Fit Friday

I got my new bike (the Giant), but have not been at the top of my game, bike wise (or anything wise).

Fall is my worst allergy season, so I’ve got those symtoms.  Lots of coughing, like that associated with asthma.  This means that I’ve got to be more careful of “hidden” food allergens - wheat, peanut, etc.  I hate giving up dairy but I’ll give it a go until the coughing lets up.

Addition to my library…

Tomorrow’s ride (hopefully) will be #16: the Crystal Lake Ramble.

It feels as though being sick put me back on my riding by at least a month.  I’d like to bike to work (about 5.5 miles) but I still will not ride in the dark, especially on a busy street.  There will be about a week right after the time change when the sun rises after I’d have to leave, so that could be a plan.

Diet…there are many temptations at work and I’m going to stop bringing in my purse (which means stop bringing in money for the snacks).

Look for photos of me and my bike.

Fit Friday - 8/15/2008

A couple of days were an exercise no-go.  Shoot one day was a “I-don’t-want-to-move” day - a migraine yesterday had me moving between office and bed all day, with a couple of excursions downstairs for food.  (I have an electric water-heater-pot and a coffee press - the best way to make coffee - in my office and that’s where my 1/2 bath is…so unless I want food I don’t have to leave my bedroom/office area.)

~~~

I lost 3-1/4 pounds - the first loss in many weeks.

The secret?  Lower carb, higher fat - but still following Weight Watchers points.  Because of thyroid and PCOS, the needs my body needs are a little different, but I still will not lose while not restricting calories.  I went to a naturopath who did NOT give me a formula, but gave me guidelines with which to make my own formula (for those who need formulas)

- 50% of my calories from fat (with the majority coming from “healthy” fat - monounsaturated) - and the fat in eggs (while saturated) is okay so even eggs are unlimited.
- 50% of the volume on my plate coming from fresh or lightly steamed fruits and vegetables

- Take my weight in pounds and eat half that many grams of protein

- The rest of my calories in complex carbs (but never wheat or dairy)

- no wheat or dairy (but I can “cheat” with kefir and yogurt)

- lots of water…half my weight in ounces

There is no limitation on calories…the lower carb, higher protein and healthy fat makes my body burn it differently - thermogenic.  The drain yesterday may have been from the shift in my body, but I am eating enough carbs for fuel.  The fat and protein guidelines make me put the emphasis on not wasting the complex carbs on “stuff”.
What I know is that this works and (knowing from the past how I do even as low as Atkins) my body feels better.

~~~

(sigh)…Here is the list of food restrictions (allergy and otherwise)

- dairy

- peanuts (due to a mold allergy giving me asthma attacks)

- potatoes, eggplants (off the table) and limited tomatoes and green peppers; these are nightshade plants and they cause - in me (YMMV) joint pain)

- wheat

~~~

Another new blog for me!

I set up a little blog just for recipes - most of them have a combination of low-cal, moderate carb.

MzEllen Cooks (sometimes).  (I rarely cook in the summer…my son takes over with the grill.)

And here’s a recipe:  Fast and Easy Chicken in Salsa with Zucchini.

lunes linkage - 8/4/2008

The Afghan lawyer defending a journalist on death row in Kabul has been bombarded with death threats urging him to drop the case.

Islamic extremists repeatedly threatened to murder Afzal Nooristani after he agreed to defend Sayed Pervez Kambaksh in his high-profile appeal.

The 23-year-old student writer was sentenced to death for circulating an article about women’s rights. He was tried in a closed court, and denied a defence lawyer. His case has sparked worldwide protests.

emphasis mine…yep…sounds like complementarianism..(NOT)
~~~

lunes linage 7/28/2008

The war on men:
A man is called a “pervert” for taking photographs of his own children on an amusement park slide.

Advertisement by the Southern Nevada Water Authority: the Man is watering lawn at the wrong time…(man bad), woman notices and rings his doorbell (woman good)…man gets good hard kick in the “groin region” (violence against men acceptable to our society).  DON’T MAKE US TELL YOU AGAIN (see the video and listen to the last line)

False allegations of abuse during a divorce…big surprise…children being used as pawns…another “surprise”.

~~~

Dick Cheney’s house (google maps)

Dick Cheney’s house (yahoo maps)

Nothing significant…just interesting.  Inside the circle of the google map, details are digitally altered - on the yahoo map, they are not.  Look closer at the area inside the circle.

~~~

Lanny Davis:

I remember the exact moment I had my first serious doubts about whether I was 100 percent right that the U.S. preemptive invasion of Iraq and the take-out of Saddam Hussein was a serious mistake. (…)

I just know I can’t get out of my mind that lady with the purple finger held up, smiling into the camera. If getting in was a mistake, then getting out — how and when — is not so simple as long as there is hope that she can some day live in a democratic Iraq that can help America in the war against terror.

~~~

um…

J.I.MacJoe?

~~~~~~

~~~~~~

Photo Hunt…hanging

That’s my backpack…hanging from the tree so that the “micro bears” (chipmonks) won’t get into it.

It didn’t work

Fit Friday July 25, 2008

I “maintained”.  I did the exercise, I earned 28 AP points, I had FLEX points left over.

I’m quitting Weight Watchers (meetings).  It’s not worth it to pay $40  a month for 1/2 a week (average).  Maybe after my endo appt, if we can figure out what is wrong chemically, I’ll pick it up again…in the meantime, I’ll do “WW” at home, on my own (with private support).

And maybe take a “zumba” class.
This is my weekly “steps” chart.  You can see that I got happy faces (only in the categories that I asked for them)  Below the fold is my weekly Weight Watchers chart (I earned 29 Activity Points and used 26.5 (so I earned 2.5 AP’s that I didn’t use).  I also had 9 of my 35 FLEX points left over.

» read more

Okay…Pimp My Ride. (this is fit friday…so here’s my new ride)

From MTV…

I got a “new” (to me) bike from Love INC (Love In the Name of Christ) for $35.oo and now…

» read more

Wordless Wednesday 7/23/2008

(almost wordless - playing with “negative”)

lunes linkage - July 21, 2008

MzEllen Reads:  “Save the Males:  why men matter, why women should care” by Kathleen Parker.

~~~

~~~
Next up:

Yet another false rape cry.

Clearfield police said a teenage girl’s claims that she was raped in the middle of a church parking lot in broad daylight are false.

In a statement sent to the Deseret News on Friday, Clearfield Assistant Police Chief Greg Krusi said laboratory test results and other evidence analyzed did not match up with the girl’s claims about being attacked.

“The juvenile was formally interviewed again by investigators at which time she admitted to fabricating the story due to personal issues occurring in her life,” Krusi wrote.

At least this one wasn’t aimed at a real person whose life could be ruined by a “wolf” cry.

~~~

~~~
And…the most offensive site of the week:

Since I followed a couple of links to this site, and the sites that I followed to it are full-egalitarian (and don’t seem to much care that “soft-complementarian” is different than “hard-patriarchy”…I really have no clue whether a Godly man who leads his home and church is equivalent (in the eyes of this blog-writer) to the taliban, Hitler and those who kill their daughters for dating the wrong man.

If a picture is worth a thousand words…this says volumes about what the  posters of this logo think about those who disagree with them on the gender issue.
~~~

~~~
In the spirit of the above link (NOT), here are a few things to ponder…

“Muslim “judge” rules kidnapped Christian girls “converted to Islam and cannot return home”

Two girls (ages 10 and 13) are kidnapped by a Muslim “fruit vendor” who turned them over to a friend, who organized a “marriage”.  Here’s the thing…

The girls’ uncle does not conceal his preoccupation, and denounces to AsiaNews that the Muslims involved in the kidnapping are acting as a “gang”, recruiting the girls in order to “make them work in a bordello”. This alarm has also been heard by the Catholic commission for justice and peace (NCJP) in the country, which confirms the words of Khalid Raheel: the kidnappers are believed to be human traffickers linked to prostitution, known to the police and under the protection of some local politicians.

~

New York:  Muslim stabs his sister because she was a “bad Muslim girl”

Infuriated because his younger sister was going to clubs, wearing immodest clothing and planning to leave her family for a new life in New York City, Waheed Allah Mohammad stabbed her outside their Henrietta home, prosecutors allege.Afterward, he told Monroe County sheriff’s investigators that he attacked his sister because she had disgraced their family and was a “bad Muslim girl,” according to court documents.

Mohammad, 22, is scheduled to appear Friday in Monroe County Court on charges of attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault in the May 8 attack on Fauzia A. Mohammad, 19.

~

  Remember these two girls?

“Contrary to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution headline, he didn’t actually say he was innocent. He said he had done nothing wrong. That’s not the same thing. According to an earlier story on this case, he confessed to killing his daughter, and explained that he had done it to cleanse his family’s honor. When he appeared before the judge, it is unlikely that he changed this story. He just said he didn’t do anything wrong. And by the lights of the Islamic culture from which he comes, which thinks that a father killing a daughter who has sullied his family’s honor is perfectly justified, he indeed hasn’t done anything wrong. ”

~~~
 Here’s something new:

A popular Hamas children’s television program shows a giant bunny character who is lured into stealing money — and then is sentenced by a child host to have his hand chopped off.

Oh wait, that’s not very “new”, Muslims have also made anti-Semitic children’s programs as well.
~

Contrary to “popular belief”, complementarians do not teach that it’s “nothing wrong” to kill their daughters, sell them to prostitution rings or stab them for going to clubs.  Nor do we make children’s shows that encourage amputations as punishment for minor crimes.

To those who are attempting the comparison between godly male leadership in Islam.  NOT HELPFUL.
~~~

~~~
Another set of “black and white” twins!  (although being a fan of a certain adult beverage, I’d most likely call them “black and tan”.

  

~~~

~~~

“No Subpar Food for Senators”

The Senate restaurants, which include not just the stately Senate dining room in the Capitol but a huge cafeteria and coffee shops scattered in the two-building Senate compound, have lost $18 million since 1993 and are slated to lose $2 million this year.

Without an immediate $250,000 subsidy from the taxpayers, they won’t be able to make payroll next month. The restaurants have lost money for 37 of the 41 years they have been in “business,” but the taxpayers have made up the difference.

The food in the Senate eateries is “noticeably subpar,” said California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who, as chair of the Senate’s Rules and Administration Committee, supervises these culinary/fiscal horrors.

MY favorite quote?

And the Senate that knows it can’t even run a restaurant will soon vote to have the government run health care. 

Indeed.

~~~

~~~

File under:  Look, mom…it followed me home…can I keep it?

GORHAM, Maine — A woman checking her laundry Wednesday afternoon found an 8-foot-long snake wrapped around the clothes inside the washing machine at her Gorham home.

~~~

The pope would not have been impressed

(personally, I like snakes - the big ones…I don’t like surprises)

~~~

~~~

Global COOLING?!?!?

Late last month, some leading climatologists and meteorologists met in New York at the Energy Business Watch Climate and Hurricane Forum. The theme of the forum strongly suggested that a period of global cooling is about emerge, though possible concerns for a political backlash kept it from being spelled out.

However, the message was loud and clear, a cyclical global warming trend may be coming to an end for a variety of reasons, and a new cooling cycle could impact the energy markets in a big way.

~~~

~~~

eatpes.com

(mostly) “clean” (the only off-color one was “roof sex” and that involved furniture.  The part that made it worth watching was the apartment owner getting after the cat for scratching up the furniture).  “Western Spaghetti” is wonderful!

~~~

~~~

Photo of the week:

Photo Hunt - “What is it?”

Fit Friday July 18, 2008

Ok…I followed the plan beautifully!  Right number of points (I even had some left over)…and I gained .8 pound.  I’m not surprised, the heat and humidity is making me retain water so that my feet are “oozing” out of my sandals.

The plan for next week:

• water.  Lots of water
• focus more on the “types” of food.

• More lean protein, more healthy fat
• Fewer simple carbs, fewer “frankenfoods”

~~~~~~~~~~
LINKS:

Bad news: I lost my pedometer (or maybe that’s good news).

Good news!  Right after UPS brought the new one, I found the old one!  (That mean Manda has it).

Product review coming up…
~~~~~~~~~~

Recipe:  Asian Salmon

**NOTE:  I used “grilling planks”, which I am now hooked on for cooking fish on the grill
* Exported from MasterCook *

Asian Salmon - 5 points (core)
Serving Size  : 6
Categories    : 5 Point meals, Core, fish, grill, Oriental

Amount  Measure       Ingredient — Preparation Method
——–  ————  ——————————–
2             pounds  salmon — fresh side, boned but skin on (about 3 pounds)
For the marinade:
2        tablespoons  Dijon mustard
3        tablespoons  soy sauce
2          teaspoons  olive oil
1/2      teaspoon  minced garlic

Light charcoal briquettes in a grill and brush the grilling rack with oil to keep the salmon from sticking.

While the grill is heating, lay the salmon skin side down on a cutting board and cut it crosswise into 4 equal pieces. Whisk together the mustard, soy sauce, olive oil, and garlic in a small bowl. Drizzle half of the marinade onto the salmon and allow it to sit for 10 minutes.

Place the salmon skin side down on the hot grill; discard the marinade the fish was sitting in. Grill for 4 to 5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish. Turn carefully with a wide spatula and grill for another 4 to 5 minutes. The salmon will be slightly raw in the center, but don’t worry; it will keep cooking as it sits.

Transfer the fish to a flat plate, skin side down, and spoon the reserved marinade on top. Allow the fish to rest for 10 minutes. Remove the skin and serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 198 Calories; 7g Fat (32.8% calories from fat); 31g Protein; 1g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 79mg Cholesterol; 678mg Sodium.  Exchanges: 4 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.