
Grain fermentation is widespread in Africa and is probably nearly as old as agriculture on the continent. The nutritional importance of fermentation is suggested by the amount of time and effort that many African cultures put into it, when they could save themselves a lot of trouble by simply soaking and cooking their grains.
Ogi is a common West African porridge that's eaten as a staple food by people of all ages. It's even used as a weaning food. It's made in essentially the same manner from corn, sorghum or millet.
Whole grain is soaked in water for one to three days. It's then wet milled, mixed with water and sieved to remove a portion of the bran. Extra bran is fed to animals, while the white, starchy sediment is fermented for two to three days. This is then cooked into a thin or thick porridge and eaten.
South America: Pozol
At first glance, some people may think I left the 'e' off the word 'pozole', a traditional Mexican stew. However, pozol is an entirely different beast, an ancient food almost totally unknown in the US, but which fueled the Mayan empire and remains a staple food in Southeastern Mexico.
To make pozol, first the corn must be 'nixtamalized': whole kernels are boiled in a large volume of water with calcium hydroxide (10% w/v). This is a processing step in most traditional South American corn recipes, as it allows a person to avoid pellagra (niacin deficiency)! The loosened bran is removed from the kernels by hand.
The kernels are then ground into dough, formed into balls and placed into banana leaves to ferment for one to 14 days. Following fermentation, pozol is diluted in water and consumed raw.
Europe: Sourdough Bread
Sourdough bread is Europe's quintessential fermented grain food. Before purified yeast strains came into widespread use in the 20th century, all bread would have been some form of sourdough.
Although in my opinion wheat is problematic for many people, sourdough fermentation renders it more nutritious and better tolerated by those with gluten/wheat sensitivity. In an interesting series of studies, Dr. Marco Gobbetti's group, among others, has shown that fermentation partially degrades gluten, explaining the ability of fermentation to decrease the adverse effects of gluten in those who are sensitive to it (3). They even showed that people with celiac disease can safely eat wheat bread that has been long-fermented with selected bacteria and yeasts under laboratory conditions (4). Rye contains about half the gluten of bread wheat, and is generally nutritionally superior to wheat, so sourdough rye is a better choice in my opinion.
To make sourdough bread, first the dry grains are ground into flour. Next, the flour is sifted through a screen to remove a portion of the bran. The earliest bread eaters probably didn't do this, although there is evidence of the wealthy eating sifted flour in societies as old as ancient Egypt and ancient Rome. I don't know what the optimum amount of bran to include in flour is, but it's not zero. I would be inclined to keep at least half of it, recognizing that the bran is disproportionately rich in nutrients.
Next, a portion of flour is mixed with water and a "sourdough starter", until it has a runny consistency. The starter is a diverse culture of bacteria and yeast that is carefully maintained by the bread maker. This culture acidifies the batter and produces carbon dioxide gas. The mixture is allowed to ferment for 8-12 hours. Finally, flour and salt are added to the batter and formed into dough balls. These are allowed to ferment and rise for a few hours, then baked.
My Experience
I've tried making ogi (millet) and pozol, and I have to admit that neither attempt was successful. Pozol in particular may depend on local populations of bacteria and yeast, as the grains' microorganisms are killed during processing. However, I do eat fermented grains regularly in the form of homemade brown rice 'uthappam' and sourdough buckwheat 'crepes'. The buckwheat crepes are tasty and easy to make. I'll post a recipe at some point.
The first two recipes are from the FAO publication Fermented Cereals: a Global Perspective (5).
If what you're doing isn't working, try something else
I had another sad little loss today. I weighed in at 162.8 for a loss of 0.8 pounds. Seriously. That is pathetic.
I counted Points for all of two days, last Saturday and Sunday. I tried the rest of the week but I hate it. Really, really hate it.
It's time for something different. What I'm doing isn't working for weight loss. It's great for maintenance, but I'm NOT at goal.
My new plan is eating Filling Foods. My Weight Watcher leader has been suggested this to me for months, but I shudder at the thought of not counting Points. However, that's what I'm doing now, I am NOT counting Points. I eat mostly filling foods anyway, so it won't be that different. Today is day one of eating filling foods. Kind of scary to not even try to count Points.
The gym has also lost it's charm. I still go almost every day, but I'm going because I have to, not because I want to go. A friend sent me a groupon link for a month of bootcamp for $39 (usually $247). Yes, that's a savings of 208. How could I refuse. I signed up and start on Monday morning. Each week I can attend as many boot camp classes as I can handle. I'll see how it goes. My plan is four boot camp classes a week and two gym visits.
I watched the video on the bootcamp website, and I'm just a tiny bit concerned. It looks really difficult. I've done bootcamp classes before, but never at a bootcamp fitness center. I hope I'm as strong as I think I am, but I could be wrong. At least it sounds interesting and a real challenge. If I make a fool of myself, well, it certainly won't be the first time. :)
It's an absolutely spectacularly beautiful day here in Seattle. Not a cloud in the sky. Sometimes I think because we become so accustomed to the dark, gray, rainy days, that when the sun shines, the colors are even more vivid than normal. Pictures tomorrow, I promise.
My mother-in-law and her husband are in town for the weekend, on their way to Alaska for the summer. We're spending the day with them in downtown Seattle, Archie McPhee's Novelty Shop (mother-in-law's idea), Pike Place Market for salmon throwing, and somewhere for a seafood dinner. It should be fun. I love my in-laws, they're actually a blast to hang out with (and they like me!). I'd be friends with them even if I wasn't married to their son.
Have a great weekend!
I counted Points for all of two days, last Saturday and Sunday. I tried the rest of the week but I hate it. Really, really hate it.
It's time for something different. What I'm doing isn't working for weight loss. It's great for maintenance, but I'm NOT at goal.
My new plan is eating Filling Foods. My Weight Watcher leader has been suggested this to me for months, but I shudder at the thought of not counting Points. However, that's what I'm doing now, I am NOT counting Points. I eat mostly filling foods anyway, so it won't be that different. Today is day one of eating filling foods. Kind of scary to not even try to count Points.
The gym has also lost it's charm. I still go almost every day, but I'm going because I have to, not because I want to go. A friend sent me a groupon link for a month of bootcamp for $39 (usually $247). Yes, that's a savings of 208. How could I refuse. I signed up and start on Monday morning. Each week I can attend as many boot camp classes as I can handle. I'll see how it goes. My plan is four boot camp classes a week and two gym visits.
I watched the video on the bootcamp website, and I'm just a tiny bit concerned. It looks really difficult. I've done bootcamp classes before, but never at a bootcamp fitness center. I hope I'm as strong as I think I am, but I could be wrong. At least it sounds interesting and a real challenge. If I make a fool of myself, well, it certainly won't be the first time. :)
It's an absolutely spectacularly beautiful day here in Seattle. Not a cloud in the sky. Sometimes I think because we become so accustomed to the dark, gray, rainy days, that when the sun shines, the colors are even more vivid than normal. Pictures tomorrow, I promise.
My mother-in-law and her husband are in town for the weekend, on their way to Alaska for the summer. We're spending the day with them in downtown Seattle, Archie McPhee's Novelty Shop (mother-in-law's idea), Pike Place Market for salmon throwing, and somewhere for a seafood dinner. It should be fun. I love my in-laws, they're actually a blast to hang out with (and they like me!). I'd be friends with them even if I wasn't married to their son.
Have a great weekend!
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