Pictures of Kristy

In November my older sister and I drove up to Seattle to see my younger sister who had a layover there on her way to Hawaii with friends. This post has been languishing in edit mode since then.

We left early to have some time to hang around before she arrived, but we spent a lot of time sitting in traffic so instead of getting a head start on shopping, we visited Gas Works Park. It's pretty cool. My dad lent me some of his lenses, his flash, and his tripod for the trip. His lenses won't auto focus with my camera, and I have absolutely no manual focus skill even with the little circle focus-assist thing, which my camera doesn't even have, so I quickly switched back to my own lens.

Kristy was a good subject, until our fingers felt like they were going to freeze off and we ran back to the car.

I didn't wait for her to finish her sentence

This one would have been good if her hair hadn't been in her eyes. I still need to get in the habit of taking as many shots as I can instead of taking just one and thinking I got it.

I obviously think she's beautiful.

Why I love Dax Moy

Dax Moy is awesome. He sends me motivational emails about once a week, maybe less. It's good to have a little kick in the pants every so often to remind me to keep working toward my goals.

He also has some great resources at his personal training site, like an elimination diet, a 9-day look great naked challenge, and workout videos. In addition to being a personal trainer, he has the magic hundred goal achievement program that I will buy once I figure out what it is that I want to achieve.

This is a message I got from Dax almost 2 months ago, but I've kept it in my inbox to keep reading and re-reading it until I absorb the message all the way:

When you think about it, there's nothing you have to be, nothing you have to do and nothing you have to have except what you're being, doing or having right now.

Everything else is a choice.

Everything else is something you WANT.

If you want it then why all the stress, frustration and unhappiness?

Go ahead, read it again. And then chill out and quit being so hard on yourself!

Encouragement

So, last night I was tired. This is not unusual. Yet I decided I was going to get all the way through my workout in a positive mood, so we could make dinner and go to the grocery store without it all feeling like endless chores. I try to make an effort to be in a good mood in the evenings since sometimes I feel like all I do is work and prepare for work.

It's amazing what a difference attitude makes, but I had help. And I don't mean Aaron's always-chipper attitude, or his actual help with the chin-ups*... I finally saw a little muscle in my arms while doing the chin-ups.

our chin-up bar

I've been whining and complaining about my lack of progress, despite the push-ups getting noticeably easier and despite our progress through the levels of our workouts. I want visual, physical results. I want to be hotter.

Since I'm still not sure how to appease my digestive system, I was extra focused on getting some definition in my arms. I "used to" have muscular arms**. After (6?) weeks of workouts, when I flex, there's the tiniest hint of a muscle, but when I was supporting myself on the chin-up bar yesterday, I happened to glance at my arm and there was some serious muscle showing! And that enabled me to get through the rest of the night in a great mood. Vanity has its upsides.

3 weeks left to Hawaii. I'm getting ready.

 ready for hawaii

*Aaron lifts me up and I lower myself very slowly for each rep. That way I can do 3 sets of 6 reps. He thinks I could probably now do a bunch unassisted, but I feel he is hopelessly optimistic.

**I have been trying to eliminate the phrase "used to", i.e., I used to be able to do 30 -real- push-ups, I used to fit into these pants. What I "used to" do or have is irrelevant and also counter-productive.

The bacon chip

In the process of making bacon guacamole cheeseburgers, we discovered something wonderful: crispy bacon makes a great chip. I can now dive in to Girl Gone Primal's Dip-de-dip-dips.

A 365 photo project

Today's photo on Shuttercal:

I wanted to start a 365 project for the new year, but for some reason I didn't. Well, I've started one now. I am going to attempt to take pictures every day. Sometimes I am less than inspired when I get home from work. So my project is going to be modified to have a picture for each day, but not necessarily taken on that day.

To see the whole calendar, click on the photo or click here.

Why Didn't I Think of This?

One of my favorite books on food is Nina Planck's Real Food: What to Eat and Why. Nina was raised by a mother who had studied and taken to heart the work of Adelle Davis. Adelle Davis showed that if you provide children healthy options and let them eat as much or as little as they want, they will be properly nourished. The key there is healthy options - she wasn't providing any refined grains or sugars, just real, whole, unprocessed foods.

One of the best things I learned from the book is that Nina often eats multiple vegetable sides at a meal. Why this was a revelation for me, I don't know, but it was. I love vegetables yet I had never considered making more than one at a meal. Having two different vegetables makes it really easy to fill 3/4 of your plate with veggies. Add a small pile of peas to a pile of broccoli and you're there.

This also relates back to getting your children, or reluctant spouses, to eat their vegetables. Aaron has a lot of favorites, and since I want him to get enough vegetables every night, it would be tempting to only make those. But if I make a new vegetable (or a new method of preparation) along with a favorite, he is sure to get enough veggies even if he only takes a little bit of the "weird" one. Plus, his exposure to the new vegetable or dish will make it less "new" over time. It can take 8 times of serving something before your family accepts it enough to objectively evaluate it. Having an alternative gives you the freedom to keep introducing things without making a whole dinner your kids or partner won't eat.

So put the Brussels sprouts puree on the table, and let your kids decide if they want to try it without any word of encouragement or discouragement from you, and you may be surprised at how many vegetables your kids really like.

Gary Taubes

Gary Taubes gave a lecture entitled "Truth and Lies About Fats and Obesity" at Berkely and then repeated the lecture at a few other venues. Food Renegade embedded the video from Severins in this post:

http://www.foodrenegade.com/truth-and-lies-about-fats-and-obesity-with-gary-taubes/

His book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, is excellent, but some people don't have the inclination to read a 400 page book with 200 pages of references and footnotes. I admit, it's intimidating.

It's also THOROUGH. When you are trying to reverse a nation-wide dogma 50 years in the making, it's good to have basically all the evidence on your side. But most people who read this book already have an open mind about it, or they'd put it down after the introduction, so sometimes there is such a thing as TOO MUCH evidence.

So for those intimidated or uninterested in a 640 page tome, he's managed to condense most of it into an hour long presentation (with pictures!). He addresses the diet-cholesterol-heart hypothesis which is the subject of his book, and he also addresses the energy balance (calories in, calories out) hypothesis. It's a great lecture, but then again, I'm a sucker for a well-presented, clear, logical argument.

Set aside some time to watch it and let me know what you think.