The Princess has a new Princely Crush

Dang. That Prince Nuada (from Hellboy II: The Golden Army) is something. :D I love those gothy bad boys. (The link takes you to a youtube.com tribute of the Prince using "Let Go" by Frou Frou, one of my fave songs of the last...when did it come out, two years ago?)

This vid, though, is worth posting: It has a more fantasy-connected tune, as it's "Mordred Lullaby" by Heather Dale, and it's better structured and edited. Fabulous--

Must say. His workout routine is...entertaining.

We would all be buff if hottie elves became personal trainers. :D

Ladies...enjoy.

~

Two Cases of Coconut Water for the Price of One--YUM!

I don't know how many coconut water afficionados are out there, but if you've read this blog for a while, you know that I am one. I use the refreshing and subtle beverage as one of my pre-Pilates drinks to minimize my muscle cramps.

But I just like it. :) Plain or with a pack of Splenda. Mmm.

(Though nothing beats fresh and chilled from the coconut itself, like I had a couple weeks ago when we drove to a nursery in South Miami, not to buy plants, but to get some chilled coconuts for the water.)

I also like how it's helpful in keeping blood pressure in the healthy range. (I like some salty convenience foods, like canned soup and mac-n-cheese, and I love cheese, and I try to drink coconut water when I have very salty stuff to ease the bloat effects.)

Well, amazon.com has a special on one of their in-stock brands of coconut water. Even though I got a case today of my usual Zico coconut water, I placed an order for this, cause I figure--two times the water for the price of one? I'm not missing that.

Besides, I am curious to see what tangerine puree does to coconut water. (The free case is of the tangerine flavored one.)

Interested? Visit HERE. Follow the directions exactly to get the $21 dollars off.

Note: I haven't tried this brand--Vita Coco--but like the two I've tried from amazon.com (Zico, ONE), they come from Brazil and (except for flavored versions) state they are 100% coconut water.

~

Amazing BuffedStuff!

I am stunned by BuffedStuff's remarkable transformation from fat to uberbuff (see her sidebar pics). She looks fabulous.

Visit her blog.

hat tip to Katschi for the link

The Only You that YOU Can Control Is the You of Today--But That Could Save the You of Tomorrow...

Diana, the Scale Junkie, left a comment in a previous post where I mentioned how HARD HARD HARD it was to make the scale budge since I entered the perimenopausal stage:

I'm swimming in the premenopause pool and if I could go back and rip the fork from my 30something hand I would.

Oh, yeah. If only at 20-something and 30-something we could get a visit from out older selves and not only hear what we need to hear but SEE what we become.

The last time I was "normal weight"--ie, a weight inside that medical chart for my height, I was getting married. I would crawl on the floor to beg my younger self, that new bride, to be vigilant, disciplined, and know that health issues would derail her life at age 30, so do something NOW to keep the immune system and health as good as possible. And should it all go kaplooie anyhow, to not gain the 10 pounds a year as a stay-at-home chronic sickie, or I'd do more damage.

I'd crawl on my face to ger her/me to avoid the future of morbid obesity.

But we can only rip the fork out the hand of the self that is the exact age we are today. That's all we have.

And our next-decade-of-years self will thank us if we do it now. We can only change the future for HER, the me-yet to-be, the you-yet-to-be. The me that was, well, she went along obliviously and, here I am. Stuck with her lousy choices.

Here WE are.

If you are still a woman well before "the change," CHANGE NOW. Learn by my mistake, Diana's mistake, the mistake of every woman who only tries her hardest to change when she's facing the big 40 or big 50 or big 60.

Do it while your body is at its peak. Learn new habits of healthy eating and movement when your metabolism is revving along. If you're 20 and obese, do it now. Look at older obese women and BE VERY AFRAID. Do it noww, while you have healthy joints and can exercise harder and longer. Do it while your hormones are on your side. Do it now that so many books and blogs offer wisdom and help. Don't spend the money on frivolous things like cute clothes or shoes or a beach vacation, that will not change your health: pay for that gym membership, that training, that nutritionist.

Do it when you have all those years stretching before you...full of potential for vitality.

It only gets harder. It only gets worse if you wait. Your joints start to wear, and exercise becomes tricky. Habits become ingrained even deeper the longer you have them--lose the overeating, non-exercising habits NOW.

You don't wanna be in our shoes--middle-aged and struggling.

Can't fight the past. Can't bring back our youth.

Can only change the now and hope that makes for a better future.

A healthy week of future-creation to us all!
~~

Eating Mostly Vegetables Does it Again

Just go see what it did for Cranky Fitness.

~~

Finally decided on when to weigh in...

After tossing around Fri and Sat as days to consider, I decided the FIRST day of the week would be appropos metaphorically. So, it's Sunday.

Weighing in, well, I forget sometimes. It's easy to just head for breakfast than wend to the depths of the hinterlands of my home. I had to set up the scale way back in the storage area (no a/c, cluttered), because there's no carpeting in that spot, so the scale can lay flat. It makes it easy to forget, unlike when it was in the bedroom (but it's carpeted and I'd get weird readings.)

So, today being Sunday, weigh-in: 271.8

All right. Less than last weigh-in.

I find that I'm really in some sort of zone where losing is tough. Tougher even than a year ago. Maybe I'm definitely getting very near to full-out menopause and my hormones conspire against me. Dunno. But it's just really hard to get the scale moving, even though, unlike last year or the year before or the year before....I'm exercising rigorously 3x a week. I still want to move that to 5x a week, but so far, my indolence clings.

Yet, menopause and sloth aside, I am undeterred.

I guess I'll be praying fat loss prayers on Saturday nights. :)

~

Weighty Sayings: Sheldon on Body Mass

I'm a huge fan of THE BIG BANG THEORY television program. I'm wild about super-smart, socially-inept, brutally honest Sheldon. He cracks me up like nobody!

If you watch the show and are overweight, you couldn't miss the brief inclusion of a weight-related conversation in a car where Sheldon is out with Penny (a cute blond living across the hall from the two scientists who are the show's leads). Her reaction to that number--a number we could only DREAM of--and his obliviousness to an ongoing cultural-social weight issue is telling of our dysfunction:

Sheldon: This car weighs, let's say, 4,000 pounds. Now add 140 for me, 120 for you...
Penny: 120?!?
Sheldon: Oh, I'm sorry. Did I insult you? Is your body mass somehow tied into your self-worth?

--from Season 1, Episode 4 (The Luminous Fish Effect)

Out of the mouths of...geniuses?

~

Will This Become The Magic Anti-Fat Pill?

A drug designed to specifically hit a protein linked to the life-extending benefits of a meager diet can essentially trick the body into believing food is scarce even when it isn't, suggests a new report in the November Cell Metabolism.

The drug called SRT1720, which acts through the protein SIRT1, enhances running endurance in exercised mice and protects the animals against weight gain and insulin resistance even when they eat a high-fat diet, the researchers report. The drug works by shifting the metabolism to a fat-burning mode that normally takes over only when energy levels are low.

...The researchers found that a low dose of SRT1720 partially protected mice from gaining weight on a high-fat diet after 10 weeks of treatment. At higher doses, the drug completely prevented weight gain in the animals. SRT1720 also improved blood sugar tolerance and insulin sensitivity and endowed the animals with greater athletic ability.

--from "Drug Mimics Low-cal Diet To Ward Off Weight Gain, Boost Running Endurance" at Science Daily

I gotta say, I sure hope so. I hope it really doesn't have wacky side effects. I have a certain natural skepticism about "magic pills," but that doesn't mean I can't hope for one.

Still, while I wait to see what happens with this, I plan to be drinking more grape juice and wine this season--and to more faithfully take my resveratrol supplement. Heh. Why not?

~

Focus on FIVE: The Power of FIVE--in current and upcoming books for dieters

~~The 5 Factor Diet

~~The Body Fat Solution: Five Principles for Burning Fat, Building Lean Muscle, Ending Emotional Eating, and Maintaining Your Perfect Weight

~~~The Complete Beck Diet for Life: The Five-Stage Program for Permanent Weight Loss

~~Never Say Diet: Make Five Decisions and Break the Fat Habit for Good

~~The Raw Food Detox Diet: The Five-Step Plan for Vibrant Health and Maximum Weight Loss






~~

Once Upon A Diet A-Store

I've set up a Once Upon A Diet A-Store, for those who like shopping at amazon.com.

Enjoy browsing and, maybe, buying.

~

Messy Monday and Pilates Wunda Chair and Listing of To-Year's-End Goals

My gosh. My place is a dump. I've neglected basic chores too long in my sleeping-too-much weird-hours phase.

Gotta get to it. Ugh.

Well, I haven't weighed myself in more than a week, and it looks like I'm gonna assign either Friday or Saturday as a regular weigh-in day. I need to get back to the weigh-in thing. Been slacking. If I have a goal of 255 by year's end, then I really need to know if I'm making progress or not!

Okay, went to Pilates today. I felt myself having a near out-of-body experience trying to focus on so many thing at once and trying NOT to feel the agony of effort. Tough, tough, tough. But I got to do new things--that's always a mixture of teeny bit scary and good bit interesting and a wee exciting. We worked the legs on the Wunda Chair (instead of Reformer), with the same sort of positions (high heels, flex, etc), but sitting and pushing down and up, arms like a genie sorta.


Then ...side bends on the Wunda Chair (OMIGOSH, I felt like a whale trying to be graceful out of the water, balancing on a stone. We finally accomplished it. I was proud of myself.) The stretches on the chair were WONDERFUL. I loved how they felt. After some rollbacks on the chair, we moved into cat/rounding down/arching up/rounding down stuff.

Then the big silver ball came out for some rollbacks with twists and then some standing side bends (oh, my shoulders tire so fast!)

I was relieved when we did something really familiar after that: the roll down-roll back up on the Cadillac. Then we did something on my stomach where I'm face down, lifting my upper torso, while keeping the lower flat. Then we did leg extension/lifts on all fours (or all threes, given one leg had to go up).

I felt very floaty and loose after all that and some ladder barrel stretches.

So, goals for the coming next months:

1. Get house tidied up so it doesn't look like the Apocalypse hit
2. Eat 1600 to 1800 calories per day, but no more.
3. Keep doing exercise 3x a week (and maybe add some non-Pilates cardio work 2x a week).
4. Weigh weekly (on Saturday, prolly)
5. Begin writing again--1,000 words per day goal.
6. Work to get on a daytime schedule, with regular sleeping hours (instead of the insanity of no schedule I have now)


As I figure it, if I get to 255--when I get, when I get, WHEN I get--I'll have earned $640 in my reward per pound kitty. I'll use that for nice new clothes!!!!