Good morning and happy Tuesday. If I love each and every day for something special that it holds, I love Tuesdays for many reasons. I love working a “split-shift,” on Tuesdays, which gives me the afternoon for myself. I love my Tuesday night classes and students, and love coming home to watch Biggest Loser, which most often means a simple Gardein dinner night, more often than not, consisting of spicy “chicken” wings and salad or some veggies. The wings take about 5 minutes which is about all the time I want to devote to cooking, when getting home from the gym well after 8pm. I am SO thankful for Gardein products and for Tal Ronnen who first introduced me (and the world) to them, when he appeared on Oprah.
This morning’s newspaper offers still more concern about how healthy (or unhealthy) energy drink are and how they may be harming our kids. This is disturbing to me, as I know Derek is a big fan of the Monster energy drinks and probably has one every day. I think this is the norm amongst a generation that seems far less interested in coffee than previous generations. (Pause as I sip some.) The biggest concern about the drinks is that because they are unregulated, we really don’t know how much caffeine is in them and additional ingredients may boost that number even more. The caffeine can exacerbate cardiac conditions and interfere with absorption of calcium and the extra calories can contribute to diabetes, high body mass index and dental problems. My own experience with an energy booster, in the form of ephedra, back in the 80s and early 90s, did lead to some personal health issues, such as grinding teeth and palpitations. The experience taught me to always err towards the cautious side when using things that are unregulated. More frightening than just drinking these energy drinks, is that many are mixing it with alcohol. While this is more common amongst the younger generation, it is NOT exclusive to them. Recently, at Dolphin Stadium, I overheard a middle-aged man ordering a vodka and “whatever sports drink you guys carry.” My personal takeaway from this is BALANCE. My guess is an energy drink here and there is not going to hurt you, but watch out for too much and what you combine it with, too.
There is also good news (though not NEW news) on the calorie burning benefits of aerobic exercise. The small study in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, showed that for the 14.2 hours immediately following a 45-minute cardiovascular session and additional 190 EXTRA calories were burned, beyond the 519 calories burned during the session. This is great news, but again, not really new news. Since I often exercise morning, noon and night, I should have already melted away, but the way I figure is if I didn’t exercise so much, I would probably really have a hard time managing my weight.
Kyle and I spent some time discussing the feedback I have gotten about changes to the site. As I said from the beginning, this site, like us, is constantly work in progress. We have/are reducing the categories on the bottom left, so if you don’t see a topic you are interested in looking back at, just enter key words in the search tool at the top of the homepage. We have heard your concerns about reading the font and are working on finding a font more close to the original, that readers have become accustomed to. The background has NOT changed, just the print. Keep the feedback coming as the more we change the site, the more readers we seem to get, which fulfills my personal mission on spreading the word about, well, peaceandfitness!
Judy K., I am thrilled to hear that you have time to sit at the computer at all. Shirley has kept me filled in on all. Please give Fred a kiss on the cheek from me and know that I am keeping you both in my thoughts. Thanks to all of you for such specific feedback on the site appearance and more importantly, the content. As for the time of movie showings of Forks over Knives, we will have to see as it gets much closer. The movie doesn’t open until May 13, here in Sunrise, Florida. I am hoping for an afternoon outing but because of work schedules, it might have to be evening.
Thanks to Mitch for a great Valentines Day. This must make about 31 of them, together. What a great walk, no mostly run, in the park last night! You are kicking butt, baby. Makes the follow-up glass of red wine and our relaxing time together, so much more rewarding!
Have an awesome day and I will catch you all back here tomorrow morning for BL update! Go Black Team and Go Girls!
Good point. I hadn’t toghhut about it quite that way. 🙂